Defining Poverty

So how does one define poverty? Is poverty absolute or relative? Is someone who does not have access to basic health care and education poor? Or is someone who is financially well off but is not allowed to become a part of society poor? What about someone living below the breadline? Or someone who does not have access to basic shelter and clothing?

I guess this is a debate that can go on for a long, long time. However one thing is clear, though I'm no expert, that the definition of poverty is a matter of perspective. In the developing world, where billions of people struggle to make ends meet, where the next meal is in question, where disease and malnutrition are the scourge of society, poverty is defined as not having access to the very basic of human needs - food, clothing, and shelter. The developed world, on the other hand, largely believes in relative poverty. So anyone in the US who cannot afford a car is considered poor. One in five children in the UK think not owning a mobile phone is a sign of poverty.

The Oxford dictionary rather unhelpfully defines poverty as "the state of being poor", though it defines the word poor as "having very little money; not having enough money for basic needs". Merriam Webster defines it as "a: the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions b: renunciation as a member of a religious order of the right as an individual to own property". The World Bank currently uses a figure of $US 1 per day (in 1985 purchasing power dollars) for absolute poverty. Under this measure, roughly half the world's population lives in abject poverty.

The alternative has been to define poverty as relative deprivation, for example as half mean income (or as 60% of the median income, as in the UK), or as exclusion from participation in society. Thus the European Union has decided that ‘the poor shall be taken to mean persons, families and groups of persons whose resources (material, cultural, social) are so limited as to exclude them from the minimum acceptable way of life in the member state in which they live’.

Growing up in India I have always seen people struggling to scratch together the next meal. In such circumstances, someone living in their own house - however decrepit it may be, someone with assured basic resources, someone not literally starving, is not considered to be living in abject poverty. In some senses this is unfortunate, for just being surrounded by people who are simply struggling to survive denies these 'also poor' the attention they need.

So, is there a right definition of poverty? The answer, almost certainly, is 'no'. Poverty means different things to different people, and to different societies and nations. The true definition of poverty for any individual, however, and the only definition relevant to him or her, is how it is defined in the society he or she lives in. Any other definition is academic, and any other understanding is meaningless.



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Crazy dance

I came across this video and couldn't resist posting it here. Weird? Whacky? Jaw dropping? You choose the adjective.







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Lost in Paris

On our way to the MBAT at HEC School of Management in Paris a few days ago, we got lost in Paris. I wasn't surprised. First, we were driving on the wrong side of the road. Second, we were driving on the right in a right-hand-drive car. Third, the signs were for inexplicably long French place names - and very difficult to read while driving along even at normal speed. And finally, I was completely foxed by the complex road numbering system in France (and a very bad map).


How do you read these signs? Or this map?

In fact we got lost almost immediately on driving into France. We were to take the A16 to Paris from Calais, and followed signs diligently. Yet how we landed onto the A26 and then on to the A1 I have no idea. What we did right was follow signs to Paris and that meant that though we took a rather circuitous route we eventually did get to Paris. However that also meant deviating from the planned route through Paris. And that's where it all went wrong.

In France motorways bear the prefix 'A' and National roads 'N' (what's the difference?). Local roads are 'D'. But then, there are also 'E' roads (what are they?). And if the map we had was to be trusted, some roads were both 'A' and 'E' on the same stretch. Or 'A' roads become 'E' roads. Or 'N' roads. Confused? Not as confused as I was while we were driving through Paris and I was trying to navigate in vain. I still am (confused - not trying to navigate in vain!). And for someone who believes in his sense of direction, it was a cruel, belittling, blow. Strangely, signs often prompted us to take the innermost lane - until we suddenly found we had to exit the busy motorway - changing 3 or 4 lanes in about a hundred metres or so. Bad enough for Seb, who was driving my car, but even worse for the driver of the second car, Joby, who had no idea where we were going and was blindly following us.


Are we on the A26? Or on the E15?

