I touched on this issue a little in yesterday’s post, but I would like to spend some time discussing poverty exclusively, if you all don’t mind.
It is the benchmark of a profoundly sick society when a select few individuals have more money than they could ever hope to spend while over half of the world’s population lives on just dollars a day. We live in a world where the wealth of the top three richest individuals exceeds the combined GDP of the 48 least developed countries. Where the top 225 richest people have a combined wealth of over $1 trillion, more than the combined annual income of the world’s 2.5 billion poorest people. Where 20% of the world’s population consumes 86% of its goods.
Meanwhile, UNICEF reports that 30,000 children under five die each day (that’s just under 11 million per year) due to poverty. That’s 30,000 smiling faces gone each day. Children that will never reach their potential. Children that never had a chance. 1.1 billion people have inadequate access to water, while 2.6 billion lack access to basic sanitation. 640 million children in the world don’t have adequate shelter, while 270 million don’t have access to health services.
I apologize if I sound like one of those infomercials asking you to sponsor a child, but come on people. As I research and write about this topic I can barely contain my anger. I feel like it would be so easy to remedy the problem, but I feel handcuffed. And I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. We can sponsor children, we can donate money, we can go on mission trips to aid poor villages, but in reality we can’t do a damn thing. I can sponsor one child while 29,999 die every day. I can send a check and know that it will never make it past the corrupt politicians. I can help a village build a school and be confident that it will one day deteriorate because the village will not have the resources to maintain it.
I can scream at the top of my lungs and the only people who will hear are those who, like me, are powerless to make a difference.
It’s sick because it wouldn’t be that hard to make a change. Check out this disproportionate spending (sorry these numbers are about five years old, couldn’t find anything more recent): The year of this survey the U.S. spent $8 billion on cosmetics, Europe spent $105 billion on alcoholic drinks, and the world overall had $780 billion in military expenditures.
Meanwhile, it’s estimated that it would cost around $6 billion to provide basic education for all. $9 billion for water and sanitation. $13 billion for basic health and nutrition. Just take a small fraction of what military powers spend every year, or just consume one less drink every night, and we could provide the world with three very basic, and very important, necessities.
But it won’t happen. Why not? I’ll refer back to yesterday’s post: because in reality people don’t give a shit. All the money in the world won’t eradicate poverty because we are selfish and greedy. Until this fact changes, we have no hope. The majority of the money thrown at the problem will never reach its intended target, instead being held up by dirty bureaucrats and earmarked for projects that have no real shot at helping anybody.
I realize I sound pretty cynical. There are a few bright spots in the darkness. Billionaire philanthropists such as Warren Buffet and Bill Gates deserve to be applauded. These men have given away all but a fraction of their vast wealth to fight global poverty. A select few celebrities, such as Bono, have worked tirelessly to raise awareness and make poverty concerns en vogue (as much as this makes me cringe, at least the teeny-boppers and celeb-idolaters know there’s a problem).
But what can we do? That’s not a setup for the next paragraph. I’m actually asking. What can we do? Will we even leave a dent by doing our small part? Even if I dedicate my entire life to serving the poor, can I expect to make a difference (besides boosting my self-righteousness)?
Unfortunately, I think that until we realize our connected nature, the dream of eradicating poverty will be just that: a dream.
Thanks for reading.
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3 comments:
I understand the powerlessness of what you feel. I looked ridiculous poverty in the face in Calcutta, and backed down. Never before had I seen humanity litterally rotting in the streets like I did there. Overwhelming does not begin to describe the gamut of emotions that such a situation inspires. What i wil say next may sound silly, but as a traveller, the one thing that I could really do for these people was treat them like human beings. Not easy, let me tell you. When someone is literally pulling the shirt off your back, you tend not to give them the time of day. On one occasion, however, we did spend some time just walking with some street people. We chatted with them, walked through the park, bought roasted peanuts and bottles of pop. In the end, I felt like simply being a human being and treating other people like equals was the one way a traveller could reach out to a city seething with the worlds poor.
It is a huge problem with a complicated solution. I do think that however small we are, we can do our part. Like sponsoring a child or two. Yeah there are still thousands more, but that one child is getting what the need and that does make a difference.
Think if right now everyone stopped sponsoring the children they do. I'm sure it would add thousands more to the children who are dying.
So as much as this looks like a million pound gorilla from a macro point of view, if we take a micro look at it, we can see that we are making a difference and that does matter.
Yeah, we will never be able to help out like Bill Gates, but I'm sure the couple children that I can sponser are very grateful.
We help the poor and maintain an idealistic POV that we can save the world for one reason. It is our command as Christians. It is our only purpose in this greed and materialism infested place we call earth. How can we not be more enraged at the human situation? With all the injustice in the world, Christians are called to be fighters for justice to the point of martyrdom. I submit to y'all that if you are not fighting injustice that you are aware of, you have dropped the ball as a Christ follower. Would Christ turn his head? Even if the task was too big for one man, or a few women/men, Christ would still involve himself to bring about a better creation.
If we are Christians, we must seriously consider Grooby's MLK Jr. quote from yesterday. “I submit to you that if a man hasn’t discovered something he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.” We must ask ourselves, "Are my relgious views just beliefs? Do they affect how I do things. Or would my days look just the same with or without them? Are beliefs all I need? Or do I feel/believe so strongly that I am wiling to be martyred over these issues?" If we look at Dr. King's example we see a man who worked tirelessly for his cause, and was a modern day martyr. Is there an issue out there that we should be fighting for? I think Groobs did a great job of answering yes to this question. Are we fighting for it? Am I fighting for it? Are you, Mr. or Mrs. Zizzle-Zotian reader, fighting for it?
In regards to the powerlessness and the feeling that we can't do shit about the situation, I look again to Dr. King. Thanks to him and his movement, race reconciliation has come leaps and bounds since the sixties. With this I say let's fight. Let's be outraged! Let's be williing to be martyred. Let's be Jesus in the perverted temple. That is our purpose. To part with you I have two synonymous terms for you: "Christian" and "Injustice fighter." He is why we fight.
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