Santa and Austerity

The Vatican is installing showers for the homeless at public toilets just off St Peter's Square.

Pope Francis is raffling off unwanted gifts to raise money for the homeless.  The Argentinean pope - who chose his papal name in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi and his devotion to the poor - has cast off luxuries such as the ermine-trimmed cape and red shoes worn by his predecessor, Benedict XVI, and focused on helping the down-and-out. He has opted out of moving from his modest apartment into the spacious papal palace.

In February, the 77-year-old pope sold off his Harley-Davidson - worth about €15000 euros and inscribed with his name - for €241500 at a Paris auction, giving the proceeds to a hostel and soup kitchen in Rome.


Meanwhile, in Mpumalanga, the provincial legislature this week rejected a motion by the loyal opposition to cut catering expenditure by half.  The catering budget had been increased to an estimated R11.5 million this year from R4.5-million in the 2013-2014 financial year.

This goes against the attempts of the speaker of the legislature, Thandi Shongwe, to curtail escalating expenses, including that of catering.  Legislature members are currently treated to full English breakfasts and lunches. If a legislature meeting goes on after 4pm, politicians are treated to platters of finger foods.

Basil Kransdorff, whose company Econocom Foods makes fortified school meals, said the money spent by the Mpumalanga legislature and Tshwane on catering could have funded 30 million food parcels – for 10 million children, three meals a day for a month, giving them the strength to learn.  He said there was a worrying number of children in South Africa practically starving:

"Rural areas are particularly affected, with the only meal that a large number of children receive being what they get at school."

"Many of our children, especially orphans, starve during school holidays. We have reports of children having to boil grass to fill their stomachs to stave off hunger."

"All that will happen now is that a very small number of people will become very obese."

The Treatment Action Campaign general secretary, Anele Yawa, slammed the spending:

"People in Mpumalanga are suffering but instead of spending money on improving crumbling health facilities, they treat the province's people like used condoms. They use them once, when they need them for votes, and then flush them down a toilet like a used condom."

"We need to ask how many HIV-prevention programmes could have been rolled out and how many lives could have potentially been saved."

"Instead of being concerned about saving lives, our leaders are more interested in their stomachs. It is spent on people who have medical aids, pensions and homes."

Loyal opposition spokesman Anthony Bernadie said:

"The speaker indicated that in the current financial year the catering budget must be cut from R10-million to R5-million.  But she didn't table any kind of mechanism that could be used to cut R5-million."

"We have been fighting these free meals for years. We tabled a formal proposal to the office of the speaker and yesterday, during the sitting we tabled a motion supporting the speaker in her proposal that the catering budget be cut."  

He said his party proposed that meals be subsidised or that members pay 100% for them. 

"That's when the ANC voted against our proposal."

The Gospel of John the Baptist
Advent is the season that precedes Christmas, just like the last of the great Hebrew prophets – John the Baptist - preceded Jesus, the first and foremost, who heralded a new era.

Why did John baptize? (Even Jesus went to the River Jordan to be baptized by him.)

What was John’s message?

Please during Advent can we come to terms with John’s important message?  It was not eclipsed by Jesus, who was a great admirer of this prophet.  Jesus said that John was the greatest man that ever lived, even though he was a recluse, and in the eyes of those in power - a renegade.

The Qur'an speaks of John's gentle pity and love and his humble attitude towards life, for which he was granted the Purity of Life:

“And piety as from Us, and purity: He was devout,
And kind to his parents, and he was not overbearing or rebellious.
So Peace on him the day he was born, the day that he dies,
and the day that he will be raised up to life (again)!” 

—Qur'an, sura 19 (Maryam), ayah 13–15[45]

John was a classical prophet, sort of like “spokespersons” are today, for high profile parties or movements. He spoke out boldly, denouncing both people and issues.  These were not just platitudes, either, he was up close and personal… one of those guys that you either love or you hate.  Luke offers a glimpse of John’s style and message:

“Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming retribution?  Produce fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not start telling yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ because, I tell you, God can raise children for Abraham from these stones. Yes, even now the axe is being laid to the root of the trees, so that any tree failing to produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown on the fire."

When all the people asked him, “What must we do, then?” He answered, “Anyone who has two tunics must share with the one who has none, and anyone with something to eat must do the same.” 

There were tax collectors, too, who came for baptism, and these said to him, “Master, what must we do?”  He said to them: “Exact no more than the appointed rate.” 

