Changing the Face of Poverty
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The project of the writer in this piece is to identify the stereotypes of poverty. When we think poverty, we think sadness. We also think of poverty as unnatural and we think it is only present in rare occasions. George believes that this is misrepresentation of poverty. She believes poverty is everywhere. She also believes it should be seen more realistically. Poverty isnt only seen in 3rd world countries .In fact it can be seen in almost every and any community in the world. So in thus sense, poverty is also misrepresented. We fail to realize that poverty can happen to anyone.
One example of how poverty is misrepresented is in pictures. In the picture of the little girl in the text, we can see povertys typical definition. She looks sad and distant. However, poverty can be closer than what we think. With todays economy, poverty can exist, generally anywhere. You may not see it in its lowest form but it exists. Due to what were use to seeing poverty depicted as, we may not recognize it in any other form. Because anyone can live in poverty, it cant be portrayed as distant to us. It is closer to us than we may realize.
Many people do not see people that are homeless or hungry on a daily basis. Many do not see them at all. In the piece, George talks about what can be done to help us relate to those suffering from poverty. She says we must see them before we can care about them. She continues to say that we must care about them before we are moved to end the intolerable conditions that mark their lives. This means that because we dont see the people suffering from poverty we tend to think that the poverty doesnt really exist.
Basically, changing the face of poverty is something that needs to be done in order to end it. We wont care to end something that doesnt affect us in any way shape or form. Poverty is seen as distant. Therefore we tend to ignore poverty. We will continue to not care about it until it becomes us who are faced with poverty, or until we can relate to it.