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Signs of the Times Australia / NZ edition — lifestyle, health, relationships, culture, spirituality, people — published since 1886 |
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Signs of the Times Australia / NZ edition — lifestyle, health, relationships, culture, spirituality, people — published since 1886 |
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Are you worth more than an ant?
The philosopher king Solomon is credited with advising us to “go to the ant” and “consider its ways and be wise!” (Proverbs 6:6) and, further on, suggests the ant, the rock badger (conies), locusts and lizard are exceedingly wise (see Proverbs 30:25, 26). These are creatures for which pesticides were invented, yet, apparently have their value.
Are you worth more than a tree?
Some green environmentalists think not. In the biblical account of human origins, God puts one tree above all others and off-limits to Adam and Eve. He tells them: “You are free to eat from any tree . . . [but not] . . . from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:16). A Yuin elder once told me he believed the last tree felled should have been the one that formed the cross of Christ. “We gotta learn to love our trees and pray before we chop ’em down,” he said.
Are some humans worth more than others?
When the Chief of Staff of the world’s most powerful military force refused to send American troops to intervene in the Balkans, he said the Balkans weren’t worth the bones of a single American soldier. No matter where we look, we find evidence of humans beings treated or ignored as less worthy than others. One-in-five of earth’s people (1.2 billion) survives on less than $A1.50 per day; nearly half (3 billion) on less than $A3. More than a billion lack clean drinking water and sanitation.
Are some people more deserving?
Ethicist Peter Singer notes that in the wake of September 11, American public donations to the families of police, fire and service personnel affected by a death was $US880,000 per family. The government gave a further $US250,000 to each of those 400 families where a death occurred. So some families turned into millionaires. But is it fair to wonder, then, if people who were basically doing their jobs as public servants deserved such attention in the face of a multibillion world dying for lack of it?
Are richer nations intrinsically worth more than poorer ones?
The governments of Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden donate 70 cents per $100 of GDP in aid to developing nations. By comparison, Japanese give 27, Australians 24 and the US just 10. In short, the world’s most churched people give, through their government, some $US10 billion (in real terms), while non-Christian Japan gives $US13.5. Americans annually spend some $US34 billion on alcohol, $US32 billion on tobacco and $US50 billion on entertainment.
Are some workers worth more?
Rich nations give their farmers $US1 billion a day to keep farming—six times what they give in aid. In 2002, the US gave $US3.9 billion to its 25,000 cotton growers, which had the effect of reducing the world price for cotton by 26 per cent, thereby limiting the livelihood of millions of Third World farmers.
Are adults worth more than babies?
Presently, two billion of the world’s people lack safe, nutritious food, with 800 million starving, of whom some 300 million are children. Children are dying for lack of food, clean water and sanitation at a rate of 30,000 a day.
What are you worth?
Despite the different value we place on our fellow human beings, the apostle Paul tells us we were all—whatever our station—“bought at a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20). Peter tells us it wasn’t “with perishable things such as silver or gold that [we] were redeemed . . . but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18, 19).
More recently, religious commentator Ellen White affirmed the equal worth of all humankind in the face of our contrary daily experience, our governments and statistical realities of global injustice. She said: “All men have been bought with this infinite price [of Jesus’ sacrifice]. By pouring the whole treasury of heaven into this world, by giving us in Christ all heaven, God has purchased the will, the affections, the mind, the soul, of every human being. Whether believers or unbelievers, all men are the Lord’s property” (Christ’s Object Lessons, page 326).
This latter point, if taken on board, could change the present global maldistribution of worth that condemns so many to misery while rewarding others.
Sources:
UN website; George Monbiot, The Age of Consent, 2003; Mark Brawley, The Politics of Globalisation, 2003; John Pilger, The New Rulers of the World, 2002; Peter Singer, One World, 2002; Jan Nederveen Pieterse (ed), Global Futures, 2000.
Extract from Signs of the Times, March 2004.
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