? Essay, Research Paper
1. “The distribution of wealth and resources in the world is unequal”. Using a recent example which illustrates this inequality explain what Christians might do to support the victims of this situation. You should refer to the writing and thinking of the Roman Catholic tradition to illustrate and support what you say. If we look at our world we can see that there are two extremes. The extremely rich and the extremely poor. Luxembourg is the richest country in the world according to it’s Gross National Product. The average person in that country earns approximately $40,000 per year while in Sudan the average person earns $63. That is a colossal difference in wealth. If we look at a map of the world we can see that most of the world’s developed countries lie north of the equator while the majority of developing countries lie south. This can also be referred to at times as the ‘Physical Quality of Life Index Line’. If we look at the U.S.A. We can see that it possesses the most Billionaires with the figure reaching 145. This is a tremendous amount of money concentrated among a minute percentage of the world’s population. We would have to consider this as extreme inequality. Bill Gates the present owner of the Microsoft Coporation is the richest non-royal person in the world with assests estimated at $30 billion. If we took a number of developing countries and added up their present finances it would barely reach that figure. In the film industry collosal amounts of money are being payed to the actors and actresses. An example of this would be Arnold Swarzhenneger who pulled in approxiametly 74 million dollars for his role in the ‘Terminator’. Opera Whinfrey earned 171 million dollars for one show recently. This is really beyond my comprehension, no one deserves that amount of money for such a task as acting. Another way in which inequality can be shown is by looking at the ‘Per Capita Expenditure’ values. In the U.S.A. The average American would spend around $16,500 per annum, with a similar situation in Japan where the average citizen would spend $19,700 per year. Now looking at the values for some of the poorer countries in the world I can see that for Somalia their average expenditure for one year comes to a total of $17. A massive difference between the two. However in calling a country poor what exactly are we saying? The fianancial position of a country has to be compared to anothers in order to refer to it as poor. It would sometimes be called relative poverty. For example we could say that Great Britain is poor in comparison with a country such as Japan. By looking at the GNP and the PCE we could see once again a great difference in the two. Yet we know that the standard of living in GB is quite high. Poverty is only labelled upon a country through its relation with other countrie’s financial positions. By looking at the above facts and figures it becomes quite clear that the statement is quite correct in what it tells us. What is a developed and undeveloped country? From my own knowledge I would give the definition of a developed country as one which has established a stable financial situation, has good health-care, and possesses a fairly good educational system. Taking developing nations I would define these as countries which have no stable economy, poor sanitation and health-care, and a quite poor educational system. A lot of the countries in today’s world fit this description almost exactly while a good number of countries mainly above the PQLI line fit the first description. This definitely shows the inequality in modern day society. One quarter of the world’s population lives in the developed North and has four fifths of the world’s wealth at its disposal. In these developing countries there are a number of problems resulting from this great poverty: Firstly the poverty of the country itself is a great problem. Many nations spend their money on fairly silly items such as arms when it could be spent more suitably. The reason for their investment in arms is that a lot of developing countries have political problems and quite a number are at war. The world bank which provides loans to these countries expects it’s money returned along with interest charges and a lot of these countries can barely afford to repay just the money loaned. Therefore they borrow more money to pay off the first loan. It is a never-ending cycle which leaves these nations constantly in debt. An idea which has been suggested is to cancel all debts and begin again yet many are relunctant to do this. A lot of the money which people rightfully earn through production and exportation never reaches their pockets as retailers and transporters take the majority of the profit therefore the hard-working person in that country receives a very small amount of the profit. Secondly we have hunger and there are two forms of this. They include starvation and malnutrition. Starvation being where the people don’t have enough to eat. This is a problem which many organisations have tried to solve by actually giving food to the people and also by giving them the means to produce their own by providing seeds, tools etc. Malnutrition is where there is enough food but it doesn’t provide a balanced diet. There is very little that can be done about this as helping organisations do not have the means in which to meet every nutritional need. This can also be due to a shortage of water, but the people’s own lack of knowledge and national disasters would also be responsible. Thirdly we have disease which occurs because of poor sanitation, poor nutrition and lack of money. Vaccinations and medicines can be used to help this situation but again it costs money and it is very hard to aid everyone in a country medically. Finally we have the population explosion in which people are convinced they need a large family to go out and earn money and to take care of them in their old age. These are all problems which occur in still developing countries. What can we do to help the situation. The example which I am going to use to illustrate my answer will be the situation in East Timor. In October 1999 the Irish Government was urged to adopt East Timor as it’s priority for overseas funding. Trocaire has been doing a lot of work ever since but