We drove around Paris, trying to decipher what road we were on, what direction we were moving in, and what road we were supposed to be taking next. The map didn't help either. Certain roads disappeared suddenly...and certain others had no numbers associated with them (well, they did, but not on our map). We found ourselves going round in circles, and rediscovering roads and landmarks we had seen only a few minutes before. I think we finally found our way through Seb's sense of direction (I console myself by thinking, 'I wasn't driving...I'd be more in control of my sense of direction if I was') and Vinita's map reading and backseat navigation skills.


Is our car likely to explode on this road? No, as it it turns out, it is the suggested route for vehicles carrying flammable materials.

On the way back from HEC three days later, we rather easily managed to get on to the main Paris ring road, the A86 - but did not realise for about 30 minutes and about 25-odd kilometres that we were in fact driving in the wrong direction! Then to compound matters all signs for the A86 suddenly disappeared and signs for the N86 (or was it E86?) appeared, and we thought we were lost again - until signs for the A86 magically appeared again (and signs for the N86 / E86 stopped!). Thankfully the nature of a ring road dictates that as long as you stay on it you cannot get lost - and though it probably meant about an extra 20-25 kilometres and about half an hour of lost time, we could find our way out of Paris and onto the A16 to Calais with relative ease.

Yet in some ways I found French roads absolutely fantastic. Contradiction? You bet. I suppose once you understand the city layout, the way roads are numbered, and what the major signs say, driving in Paris is a pleasure. On one of our nights there, we took a taxi from HEC, which I guess - judging from how long it took us - is about 30 kms from Paris centre, to Concorde Plaza in the heart of the city. I was surprised that right from leaving the HEC campus to Concorde Plaza we only had to stop twice - there were practically no traffic lights or roundabouts on the way. Almost every single junction was negotiated through a tunnel or over a bridge. A similar journey in London, and you can expect numerous sets of traffic lights slowing down traffic and increasing travel times substantially.

I guess I need to spend some time deciphering the French road system. It can't be that complicated. Or is it?



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MBAT and Road Trip

May 8-11 saw the 18th MBA Tournament in Paris with 1500 participants from 15 European business schools participating. The tournament, hosted by HEC, includes sports from rugby, football and cricket to sailing, poker and salsa.

Oxford came in overall fourth in the tournament, with notable wins in rugby, sailing, squash, Petanque (how many of you have heard of this? I hadn't, before the MBAT), and poker. We also came in second in ultimate frisbee (which I played), badminton, duathlon relay, and rowing.

All in all it was a fabulous experience. HEC hosted a party each night after the sporting events, so there was a lot of drinking involved (a deliberate ploy?). I drove to Paris with a bunch of friends, and that meant we could avoid the painful 14 hour bus journey endured by all the others. It also meant we could get to the hotel early and check in ahead of the 130 others who descended in one go...the last person to check in had to wait for over an hour to do so.

The highlights of the trip? A great road trip; getting lost in Paris and spending over an hour trying to find our way back (more on Paris roads later); staying up until 6 in the morning before heading off to HEC at 8 for further sporting events; spending the night drinking at a pavement restaurant on Champs Elysees - and by 'spending the night' I mean until 6.30 in the morning; cheering our teams until our throats gave way; playing 3 near-consecutive frisbee games; a fabulous game of cricket where we fielded first-timer Chinese Jenny who turned out to be the star of the game.

I guess I could go on and on...but I'll try and cover individual areas in separate, future posts. For now, here are a few pictures that give some idea of what the trip was like.





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Parteeee!!

Ah, finally! Seb, Varun and I were able to host the party we had been planning for months now, on Friday. It was good fun. To all those who came over - a big thank you. I hope you enjoyed yourselves. To those who could not make it, the party would've been better with you around. To the neighbours who couldn't sleep until 5 in the morning - a big sorry. Surprisingly, I was able to not only attend next morning's class and the subsequent two study group meetings, I was also able to function normally.

Check out Seb's dress!




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Snowfall

We woke up on the 7th of April to find a covering of snow. I know, I know...this was nearly a month ago...but here are some pictures now.






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