Weekend Fun 37: On Fighting Poverty

The big foreign aid institutions around the world, the WB and the ADB, they have a slogan something like "We dream of a world without poverty."

This reminds me of a cartoon which I read a quarter of a century ago:

Priest/Pastor: Thank God for poverty. It draws man away from materialism.
Politician: Thank God for poverty. It provides my political platform.
Gangs/Mafia: Thank God for poverty. It gives me steady supply of hired criminals.
Foreign aid Consultant: Thank God for poverty. My career is to study it.
Poor: I feel so appreciated. Thank God.

A friend shared that he saw or heard this quote or joke way back in the 50s:

Fight poverty, kill the poor.

And this reminds me again of two cartoon that I read more than 20 years ago. A poor man from Africa (or Asia) telling a military general in the US (or Europe):

Poor man: With all those money you spend on armaments and warfare, you can wipe out poverty in the third world.
General: Yes, with all those money that we spend on armaments, we can wipe out the poor in the third world.

Another variation... an African visa applicant talking to a European country embassy staff complained:

Man: My work visa application is denied? Problem with you rich countries is that you don't care about the poor in the third world.
Embassy staff: Now that's not true. Why, we don't care about the poor in our country either.

Happy weekend.