It certainly is not life as we know it. Poverty is everywhere. Very little in the way of an economy. It’s not much like the “bubble world” we live in. In America we take it for granted that we can go to the grocery store and buy whatever we want, whenever we want. Hey, we even have 24 hour grocery access. Most people in Tanzania would faint at the very thought of this. We have our Tivo, our Blackberries, our microwaves, our expensive Lexus or BMW, our constant electricity, our gas heat, our prebuilt insulated homes. We live in a very insulated world…our “bubble world”. To most the outside world almost doesn’t exist. It doesn’t matter to many. I once had an attorney friend ask me: “It does not affect you directly in your own life, so why do you care?” That attitude is the exact opposite of what Jesus taught. He taught us to love our neighbors as ourselves and to lend aid to those in need. I reject the attitude of my attorney (friend?) and other like him. What we are doing here in Tanzania is only like an ice cube that is being chipped off the top of an iceberg... but it's a start.
Ok, you might say: “You’re complaining about the problem, now present me with a solution”. Well, here goes nothing… It starts at the top of Tanzania and other countries like it and rolls on down to the local government and grassroots levels. There is wealth at the top of every national government. It is up to that government to choose how to use it.
The Tanzanian government could choose to use that wealth to focus on infrastructure development and through aid from the world bank do the same. The governments of these poorer countries could decide to inject capital into their economies and utilize their natural resources to build agriculture, mining and/or other industries. The sad reality is that many in power in these countries choose not to aggressively move down this path and instead seek only power, control and their own comfortable existence. They probably have the attitude of: “Hey, it doesn’t affect me directly, so why should I care?”. There is no easy solution to all of this. I can only try to follow Jesus and put into practice what he taught us to do to the best of my ability.
Imagine if all peoples of the world took the attitude of the missionary and not the attitude of the attorney mentioned above. What a wonderful world it would be.
Dave Bogumil
Ok, you might say: “You’re complaining about the problem, now present me with a solution”. Well, here goes nothing… It starts at the top of Tanzania and other countries like it and rolls on down to the local government and grassroots levels. There is wealth at the top of every national government. It is up to that government to choose how to use it.
The Tanzanian government could choose to use that wealth to focus on infrastructure development and through aid from the world bank do the same. The governments of these poorer countries could decide to inject capital into their economies and utilize their natural resources to build agriculture, mining and/or other industries. The sad reality is that many in power in these countries choose not to aggressively move down this path and instead seek only power, control and their own comfortable existence. They probably have the attitude of: “Hey, it doesn’t affect me directly, so why should I care?”. There is no easy solution to all of this. I can only try to follow Jesus and put into practice what he taught us to do to the best of my ability.
Imagine if all peoples of the world took the attitude of the missionary and not the attitude of the attorney mentioned above. What a wonderful world it would be.
Dave Bogumil
Well said.
ReplyDeleteClaudia