A little more than a year ago, I was able to travel to Guatemala. I have never seen poverty like this in my life. The most eye-opening part was that the only thing these people were not lacking was happiness and hope; I have never met happier people. When I came back to America, I was in a state of shock for a while. I went to bed crying because I did not want to look at all of the stuff in my room, I felt unworthy, and I just wanted to throw it all away. After going through a lot of my stuff and giving a lot away, I realized that I cannot blame myself for how I grew up nor can people in other countries; it is all about opportunity. It was inspirational and lit a fire in me. They deserve to know how much opportunity they could have. If the intentions are right, and research is done to respect their culture, affluent countries and their citizens should take a greater role in helping third world countries. .
In the past, when the world was still growing, Europe began to get curious about the rest of the world and started an exciting, yet harmful trend. When Columbus came back from "India" with the riches he found, it caught on. Soon, many countries wanted to discover and profit. The sad truth is that in order to get the profitable resources, people had to suffer. Shortly after Columbus discovered America, in the early 1500s, Spain invaded what is now South America and attacked the Incas, Mayas and Aztecs who had civilized and developed cultures. Spaniards used firearms but mostly utilized pikes and blades to take over these civilizations. The conquest of Guatemala and Yucatan was shortly after that of Aztec Mexico and preceded that of the Incas in Chile. These parts of South America gave them access to a lot of gold and silver. .
The powerhouse countries of today are the ones who put these struggling countries in the state they are in today; exploited for resources and left with nothing.
