What Is Poverty?
essay for ESL Composition III.
What Is Poverty?
The only possible way to make an individual understand what poverty is, let us begin with a definition of the word itself.
That, is only one of the dozens if not thousands of ways one can define this frightening word.
Now take a minute to digest this word and process it in your mind and ask yourself this question. "Have I ever experienced poverty?" After thinking about it, take the time to think about the millions of people around the world who, at this exact moment, are starving, sleeping under a bridge during a cold night, beg for money on a side of the street. That is the reality, should you choose to accept it or not.
As a young boy growing up in the country of Ukraine I witnessed a lot of poverty. Be it by an old worn building where old people begged for food and money, or in a small village, in a family who's got nothing to eat in the morning, afternoon, or evening. I've seen it. I know what poverty looks like, feels like, and smells like. It is a horrifying thought, and it is worse when it's happening to you. I've experience a small amount of what poverty feels like. It happened during the time period after my mother divorced my father in early nineties. My father did not leave us the house. So for the time being my mother left me to live with my grandmother while she looked for a place to live. My mother decided to look for a small apartment in a newly built region of Odessa, my home city. As far back as I can remember I know that in hopes of finding anything, for the money that my mother got from the divorce with my dad, she looked everywhere. Finally, the day has come and she found a two-room living complex. My grandmother helped us a great deal in the beginning; she helped as often as she could, both with money and food. She owned some property back at the village where she grew potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers. But life wasn't easy for us even with my grandmother's help. My mom had to support our lives on her own for the most part. She was the only person who worked at the time. My mother was a Russian literature teacher, a position that's highly respected, but unfortunately did not bring high house income. I should remind that the poverty I had experienced was far less serious than that of somebody who has no place to live in at all. I had food on the table, and I had a place to stay for the night. I even had my own room. Yet, I did not have the luxuries and comforts that both I and my mother would have liked to have. Life was definitely "like a box of chocolates" for us, as Forrest Gump states. Every day, we didn't know what we were going to get. We did not know if we would have enough money to pay for electricity, or hot water. We did not know if we would have enough money to pay for the monthly cost of the apartment. Life for us was like a time bomb waiting to explode. At any given minute we had everything to lose. In my country, just as I would say in any country, money is the biggest issue. As in USA, people in Ukraine have absolutely no choice concerning if they would like to work or not. In Ukraine, people would do anything to have a stable job. They did not choose to end up on the street with their 5 month old babies just because they didn't want to work. Unlike in America, poverty in every country is a lot different. Nobody chooses, or even has a single shed of thought to sleep outside on the streets under an old, rusty, raw bridge. People end up like that, because they have no choice. Lazy is not something these people are. They are outside because the government does not create work; the job market is ridiculously bad.
I’d like to remind everybody that poverty does not always happen by choice. It is out of people’s hands to choose that way of life. Only in America I know exactly the reason why so many people wander outside, they simply do not want to work. It is so much easier to get a job in America than any other country. I cannot grasp this fact that such a large amount of poor and homeless people here take it for granted. Look at the millions of poverty stricken people around the world. It is just unfair for them to starve to death, or live as if they are animals in a dirty shelter. It angers me so much that these people have no choice, they have absolutely no way to support themselves, while homeless, or poor people in America have a choice yet they do not utilize it. It’s a shame of a century and it is even a bigger shame to the people who do nothing about their poverty “chosen” lives.
What Is Poverty?
The only possible way to make an individual understand what poverty is, let us begin with a definition of the word itself.
pov·er·ty pronounced (p v r-t ) n.
The state of being poor;
lack of the means of providing material needs or comforts.
That, is only one of the dozens if not thousands of ways one can define this frightening word.
Now take a minute to digest this word and process it in your mind and ask yourself this question. "Have I ever experienced poverty?" After thinking about it, take the time to think about the millions of people around the world who, at this exact moment, are starving, sleeping under a bridge during a cold night, beg for money on a side of the street. That is the reality, should you choose to accept it or not.
As a young boy growing up in the country of Ukraine I witnessed a lot of poverty. Be it by an old worn building where old people begged for food and money, or in a small village, in a family who's got nothing to eat in the morning, afternoon, or evening. I've seen it. I know what poverty looks like, feels like, and smells like. It is a horrifying thought, and it is worse when it's happening to you. I've experience a small amount of what poverty feels like. It happened during the time period after my mother divorced my father in early nineties. My father did not leave us the house. So for the time being my mother left me to live with my grandmother while she looked for a place to live. My mother decided to look for a small apartment in a newly built region of Odessa, my home city. As far back as I can remember I know that in hopes of finding anything, for the money that my mother got from the divorce with my dad, she looked everywhere. Finally, the day has come and she found a two-room living complex. My grandmother helped us a great deal in the beginning; she helped as often as she could, both with money and food. She owned some property back at the village where she grew potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers. But life wasn't easy for us even with my grandmother's help. My mom had to support our lives on her own for the most part. She was the only person who worked at the time. My mother was a Russian literature teacher, a position that's highly respected, but unfortunately did not bring high house income. I should remind that the poverty I had experienced was far less serious than that of somebody who has no place to live in at all. I had food on the table, and I had a place to stay for the night. I even had my own room. Yet, I did not have the luxuries and comforts that both I and my mother would have liked to have. Life was definitely "like a box of chocolates" for us, as Forrest Gump states. Every day, we didn't know what we were going to get. We did not know if we would have enough money to pay for electricity, or hot water. We did not know if we would have enough money to pay for the monthly cost of the apartment. Life for us was like a time bomb waiting to explode. At any given minute we had everything to lose. In my country, just as I would say in any country, money is the biggest issue. As in USA, people in Ukraine have absolutely no choice concerning if they would like to work or not. In Ukraine, people would do anything to have a stable job. They did not choose to end up on the street with their 5 month old babies just because they didn't want to work. Unlike in America, poverty in every country is a lot different. Nobody chooses, or even has a single shed of thought to sleep outside on the streets under an old, rusty, raw bridge. People end up like that, because they have no choice. Lazy is not something these people are. They are outside because the government does not create work; the job market is ridiculously bad.
I’d like to remind everybody that poverty does not always happen by choice. It is out of people’s hands to choose that way of life. Only in America I know exactly the reason why so many people wander outside, they simply do not want to work. It is so much easier to get a job in America than any other country. I cannot grasp this fact that such a large amount of poor and homeless people here take it for granted. Look at the millions of poverty stricken people around the world. It is just unfair for them to starve to death, or live as if they are animals in a dirty shelter. It angers me so much that these people have no choice, they have absolutely no way to support themselves, while homeless, or poor people in America have a choice yet they do not utilize it. It’s a shame of a century and it is even a bigger shame to the people who do nothing about their poverty “chosen” lives.
