Thursday, December 15, 2011

What is poverty?

I think it's always interesting to hear and know how people view certain aspects of life...We were having dinner at a food stall by the roadside in Siem Reap and we started talking about the meaning of frugality and poverty...Poverty is not being able to meet even the basic needs, poverty is not having enough money for the month to buy a Prada bag, poverty is the lack of knowledge...

As we were eating and chatting, there was this group of children standing nearby...no shoes on their feet and they looked like they needed a real good shower. A few of them were carrying plastic bags and I think they were collecting used cans. Two tables from us, two tourists had just finished their meal and what I saw next kinda shocked silly me a little...one of the children standing nearby took a chicken wing, eaten by the tourists and with barely any meat left, and quickly went over to a little corner to savour it. I think he was barely ten years of age. He was sucking every bit of the bone and it looked like it was somewhat a delicacy for him for the day...or maybe even for the week. Another boy went to a table where a group of tourists had just left after finishing their meal and using his dirty, grim-filled hands to scoop a handful of white rice and moved hurriedly to another corner. He hungrily wolfed down that handful of white rice, seemingly satisfied with his 'catch' for the day...At that very moment, I wasn't really sure if I was feeling angry but I am quite sure something seemed to weigh heavily in my heart. No child should go hungry and starve...maybe naive me was very wrong. I tried to hold back my tears as the few children tried again to scout around for leftover food.

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