The Bottom Billion

I read The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier, Oxford University Press, 2007, and I highly recommend it. Paul makes the case that there is an emerging crisis with the few countries, comprising about 1 billion people, who still live in abject poverty and are essentially trapped there. He points out that while many countries that have been the targets of our aid have advanced to where their economies are growing and there is a reasonable standard of living, some are trapped by combinations of bad governance, landlocked geography, persistent armed conflict, or a limiting staus as a source of natural resources for the rest of the world. These traps act to limit the ability of reformers in these nations to act in the best interests of their people.

It is a good read for a critique of what has been done so far that illuminates the limits of aid and trade initiatives, and the cynical evil of some of the rulers in the Bottom Billion. The Chinese also, are revealed as toxic participants in the affairs of some resource rich nations. Like many caring actors in the arena of world affairs, Collier hopes for a less political evaluation of the steps that need to be taken by the United States and Europe, and a selfless determination to help the trapped countries. He realistically points out that even humanitarien NGO’s can have agendas, a limiting corporate culture, and vested interests. His conclusion is that any steps taken must take into account the traps that these countries are in, and creatively push for change.

Of interest to the church is that we do not lack allies in the international arena who want to relieve the world’s really poor. We should listen to many sides of the discussion and not cling to one approach of, for instance, international aid, or economic growth advocates. Each approach has its limits, and can be implemented to help or to derail the other. Also, our typical rhetoric about the Iraq war, which has been a mostly pacifistic, negative evaluation, is not a squeaky-clean moral position, because there will be cases in the future where military intervention is the best relief for desperate populations. But how will we summon the political will when our leaders know they will immediately be savaged with, “Quagmire!”, “No exit strategy!”, “Imperialism!”, and “You-didn’t-plan–to-win-the-peace!”

On another front, I am aware that mainline protestant leaders are sometimes uneasy about evangelical efforts among the desperately poor. How can we build a church or distribute Bibles when those dollars might build a clinic or purchase rice? But in response to that, you might say that in some situations you have met a situation of diminishing returns with humanitatarian aid, and may as well build the church and distribute the bibles. Not only that, there is no reason to deny vigorous theology, prayer and preaching to a population simply because it has a 16^th century standard of living. They live in desperate conditions, and need the answers that Christ can give to the desperate.

A debate on how we will reach the Bottom Billion in the next presidential administration would be a Godsend, but how to get presidential candidates and congressmen to really care about, say Chad?

Pastor Harley Wheeler