The rich nations have been helping the poor ones and their people for so long. Have their poverty decreased? Have
these donations really improved the standard of living of the people concerned?
Well, the answer will be an emphatic no. The donations help alleviate hunger, clothe them or help containing contagious
diseases and cure the symptoms of diseases temporarily but as soon as the aid stops, they return to their previous lives of penury and misery. It does help to extend their survival for a few more years and the same is a highly appreciative from a humanistic point of view. I am not against this. The point is it does not remove the causes of poverty, misery and diseases. Peripheral treatment is not going to remove the root cause. A dressing up is purely temporary and transient.
Then what better can be done? Well, before I answer this I should acknowledge that I do not have the resources to implement what I suggest nor do I have the money at least to do this sort of help to any one.
Saluting the good deed, let me suggest my thoughts here for the consideration of the people who have the means and the will.
If you give a fish to a hungry man he will eat it up but he will be hungry again after a while. But if you teach him how to fish he will fish whenever he will be hungry and thus there will be a permanent solution. But eradicating poverty is not that simple, I know. It is a complex problem which perhaps requires a lot effort and thinking and the collective will of a number of brains. . It is universally accepted that one’s
attitude is responsible for his present state. Attitude decides whether one is rich or poor, sick or healthy, success or failure. And attitudes always springs from one’s core beliefs and deep rooted knowledge..
What are the attitudes of the poor anywhere in the world? A vast majority of them believe that they are destined for poverty, misery and sickness. ( May be their own homes, early childhood deprivations and the sufferings of those they are in touch with, have programmed the same into their brain.) It is after all their fate, they think. They cannot help themselves. It is the society or the state or the rich which have to uplift them. As this is deep-rooted, they never try to get rid of poverty, suffering or diseases. They rather expect miserable conditions and penury. No wonder their brains actuate their beliefs. Miserable conditions befall them very often and they have to starve many a day. Whether occasional helps come from some quarters or not, they are going to be sick and emaciated paupers.
What is the way out? We have to change their attitudes. To achieve this we have to first change their beliefs. Is it possible to make them think that they can lead a successful life? Not that they can be rich or famous or powerful. But simply that they can lead normal lives without poverty, without the curse of recurring diseases.
We have to bombard these concepts to them as often as possible through the electronic, cinematic and print media. Definitely the philosophy of personal achievement can form a prominent subject in the school and university curriculums. The stories of millions of successful people can make up their lessons. They have to understand that there is nothing called pre-destiny nor any after effects of their past lives or karma. No one is doomed to misery or suffering due to any present or past happening. They have an inborn right to success as any normal human being has. The only resource they need to succeed is their brain. It does not matter whether they are born poor, ugly crippled or unhealthy. They can overcome anything with intense desires and the correct attitude. Man is, to a large extent, responsible for what he will be. There are genetic factors and undesirable early childhood experiences which may stand in the way of one’s success. But the greatest people, at least a majority of them, have started their lives from zero and overcame insurmountable obstacles. The first lesson is to make the poor believe that they can have a decent life with their desires, thoughts and efforts. If all the donations are set apart to impart this attitude!