I'm thinking of First World Problems, after a brief exchange I had with another customer at our friendly neighbourhood Shopper's Drug Mart. I was trying to get to the milk, but there was another customer in my way, thanks to a huge display of useless consumer junk on sale in the middle of the aisle. This is a tactic that stores often use for moving stock, but what it really does is move the shopper, as far away as possible. Instead of attracting me to want to buy any of the useless garbage they're trying to shill, I just get angry, annoyed, ignore it, and maybe even complain to staff and management. Today, I simply mentioned to the other shopper and, I believe, his wife, that it's not his fault (he was apologizing for getting in my way), but the store is to blame for their tendency of putting crap in our way. As his wife and I got carping together about the inconvenience I suddenly smiled and said, Hey, this is a First World Problem, which means that if this is bugging me then I must have it pretty good. She smiled and agreed that this went for her too. Well, it was nice having a chat and sharing a joke with a couple of friendly strangers. Also nice being reminded of how good I have it.
Reading up on the history of Latin America simply reinforces to me how good we have things here in Canada in 2017. On the other hand, the Third World Reality is beginning to cast it's fetid dark grey shadow. Income equality is at its worst ever and homelessness has become a national crisis. These are not classic First World Problems. On the other hand, I enjoy the convenience of living in subsidized housing which pays more than half my rent, making it possible for me to remain in the city of my birth, one of the most expensive for housing in world. I also really acknowledge my good fortune, given that the waitlists for low income shopping are now for ten years.
Even with my crappy low pay I still enjoy a decent if modest standard of living. Even at my very poorest (and I still live below the poverty line) I have never in my life had to stand in line at a food bank or soup kitchen. I am also phenomenally good at budgeting, but I also believe that as I have trusted my life to God that he has also provided for all my needs, especially when I've found myself in very desperate straits. I can still afford to travel and have already concretized my plans for my fifth visit to Costa Rica in March. This shouldn't be able to happen for someone earning my low income. But somehow, I'm still able to do it. I don't quite get it either, Gentle Reader, but wow! an I grateful!
Not bad, eh?
I read about the horrendous sufferings of the indigenous people of the Americas (the very few who survived the epidemics and the genocidal slaughter from the Spanish, British, French and Portuguese.) I think of the centuries of serfdom and slavery, especially of African people. I think of the absolute oppression that people survived under while coping with the murderous tyrants of the imported Spanish aristocracy. I think of twelve to sixteen hour work days in unsafe mines, underneath the blistering sun in the fields, or the domestic servitude in the palaces and haciendas of the arrogant and pitiless Spanish overlords. I think of the religious abuse from the vast majority of priests who were nothing but shills for the Spanish Crown.
Life has improved for many in Latin America, but not as much as it has for those of us in North America. Many still suffer from poverty and subsistence living. There is still tremendous social and economic inequality. And here, in dear smug little Canada, are incubating similar conditions of human rights violations and chronic disempowerment, largely thanks to global capitalism, that none of us ever expected to land on our cold and beautiful shores.
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