aii) Explain why there is a need for world development
Poverty is a shortage of either money or food making the person or country affected dependant on his fellow man. The world which was once divided into First, Second and Third world countries is now divided into Developed countries, countries that are economically developed e.g. USA, Western Europe, Developing countries, countries that are developing economically e.g. Mexico, Brazil and finally Less Developed countries, countries that do not have the resources to start developing e.g. Bangladesh, Sudan. The change of name was a result of some Third world oil rich countries e.g. Kuwait being richer than western First World countries. Countries, which have being badly affected by war or natural disasters, become vulnerable to poverty since the government use the countries resources to help in relief.
Civil wars, which are fought between people from the same country, have played a major factor in world poverty, since some of these countries often contain several different races, which compete for power. Consequently when these countries are given independence they are still artificial and in many cases the ruling race mistreat the weaker races making them rebel and resulting in civil war. Wars between other countries caused by corruption and political differences also cause Less Developed countries to suffer because of their government’s weaknesses such as Afghanistan and Russia, Ethiopia and Somalia. The most apparent country that still suffers with civil war for over 20 years is Sudan an example of an LEDC; the civil war is happening in the Darfur region in the west of the country causing hundreds to flee the countries and go to neighbouring countries as refugees. This civil war has caused many problems for Sudan as it now suffers from famine caused by the destruction of crop by the rebel militia resulting in over two million people having died as a result of war and famine in the past twenty years and up to five million people being displaced from their homes.
Many Less Developed countries are situated in areas of the world where natural disaster such as earthquakes, floods and droughts are more frequent and severe than anywhere else in the world; these can destroy thousands of homes or farmland on which the inhabitants depend on. Furthermore if the rain fails to fall, crops will not grow and the years harvest will be ruined unless farm owner can afford to sink wells, install pumps and organise an irrigation system. Cash crops are crops that are grown solely for sale rather than consumption in many Less Developed countries, such as coffee, tea and tobacco. The sale of cash crop can have a devastating effect on the indigenous people as the land is used to grow cash crops, rather than feed the indigenous people which can lead to starvation on a large sale.
In conclusion, World Development in necessary because as we in developed countries ignore the vital necessity that we have take for granted such as healthcare and shelter many of the people in developing are dying in large number from starvation and illness which can be easily prevent if wealth is evenly shared around the world, we only come to realises this suffering people in poverty have to endure when natural or man-made disaster force us to realise the extent of many people poverty. This can be seen through the high birth, death and infant mortality rates that plague LEDCs in comparison to MEDCs which have the necessary equipment to deals with problem such as starvation and disease which cause the dramatic increase in birth, death and infant mortality rates. An example of an LEDC in this type of situation is Bangladesh which has a birth rate of 41 people per thousand in comparison to Britain’s 14 resulting from the lack of contraception and education of women which is necessary to lower birth rates. Additionally the fact that Bangladesh has a death rate of 14 comes as a result of the of the majority of the people in the country being poverty stricken and subsequently not being able to afford to buy food or to pay for health care. However even though Britain has a similar death rate of 14 this is a result of it suffering from different problems such as unhealthy eating and rise in obesity whereas Bangladesh suffers from starvation and disease.
Consequently the fact that Bangladesh has a high birth rate but low death rate is causes its population to increase and with only a small GNP it results in even more people being poverty stricken since Bangladesh doesn’t have the resource to deal with the increase in population. Furthermore all this does is lower the life expectancy in Bangladesh to only 53 years compared to Britain’s 77 as the people whom live in Bangladesh to don’t have the facilities to allow them to live a long healthy life as for example there are approximately 1000 people for 1 doctor.
aiii) Analyse and explain the work of one Catholic agency working for world development
CAFOD (Catholic funds for overseas development) is an example of a charity that does numerous work with less developed countries overseas, the organisation itself was established by Catholics Church in England and Wales in 1962 who intended it to help coordinate and relieve work already being done by other organisations such as the National Board of Catholic Women. At this present moment in time CAFOD is now a major charity with 70 staff at its headquarters and supporting over 500 development projects in 75 countries across the world, with its aims being to educating British Catholics about the need for aid and to raise funds and distribute them to support development projects around in the poorest parts of the world.
The charity raises this money in various ways with the core fundraiser being the Family Fast Days during Lent and October where parishes across the country raise money fasting and donating the money saved. This and other fundraises, such as the Friday Groups which asks people to give something up and donate the money to CAFOD and the Working in Partnership group which raises money for a particular project as well as allowing donators to get to know the community they are helping, has provided with CAFOD the financial backing it needs to relieve poverty in the world by supporting many projects. Additionally CAFOD also works with Christian Aid to sell goods produced by LCD’s as a fair rate.
