“THE DIGITALLY DIVIDED POOR MAN”
“World is full of marginalized and deprived people, let’s be their helping hand”
As we are going through a digitally compressed world and every second person is stick to the digitization. I happened to meet a tall and well-dressed man, with a laptop in one hand, tablet in the other and a smart phone in the front pocket of his blue coat. He considered himself to be a good man and asked this question:
“Why are there so many marginalized, vulnerable and voiceless people in the world”?
Mr Sage smiled and asked:
“So, you must be working for some charity organization my friend”?
With bulging eyes and mouth wide open in surprise, the well-dressed man said:
“You are truly a Mr Sage for I do work for a charity organization”.
Two more men approached, one fat pudgy man with beady eyes and a sharp edged nose like a parrot, carrying a laptop in one hand, a tablet in the other, and a smart phone in the front pocket of his jacket, and another dressed in designer clothes and designer shoes, holding the latest Apple laptop in one hand, a tablet in the other, and a smart phone in the front pocket of his jacket. They were the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s Chief Economists, respectively.
These three guys possessed laptops, tablets, and smartphones from various manufacturers, but they all had one thing in common. All of them felt themselves to be nice guys and wanted Mr Sage to explain why there were so many marginalized, vulnerable, and voiceless individuals in the world.
These excellent folks were deeply concerned about the impoverished. When they took up the cause of the poor, their goal was the ‘eradication of poverty’. Soon, they saw that the goal was too lofty and that poverty could not be erased. Their altered goal was reducing’ poverty. Again, they discovered that even this goal was on the ambitious side. When they were unable to alleviate poverty, they downgraded the goal itself. These fine folks used to work on “poverty alleviation.”
These wonderful folks were doing everything they could to relieve poverty among the poor. They travelled considerable distances to attend seminars and conferences in London, Paris, Geneva, Bangkok, and other cities. These wonderful individuals, lodged in 5-star hotel rooms and separated from their loved ones, would stew over the poor’s problems. They would gather often to brainstorm tactics, design and refine these strategies, frameworks, implementation plans, declarations, and everything else needed to reduce poverty among the poor. These decent folks would occasionally twist the arms of governments in order for them to agree to their recommendations for poverty reduction. It was this love for the disadvantaged that had led them to our Mr Sage.
Before Mr Sage could respond to these excellent guys, out came a man dressed in rags who seemed marginalized, defenseless, voiceless, and epitomized the wretched of the world, and who thought himself neither good nor evil, only poor. He did not ask but seemed to be asking this question:
“Why am I poor”?
Mr Sage first addressed in this manner those men with laptops, tablets and smart phones who considered themselves to be good men:
Mr Sage’s reasons as to why were there so many marginalized, vulnerable and voiceless people in the world.
“There are so many marginalized, vulnerable, and voiceless people in the world because everyone of you has a laptop in one hand, a tablet in the other, and a smartphone in the front pocket of your coats, and you consider yourself decent guys. If you, my friends from the World Bank, IMF, and charitable organizations, want to know why there are so many marginalized, vulnerable, and voiceless people in the world, and you, my poor buddy, want to know why you are poor, you might consider some questions.
Is it not true that charity organizations discuss in vulgarly ostentatious hotels over lavish food and bottled water issues of food security and clean drinking water of the poor?
Is it not true that some of the rights based non-profit organizations that talk about transparent functioning of the governments are not transparent themselves?
Is it not true that some of these organizations talk about accountability of governments but are accountable to none?
Is it not true that the governance structures of many organizations that talk about good governance is worse than those of the governments they want to reform?
Is it not true that the administrative cost of micro credit loans for the poor contribute to supporting luxurious life styles of those managing these programs rather than improving the quality of life of the poor?
Is it not true that the deciding factor in World Bank loans is geo-politics and not the poor people?
Isn’t it true that without first establishing adequate regulatory systems, the World Bank and IMF’s Structural Adjustment Programmes and policy measures forced on the poor of impoverished nations have resulted in the unleashing of greedy market forces on the poor, pushing them further into poverty?
In the growing shadows of the afternoon September light, I witnessed a touching sight in Mr Sage’s magnificent garden that day, leaving everyone awestruck. Those men remained still, computers and tablets fallen from their hands, and they had learned their lesson not to consider themselves decent men.
Nothing dropped from the poor man’s empty hands as he stood on the other side of the digital divide, since nothing drops from empty hands. The first person to leave Mr Sage’s yard that day was a guy dressed in rags who seemed to be marginalized, vulnerable, and voiceless, epitomizing the wretched of the earth. He regarded himself neither good nor evil, but just impoverished. He did not ask any more answers to the question he never asked but constantly appeared to be asking.
“Why am I poor?
Mr Sage and everyone else rose to leave for nothing was left to be asked and to be answered.
“Credit to Mr Abdullah”
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