According to an article published today on CaribWorldNews.com, many Caribbean nationals are living on less than $2.00 a day. Yes, that's TWO US DOLLARS a day. In Haiti, 71% of the island lives on this small amount and in my own beautiful St Lucia, 41% survive on this paltry amount. It comes as no surprise to me about Haiti, but in spite of the rampant poverty I see in St Lucia I really am shocked by the fact that almost half of the country is living on so little. A hard day's labor in the fields often brings in 40EC which equates to about $15.00 US.
Many people are envious of the life I lead. St Lucia sounds so amazing, and it is. It is one of the most beautiful places in the world. But it is a very hard place to make a living and the cost of items are very expensive. Naturally, everything must be shipped in from other countries which escalates the price. Those who hold power in the government seem to do fairly well, but that is only a very small percentage.
Crime is increasing. Understandably. Men and women alike will do just about anything for a meal for their children. And only a very small percentage of individuals get the good jobs at beautiful resorts. So if this little piece of information serves as nothing else, I hope it will encourage you to travel to the Caribbean, to support these struggling nations and next time you go, bring small gifts of pens, pencils, books and toys to give to the poor children who go without.
5 comments:
It is heartbreaking to see the amounts of poverty and see how little so many live with. The children are the ones that hit me so hard here.
I suppose it helps some to have American dollars while you're living there. I can definitely see why crime is increasing though... it's a shame it has to be that way.
It does help put it in perspective though when you consider people are earning less in an entire day than most of us in America earn in 1/4 hour's time.
Very eye opening.
I know many web writers who don't make much more than that too! :-)
I'm glad to see that media outlets are giving them more attention. Believe me, I can take my life for granted at times, but I often think of people around the world and at home who struggle for the absolute bare necessities.
At least in America we have choices and opportunities to move up in life. If there is anything good about this recession, it's that people may learn to be less materialistic and more understanding of the hardship others endure.
I've often thought, If I bought a place on an island... or just bought an island, what would I bring to the area to make it better? I think tourism is a horrible, degrading industry, so I wouldn't open a new resort, but really, what does that leave? It seems the entire Caribbean would benefit from some sort of "real" industry, but it would absolutely have to be clean, clean, sparkling clean.
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