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Morningside . The Cost of Concern “[Jesus said], and if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because they are my disciple, I tell you the truth, they will certainly not loose their reward.” (Matt. 10:42) I have to say that I am feeling more than a little guilty at the moment. The reason is that my family and I did something very unusual this year. We arranged our summer holiday in advance – in fact we arranged our holiday months in advance. Having done that – and feeling enormously self-satisfied that we/I had finally gotten our act together this year – had my bubble burst when I discovered, to my horror, that we had planned to go away on the weekend of the G8 Summit and the ‘Make Poverty History’ march in Edinburgh this coming Saturday. I’m saddened, not because I am afraid of the traffic or the crowds as we try to battle our way out of the city on Friday, but because I very much wanted to take part in the events. Poverty, debt relief, justice and fair trade issues are close to my heart and so I am very, very upset that I will not be taking part in any of the events this coming weekend. I am a little comforted by the knowledge that Elspeth Strachen, our Pastoral Associate here at Christ Church, has been busily organizing our congregation’s participation in some of these events. And my guilt is slightly relieved knowing that some of you have offered to host people coming to Edinburgh for the ‘Make Poverty History’ weekend and that some of you will be taking part in the march on Saturday. God bless you! I am personally very heartened by the fact that there seems to be some movement on the international scene with regard to some of these important issues – life and death, issues in fact. I was delighted that the finance ministers of the G7, the earth’s richest nations (including us), agreed a few weeks ago to forgive nearly 40 billion pounds worth of debt of the some of the poorest nations. I think that this is wonderful. It is something that many, many people, including the churches, having been working on since at least 1998 – you might remember the Jubilee 2000 Campaign. I know that there has been much rejoicing around the world over this remarkable development. “Bob Geldof praised it as “a victory for the millions of people in the campaigns around the world” and Bono [from the band U2] pronounced it “a little piece of history.” (p.23, The Guardian, June 21st, 2005 Having said all that of that I think that we need to pause and reflect, just for a moment, in among all the back-patting and self-congratulation here in paradise. Why? Well, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, put it as well as anyone in his sermon to mark the 60th anniversary of founding of Christian Aid. He said: “…the
scandal of our current global economy is not simply that it
leaves children dying, that it leaves over a billion in extreme need. It
is that it reinforces the assumption that trust is not possible
and natural; it reinforces a picture of the world in which rivalry
or mutual isolation are the obvious forms of behaviour. The rich protect
their markets while talking about the virtues of free trade. Global
agencies have often held up sustainable economic growth in poor
countries by insisting that it can only be allowed to develop in the way
they dictate. Debt repayment
has constantly distorted the possibilities of stability, let alone
growth. The transparency and democracy so desperately needed in many
disadvantaged nations are not likely to develop on such soil.” (Sermon
at the 60th anniversary of Christian Aid, St Paul’s Cathedral Tuesday
26 April 2005) What
the Archbishop is talking about here are the assumptions that: 1/.
To
be economically successful developing countries have to open up their
domestic markets to the forces of ‘free trade’ – i.e. the removal
of local import tariffs etc. 2/.
To secure loans from the World Bank and IMF many developing
nations are forced to ‘liberalise’ their economies (e.g. – allow
local currencies to ‘float’ on the international markets, allow
unregulated foreign investment). 3/.
There is little to no recognition of the inequalities (and
hardships) created by the export of heavily subsidized agricultural
products from developed countries to the global south. 4/.
Multinational companies need greater regulation in the global
south so that workers are not exploited. To
put a face on all of this, those of you who received the summer issue of
the Christian Aid magazine might have read the five very poignant
accounts of what all of this means at ground level - in the lives of
ordinary people all across the world. Let me quote some of what they said: “For
centuries we have used indigenous seeds. Now every year we are forced to buy GM seeds.
My message to the US and UK is: stop the World Trade
Organization forcing patent rules on poor countries.” (Natu Begum,
farmer in N. India) “We
want them to send delegations here. I believe that if Bush himself, if really he is human, if Blair,
if really he is human, came to visit the rural people in Western Kenya
he’d begin to understand what we are saying: we want fair trade,
not free trade.” (John Okanga, Anglican Church of Kenya) “We
would ask Bush to look at how transnational corporations work without
regulation in our country. Our
parents loose their jobs and then we don’t have any money for food, we
cannot go to school or the doctor when we are ill.” (Bernardo Ordonez, 14, Bolivia) “We
are told: “We cannot get rid of [agricultural] subsidies in France
because the next day you will have farmers on the road with their
tractors and we [in Europe] will loose elections.” But for us this is not about loosing elections, it’s about
loosing lives.” (Oduor
Ong’wen, director S & E Africa Trade Information and Negotiation
Institute) Of
course the issues of fair trade/free trade, farm subsidies, import
tariffs, debt repayments and global economics are difficult and complex.
And I am certainly not claiming to know any more than the average
person. What
I am trying do is to keep two things in my own mind. First, is I try to remember that these are more than simply
issues, what is being discussed here are lives; the
lives of men, women and children all over the world – including our
own. Second,
is that one doesn’t need to be an economist to ask the question,
‘what does the Gospel, the Christian faith and tradition, Jesus, have
to say about all of this?’ We
are talking about people and we are talking about the Gospel
– and anyone can and should talk about these things. “[Jesus
said], and if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these
little ones because they are my disciple, I tell you the truth, they
will certainly not loose their reward.” (Matt. 10:42) So,
what does the Gospel, the Christian faith and tradition, Jesus,
have to say about all of this? I
think that we can do no better than return to the three basic principles
of Christianity – faith, hope and love. ·
Faith – that God is with us; that things have and can get better; that even small people can make a difference. ·
Hope – that the Kingdom of God is coming, and
that in many ways is already here. Today’s baptism is a tangible sign of this fact.
We can be encouragers of those with power and authority to make a
real difference, change policy… ·
Love – that we need to be involved. Through prayer; through personal giving; through
writing
–e.g. to our MP’s; by joining – organizations like
Christian Aid, Amnesty International; by marching – as in next
Saturday; by talking with family, colleagues and friends about
these issues and giving our own Christian perspective. There
is so much to be hopeful about. So
much has already been done and achieved. And we can certainly rejoice and give thanks for the progress
that has been made, the lives that have already been saved and improved.
But there is a twist, a sting in the tail of all of this… And I believe that this is it: The
G8 Summits were originally conceived not as a charitable, save-the-world
meeting – the G8 Summits were established by the rich nations to
ensure that they (we) keep what we have. The G8 are a cartel, if you like.
Things may change, but equally they may not. If
you see the world’s resources as a pie – one comes to understand
that there is only so much to go around. If we in the rich nations have three quarts of what there is,
then there is only a quarter left for everyone else. In the year 2000, the UN Office for Development estimated that
for everyone to enjoy the kind of lifestyle that is typical of the
average suburban family in the US then we would need toe physical
resources of two and half planets!! In other words, ‘Making Poverty History’ is more than
just wearing an armband or going on a march. And it’s not enough to think that our governments can simply
magic something out of the air without it having an impact on us and our
own life-styles. The simple
reality is that if we do indeed want others to be less poor – we will
have to share. Are we still
serious about ‘Making Poverty History’? “[Jesus
said], and if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these
little ones because they are my disciple, I tell you the truth, they
will certainly not loose their reward.” (Matt. 10:42)
Simon
Justice
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Pentecost
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