Abstract: From over last six months I am living in a foreign country which can be called third world county as Westerners and Europeans like to call it. I have an established business here. I was too late to fly back to the place I live but now I can not until they open the air service. Not a big deal because I am safe here. I have enough food, money and connections to support myself for long time. Guess I am lucky. But I am having such hurting/unfair social experience in here that I could not help myself but to do my best from my position to support these people. If ever I run out of supply then I will seek help from others but for the time being, I am doing well in here, in real life1.
One thing I noticed, this middle class people who do not have enough savings, never lived in the poverty level or below poverty level, never needed to ask for money because they had/have a decent job but now some of them are in such position that they do not have a job, did not get salary for last two months, their employer is not telling them about the future of their current job and all shit. These people are in deep trouble but these same group of people are too shy to ask financial help from others too. They will not eat for two days but is not going to ask money from you. I discovered it in person.
Well it seems you made an interesting campaign, Poker for aid?
In that paragraph you just described what happened to my country, during the past 5 years or more. And the one thing i have noticed, is that with the pandemic people in "wealthy" countries are experiencing this poverty thing for the first time in their lives.
It is exactly like you said. My country used to be "rich", because of the oil. There was a wealthy class in the capital and they had a saying: "Its cheap in Miami, give me two" meaning they rather go to the US to buy things because it was cheaper. This happened in the 70ies and 80ies for a segment of society. People from my country could enter freely as tourists without needing a visa like they need today, so it was kinda like buying groceries in the weekend and come back by Monday (4 hours flight).
After the 80ies this went to slow decline, then it wasn't slow but fast, then came to power the politicians who blame it all on the free market economy, and things got worse, much, much worse.
Many people from my country faced the situation 3 years ago you people faced for the first time with the pandemic. Their only choice was to leave the country and hope to work elsewhere. Why? Because a full time job here gives you literally 3 USD a month, when the same thing would net you $250 a decade ago (yeah, ridiculous in many wealthy countries, but a "fortune" over here). Many left to work in neighbor countries (often illegally) to send some money back home, and that was still happening by the time 2020 came. The estimation was about 6 million (20%) of our people left the country this way.
Then the virus happened.
Many of them worked selling goods on the streets, or had formal jobs that closed due to quarantine. But they often live by renting a room. No work, no income, no paying rent = kicked out. Many of them living in the street started walking back to my country. And i mean literally walking hundreds of kilometers, in the middle of the pandemic no less. Often detained at checkpoints and not allowed to go on etc. To these people the situation is desperate, but i don't think any of them would ever visit this forum.
Yes
third world is a term that's still often used, i guess its a reminder of the cold war, back when there was a second world (the socialist bloc). It was meant to mean the group of countries who were not affiliated with either of the superpowers, but somehow came to mean, "the non developed countries".
While i sympathize with your individual initiative for some little wealth redistribution in the world, it is unfortunately too little. Yet the big whales could do so much more. Remember, its not about giving the fish, but the fishing rod. Think about starting a business that would create jobs online that pay with bitcoin, i think what people would appreciate more in the long run is having a steady income (however small) rather than temporary relief.
Many people right now are at home and could really use a job. so think more about starting companies that would employ people online doing legit work. Then your footprint to change the situation of the "third world" would be much deeper.
