Coming to Zambia I was a sound socialist. This was my thinking. The rich should help the poor, because they can and because those that have more, have more responsibility. That poor people that were lazy were not poor because they were lazy, but were simply lazy and poor, just like lazy people that are rich aren’t rich because they’re lazy, but are just both. Now I’m not going to say my world has been turned on its head, but I will give an example.
I spoke to a couple good farmers (villagers farming by hand though) who volunteered their time to teach others to be better farmers. When I asked them why, they said that if they taught other people to grow more food, they would stop asking them for food. This makes sense, but the weight of this didn’t actually land on me until recently. These people don’t simply give away food, they give away the chance for themselves to buy cattle to plough more acres and grow more food, they give away their ability to afford fertilizer, they give away their children’s ability to attend school. Because of these beggars, who are legitimate, others at stuck in a cycle of poverty and can’t pull themselves up, and then help others. As far as I can tell, if everyone is poor, it’s really hard to get a foothold up.
This awesome culture of helping each other and always being there for each other that impressed my socks off when I first got here, could it actually be part of why people stay poor?? Should people just fend for themselves and then at least someone will be able to escape this poverty trap? Is capitalism the answer and was I wrong about this whole “give to the needy, if someone asks for something give to them without expecting repayment”?
I’ll give another example. There are people who earn ZMK1,000,000/year ($215), and then there is the hotel I’m stayed at in Lusaka that costs $280/night. There are weekend conferences in Lusaka for Zambians that cost ZMK 3,000,000 (ZMK4600=$1). People drive SUV’s in a country with $1.73/L gas. One tank of gas costs half a years wage for some people!!! I don’t think just taking money from rich people and giving it to poor people is a solution, but holy crap, something here doesn’t sit right with me.
