Give & Teach

I woke up this morning to extended local news coverage of TS Cindy (note to self: tease my best friend about her name being a tropical storm that caused noticable damage here in town). I changed to one of the 24 hour news channels from NBC (since the Today show wasn't on here) because I wanted to know what was going on in the rest of the world. On the ticker at the bottom of the screen I read that Norway, along with several other Scandinavian countries, have decided to increase their contributions by 0.7% of their GNI to fight poverty. This struck me as a real statement of how liberal and wonderful the people of Norway are.

I've been thinking a lot recently about race relations in the US, and why things are the way they are. I know that it's linked to money...it always has been. This has been sparked by conversations with the Brazilian, and with my tech friend from work who has worked in Brazil and Agentina. When I shared the story of what happened to the Brazilian here in New Orleans just a few weeks ago (~45 yr old black man essentially told her & her friends to leave the portion of Audubon (public) park because it was the "black part of the park" [I'm shedding tears of anger & disgust right now as I'm shaking my head]), I told my tech friend that I was mortified. This opened up a discussion with the Brazilian about why race is such an issue here in the US.

She was upset with me when I told her I would prefer my son marry a black woman. I explained that I didn't want him (already mistaken for a mixed child) to have to deal with the potential of being treated poorly for dating/marrying a white woman. She told me I'm going to go to Brazil and when I come back I won't see color. So what does this have to do with Norway giving money to fight poverty?

I'm beginning to see that humans have their prejudices. The white/black thing in the US was because of slavery. From what I understand, the Brazilians have a class structure based on money and job, similar to the caste system in India. We all have our issues, and it seems that education is at the root of it all! But one can't be educated if you have no money to eat, no decent place to live, no clothes to protect you...you know, those basic things to live out of poverty! Poverty leads to a damaged if not broken human spirit. A damaged (if not broken) human spirit cannot learn as effectively as a whole and healed one. Without education, people, ALL PEOPLE, will eventually perish.

And so we must teach developing nations how to fish, so they can eat for a lifetime and become more productive members of the global community. But before we take them out fishing, we need to give them something to eat.

Note To Reader: I've been to Kenya several times in my life (age 2, 8, 10, & 14). I have many relatives there. I'm not saying Africans are stupid, nor am I saying Africans are not productive. I am saying that I've seen the living conditions first hand and know that those of us in the wealthiest countries in the world don't need most of what we have...but we have a responsibility to share with the rest of the world.