On the Ground - Filthy Rich (Part Deux)

On the Ground - Filthy Rich (Part Deux)

The issue of poverty is not a statistical issue. It is a human issue. —James Wolfensohn, former World Bank President

AS WE DROVE through Mumbai, I saw makeshift homes lining the sidewalk (in front of the InterContinental Hotel, no less). These “structures” were made of four poles or sticks securing a tarp that served as an outside wall and roof. Looking through my bus window, the scene was sad. But as I stood on the ground, face-to-face with mothers begging for food to feed their babies, poverty moved from a sad scene outside my window to a personal problem. Not just a poor mother’s problem, but now mine too.

As we drove on the outskirts of the city, I looked out my bus window and saw miles and miles of slums with garbage and waste floating in their canals. We left the bus to tour one slum that, with alleys paved in broken and cracked concrete, was considered more upscale than some of the others. While standing on the ground with the smell of human waste hanging in the air, I locked eyes with a smiling, impish child as she reached for me. At that moment, poverty moved from a landscape of gray slums to a warm little hand. Her challenges became my own.

Looking through my bus window in Chennai, a large city in northeastern India, I saw villages of thatched-roof huts. These were considered middle-class homes because they had concrete floors. Some residents even had toothbrushes—their prized possessions, which they often hung on a wall in a position of prominence. Once off the bus, we walked single file behind working-class village women. They delicately lifted their saris as we trekked along a path flooded with water ten inches deep. Suddenly poverty, with all the challenges it throws at these women, was no longer just another working woman’s problem; it had become a personal challenge to me.

Give generously to the poor, not grudgingly, for the LORD your God will bless you in everything you do. (Deuteronomy 15:10)

If we will all just step off the bus and into the real world—either here at home or abroad—we’ll realize that, regardless of the size of our stock portfolios, our job situations, or our living conditions, we’re filthy rich. If we will all just step off the bus and connect to another human being’s suffering, our perspectives will change—as will our willingness to do something about it.

Are you feeling poor today? Step outside your bus. Wealth awaits you on the ground.