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The Deeper Wounds of Poverty:
We have known for many years that severe poverty is a desperate problem throughout the world. Particularly vulnerable are the babies and young children who suffer from undernutrition or malnutrition as a result of poverty.
Simple logic would suggest that preventing these problems should be a simple matter of providing free food supplies for these impoverished families. Yet, surprisingly, in many countries a large number of children still suffer from undernutrition, even though their mothers have ready access to free food supplements. The reason? Studies suggest that the severe stresses of poverty can trigger an emotional breakdown in the mothers' willingness to care for their children.
Simply put, the conditions of severe poverty cause the mother to stop caring about feeding her children.
Psychologist Marta Valenzuela says of this problem: "Intervention efforts need to extend beyond food supplements to support infant-mother relationships as a means to prevent [chronic undernutrition]." Or, in everyday terms: "Providing food is not enough. We must also provide one-on-one, caring support."
Isn't this a fitting description of the church's task? At times it is tempting simply to "throw money" at our world's problems; but this distressing example reminds us that financial/material support alone isn't enough. There is no substitute for personally getting involved in the lives of the hurting, the suffering, and the needy in our midst.
Nothing changes a life like a personal touch.
Matthew 20:34: "Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes. Immediately they regained their sight and followed him."
Source: Science News, 9/27/97, p. 204.
Topics/Tags: Poor, duty to; Compassion; Touching; Poverty
How Wealth Divides the World
[SOURCE: United Nations Human Development Report 1998]
The world consumed more than $24 TRILLION in goods and services last year [1997], six times the figure for 1975.
Of the world's 6.8 BILLION people, 4.4 BILLION live in developing countries, the rest in rich industrial or transition countries.
The 3 RICHEST PEOPLE in the world own assets that exceed the combined gross domestic products of the world's POOREST 48 COUNTRIES.
Among the 4.4 billion people who live in developing countries, THREE-FIFTHS have no access to basic sanitation; almost ONE-THIRD are without safe drinking water; ONE-QUARTER lack adequate housing; ONE-FIFTH live beyond reach of modern health services; ONE-FIFTH of the children do not get as far as grade five in school and ONE-FIFTH are undernourished.
Basic education for all would cost $6 BILLION a year - $8 BILLION is spent annually for cosmetics in the United States alone.
Installation of water and sanitation for all would cost $9 BILLION plus some annual costs - $11 BILLION is spent annually on ice cream in Europe.
Reproductive health services for all women would cost $12 BILLION a year - $12 BILLION a year is spent on perfumes in Europe and the United States.
Basic health care and nutrition for all would cost $13 BILLION - $17 BILLION a year is spent on pet food in Europe and the United States; $35 BILLION is spent on business entertainment in Japan; $50 BILLION on cigarettes in Europe; $105 BILLION on alcoholic drinks in Europe; $400 BILLION on narcotic drugs around the world; and $780 BILLION on the world's militaries.
Source: United Nations Human Development Report, 1998.
Topics/Tags: Wealth; Greed; Materialism; Poverty
9 Steps to Third-World Living
- First, take out the furniture: leave a few old blankets, a kitchen table, maybe a wooden chair. You've never had a bed, remember?
- Second, throw out your clothes. Each person in the family may keep the oldest suit or dress, a shirt or blouse. The head of the family has the only pair of shoes.
- Third, all kitchen appliances have vanished. Keep a box of matches, a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt, a handful of onions, a dish of dried beans. Rescue the moldy potatoes from the garbage can: those are tonight's meal.
- Fourth, dismantle the bathroom, shut off the running water, take out the wiring and the lights and everything that runs by electricity.
- Fifth, take away the house and move the family into the toolshed.
- Sixth, no more postman, fireman, government services. The two-classroom school is three miles away, but only two of your seven children attend anyway, and they walk.
- Seventh, throw out your bankbooks, stock certificates, pension plans, insurance policies. You now have a cash hoard of $5.
- Eighth, get out and start cultivating your three acres. Try hard to raise $300 in cash crops because your landlord wants one third and your moneylender 10 percent.
- Ninth, find some way for your children to bring in a little extra money so you have something to eat most days. But it won't be enough to keep bodies healthy--so lop off 25 to 30 years of life.
Source: Adbusters, 1998.
Topics/Tags: Poverty; Wealth; Third world; Nations
"Rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt."
- Benjamin Franklin
Source: - _Instant Quotation Dictionary_, p. 86.
Confronted with a cancer or a slum the Pantheist can say, "If you could only see it from the divine point of view, you would realize that this also is God."
The Christian replies, "Don't talk nonsense."
-- CS Lewis
____________
Human suffering and misery is NOT part of God's will--and responsible Christians should act to bring relief and grace into such situations.
Source: CS Lewis THE CASE FOR CHRISTIANITY 1943
Topics/Tags: Suffering; God, presence of; Compassion; Poverty
Russian [USSR-era] School Teacher: "Who were the first human beings?"
Christian Student: "Adam and Eve."
Teacher: "And what just what nationality was this Adam and Eve?"
Student: "Russian, of course."
Teacher: "And how do you know that they were Russian?"
Student: "Easy, they had no roof over their heads, no clothes to wear, and only one apple between them, yet they still called it paradise!"
__________
We are reminded that genuine satisfaction and joy must transcend earthly circumstances.
Source: READER'S DIGEST, May, 1980, p. 113.
Topics/Tags: Satisfaction; Contentment; Poverty; Circumstances
Every week, malnutrition and related illnesses claim the lives of more than 224,000 children under the age of 5.
Source: Light, March-April 1999, p. 7.
Topics/Tags: Hunger; Children; Malnutrition; Poverty
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