Impoverishment as a condition | Pablo Zubieta | TEDxCPH

Poverty is one of the main challenges the global community faces nowadays. Pablo offers us a paradigm of poverty and explains the true tragedy behind it.

Pablo Zubieta is a marketing coach who leads the NGO "A Favor de lo Mejor" (In Favor of the Best), which promotes improving Mexican TV content. Pablo was nominated by the magazine "Expansión" as one of the top 15 marketing stars and he holds a PhD in Philosophy and Communication from the University of Navarra. He lives with his loving wife and four children between Pamplona, Spain and Monterrey, Mexico.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

When we wander around the streets
Pachi spoke to us about today,

we usually see people
less fortunate than ourselves.

And we typically call
these people "the poor."

I would like to take this opportunity
to share with you today

my personal exploration
into what we can learn

about these peoples' condition,

and see if its possible --

(Phone rings)

to learn something.

(Laughter)

Learn something about those people
we call the poor,

or if it's only possible
to see those women

we believe can't help themselves
from having more children,

or if we believe the people in the streets

are there simply because they couldn't
be bothered to keep walking,

and they took their shoes off
because they weren't very comfortable,

and they're just lazy,

or that the children we see
begging for money in the streets

just have lazy parents
who left them there.

What do we think about the poor,

or those people we call the poor,
when we see them in the street?

I've purposefully chosen
this image without a face,

which is neither man nor woman,

who is simply labelled as "poor."

We are the ones who label them as poor

and the problem
with labeling them like this

is that we simply forget
everything else about them.

They're "poor," and that's it.

We forget the fact
they are people, they are parents,

they are children and they are siblings.

We just see them as economic entities.

Even when we try to define poverty
using the poverty index,

the level of access
they have to health care,

when we talk about
the minimum wages they receive.

All of the indicators we have for poverty
are material based.

We label them to a point
that if we labelled someone else,

for example, if we wanted to put
a label on someone like...

A label like..

(Laughter)

A label like...

Could you guys make
these slides work, please?

A label like "wife," right?

We imagine someone that fits this label.

If we see a label with astronaut on it,
we don't know if it's a woman or a man.

Or "engineer,"
that's an even worthier label.

But "poor" is a shameful label.

You can't say that someone is poor.

But we can say that someone is living

in conditions of impoverishment.

I think it's important to understand
that you can't BE poor.

Instead, you live
in conditions of poverty.

And these conditions have
specific characteristics.

I would like to explore these
characteristics with you today,

the ones I call the threefold
conditions of impoverishment.

First, impoverishment
has consequences on peoples' lives

which can't be seen on the surface.

The first are financial limitations.

The second, an emergency condition.

We'll explore it more in a moment.

And the third, a condition of scorn.

The condition of suffering
from financial limitations

has a direct impact on someone's
access to nourishment

a sufficient amount of food
of the appropriate quality.

I would now like to ask all of you
to experience it for yourself.

Imagine how it feels to be hungry.

And then what it is like
to be hungry all the time.

And then think what it is like

to make your children feel hungry.

That changes things.

And think about the
consequences of malnutrition,

not hunger, but instead
the result of not eating

and not feeding your children.

And what are the consequences
on personal development

of not having enough money to buy food?

The thing is... we don't see it
in the poverty-stricken, do we?

You might tell me that when you give
one of the "poor" a coin,

do you really go,

"Well, they need to eat,
or their hair won't grow?"

Secondly...

Let's see.

They don't have access to decent housing.

"So, not only do I not eat,

but on top of that, I live in a house
where the problem isn't a leak,

it's that it has no roof."

"So I have a series
of terrible health problems

and I also share a 4 square meters
of a room with four other people

which has horrific consequences
for my health."

What's more, this city reaches both
stifling and very cold temperatures.

And not only in this city.

And the problem gets more complicated.

Since I don't have any money,
and it's not obvious,

I have a bigger problem, as I don't have
access to a decent healthcare system.

Of course, a lot of countries
around the world

have universal healthcare systems, but...

If you don't have any money,
things are way harder,

much, much harder.

In addition, as I'm penniless,
I don't get a good education.

And if you say that our system
is top-notch, tell me...

Why do so many of us send
our kids to private schools?

And why don't they go to state schools?

Because if things really were
equal in our countries,

we would send our kids to state schools.

But it seems there is a difference.

And that's why we send our kids
to private schools.

And so if you're penniless,
you also end up -

because you have no money -
getting a worse education.

These things add up, they multiply
and they get more complex.

And if all of that weren't enough,

and we were only talking
about the financial limitations -

there is no safety net for contingencies.

"On top of it all,

you can't get sick,
or that'll be the end of it!"

