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The distribution of wealth and resources in the world is unequal

"The distribution of wealth and resources in the world is unequal". Using
a recent example which illustrates this inequality explain what Christians
might do to support the victims of this situation. You should refer to the
writing and thinking of the Roman Catholic tradition to illustrate and
support what you say.

If we look at our world we can see that there are two extremes. The
extremely rich and the extremely poor. Luxembourg is the richest country in
the world according to it's Gross National Product. The average person in
that country earns approximately $40,000 per year while in Sudan the average
person earns $63. That is a colossal difference in wealth. If we look at a
map of the world we can see that most of the world's developed countries lie
north of the equator while the majority of developing countries lie south.
This can also be referred to at times as the 'Physical Quality of Life Index
Line'. If we look at the U.S.A. We can see that it possesses the most
Billionaires with the figure reaching 145. This is a tremendous amount of
money concentrated among a minute percentage of the world's population. We
would have to consider this as extreme inequality. Bill Gates the present
owner of the Microsoft Coporation is the richest non-royal person in the
world with assests estimated at $30 billion. If we took a number of
developing countries and added up their present finances it would barely
reach that figure.

In the film industry collosal amounts of money are being payed to the actors
and actresses. An example of this would be Arnold Swarzhenneger who pulled
in approxiametly 74 million dollars for his role in the 'Terminator'. Opera
Whinfrey earned 171 million dollars for one show recently. This is really
beyond my comprehension, no one deserves that amount of money for such a
task as acting.

Another way in which inequality can be shown is by looking at the 'Per
Capita Expenditure' values. In the U.S.A. The average American would spend
around $16,500 per annum, with a similar situation in Japan where the
average citizen would spend $19,700 per year. Now looking at the values for
some of the poorer countries in the world I can see that for Somalia their
average expenditure for one year comes to a total of $17. A massive
difference between the two.

However in calling a country poor what exactly are we saying? The fianancial
position of a country has to be compared to anothers in order to refer to it
as poor. It would sometimes be called relative poverty. For example we could
say that Great Britain is poor in comparison with a country such as Japan.
By looking at the GNP and the PCE we could see once again a great difference
in the two. Yet we know that the standard of living in GB is quite high.
Poverty is only labelled upon a country through its relation with other
countrie's financial positions.

By looking at the above facts and figures it becomes quite clear that the
statement is quite correct in what it tells us. What is a developed and
undeveloped country? From my own knowledge I would give the definition of a
developed country as one which has established a stable financial situation,
has good health-care, and possesses a fairly good educational system. Taking
developing nations I would define these as countries which have no stable
economy, poor sanitation and health-care, and a quite poor educational
system. A lot of the countries in today's world fit this description almost
exactly while a good number of countries mainly above the PQLI line fit the
first description. This definitely shows the inequality in modern day
society.

One quarter of the world's population lives in the developed North and has
four fifths of the world's wealth at its disposal. In these developing
countries there are a number of problems resulting from this great poverty:

Firstly the poverty of the country itself is a great problem. Many nations
spend their money on fairly silly items such as arms when it could be spent
more suitably. The reason for their investment in arms is that a lot of
developing countries have political problems and quite a number are at war.
The world bank which provides loans to these countries expects it's money
returned along with interest charges and a lot of these countries can barely
afford to repay just the money loaned. Therefore they borrow more money to
pay off the first loan. It is a never-ending cycle which leaves these
nations constantly in debt. An idea which has been suggested is to cancel
all debts and begin again yet many are relunctant to do this. A lot of the
money which people rightfully earn through production and exportation never
reaches their pockets as retailers and transporters take the majority of the
profit therefore the hard-working person in that country receives a very
small amount of the profit. Secondly we have hunger and there are two forms
of this. They include starvation and malnutrition. Starvation being where
the people don't have enough to eat. This is a problem which many
organisations have tried to solve by actually giving food to the people and
also by giving them the means to produce their own by providing seeds, tools
etc. Malnutrition is where there is enough food but it doesn't provide a
balanced diet. There is very little that can be done about this as helping
organisations do not have the means in which to meet every nutritional need.
This can also be due to a shortage of water, but the people's own lack of
knowledge and national disasters would also be responsible.

Thirdly we have disease which occurs because of poor sanitation, poor
nutrition and lack of money. Vaccinations and medicines can be used to help
this situation but again it costs money and it is very hard to aid everyone
in a country medically. Finally we have the population explosion in which
people are convinced they need a large family to go out and earn money and
to take care of them in their old age. These are all problems which occur in
still developing countries.

What can we do to help the situation. The example which I am going to use to
illustrate my answer will be the situation in East Timor.

