Poverty (part II)

You don’t have to be in Mexico (or any other third world country) to be faced with poverty.  There seems to be a growing awareness among the wealthy that we are wealthy, and others are not.

But I am in Mexico, and I’m faced with poverty in a way that I wasn’t in Canada.  I’d like to continue the discussion here (see Poverty part 1), and I’d like to start by sharing this video (which I think is brilliant).  It’s American, but it really works for any of the, say, 15% wealthiest people in the world (check here to see how rich you are).

The reason I think this video is brilliant is not because I think it has all the answers, but the opposite.  It asks the question many of us are asking, and we don’t know the answer either.

The question of the imbalance of the world’s wealth is not an easy one.  In Chris’ analogy, that of a family, the solution seems somewhat easier.  In the world, we can’t see it as being so easy.  For example:

And I hate to say it, but this issue related to the environment as well.  I don’t care if you think the earth is getting cooler or hotter, or if what the solution is, you’ve got to be concerned that almost 2 million plastic bottles were used… while you were watching that video… in the USA alone.  Check out some of these pictures to get an idea what that number means.

We may disagree on the solutions, and even what exactly the problem is, but surely you have to admit that there’s a problem here.  (So if everyone lived like me, how many earths would we need?)

Mahatma Gandhi famously said, "Live simply that others may simply live."  There are those that cannot even survive, but could with a little help.  But what does that mean for the $8 hot dog?

It’s a great illustration, because it’s something we might buy rarely.  And yet that money could have had a real impact on another side of the world – an impact on children – who know nothing about political corruption and world economics.

A problem with us people from wealthy countries is that we think we can give 0.1% of our income, and that "absolves us of guilt".  We can raise $1000 once a year in the fundraiser, we can buy fair trade coffee, and that makes us good people.  And then we buy the $8 hot dog.

Is that wrong?  I doubt you can say that.  After all, everyone needs a break.  Even the poor "splurge" now and then.  Maybe it was a family outing.  There are 100 reasons why it might not be a bad thing.

Still, I don’t think the answer lies in the fundraisers and the tithe in the offering plate (although those things may be great!).  The answer just might lie in those day-to-day purchases, the small things, the daily lifestyle decisions.

We just can’t say it’s too complicated for us, and stop there.  Or can we?