Malvin and I had a conversation the other day regarding poverty and I found it interesting that although we come from different parts of the world many of the issues of poverty are the same, especially as it relates to the mental struggles of those living in poverty.

One of the commonalities that we spoke about was regarding how those who have less resource often spend what they do have on things which will give them the appearance of wealth. For instance in Zimbabwe, Malvin remarked that although people will live in small shacks they might drive a fancy car. Likewise, in our poorer urban communities you might find a family struggling to pay the bills yet they may have expensive sneakers, cable TV, or a car with fancy rims.  One may want to remark or dismiss this as irresponsible but the root of why this happens runs deeper than just money management.  As we address issues of poverty in our community we wrestle not only with the economics of poverty but also psychological and spiritual components of it as well.

This reminds me of a comment that I read from Mother Teresa in which she stated that poverty in the South Bronx was worse than the poverty in Calcutta.  When I read that I had to pause and re read it as I could not believe what I was hearing. The writers of the book in which she was quoted (Urban Ministry, by Harvie Conn and Manuel Ortiz) went on to explain that her reason for making the statement was that the poor living in the South Bronx (or any of our American cities for that matter) come face to face with the reality of their poverty as they live alongside some of the riches people in the world creating a greater mental despair associated with their poverty than those in Calcutta.