These and many other questions are what brings many of us to this gathering today; questions whose answers touch human lives; questions upon which serious deliberations may make the difference between an infant living past birth or not, a young woman finding a worthwhile employment opportunity or falling into lifelong desperation and deprivation; a young boy climbing the ladder of purposeful education or sinking deeper into ignorance or hopelessness; an old woman retiring into bliss and wisdom or enduring a life of a cruel, bitter end; an orphan's shot at life's fortunes are or are not blown away with the same swiftness that took away his/her parents; an HIV positive mother confronts a life that is worth living or not.
I do not bring with me answers to these questions, nor do I bring an evaluation matrix on who has been the gallant soldier, or who is the villain in the ongoing war, that is raging against poverty. I come here today as a citizen, an ordinary citizen, determined to advance a perspective on this matter. It is a perspective that depicts a genuine picture of how I have come to understand poverty, how I have longed for its defeat; how I have day-dreamt about its collapse and funeral. It is an experience that I wish to share with you, hoping that I plant a seed, especially among the young - a seed that will cause them to wage a more vicious war.