Some soldiers asked him in their turn, “What about us? What must we do?” He said to them, “No intimidation! No extortion! Be content with your pay!”

Corruption and waste are two distinct issues.  Both themes need to be addressed in our time and setting, and not only by austerity but by public exposure.  John the Baptist would have had harsh words for the Mpumalanga legislature, I’m sure.  (Would his head have ended up on one of its platters?)  And it sounds to me like Pope Francis has taken to heart that actions speak louder than words, and that he is taking repentance to scale, as John the Baptist taught.

Thinking Together

An old adage says that the secret to marriage is not in thinking alike, but in thinking together.  Partners in marriage may not agree on everything, but if communication breaks between them, the marriage can fall apart.

This line of thinking needs to be applied to the next 2 elections in South Africa – the local elections in 2016 and the next national elections in 2019.  In any democracy you get checks and balances not only from the division of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches.  You also get it from different levels of government – national, provincial and municipal.  In South Africa there are really only two moments of choice for voters – national and local.  Because provincial legislatures stem from the national voting results, and premiers are even ministers in the national cabinet.

Two articles in the press this week really hit this home.  The first was written by Andrew Chirwa, the chairman of NUMSA.  It is a key player in COSATU which is one of the three forces in the “ruling alliance”.  However, it has begun to raise questions of late about WHY the trade unions – normally leftist - are in a centrist government?  His article points the finger at one of COSATU’s allies in the tripartite alliance, the Communist party.  The article is titled “SACP is leading the Inkandla cover”.  It is a brutal expose.  It ends with the following 3 paragraphs:

“The SACP has had to formulate a theory for its rotten political practices. In a political programme adopted at its national congress in July 2012, it identified two “opponents” that had to be defeated: first, the “new tendency”, which it described as “a populist, bourgeois nationalist ideological tendency with deeply worrying demagogic, proto-fascist features”, and, second, what the party calls “liberal constitutionalism”.
 
“The “new tendency” referred to the ANC Youth League rump led by Julius Malema.
 
“Liberal constitutionalism” included those who insist on good governance, the rule of law and action against corruption.”
 
This is very insightful.  The two largest opposition parties – the Economic Freedom Fighters and the Democratic Alliance should NOT in my opinion be seen as the left and right poles, on either side of centre, occupied by the ANC.  The reasons why are best explained by Mzukisi Qobo writing in the Sowetan.  His article is titled “SA caught between two extremes”.  Here follow a few excerpts:

“There is, on the one hand, the Democratic Alliance, which has a long history on the opposition benches, and remains a significant numerical force, although its clout as an alternative government is fast diminishing.  It relies, in the main, on reformist strategies to tackle the governing party.  It has largely used legal channels to hold the ANC to account.”

“On the other hand is the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), whose youthfulness is its greatest asset.  Many of its leaders come from a tradition that prizes slogans, rhetoric and militancy – all cultural repertoires of the struggle that used to be associated with the ANC and other grassroots movements.  Remarkably, the EFF has succeeded in hogging the political limelight even though it is still in its infancy.  This has been made possible precisely because its symbolism and militancy resonate deeply with the frustrations of a significant section of the black majority.

“Historically, expressive forms of protests have always captured the imagination of blacks in South Africa until the ANC and the National Party government set the dynamic of elite negotiations in motion in the early 1990s to end apartheid. 

“SA’s experience of an elitist outcome of political transition is nothing unique.  To borrow from Vaclav Havel’s work The Power of the Powerless, beyond its formalism in setting out rights and responsibilities, the constitution has limits to guaranteeing a rich, humane and dignified life.  Havel suggests that constitutions limit themselves to whether or not the laws are upheld rather than improving the quality of life substantively.

“That there is no consistent logic in the radical policy propositions of the EFF is something that is overlooked by many who are blinded by its messianic illusion.  Equally, socio-economic change through the DA is more of a fairy tale.

“In the wake of its parliamentary theatrics, the EFF received greater applause that the DA got for extracting the spy tapes – though the latter had more tangible outcomes.  For our politics to be redeemed from the current extremes in the opposition, there remains a need for a strong voice of moderation on the left to champion the urgent issues of social justice alongside the imperative of defending our fragile constitution.”

In closing, he raises the prospect that real change may only come from a “powerful social agency in the civic sphere”.  These are almost exactly my views, for the very same reasons.  EFF and DA are like two strong oxen pulling the cart of the “loyal opposition”.  But they need to start pulling together, and in one and the same direction.  How will that ever happen?  Who can possibly put their hand to such a plow?

