Blessed Poverty: As You Like It

This reflection is neither pacifism nor reactionary (a.k.a. revolutionary). And it has got two messages
to think about: Aspects of poverty/marginalization and new ways to ‘dialogue’ with it.

A Christmas crib in Pilar in the year 1998 depicted Jesus in the manger. The manger was heart. But
there were three mangers. One for Power, one for Pleasure and one for Wealth. All decorative and
highly focussed but were closed hearts. Jesus wasn’t placed there. Instead there was a manger (a
heart) open for all to see and statute of Infant Jesus was placed there. This open manger had no name.

I had a whisper in mind: “The world is not fair”. Thinking of it now, I recall the catholic higher education
students (AICUF) who has sworn to change this unfair society. The Schindlers List (1993) presents how
the vanquished lives forced from city to ghetto, to labour camp and then to concentration camp; a
gradual transformation of civilians reduced to rightful persons, then no-person and finally relegated
to status of ‘animals’ (fit for death), all under the weight of Nazi boots. That racist-imperial
marginalization made people simply, expendable creatures. Hello there? “The world isn’t fair,
viciously”. Mankind is, after all, have the innate propensity to enslave and destroy.

What about now? Where are the Third World the people used to outcry about, the Developing and
Developed Countries? We don't hear much about BPL (Below Poverty Line) anymore, except in stats.
Nowhere one could find the world-wide phobia over ‘Global Village’ and globalization debates.

God is for the poor and the marginalized. Not in the failed way of our understanding. Try this way (A
little of political awareness). Everything is like this: being in your living room, looking out to the road
…the people walking by, automobiles going back and forth… Your thought is full of ‘concepts’: Poor,
Poverty, Marginalized, Powerless, Rich, Affluent, Powerful… all are mental construct. These are
phenomenon or appearances within your mind. It solidifies only when people band together (e.g.
political marchers) or congregate as physical groups, all for a fleeting time. Once actualized, these
phenomenon vanishes like patterns over the water. Do you know that India, since her independence
is in a state of integral repression?

There is a thin borderline between the Poor and Rich, Poverty and Affluences, Marginalized and
Powerful. The ironic joke is that people trade powerlessness and marginalization in their own fields
of profession. Marx once retorted when someone philosophised poverty by responding to it with his
book: Poverty of Philosophy. Jesus says, “Poor is always with us”. He willed the 'Poor in Spirit', never
the poverty (misery) in spirit. Poverty is something the mankind couldn’t eradicate, one of its many
design-blocks. The context for the “Preferential option for the Poor” is the tussle between the then
geopolitical blocks: capitalism and communism and the in-between oppressive regimes (e.g. Latin
America).
When you classify and call a person “poor” you have excluded him/her from your personal or collective
belongingness. Our innate human tendency is to exclude "others" from our spheres of life. Exclusion
helps to build up poverty and marginalization (Wikipedia redirects ‘Marginalization’ to Social
Exclusion). Social Exclusion is the correct term for marginalization.

Poverty isn't something to do with economics at all; it is rather psychological - the need and the want;
the selfishness and the self-interest. Actually poverty means "Exclusion" from services and welfare
either directly or indirectly forced upon individual(s). Poverty is felt only when you encounter the
contrast of existences. For instance, when you move from the urban locality to suburban, you can feel
it. But then, when you live there even for a while, you would get used to it. No more contrast is felt
right there. The tourism industries better knows this experiential shift. The contrasts of existences is
paradoxical (between rich to poor and poor to rich).

We usually portray poverty as something of disorder, uncleanness, grey and wrinkled faces, famished
and ravaged bodies and everything should look black. People once used to love the ‘beauty of poverty’
in photographs and exhibitions (1970's and 1980's) that evoked aesthetic sentiments, pity and outrage
of conscience. Poverty requires both polarities: Poor and Rich. One cannot exist without the other.
The decisional folks has now come to the grim realization that poverty and ‘terror’ is actually and
intrinsically related. When men invent new conventions of power and order, they invariably
contribute to the ever new dimensions of marginalization (social exclusions) and strengthen the new
hierarchies of powerlessness. To illustrate social exclusion, we are in market (consumer) culture
wherein the ‘Businesses’ always filters people out, the poor and gender-class. The emergence of
‘economic democracy’ can lead to resurgence of Slave Trade. World hunger is always linked to armed
conflicts then environmental crisis.

No one has ever been successful against Poverty down through the history. Its perennial character is
baffling, if you look at it little differently. While poverty is a state-of-affair, it is also an attitude. Acute
sense of weakness/marginalization leads one to resentment. When people start loving their poverty,
there shall be no poor. It helps affluent individuals to come to grip with reality, in powerlessness, in
discomfort, in want and need. The blessedness of poverty is that poor inherit the earth. Humanity can
help itself; when it cannot, it has to turn to God.

This is a practical suggestion to grasp the fact of Poverty with Long Tail effect - a kind of ‘Theory of
Everything’. The Theory of Long Tail was popularized by Chris Anderson (editor-in-chief of Wired
magazine) in October 2004. It is now a business strategy tool. (www.longtail.com; www.wired.com)

One of the way to approach the poverty

is the Long Tail study. Poverty
distribution is at the horizontal line, the
tail part, which is endless. The vertical
head part is what organizations struggle
to remedy. The underlying truth is that
the endless tail part of poverty is
greater than the visible head. Endless
tail can be anything that can/cannot be
scientifically/culturally observed (people
group, attitudes, and life situations),
while the vertical head is what people
present about poverty, namely the stats
and figures (controllable).

Ten biggest problems in the world today

are: Climate Change, Wars, Religious Conflicts, Poverty, Corruption, Insecurity, Illiteracy, Political
Instability, Food/Water Scarcity and Unemployment (www.businessinsider.in). When getting grip with
poverty, no one hits the dirt (like Mother Teresa). If we practice social responsibility from our depth
of generosity, by weeding out selfishness and pride, we actually work towards transformation not only
of us, but also people who are our ‘neighbours’. This is the neighbourhood that Jesus talks about in
the parable of Good Samaritan. Converting human society into labour camps (be it white colour / blue
colour jobs) don’t liberate people from poverty.
All women suffer gender ostracism as marginal beings, needing social inclusion. To that end, we need
to create environment of trust, dignity and security. To begin transformation in the lives of others,
we need to dignify the others, their works, contributions and identity.

Celebrations like Christmas are human occasions to discover new dimensions to life in God. If you wish
to see the biblical narrative of Christmas as historical event, the manger isn’t symbol of poverty
(religio-cultural necessity for an ordinary Jewish couple). Manger also rescinds our own royal
messianic expectation of Jesus Christ. Again, shepherds weren’t poor given the social context of the
first century Jewish world. Christmas teaches ever new lessons of life like poverty and powerlessness.
We need renewed dialogue with poverty and social exclusion.

SOURCES

http://www.longtail.com/about.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_tail
https://www.wired.com/2004/10/tail
https://www.businessinsider.in