C.A.F.O.D, the Catholic Association for Overseas Develpoment, was one of the first international agencies to become involved with the situation in East Timor. They have been working with the Catholic Church and non-religious organisations like itself. It has programmes in the area for locating the East Timorese C.A.F.O.D. Workers and it’s associates. They want to build their offices and to get them up and running so that aid can be given. The aid includes providing shelter, household assistance, health programmes and providing maize for the workers so that they can reduce the food insecurity in the short term. C.A.F.O.D. is currently organising a major emergency grant from E.C.H.O. (European Community Humanitarian Organisation) for it’s workers in the east and for Caritas Indonesia (an associate) in the west. As well as helping the worse off nations of the world the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development asks us to remember what Jesus taught us about helping the poor. It concerns prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Matthew tells us about these. In Matthew 6:6 Jesus said,. “When you pray go to your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen. And your Father who sees what you do in private will reward you”. This shows us that by praying we will help those who we pray for and be rewarded for it. In Matthew 6: 17-18 we are told about fasting, “When you go without food, wash your face and comb your hair, so that others cannot know that you are fasting – only your Father. And your Father will reward you”. In these words I think that Jesus meant that by helping others in today’s world we will be rewarded for our work in heaven even though the rewards may not seem great on earth. God tells us that in helping others will shall receive the fruit of our reward when in his heavenly kingdom Matthew 6: 2-3 tells about charity, “When you give to a needy person do not make a big show of it, as the hypocrites do….. do it in such a way that even your closest friend will not know about it”. All of these words spoken by Jesus are trying to show us what our attitude should be toward giving and this is encouraged by C.A.F.O.D. These are three ways of giving to those in need. Christians are members of God’s church and this church, whatever it’s denomination, is teaching us that charity should be part of everyone’s life. The Vatican II instructed Christians using God’s saying, “Feed the man dying of hunger, for if you do not feed him, you are killing him”. Christianity has been face to face with poverty for years in a never-ending battle as it may seem. The Roman Catholic church in the Catechism making a number of different statements about charity. It stated that developed countries have a moral responsibility toward those which are unable to ensure the means of their development by themselves. This Catechism makes a lot of other points toward the subject of charity. It also states that charity work or ‘works of mercy’ are part of a Christian’s duty. Charity is part of a church tradition and the beatitudes inspire this love. The ten commandments also teach us about charity. The seventh commandment joins the practice of justice in charity in the administration of earthly goods as the goods of creation are designed for all of humanity, not just the rich. In the story of the rich young man we are shown a young person’s reaction to Jesus telling him that if he sold everything he had and gave the money to the poor he would inherit eternal life however, he could not do this. Jesus pointed out that, “It is harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle”. He also told us that, “Those who come first will be last and those who come last will be first”. These are all ways in which Jesus showed us that giving to the poor was right. In Corinthians 11: 17-22 we are shown how Paul makes several teachings on poverty, charity and disease. I feel it makes a close reference toward the situation in today’s world. In this reading Paul reacts to the people’s coming together for a meeting in the church at the time. They come together and eat and drink while some remain hungry others eat very well. It reads, “When you come together it is not the Lord’s supper you eat, for as you eat each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry while the other gets drunk”. We can relate this to our own global situation where one part has all the money while the other has almost nothing. Paul seems very angry at the situation so how should we feel as Christians about the state of our time. In Mark 12: 41-44 we are shown how a poverty stricken woman donates one penny while the rich add handfuls of money to the poor box. Yet Jesus tells us that the woman donated more money than any of the rich people as she had very little money of her own yet contributed. The story tells us that it is not only the rich who should donate to these causes. C.A.F.O.D. is willing to take any donation and put it to use in any of it’s programmes. The original charity story would be the good Samaritan where a man was beaten and robbed. Two people passed him and finally a Samaritan man came along. He cleaned the man up, put wine on his wounds and took him to an Inn. The Samaritan is this story was an enemy of the man he cared for yet he did so anyway. This story shows us that a Christian should show charity even to his/her worst enemy as the Good Samaritan did. All of these parables show me an indication of what a Christian’s attitudes should be to poverty. Christians react to organisations such as C.A.F.O.D. by giving donations and joining missionaries out in foreign countries. In East Timor this donated money is used in building shelters, providing food and giving the people the chance to bring themselves out of this state by supplying seeds and tools. There are many different ways and organisations which can help the underdeveloped countries of the world. Christians must play a leading role in this help living by what Christ has taught us about charity, poverty and wealth. It is vitally important that organisations such as C.A.F.O.D. and Trocaire continue in the great work that they are doing and we learn that these countries need our help. Maybe through this help we can make the world’s resources and wealth more equal.
