I could call this blog "the gap". Because the gap between the richest and the poorest, both within nations, and globally, is growing and with it a whole range of social disorders from addiction and domestic violence to organised crime (see R Wilkinson and K Pickett, The Spirit Level-why equality is better for everyone. See also Max Rushbrooke, ed; Inequality-a New Zealand Crisis; and the 2014 study by Inner City Mission Speaking for Ourselves-the truth about what keeps people in poverty by those who live in it).

I'm not an economist. I hear arguments from those who think the current free market/open competition flavour of Capitalism is the solution to all the world's problems and those who believe the opposite, that it is the cause of growing poverty and all the social ills that come with it. The one thing I am convinced of is that those who defend the current capitalist ideas and spout the now well worn belief that "economic growth" of a nation as a whole will "trickle down to the poor" are wrong. What I do not fully understand is the mechanisms by which the opposite seems to happen fairly consistently. Economic growth following the current ideologies seems fairly consistently to increase the gap between the richest and poorest in a nation. Wilkinson and Pickett document one or two nations who have intentionally taken radical steps to close the gap between the richest and poorest and show how this has benefited everyone, including the richest in those nations.  There are obvious reasons why economic growth might only benefit the wealthiest and not those who are poor. We only need to ask who is in control of such measures to create economic growth. Wealth and power go hand in hand just as poverty and powerlessness do.  So measures to create growth are bound to favour those in control of those measures. However I think there are other mechanisms besides the self-interest of those in power. I think many political and business leaders genuinely believe the poor will benefit from their effort to generate growth in a nation. 

What is needed is a recognition that the gap between the richest and poorest in a nation will only be closed by taking intentional steps to ensure that the needs of the poorest are met. In other words, a nation must gradually give to all its citizens some things as a right that comes with being alive. When certain targeted basics are freely given to all, not means tested, simply given, no matter how poor or wealthy, that reduces the suffering of poverty and powerlessness in a nation. Four basics come to mind: safe and healthy shelter/accommodation, a minimum access to nutritious food, free medical care and free education. These things are not new but have been relentlessly undermined in nations which have bought into the current dominant free market idealogies.

The other thing which I believe is needed is bottom up growth by intentionally supporting entrepreneurial initiatives by people who have no employment. When I recently visited Kenya I was struck by the reality that, without a safety net to provide for unemployed people, every "unemployed" person was self-employed, selling fruit and veges, selling clothes, people with cars driving people without them, and so on. In this country so many businesses fail. In Kenya, if your business fails, you starve. It does seem to breed certain survival skills in small businesses that our easier environment does not.

However Kenya is now moving towards western taxation systems which create a barrier to poor people starting small businesses. This, in my view, is destroying one of the greatest strengths of the simplicity of their previous taxation system which operated like local government rates in Aotearoa. That is, every land owner paid land tax (like our rates) directly and every tenant paid land tax indirectly through their rent. So everyone paid taxes. However no one paid income tax, GST or any of the other things which create so much of a headache for small business people here. So in Kenya, back in February 2024 when I visited, anyone could sell anything and every cent (except their Mobile Wallet account fees) was theirs.  In a nation in which the vast majority of professionally qualified young people will not get jobs in the areas in which they have trained it is critical to remove barriers to people starting businesses. 

Hope is about having power to change your situation. Giving hope to people who are poor is about giving them that power.            

In a previous post I spoke of loving our neighbour AS we love ourselves not AFTER we love ourselves. My point was that the second greatest "commandment" in the Jewish Torah as taught by Jesus is not about giving others our leftovers. It is not about satisfying all that we consider as our needs, first, then seeing what we have left to respond to others' needs.  Nor is it about giving enough to "charities" to feel less guilty, to feel we are generous. It really is about setting others life realities beside ours and exposing ourselves to the challenging question, "Is it appropriate for me to spend this money on this "need" when my friends are facing this level of deprivation?

