Eradication of poverty a prerequisite for global peace

23 Oct, 2018 - 00:10 0 Views

The Sunday Mail

A Bahá’í Perspective
Flora Teckie

The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, observed annually on 17 October, presents an opportunity to promote awareness and to look at the challenges and prospects of addressing this critical global concern.

It is commendable that eradication of global poverty is now being recognised as priority on the international agenda. However, there is need for comprehensive approaches to eliminate such debilitating condition from human life.

The global peace foreseen by Bahá’u’lláh is based on justice. The creation of a peaceful and just society, in which every individual is able to meet his or her basic human needs; and peoples of diverse backgrounds cooperate and live in harmony, will require a significant reorientation of individual and collective goals and a profound transformation in attitudes and behaviours.

Poverty eradication is currently being approached primarily in material terms. Such an approach has not been able to solve the problems for which it was intended. It is the Bahá’í view that for justice to become the organising principle in our societies, there is need for spiritual and moral transformation and for the acceptance of the oneness of humanity. There is also need for the elimination of the extremes of wealth and poverty.

The underlying nature of poverty, according to a statement of the Bahá’í International Community “can be described as the absence of those ethical, social and material resources needed to develop the moral, intellectual and social capacities of individuals, communities and institutions”. The statement calls on all institutions and individuals to put first moral principles, such as unity and justice.

A striking example of injustice in the world today is imbalance in economic conditions of the people. In a January 2017 report, Oxfam International states that, “Eight men own the same wealth as the 3,6 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity”.

In the Bahá’í view, the elimination of the extremes of poverty and wealth is one of the prerequisites for global peace.

The Universal House of Justice, the governing council of the Bahá’í international community, in its 1985 statement entitled ‘the Promise of World Peace’ says, “The inordinate disparity between the rich and poor, a source of acute suffering, keeps the world in a state of instability, virtually on the brink of war. Few societies have dealt effectively with this situation. The solution calls for the combined application of spiritual, moral and practical approaches. A fresh look at the problem is required, entailing consultation with experts from a wide spectrum of disciplines, … and involving the people directly affected in the decisions that must urgently be made.”

Nowadays, a great challenge is releasing the enormous financial, technical, human and moral resources required for sustainable development – resources that are often tied up for wars and wasteful projects.

“These resources,” in the Bahá’í view, “will be freed up only as the peoples of the world develop a profound sense of responsibility for the fate of the planet and for the well-being of the entire human family” and “This sense of responsibility can only emerge from the acceptance of the oneness of humanity and will only be sustained by a unifying vision of a peaceful, prosperous world society. Without such a global ethic, people will be unable to become active, constructive participants in the world-wide process of sustainable development”.

A global ethic based on the acceptance of the oneness of human family should result in social and economic justice. It should lead to the recognition of the equality of men and women; racial, ethnic, national and religious harmony.

For feedback please contact: [email protected] or [email protected] Website: www.bahai.org

 

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