At present, trading (the most reliable way to overcome poverty) is seriously distorted by such inequitable practices as the offloading of European and American surpluses on to African and South American markets, thus putting local producers out of business. Heavily subsidised Western goods reduce prices so much that local traders simply cannot compete.
Stringent regulations — placed by Western-controlled bodies, such as the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank — on trade and markets in developing countries, such as not allowing subsidies, are not observed by the very countries that impose them. It is a question of “Do what we say, not what we do.”
There is one area in which Britain really is a world leader: our (heavily subsidised) arms trade. Every year, half a million people across the world are killed by guns that can be bought in some places for the price of a chicken. It is estimated that there are some 100 million guns circulating in Africa alone.
The worst impact is borne by innocent civilians — children, women, the sick and elderly. Bullets claim more lives in Africa than such significant killers as tuberculosis, malaria, or road accidents. Firearms have transformed once stable and relatively prosperous communities into medieval fiefdoms.
Vast areas of countryside are abandoned, as millions flee their homes in terror; schools close; hospitals shut; ordinary life grinds to a standstill. Economic and social development has been stripped away. There are huge profits in selling guns — but the most vulnerable pay a high price.
Our Government recently sold to Tanzania, one of the world’s poorest countries, a £28-million military radar system, though a civilian one would have cost a tenth of the price. Despite its adverse impact on sustainable development, and against massive opposition, Tony Blair gave the sale the green light.
The markets are not free. Labour is most certainly not free to move — to be an economic migrant is to be the lowest of the low, although such people are merely following the logic of the market. Only the unchecked flow of capital is free. Meanwhile, boardroom pay-offs and golden pension deals to failed managers and directors go unchecked, while the pensions of ordinary people disappear like snow off a dyke.
As a Christian, I believe in a relationship that unconditionally values every person, regardless of status, wealth, success, or virtue; that confers intrinsic worth on the worst, as well as the best, no value-addition necessary. How, then, am I to regard an economic system, and its underlying spirituality, which determines worth purely by external market forces, which relieves people who are poor, disabled, unemployed, single parents, or elderly of their intrinsic worth?
We take care of what we value. Ultimately, people know whether and how they are valued by their society, and by its systems and institutions. Whom do we give value to?
In South Africa, the then Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Njongonkulu Ndungane, said:
It is wrong and unacceptable for some people to have much, much more than they need, and others to suffer the cries of hungry children. . . economics should be in the service of compassion and civilized values. . . there is no intrinsic value in the accumulation of money and possessions; and these are positively harmful to humanity’s spirit if they coexist with poverty.
This is an edited extract from Sharing the Blessing: Overcoming poverty and working for justice by Kathy Galloway, published by SPCK and Christian Aid at £8.99 (CT Bookshop £8.10); 978-0-281-05949-2.
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