I hope and pray that I will always remember this and have an open and accepting mind and heart when I'm in Uganda, well and actually for my whole life, wherever I am.
Friday, February 17, 2012
please don't believe the poor are poor because they're lazy
As I already mentioned, my parents went to Uganda for a couple weeks with one other LDS, American dentist. I just need to tell a little bit about what my mom was telling me about this other dentist and my reaction. This man is extremely wealthy and was very open about letting people know that about him while over in Uganda. He would say things like, "While these people were not doing anything, I was working super hard in college." Oh, like it's their fault they couldn't go to college and get a job like him. He would tell the Ugandan dental students that they could be like him, with 7 cars and living on 4.5 acres of land, if only they set and worked toward the right goals. He would tell them to think about their goals and then to come to him about them the next day. Of course these students are soaking in and believing everything he says! Oh my goodness, I just really want to ask him, "are you really a member of the church? Is having 7 cars and being rich really what this life is all about?" It is so frustrating to me that there are still people who believe that people living in poverty are in that situation because they are lazy. If you are reading this and believe that, please try to understand that that is not true! We were all born under different circumstances, in different places offering different opportunities, some less fortunate than others. We don't know exactly why each person who is in poverty is in poverty, but I know that most likely they are in that situation due to the circumstances and opportunities that have been offered them in life or not. People who have to spend their whole childhood trying to earn some money for food for their family, can't go to school, which means that college is probably not an option and therefore a high-paying job is also probably out of question. It's hard for us who come from well to do families living in America, to imagine living a life where the opportunities offered you are so extremely limited, but we need to try to understand. We need to realize that we don't know the "right" way or the "better" way to do things as applied to every person, we don't understand everyone's circumstances and how they got to where they are, which therefore means we have no right to judge.
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Oh. My. Gosh. This ties into the sociological idea of "the culture of poverty" - a lot of people believe that people are poor because of their value system (such as being lazy). It's really sad to see that so many people believe that, especially the members of the Church! I just cannot FATHOM how someone cannot see how they are wealthy because of all of the opportunities and blessings they have been given, not because they were more motivated than others. What about the lazy rich people who just inherited all of their money? Does that make them any better (in this man's eyes) than the poor who are working as hard as they can to survive, because the rich must have done *something* to get all of that money? Just logically... you must have to have SUCH a limited worldview to even THINK something like this, let alone try to perpetuate it among students. WHO THE HECK EVEN NEEDS SEVEN CARS?? AGH!
ReplyDeleteWow... rant over. Thanks for this story!
I'm glad someone else is as disgusted at this as me. When my mom first told me, I had so much anger inside me, but I guess it's just proof that we need to help spread the word and knowledge that we have.
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