I am an optimist because I am convinced that poverty is not as difficult a subject as the experts keep warning us. It is not a difficult subject because it is not about space science, or about an intricate design of a complicated machine. This is about people. I don't see the possibility of a human being becoming a 'problem' when it comes to his or her own well-being. All the ingredients for ending a person's poverty always comes neatly packaged within that person. A human being is born into this world fully equipped not only to take care of himself or herself (which all other life forms can do, too), but also to contribute in enlarging the well-being of the world as a whole (that's where the special role of a human being lies). Then why should 1 billion plus people on the planet suffer through a lifetime of misery and indignity and spend every moment of their lives looking for food for physical survival alone?