While global economic experts debate on such real considerations as Gross National Income (GNI) Per Capita, Purchasing Power Parity (PPP$), Actual Final Consumption Expenditure (AFCE), etc., they have failed to actually smell the stench of destitution themselves, or wiped the icky grime of penury off their hands. I doubt if they are even willing to go on field to validate the information and data that land on their desks which, in turn, get churned on their statistical tables.

Had they done the verification themselves, they would find out that the typical rural child does not even think if the water he drinks from the communal shallow tube well is safe. He has no choice but to drink that, anyway. He no longer wonders whether his parents will allow him to still attend classes this coming planting season when his manual help in the farm is absolutely needed. Helping out at the farm is a non-negotiable and unspoken mandate. He no longer asks himself if he can still manage to walk the muddy roads to school at daybreak because a mudslide is surely to occur again this year. He knows school will be closed because the kids cannot get to it, anyway. It may not even cross his mind that he is very rarely able to drink milk because his father would rather pump up the gamecock with multivitamins. He just has to contend with a lifetime of gambling culture.

The official economic reports do not reflect the reality out there. Their worst figures are still a romanticized rendition of the harshness of this world.

Knowledge is lost on those who are said to be informed. That is why a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.