I have travelled to many countries and seen poverty wherever I have been. Even in ‘developed’ countries like the United States or the United Kingdom the curse of poverty still blights the human race. Poverty is often unseen and definitely not photogenic. A tourist in Sri Lanka for instance may not see real poverty at all: but look along the river banks and other places and you will see people living a marginal existence.
There is no simple answer to the question, “What causes poverty?” As we think about the causes of poverty we also need to think about the results, the effects and the symptoms of poverty. In many cases the result of poverty is to cause yet more poverty. So in practice it is difficult to distinguish between the causes and the symptoms of poverty. Continue reading “The Causes and Results of Poverty”
As I start to write this, my weekly blog, I sense that I am at one of those crossroads we come across on our journey through life. I started writing my blog in March, last year and have so far written 70 articles on a wide range of subjects. 
This is a very difficult subject for me to write about. When I started researching I was so sickened by what I read that I only intend to write a short article and leave you to do 
I write this at a very pertinent time in the United Kingdom. A British soldier walking the streets has been brutally murdered by two young men claiming that the killing was in the name of Allah. They wanted notoriety, and they certainly achieved it with their faces plastered all over the newspapers and our television screens. Tension is high and fear is causing many to say things against Muslims that they would not normally say. Some people have a vested interest in situations like this and the English Defence League and others were quick to promote riots.
When I was young, Jim Reeves used to sing a song with the words:
Compassion and Justice 