All that you have...

--------------------------------------------------
Oh my mama told me
Cause she say she learned the hard way
Say she wanna spare the children
She say dont give or sell your soul away
cause all that you have is your soul
Dont be tempted by the shiny apple
Dont you eat of a bitter fruit
Hunger only for a taste of justice
Hunger only for a world of truth
cause all that you have is your soul

I was a pretty young girl once
I had dreams I had high hopes
I married a man he stole my heart away
He gave his love but what a high price I paid
And all that you have is your soul

Why was I such a young fool
Thought Id make history
Making babies was the best I could do
Thought Id made something that could be mine forever
Found out the hard way one can’t possess another
And all that you have is your soul

I thought, thought that I could find a way
To beat the system
To make a deal and have no debts to pay
Id take it all take it all Id run away
Me for myself first class and first rate
But all that you have is your soul

Here I am waiting for a better day
A second chance
A little luck to come my way
A hope to dream a hope that I can sleep again
And wake in the world with a clear conscience and clean hands
cause all that you have is your soul

All that you have
All that you have
All that you have
Is your soul

- Tracy Chapman
----------------------------------------------------

Why do I put this up? Well, beyond it being a phenomenal song that sparks memories of all night design projects, I think it has a message to ponder on many different levels. Also, I think it fits really well into something I’ve been thinking about lately.

While I was on a train coming south from Bangladesh’s Sylhet division in the north, I asked my English friend Paul what he meant by a comment he made about "beautiful poverty" (I beleive it has since evolved into a blog, which is in my links if you'd like to read it.) Truthfully, the idea of their being such a thing as beautiful poverty is somewhat counter intuitive, especially to someone who wants to be involved in socioeconomic development. Yet when riding around on a motorcycle through the rice paddies of northern Bangladesh or rumbling south on the train watching the sunset over farmers shacks, it becomes quite apparent that it does exist. If you can imagine fields for as far as the eye can see subdivided into small plots that are worked by hand with only the chimneys of brick manufacturing quarries on the horizon, your starting to get the picture. In case that doesn’t work, here’s one:



I had been thinking about the topic from a different angle, asking what poverty was to begin with. Truthfully, the question has been on my mind since the first time I was in the Dubai airport talking to an Australian investment banker. He, despite being on his way back to Australia to close a deal after a Ferrari binge in Dubai, was quite unsatisfied with his life as if having everything he wanted wasn’t enough. Conversely, exactly one week later I was sitting on the balcony of some family’s flat in the mirpur section of Dhaka listening to a guy tell me how satisfied he was with his job, his family, and his friends.

There are, of course, concrete elements such as food security and access to health services. My point, however, is the rather obvious idea that there is a disconnection between socioeconomic success and poverty within oneself.

I used to read this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson almost every day and it’s since come to make up part of my evolving definition of success:

-------------------------
To Have Succeeded

To laugh often and love much:
To win respect of intelligent people
And the affection of children;
To earn the approbation of honest critics
And endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To give one's self;
To leave the world a little better,
Whether by a healthy child,
A garden patch,
Or redeemed social condition;
To have played and laughed with enthusiasm
And sung with exultation;
To know even one life has breathed easier
Because you have lived...
This is to have succeeded.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

So then, to reiterate, it is completely possible to be poor and successful or rich and destitute depending on how you live your life. For me it's just another way of saying that you’ll never be satisfied if you’re looking for satisfaction in something or someone. I realize this is an elementary topic but it's really what one ponders on long train rides as your watching mosquitos hit your laptop screen.

Note to self: print out the begining of the above paragraph and repeat it over and over the next time you’re driving through OC, remembering that you wrote it.

I’m a firm believer in extending Newton's third law to oversimplify many facets of life. Therefore, I shall start to conclude my ramblings with the rather obvious point that if there is such a thing as beautiful poverty, then certainly there must be such a thing as ugly prosperity. Instead of continuing with a juxtaposition of my experience in North America and Bangladesh that is sure to come off rather pompous and offensive, I will instead tie this into my experience here by saying that although poor in terms of GDP, Bangladesh is, in my opinion, extrordinarily wealthy in terms of the general warmth of it’s people.