I sense that faith groups can do this.  Not by forming a Coalition, but simply by voicing a demand for both social justice and constitutionalism.  Government has shown repeatedly that its once noble ideals have given way to elitism and triumphalism.  A prophetic voice must be heard again, crying in the veld…

St Francis of Assisi has been a huge influence in the Catholic and mainline churches.  The first Pope from the South symbolically adopted his name.  This suggests an intention to prioritize Poverty, as John Paul the Polish Pope addressed Communism.  Most Reformation churches adhere to the Lausanne Covenant which adopted the slogan “Live simply, so that others can simply live.”

Faith groups, churches mainline and African-initiated, Christian families and individuals could provide mortar to bond the red EFF and blue DA bricks together.  There are old and new movements pushing in this direction already.  For example, the “secular Franciscans” and also Unashamedly Ethical.  There was once a group in the USA called the “Moral Majority”, whose political influence was felt in the politics of that democracy.  South Africa needs voices like that at this juncture.

Even the force of prayer should not be under-estimated in this regard.  One hadith says that Mohammed taught that the prayers of a person who prayed and gossiped at the same time were interrupted for 40 days.  The point is, don’t invade other people’s privacy, for they even have a constitutional right to it.  Don’t practice habits that are unethical and self-serving.  Equality stems from such holy values, because the focus on health (i.e. shalom) can displace the focus on wealth.

If we pray and act for BOTH social justice and the rule of law, and intentionally so, while at the same time doing a self-audit of our lifestyle and practice, we will be drawing the two powerful oxen together to pull one and the same plow, in the same direction.

Oliver Tambo said that a nation that doesn’t think of its youth doesn’t have a future – and doesn’t deserve one.  The triple-conundrum of poverty, unemployment and inequality is a time bomb, because it is youth-centred.  Every species protects and nourishes its young.  The resources of this country are concentrated in the hands of older people, black and white.  The time has come to be “unashamedly ethical” and also to “live simply, so that others can simply live” - namely, our youth.

Affluence Extremism

I coined the phrase “affluence extremism” for the title of the last C4L bulletin.  It was a counter-balance to the allegation that Pope Francis must be a Marxist for using terms like, “unfettered capitalism”, and “a new tyranny” and “the new idolatry of money”.

Since then I went to see a movie called The Wolf of Wall Street.  Without suggesting that all rich people live in that kind of depravity, he lived very extravagantly.  He extended the roof of his personal yacht to make it a helicopter pad.  To smuggle cash out of the country he literally taped it like football pads around the arms and legs of his “mules” before they headed through Customs at the airport.  He mocked his investigators because their salaries were so low they had to travel by subway to meet him. 

Reviews of the film raise questions about its excesses.  Director Scorcose contends that this was done to expose “affluence extremism” not to condone it.  But like the “conversion films” of earlier generations, most of the entertainment focuses on the story before they say the prayer of repentance, not after.  Then suddenly… they live happily ever after.

Now I am looking forward to seeing another move – Twelve Years a Slave.  Although it takes place in another era (the 1850s instead of the 1990s) it is once again about a depraved system.  A wealthy free black man gets captured in the USA and sold into slavery in another state.  His brutal master, who is evil personified, resists social change.  No doubt if he were alive today he would call Pope Francis a Marxist!

What I have recognized is that today’s economic imbalances between rich and poor, North and South, even still men and women, and in South Africa whites and blacks - are systemic like Slavery was.  Change agents are needed, like the Abolitionists and later the Suffragettes.  Calling them “Marxists” says more about yourself than about them!

Saying No to both Socialism and Capitalism?

As both Left and Right crowd around the Centre, the question is whether “welfare capitalism” and “market socialism” are the only two options?  Market socialism brought New Labour and Tony Blair to the fore, and welfare capitalism brought you George Bush and his PEPFAR – said to be the biggest gift ever given (to fight HIV/AIDS).

Radical centrism
I am getting to the age where I can start quoting myself… here is something I wrote in 1988 in my book Thinking Communally, Acting Personally (page 136):  “One new agenda - communitarianism - is gaining momentum. According to one advocate, Amitai Etzioni, “radical individualists confuse the right to be free from government intrusion with a nonexistent right to be free from the moral scrutiny of one’s peer and community...  Communitarians, in other words, differ from classical liberals (known confusingly in America as conservatives) by challenging the idea that individual self-interest is a decent basis for a society. But they differ from socialists in championing small social units: the family, neighborhoods, school, churches...”  

