I would recognize what should be obvious…:

Poverty has many causes, consequences, and correlates that have to be reflected in policies and actions combating it, if the millennial targets are to be met.

Then, as the ruler, I would jettison from my staff all those who talk in clichés and slogans, offering such symbolic feel good, but dismissive answers..   Reminiscent of  the “ Let them eat cake solutions of Marie Antoinette that got her to the guillotine. By the way, I am sure the French today are forewarned by the inflammatory situation in their country..But not only France..The whole rich and affluent Western world should be alarmed.

Being committed to an effective reduction of poverty, I would feel obliged to take into account:

Poverty’s multidimensional and multi-sectoral  nature.  Economically, poverty is inadequacy measured in indices of per capita GNP, levels of consumption; and access to public services such as clean water and housing. Socially, poverty is an issue of exclusion, unemployment, alienation, and individual incapacity to realize a fruitful destiny.

From philosophical and theological perspectives, poverty is at once to be valued—simplicity and frugality are its virtues—those values required for a sustainable environment.  And paradoxically –as the product  of selfishness and greed, poverty is society’s shame.

Poverty of the spirit, the inner life, and of the creative imagination is the most insidious and the wide spread manifestation of indigence. This form of poverty exists in both rich and developing societies where ever materialism is the “way” to the good life. It infects the vitality and virtues of the human spirit if societies do not deal with it. With spiritual poverty there is limited hope for human fulfillment and combined with material deprivation, little hope of ever emerging there from.  It even threatens the vitality of democracy as a way of life in a society. –not to mention the exhaustion of natural resources and the trashing of the environment whereon the well-being of present and future generations depends .  Poverty of the spirit,– boredom, indifference, depression– in a fragile society threatens the undoing or the bringing to naught of constructive assistance. Therefore, the notion of poverty of the spirit should loom large in efforts to overcome the material manifestations of destitution and deprivation.

In similar vein, I would warn my world that the spiritual, ethical and cultural dimensions of our lives and societies are threatened by the impoverishing cultural homogenization facilitated by the present technological revolution. People must not be obliged to lose their cultural identities, time-honored values—in short their souls—to swim competitively in the global sea.

I would further bear in mind that: Poverty comes in absolute and relative forms.

These distinctions are vital to successful policy making. Absolute poverty is registered in the lack of fundamental basic needs, starvation, and other serious deprivations. These would get my immediate attention and not indirectly through foreign investment.  Relative poverty is a phenomenon of inequality. It is chronic and inherent in a competitive market society.  Without regulation of competitive forces and redistribution of wealth through taxes and government spending it is impossible to limit.·

I would address, forth rightly, the social stigmas that are attached to the poor by their more affluent fellow inhabitants of the earth.

Many underprivileged people, in rich as well as poor countries, are victims of social exclusion. Victims of the illusion that human dignity is a function of being brought out of poverty.  That dignity comes with material well being and industrialization is a dangerous fallacy. It is important to consider that often the poor, while they know that they do not have what the wealthy have, do not necessarily consider themselves inferior. To listen and to understand the perspectives of the folk without material advantages and to respect their dignity is to be strongly emphasized as the sine qua non for any successful program promoting the creation of a good society.

Poverty reflects on all kinds of issues in life, making it very difficult to get a handle on all the relevant factors in any particular situation. Therefore the decision maker needs great humility. To work against deeply rooted poverty takes long-term devotion and comprehensive policies. It is important to get to know poor people, and to understand their world-view.  To follow their directions in helping them in the way they wish.

I recognize that sustainable development and continued progress in all societies requires an attitude that sees frugality, sacrifice, service, and compassion as essential to a society’s capacity to deal with issues of poverty within itself and in other countries, regions, and communities.

 I would argue that when a society proposes to its members, the pursuit of wealth and power as its overarching goal, poverty is unavoidable.

This is because few individuals can flourish in a society that promotes free for all competition; because solidarity and redistribution, notably through progressive taxation and government programs, –investments and expenditures–, are rejected; and because, where wealth provides social status, poverty is lived as a stigma of personal failure. Most significantly, a societal project of this sort—the pursuit of wealth and power, — being profoundly all consuming and materialistic, tends to relegate humankind’s capacities for love and selfless pursuits into the shadows of existence, and thereby clears the way for the creation of many forms of spiritual impoverishment, while being unable to eliminate or limit material poverty in its absolute and relative varieties, respectively.

Just as poverty here is defined in a way that expands it beyond the narrow confines of a person’s economic position, so too wealth needs to be understood in a similar way. Thus contrary to the prevalent perception, wealth is neither the possession of material riches nor the attainment of political power. People are wealthy when they become “great-souled.” Great-souled persons are those whose human fulfillment is found in helping others others to obtain theirs.

How to sum up in simple terms the ambitions of this decision maker?:  I will seek the answer in the subtle lessons conveyed in commonly known fairy tales.

And so in short…As the ruler, I would want to be as concerned and helpful as Cinderella’s godmother. As non discriminatory as the Prince who saw a potential Queen in a charwoman.

I would warn against the whiles and ways of Snow White queen mothers..who would poison the good people for their own gain, or the Pied Pipers who entice with empty promises the innocent from their homes and values. I would want to be as wise and courageous as the little boy who recognizes that the king has no clothes, and avoid selfish giants who would keep all the worlds gardens for themselves.

I would be as hopeful as Hans Christian Anderson who perceived in the ugly duckling, a beautiful swan..And I would rule with the optimism of JRR Tolkien who believes in the joy of happy endings, which are neither escapist nor fugitive: the visions that deny, in the face of great untoward evidence, the Universal final defeat of ill will– in a glimpse of enjoy.!!.…