The Culture of Poverty

The Culture of Poverty

The Citizens of Poor Countries Are Responsible for Their Poverty

The majority of the people in the poor countries live beyond the poverty line. They are unable to provide food for their families on a daily basis. They do not afford education, healthcare, and a proper shelter. They live miserable lives that make their countries to be poorer. However, these countries have the same resources as the other countries. Mostly, there are even more resources in the poor countries because they are not utilized. Thus, the problem refers only to the people because they embrace the culture of poverty. Their always keep in mind that they are poor and they need external assistance. Furthermore, they do not do anything to improve their living conditions. This paper argues that the citizens of poor countries are responsible for their poverty because of embracing the culture of poverty in their mind.

Citizens of poor countries fail to utilize the resources available on their territory. There are various sources in the poor countries but the people do nothing to utilize them. They believe they do not have the necessary skills and capital to explore. Additionally, they allow foreigners to come into their country and use their resources. Obviously, the foreigners do not leave the wealth to the poor citizens. They enrich their pockets and their countries while the citizens are left poor. For instance, the African countries rich in oil do not invest into mine industry. They give mining contracts to Chinese companies that explore their land, mine, and return a lot of money to the home country. Unless the citizens change their perspective on their resources, they will never escape the poverty trap. The countries should become rich using the resources they have. They must be wise, so that other nations will not benefit from their helplessness using the sources.

Second, the citizens of poor countries prefer to depend on foreign aid. They are sure that they must get food from international humanitarian organizations to survive. Such attitude makes them lazy and absolves them from the responsibility. They do not want to make any efforts to sustain their people as the other countries do. The citizens wait for the aid to come so that they can eat. For instance, there are many people from Northern parts of Kenya who do not work hard. They wait for the United Nations to send them assistance every year. Even if the government tries to introduce a program that will help them be independent, they cannot cooperate because they get used to receiving free food, water, and blankets. People of poor countries have depended on foreign and governmental aid for long. Unless they change their mentality, these people will remain poor.

Citizens from poor countries have a culture of violence increasing poverty. In most cases, the people from poor countries are fighting either for poor governance or ethnicity and religion racism during elections. Usually, they destroy a lot of things they have attained when fighting. Buildings that were built many years ago are destroyed because someone is unsatisfied with elections or the current government. Since these people are poor, they are easily convinced that fighting can be a solution. The current violence in Uganda, Congo, and Burundi prove that as the poor citizens kill each other. They burn food stores, destroy farms and everything they find on their way. Most of the citizens do not even understand the reason for fighting. The incitement from the politicians makes them kill each other mercilessly. The culture of violence escalates the culture of poverty. Development and violence are parallel things as the citizens remain poor because there is no time to develop. They only spend time to destroy everything developed existing in their countries.

Conversely, opponents of this argument believe that citizens from poor nations are not responsible for the poverty. They think that the poor citizens are victims of certain circumstances that they cannot control. There are different things making a country poor, and the citizens can do nothing. For instance, colonization made many countries poor territories. The colonizers deprived the land of the people. They forced the citizens to live in villages that were easy to control. When the poor countries gained independence, most of the settlers did not move. They confused the leaders who leased the land to them for more than one thousand years. Consequently, the citizens did not have land to use for development. Most of the people living in the poor countries are descendants of the people from those villages. They cannot influence the situation they are struggling to escape. Thus, they remain poor as they have no means of production.

However, the reasoning that citizens from poor countries are not responsible for their poverty is flawed. First, these people own the land and the nation. They have some power to do what is right and change the situation. They only need to change their attitude and take action. Furthermore, they can decide to elect a leader who has the best policy to improve the situation in the country. Thus, the proper leadership will lead them to development. They have a lot of resources that can make a big difference if properly utilized. Moreover, people can use the locally available labor and equipment to get the minerals, farm the land, and keep animals to get something to sell.

Second, blaming the past cannot bring a promising tomorrow. The past might have been negative, and maybe some people failed to do what they were supposed to. Moreover, the poor people should stop living in the past. They should correct the mistakes making is right decisions today so that the future can be secure. They should end violence in their countries and use other amicable means of resolving disputes. Consequently, they will have a chance to develop their countries.

In conclusion, the poor countries have poor people who keep miserable lives. They are poor because of adopting the culture of poverty. They do not utilize the resources available on their territory. They want international organizations and governments to help them with food and clothing. Additionally, they keep fighting for religion, power, ethnicity, and resources. The people in these countries can make any changes only if they eliminate the culture of poverty. They should embrace the culture of peace and development to improve their lives. They should utilize the resources in their country properly planning to be independent of the foreign aid. There should be no violence in their minds because it destroys all the traces of development. Obviously, the people have enough power to escape that poverty trap.