Friday, May 05, 2023

What is the greatest misconception about poverty?

Awdhesh Singh

Today morning, someone forwarded the following picture to one of my WhatsApp group.

The caption of the photo was PICTURE OF HAPPINESS.

According to the post, ‘NAZIM HIKMAT -- The great Turkish poet - once asked his friend ABIDIN DINO (Turkish artist and well-known painter), to draw a picture of HAPPINESS. He drew a picture of a whole family -- cramped up on a broken bed -- under a leaky roof in a shabby room -- but still with a smile on each member's face! This Painting became monumental popular’.

The greatest misconception of poverty is that it is good to be poor and that poverty is the source of happiness.

Unfortunately, poverty has been glorified since time immemorial since more people are poor than rich and glorifying poverty is always more popular and appealing to the masses.

Even Jesus Christ preached the virtue of poverty, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:3).

He further says, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:21-24)

The greatest misconception in the world is that the poor live a happier life than the rich.

Imagine sleeping in a single bed with your spouse, six children and a dog!

Also imagine that the roof is leaking and drops of dirty water are continually trickling on the umbrella above your head and wetting the bedsheets!

Can you ever smile and get a sound sleep?

If you have to sleep like this daily, perhaps the whole family will get mad for not getting proper sleep.

What a frustrating life it would be?

Is it not wiser to have a lesser number of children (if you can’t afford to take care of them properly) to live a happier life?

Hence, a picture showing poor people living a happier life than rich is nothing but purely a figment of the imagination of the artist.

If you wish to live a happy life, you must earn a decent living to pay your bills and fulfil all your basic needs, not only for today but also for tomorrow and day after.

Happiness can come to you only when you have assured food, water, clothing and shelter.

While wealth may not be a guarantee of happiness, poverty is a sure guarantee of unhappiness.

And this is the greatest truth of the world.

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