Of Poverty, Leaders and Spirit

Poverty’s claws are ragging our skin, the blood is coming out and the wound is profound. Yet, we act like we don’t see it: It is natural for us to look away and leave. We act like female sharks, who have such a hard skin that when the male shark bites them, they bleed a lot but they cure themselves and find the male again, and again.

We are not sharks though. Our wounds don’t heal that fast and although we act careless, deep inside we know poor people are like us. We allow poverty to happen. Especially the rich and the filthy rich. Why? Not because of money (Ha! You thought I was talking only about money when I said poverty, uh?), but because with a lot of money comes a lot of poverty in our spirits.

Yes. We are all guilty. Remember the Chinese saying that states that ‘Not a leaf moves without the permission of the whole tree’. This is exactly what happens to us, because we think of poor people as some kind of extraterrestrials, but digging on it you will be more than surprised to find out that money poverty is easy to overcome, but spiritual poverty is not.

A good example of spiritual poverty are obese people who search for a cure in their refrigerators, when the real cure is to open their eyes to hunger in other places locally or throughout the earth and start donating their food. It is easier said than done, because it would take a lot of spiritual richness to get rid of what ‘we think we need’ and change our way of life.

Spiritual poverty in leaders (local, national and international) who in search of voters are capable of killing their own grassroots people, just to blame the opposition for their deaths, is way too common. It happens, and they get away with it all the time, around the world.

Another good example of spiritual poverty is the case of the Macedonian journalist Vlado Taneski (56), who kidnapped and raped (DNA tested) two women to have the news first! The police suspects he had more victims. He ruled public opinion in his country ...

Other stories that rank top in spiritual poverty ratings are the men who beat their families because they don’t have money for their beer, and the drug addicts who sell their bodies for a small moment of … pleasure. I see that many world leaders have problems with alcohol or drugs, that they consider ‘tiny’ and we vote for them, because ‘it is so common nowadays’, so when they pay for street carnivals on every town they arrive to, and get drunk and high, we look away.

As we look away when they give their illiterate friends of beer and drug taking, high positions in the government, whose salaries are paid by the working people’s taxes, and who end up trafficking ‘commissions’ for unneeded, unlawful contracts. Poor spirits like these, are the ones ruling a big part of the world (and companies) nowadays.

Then again, can we all say that we DON’T do drugs, beer, prostitution, commissioning, trafficking, killing … cheating?. I can imagine the reason why so many people hush their mouth: because they can`t hold their heads up high and say they don't.

It is not a matter of being perfect, nothing further from my mind. I am aware of the failures and poverty issues we all have. But I think THESE DON’Ts SHOULD BE everyone’s normality, not the other way around. It is just the basics.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that your local leaders ‘have the right’ to be in drugs, alcohol, prostitution, etc. as long as they give you a bonus, or a job. Leaders are called upon to be even more righteous than us, and these basic traits of personality are only the beginning of the features we must demand from them. Our societies have forgotten about this. This is one of the reasons poverty camps in our lands, and will stay if we don’t do something about it.

Cultivating your spirit is the first step to choosing the right leaders. You cannot ask from someone something that you don’t have. BE like you want your leaders to be. DO what you want your leaders to do, and welcome the real change in your community.

Voices of Our Future Assignments

This article is part of a writing assignment for Voices of Our Future, which is providing rigorous web 2.0 and new media training for 31 emerging women leaders. We are speaking out for social change from some of the most forgotten corners of the world. Meet Us.