Poverty is a drunk father, or an addicted mother, and hungry children, Poverty is a child lost to preventable disease. Poverty is a mother weeping. pets have nothing to eat and die silently . Poverty is injustice without appeal. Poverty is cruel. Poverty is stress, depression and now it is covid that’s robbed us of our lives and jobs, Poverty is shame. Poverty is famine. Poverty is war.

Poverty is pain. Poverty is life without life. Poverty marginalizes, poverty suffocates, and poverty kills. I remember when I was living in the evil city of Baghdad , the corrupt city with corrupt governments that steal people’s money, prisoned my father for political reasons and let go the criminals in the street, I remember that my brothers and sisters used to eat one meal a day. When my mom asked me if I want my breakfast before I went to school .

I used to tell her to save it for me for dinner as I hate to go to bed hungry. Many times my food will be eaten by my sisters so I end up without food all day and my stomach only has water and some dry bread.

I used to pick some dates and some citrus fruits from the street trees so I can have something to eat. The evil Iraqi government never gave assistance or welfare to the people, most of the assistants that came from the UN, and UNICEF was stolen by the government employee and police and sold in the street until nowadays the evil Shia Iranian government doing the same.

Our people had and still have severe deprivation of basic human needs and rights, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information with a country that supposed to be the 7th richer country with oil. It depends not only on income but also on access to services. Poverty is the mother of most problems in my view, not all but most as lack of faith ,lack of opportunities, lack of vision and good governments can contribute a great deal to it.

I used to have my older brother shoes when he bought new one and I gave my shoes to my younger brother . But the only riches we have in our family is satisfaction and the belief in God , the good intention and good heart .

But for many that was not enough they took arms and fought the evil government and demonstrated against atrocity and justice against poverty and corruption of the government , many were shot and killed , many were prisoned and tortured like my father. Here in Canada and the U.S we take things for granted every single day but even here we have poverty , kids go to bed hungry and they don’t know what to do ,but at least here we have a welfare system, people who can help , food banks and other agencies that can help you.

Poverty here leads women to sale their bodies for money and then they get used to drugs and alcohol, and when addiction sets in , to buy more they go farther and farther in their dark endless road. Some died and some got murdered.

For me when I was a child poverty wasn’t about food or clothes that we didn’t have, but it was about kindness, as no one cares , society isolates poor people they make you feel unfit ,unwanted even though we were smart and going to school and trying our best to be good kids but that wasn’t enough , as they only go with rich kids and pay attention to well dressed kids and kids from rich families, that did hurt me more than the lack of food. It was the lack of attention, care and kindness.

The lack of love, kindness and respect was the worse feeling for me but in my heart I felt sorry for them , I was different because of my poverty, but I know I was more kind than them as I used to share my food with the birds and the cats in our area.

The feeling that my own relatives didn’t care about me was the worse. That is why until this day I never liked or friended rich people, and If I do it , I do it with caution and ask myself what they want from me in return? what is in it for them? I never invited rich people to my house or went to thier house , I always find way to avoid them politely , and If I was really pressured to go I make a plan B that some one will call me in 30 minutes then I tell them I have to go to the hospital as I have urgent case , etc.

I know that many rich people are good people, and some want to help others, but I lost respect and trust to those who are rich and unkind, rich and spoiled, rich and jerks, rich and sarcastic , rich and disrespectful , rich and arrogant. I know that many poor people can be like that and that is the worst kind of poverty.

Sometimes poverty is not about money and food as I said before , but what you lack in your faith, your heart and your mind. Lack of knowledge and education, lack of faith in God can be one of the worst poverty that can lead humans to lose their life and the afterlife.

In many parts of the world like Africa, India, the Philippines, some part of Asia and south Asia, and some part of the Middle East . Poverty is an unmet need and an unfulfilled longing. Poverty is lack of food, love, shelter, and everything good. Poverty is being sick and unable to see a doctor. Poverty is never having an opportunity to go to school.

Poverty means not knowing how to read and write. Poverty is clothes that don’t fit. Poverty is standing on the outside looking in. Poverty is dirty water you must drink. Poverty is a man without a job and a family without a home. Poverty is a long walk without shoes.

Poverty is illness without treatment. Poverty is pain in the stomach. Poverty is vulnerability to every scheme, lie, and cheat. Poverty is an empty refrigerator. Poverty is no refrigerator, no stove, no electricity. Poverty is one toilet for one hundred neighbors. Poverty is a thief in the night.

Poverty nowadays when the evil communist party spreads the killer virus to destroy the world economy killing millions and making it sound like a natural disaster while evil China is selling the antivirus 50 USA dollars a dose, it is the most expensive antivirus than all other antivirus drugs, I call this the Communist party Moral poverty , the poverty of ethics . I hate poverty and those governments who are involved directly or indirectly in keeping billions of people under control by poverty and mind control, by disease and manufacturing viruses to sale medications.

Those evil governments in China, Iran, Russia, North Korea, Myanmar, India and many others in Africa and the Meddle East control their people , brainwash them with mind control and poverty, with hate and predigest against minorities and other people’s faith. They deprived them from citizenship , they rape them, They control them with communist’s media, tell them what to listen and see, what to eat and consume, where to go and not to go, what to do , what to buy and sell. those Berberian sick evil and corrupt murderers governments who are controlling the people like sheep must vanished and be destroyed , their ideologies and agenda must be destroyed.

Time is to rise against poverty of all kind but we must start by changing our self to be kind and help each other, and may be , just may be we can be united , day by day we must unite and come strong to get rid of those evil governments, communists, or unkind capitalist either, get rid of those who mind control the mass , the evil agencies, we must fight them with every mean is possible, with peaceful demonstration or by force , we must plugged them out for ever .

Isolate those evil powers as they did evil deeds to the people, ignore them and don’t buy or sell to them , don’t let them control our economy , our people and our future , our jobs and health, our way of life. China is using prisoners ,and Muslims minorities to conduct surgical and medical procedures without thier consent to creates a generically engineered soldiers as Hitler once did to the Jewish.

To start I see the so called United States of America are ununited ! how we will fight the enemy if we are rotten from the core and if we are broken from within, America please wake up , we have a bigger fish to fry, we have Iran getting closer to make the A-Bomb. We must revolt against the enemy and not among ourselves. Enough is enough.

Steve Ramsey, PhD- Public Health.