Chapter 1783: It is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish
Usmanov asked, puzzled, "It's a good thing that the Labor Department is finding jobs for the unemployed. Why do they need help from private organizations?"
Nouf smiled bitterly and said, "The job recommended by the German Employment Agency... let's not talk about it."
"What do you mean?" Usmanov asked in confusion.
Nouf asked, "Have you ever heard of a bird called the Great Bustard?"
Usmanov shook his head vigorously.
Nouf continued, "How about a job where you live in a tent in the wilderness with three strangers and observe this bird and write an observation diary?"
"Is this considered work?" Usmanov's eyes widened. "Isn't this too boring?"
Nouf shook his head and said, "Or you can go to the library and copy books."
Usmanov no longer knew what to say.
"Or they could put you in an empty office for eight months, where you'll answer a few calls and pick up a few emails at most. As long as you make it through those eight months, the company will give you a certificate of employment proving you've done a good job, and you can continue to receive benefits. Or you could go to the Red Cross clothing collection point and do some laundry. You'd wash and sort the donated clothes, then wait for the trucks to take them away and treat them as fabric. But these jobs are much luckier than the girl from Odesburg—she was introduced by the Labor Bureau to work at a hospital. After all, a hospital is a legal place of work in Germany."
"Is this work meaningful?" Usmanov asked with wide eyes.
Nouf shook his head and said, "Whether it makes sense or not is not important. What's important is that they can use this method to continuously obtain government subsidies. This is not the most terrifying thing. The most terrifying thing is that they can create poor people when there are none."
Usmanov frowned and said, "Poor people can also create?"
Xiao Peng answered this question: "The number of disabled people today is more than three times what it was in 1994. The number of people diagnosed with various illnesses has tripled, and the number diagnosed with learning disabilities has nearly doubled. Germany is now nicknamed the 'Sick Man of Europe' because there are so many disabled people. Over half of the children in need of assistance in Germany have 'learning disabilities.' They don't even bother to change the excuse, which is one of Germany's great wonders. Walter Wollenweber sarcastically said in his book that 'learning disabilities are a type of disability that only exists in Germany.' What's terrifying is that this is a one-stop service. If a child is diagnosed with dyslexia, they can't go to regular school and can only attend special schools run by these assistance agencies. Three-quarters of students who graduate from these schools lack a diploma and can't find a job. The assistance agencies can then place them in their own disability employment factories or even nursing homes. They simply treat poverty as a disability. The assistance agencies make a fortune, but what about the poor? Their lives are clearly arranged."
"The German government doesn't care about it?" Usmanov asked with wide eyes in confusion.
Xiao Peng smiled bitterly and said, "How can we manage it? Can we manage it? Besides, 40% of the German Bundestag members hold senior positions in social assistance agencies. How can they not support this? Of course, poor families in Germany are different from the poor here. For example, the Neuf family may not even be as good as the poor families in Germany. They have everything, such as cars, TVs, refrigerators, computers, washing machines, and game consoles, but they are isolated from social activities and have no future. Not even the right to vote is like these people don't exist at all. If a person just wants to live a life of insignificance, life is really good, but if that's the case, it basically means that his descendants will never have the chance to stand up. After all, lack of family education is crucial. There is a saying in Germany: 'Once at the bottom, always at the bottom.' Of course, you can't use this method. They can do this because they are rich. I don't need to explain the economic situation here."
After thinking for a long time, Nouf suddenly looked up and asked, "How did your country get rid of poverty and become rich?"
Xiao Peng was silent for a moment before saying, "I really can't answer your question, because every place is different. Ultimately, it's like 'giving a man a fish is worse than teaching him how to fish.'"
"What does this mean?" asked Nov.
Xiao Peng explained: "Let me tell you a true story."
"I'd like to hear more about it."
"There's a place called Tara Beach in our country. Due to years of overgrazing, desertification is severe. There's really nothing you can do there. You can't make a living by herding sheep or growing vegetables. It's incredibly poor. Let's just say there's nothing there except sunlight."
Usmanov frowned and said, "Can a place like this be able to escape poverty?"
Xiao Peng nodded: "Isn't there only sunshine there? In 2013, they attracted investment to build a photovoltaic industrial park and a large photovoltaic power station. However, the desertification there is serious. As soon as the wind blows, sand and stones will fly around and damage the photovoltaic panels. Otherwise, there is too much sand and soil that affects power generation. In order to protect the equipment, they planted grass under the photovoltaic panels to prevent the wind and sand from flying around. Unexpectedly, because the photovoltaic panels blocked the direct sunlight and the staff needed to flush the photovoltaic panels with water on time, the grass survived. But the problem came again: the grass was too tall and affected the power generation, and too much grass was prone to fire. So this needs to be solved. How to solve it? Raising sheep to eat grass, they let Local impoverished households started grazing in the photovoltaic park. Initially, they only had 600 sheep. To protect the finally restored ecology, they were asked to separate the grazing areas. Seeing the positive results, they added several thousand more sheep. Ultimately, the local area solved power generation, desertification, and poverty all at once. This is how we in Daxia are alleviating poverty. If we integrate existing resources and maximize their effectiveness, that's true poverty alleviation. Do you think it's possible for you to do that? You have such valuable resources, but you're not leveraging them, and instead you're pinning your hopes on crime to save the city? Sorry, maybe it's because we think differently. In my opinion, your current situation is like lying on gold and begging for food.
Nouf looked at Xiao Peng and said, "What would you do if you were me?"
"Me? I'm just an ordinary person. How can I have any good ideas?" Xiao Peng said modestly.
Noufu said, "Mr. Xiao, as an ordinary person, how do you think we can solve this problem?"
Xiao Peng thought for a moment and said, "Open up the city! How can such a large city survive without roads? We have a saying in our country: 'If you want to get rich, you must first build roads.' Let's build the roads first."
"Build a road?" Novov and Usmanov looked at each other in confusion. "What are we building a road for?"
Xiao Peng said directly: "Of course it's 'leaning on the beauty and enjoying the coolness'!"
Novuf and the other man, who were already feeling a little confused, were now completely bewildered.
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