But “ideological communitarianism” is still centrist, because it combines leftism on economic issues with moralism or conservatism on social issues.

In the book Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam observed that nearly every form of civic organization has undergone drops in membership exemplified by the fact that, while more people are bowling than in the 1950s, there are fewer bowling leagues.  This results in a decline in “social capital”, described by Putnam as “the collective value of all ‘social networks’ and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other”. According to Putnam and his followers, social capital is a key component to building and maintaining democracy.  So Communitarians seek to bolster social capital and the institutions of the third sector or Civil Society.

The Occupy Movement (Indignados)
Also called the 99 Percent Movement, this was sparked in 2011 by Occupy Wall Street in response to what I call “affluence extremism”.  Its manifesto started as follows:

“As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.”

Marxist scholar John Holloway asserted that you can “change the world without taking power”. However, many in the new generation of activists have become painfully aware that in order to achieve real change you also need to take power; that in order to really scare the 1%, you also need to occupy the state.  So some veterans of the Occupy Movement are considering a turn towards electoral politics. This change of direction reflects an increasing awareness that there is a limit to what you can do out of Civil Society.

Zapatistas
Fighter Andile Mngxitama wrote: “The indigenous people of Mexico declared a different path and very boldly told the world: “We are going to rise up to overthrow the supreme governments, to overthrow corrupt officials, to throw the rich and powerful out of this country and begin building a new Mexico with humble, simple people.”

“The Zapatistas refused to choose between two bad systems: they proclaimed dissidence to both Capitalism and Stalinism. They denounced the party and the cult of the leader, and even state power.  John Holloway's book Changing the World Without Taking Power can be read as the Zapatista manifesto.

“The Zapatistas, consistent with their new ideology against money and power, refused to participate in the mainstream political process to try to take power.  Instead, they formed their own autonomous governments, which get no assistance from the Mexico state.  This experience is not without weakness and hardships; the indigenous people have gained visibility but not economic or cultural freedom.  Twenty years later, they remain under attack and are all but quarantined in their territories.”

Economic Freedom Fighters
The front page story in today’s Saturday Star is about Wiekus Kotze, an Afrikaner who was so impressed by Nelson Mandela that 20 years ago he joined the ANC and has voted for them in 3 elections.  But he has just switched allegiances - to the party of Julius Malema.  He is now wearing a read beret.  Why?  He feels that the ANC is not closing the gap between rich and poor, largely because of all the self-enrichment going on.  He sees Malema as a visionary like Mandela who is talking sense and has the courage to challenge the status quo.

Charity Begins at Home

I am not an economist.  Nor am I a latter-day John the Baptist.  But I have to say a bit more about the two themes of “affluence extremism” and Inequality that are still on my mind…

Here, I learned that:

• The 100 top paid CEOs in America earn an average income of  $13.9 million per year
• The top paid 350 executives earn an average annual income of  $11.7 million
• The average income in America is $35,000
• The rate of income for those top 350 executives is 331 times higher than what most people earn
• The top 1% of the population earns 60% of the income

The April 18th 2014 interview focuses on a book by French author Thomas Piketty called CAPITAL.  This book maps the concentration of inherited wealth and suggests that an Oligarchy is emerging.  This is because of the disproportionate influence on policymaking that wealthy families have, because they have the money to lobby in the corridors of power.  This is undermining Democracy, in the sense that while ordinary wage earners may be able to vote, they have little impact on public policy formulation.

The Economist recently ran a cover story about Capitalist Cronyism.  Please note that the two words are reversed – pointing to this same phenomenon.  It is no longer ad hoc, it is entrenched.

An interesting trend is that while investors can earn about 4 or 5% on their capital, economies are only growing at about 2 or 3%.  In other words, private wealth is being stashed away by those who already have plenty.  While economies are growing too slowly even to catch up with the rush of school leavers into the work force.  The result is high rates of unemployment or underemployment, while the gap keeps widening between haves and have-nots.

Here is what I wrote in the last C4L Bulletin on April 22nd:

“The gospel of neoliberalism, brought to you by Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher, said that lowering taxes would stimulate economic growth.  Business would experience that “my cup runneth over” – and that would cause plenty of “trickle-down”.  