Другие работы по теме:
Class Structure Essay Research Paper Class Structure
Class Structure Essay, Research Paper Class Structure Our society is based on money, and therefore a class system has developed. The class structure in our society is divided based on wealth and income; the more an individual has the higher class one is in. Opposed to some other countries where the only way to move between classes is through marriage, in our society, an individual can easily move between class by simply obtaining more wealth.
Worlds Population Essay Research Paper The worlds
Worlds Population Essay, Research Paper The world?s population is an important issue. The earth is a sphere, which means that it has certain limitations and in particular, there are limits to growth of things that consume the earth and that live on.
Van Der Waals And Permanent Dipole Forces
Essay, Research Paper Van der Waals forces Act between all atoms and molecules. Van der Waals forces are caused by the formation of temporary dipoles due to constant movement of electrons. The size of the force depends on the size of the molecule. In a
Reclaiming Shareholder PowerCritical Analysis Essay Research Paper
Executive summary This paper explains and evaluates ?Reclaiming Shareholders Power? an article that appeared in Financial Analysts Journal for May-June 1997 edition. This article was written by Victor F. Morris, which gives the readers an overview about shareholders power and a conduit proposal.
CapitalismCommunism Essay Research Paper Communist vs CapitalistAndrew
Capitalism/Communism Essay, Research Paper Communist vs. Capitalist Andrew Carnegie’s The Gospel of Wealth describes a capitalist society in which each man works for himself in the race for independent wealth. In this caste society, progress is defined as the continual accumulation of material wealth.
Head In The Clouds Essay Research Paper
You travel to distant worlds with the snap of your fingers. Worlds lush, rich, full of perfect love and unforgotten harmony Your imagination is a beautiful thing, yet it serves as your best friend.
Social Aspects Of Envy Essay Research Paper
Social Aspects of Envy As all emotions, envy is socially constructed. Individual interaction, class variation and social institutions like schools, family, religion, and politics define envy for us. Envy is dependent on the beliefs about wealth, status, power, and how they ought to be distributed. In less complex societies envious objects are food, babies, and health; but in more complex societies they are wealth, status, and power.
Early Settlements Essay Research Paper The New
Early Settlements Essay, Research Paper The New cHaOtiC World Three completely different cultures clashed together and triggered the confusions all three worlds had against each other. All their misunderstandings then turned into a whole New World that still remains. Today, this New World is one of the main confinements for crimes.
Nowhere Essay Research Paper Free sdafdfs
Nowhere Essay, Research Paper Free sdafdfs sdfhasdjf adf asdf askdfhj;asf hasd fas fasd fasdfasdf asdfj askdhfasf ds fasd fasdfasd fsadfas f fsdafasdfasdfsdafsdfsdafasdfsdfasgasgasghhfadhasghashashashafhafhadghfgahgafghafghafhgafshafhafhafhagasfhsfhgadGahafghasghasfhgafhafhaf gafgasfgafhafhafhafdhaffhdahf ad fafsdafsdfasdfasdf By Posting paper to the site, then you are waiving your copyrights to it.
