Being rich isn’t always smart

By Stephen Giuliano

OXFORD INSIGHT

Just because you’re poor doesn’t mean you’re stupid, any more than being rich automatically means you’re intelligent.

I have met many impoverished people who are highly intelligent and/or wise, and I’ve also met those with a lot of money who have questionable intelligence or wisdom. And even though it may be popular belief, not everyone who is poor is either illiterate or uneducated. There are many people who have university degrees and/or a tremendous amount of past work experience who are living in poverty. There are also those who are wealthy based not on their own efforts, but on inherited money, availability of personal resources or being at the right place at the right time.

Thus, as they say, thereby the grace of God go I.

Many have heard the phrase “give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.” I have always had difficulty with this saying, not simply because it is sexist in nature but for its implied, deeper meaning. The problem is in the concept; not all people like fish. Nor can some eat fish due to specific allergies.

This expression suggests that we who have financial independence and available resources, somehow have the answers for those who don’t… if only the impoverished would allow those of us who have means to help them, they too could be self-supportive.

The point is that in order to truly be helpful to those who face poverty, we should be asking them what it is that they truly need or want, not spoon-feeding our prescribed social medicine to the poor, based on our own interpretation of it.

I recently had the honour of meeting and conversing with Nikolay Nenchev, a member of Mensa who certainly does not fit the poverty bill.

Nikolay’s membership within Mensa puts him in an elite worldwide group of 200,000. For those who are unfamiliar with Mensa, it’s an organization defined by elevated IQs, with scores of 150 and over. Two per cent of the world’s population is estimated to be in this range.

He said he was drawn to Woodstock to talk to me about Operation Sharing’s innovative programs. What was supposed to be a brief lunchtime meeting became four-and-a-half hours of exchanging ideas and friendship-building.

In our conversation, he spoke of being raised in Bulgaria and of living in Canada for the past several years. Nikolay’s credits include master’s degrees in science and economics and a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Presently, he is a board member for the World Fit for Children charity and the not-for-profit Canadian-Bulgarian Association.

Further on his accomplishments before coming to Canada, he was a member of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as he began a business in 1991, at the age of 20, buying and reconstructing administrative buildings and then renting or selling them. His clients included Allianz and ING Bank. Five years later, he created Bulgaria’s first visual databases for real estate.

He wasn’t all about business in Bulgaria, as he sponsored and put charity cash to various scientific and cultural events. He also founded, sponsored and volunteered with charity organizations for women’s welfare.

This man of so many accomplishments (along with his wife and three children) is currently on social assistance and if he includes his Mensa membership on his resume he receives no response. Interestingly enough, Nikolay mentioned that about 90 per cent of Mensa members are not financially well off although they’re brilliant.

Even a social worker with Ontario Works thought Nikolay must be fabricating his resume, due to its lengthy list of high achievements.

Would any of us boast that we could teach Nikolay to fish?

I personally felt privileged to learn from his life experiences and his unique understanding of the world and when we were leaving, and I told him it was quite an honour to meet him, he humbly replied “the honour was all mine.”

The world of those who live with less money is never simple and can never be explained in simple ways.