“Pope Francis pointed out that the problem with this approach is that they keep making the cup bigger!  His metaphor is instructive.  Neither do I see it as only governments that do this, slowing the trickle-down effect.”

I then got very bold with an attempt to challenge you all (coz Bill Gates and Warren Buffet aren’t on my mailing list) to do your part.  Coz charity begins at home:

“Most people gauge their giving by their income - for example, by tithing ten percent of it.  But if you earn 100 000 per year, live on 50 000 and tithe 10 000, then you “store” 40 000 away in investments.  You accumulate wealth by doing this year after year.  What about deploying ten percent of your wealth for development, as well as ten percent of your income?  That would make the cup smaller, and increase the trickle-down.  We all need to do more, because the gap is getting wider as the trickle-down dries up.”

Well the best response that I got to that Bulletin so far was when one of you sent me the above link today.  Thank you old friend!  It makes me realize that you out there are thinking about what this voice crying in the wilderness says.

Do you remember that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission here in South Africa made a number of recommendations to government how to redress past imbalances?  One was a once-off wealth tax.  Desmond Tutu has recently lamented that this was never implemented, and I second the emotion.  Redistribution is clearly needed – but how?

Let me come back to that question: What about deploying ten percent of your wealth for development, as well as ten percent of your income?

If you are up to this, I can put you in touch with a bona fide investment broker in Canada, although your own broker could do it as well...

Put aside ten percent of your wealth.  I mean the accumulation, on your balance sheet, not the tithe on your annual income.  You are not giving it away, it still belongs to you.  Invest it for a specified period, let’s say a year – until you need it back.  The broker will skim off what she predicts it can earn during the period specified, and release that amount to charity.  Then she grows your capital back to the same amount that you invested, and returns it to you.

This is not the Giving Pledge, where you give away 50% of your wealth.  Coz you are not fabulously wealthy.  But if you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem.  Some people are caught in a web of poverty, and others in a web of affluence.  Please recognize that the system is stacked against the poor.  But you can do something about it, without marching on Wall Street!

If you are up to this, I will make you a pledge.  If C4L is nominated as your charity, we will not give that money away.  We will lend it to poor and unemployed youth to start viable business ventures.  They will pay it back in less than 3 years into a revolving loan fund.  So others can also benefit.  I am speaking about our Chaya microfranchising, which also has nutritional and medicinal benefits, not to mention the job creation and positive impact on food security.

I am talking about voluntary redistribution of wealth.  Not about tithing your income.  Make the cup smaller.  Increase the trickle down.  Then think of the mustard seed, so small, but it grows into a tree that birds can sit in.  You don’t have to be a billionaire to do this!

Viva Contentment, Gratitude and Moderation!

There was a time when these three qualities were extolled as virtues.  Today other forces are displacing them – like entitlement, consumerism and over-exuberance.  So we hear of “lifestyle audits” and even spending ceilings to keep leaders from setting a bad example.  In Canada, when Tommy Douglas was premier, he drove a Dodge – not a Cadillac.  In Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara made the Renault 5 the official car of cabinet ministers, to reduce expenditure on Mercedes limos.  In the past year, Pope Francis has stated that leaders should drive “humble cars”.  He has declined to move into the Vatican Palace and is leading by example.  Actions speak louder than words.

On my recent trip to Canada, the Premier of Alberta had to resign for making extravagant plans for a penthouse suite at the top of a government building.  The planning did not follow normal channels.  In South Africa, this is exactly what happened at Nkandla.  Yet here the President’s party did not ditch him, as hers did in Alberta, in spite of very clear outcomes of an investigation done by the ombudsman known as the Public Protector.


Contentment

Consumerism is the more modern, North American version of Capitalism.  It is quite different from the older European version, in which wealth accumulated tended to be re-invested rather than spent.  In fact, Consumerism was resisted in Europe at first, in the post-war years.  It was regarded as gauche.  But it prevailed.  In this version, people are encouraged to be spenders not savers.  The medium for this is called Marketing.  How can Marketing work where there is contentment, gratitude and moderation?

The chickens have come home to roost.  According to Sampie Terreblanche, it was high levels of consumer debt and government deficits led to the global economic slow-down that he calls the Great Recession (from 2008).  He links this to both bail-outs of companies that were “too large to fail” and to an increase in corruption and corporate criminality.  Again on my recent trip to Canada, I found that scandals in politics are not just a South African phenomenon! 

