The Poverty Cycle

The amount of crime the four Kenyan travelers, including me, will be exposed to is one of the unknown variables from this trip. We are going to be living in a city where we will immediately stand out because of race, our position as volunteers and accent (if not language altogether while we struggle with Swahili). The undercurrent of these differences is that we are from a richer country, one where we have access to money and power that many Nairobi youth would dream of having. These differences could make us become targets for some of the more unsavory parts of Nairobi, specifically theft and robbery. Just like my cousin Sean was a victim of this robbery on his first encounter with Nairobi more than a decade ago, so must we be aware of these dangers. But why does this happen in a city that is a haven for international tourism and a beacon of African growth?

The best reason for this might be poverty and the positions these people are in which perpetuates crime. Much of this can be attributed to a lack of education as well. All of this is due to the vicious cycle of poverty.

Low Surplus> Low Investment> Low Income

Low surplus money creates low investment in the future for families, which leads to low income that again creates a low surplus. But how can we break this cycle? Poverty is a complex problem that cannot be solved with one and done solutions. Maybe education can help fix it; maybe much of it has to do with the HIV/AIDS deaths that have happened in Africa over the last thirty years. Maybe it has to do with the global economic system or maybe all of these problems, and many others, are all part of the global cycle of poverty. And isn’t it amazing that Wal-Mart’s everyday low prices could directly impact people that live in Nairobi who I will live with for three months over the summer? These connections, though not direct, certainly are there. You just have to understand how complex the system is and why decisions made in the developed world effect livelihoods in the developing world.

Like my friend Brieanne mentioned in an earlier comment, this mentality very well could be survival of the fittest and that any high-browed attempt at looking down upon people that steal is easy to do because we do not know their situation. In a lot of ways, this is a correct view. It is like the old thought experiment: if you were starving, would you steal a loaf of bread in a market? To me, that is a tough question. I hope my morals would say no but I would think that practicality would win over and I would steal the bread. But if you include into that example a family that is dependent on you for food, I doubt there would be many people that would NOT steal the bread. So how can I really judge the people I will see in Nairobi who will be trying to take advantage of outsiders such as me? If I was in their position I would most likely be doing the exact same thing.

The poverty cycle traps families and gives them little hope of breaking free. As poverty is such a complex problem, it seems daunting, like you don’t even know where to begin. But I am going to start with one organization, Education for Life in Nairobi’s Kariobangi slums, and see where I can help. I hope to attack the poverty cycle by focusing on investment through education while in Kenya through volunteer work meant to build stronger, more sustainable communities. If enough people start looking for solutions to this larger problem, the smaller problems such as stolen possessions will diminish over time. Maybe I should prepare nonetheless, the city is still called Nai-robbery.