In October 1999 the Irish Government was urged to adopt East Timor as it's
priority for overseas funding. Trocaire has been doing a lot of work ever
since but C.A.F.O.D, the Catholic Association for Overseas Develpoment, was
one of the first international agencies to become involved with the
situation in East Timor. They have been working with the Catholic Church and
non-religious organisations like itself. It has programmes in the area for
locating the East Timorese C.A.F.O.D. Workers and it's associates. They want
to build their offices and to get them up and running so that aid can be
given. The aid includes providing shelter, household assistance, health
programmes and providing maize for the workers so that they can reduce the
food insecurity in the short term.

C.A.F.O.D. is currently organising a major emergency grant from E.C.H.O.
(European Community Humanitarian Organisation) for it's workers in the east
and for Caritas Indonesia (an associate) in the west.

As well as helping the worse off nations of the world the Catholic Fund for
Overseas Development asks us to remember what Jesus taught us about helping
the poor. It concerns prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Matthew tells us about
these.

In Matthew 6:6 Jesus said,.

"When you pray go to your room, close the door and pray to your Father who
is unseen. And your Father who sees what you do in private will reward you".

This shows us that by praying we will help those who we pray for and be
rewarded for it.

In Matthew 6: 17-18 we are told about fasting,

"When you go without food, wash your face and comb your hair, so that others
cannot

know that you are fasting - only your Father. And your Father will reward
you".

In these words I think that Jesus meant that by helping others in today's
world we will be rewarded for our work in heaven even though the rewards may
not seem great on earth. God tells us that in helping others will shall
receive the fruit of our reward when in his heavenly kingdom

Matthew 6: 2-3 tells about charity,

"When you give to a needy person do not make a big show of it, as the
hypocrites do..... do it in such a way that even your closest friend will
not know about it".

All of these words spoken by Jesus are trying to show us what our attitude
should be toward giving and this is encouraged by C.A.F.O.D. These are three
ways of giving to those in need.

Christians are members of God's church and this church, whatever it's
denomination, is teaching us that charity should be part of everyone's life.
The Vatican II instructed Christians using God's saying, "Feed the man dying
of hunger, for if you do not feed him, you are killing him".

Christianity has been face to face with poverty for years in a never-ending
battle as it may seem. The Roman Catholic church in the Catechism making a
number of different statements about charity. It stated that developed
countries have a moral responsibility toward those which are unable to
ensure the means of their development by themselves. This Catechism makes a
lot of other points toward the subject of charity. It also states that
charity work or 'works of mercy' are part of a Christian's duty. Charity is
part of a church tradition and the beatitudes inspire this love. The ten
commandments also teach us about charity. The seventh commandment joins the
practice of justice in charity in the administration of earthly goods as the
goods of creation are designed for all of humanity, not just the rich. In
the story of the rich young man we are shown a young person's reaction to
Jesus telling him that if he sold everything he had and gave the money to
the poor he would inherit eternal life however, he could not do this. Jesus
pointed out that,

"It is harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven than for a camel
to pass

through the eye of a needle".

He also told us that,

"Those who come first will be last and those who come last will be first".

These are all ways in which Jesus showed us that giving to the poor was
right.

In Corinthians 11: 17-22 we are shown how Paul makes several teachings on
poverty, charity and disease. I feel it makes a close reference toward the
situation in today's world. In this reading Paul reacts to the people's
coming together for a meeting in the church at the time. They come together
and eat and drink while some remain hungry others eat very well. It reads,

"When you come together it is not the Lord's supper you eat, for as you eat
each of you

goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry while the
other gets

drunk".

We can relate this to our own global situation where one part has all the
money while the other has almost nothing. Paul seems very angry at the
situation so how should we feel as Christians about the state of our time.

In Mark 12: 41-44 we are shown how a poverty stricken woman donates one
penny while the rich add handfuls of money to the poor box. Yet Jesus tells
us that the woman donated more money than any of the rich people as she had
very little money of her own yet contributed. The story tells us that it is
not only the rich who should donate to these causes. C.A.F.O.D. is willing
to take any donation and put it to use in any of it's programmes.

The original charity story would be the good Samaritan where a man was
beaten and robbed. Two people passed him and finally a Samaritan man came
along. He cleaned the man up, put wine on his wounds and took him to an Inn.
The Samaritan is this story was an enemy of the man he cared for yet he did
so anyway.

This story shows us that a Christian should show charity even to his/her
worst enemy as the Good Samaritan did.

All of these parables show me an indication of what a Christian's attitudes
should be to poverty.

Christians react to organisations such as C.A.F.O.D. by giving donations and
joining missionaries out in foreign countries. In East Timor this donated
money is used in building shelters, providing food and giving the people the
chance to bring themselves out of this state by supplying seeds and tools.

There are many different ways and organisations which can help the
underdeveloped countries of the world. Christians must play a leading role
in this help living by what Christ has taught us about charity, poverty and
wealth. It is vitally important that organisations such as C.A.F.O.D. and
Trocaire continue in the great work that they are doing and we learn that
these countries need our help. Maybe through this help we can make the
world's resources and wealth more equal.

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