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Christian Aid Week: Reflections |
 Having
been involved with Christian Aid since the start of my
ministry I have seen immense enthusiasm for its work. But
sadly, poverty is still with us.
I
am reminded of the words of Nelson Mandela to the United
Nations when he said, ‘Like slavery, poverty is not natural.
It is immoral.’
But there have been so many misunderstandings by the great
and powerful regarding the solutions to the problems. Bob
Geldof in his enthusiasm in Live Aid thought that if
the rich countries gave to the poor then all would be well.
This is actually only part of the truth. Yes, we need to
send aid into Burma and to China when there are disasters,
but I believe that the real problems are much more
complicated, and much deeper. Money sent to poor countries
often just gets into the hands of the rich. Count how many
African leaders have Rolls Royce cars!
Christian Aid encourages us not to have sloppy thinking -
linking poverty in one place with wealth in another. By
making Europe poor you will not make Africa rich.
Trade is the essential requirement and hopefully fair trade.
So when you buy vegetables at the supermarket sent all the
way from Kenya by plane, you might be surprised, or when you
purchase a cotton shirt which was made in India, you might
wonder whether we could produce these ourselves - but in
reality trade is a good thing. The most important objective
we should have is to break down world trade barriers so that
many countries would then be released from poverty. We
should buy goods from India, China and Africa as long as
they are fairly produced.
We may complain about the emergence of India, and China
polluting the world, and wanting more steel, oil and food so
putting up prices in our country, but the USA is still the
most polluting nation in the world, using most of the
world’s resources. And we in the United Kingdom are still
increasing our rate of pollution in spite of every attempt
to change the way we live.
Coming from a horticultural retailing family, I would
suggest that we should encourage the wealth creating process
of the world by trade. This has been proved by the millions
of people who have emerged from poverty in Russia, China and
India in the last decade who have embraced global trade.
However, we should be interested in how wealth is created
and how it is distributed.
The answer, as Christian Aid worked out years ago, is not
just to hand out money to the poor so much as to create a
global economy and open up all borders to fair trade.
The USA is one of the worst countries in the world in
blocking free trade and in the EEC we are not much better.
We have prospered in our history when trade barriers have
been taken down.
Isaiah prophesied good news:
‘He has chosen me and sent me to bring good news to the
poor.’ Isaiah 61. 1
The best good news for a poor family living in a Third World
country is that what they are producing receives a fair
price so that they can lift themselves out of poverty.
If this means that we may pay a little more for basic items
in our shops, then so be it.
Adrian Bell
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