Some believe that poverty is a fact of nature. The sun rises in the morning and sets at night. Similarly it is determined by nature that there will be rich people and there will be poor people. It was always like that, is, and will be for ever and ever. Amen. After all, the same people say, it is the fault of the poor that they are poor.

This is all hogwash. Poverty is the creation of humans and it can be ended by humans. Poverty is the result of unjust structures and systems that make the minority rich or very rich and the absolute majority poor or very poor. Poverty is the result of greed, theft, unjust distribution of resources. It is an obscenity that can, and should be eliminated.

The Pope against poverty

The Church has, “in season and out of season”, been the conscience of society in this regard. The Church does this by word and deed all around the world. The myriad Church projects and public positions in favour of the poor are ample evidence.

This year Pope Benedict dedicated his message for the World Day of Peace, which was celebrated 1 January 2009, to "Fighting Poverty to Build Peace". I thought that after discussing the Pope’s controversial speech about gays it would be a good idea show this other facet of the personality.

The following sections consist of quotations from his speech and statistics taken from http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats

Economics needs ethics

"If the poor are to be given priority, then there has to be enough room for an ethical approach to economics on the part of those active in the international market, an ethical approach to politics on the part of those in public office, and an ethical approach to participation capable of harnessing the contributions of civil society at local and international levels. ...”

Look at these statistics that show how unethical our economy is.

Consider the the global priorities in spending in 1998

Global Priority	$U.S. Billions
Cosmetics in the United States	8
Ice cream in Europe	11
Perfumes in Europe and the United States	12
Pet foods in Europe and the United States	17
Cigarettes in Europe	50
Alcoholic drinks in Europe	105
Military spending in the world	780

And compare that to what was estimated as additional costs to achieve universal access to basic social services in all developing countries:

Global Priority	$U.S. Billions
Basic education for all	6
Water and sanitation for all	9
Basic health and nutrition	13

Doesn’t this a state of perverted priorities in the countries of the rich and the powerful? These perverted priorities result in glaring inequalities.

The marginalisation of the poor

"The current food crisis ... places in jeopardy the fulfilment of basic needs. This crisis is characterized not so much by a shortage of food, as by difficulty in gaining access to it and by different forms of speculation: in other words, by a structural lack of political and economic institutions capable of addressing needs and emergencies. ... All the indicators of relative poverty in recent years point to an increased disparity between rich and poor. ... the majority of the population in the poorest countries suffers a double marginalization, through the adverse effects of lower incomes and higher prices".

Let’s look at some more figures:

• Approximately 790 million people in the developing world are still chronically undernourished, almost two-thirds of whom reside in Asia and the Pacific.
• The world’s billionaires — just 497 people (approximately 0.000008% of the world’s population) — were worth $3.5 trillion (over 7% of world GDP) in 2006.
• Low income countries (2.4 billion people) accounted for just $1.6 trillion of GDP (3.3%)

Incredible and unbelievable! Just 497 people own more than double that which is owned by 2.4 billion people!

Children are the victims

"Almost half of those living in absolute poverty today are children. ...When the family is weakened, it is inevitably children who suffer. If the dignity of women and mothers is not protected, it is the children who are affected most".

Look at the facts.

Number of children in the world: 2.2 billion

Number in poverty: 1 billion (every second child)

For the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, there are:

· 640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3)

· 400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5)

· 270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7)

· Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.

· According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world.

Pandemic diseases

"Another area of concern has to do with pandemic diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS. Insofar as they affect the wealth-producing sectors of the population, they are a significant factor in the overall deterioration of conditions in the country concerned. .... . It also happens that countries afflicted by some of these pandemics find themselves held hostage, when they try to address them, by those who make economic aid conditional upon the implementation of anti-life policies".

This is the situation in the world:

Infectious diseases continue to blight the lives of the poor across the world. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 3 million deaths in 2004. Every year there are 350–500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities: Africa accounts for 90 percent of malarial deaths and African children account for over 80 percent of malaria victims worldwide/

There is hope.

“And yet it remains the case that in 1981, around 40% of the world's population was below the threshold of absolute poverty, while today that percentage has been reduced by as much as a half, and whole peoples have escaped from poverty despite experiencing substantial demographic growth. This goes to show that resources to solve the problem of poverty do exist, even in the face of an increasing population".

The poor should not always be with us

Let me conclude by repeating what I wrote in The Sunday Times on 28/12/08.

We all should denounce immoral policies and lobby so that the Maltese government will fight them in all the international fora it participates in. But this is not enough.

I am certain that the food and leftovers we threw in the rubbish bins we placed on our doorsteps on Boxing Day cost much more than millions around the world can spend for the food they need for their daily survival. We are part of the haves and so share in the sins of the haves. The wasteful lifestyles that we of the developed world have lived in the past decades are responsible for a lot of suffering in the rest of the world.

The absolute poverty of people living on $1.25 a day (there are about 1.4 billion people who live on that amount) does not constitute part of Maltese reality but people living in relative poverty are part of our scenario. We all can and should help to make the life of these fellow Maltese better.

We are all in duty bound to work for the day where the poor will no longer be with us.