Oppression

Oppression is about more than not having money. It's about power, lack of resources - and for those who have the resources - hoarding of resources. It's about status, ignoring the human-ness of people, and it's a problem all over the world.

Poverty is so complex that there are no universal definitions of "poverty," but instead, there are varying degrees and considerations when discussing poverty.

There exists a Third World poverty, which is different than North American Urban-based poverty. There are headings like Absolute versus Relative Poverty... Frankly... Poverty is a problem all over.

I study on the topic of oppression, so I look at status, racial issues, gender issues, economic issues, social and societal constructions and a whole lot of other things. When I speak to others about oppression, however, I find that most people tend to drop details on this list of issues and favour using words like "poverty," "hunger" and "homelessness" for the duration of our discussions.

Here's a youth with an amazing message - who has managed to incorporate a LOT of issues into her talk about oppression, world-wide poverty and environmental issues:

Severn Suzuki "The girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes":