Poverty is slippery and elusive; it slides through the dexterous fingers of all the manipulators of figures and wielders of statistics. Poverty is not a sum below which people “fall†into it, as though it were an unguarded village well. Poverty is shifting and cunning. It lies in wait, lurking around corners, where sickness or an accident can abruptly terminate earning power. It waits on ignorance and incapacity, it thrives on prejudice and fear.