GCSE RS Coursework

The reasons why LDCs are less developed is because of Wars, Natural disasters, Debt, Cash crops etc. Firstly, when wars occur, governments in countries use the money available in buying new weapons rather then building new infrastructures and without them, there is no good education and moreover, companies wouldn’t want to build there factories there, even if the country has natural resources, because, it would just get destroyed in wars which then leads to lack of jobs. Moreover, there are no schools built which then leads to lack of education for the new generation and in the developed technology world, these children will have problems finding jobs and it would be difficult for them to make money. Basic education will be unable for more than 130 million children of primary school in the 21st century.

Next, natural disasters (flood, earthquakes, tsunami etc) are destructive and wipe out farmland and cash crops which then cause more trouble as the country cannot sell crops to the developed world which is there main source of income. This leads to the LDCs borrowing money from developed countries who charge interest. The LDC then use the money again to buy weapons and as problems reoccur (wars, natural disasters etc) the LDCs cannot pay their debt and eventually end up paying more than they borrowed which means that they had paid the interest with the money borrowed. Yet, this money could have been invested in building new infrastructures for the countries future.

The poorest people in the world give the richest people $7 million every hour. This refers to the Parable of the Talents which means that, everything the poor has is taken away from them and then given to the rich who already have everything. This shows that even if a poor trys’ to work hard, most of the money he earned will be taken away (e.g. tax). This is all affected when wars occur; mostly everything is destroyed like homes, crops, schools, hospitals etc. which causes more poverty in the country. This affects the whole world because we are all interdependent and so first and second world countries all need cheap products from the LDC. So we all want the people to survive.

        

1. iii) Analyse and explain the work of ONE religious agency working for world development.

Christian Aid works to help and improve the life of the poor people in LDC’s. It started in1944 to help the insecure and unprotected just after the Second World War. It works with local partners in over seventy countries trying to help the powerless. It also works in places of emergencies where there is need of medical supplies, food and blankets, transport and it always tries to help, support and feed the refugees.         

Christina Aid often takes priority over emergency aid like in 1998 it helped the victims of Honduras when they were attacked by an enormous hurricane by sending them food, medicine and shelters, sending war refugees tents, food and blankets in Bosnia and Rwanda,  and currently helping thousands of Zimbabweans who need food aid. Seven million people needed food aid this year. So Christian Aid is trying to raise money to provide seeds and planting materials for them.

In long-term aid Christian organisations come up with ideas and then ask Christian Aid to finance. They facilitate LDC like in Bangladesh to make basic drugs, they built a factory, and they try to finance local agriculture schools where they try to increase food production but by using cheap methods for farming like in Lesotho. Overall, Christian Aid is a very supportive and helpful organization who helps the unaided people, mainly in the LDC’s.

This is a very successful organisation as it is based around the world. They have fought for poverty for more than 60 years. They have earned a lot to help like in 2007 their annual income was £86.5 million however they still don’t find the world any fairer e.g. in Afghanistan, parents are still selling their daughters for them to survive. Yet, they believe that they will continue to support LDC and fulfil their duties.

2. ‘There should be no rich people as long as there is poverty in the world”. Do you agree?

In my opinion, I think that there should be equality between the rich and poor; however, it is near to impossible because as Hindus believe, everything is based on your Karma and how you lived your previous life. If you have lived it honestly and morally, your current life will be filled with happiness. However, if you have sinned you will have to pay for those sins in your present life. So I believe that whatever and wherever people are right now is because of their faults and mistake that has brought them here.

Most religions believe that people should share and this is the evidence form Christianity. Christians believe that you should love God and your neighbour which means that you should help anyone, anywhere who is in trouble. So the rich should always help the poor as they are in need and the rich have the power to fulfil their need. Furthermore, $573 is spent on health per person on the rich people of the world (The North) and only $2 is spent on the poorest (The South) person. How is this fair? Next, 98% of woman and 99% of men are able to read in the rich community yet only 29% woman and 55% of men are able to read in the poorer side of the country. So, if there is so much money around the world, the rich should always help the poor. Moreover, Jesus mentions in the parable about the end of the world where the good and bad will be separated from each other where the good helped the needing and the bad didn’t. So this shows you should help the poor for humanitarian reasons but also for making space in the good list for yourself.

Yet, on the other hand some people believe that there cannot be equality in this world because many Christians live with the idea that they have to live in the real world. So, we need to have a balance because if there would be no poor people in the world then people would have to fight for the necessities of living. We would have to pay more for nearly everything which is not reality. Also, a person could be poor through their mistake e.g. they could have lost all there wealth in gambling which is there fault and therefore, they deserve to be poor. Yet, most rich people have earned their money through hard work and dedication and Hindus believe that the wealth they have earned in their current life is due to their Karma in the previous life. Next, charities and churches are always around the world that helps the poor in any situation like education, health, and facilities etc.. So to survive in the real world, you cannot always have only riches in the world.

So, I believe that, there should be equality and it’s a job of the rich to avoid greediness and always help the poor. Because in the current world the poor are in a great deal of need as 35,000 people die everyday as a result of hunger and only 18 in every 1000 children die before their fifth birthday in the richest people and 176 in every 1000 children die before their fifth birthday which shows that there is a great gap between the rich and the poor and this can be filled if the rich help donate to the poor. If the rich community start to help the poor by just donating a small amount of money, that will make a huge difference to the poor. In my opinion I believe that we should always help the poor no matter what situation it is but at the same time in reality, we cannot have total fairness in the world.

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