The secondary school in the municipality of Amares, district of Braga, celebrated this year on 17th of October with great emphasis the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. In this context, I was invited to help raise awareness among students on this topic, which is one of the Millennium Development Goals.
If the world's population, today at 8 billion and counting, were all to consume and pollute at the combined rates of the Americans, Europeans and the rest of the wealthy countries, this planet of ours could only last for 3 months, otherwise we will need the resources of 10 planet Earth to keep this going.
The level of poverty in which 80% of the population lives is neither fair nor healthy; there is still a lot of infant mortality, people still die of malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, typhoid fever and other infectious diseases, that have long been eradicated in wealthy countries, diseases for which cures have long been found.
On the other hand, the standard of living of 20% of humanity is neither fair nor healthy; it is our standard of living that causes us to die of cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and many others.
Some die of poverty and others die of plenty. Isn't the world globalized? And isn't globalization something like the principle of communicating vessels? – Do not two vats of water, one full and one empty, naturally level when there is a communication between them? Why don’t we see this?
Because the rich countries applied a valve at the intercommunication channel so that the flow can only occur in one direction...
If we lowered our standard of living while the poor increased theirs, we would all live better, with more justice and health; neither will we die of diseases linked to poverty, nor will we die of diseases linked to wealth. But since we do not want to lower our standard of living, then we have to find mechanisms so that they will always remain poor. Die Martha, die full...
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
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