Having said that there is wisdom in taking care of our own needs first, literally first, as the safety instructions on an airline tell us, "If a mask appears in front of you, put your mask on first, and then help others." And to make the point, the "other" in the picture is usually a child, one whom a parent might instinctively help first.  Why take care of your own mask first? Because, if you don't, you will likely die and will be no use to anyone, whereas if you do, both you and your child may survive. 
 
Over the past months I have demonstrated in a negative way the consequences of not "putting on my own mask first."  I have responded to others' needs in a way I felt compelled by love to do and have ended up in such a tight spot financially that I am now no use to anyone. I am having to focus solely on sorting out my own financial mess. 

So I'm learning that part of "putting my own mask on first" is not borrowing from the future. There are always unexpected costs, whether with a car or when travelling, or medical costs, or....one needs to assume things will cost more than anticipated. One approach is to set aside a generous "rainy day" fund which one does not "dip into" for others but only for unexpected costs of one's own. Would I have the self-discipline to leave such a fund alone? When faced with a friend in real crisis? Honestly I don't know.  Where I went badly wrong though, was that I did have some generous amounts set aside for my car and for my trip to Kenya. But when faced with others' needs, I trimmed those budgets down and down and gave away money I later found I needed. 

So perhaps for me a better approach than a "rainy day" fund is to simply budget generously for the future and then, if money budgeted is not required, it may be transferred to the "philanthropy" fund. Somehow, if you are soft hearted like me, you need to create a wall between money for philanthropic giving and money for personal needs.

This doesn't absolve one from treating others needs as just as important as one's own. For me it is as basic as whether I go out for a coffee when a friend in Kenya hasn't even been able to eat cabbage for several weeks, only beans and maize day after day.  I have promised myself that coffee when my friend's situation improves a little. 

I am not suggesting legalism. If your mental health demands a coffee or a visit to your local pub, then that might be "putting your mask on first."  There is a difference, though, between real needs and habitual extravagances we allow to swallow up money which could be relieving the suffering of our friends.        

I haven't written a blog for some time as I have  been in Kenya for the whole of February with no access to internet on my laptop. Being in Kenya was a real eye opener to the issues people face in many so called "developing" nations. Despite doing my best to befriend and respond to the needs of friends in Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan there was much they would tell me about their daily realities that I still fed through the lens of my privileged experience living in Aotearoa. Kenya is more prosperous than many African nations yet I had no comprehension of how difficult and costly transport is there. Many people do not own cars but travel in a matatu or minibus which might be designed to carry 14 people but would somehow fit as many as 20 or more people were waiting beside the road. Alternatively one could pay more for a private driver who would likely be one of the many qualified professionals who could find no work fitting their university training so driving becomes their means of survival. And that is the other reality. There is no unemployment benefit yet a great deal of unemployment. So many people are out in the towns selling fruit or clothes or whatever they can to scratch together a living. The wealth pyramid in Kenya reminds me of stories of the Roman Empire in which the vast majority of people were very poor. Then a relatively small number ranged from having secure employment and income through to the obscenely wealthy old families of Rome with the Emperor at the top of pyramid.

Sadly, some of the obscenely wealthy in Kenya are "Christian" ministers who pressure people who are living in poverty to give so they can live in luxury. A favourite Biblical source of support for this seems to be the book of the prophet Malachi who addressed the opposite situation of a wealthy and complacent Jewish community who were neglecting the tithe which paid for the upkeep of the temple and the livelihood of the priesthood. So it was entirely proper to challenge such a community. To apply such a message to justify wealthy clergy and huge money spent on building programmes when a congregation is living in poverty is nothing short of obscene. The "offertory" in Kenyan Churches is a very public affair with people coming forward, placing their gift in the large bag placed on the altar for this purpose and a leader calling out the amount given by each person and everyone clapping. In fact, if the congregation fails to clap, they will be instructed to do so. I'm not quite clear how this is seen as obeying Jesus teaching in Matthew 6:1-4. 

I dream of a day when African Churches will take offerings for the purpose the Early Church did so, so the Deacons can distribute money daily to empower poor people to change their situations.