Terreblanche writes: “The ideologies of neoliberal globalism and market fundamentalism that were sold so triumphantly – and arrogantly – to South Africa by the Americans in the early 1990s now stand thoroughly discredited.” (p 35, Lost in Transformation).

I am a missionary not an economist.  But on both sides of the Atlantic, I would like to see more redistribution of wealth – poor people living with more and rich people living with less.  In South Africa, the legacy of neoliberalism is inequality.  Some people have become fabulously wealthy, while most people have not felt an improvement in their lifestyle.  This imbalance needs to be corrected… there is just no question about it.


Gratitude

The gospel of neoliberalism, brought to you by Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher, said that lowering taxes would stimulate economic growth.  Business would experience that “my cup runneth over” – and that would cause plenty of “trickle-down”.  This is where the nonprofit sector comes into Democracy.  It is there to carry social benefits on through what in South Africa is called CSI (Corporate Social Investment).  In this way companies express their gratitude to society by having a double bottom line – financial and social.  They fund registered NGOs to provide care to the marginalized – those who fall through the cracks of the economy - like the unemployed and the destitute.

Pope Francis pointed out that the problem with this approach is that they keep making the cup bigger!  His metaphor is instructive.  Neither do I see it as only governments that do this, slowing the trickle-down effect.  Certainly governments in the North rarely meet their pledges for development assistance, and public servants live on a gravy train where ever you go.

Sharing wealth with others is but a way of expressing thanks for what you have received.  A good example is the Giving Pledge, but it is for millionaires, not for ordinary people.  Do we give enough, as families and individuals? Or is our generosity diminished by the environment of Marketing, that drives people away from the values of contentment, gratitude and moderation?  I have a sense that in the context of Consumerism, there has been a lot of drift from those virtues, and that each of us has a role in making the cup bigger, and thus reducing the trickle-down.  This applies to prosperous South Africans living in a country where disparity is phenomenal – and to those overseas in “the West” whose lifestyles may become an issue to the Great Shepherd when he returns to separate the sheep from the goats.

Moderation

The ancient Stoics espoused this virtue.  It was not Pope Francis who thought it up.  The Lausanne covenant promotes the slogan: Live simply so that others can simply live. 

C4L has scaled down for its own reasons – not so much there is less trickle-down, but because it recognized that it was living beyond its means.  This caused it to go chasing after funding not so much to carry out its mission as to keep the wheels turning.

Some people may see this as slowdown or even failure.  We don’t.  We see it as a sign of the times.  How can we point the finger at government “fat cats” in our Advocacy programming when we ourselves are not ready to redistribute our wealth, especially for the cause that we champion – youth unemployment?

There is a difference between your income and your wealth.  One is your personal Profit and Loss Statement for a month or a year.  The other is your personal Balance Sheet.  Most people gauge their giving by their income - for example, by tithing ten percent of it.  But if you earn 100 000 per year, live on 50 000 and tithe 10 000, then you “store” 40 000 away in investments.  You accumulate wealth by doing this year after year.  What about deploying ten percent of your wealth for development, as well as ten percent of your income?  That would make the cup smaller, and increase the trickle-down.  We all need to do more, because the gap is getting wider as the trickle-down dries up.

Papal Bull or Affluence Extremism?

In a recent article called Radical Pope, Traditional Values, Robert Colderisi quotes the Pope’s assurances in responses to being called a Marxist by Rush Limbaugh:

“Marxist ideology is wrong,” he told the Italian newspaper La Stampa. “But I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people, so I don’t feel offended. There is nothing in the exhortation that cannot be found in the social doctrine of the church.”

Colderisi goes on: Francis’ economic opinions may appear naïve to those more worried about productivity trends and price-earnings ratios than the 10,000 children who die every day from hunger. But his passion and purpose are timely. Last year, the World Bank reported that the number of extreme poor (those making less than $1.25 a day) had dropped in every region of the world, including Africa, but that the number of those living on less than $2 per day — 2.5 billion people, or 43 percent of the population of the developing world — had hardly budged in 30 years. In other words, improvements in public welfare have barely kept pace with population growth, and there is still much to be done to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.

I have often heard that the padres in Mozambique quoted as saying: “Do as I say, not as I do.”  So I am impressed to note that Pope Francis declined to live alone in the Vatican palace.  He opted to live in a simple apartment with 2 others.  His predecessor also did the unthinkable – he retired.  No one is saying so, but this could set a precedent as well.  Actions speak louder than words.  This is not being radical, just pragmatic.