Rational Thinking Essay Research Paper The Change
Rational Thinking Essay, Research Paper The Change in Rational Thinking Before 1750 The idea of rational thinking has been debated ever since the beginning of human existence. As humans we base what we think on what we know, during the 1600’s if a person was black than they must have been inferior. This thinking seemed “rational” to the people of this period because they didn’t know any better.
Music Worlds Essay Research Paper There are
Music Worlds Essay, Research Paper There are many types of harassment but in this article we will be visiting verbal harassment. Once a student hits middle school they experience new situations. One situation happens to be the harassment from other students. For some this is difficult, they have never had groups of kids laughing and making jokes about them.
Mercantilism Essay Research Paper Mercantilism as a
Mercantilism Essay, Research Paper Mercantilism as a global economic policy tends to subscribe to the following premises: wealth is an essential means to power, power is essential as a means to the acquisition of wealth, wealth and power are each proper ultimate ends of national policy, and there is a long run balance of trade between these ends.
A Gathering Of Old Men Essay Research
Paper Inner and Outer Images in A Gathering of Old Men In the novel A Gathering of Old Men, Ernest J. Gaines, portrays the Novel through the eyes of individual narrators involved on the events of the day. The novel focuses on a group of cowardly black men who finally stop running and stand up for themselves and years of suffering.
Intro To Business Essay Research Paper Capitalism
Intro To Business Essay, Research Paper Capitalism is based upon the ideas of the economist John Smith. Smith wrote in his book, The Wealth of Nations, about an economy free of government intervention. Each citizen can pursue his own best interest within the economy. Inturn, the society would benefit without government becoming involved.
Candide Garden Essay Essay Research Paper Thomas
Candide Garden Essay Essay, Research Paper Thomas Cole was an American painter who lived from 1801-1848. He painted a representation of Adam and Eve s expulsion from the garden, and he called it, The Expulsion From The Garden. This painting portrays the metaphor represented in Voltaire s Candide. This could be quite possibly true, considering that Voltaire died only 23 years before Cole s birth, and most likely served him as an inspirational character.
Great Expectation Essay Research Paper Great Expectation
Great Expectation Essay, Research Paper Great Expectation Have you ever wonder how wealth can bring a person happiness and how it can change a person or does it make that person a better person who was once poor? Driving to a local grocery store for an example, to buy some food for your family to eat and at the register, you have a dollar left.
Guilded Age Essay Research Paper This was
Guilded Age Essay, Research Paper This was a common thought process of the Guilded Age. Andrew Carnegie was There are many different views on whether or not business should be regulated during the Guilded Age. The rich who controlled the government at the time were against any kind of regulation of business.
Equality Is Only A Concept In America
Essay, Research Paper Equality Is Only a Concept In America We as American citizens are taught by the Declaration of Independence that All men are created equal. (Irish, 748). [is this the ideal opening sentence?] Through this ideal, we infer that we each have an equal opportunity to live The American Dream by acquiring wealth and power by paying our dues and working hard. [P may want to excise Equal since the point of the paper is that there is no equality for American dream.] Unfortunately this is a myth.
Socialism And Capitalism Essay Research Paper What
Socialism And Capitalism Essay, Research Paper What is the difference between socialism and capitalism? Is socialism more moral than capitalism? To answer these questions we need to look at both systems and there definitions. Socialism is an economic system in which there is no private property and the state owns all the factors of production.
Military Force In The 21st Century Essay
, Research Paper What military force we will see in the next millennium will not be conventional. Conventional military force, Defined as: the movement of mass armies across frontiers.
Gary Nash Essay Essay Research Paper In
Gary Nash Essay Essay, Research Paper In the essay written by Gary Nash, he argues that the reason for the American Revolution was not caused by the defense of constitutional rights and liberties, but that of ?material conditions of life in America? were not very favorable and that social and economic factors should be considered as the driving factor that pushed many colonists to revolt.
Mercantilism Vs Physiocracy Essay Research Paper Mercantilism
Mercantilism Vs. Physiocracy Essay, Research Paper Mercantilism and physiocracy are two different systems that comprise of ideas involving wealth in the economy. Each system has different views on how wealth starts, and how much government involvement is necessary to have a successful economy.
