A Long Way To Be Out of Poverty

by+Yang+Meng

One week after the beating， I could still find bruises and scars all over my body. I was beaten by my mother with a bamboo strip， leaving me with bruises and scars， which were marks of her desperation， born of her poverty.

After so many years， this beating still remains fresh in my memory. I had broken the key around my neck when chopping firewood – thats why I was beaten. At that time， there was always one month of food scarcity in my household each year. The granary

was nearly empty， and the new crops were not yet ripe for harvesting， which meant the whole family needed to eat side crops for more than one month before the autumn harvest fell due. At that time our only income came from a lovely hen raised at my home. We used her eggs to trade for my school supplies such as pencils and daily necessities such as salt. So， it is not difficult to understand the desperation behind my mothers anger.

Families like mine were common in the village. Those getting sufficient grain for their families were considered “well off.”People lived on land. However， limited land could only produce a limited quantity of grain， which meant if we depended only on our land， we would be impoverished from generation to generation.

Beginning from the 1990s， my father went to work in cities. Since then， my family has lived a better life than average in the village. For many， seeking a job in cities has become another way to get out of poverty， besides “sending children to school” or “to join the army.” However， seeking a job in cities cannot guarantee being out of poverty. Sometimes I find that life has become even more difficult for todays migrant workers. In the early days my father and his peers could support a whole family with the income they earned as migrant workers. But now the income of a migrant worker of my generation can barely support oneself. Todays migrant workers are caught in a dilemma： We can hardly survive in cities but have no place to go back to in rural areas. I cannot imagine what kinds of challenges the migrant workers of next generation will face.

We， migrant workers， have created abundant social wealth by dint of hard work， but still， we cant shake off poverty. More families have become impoverished because of serious illnesses， high cost for education or house dismantling and relocation. It seems that people are gradually getting out of material poverty， but now they have more worries and misgivings， losing directions in life or living solely for the sake of survival. This， I believe， is the worst poverty of all.

During the “Occupy the Wall Street，” a protest in 2011 in New York City， the Americans raised the slogan “We are the 99 percent，”referring to the unjust wealth distribution between the wealthiest 1 percent and the rest of the population. This was in the worlds biggest economy. What about the situation in China？ I believe that poverty is a big issue that the world majority will have to tackle over a long period. Understanding the causes of poverty is the first step to the solution， and hopefully we will be able to find the roots of poverty while we are seeking the direction of our life.