By the way, C4L is following suit.  In our case, we are calling it “co-habitation”.  We have devised a way to stay on the same campus while scaling down.  This converts assets from one kind to another in a way that makes C4L more sustainable.  “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

It has been a tough year all round, not just for C4L.  Even Warren Buffet is poised to report that Berkshire Hathaway, his $292 billion company,  failed to increase net worth more rapidly that the S&P 500 index during the past 5 years.  This will be the first time in 44 years that he falls short of the mark since his 1965 takeover of the firm.

Was Warren Buffet called a Marxist when he endorsed the Giving Pledge?  I like Colderisi’s notion that you can still take radical actions while conserving traditional values.  Some years ago I quoted a film called The Blind Side in a previous C4L Bulletin.  A white wealthy Southern family took in a black street kid.  In one of the most poignant scenes in the film, the family invites “Big Mike” to stay with them permanently, after he has been sleeping on the couch for awhile:

Leigh Anne Touhy: Find some time to figure out another bedroom for you. 

Michael Oher: This is mine? 

Leigh Anne Touhy: Yes, sir. 

Michael Oher: I never had one before.

Leigh Anne Touhy: What, a room to yourself? 

Michael Oher: A bed.

I have to admit to choking up at this point.   Two Bible verses came to mind: “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” and “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”  This is not Marxism, this is generosity.  Do you have a blind side to this?

Greatest Hits

Initially, from 1998, C4L Updates - like this one - served as progress reports.  This is part of C4L’s Advancement and they often takes the form of exhortation.

Then in 2006, these updates began to be interspersed with thematic bulletins.  Most of these were on the theme of Childermas – transforming leadership, so that children are safe.

From 2010, the two aspects of Childermas began to diverge.  Transforming leadership has become the dominant theme; in the past year its focus has narrowed – to Triumphalism vs. Constitutionalism.  As for the second aspect - C4L’s focus has shifted from “child protection” to livelihood security for youth.

Quite a collection of challenging reading materials has emerged!  We now invite you to visit our Drop Box… https://www.dropbox.com/sh/49c1ksy7iw66gs9/StBtCrJvPQ?m

Click on Public Engagement, to find these segregated by theme:

• Altruism, koinonia and philanthropy
• Childermas
• Transforming leadership
• Youth rights

Colerisi wrote: The educational role of the church in the developing world has been powerful and often controversial. “All we want is a labor force,” a colonial governor lamented to missionaries in Madagascar a century ago, “and you’re turning them into human beings.”

To blog or not to blog, that is the question?

Colerisi wrote: In Victorian times, Pope Leo XIII (in office, 1878-1903) was also denounced as a “socialist” when, in 1891, he issued the Catholic Church’s first formal statement on economic and social issues. In “Rerum Novarum,” he called for a living wage, opposed child labor and (a little belatedly) supported the idea of trade unions. Leo’s strong defense of private property in the same letter did not seem to win over critics.

C4L is seeking some feedback from readers of its bulletins, which are written more or less monthly.  The trickle of response we get tends to be very positive and it keeps us going.  In fact we often hear someone say they wish that these bulletins had a broader readership.  Some have suggested blogging, and some have suggested the social media.

We are open to suggestions and contacts.  Perhaps we should syndicate the bulletins as a column?  Or find a publisher?  What are your thoughts?  This could include feedback on which themes you deem most pertinent and useful? On philanthopy?  On leadership?  On youth rights?  Which direction should we take this in?  Just as there are no leaders without followers, there are no authors without readers.  You are stakeholders, please speak up.

Unambiguously Pro-Poor

An article called Mission Schools Opened World to Africans, but Left an Ambiguous Legacy by Samuel G Freedman was published in the New York Times on December 27, 2013.  Here are a few clips:

The accomplishments of mission schools were both intentional and not. Their founders and faculties clearly parted ways with colonial leaders by believing in the educability of black Africans…

“I’m not making missionaries heroes,” said Richard H. Elphick, a historian at Wesleyan University in Connecticut and the author of The Equality of Believers, a book about Protestant missionaries in South Africa. “Missionaries and other white Christians were alarmed by the idea that the equality of all people before God means they should be equal in public life. But the equality of believers is an idea they dropped into South Africa. And it was constantly reinforced in the schools. And that made it a dangerous idea.”

Olufemi Taiwo offered a similarly nuanced endorsement, and he did so from two perspectives: as the product of a mission education in his native Nigeria and as a Cornell University professor with expertise in African studies.

