Oh, Mr. Nobel...Be Gentle with The Poor

The Royal Swedish Academy of Science awarded Indian-origin economist and academic Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kramer the Nobel prize in economic sciences “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”.

What made me happy that their research's main theme is “The poverty”, which has increased unacceptably in the whole world... We all feel its impact on our Egyptian society, as the poverty rate rose by 4.7% according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), reaching 32% compared to 27.8% in 2015.

Despite the World Bank’s motto carved in stone at main HQ in Washington “Our Dream is a World Free of Poverty”, yet the bank imposes harsh conditions on poor countries to realize this dream by forcing about 145 countries to work with them to end extreme poverty within a generation and promote shared prosperity in a sustainable manner across the globe.

This goal might seem perfect... but in fact, it is just an illusion. Regardless, the bank's announcement of poverty rates’ decline, the number of people living in extreme poverty is still insanely high.

I believe that these conditions could lead to the killing of the poor and the elimination of the middle classes living under God’s great covering.

I think Egyptians have suffered a lot due to the harsh economic reforms adopted by the government, but thanks to social solidarity and initiatives such as a “Decent Life”, “Takaful and Karama” (Solidarity and Dignity), “100 million healthy Lives” and others, the poor are still able to continue life, yet under hard circumstances.

We can eliminate poverty, which is ravaging our people, especially in rural areas. The reasons behind these phenomena can be summarized into 1) illiteracy, 2) resorting to illegal jobs like driving rickshaws as a fastest way to earn money, killing young men dream of learning a new craft.

Development and combating poverty are possible, and deserve a thousand awards such as the Nobel prize, on condition that a suitable atmosphere guarded by the laws should prevail for the victims of every reform that raises the slogan of combating poverty yet, in fact, it aims to eradicate the poor people and the dreams of the middle class !!