Truth Dealer

Remember the Huxtables?

They were a fictional affluent African-American family who starred in The Cosby Show.  The sitcom debuted in 1984 – the decade of “Greed is good”.   Although it has been described as revolutionary (black, American AND rich) – I didn’t really get that bit.

I thought all Americans lived in lavish mansions and had astonishing amounts of material possessions.

Those were the kind of people I saw on TV.  Even a small house seemed to have 5 bedrooms, two stories, and 3 bathrooms and a menagerie of animals that never pooed inside.  There were 2 or more massive cars parked in the garage, and a new set of clothes for every occasion.

No-one told me about the underclass – about the huge numbers of homeless people, or about entire communities living in (relative) poverty in the US.

After a bit of study I’m now aware of two realities about the world we inhabit:

Reality One: The world is a much darker, unfair, and unjust place than I ever realised.

Reality Two: Fixing poverty and inequity is far more complex and difficult than I ever realised.

UNFAIR

Pick up a newspaper and you will see individuals ripping each other off.  Dig deeper into the geopolitical realities  of the world and you see systems that rip entire people groups off.

FIXING THE WORLD

Despite 50+ years of so-called ‘development’ – poor countries are still poor and people still die from bad water.  There are a vast array of opinions on aid – from the sterling work of Jeffrey Sachs (The End of Poverty) who believes that enough aid can fix the world and eliminate poverty in a generation to William Easterly (White Man’s Burden) who claims that Aid is part of the problem.

This is a gross over-simplification but you get the picture.  Well-intentioned assistance and aid can have unintended consequences.

So Where To?

A simple note to self: Practice justice, mercy, and humility rather than cynicism, arrogance and judgmentalism.

Simple does not = easy. But there is hope… hope that stems from every single small act of kindness.