The glory of God is a human being fully alive.(St. Irenaeus)
His Holiness Pope Francis issued a message on the World Day of the Poor, 19 November 2023.
He reminds the world that, “A great river of poverty is traversing our cities and swelling to the point of overflowing; it seems to overwhelm us, so great are the needs of our brothers and sisters who plead for our help, support and solidarity.” The Pope qualifies his message with a Biblical quote. “Do not turn your face away from anyone who is poor” (Tob. 4:7)
Poverty is the symptom of a social disease. St. Irenaeus says “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.(St. Irenaeus).
God did not create human beings to leaf a miserable life either in this world or in the next. Nor did he intend that the socio-economic set up of human communities are such that the resources of such communities or of the world remain accumulated in the hands of a few, while most others remain poor, disadvantaged, or even without the bare necessities of life.
The Pope calls for charity and support. Charity to those in need when all normal rightful avenues are closed. Yes, charity, seen as fellowship and reaching out without condescending, without making the poor feel that they are victims of our help. Not worldly charity under the glare of cameras!
Supporting the poor will mean, all the more, being in solidairty, lending our voice to question why some are poor when the world’s resources are accumulated or hoarded in the hands of a few. It will mean searching with them for a genuine and lasting solution.
According to Forbes’ World’s Billionaires list, “the 25 richest people in the world are worth a collective $2.1 trillion.
The United Nations University reports that “the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total. The bottom half of the world adult population owned 1% of global wealth.”
The 2021 Oxfam report found that, collectively, the 10 richest men in the world owned more than the combined wealth of the bottom 3.1 billion people, almost half of the entire world population. Their combined wealth doubled during the pandemic.
In the Indian scenario, according to Oxfam, the top 1% owned more than 40.5% of India’s total wealth in 2021. “In 2022, the number of billionaires in the country increased to 166 from from 102 in 2020”. It also pointed out the disturbing scenario that the poor in India “are unable to afford even basic necessities to survive”.
The report – Survival of The Richest – was released at the World Econonomic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The report highlighted the large disparity in wealth distribution in India. “More than 40% of the wealth created in the country from 2012 to 2021 had gone to just 1% of the population while only 3% had trickled down to the bottom 50%.
In 2022, the wealth of India’s richest man Gautam Adani increased by 46%, while the combined wealth of India’s 100 richest had touched $660bn.
Today we have Adani’s private kingdom, India’s multinational conglomerate, which has taken over India’s public sector.
Started in 1988 as a commodity trading business, Adani Group’s businesses includes port management, electric power generation and transmission, renewable energy, mining, airport operations, natural gas, natural resources, food processing and infrastructure. Adani runs his business mostly with money taken in crores as loan from Indian banks.
More than 60 percent of Adani Group’s revenue is derived from coal-related businesses.
India’s richest airport operator, Adani has invaded the food and food processing sector too. Like the Tata conglomerate, with its 100 companies, controlling even the salt business alongside power, information system, chemicals, consumer products etc.
Many of richest have decamped from India with hefty loans from Indian banks and are sunbathing on foreign shores. Billions of crores of illegal Indian money stacked in Swiss banks and offshore Shell companies tell us the story of a failed state that wants to let our billionaires flourish while keeping the poor people’s mouth shut with freebies, welfare fodder and false promises.
“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”
-(Dom Helder Camara, Brazilian Archbishop, declared Servant of God in 2015).
