Though the current crisis started as a financial one, it has broadened out, beyond the rich countries where it was triggered, and is now a fully-fledged development crisis.
I am reminded of one of Jon Sobrino’s favourite themes – that if you worship anything as an idol, particularly wealth, it will demand human sacrifices. This is not to say all wealth creation is bad. But it has to be kept in balance with the world that God created and with all his people.
I am well-placed to talk about the seductive nature of progress because two weeks ago I passed my 65th birthday. To my generation, progress brought access to technology, comfort, travel, food and drink, medical advances and entertainment which previous generations only dreamed of.
Our experience embedded a culture in which the accumulation of wealth increasingly came to be regarded as synonymous with well-being.
But financial institutions and the markets in which they operate were themselves a product of a world deeply divided between rich and poor, a world of huge inequality – a bigger and more enduring scandal than the financial crisis itself.
Continue reading →
Filed under CAFOD, Cambodia, Kenya
Tagged as advocacy, Cambodia, financial crisis, G20, GeorgeG, IMF, Jon Sobrino, Kenya, social expenditure, World Bank
Despite some initial excitement prompted by Gordon Brown’s support of an international tax on banks, last weekend’s G20 finance ministers’ meeting was not a big event for political decision-making, especially for poor countries who weren’t even invited to attend.
Latest posts
