Poverty

The following graphs show global population growth over time and the history of average personal income.

Global population growth from 0 to 2000AD. The population grew slowly from around 200 million in 0AD to around 400 million in 1500AD. It started to grow exponentially to around 6 billion in 2000AD

World average income per person, in the equivalent to US dollars over time. This remained at around $600 per year until around 1200AD when it started to increase to around $1200 in 1900, and then increased to $6000 in 2000AD

All regions of the world were poor in 1820 and before this time. In Western Europe, people in 1820 earned slightly less on average than modern day Africans. People have been historically poor (with the exception of a few monarchs, land owners and church ministers). Therefore, the vast majority of people have been represented by Jesus (suffering because of the sins of a minority of rich people). Next time you walk past an old church building, consider who actually built it – it was the oppressed peasants.

The situation is now quite different. One sixth of the world are super-rich. One sixth are in extreme poverty (living on less than $1 or 50p a day). A further one third are in less extreme poverty (living on $1-$2 or 50p-Ł1 a day) and the other third are on a moderate income. In an ideal Christian society, money should not even exist, so I am not really proposing an economic solution to the problem. However, it is essential to fight poverty using the vast resources available – physical and spiritual.

While writing this article, I was reading a book by Jeffrey Sachs. He claims that most poverty is not caused by exploitation from the richer countries. He goes on to suggest that poverty comes as a result of climate problems and disease such as AIDS and malaria. However, the inability to cure disease is a byproduct of sin, because followers of Jesus (who avoid sin) should be able to perform and receive spiritual healing. Climate problems such as global warming are made worse by Western consumerism and pollution. Kenya is one of the countries worst affected by global warming but produces hardly any carbon dioxide gas in comparison to Western nations.

Additionally, his claims that poverty is not caused by oppression do not stand up to the evidence. Historically, Africa has been colonised and exploited. Even today, countries such as Zambia and the Congo are being exploited for their mineral resources by China, which uses raw materials such as cobalt and copper ore to produce consumer electronics sold to the West (Source: Unreported World, Channel 4). Workers can earn less than 50p a day and the trade uses child labour. The diamond trade also exploits African workers and keeps them in extreme poverty, despite being very expensive to purchase in the West. The trade of unregistered diamonds also promotes violent conflict.

Western nations should not be blamed for all of the problems in Africa. Warfare (particularly civil war) and governmental corruption are also major causes of poverty. The war in the Congo is particularly unpleasant and involves child soldiers. A recent edition of Channel 4's Dispatches showed that bribery and corruption are a normal part of Kenyan life, and people who have any power routinely use it to exploit those with less power than themselves. A lot of foreign aid money and one quarter of African GDP is thought to be lost to corruption. However, it is possible to trace many present day problems in Africa to some kind of sin originating in the West. For example colonialism and apartheid has led to the problems in Zimbabwe. Governmental corruption is often facilitated by Western financial companies.

There are some interesting statistics on global poverty in the book. For example, the numbers of extremely poor people in Africa (living on less than $1 a day) has actually doubled in the period 1981-2001, and about half the population of Africa live in extreme poverty. People who live in extreme poverty cannot meet the basic needs for survival. They are chronically hungry and lack access to sanitation and safe drinking water and basic items of clothing (such as shoes). One sixth of the global population (1 billion people) live like this, and a further 1.5 billion live in less extreme poverty ($1-$2 per day) making a total of 2.5 billion people in poverty. This is a huge and complex problem to solve, but it should be possible with the efforts of everyone in the West.

It would require the rapid training of a very large number of people who volunteer to go where there is need. Those who are in poverty could be trained to help too. People who have experience of building infrastructure would need to be involved. It would require careful planning in cooperation with people who have experience of dealing with this kind of problem (foreign aid workers, armed forces, etc.). I have put some preparatory suggestions in the letters "True Christian Political Party" and "Ideal Christian Society". When enough people are behind the movement to end poverty, then it will be possible to act. We should aim to end poverty as quickly and efficiently as possible.

In brief, the following needs to be set up:

Proper housing.
Sanitation.
Water systems.
Farming and irrigation.
Training for trades like plumbing, building and making clothes.
The ability to manufacture all replacement parts.

In the mean time, we can help by supporting the charities that are already helping poverty-stricken countries. Bear in mind that governments will not take responsibility to do it for us (in the past there have been no votes in it for them, other than to appease the campaigners) – only 1% of American funds are spent on foreign aid (www.one.org), even less (0.16%) if the relief that the American military provides is not included. About 0.5% of rich Western European funds are allocated for foreign aid. Charitable giving does have some limitations; some charities are not politically neutral and they may not use the money correctly or be in line with the teachings of Jesus (for example, a lot of money is used to pay wages). Many poverty-stricken areas may not be reached by charities, especially the very remote areas and those in war zones. If you can think of better ways to use money, perhaps by setting up a training centre to help to solve poverty as an independent group, then this may be of more benefit than giving to charity.

In fact, governments are generally a source of oppression rather than benefaction. For example, "The world's most impoverished countries are forced to pay over $100 million every day to the rich world in debt repayments, while poverty kills millions of their people." – www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk. Clearly this is wrong – all debts should be cancelled where countries have people dying because of poverty. I quote Matthew 18:21-35, which is a parable about forgiveness, although it is also relevant for the present discussion:

Once there was a king who decided to check on his servants' accounts. He had just begun to do so when one of them was brought in who owed him millions of pounds. The servant did not have enough to pay his debt, so the king ordered him to be sold as a slave, with his wife and his children and all that he had, in order to pay the debt. The servant fell on his knees before the king. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay you everything!' The king felt sorry for him, so he forgave him the debt and let him go.

Then the man went out and met one of his fellow servants who owed him a few pounds. He grabbed him and started choking him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he said. His fellow servant fell down and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back!' But he refused; instead, he had him thrown into jail until he should pay the debt.

When the other servants saw what had happened, they were very upset and went to the king and told him everything. So he called the servant in. 'You worthless slave!' he said. 'I forgave you the whole amount you owed me, just because you asked me to.' You should have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you.' The king was very angry, and he sent the servant to jail to be punished until he should pay back the whole amount.

And Jesus concluded, 'That is how my Father in heaven will treat every one of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.'"

If the Western nations expect to be forgiven, then they have to forgive the debts of poor nations who owe them money.

Finally, here are some statistics from http://www.globalissues.org:

Half the world – nearly three billion people – live on less than two dollars a day.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined.
Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.
A billion children live in poverty (one in two children in the world).
640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of five (or roughly 29,000 children per day).

Previous | Home | Next