Helen lives in Oklahoma USA with five of her children & grandchildren including two toddlers. They had not eaten for two days; their social welfare check didn’t arrive on time. Kitchen cupboards are completely empty. Only $1.25 in her pocket she goes to nearby supermarket to fetch some food for the children. Helen chooses a pack of eggs but she was 50 pence short; the shopkeeper refuses to give her credit. Out of desperation she decides to steal 3 eggs to at least feed her children. On her way out of the shop she was caught red handed.
Shop staff calls the Police. Helen is convinced she is going to jail now. Officer William arrives at the scene. Crying Helen explains to Officer William, “I need to put food in my babies’ stomach”. Officer is shocked as he learns the whole story. He asks Helen to wait outside and runs inside the store, buys a whole dozen eggs and hands these to Helen. He advises her not to do it again and let her go home.
Someone watching this incident recorded it and uploaded it on the internet. Soon people started donating food for Helen in the police station. Couple of days later Officer William takes a car full of food to deliver to Helen. She was stunned to see so much food at once; “my cabinets have never been this full”.
When we think of hunger we imagine 3rd world of Asia or Africa; it is hard to believe this is happening in the Land of Opportunities – the USA. It is far more common in USA as well as UK let alone rest of the Europe.
Paul is 55 years old & lives in UK. He worked continuously for 40 years and then suddenly lost his job. He could not get another job – poverty struck; “we remained hungry for two weeks once”. The girl says I can go without eating for a week. Boy says he fainted at work due to hunger. They rely on local charity “Food Bank” to get some ration every week.
3.5 million People in UK can’t afford proper food, according to BBC News. So, if USA, UK & rest of the Europe is richer than the whole word, why such a poor people here then?
It is not the poverty but the inequality is the issue. It is in fact the inequality that leads to more and more poor in a society. There are enough resources in the world that can feed all the population adequately. The $240 billion net income in 2012 of the richest 100 billionaires would be enough to make extreme poverty a history four times over. But who cares.
Oxfam predicts richest 1% will own more wealth than rest of 99% by 2020. It is in fact the greed of few people to acquire as much as they can and leave nothing for the rest.
John Lanchester writes in the Guardian stating it is a global trend that society is transforming into winners & losers (rich & poor) with middle class disappearing fast; and that winners do their best to ensure the privileges are transferred to their children – a feudal society. Like it or not, “it is likely to be our future”.
So how this goal is achieved by the Feudals? John writes:
“Rising inequality is not a law of nature – it’s not even a law of economics. It is a consequence of political and economic arrangements, and those arrangements can be changed.”
So what are the current political & economic systems?
To be continued…