“Under colonialism, there’s a tension between the missions and the colonial authorities,” said Dr. Taiwo, author of the 2010 book How Colonialism Preempted Modernity in Africa. “There was a missionary idea that black people could be modern. And most churches cannot come out and say some people are not human. So you might have a patronizing attitude, but if you don’t think Africans can benefit from education, why would you set up schools?”

Certainly, the model of mission education was not unique to Africa. White American missionaries played a similarly complicated role as emblems of both modernity and noblesse oblige in China before the Communist revolution. Many mission colleges in South Africa modeled their practical courses in industry and agriculture — a curriculum known as differentiated education or adapted education — on those of black schools in the United States such as Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute. 

Unique South African Paradigm

Just as that Chinese Church, planted by missionaries, survived on its own and has emerged as a force in that setting, one cannot lump South Africa together with most other countries in one respect.  The Union of South Africa emerged early in the 20th century by amalgamating some of the Boer Republics with some of the British Colonies.  Other than Ethiopia, which was never colonized, South Africa was really the first state to become recognized as independent.  (Although internally, as we know, it was ruled by a repressive minority, and thus the last to be free.)

But its missiology is unique.  In many Catholic settings – in Latin America or in Quebec – the development paradigm was to build a church in a strategic location – for a town would grow up around it.  Even Europe evolved similarly, with once deep rural monasteries becoming the hub of trade and thus of urbanization in their vicinity.

Afrikanerdom evolved similarly, with the Boer communities building churches with high steeples visible from afar.  Each and every church supported two clergy – the Pastor and the Missionary.  The Boers (Afrikans for “farmers”) in the church’s catchment area were visited regularly by the Pastor.  An aside is than many farmhouses had a “parson’s lounge” that was only used on such occasions; the rest of the time the family would socialize in either the kitchen or a “family room”.

On these visits, the Missionary would also come along.  But his ministry was to “the blacks”.  So while the Pastor met the white family, the Missionary ministered to the farm workers – evangelizing, teaching and counseling.  This is why all South African cultures have become so thoroughly saturated with the Gospel.  Even more so than in the better known paradigm of a Mission school in a deep rural part of Africa – like Fort Hare where Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Chris Hani, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Robert Sobukwe and Robert Mugabe all studied.  That more familiar paradigm provided some access to education for selected Africans who eventually became part of the elite.  Whereas the Dutch Reformed church basically had much broader coverage – on a farm to farm basis.  South Africa was thus deeply Christianized, even while deeply divided racially.


The Equality of Believers

Once more the chickens are coming home to roost - on the theme of Disparity or Inequity.  And once again, there is a dialectic… for example, Pope Francis I has spoken out about this issue globally; there is too much Disparity between rich and poor, generally.  Surely there is significance in his choice of name – honouring St Francis of Assisi. 

But in South Africa, the peculiarity is that this tends to line up along the usual fault lines of race.  Not entirely, though, as a black middle class is growing.  You often hear references to “black diamonds” or to “Buppies” (black urban professionals).  Some say that this suggests that apartheid is being replaced by a class system – black diamonds on top, then Buppies in the upper middle class, then the middle class, then the working class (represented largely by COSATU), with an underclass of the unemployed.

Once more, white Christians in South Africa are in an enclave.  Whether that will some day become a white ghetto that they cannot escape depends on whether and how they can cease to be patronizing and rather promote wealth generation projects – particularly among the unemployed.

The Indian community has been present in South Africa for much longer than whites.  It somehow manages to both remain distinct and engaged.  Under apartheid Indians were “non-whites” so they now enjoy some of the advantages of affirmative action (BEE).  But on the whole they too remain advantaged - generally wealthier and better educated.


Putting the right foot forward

My basic proposition is this: reducing economic disparity leads to social peace.  Yet so often in South Africa, the fight for social justice has eclipsed the struggle for economic freedom.  Given the history of racism not to mention sexism, one can understand why.  But still, that is like coming in the back door.

Like the above mentioned “curriculum known as differentiated education or adapted education — on those of black schools in the United States… practical courses in industry and agriculture” should be the priority.  Job creation, entrepreneurship, wealth generation, enterprise development, poverty eradication, micro-loans, business mentoring, incubation (call it what you will) are the new focus of Christian Outreach.  And “the haves” should be investing generously and unambiguously in “the have-nots”.  Or the church will become irrelevant…