In times of emergencies such as nature disasters like volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, CAFOD uses its disaster fund which helps it deal with the short term effects of the disaster such as increasing numbers of refugees in the disaster area, causing this to take priority over long term aid. It aids the disaster victims by sending food, antibiotics and shelter to the immediate area, helping the people who have lost everything and have become refugees. An example of this can be seen through the Boxing Day tsunami where CAFOD used its £14 million from the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal to provide emergency relief supplies and provide local people with the help they needed to rebuild their lives across the affected countries. In particular in Indonesia one of the worst affected countries by the tsunami CAFOD provided local people with the toolkits, materials and expertise necessary to rebuild their homes as well as clearing huge piles of debris from the destroyed coastline by shipping heavy moving equipment to help clear the site where islanders want to rebuild their homes.
Furthermore, CAFOD being in contact with the many organisations at the receiving end of its aid gives it an advantage over many other charities who also aim to help relieve poverty across the world. This advantage is acquired through the work of the international Catholic organisation, Caritas that channels this aid obtained by CAFOD to the Christian organisations in the country concerned; giving these organisations the financial backing they need to start the various projects that stem from ideas which have the people who are in dyer need of help in mind. In Kenya CAFOD uses this money to support the Marsabit Primary Health Care programme, which operates in rural areas in the northern diocese of Marsabit, where there are few health centres and poor transport and communications links. The programme provides basic care through eight health units and is raising awareness about HIV and AIDS.
b) Give response to the view that:
“There should be no rich religious people as long as there is poverty in the world”
In the argument concerning whether ‘there should be any rich religious people as long as there is poverty in the world’, my beliefs lead me to support the argument for a number of reasons. The fundamental being Jesus’ teachings about the rich to his disciples in the parable of the ‘Rich Young Man’ – Mark 10: 21-23 – during which he talks about the difficulties the rich face in entering the kingdom of God as ‘it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God’. This tells us of the difficulties a wealthy person who does not share his money to the needy will face when judgement day arrives, described in the parable of the sheep and goat. From this, we are able to acquire the knowledge that Jesus will judge us on our compassion towards others and for those who do not help their fellow brothers will be condemned to hell.
There are some who believe God put poor people on this earth to give those who have wealth the opportunity to share their wealth, therefore it is okay for a religious person to be rich even though there is poverty in the world so long there share a percentage of their wealth with the poor. However, as many of our religious leaders such as priests who have been ordained and have taken the three evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience, then many argue that there should be no rich religious people as long as poverty exists in the world. Since Jesus himself led a life following these vows. Consequently many liberal Christians believe that these vows are only for people who lead the contemplative life such as nuns and monks and not for those who lead the active life where money is needed to help others.
Jesus reiterates his message that money is the root of all evil in Matthew 6:24 as he tell us you cannot serve both money and God ‘either he will hate one or love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other’ which seems to support the opinion that there should be no rich religious people if poverty still exists in the world as money is the root of all evil. This comes as a result of money causing people to worship wealth and possessions instead of God, since by attaining more wealth they also attain more greed and selfishness. Furthermore, this is not helped by the fact that contemporary society is mainly materialistic causing jealousy amongst people and therefore feeding their need for wealth.
However, since many rich people share some of this wealth and support charities that otherwise wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for them, many say its okay for them to be rich even if there is poverty in the world. I would say no if people acquired and maintained their wealth by hurting others such as the major corporations that although provide for people in developing countries, they pay them a small insignificant wage which isn’t enough for the individual person to live but helps the corporation to maintain its wealth and profit. However, it is still true that even though most people acquire wealth in this way not all wealth is obtained like this as there are those who work very hard and use their God given gift with wealth. Therefore, to reject Gods blessing would be wrong. So it is okay for some religious people to be rich as long as they obtain wealth through hard work and fair business. Subsequently they may call themselves religious as they follow Jesus’ teachings in particular his teachings on the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ where he tells us of the golden rule being to love your neighbour as you would want your neighbour to love you, and for a person to acquire wealth in a lawful way must mean they follow this rule as they do not manipulate people to gain their wealth but use their God’s given talent. An example of this type of person who is a role model in a contemporary society is David Beckham. Being from a poor background, he used his God given talent in football to acquire wealth and now shares it with the poor through many charities he denotes his money to showing his compassion and love towards his neighbours.
There aren’t many people like this and who too share their wealth to help fight poverty, so although these people have earned their money in a sincere way through using Gods gift and talents it is only right that they give more back since they will have all the riches in the kingdom of God than they could ever have on earth. Therefore, we can say that there should be no rich religious people if many people in the world are living below the poverty line.
In conclusion, I still believe that there should be no rich religious people if there is poverty in the world. Although many people would disagree with me because they believe a Christian can be rich if they take part in philanthropic activities rather than selfish, self-gratifying and material acts, but I still believe that even though many Christians contribute the wealth they earned through Gods blessing it is not very appropriate of them to enjoy a rich trouble free life while other staves and strive for the bare necessities to live on. Furthermore there are many scriptures in the bible such as the parable of the Rich Young Man that say to give your wealth to the poor to have wealth in heaven since you cannot serve both money and God so therefore if our own religion instructs us to seek for wealth in heaven and not earth then it must be wrong to have vast amount of money while other barely have anything to live on.
