To keep warm, the children of Faiz Mahamad and his wife sleep close together. The family fled the war in Helmand province and now survive by collecting cans and rubbish from the streets in Kabul, Afghanistan.
When that is not enough, they go out begging; Not seeing it requires effort. In the world today, despite ongoing economic growth and unprecedented levels of wealth accumulation, those who are poor are all around us. Poverty exists in every community, often lives right next door to or in the houses of those with immense affluence. The very present-ness of poverty gives it a taken-for-granted nature: those forced to live in poverty, apparently, are always with us.
But does the fact that the poor have been with us for a long time justify the continued existence of poverty? Are better remedies not possible? P overty is ordinarily defined as lacking resources for a socially acceptable standard of living. However, the socially acceptable level of living in one country or at one time can be higher or lower than in another, affecting the assessment of poverty.
Governments often manipulate poverty lines to present their performance in more favourable terms. While some progress against extreme poverty has been made, the number of poor people increases rapidly at higher and more realistic thresholds.
Meanwhile, wealth has mushroomed. Inequality of this stunning magnitude is known to corrode and destroy critical pillars of modern societies — democracy, opportunity, justice, social peace itself.
