Global financial crisis and global solidarity crisis
Be under obligation to no one – the only obligation you have is to love one another. Whoever does this has obeyed the Law. The commandments, “ Do not commit adultery; do not commit murder; do not steal; do not desire what belongs to someone else” – all these, and any others besides, are summed up in the one command, “ Love your neighbour as you love yourself.” (Romans 13:8-9)
Everybody, every radio, every newspaper, every TV is talking about the financial crisis. The global market and the national economical impact seem to be the most important subject at the moment. In a supermarket I heard two ladies talking about their financial problems and the latest news. One of them told her friend: “it is amazing that we cannot plan the best moment to buy a new car because of those people( the ones at the centre of the financial problems in the world) . They have made they own mistakes and we pay for that.”
Comments like this give us the opportunity to remember some old philosophical debates. “Is the human race a selfish race?” “So how can we live in community, how can we have solidarity in a selfish group?” Those ideas have been discussed for more than two centuries and yet seem so pertinent today!
When people think about that global crisis, they usually express it as a personal problem, or a local problem or even a national problem. But is a global crisis! Is amazing how an important detail like that can be forgotten! This problem began in a specific country and took on an enormous dimension because of our global economy and in the end may affected everybody in the world.
So, if even the economy seems to have crossed all the frontiers and appears like one: one world economy, impacting everybody’s life, why cannot solidarity do the same? When some people here are concerned about their new car, some others just nearby are concerned about whether they will have food.
The United Nations is also worried about the food crisis – they think that the current financial crisis, which is impacting all economies and exacerbating the suffering of millions, is also threatening the efforts to slash poverty, hunger, disease and other socio-economic ills by 2015, known as the Millennium Development Goals. That concern brings up the necessity to think about the planet and remember that all around the world there are bigger problems and, as part of a big community, an international community we need to think that those problems usually became worse during economic downturns.
Let’s think a little… If problems like the actual economical crisis can cross frontiers and affect everybody in the planet, why cannot poverty do the same, why cannot environmental problems do the same, why cannot conflicts and war do the same? Then, we are not only in the middle of a financial global crisis; we are also in the middle of a solidarity crisis. Because we are together on the same planet, we need to learn how to fight together against common problems, like our global economical crisis. Unfortunately, it is only when the problem affect us, our life, we can understand that we are part of it. Because of that we need do something, we need act…, act against poverty and hunger, act against environmental crimes or economical crisis, act against war, act for peace. Is our challenge, let us try… and we will be obeying God’s Law, and we will be really loving each other!
Contact Leticia on 974 3888 or email cwsprojects@churcheswa.com.au to find out how you can act for peace.
