Lesson #2: Poverty

A few days after I returned to Ottawa I ran into a friend from Bangladesh. He’s spoken to me quite openly about the country’s poverty before, so when I saw him I quickly unloaded a lot of information about Mexico on him. Yes, I did this on the sidewalk. A little heavy (I know, I know) but we did have a good conversation, until…

Him: So what next?
Me: (long pause) I can’t (long pause) really…
Him: Go back to a place like that?

“Why would you go back,” he asked, “when you are so comfortable here?”

He’d missed all my points entirely.

I wanted to say that not only would I like to go back, but I need to go back. I need to go wherever I can until I wear myself out.

Mexico’s problem’s don’t belong only to Mexico, just as problems in Bangladesh shouldn’t rest on its citizens’ and government’s shoulders.

The doctrine of positive duty is simple: Just because I am not directly responsible for the continued atrocities the world faces doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be responsible for their resolutions.

I could compare the world to a human body.** When all its organs (people, cities, countries, governments, media) are functioning, the body moves well. If an actual human kidney fails, we rush to get it dialysis. Why then, do so many of the world’s parts malfunction without any real response to that particular part or the particular whole to which it belongs?

Phases such as “the developed world” or “first world” completely puzzle me. Sure, breaking the globe into sections for analysis is “productive” in an artificially academic sense, but on a strictly person-to-person level it can be harsh and polarizing.

Two examples. With a disclaimer! I know Canada isn’t problem-free! But…

When Canada doesn’t do its part in recognizing and enforcing Mexican labour laws as part of its commitment to NAFTA, but still invests in the country’s maquiladoras, it isn’t better off. Canada might make money when Mexican workers “lose,” but aren’t we all left a little farther behind when we can’t say at the end of the day that we upheld basic human dignity as best we could?

When the kids in Canadian playgrounds have shiny new swing sets to play on and healthy lunches to eat, that’s great, but… what about the kids at La Estacion? I’m talking about the ones who weren’t allowed into the playground across the street so instead they climbed the old water tower and played tag across garbage and broken glass — all in their bare feet.

It makes me uncomfortable that I am so comfortable here. Not in an oh-I-need-to-get-rid-of-everything-I-own sort of way, but one in which I know it isn’t morally safe to divide the globe’s problems into “mine” and “theirs.”

** Please don’t bring in Hobbes here. This is a strictly “no Hobbes” zone!