Apparently, George Osborne and Iain Duncan Smith have decided to cut benefits to people of working age. This will include tax credits payable to people in work and which support families on a very low income. They claim this is a part of, “making work pay“! Many of those affected will be on the minimum wage. It seems crazy to me that the government (or the taxpayer, you and me) should subsidise companies which do not pay enough to their staff to enable them to look after their families. The answer must be to increase the minimum wage sufficiently to make work really pay.
Category: Poverty
Smashing cycles of poverty in Jaffna
Can we smash the cycle of poverty and prevent one generation trapped in poverty producing another poor generation? Returning from our visit to Jaffna recently we were overwhelmed by stories which emphasised the importance of education and the potential to radically change lives. In this article I present some anecdotal evidence that sponsoring really works. Ensuring that boys and girls receive a good education really changes the lives of young men and women.
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Sri Lanka 27 years on
I first visited Sri Lanka early in 1988, but have just returned from what must be about my 30th visit. The roots of the poverty relief charity, Kingscare/Karuna Action developed here, and the country has been central to it’s work and vision.
I remember well my first visit. I came with a burden and a dream along with a certain amount of idealism. I knew that God had called me to take some action to relieve poverty which I knew held so many in it’s grip of slavery. I had read every book I could find, both Christian and secular, on the subject of poverty and world problems. I was anxious to find ways that the Church of Jesus Christ could be a blessing to the whole world.
Does the value of human life depend on where you live?
This is an excellent article by a blogging friend.
2014 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 12,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
It came upon a midnight clear
When I was in my teens, several things influenced and shaped my life. This carol was one of them. The angels were announcing the beginning of a new era which would affect every man, woman and child. The world would never be the same again!
It came upon a midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth,
To touch their harps of gold:
“Peace on the earth, goodwill to men
From heaven’s all-gracious King.”
The world in solemn stillness lay,
To hear the angels sing.
The language is somewhat poetic but speaks of an event so significant that the angels just had to announce the birth of Jesus, the son of God. But the priests in the temple didn’t hear the angels. Herod in his palace didn’t hear them. Only some simple shepherds heard the news, and heard the angels praising God that this event would…
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Roots of Poverty
Mumbai slum street scene
War, disease, famine, debt, unsafe water and many other things contribute to poverty in the world, But are these the root causes of poverty? We need to drill a bit deeper, and as we do, we come face to face with human nature and attitudes. In this article I argue that things like greed, fear, power and prejudice are the real root causes of a state of affairs where a quarter of the world lives in absolute poverty and many more live without the “necessities” that we take for granted.
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Sold to a brothel owner
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Marikit’s story
Hello, my name is Marikit[1] and I used live on an Island in South East Asia. I am now 18 years old but my story started when I was just 14. My mum and my dad were always shouting at each other. This was because my father owed a lot of money to the local loan shark and this man was threatening them. I didn’t know that I was to be the solution to their money problems!
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Compassion and Justice 