A Ship Called Dignity

In what ways might we be able to protect the dignity of the poor and stand with the oppressed in their struggle to be free of what oppresses them? Who, do you think, are some of the ‘prophets’ of today? Explain why you see them as prophets.

We can protect the dignity of the poor by encouraging generosity to the poor through appropriate channels. Perpetuating a handout culture does not empower the poor, but creating meaningful work can. In Cape Town, projects like Men at the Side of the Road and The Carpenter’s Yard are geared towards finding manageable jobs for relatively unskilled poor.

In order to effectively protect the dignity of the poor, and stand with the oppressed in their struggle to be free of what oppresses them, we need to engage in social analysis: exactly who are the poor and oppressed, why do they find themselves in the situation they’re in, are there systems that perpetuate the problems that keep these people locked into poverty and oppression? And what can be done about all of this? And once we’ve done that, then we would have to actively lobby government and whoever is in authority in the various systems that are involved.

Some of the prophets of today are those who are involved in advocacy and lobbying, and empowering the poor and oppressed by giving voice to their concerns. There are a great many of these organisations, and they do important work. The Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO) and Catholic Welfare and Development (CWD) are at the forefront of this work in Cape Town. There is also the Justice and Peace Commission, Rape Crisis, the Gender Advocacy Programme, the Cape Town Refugee Centre, the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA).

Internationally there are countless organisations. Some of these are:

CARE tackles underlying causes of poverty so that people can become self-sufficient. Recognizing that women and children suffer disproportionately from poverty, CARE places special emphasis on working with women to create permanent social change. Women are at the heart of CARE's community-based efforts to improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources. CARE also delivers emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters, and helps people rebuild their lives.

Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price), Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers.

The Child Rights Information Network envisions a world in which every child enjoys all of the human rights promised by the United Nations, regional organisations, and national governments alike. Guided by their passion for social and legal change, CRIN is building a global network for children's rights. They press for rights, not charity, and advocate for a genuine systemic shift in how governments and societies view children.

Preda is a Philippine human rights and social development organization working to help the most vulnerable people in society to overcome injustice and poverty. Their aim is to win freedom and a new life for children in jails, in brothels, in hunger, on the street, abandoned youth and those mired in poverty. Helping abused women, indigenous people, protecting the environment and alleviating poverty through micro-credit and fair trade initiatives.

Having listed all of these, and realising how much hard work is being done by so many good people, and being aware that I am only one small voice amongst many, I am given to thinking that there are still gaps that need to be filled. In parallel to the biblical laws pertaining to agriculture that were implemented to protect the poor, I wonder if South Africa (or any other country) has laws that govern the redistribution of excess produce to the poor? I’ve heard of many instances where excess produce is dumped in the sea to keep the markets from becoming flooded and prices from dropping. This is supposedly to protect the farmers and the economy. But surely those thousands of oranges or whatever could be given to people who have no food and no means of buying food, and who would consequently not have any impact on the market because it’s irrelevant to them? I think that companies who disregard the needs of the poor and dump excess produce should be severely fined, because what they are doing is even worse than colluding to fix the price of bread.

I see the people who drive the advocacy and lobbying organisations I’ve mentioned as prophets because they play the role of calling society to act justly, the way the Biblical prophets did in ancient times. While many of these organisations are not strictly faith-based, I agree with the idea that people don’t necessarily have to claim that they know God or express belief in God before God can use them to do good work. These people ask society to do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do: if morality was the sole preserve of people of faith, the world would be worse off than it is.

In my personal view, if a person responds to an inner impulse to be merciful and just, then they are responding to God’s call, whether they realise it or not, and whether they are able to articulate their instinct as faith in a supreme being or not. So many people have had bad experiences of religion, where they have been oppressed by religious people who have used the fear of God to subject others to their own will. People who have endured this kind of injustice will vociferously reject anything that carries the name of religion, but the ethics and moral values that are valid in true religion still speak to them, and they will uphold these values at great personal cost. For me, these people are far godlier than people who claim to be Christian and go to church on Sundays but otherwise live in ways that dishonour God’s name.

Maybe I should start advocating in religious circles for the dignity of people who reject religion! Richard Dawkins makes some very good points about the evils of religion as a tool of oppression.