The crisis is culture

The way forward to solving poverty is not to throw more money at more problems and hope they will solve themselves. Because culture doesn’t care.

Culture pushes us to be a certain type of person. Everything from what we wear, to what we eat, to how we act and what we say. Culture teaches us what the “manly” thing to do is and how to be “lady” like. Culture teaches us to fit in with our tribe.

Tools like education, sanitation and infrastructure aren’t enough to change the culture alone. It begins with story telling. The stories we tell ourselves and those around us. It starts with developing a posture—people like us do stuff like this. It starts with standing up and shining a path for others to follow. It’s about leaping and doing something that has never been done before.

Until, one day, the tools, the technology becomes ubiquitous and the culture changes. One generation at a time. Moving closer to more dignity, equality and respect. Because investing in human beings is worth it.

When we realize how little the culture cares about us, we realize how important we are to each other.