What is poor?

[i-need-a-martini]

There was a really interesting article in todays SMH about how many of us think we are poor which is far from the reality.

I grew up in a migrant household where my dad worked 6 days a week and sometimes 2 jobs to keep us fed and housed. More often than not our food was basic and heating in winter was a luxury. But it never occurred to me that we were poor. I thought we were middle class.

So what is poor? ?:|

The last line of the article sums it up for me: 

Which brings us to the other side effect of our collective crying poor: it makes it easier to look past the struggles of those who are genuinely struggling. When you're declaring social bankruptcy over drinking cleanskin wine instead of $17 cocktails, catching the night bus home instead of a taxi, or having to skip out on your friend's destination wedding – indeed, when this becomes your vision of what “poverty” looks like – there is a little less room in your heart for those for whom poverty means having no choice at all.

http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/is-there-such-a-thing-as-the-privileged-poor-2...

(And please don't make this a political thread cause it has nothing to do with the freaking carbon tax)

[lurker17260]

We are on holiday in Cambodia, and i am just killing time in the pre-dawn (damn you hot flashes!) so this is justa brief comment.

i thought we were poor when I was a child (similar to the stories above) and I thought we were poor when we were first married and lived on the smell of an oily rag, but the streets of Phnom Penh have shown me what poor really is.  it is very confronting. 

[purple.cow]

Yes Lurker, I agree, it is extremely confronting the first time you experience such things, but I choose not to be confronted and try to do something positive about it as and when I can.

I go to Vietnam and Thailand every year for business reasons, but while there I always take time out to spend in two orphanages I have helped support for the past few years in my own little way by making reasonable financial contributions on an ongoing basis while gathering together much needed clothing and other supplies to ship over to them the rest of the year.

You'd be surprised how many nappies are needed in such places just to keep up with basic requirements.

Foodstuffs such as baby formula etc. are only a small part of what is needed every single day, just to offer those kids a basic level of care.

Medical aid is often the hardest thing to get into them due to petty red tape, but the group I'm involved with does its best.

The greatest reward in the world is when one of those kids climb onto your lap for a hug with a huge smile on their faces.

I don't bother with donations to the big charity aid groups because I know the real percentages of what actually ends up where its truly needed, so became involved with a totally direct method of getting the things to those in real need both in Thailand, Vietnam as well as areas of my original homeland continent, Africa.  

I fully accept that I'm privileged to have all I have in my own life and able to help others in my own little way.

No saintly thoughts involved.

That's something I'd never consider myself to be, and much prefer that the uninformed majority see me as Satan incarnate :^O 

[cherry*135]

Being poor is when you have NO food, and NO roof over your head, and NO hope of making it better.

There is no-one like that in Australia.

I never said there was or wasn't anyone like that in Australia.

I was however sticking to the question the OP. What is poor?

One is still poor with a little food - scraps from the dumpsters(not enough nutritional food),  shelter in a leaky shack (substandard housing)....

[cherry*135]

Walked around the lowlier parts of the city of Sydney in the early mornings any time lately moorna?

There was a news article recently about the homeless, jobless underclass living there.

[lurker17260]

http://www.friends-international.org/blog/?p=2156   
When Children Become Tourist Attractions

[azureline**]

“There is no limit to the amount of good a man can do,

as long as he does not care who takes the credit.”

[j*oono]

Not that I believe a word of it's latest posturing but I thought I would cp this here as it is quite interesting.  Thanks Lurker.

Tens of thousands of tourists visit orphanages in Siem Reap and elsewhere across Cambodia every year, wanting to do anything they can to help the poor, innocent children they encounter on their travels.

But research on the failures of residential institutions, paired with reports of unscrupulous operators abusing the rights of children, shows that visiting orphanages only helps support a system that fails to protect children.

With the backing of UNICEF, NGO Friends-International has launched a campaign pushing tourists to end orphanage tourism in Cambodia.

“Travelers care for Cambodia and are often disturbed by the perceived situation of children. It is essential for them to understand the real situation and what positive actions they can take to effectively protect and support these children,” said Sebastien Marot, Executive Director of Friends-International, whose headquarters are in Cambodia.

“Orphanages must be a safe place for children and not a tourist destination.

We cannot just go and visit orphanages in our own countries, so why in Cambodia?”

[purple.cow]

Not that I believe a word

Of course you don't, I'd fall off this chair in shock if anyone ever did around here, just as another calls me a lair when I tell the absolute truth about offering to help someone on these boards, but the proof of that is still residing in my Ebay message sent box. I can't delete it.

Another truth is that everything I donate to any of the charity groups I have anything to do with is that it's all tax deductable.

That means I'm getting things to people I really care about instead of the Aussie taxman grabbing it so the same money can be wasted on all the handouts I strongly disapprove of in this country.

Hence my earlier statement of my having no saintly thoughts.

There are more than enough free to all who might need them benefits in Australia that I can't get away from paying toward, so there is no real claim to poverty here.

And there aren't any tourist visiting the two orphanages my group work with because they're not allowed to go to them for more than obvious reasons, the main one being that those kids are not showpieces in some kind of bloody zoo, they're helpless little human beings.

[j*oono]

You really should hook up with another philanthropist boardie that we have here, except she doesn't just donate to orphanages in Thailand.  She builds them with her own two hands.

[cherry*135]

That is what I was thinking j.