It is easy to see oneself as poor within the constraints of an ethnocentric existence. Fact is the United States isn't the only country in the world and despite the relative poverty that exists the material wealth of even the poorest in this country are unfathomable to many poor who reside just outside it's borders. This is a picture of the living situation of many who share this small living space on a Starbucks Coffee Farm in Nicaragua. As one of a group of students emerging from a loud tour bus filled with Ipods, Cell phones, laptops, and cameras the glares are intense and permeate throughout the humid Nicaraguan air, we were the first outside the community to experience life on this farm. When it becomes easy to complain about daily nuisances it is important to think of oneself as one piece of the global community and that one's ranking in the world is a lot higher than is often perceived.
A website that really puts things into perspective is http://www.globalrichlist.com/ It allows a person to go to the website put in their annual income and it literally ranks how rich they are. Thinking with an annual income wavering well below 10,000 a year I'd come no where close to the top but was surprised to find out even despite a low relative income I still placed in the top 13.96% of the richest people in the world. The website then goes to describe what people spend their money on everyday, a DVD, a television, and what that amount of money can buy in other countries, in some cases that amount of money can literally buy livelihood. It is unnerving that an HD television can buy the livelihood and education of an entire community which can then be passed on for generations.
The future; implicitly immeasurable but explicitly, and monetarily dictated.
http://www.globalrichlist.com/
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