Voluntary Poverty

Medeshi 15 Sept, 2008
Voluntary Poverty
Posted by Ingrid Hartmann
I always wanted to live in poverty like Gandhi did, as long as I had a lot of money. I must say, I used to be somewhat in love with Gandhi and actually, inspired by the Ethiopian extended family principles where the wealthier ones care for the more needy ones, I also was always open to share my resources with families I used to live with.

Working once for a reduced salary, however, I changed my mind about Gandhi. Gandhi was not really poor. According to nobelist Amartya Sen, somebody who has a freedom of choice is not poor. So Gandhi was not poor, he had chosen to live in poverty, what is different, since he had the whole congress behind him, he came from a merchant caste, his father was a governor and he had chosen the lifestyle he lived. According to what is reported about him, even his Ashram was not economically sustainable and they secretely subsidized him. So, if he only would have had to establish his ashram on the returns of the sales of their spinnings, or if someone would have forced him to work for a low salary, would he have accepted? I doubt. He always used to travel with a 4th class ticket through India, but when they denied him a first class ticket in South Africa as a coloured person, he started his political movement. Also Jesus was not poor, actually, doesn’t he have a very rich father? And Buddha was a prince. Mohammed, well, was not that wealthy, but didn’t he marry a rich woman? So they all were not poor, as well as somebody who is fasting is not a hungry person. And moreover, they did not have families, or neglected them a little bit, like Gandhi did. So why did they tell the world we have to live in poverty? Nobdoy can start a social revolution from the position of poverty. Nevertheless, since I started to join the Ramadan fasting, I became reconciled with all of them. Although fasting with the opportunity to get any food you want during night time or whenever you want is not the same suffering as having no food and no idea of when to get something. Nevertheless, there is also some suffering and some purification in voluntary fasting - so the Koran considers it as an act of solidarity with the hungry ones and also as an act of equity since the King is fasting as well as the beggar, and actually I admire that the whole Muslim society does it uniformly.

So, I think it is the same with in voluntary poverty, because there is a lot of beauty not to exploit one’s opportunities of living a wealthy life if one could. Then I read the blog of Satish Kumar’s homepage, who said, that it was love, that made Gandhi the Mahatma, Gotama the Buddha, Jesus the Christ, and Sister Theresa the Mother and I think he is right. So what obviously makes the difference, is the love within somebody. But love is also the product of freedom and internal richness. Therefore, if someone wants to realize principles of Gandhi, Christ or whoever, there is only a chance to impose it on oneself, never on someone else.

Anyhow, I am not a Gandhi or someone like that, and thanks to God I also do not have to be, and if I would start a walk to Berbera with Somali friends to produce our own salt, as my dear brother suggested to tease me, I do not think anybody would internationally recognize Somaliland, but that is also a pity on the other hand.

But what I have in common with Gandhi is our problem with security guards. Gandhi did not want security guards and I do not want to have security guards, but he had and I have. The difference is, Gandhi’s security guards were dressed as Dalits when he left his Ashram for his political work, so he is said not to have known that security guards were around him. Because having security guards means violating the principles of non-violence. And actually, his end shows, that they even were of no use. As for me, I am forced to accept having two policemen as security guards in my compounds. Not only that, also two watchmen in addition. In the first month here, I did not sleep even one night, because I was so scared. I was not scared of being killed or kidnapped by Somali pirates, I was afraid of my guards.

In Hargeisa I asked some security specialists for help me how to get rid of the security guards. The guy said: “Actually I thought you want to know how to increase your security, now you ask me how to get rid of them”, then I told him I believe security problems can only be solved through communication and not through arms, then he said: “But you cannot communicate with a wall.” I liked the guy, but I do not think Somalis are a wall, and now, since I got to know my neighbors with all their kids and know more words of Somali language so that I could start communicating with the guards I am no more afraid. But I am awfully ashamed of having all that guards, and whenever I go out to some place and they have to follow either walking 20 m behind me or, if going by car they have to follow in another car, I feel so embarrassed about the picture I might give, and I always wonder what local people might think about me, if I am the reincarnation of colonialism or the richest person in town or the foreign minister of my country or –worst of all, that I think they all are murderers, kidnappers or criminals? ….and I would prefer to hide myself in the ground, but thanks to Allah, I have to wear a veil, so I if not below ground at least I can hide myself under that veil. And then I think I would like to go to cinema Thursday nights, and I imagine one policeman sitting on my right side and one on my left side to protect me and what kind of Thursday night fever would that be?