Which brings us to the second condition.

The emergency condition.

In the emergency condition,

the person is still
at the center of everything,

but there's a problem -
everything is connected.

"It's not just
that I have to pay the bills,

but that I have to do it today."

"It's not that I have no money for food,

but that I don't have enough to eat today,

nor did I have enough yesterday.

And it's not that I can't pay
the hospital fees,

it's that I have to pay them now..."

OK, someone gets sick,

and that emergency has now
totally gotten out of hand.

"My family member got sick,
and that put us in a lot of trouble."

And so the contingency crashes down

and takes with it everything
that it comes across.

And the slightest flu means...

You wanted to fix a leaky roof,
but now, you can't.

A flu wipes out three months'
worth of food.

Mothers aren't allowed to get sick.

If they do, their kids don't get to eat.

If the financial limitations
weren't tragic enough,

and the emergency condition
didn't make everything so terrible,

well, we've also got the third condition.

The third condition
is that of scorn or stigma.

Without a doubt,

this is the most generalized
form of discrimination.

There is no form of discrimination
more widespread than being poor.

A sense of scorn comes over families,

the family takes revenge,

the poor dad leaves home

and abandons his wife,

not only because he's a bad father,

but also because he needs to escape.

He takes revenge on the circumstances,
because he no longer wants to be poor,

He doesn't want to be
stuck with it anymore,

he no longer wants to live
with the constant limitations

and in a perpetual state of emergency.

Grandparents don't want
to look after their grandkids,

because they already took care of you!

There are wonderful exceptions
based on love.

But we don't see them
when we stigmatize the poor.

That label which reads "they're just lazy"

rears up its head again.

The scorn: "Don't offer work
to a poor person."

"Never give a poor person a job."

"They're lazy, and that's why
they can't get a job."

What's more, they're invisible.

We're in the city squares.

This happened to me recently
in a public square,

there was a sign which read: "No begging."

Wouldn't it be better
if there were no begging?

That it weren't possible

because the community
would be given the means

to make it inconceivable
for someone to beg?

Instead of putting up a sign
excluding the poor,

those people we call "poor"
in public spaces

because we don't want to see them.

We don't see the poor begging in squares
or outside temples any more.

We don't see them,
as they're part of the background.

Socially invisible.

They don't cause us pain anymore.

We don't see poverty anymore.

And on top of that, public services
pointed their finger at them before,

as people they think are inferior.

And our taxes are supposed
to make our cities more equal.

So why are the poorer areas left unpaved

and the richer areas paved?

I don't understand, aren't taxes
supposed to stop that from happening?

But poor people don't seem to matter.

"Let them have access to worse services."

That comes from public transportation

and other organizations
that foment inequality here.

That's what they are like.

Yet, of course, we're fighting to keep
our luxury taxis going.

The dialog in the media
is about keeping premium taxi services.

That's what we're fighting about today.

But I can't hear any arguments over
maintaining a respectable service.

And all those mobile phones,
belonging to those who can afford them,

and who live off them,
because they also have 16 jobs

and their kids are everywhere,

and as they're multi-purpose,
with a gazillion side jobs.

Mobile phones, water and gas
are more expensive for them than for me.

And companies say:
"Well, of course, they are riskier,

they might steal the equipment,
the tank might never re-appear,

it's too far away,
there's no plumbing there,

it's a lot more expensive,
so we'll charge them more."

This third condition generates
a lot of stress.

And on top of people being stressed,

the three conditions always
happen simultaneously.

There's no chance they won't happen
simultaneously, ever.

There's more.

Each condition intensifies
the previous one.

And if we did want to find solutions
to help and provide aid,

mechanisms to eradicate poverty,

we would need to provide them
with all three conditions in mind

because there's no point giving someone
a coin while mocking them

or giving money, but doing so
in six years' time.

We always need to focus
on the limitations, emergencies

and the smiles,

fair treatment, and dignity!

There is always one person in the center,
everything revolves around that person.

Oddly enough, human happiness,
as mentioned here before,

doesn't depend on money nor time,

nor on limitations, nor the rush
there is to pay the electricity bill.

José Antonio Abreu,

quoting Mother Teresa, said:

"True poverty isn't the lack of bread,
nor the lack of shelter,

but it is the feeling of being nobody."

Being invisible, scorned, going unnoticed.

Also, Mother Teresa,
in an interview with reporters,

after leaving them all gobsmacked -

After the interview, they asked,

"Would you tell us
how to live a more fulfilling life?"

And she answered,

"Smile. And I'm being utterly serious."

I'd like to tell you the same,

let's be happy.

Let's make those around us happy
with genuine care.

We need hardly anything more.

Thank you so much.

(Applause)