Drought, famine, disease and pestilence

Sudan, Somalia, parts of Kenya, Ethiopia, the list of countries facing the grim reaper due to drought and subsequent crop failure or warlords and oppression, is depressingly long; and that's only Africa.

Redundant in twenty years?

Back in the 1980s (so I recall) we had the Brandt Commission to look at world poverty and starvation and to come up with some suggestions as to how the wealthier nations could support the third world developing world emerging world (that's the latest pc descriptor).

The commission (under the steer of Herr Willy Brandt) came up with a series of suggestions as you would expect but one in particular has stuck in my memory (and not many things do these days).

It was the suggestion that the 'civilised' world create a tax per head of population - not a big tax as I recall, in fact, I think it was pennies; but this tax would be levied every year.

Like most tax ideas it went as far as the round file and all forgot about it pdq except for moi.

I like the idea of a compulsory tax aimed at totally eradicating world poverty say, in a 20 year time frame. I do not like the idea of the British Government giving our hard won dosh to countries that, to my mind, do not meet the description of starving and impoverished; I believe at present we contribute to countries such as Malaysia and China and, in my book, they should be able to look after their own.

But a yearly tax of, let us say, £1 per head of population (excluding the unemployed but only the unemployed) would yield a massive

£1 billion pounds! That's 1.6266 billion US dollars. Of course that's not just Great Britain, it must come from all of the European and English speaking world. So I calculate, very roughly, that the total population of GB., USA., Mainland Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand is c. 1.225 billion, lose 20% as being unemployed and you are left with the mathematically convenient sum of £1,000,000,000.

Now, multiply that over a twenty year perid and you have a grand total of........an awful lot of noughts and cash!

Next comes stage two; Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith had a good article in The Catholic Herald recently covering the sound strategy of providing foreign aid in the form of vouchers rather than foodstuffs or implements which are promptly nabbed by the warlords who get rich on the back of their fellow countrymen's misfortunes. The vouchers help support the local economy and slowly the wheels of feeding the hungry start to roll.

But, of course, the income from taxation must be put to many uses remembering the old adage, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for one day; teach him how to fish and you feed him for life". It would be essential to create an comprehensive and lasting infrastructure; roads, railways, irrigation, reservoirs, anti erosion planting schemes, cooperatives, training (especially training) and so on.

This all sounds very simplistic I agree but it is, in essence, one of the main thrusts produced by the Brandt Commission so better minds than mine have thought this through. It should be possible to tackle one or two countries each year and maybe, just maybe, after twenty or thirty years one could say that there is no longer an emerging world but rather an emerged world.

The burning question is: would the European and English speaking communities of the world stand for an annual tax? I think that they would; after all, £1  or 1.6 US dollars is not too much to pay to have all those images of emaciated, dying children and pot-bellied infants removed for ever from our television screens.

Is it?

Feeding the birds is not peanuts!

One of my greatest pleasures is to encourage birds of many varieties into my garden. I grow the right sort of shrubs and trees to provide habitat, feature ponds and water elements so that they may not go thirsty and.....I offer food in the form of nuts and seeds of divers kinds, in order to keep them free from starvation and able to reproduce fully in the season.

"The Somalis only get rotting rice grains"

But, it all costs money and when I watch the television news and see children dying for lack of food in Somalia, the Sudan, Ethiopia and all points east of London, my conscience begins to simmer.

Love of our fellow man is the second most important commandment; The scriptures do not say: "feed my goldfinches and woodpeckers." In fact, quite the opposite:

Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they?

In all honesty I am unable to continue to fully support the birds, my fellow man is crying out for help and what sort of Catholic would I be to ignore their pleas?
When I die and stand before God almighty and He says to me: "My Son, how have you looked after your fellow man, the poor, the homeless, the starving?" Am I going to say to my Saviour: "Well, I provided some 300 lbs of peanuts and I don't know how many coconuts for the bluetits in my garden over the years". I don't think so.
Instead, I hope to be able to say: "My Lord and all, I have given a bit of what I have earned to those most in need but (and this is the real point) I also spent a small bit of dosh on birdseed and the like because looking after some of your lesser creatures helped to keep me sane and in touch with You, the Lord and Maker of all.

God knows that we are weak and fallible and that we need foibles to prop ourselves up. The odd pint of beer, an occasional flutter on the horses, maybe, even the odd Monte Cristo, a rare supper for two at the restaurant of your choice, a few pounds of sunflower or niger seeds; these are all part of our support mechanisms that keep us going. Keep us able to earn real money so that we may also provide for those less fortunate. We are, after all, only human. we cannot all be saints. We do need to have some form of secular pleasure, pray that it is in the form of buying birdfood rather than TV watching!

'All in moderation' is the watch phrase but also: 'Feed the poor and the homeless'.