Editor, RE: “Our prison of poverty: yes, it hurts much more” (The New Times, January 30). Our ancestors already warned us about poverty’s dangerous effects on relationships and ,by extension, society at large: “Abasangiye ubusa bitana ibisambo”, “Aharaye inzara haramuka inzigo”. In and of itself, social welfare may not be a sufficient condition for social peace, but it is a prerequisite without which there can be no sustainable social stability and peace. And expanding social goods that increase our common welfare is neither the responsibility of a few, nor the work of a day. It requires that we all apply ourselves to the task all the time. The good thing about it is that as each of us works hard and harder to improve our own circumstances and those of those who depend on us directly, so does the collective social welfare grow in tandem. MK
