Jain Spirit 2003 06 No 15

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 58

INTER-FAITH
2014 FAITH,
orfoderade
FAITH, HOPE AND 2012 BEYOND CHARITY
JOHW.ZIAMH
Sheer
INCE THE SECOND WORLD WAR THERE HAVE been efforts to help the newly independent countries and their people who are poor and marginalised. The development decades, the programmes of the international agencies (the UN, the World Bank, the IMF and others) and the efforts of specialised international non-governmental organisations (e.g. Oxfam, Christian Aid and Save the Children) have all attempted to contribute to the reduction of poverty and the relief of human suffering, and to respond to natural and man-made disasters. Some good has been achieved. Children have been immunised, lives have been saved, mortality rates improved, life expectancy has increased and local people's movements to take responsibility for social change have empowered the people to help themselves. There has been a paradigm shift from helping the poor - with love and individual charity - to asking why they are poor and also challenging some of the root causes of poverty and exclusion through policy research, advocacy and campaigning for justice. There is a sense of hope that we can build a better world where all will have their basic needs satisfied: education, water, health care, dignity and a chance to influence their future - irrespective of caste, colour, creed or ethnicity.
Daleep Mukarji discusses the interfaith dimensions
of international development
Sadly, in spite of much improvement, the gap between the poor and the rich, between the countries and within the countries has widened. 1.3 billion people today live in abject poverty less than 60 pence per person per day for all their needs. 125 million children will never go to school. Over 50% of people do not have access to safe drinking water and every eight seconds a child dies from poverty and preventable conditions. This is a scandal. What makes it worse is that this severe poverty exists in a world of plenty. Yet the rich nations and rich people (the powerful elite in most societies) have cornered resources, influence and decisions. They control the major governments, institutes and the large multinational corporations all of which seem to take advantage of the weak and vulnerable. The world's three richest people have more income and wealth than 600 million poor people put together.
56 Jain Spirit June - August 2003
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Twenty percent of the rich people in the world use about eighty percent of the world's resources.
What can be done about this? In 2000, the international community agreed to the International Development Targets, known as the millennium development goals, to halve the number of people who live in poverty, to ensure universal primary education and gender equality and to bring down infant and maternal mortality rates. This can be done, but it needs a movement of grassroots support for global social justice that holds politicians and key decision-makers accountable. In this process people of faith, faith-based initiatives and interfaith cooperation have a major role to play.
People of faith bring the values of love, sharing, fairness, justice and dignity into the overall debate about development. In many parts of the third world, faith communities are key civil society networks and possibly the only way to reach and influence local communities for change.
Yet religion can be both a force for good and a force for prejudice, discrimination and the oppression of others. Certain conservative elements in many faiths do not want to see change: they feel their traditions and customs would be threatened and, often, the power of their leaders diminished.
I am convinced that people of faith have a positive contribution to make to the worldwide movement for international development and social justice. This requires dialogue, respect, tolerance, goodwill and a willingness to listen to each other. Working together we can contribute to communal harmony, poverty eradication and peace. Many wars and much civil strife and exploitation of others are based on religious, ethnic and historical conflicts, which need time for healing, reconciliation and rebuilding of trust. This needs peace with justice and the rejection of anything that dehumanises, denies rights and despises people simply because they are different.
The world is truly a global village: multi-cultural, multifaith and multi-ethnic. We have become more interdependent and interconnected than ever before. It is a time for the people of faith to stand up, speak out, take sides, work together with
PHOTOS: CHRISTIAN AID/NETWORK/GIDEON MENDEL, CHRISTIAN AID/NETWORK/MIKE GOLDWATER