Wealth and Poverty

The 2005 gross world product was estimated to have exceeded $60 trillion. According to the May 2007 issue of the magazine Awake!, if it is spread over earth's population, each person living today would have $9,000 to spend for a year. "But why are there a total of 2.5 billion people who are living on less than $2 a day? Why are there millions of children dying from malnutrition?" (Awake! 2007, p. 3)

(a) (ii) The answer is economic inequality existing in the world today. As the famous saying goes, "the rich become richer, and the poor become poorer." To illustrate the gap between the world's richest and the world's poorest, a recent UN publication reported that the wealth of the three richest persons in the world is greater than the combined wealth of the 48 poorest countries. (Awake! 2007, p. 3)

(a) (iii) To address this problem on poverty, hundreds of governmental and non-governmental institutions have created programs to help people in these "underdeveloped" countries. Many religious groups have also joined in this mission. One such group is the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), the official overseas development and relief agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales which was established in 1962.
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CAFOD's work covers all demographics and addresses a wide variety of problems related with poverty. According to its website, CAFOD's mission is "to promote human development and social justice in witness to Christian faith and Gospel values." It also emphasized the aim of the agency to "transform the world by reflecting the Kingdom of God." Included in the agency's agenda are issues concerning education; health and disability; environment; food and farming; young people and children; and many others which stem from the major problem of economic inequality.

However, reality shows us a great irony. More and ...

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