“We can do something about it…but we haven’t”
Just as I was ready to write this post about relief aid to the Third Word, an interesting little story comes on CNN in the background and catches my attention. It’s about a New York cabbie from Darfur. The CNN reporter and obviously his camerman ride around with this man and talk about his country, and life in New York driving a cab, and they interview a few of his passengers along the way. These people find it very interesting, that he’s from Darfur, and one woman says of the extreme poverty and violence there that “we can do something about it, but we haven’t.” She added: “It’s shameful that we’ve let it go on for so long and haven’t done anything about it.” I’m thinking, we hear that a lot these days and it’s good that the Darfur humanitarian crisis is getting more attention, but what does it take to move from attention into wider participation in the action of relieving it?
So anyway, the next woman in the cab is amazed about the driver, she laments the crisis in Darfur and says “we should send peacekeeping troops there, instead of where they are.” Each one clearly wants someone to do something.
When Sen. Sam Brownback came on my radio show last year, he talked about the latest hot button bill or vote in the Senate – marriage amendment, immigration, Supreme Court confirmation hearing – but he also usually talked about the crisis in Africa and particularly Darfur, and the relief efforts he encouraged people to join.
About a week ago, I read a newspaper article in the entertainment section previewing the release of “Ocean’s Thirteen”, about how well the cast works together and how close they are, which is evident in their onscreen presence. Somewhere late in the article, which came form their interview in Cannes, it reports that Matt Damon suddenly changed the subject to Darfur, and what we should be doing. Several of these stars are activists in social justice causes, which worked its way into the film in clever and interesting ways. Workers rights in Mexico, homes for the disadvantaged and for orphans, “Ocean’s”  actually had an interesting Robin Hood sub-plot.
So, back to the original intent of doing this post on relief efforts and the “something” that somebody should do….
Today at the Vatican, Pope Benedict addressed this.
Today in the Vatican, the Pope received members of the administrative council of the “Populorum Progressio” Foundation, for the occasion of their annual assembly. The foundation serves poor rural communities in Latin America and the Caribbean.
When John Paul II established the foundation in 1992 and made it part of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum,” said the Holy Father, he was thinking “of peoples whose ancestral customs are threatened by postmodern culture, and who risk seeing the destruction of their traditions which are so ready to accept the truth of the Gospel. … The work begun 15 years ago must continue, following the principles that have distinguished its commitment in support of the dignity of all human beings, and of the fight against poverty.”
The message, obviously, applies to all people and all efforts to end poverty, in Latin America and everywhere else.
“Often, man’s real poverty is his lack of hope, the absence of a Father to give meaning to his existence.”
So the fullest aid, the most comprehensive relief says Benedict, combines material and social needs with a witness of faith.
“In this way,” said the Holy Father, “on the one hand, we avoid a certain form of paternalism that is always humiliating for the poor and that curbs their own initiatives…
Which reminds me of another organization that helps people to help themselves and their communities. And Caritas International, among others.