Most of us have at some point in their lives have come
across the infamous cliche' that says, ‘time is money’. Well, that will be the
foundation of my write up today, as I seek to re define poverty from my own perspective. Poverty in its semantic definition is the state of being inferior
in quality or insufficient in amount, or rather, the state of being extremely poor.
Back in my country, we define poverty as the state of living below a dollar per
day. Hard to believe? Well, it’s true. We have people living below a dollar a
day in Kenya, while sad situation is an understatement to explain that, I would
rather say it’s a catastrophe, but since there is very little I can do about
it, fast forward, my topic.
A sneak peek into my video, which starts with a gentleman
seated in a room and a highlight in the foreground that notes, big house; small
family. A little ahead, more degrees; less common sense followed by advanced
medicine; poor health and the point that touched me the most comes next, touched moon; neighbours unknown and lots of virtual friends; no real friends
to hangout. The rest is attached on the video. Much as I would love to dwell on
each of the highlighted themes on the video, I would pick on one that is very
relevant to my topic above, costly watches; no time. Rewind, my introductory statement, time is
money which is logically true, but again in the video, it states that we have no time, and
since I can equate the time with money, we have no money. I hope I convinced
you as to why am re defining poverty.
Our lack of time is what brings in the issues of poverty. We
hardly ever have time for each other, while that may be understandable, the sad
truth is, and we lack time for our families. I wouldn’t have a problem if a
friend had no time for me, but in family, it’s a whole lot of a different
story. Both way, we lack time for everything and that’s where poverty comes
from. We have more humans and less humanity, it’s true, and it’s a very sad
truth. Am not trying to judge but it’s quite sad that we meet a lot of people
along the streets, in the train to work, in a bus, sometimes at work and
hardly ever talk. When I joined my company where I am today, it was an
abomination to go to a different department and even say hi. I used to do that
almost every day, and my colleagues used to tell me, I talk too much; I should
restrict myself to my area of work. Which I found a little absurd. To cut the
long story short, today everyone is talking to everyone. I managed to change
the situation.
Imagine a workplace where you come and do your stuff, at the
end of the day, you close your business and head home, the next day will come,
same process and life goes on. I would be damned if depression doesn’t hug you
tight enough to make you feel the last grip. We are human beings, we have to show
humanity. Am one hell of a totally outgoing person, my colleagues will tell. In
fact, those that hated me when I joined are now my number one fans. I sometimes
start random conversations with people in the streets, sometimes in the metro
and I have realized something, people really need it. Since we lack humanity,
we ignore. In Dubai, you can stay in an apartment for two years and vacate that
apartment without meeting your neighbor literally, leave alone talking. And if
you meet, people never talk. They’ll look at you and sigh, then go ahead with
their agenda.
It’s a very sad situation, and from my random conversations
with strangers, it’s evidently true that people really need such kind of conversations,
they are just afraid to walk out of their ego and strike a conversation. That’s
why in the video, it states that we have costly watches but no time. Saying Hi
to a stranger in a bus is quite harmless, I don’t think the police can arrest
you for saying hi to someone. If they don’t want, leave it. We are ever on our
phones, but we never talk to our families and friends, and you wonder what the
phone’s purpose is. We are literally poor in everything. Humanity is losing
taste, in fact it’s tasteless. I have shared a couple of conversations with
some of our guests at out hotel and quite a couple have told me they came to
have a peace of mind, some really thank me for sharing a conversation with
them, citing they have family members in different parts of the world and it’s
been years since they met and shared as a family, and that they stay alone and it’s
sad because there is no one to talk to, so they come to the hotel, at least we
will share a moment at the reception and laugh our lungs out. PEOPLE NEED
THIS!!!
This is the point where we are losing it. There are so many
cars in Dubai, and sometimes, there is traffic build up. It’s quite ironic that
three out of ten cars stuck in traffic may be from people who are neighbours in
the same apartment. While you can foster a relationship with your neighbours so
that you can agree on a way to carpool to work, we rather as twenty five people
in an apartment have our twenty five cars and head to work in almost the same
place. We lost it. I can’t change that, it’s quite hard to get out of this
quagmire, and am not trying to change it either, am just one person. I would rather we meet people along the streets
and say hi, extend some generosity and buy a drink, in Dubai, beverages are
quite cheap. Personally, I have met people who are looking for jobs dropping CV’s
at various places and some asking for direction to some places. In my perspective,
it’s more than just a direction someone is asking. I offer my time and move
with this particular person to a nearby restaurant, purchase some affordable
meal or snacks, depending on the time of the day. That alone is enough to
restore someone’s soul.
I once met a Pakistani guy while looking for a
job, the U.A.E way. I didn’t know him, he didn’t know me. I was just seated
somewhere next to Dubai Internet city and he came and joined me. We talked with
this guy for almost two hours, he bought me lunch, and I needed it, in as much
as I didn’t want to show it, but I really needed it. We talked like we had
known each other for long, and that’s what most people need. After that, we all
said nice to meet you and I thanked him for the treat and he wished me good
luck in my job search. That’s why I don’t find it hard to return that favour to
somebody else. That’s what makes us human, the human instinct that should separate
us from animals. People have time, they just rather sit alone with their phones
and get depressed silently and die slowly. The Pakistani guy I met spared two
hours, a whole two hours for me. How many of us have more than that? Cutting
out five minutes of your time to share with that person seated next to you in a
bus, or train or the person in front of you in a restaurant is no big deal. In
fact if you are in a restaurant and someone is sitting alone, request to join
them and spark a conversation. That is enough to restore humanity. But since we
have expensive watches and no time, we may as well die poor. . . .
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