Poor but proud in Pakistan

Poverty does not carry the same stigma in Pakistan as in the west. This can have a tangible effect on health, mental outlook, and life expectancy.

By: Richard Shillington

  When you visit a country like Pakistan, your attitudes toward poverty are sure to change. Certainly, the gap between rich and poor is very evident in daily life. But as you become adjusted to the lack of material comforts in Pakistan, it becomes clear that many Pakistanis are perfectly content, that they don't feel deprived. They do not expect to have all the trappings of our consumerist, western lifestyle.
  The following two encounters - while far from an in-depth study - illustrate my point:
  In Quetta, the provincial capital of Balluchestan, I twice met a young boy - about 12 years old - whose job was to steer me to his friends' shops in the Bazaar. He was extroverted, with that positive attitude that good sales people have. I thought he would have made a good life insurance salesman. During our second encounter I complimented him on his English and told him 'one day you'll be a great salesman.' His response was immediate - 'Sir, I'm a great salesman - now!'.
 

In Pakistan, no one blames the poor for their poverty - it's the norm. In fact, someone told me that the beggars in one city went on strike. Now that's attitude.

  Of course, I laughed. While he has no chance of enjoying the material rewards that exists in Canada, he's happy. Though he would be considered materially poor by Canadian standards, he has what he needs to live life on his own terms. His expectations are consistent with his environment.
  On the same street, I stopped two men to take a picture of them with their donkey cart - they were delivering a few pipes. They pumped themselves up - proud that someone wanted to acknowledge their wealth - because, after all, they were one of a few with a donkey cart. I offered them a few rupees in thanks, but they declined; it wasn't necessary, they said. After all, they were proud of what they have.
  This is not to say that there is no despair amongst the poor of Pakistan. In Quetta, you will also find people who are not just poor but destitute: amputees young and old, mothers (often behind a veil) with children. Yet, in some respects it's easier to find this grinding sense of misery on Hastings, Sussex Drive or Bay Street, where those people cast-off by our economy use cardboard for shelter amidst some of the wealthiest neighbours in the world.
  Part of this is due to cultural and religious differences. In Canada, government and some media blame the poor for their poverty. Mike Harris worries about welfare moms wasting money on beer and so he takes their money away. The essence of the Protestant Ethic is 'work hard and you will be rewarded'. The hidden message in that is that if you haven't succeeded, you haven't worked hard enough.
  In Pakistan no one blames the poor for their poverty - it's the norm. Islam associates no shame with poverty. Indeed, someone told me how, in one city, the beggars went on strike. Now that's attitude.
  There's more research being done on the relationship between income and health. It's clear that a certain level of income is necessary for good health - and Pakistan has no shortage of ill health which is related to poverty - because of things like unsafe water and malnutrition. Yet it's also clear that health is affected by 'relative income'; that is, by the gap between what your income is, and the cultural expectations of what it should be.
  Indeed, because of this relationship between health and income inequality, blacks in the United States have life expectancies lower than average citizens in countries where incomes are much lower but more fairly distributed (for instance, in Sri Lanka and China).
  In Canada, we maintain an illusion of opportunity. We pretend we are free of class distinctions. Yet the reality is that success is very unusual for those raised in poverty. It is this contradiction between the illusion and the reality that can lead to ill health - researchers call it the reality/expectation dissonance.
  So we're left with a situation in which the obvious misery in Canada is not due primarily to incomes insufficient for clothing and food. Instead, it's caused more by social exclusion and by people's inability to match the expectations that are manufactured in every corner of our culture.
  Unlike the Pakistanis I referred to above - many people living in poverty in Canada have no clear way of achieving the life they desire. And these factors - social exclusion, and the inability to be master of one's own destiny - are major contributors to ill health and depression.
  Perverse as it might sound, poverty in Pakistan is kinder, in a sense, since it is easier there to be poor and to still retain a sense of pride and self-worth - essentials for happiness and health.

Richard Shillington, Ph.D., is a statistician who specializes in the quantitative analysis of health, social and economic policy. He appears regularly before committees of the House of Commons and the Senate, and frequently provides commentaries for television, radio and newspapers on issues of taxation, human rights and social policy. Richard's Straight Goods column appears weekly.

Other articles from Richard Shillington
  Federal policy flip-flops kill politics
  What I learned on my Pakistani vacation
  Budget: something for everyone - with any political clout - and nothing for Canada's poorest families
  Death by the rules
  House Finance Committee gives more windfalls to wealthy; rotten apples to poor kids
  Attn: Paul Martin - a REAL "children's budget", please
  A poor measure of poverty
  Are RRSPs really for you?

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