I am sure that Dives never believed that his lack of action towards Lazarus and other poor people would land him in hell. After all, he was probably a good and kind man to his family and friends and he wasn’t mean to Lazarus. He just ignored him. He didn’t think that his indifference to Lazarus would be sufficient to have him barred from heaven.
When we think of the list of sins that would land us in hell, I wonder how many of us would include "sins against the poor" on our list.
When we as a nation, church, and individually place ourselves in the context of our global family we would have to say that we are Dives or the Rich Man and countries like Haiti are Lazarus outside our gate. The question is -- how are we responding? Are we acting on behalf of the poor or are we indifferent to the poor? Or worse still, are we part of a system that all too often sucks the life out of the poor and treats them like beggars and slave labor.
The True Cost of Low Prices - The Violence of Globalization
This past summer I read a book with the above title by Vincent Gallagher. It was an eye-opener. Regarding U.S. donations to the poor, Gallagher writes:
After the Second World War, we gave 2.79 percent of our Gross National Income (GNI) to rebuild Europe. By 1960, we were giving 0.52 percent of our GNI in foreign aid. By 2004, it was 0.16 percent. This puts the United States next to last on the list of developed countries and their contributions of humanitarian aid to poor countries, according to data published by the Organization of Economic cooperation and Development.
On the other hand, Gallagher notes individual Americans are super generous when it comes to responding to disasters like Katrina, earthquakes etc.
The Issue of Outsourcing our Labor to Poor Countries
In the past ten years or so, more and more companies take their work to poor countries. Why? Gallagher notes two reasons:
The following are some of the things that make labor in this country much higher than in poor countries:
To avoid having to deal with the above laws, which as a nation we should be very proud of, companies take their work to countries where workers are treated like ‘slaves, work in terrible conditions and have no protection.’ Gallagher writes:
The National Labor Committee has played a major role in bringing attention to the exploitation of poor workers. The committee is a coalition of labor unions, religious organizations, students, human rights activists, civil rights activists, women’s organizations, and community organizations who believe that worker rights are fundamental human rights.
The following are some examples of what the national Labor Committee found as a result of their research. It is not a pretty picture.
Wal-Mart. When you purchase a toy at Wal-Mart, do you ever imagine teenage women in China working from 7:30 am to 2 am, eighteen and a half hours a day, seven days a week, in 104 degree temperatures, handling toxic chemicals with their bare hands, and paid as little as thirteen cents an hour? One woman described how she felt at the end of her shift at 2 am - her vision blurred, eyes watery, sick to her stomach, her back aching, her fingers cut and bleeding from the sharp metal edges of the die-cast toy cars she had painted for Mattel.
In the Chun Shi factory in China, Wal-Mart suppliers were forced to work from 7 am to 11 pm, sixteen hours a day, thirty days a month, for an average wage of just three cents an hour! And they were the "lucky ones." Forty-six percent of the workers were held as indentured servants and actually owed the company money. When workers asked for their rights, they were beaten, and eight hundred were fired.
Wal-Mart responded by claiming that they had never heard of the factory, let alone produced goods there. However, under pressure, Wal-Mart vice-president, Jay Allen, had to admit that Wal-Mart lied because they felt "defensive" about the sweatshop issue.
Alcoa. Can you imagine that Alcoa workers in Mexico, in the high-tech factories making auto parts for export to the U.S., live in dirt-floor cardboard huts and sell their blood twice a week in order to survive?
Harvard University . Women in Bangladesh are paid 1.6 cents for each $17 Harvard cap they sew. Their wages come to just one-tenth of 1 percent of the retail price. U.S. custom records show that the cap is valued at $1.23 when it enters the United States. Then Harvard marks it up 1,300 percent.
Nike. Nike workers in Indonesia earn $4.76 a day, or a total of $811 a year. Labor for a pair of basketball shoes that retail for $149.50 costs Nike $1.50, 1 percent of the retail price. Nike’s total revenue for 1997 was $9.19 billion, with a profit of $795.8 million. CEO Bill Knight’s fourth-quarter dividend earnings were $80 million.
Disney in Bangladesh. Young women sewing Disney shirts are forced to work fifteen hours a day, seven days a week. They are paid five cents for each $17.99 shirt they sew. They are beaten, punched, and slapped, denied maternity leave and benefits. When they reach twenty-five to thirty years of age, they are fired and replaced by younger girls. In a five-year period, Michael Eisner, the CEO of Disney, paid himself $667 million, about $63,000 an hour. A worker in Bangladesh, paid twelve cents an hour to sew Disney garments, would have to work 210 years to earn what Eisner does in one hour.
If only half of the above is true, it speaks terribly of how we as a nation (and I assume also other developed nations) exploit the poor in our global family. I assume that most of the CEO’s and the people who are the Board of Directors of such companies believe in God and are good people in many ways. But one wonders if they ever think that they will have to give an account of their stewardship for their actions in poor countries.
As a result of so much labor going to poor countries, Vincent Gallagher tells us the following are a list of products that come to us from undeveloped nations:
All of the above gives us all much food for thought on this Sunday when we reflect on the parable of the Rich Man and the Poor Man.
As a Church
As a church in the wealthiest nation in the world, we also sit in the chair of Dives or the Rich Man when we place ourselves in our global family. Having visited our Sister Diocese in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Peru, I have some sense of how little material resources they have to carry forward the Gospel of Christ. Parishes in the poor countries are also Lazarus sitting at our door step. It would be easy for us to say to them: "we really want to help you, but we have so many needs of our own, we really can’t pay our bills." But such an attitude would make us no better than the Rich Man in today’s Gospel. Such an attitude would bring us the harsh condemnation that the rich Man received in today’s Gospel.
I cannot answer or be responsible for how the 19,000 + parishes in the U.S. respond to the needs of the poor at home or abroad. But, as Pastor of this parish, I am responsible to God for how Ascension parish shares with the poorer members of our global family. I doubt that God would be happy with me if I said: "Sorry, Lord but we can barely take care of our own bills."
Parish Tithe
As most of you know we as a parish are moving closer and closer to setting aside 10% of our offertory income to help the poor at home and abroad. This year that figure will be $112, 500 which is 7½ %. This past week we gave $10,000 towards a project in Haiti, which is overseen by Jim and Mary Ann Loafman, members of Holy Name of Jesus. When they retired several years ago, they decided to give a good deal of their time and talent to helping the poor in Haiti. They now spend about four months of the year in Haiti overseeing various projects.
Our Local Outreach Ministries
Most of you are aware of the many opportunities we have locally to be involved with reaching out to the poor. Thrift Shop, social Concerns, Daily Bread, Habitat, Master Workshop (for more information on this ministry to poor unprivileged children, contact Fernando Dominicis through our parish office). Gift of Water is a ministry to the poor in Haiti and Jamaica.
Individually
No one nation, church or individual can remove all the poverty in our world, but each of us can do our bit, each of us can light a candle to dispel some of the darkness. We can do our bit by changing our own attitude or the attitudes of others towards the poor and by generously sharing a portion of our time, treasure and talent.
What can we do individually?
The following are some suggestions you may have other which I would love to hear about.
Equal Exchange, a worker-owned co-op www.equalexchange.com
No Sweat Apparel--sale of union made and sweat shop free casual clother. www.nosweatapparel.com
Ten Thousand Villages with retail outlets in 34 states www.tenthousandvillages.org
The rich man did nothing to Lazarus, but he was not innocent. There are times when our innocence is our crime. -- Fr. Dennis McBride