Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Jim McDermottJune 28, 2010

As a statement of intention, "Make Poverty History" is hard to argue with. And it has proven over the course of years to be a rallying cry for people concerned about poverty in our world, particularly in the developing world. 

Yet the concrete goals being set by this popular catchphrase are hard to pin down.  In a piece today in Eureka Street, the Australian Jesuits' online magazine, writer Ben Coleridge argues that "poverty" is inadequate to the issues before us. 

Poverty is not a one dimensional affliction. Communities enduring poverty are almost always torn by multiple afflictions, for example, ethnic or class discrimination or corruption. A person in a poor community may not simply suffer from a lack of primary goods (food, shelter, healthcare), but also from various forms of discrimination or poor access to institutional protection. In India, for example there are on average 11 judges for every 1 million people.

More fruitful planning and action, he suggests, might come by thinking rather in terms of "justice".  "By making 'justice' the stated goal of the 'anti-poverty' movement, success would be measured not only by material outcomes, such as  the quantity of aid delivered or the number of schools opened, but by the impact made on people's lives."

Coleridge's point is well taken.  We're dealing with complex issues here.  And slogans by definition simply in order to focus attention.

But we are imaginative creatures; for better or worse, catchphrases and images and video shorts are important means of capturing and motivating us, particularly in this hyperstimulated deluge of messages within which we live.  

"Make Poverty History" may in fact be history;  but we'll only be well served if we create something else to take its place.

Check out Coleridge's full piece here.

 

Jim McDermott, SJ

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Beth Cioffoletti
15 years ago
It is said that the English word "Justice" is thin broth compared to the Hebrew word for justice, "tsedaqah".  It is roughly translated as the very heart of God.

The latest from america

Frank Turnbull, S.J., a longtime editor at 'America' who died earlier this week, is remembered as a humble, quiet and yet forceful presence to those who knew him during his 85 years of life.
James T. KeaneJuly 18, 2025
A Reflection for Saturday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time, by Zac Davis
Zac DavisJuly 18, 2025
Trauma-informed spirituality knows better than to promise that prayer will take away all the pain. But it can offer the hope that, even in the midst of pain, there can be moments of feeling whole.
Nicole KirpalaniJuly 18, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telephoned Pope Leo XIV, who urged Israel’s leader to revive negotiations and enact a ceasefire.