Tag Archives: poverty

5 Resources about how our consumption affects others

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Migrant workers' childrenSince I can’t speak from expertise nor experience, let me share some resources with you on the issues I’ve been discussing this week.

  1. Francis Lappe’s Why Can’t People Feed Themselves is a must read. Just one article, and I’m sure it’s open to charges of bias and inaccuracies. But I think we need to think along historical lines and realize that, to some degree, we and our forefathers share some responsibility for the current state of the world.
  2. Slavery Footprint is a good site to make you think about how your possessions and your consumption affect people in other countries.
  3. The Story of Stuff presents a view point of the consumerist society. You might also want to see Lee Doren’s rebuttals on his YouTube channel; he calls The Story of Stuff a “leftist indoctrination movie.”
  4. The book 7 : An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess has caused many to think about their lifestyle. Author Jen Hatmaker’s website has additional resources.
  5. The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee’s, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table brings the discussion back home, focusing on the exploitation of the poor in America and how that relates to our food supply.

So if any of this discussion has sparked your interest, you’ve got some places to go for more information.

My lifestyle hurts other people

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povertyContinuing the thought process from yesterday, I can’t help but think that I am often oblivious to how much my comfortable lifestyle depends on other people. Like it or not, there is a correlation between my prosperity and the poverty of others. I won’t claim a direct correlation, but the two are related.

I think that’s part of the point being made in the Hunger Games books (and movies). The people of The Capitol* live lives that go beyond abundance; they are lives of gluttony and excess. Those lives are made possible by the slavery of the peoples in the other districts. I won’t claim to know the author’s mind, but I couldn’t help but see parallels to our world situation. The gulf between haves and have nots grows by the day.

I mentioned going to the Hermitage last year, seeing Andrew Jackson’s amazing plantation. While there, they told us how this extravagant lifestyle was made possible by the work of 150 slaves, with lives of hardship and struggle. That seemed normal to them, something that was to be defended and preserved. Some fought the Civil War for that very privilege.

All I know is that there are people in Bangladesh and other places who lead lives of misery, working in horrid conditions, producing cheap goods for me to consume. There are farmers on the brink of starvation so that I can have a variety of foods from around the world and eat myself into obesity.

And I don’t like to think about it nor to want to think about it. But I do need to think about it.

*I write that one while gritting my teeth. Mrs. Crenshaw drove home to us in 5th grade English the point that “capital” is the city while “capitol,” with an O, is the place with the offices. My son, who is an English major and a writer, claims this is a stylistic device, so I’ll just grit my teeth and write it as written in the book.

photo by Leonardo Gomes

Righting historical wrongs

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As we look at questions of justice on a global scale, we quickly come to see that situations are very complex. For example, disputes over territorial claims aren’t easily resolved. (Anybody remember The Google Maps War?)

To illustrate, imagine a school where the teacher leaves the kids alone at lunch. A couple of the bullies go around and steal everybody’s lunches. The other kids being to fight back, and at that point a teacher comes in. The teacher tells everyone to sit down, stop fighting and eat what’s in front of them. The bullies generously offer to take the food they’ve stolen and sell it back to the other kids. Does anyone think this is just?

Now imagine the same school fifty years later. Every day, at lunch time, the teachers take the food away from certain kids and give it to others. “Your grandparents were bullies who took the food from these kids’ grandparents; now we’re righting that wrong.” Does anyone think this is just?

Silly examples, I know, but to some degree they show how ridiculous simple solutions to historical border disputes are. Look at the United States, for example. We have some land that belongs to us because of signed treaties, treaties that are now disputed by the countries that ceded us that land. (It’s funny to me how few people question why the United States has Guantanamo Bay, for example. It’s not like we’re on good terms with Cuba) The United States also owns land that shouldn’t belong to us because we gave it away under signed treaties. There can be no call for consistent application of “treaty law” without the United States losing a significant amount of land.

Argentina went to war with Great Britain over the Malvinas Islands. Those islands belonged to Argentina until they were taken in the mid-1800s. Britain argues that 150 years of ownership gives them the rights to that land. Argentina, not surprisingly, doesn’t agree and still doesn’t recognize Great Britain’s right to have those islands.

There are myriad stories around the world. If you go back far enough, your land probably belonged to someone else, even in ancient lands like Egypt and China. It’s not easy to sort through all of those claims.

And territorial disputes are merely one aspect of the world’s conflicts. If you live in a country that has benefitted from colonialism, wars, etc., you favor something like the first scenario, where everybody just keeps what they have right now. If you live in a country that isn’t at the top of the pecking order, or if you are one of the powerless people in a powerful nation, you’d like to see past injustices corrected.

An excellent article that looks at the effects that past colonialism still has in today’s world is Why Can’t People Feed Themselves? by Frances Moore Lappe and Joseph Collin. It’s worth a read.

The letter to Smyrna: Rich poor church

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lettersJesus has no criticism for the church in Smyrna. He says they have suffered and live in poverty… but they’re rich. This is yet another of the paradoxes presented in Revelation. The church that everyone thinks is alive is actually dead. The church that seems weak is strong. This church, with its difficult life and lack of material goods, is actually rich.

In Letters From The Lamb I wrote:

The Smyrnaean Christians were poor materially, but they were rich in the ways that mattered. It’s even possible that the poverty of the Smyrna church stemmed from the persecution they had received. The writer of the book of Hebrews speaks to this: “Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.” (Hebrews 10:32-34) Either through mob violence and looting or official seizures of property, it was quite possible that the Christians had become poor by standing up for their faith.

(Letters From The Lamb, p. 68)

“Blessed are you poor,” Jesus said during his ministry. Later James would write that God had chosen the poor to be rich in faith. Apparently the Christians in Smyrna were a good example of that.