So at some point it was decided that Blog Action Day was going to be all about poverty this year. More than 12000 bloggers from all over the world writing about poverty today. It’s a brilliant idea, raising awareness about an important subject together at the same time.

However, I’m sure that, during that decision, the organisers weren’t aware of the credit crisis that was coming to slap us all in the face.

The credit crisis. Already life threatening to many in the United States of America, just beginning to happen in Europe. The amount of money people that once were quite wealthy have lost, makes writing about global poverty an ironic matter.

You see, I now find it difficult to say: look how well we are all doing, give some of our wealth to the poor. Because poverty is so bloody subjective… Suppose you are used to living in a seven room house and now need to move to a three room apartment because of the mortgage crisis. Suppose you used to work at one of those banks and were fired and couldn’t find a new job. Of course you would feel poor…

However, no matter how bad we feel about our mortgages, cars and jobs, us Western Europeans can always lift our spirits by comparing ourselves with the rest of the world. We could just say to ourselves, just to make us feel a bit better: Look at Africa, or Asia, Russia and South America. Compared to them we are really doing very fine.

But I’m wondering… Would that be fair? Would it be fair to expect such an amount of thinking outside one’s backyard of people who have lost so much? Or who are going to lose in the coming months? I don’t think so. I’m not saying countries in Asia or Africa should stay poor just because they are used to it and we aren’t. I’m very pro global equality. But isn’t it more logical to look at our own countries and our own potential poverty just for a while? Just until the crisis is over?

The credit crisis makes me realise it’s hard to think about others when things are unstable for yourself. I know that giving money to poorer countries is the first thing to be scratched off the list when things are getting tough. I mean, you give a little, but in the end they are still poor, so what’s the difference between little and nothing?

Still, let’s not forget that subjectivity of poverty. And let’s not forget that this subjective perception of wealth and poverty also works the other way around…

Suppose you earned only 10 dollars (or euros or pounds or whatever) a day and had nothing but a roof and a family. Suppose you were then given another 10 dollars. You could pay a doctor for your ill child. You could buy a few chickens, food, some clothing. Wow, you would feel, subjectively, quite rich indeed.

Yes, when you give 10 dollars or 10 euros to poor countries it may seem like nothing in your eyes. But it could be a huge change for them. So why not just give some?

Maybe, now we are all rebuilding our own personal micro economy, we could finally find a way to come one significant step closer to global equality. So that maybe, in those magical seven years time that our economy will regain health again, we will not only see a wealthy Western society, but a wealthy world.

I think I’d like that. I think I’m gonna give some right now.

*This column was written especially for Blog Action Day 2008*

Column published by Cecile on Monday, October 13th, 2008.

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