Poverty

One of the big news items from this past week was the G8 summit. After receiving pressure from aging rock stars the leaders of the most powerful nations in the world decided to forgive 30 billion dollars in foreign debt. Mr. Geldorf, can you get me out of paying my car loan? Most of the recipients of this philanthropic statesmanship were struggling African countries. Religious texts around the world tell the rich to give to the poor. Is this what they mean?

Not necessarily. Jesus taught his followers to help those less fortunate, “make feasts for the poor” (1580.5). He did not preach against wealth or property – only unequal and unfair distribution of material possessions (1581.2). My brother-in-law worked in Egypt for three years on a government contract. The contract was to aid the Egyptians on the subject of food production and plant safety. The aid money went to his company and then to him. Some of it went to Egyptians in the form of rent and cost of living. Most of the money went back home to his bank account in the USA. That’s how most financial aid works around the world. We don’t give cash to the Egyptians – we give expertise or equipment or we build things. And surely they benefit from this. But the cash circulates back home. The unfair and unequal distribution of wealth that Jesus talks about stays the same. It’s kind of like a son whose wealthy parents set up a trust fund with control resting in their hands until they die. The parents say the money is his, but he has no control over it. An interesting book to read on this subject is Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins. Making feasts for the poor suggests giving up something. The current economic aid system means that the donating countries give up very little. Most of that 30 billion already made its way back to us.

While Jesus was speaking privately to Nathaniel he made this statement concerning their mission as regards to affliction. It is our mission to help men solve their spiritual problems and in this way to quicken their minds so that they may be the better prepared and inspired to go about solving their manifold material problems (1662.1). I think this captures one of the most important principles of the Urantia Book – the idea that it is our responsibility to solve our own problems. Even though we have unimaginable spiritual forces helping us around the clock, we still advance materially and spiritually on our own efforts.

I had the good fortune of meeting a real live voice in the wilderness. His name is Dr. George Win and he is a Baptist missionary doctor currently working in the Congo. He is from Myanmar (Burma) and turned away from a successful practice in South Africa to help the poor and downtrodden in the town of Kikongo. And when I say poor, I am not exaggerating. Dr. Win told me that the majority of people in his town live off of one crop. A plant that resembles a yucca, is made into a paste and grows everywhere. Some people have chickens, and grow a few vegetables. Most people eat only the plant. I asked Dr. Win what people did for work – nothing was his answer. I asked him about basic community services – again, not a lot. When he arrived at this small hospital he found that the previous Congolese doctor had stolen everything. Dr. Win had nothing to work with. He had to beg, borrow, and scrounge for basic medical supplies, tables, chairs, you name it. His biggest coup so far was to raise the money for a generator. The town has no electricity and when he did surgery at night it was by kerosene lantern. To contact the outside world, he has to make a trip to a larger city – a day’s journey over mud roads – to access his email account in a larger hospital. My friends, this man and the people around him are not living in our world.

The thing is, when Dr. Win leaves, it will all fall apart. Unless, that is, another western trained doctor steps in to take his place. That was the unfortunate message the good doctor left me with. He is doing it all on his own, with very little help from the local people. And so I ask you, is this effort going to help the people of Kikongo in the long run? Dr. Win’s story is a microcosm of the missionary story in Kikongo. Missionaries come in and build roads that eventually deteriorate. They drill wells that run dry. They build hospitals that stand empty. Without a community of people who are actively working to maintain and build up their infrastructure, create and sustain community services and perpetuate a healthy business climate, the effort to help is only temporary. A very sad story.

I think that aid for poverty stricken nations is only helpful if it leads people to help themselves. From what I have learned this is not happening. Too much money is being recycled back into the hands of rich nations (as well as the country’s leadership). Too many westerners go to countries without sufficient knowledge of culture and enact plans that the local people do not comprehend. Strategies need to be found that places money into the pockets of indigenous people as incentive for solving problems in their own unique ways. Efforts need to be made to teach and train indigenous people to accept responsibility for tackling the challenges of the community within a fair and just system of accountability. After decades of effort, resources need to be redirected into ways that are consistent with the way the planetary spiritual forces assist us.

Running to the rescue is not enough. Jesus could have solved many of the problems of the world with just a word. He did not. Instead he offered solutions to our spiritual problems. We are still on our own for the material stuff. The world will eventually work out the problem of poverty, but it will happen in our own way and in our own time.

God bless you,

William Whitehead