Four Reasons Why The Renaissance Started In
Italy Essay, Research Paper Four Reasons Why the Renaissance started in Italy Italy stood across the route of the Crusades and Italian ships carried the Crusaders to the Holy Land-at a profit. Later, the merchants of Venice and Genoa transported a rich commerce to and from the Middle East (Moslem and Byzantine Civilizations) and nothern Europe.
Succes Essay Research Paper Atticus Finch was
Succes Essay, Research Paper Atticus Finch was a man who fought for what he believed in. He was always the one who stood up for what was right, not what the more popular thing to do was. Atticus has a lot of courage to do what he did for Tom Robinson. Atticus looked past the racism that was in the courtroom where Tom was being accused of raping a woman and he stood up for him.
Christian Attitudes Towards The Distrubution Of Wealth
In The World Essay, Research Paper It is a fact that the world’s resources and wealth is unequally distributed. The rich north has 85% of the world’s wealth, yet the poor South has three quarters of the world’s population. These developing countries in the South need more money to improve the lives of their people, because this inequality is resulting in major problems, for example; One fifth of developing countries’ people suffer from hunger.
Jade Peony
– Wealth Essay, Research Paper Wealth When people talk about wealth they usually mean materialistic things such as money, however there is another type of ‘wealth’, emotional wealth. This is the wealth that people give to each other. Some examples can be spending time with people, lending a hand to someone you do not know, providing kindness, and being a friend to someone when no one else will.
What Is Wealth Essay Research Paper What
What Is Wealth Essay, Research Paper What is Wealth When one asks themselves “what is wealth,” people immediately think of money. They think of nice cars and big houses. People think of power and the
New Wealth Of The Late Nineteenth Century
Essay, Research Paper AP The New Wealth of the Late Nineteenth Century The New Industrial Revolution brought forth a flourishing new amount of wealth in America. This wealth, though, was concentrated among a select few. This led to a sharp gap in between the wealthy and the poor. By the 1890s, the richest ten percent of the U.S. population controlled nine-tenths of the nation s wealth.
Wealth Essay Research Paper Dan NeffPeriod 43697WealthThere
Wealth Essay, Research Paper Dan Neff Period 4 3-6-97 Wealth There are differences between those who are born wealthy and those who earn money. Wealth, especially monetary wealth, means the person can meet all of their needs and wants with great luxury and still have money left to use, waste, save, or share.
Did The Prosperity Of The 20
′S Lead To The Depression Essay, Research Paper Did the Prosperity of the 1920’s Cause the Depression ? In my opinion, I think that the prosperity of the 1920 s did partly cause the Great Depression. I feel this is true because, although the 1920s appeared to be a time of great prosperity, in fact, it was a time of many weaknesses in the world economy.
Scott Fitzgerald
’s Novel The Great Gatsby Essay, Research Paper The primary focus of the American dream is that hard work will lead to success, respect, and social status. In Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby the characters show the deterioation of the American dream.
Bless Me Ultima Essay Research Paper Worlds
Bless Me Ultima Essay, Research Paper Worlds of Existence Vividly described, throughout the novel Bless me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, are the worlds that influence the character Antonio in his life. The worlds contain elements of good and bad and help shape the Antonio s future. In relation to his life at home the worlds of the school, the bar, Rosies, the church, and the war going on in the world all have similarities or differences to how things are going on there.
Comparison Of Brave New World And Gattaca
Essay, Research Paper Living in a genetically perfect world is not necessarily a great achievement to mankind. It makes one think, “where do you draw the line in the advancement of eugenics?” Both worlds, the Brave New one and Gattaca, are alternative futures (clearly dystopic), written and shown in a believable way (not as much in BNW, though) through the use of satire.
Wealth Of Nations By Adam Smith Essay
, Research Paper Wealth of Nations? Adam Smith shows, systematically and consistently, how a market-based economic system promotes general welfare through the sole maximisation of individual outcomes. Smith goes through a completely exhausting and methodical