True riches

[Sr. Janet]

There is an American expression, ‘bait and change’, or something to
that effect, that describes the business practice used to tempt
prospective customers to buy a product, only for there to be a ‘sting
in the tail’, some unexpected complication that will inevitably cost
money, to the disadvantage of the customer and the advantage of the
company.

A spyware programme on my computer, the free accompaniment to a free
programme that I temporarily required, pointed out that I had not
scanned the computer for the past few days. I agreed. With an
excellent, free, regularly-updated programme provided by several
universities, I rarely have problems with viruses, especially as I do
not open ‘spam’.

Out of curiosity, I allowed the programme (now removed from my
computer) to do a scan and examined the results. I do not believe that
I had 56 infected files, complete with seven potentially disastrous
viruses that could only be removed if I were to pay $19.95 for the
full version of the programme. That message sounded the death knell
for the newly-imported wonder worker, condemned to wander aimlessly
around cyberspace, but not my laptop! Yet I was left wondering why, in
the search for money, some people and businesses resort to untruth?

Recently, a man stopped me, claiming to be the victim of muggers who
had stolen his money and mobile phone. Apparently he belonged to a
wonderful charity that works tirelessly for those who are
contemplating suicide. That immediately made me suspicious. The
incredibly self-sacrificing, generous volunteers who give up countless
hours of their own time would have been there immediately to help one
of their own. The man’s story of needing money for his bus fare rang
hollow, so he received nothing on that occasion… but did he have to
use for his own dishonest ends some of society’s uncanonised saints?

Waiting in a shop the other evening I watched four gypsies sharing out
the money they had gained from knocking on the windows of cars that
stopped when the traffic lights changed colour. I presume that the
women told of their hunger and need to provide food for their
families, because this is the usual story, and yet the money that
changed hands appeared to be substantial. Each woman held a baby. One
also had two small children accompanying her begging. What sort of
lessons is she teaching? Will those children grow up with any idea of
‘honest labour’? Will they look beyond begging to some sort of skill
that could be usefully employed to benefit others?

There was a morning when I was in Zambia when a man asked for money.
On that occasion it happened that even a search of pockets and bags
brought forth only enough money to buy one, very small, bread roll
that would have been eaten in two bites. He went down on his knees to
say thank you.

There were also times when I encountered families with not an iota of
food in the house, where, in one home, a full day of trying to sell
six tiny bottles of sunflower oil brought in less than $1 with which
to feed six children and their desperately ill mother.

Often, those who are in most need do not ask for help, or do so only
when they have exhausted every possibility.

There is nothing glamorous about poverty or about working with the
truly poor. It is hard, unrelenting and tragic, accompanied by
frequent feelings of helplessness in the face of difficulties beyond
the normal coping.

In this country, when we speak of the poor and disadvantaged, the
children are still able to attend school. Their parents often manage
to buy cigarettes and alcohol and go on holiday, perhaps even to
another country. There are ways and means of obtaining practical
help, admittedly sometimes limited and limiting, but starvation is not
usually an alternative.

All the dice seem to be loaded against the truly poor in many
countries outside this one, who yearn for education, who long to do a
day’s work, but are so weakened by starvation that they become flesh-
covered, living skeletons, where ‘poor’ means that children cannot go
to school because without their labour, the family would starve.
‘Poor’ means clothes worn until they fall to pieces. ‘Poor’ means
having absolutely no food whatsoever in the house, no money to buy
any, and with begging, theft or death the only remaining options. Yet
these are the very people who are exploited by the unscrupulous, by
the multi-nationals and by those who look to their own advantage even
if it means trampling on others.

Yet, look at the ‘truly poor’, and in their hardship, they somehow
laugh and sing. Are they not the truly rich? They have nothing left to
lose apart from their self-respect, and in clinging to that, they find
God and make him the source of their wealth, the sustainer of their
daily lives.

Perhaps, sometimes, the rich in the eyes of the world are the ones who
are the most impoverished.

God bless,
Sr Janet