It is a fact that over a thousand human beings-a fifth of the world's population-live in absolute poverty: hunger, disease, poor living conditions, malnutrition, high infant mortality and even insecurity. Most of this people live south of the Tropic of Cancer. On the other hand, there are many rich individuals living in the rich countries which coincidentally, happen to be north of the Tropic of Cancer.
Should the rich in the north contribute to the eradication of world poverty and in which way? Should the rich empires in the north, which have used the natural resources from some of the poor countries to create their wealth, be obliged to help in reducing diseases or improving the poor living conditions?
When the earth quake hit Haiti and the tsunami hit Japan, there was a strong sense of human solidarity. Millions of dollars were given by individuals, corporation and as well as other charitable organizations. At that time too there were human beings dying of hunger and disease in the world but it did not attract media attention. Unless of course, something radical happened to those inflicted that would be tragic enough to cause a headline news item.
Mohamed "Mo" Amin- a Kenyan photojournalist-is remembered for taking pictures of the 1984 Ethiopian Famine, which drew world attention. But that was then, and famine in Ethiopia and other parts of African continues to exist but you will only hear about it when the media thinks that the story will increase the number of viewers or listeners.
I desire to see a world where each and every individual is able to meet their basic needs. But this is only attainable when we as a people, especially the rich individuals and countries understand that giving is required of us on a continuous basis. In doing so, we may not necessarily be able to eradicate poverty or hunger or even diseases in the short run, but we can reduce it significantly and one day also actually irradiate some common diseases or even poverty.
Nigel Dower says, "Caring is an unquantifiable dimension to moral responsibility. But if we have a proper appreciation of the fact of world poverty, of our global moral identities, of the moral seriousness of responding to extreme suffering of what quality of life really consist in, and of the duty of caring as much as we can consistently worth our quality of life, then we will care as we ought".
Should giving be a duty or is it required of us to give?
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