If we merely follow the daily media news reports, it seems
like a hopeless question. Not only are we cruel to each other, but
mankind seems to be corrupting many of the natural features of this God-given
earth. It is not hard to become discouraged !
But, wait ! I want you to consider another side
to this evaluation. Recently, I read a New York Times column by Nicholas
Kristof, discussing some developments that I usually overlook. I want to
share some of Kristof's story with you.
"In 2017, a smaller share of the world's people were
hungry, impoverished or illiterate than at any time before. A smaller
proportion of children died than ever before. The proportion disfigured
by leprosy, blinded by diseases like trachoma or suffering from other ailments
also fell."
Regardless of discouragingly negative headlines in the
press, I wonder if a backdrop of global progress may be the most
important development in our lifetime.
Kristof reports that every day the number of people around
the world living in extreme poverty (less than $2 a day) goes down by 217,000,
according to calculations by an Oxford University economist who specializes in
tracking such trends. Every day, 325,000 more people gain access to
electricity. And 300,000 more people gain access to clean drinking water.
Nicholas Kristof continues ---- "As recently as the
1960's, a majority of humans had always been illiterate and lived in extreme
poverty. Now fewer than 15% are illiterate, and fewer than 10% live in
extreme poverty. In another 15 years, illiteracy and extreme poverty will
be mostly gone. After thousands of generations, they are pretty much
disappearing on our watch."
Then Kristof turns to the plight of the world's
children. He states that, just since 1990, the lives of more than 100
million children have been saved by vaccinations, diarrhea treatment,
breast-feeding promotion and other simple steps."
"Even in the United States, says Kristof,
"progress has been made, but it seems little noted. For example, in
the 1950's, the U.S. had segregation, polio, bans on interracial marriage, on
gay sex and on birth control. Elsewhere, most of the world lived under
dictatorships, two-thirds of parents had a child die before age 5, and it was a
time of nuclear standoffs, of "pea soup" smog, of frequent wars, and
of stifling limits on women."
Nicholas Kristof concludes by telling us about a young
Afghan woman from the Taliban heartland, he has met. She had been forced
to drop out of elementary school. But her house had internet, so she
taught herself English, then algebra and calculus with the help of an on-line
academy, Coursera and EdX websites. Without leaving her house, she moved
on to physics and string theory, wrestled with Kant and read The New York Times
on the side.
Importantly, Kristof reminds us that talent is universal,
but opportunity is not. The meaning of global progress, he says, is that
such talent increasingly will flourish. Do you share Kristof's
conclusion that the most important thing happening right now is not the
confusion in Washington, but children's lives saved and major gains in health,
education and human welfare?
Are you thinking, as I am, that these success stories did
not just happen ---- that they were the cumulative result of people around the
world helping others, not just themselves. While the global
progress seen by Kristof is the cumulative result of many individual
acts of caring for others, perhaps this story will inspire us to be a
"giver". and not just a "taker" in our small, individual
worlds.
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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult
Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal
spiritual growth this year.
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