How Should I Respond?

Last night while perusing the New York Times online, I ran across this little article. It outlines just how difficult it would be for those poor Wall Street executives to live on a measly $500,000 a year. The article spells out the cost of maintaining an executive lifestyle: the cost of a nanny, private school, personal trainer, summer houses, European vacations, charity galas, and so on. The article concludes that at least 1.6 million dollars a year is needed to live comfortably as an executive.

What is troubling to me is that we find ourselves in very difficult circumstances due to (at least in part) the greed of Wall Street. As I noted in a previous post, by the time we begin to emerge from this downturn, as many as 50 million people in the U.S. could be living below the poverty line. That’ll be nearly one-sixth of the U.S. population dealing with the stresses of basic needs like food, housing, and health care.

So, my first reaction to this article is less than empathetic. I think that watching the Catholic Charities Poverty Tour offers a far more compelling case for fair compensation (if you’ve not seen it yet, take five minutes to do so now).

But is my response fair?

David Creech

A Little Reality Check

I am working my way through the Bread for the World Institute’s 2009 hunger report (which is well worth your time!). I came across this little statistic that is both frightening and hopeful.

According to a 2008 poll, 47% of likely voters in the U.S. think that we give too little to reduce the global hunger problem. That means that over half of likely voters think that we either give enough or too much. Over half!

The frightening part is this: the U.S. allocates a paltry .16% of the federal budget to development assistance. The commitment we made to the Millenium Development Goals was .7%. We consistently rank near the bottom of the industrialized nations in money devoted to development assistance. In fact, we spend less than half of the average of those nations. In short, we’re not pulling our weight.

Now to the hopeful part: in 2003, nearly 3/4 of likely voters (73%) thought that we gave either enough or too much in foreign development assistance. That’s a 20 point swing in only four years.

Let’s continue to get the word out. Let’s see if we can move 20 more points closer to reality.

David Creech

A Little Whimsy

Where our food comes from and how it’s produced is no laughing matter. But this video is just too much fun to pass up! Whether you agree with what the video has to say or not, it’s certainly an entertaining way to get a conversation started. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
-Nancy Michaelis

My heart is moved by all I cannot save…

A beautiful poem by Adrienne Rich sent to me from one of my traveling partners, Kim Winchell:

My heart is moved by all I cannot save,
so much has been destroyed.
I have to cast my lot with those
who age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power
reconstitute the world.

David Creech

YAGM application deadline March 1

Below, find a time-sensitive announcement from Anne Basye in ELCA Global Mission. Speaking of Global Mission, on Monday, February 2, I will assume a new position as assistant director for Global Mission Support (www.elca.org/globalmission/support). I’ll keep the same e-mail address and phone extension as I move to a new cube on the 10th floor of the Churchwide Office. Please welcome Laury Rinker as she assumes the marketing and interpretation role for ELCA World Hunger and Disaster Appeal. Blessings on your heads, Sue

For adults ages 19-29: Applications are now being accepted for the 2009-2010 Young Adults in Global Mission program, a one-year international cross-cultural experience of service learning and leadership open to ELCA members ages 19-29 who are active in their church or campus ministry. Young adults raise a minimum of $4000 towards their support. Participants are placed according to interest, skills, gifts or growth areas in Argentina and Uruguay, Jerusalem/West Bank, Malaysia, Mexico, Slovakia/Hungary, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Applications submitted by February 15 will get priority attention. The deadline for applications is March 1, 2009. Applications and details about countries and assignments can be found at www.elca.org/globalserve/youngadults.

For all ages: Join the 250 ELCA missionaries now serving in 48 countries! You can explore the basics of global service and find listings of dozens of international positions at www.elca.org/globalserve New mission personnel recruited this winter and spring will receive an orientation in August and begin their service in August/September 2009.

For more information contact the ELCA Global Mission unit at 1-800-638-3522, ext. 2520, or by email at dgmSERVE@elca.org.

Eat Less Meat

cow-picture-728329 As you’ve no doubt been reading, David Creech is in Nicaragua learning about the effects of climate change on life. In keeping with that theme and bringing it closer to home, I have a suggestion: eat less meat. It’s not an original suggestion. Today, I’ve lifted it directly from The Sierra Club. They recently had a post on on their blog, The Green Life, which I thought made their case succinctly. You can click here to read the original, but I’ll quote the two paragraphs that I found most fascinating and actionable (and, actually, comprise most of the post):

“Livestock production generates almost 20 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases — more than the entire transportation sector. If Americans reduced meat consumption by just 20 percent, it would be as though we all switched from a sedan to a hybrid. (New York Times)

Animal factory farms pollute U.S. waterways more than all other industrial sources combined. And you’d save more water by refraining from eating a pound of beef than you would by not showering for an entire year. (E – The Environmental Magazine)”

Asking Americans to reconsider their meat consumption does not seem to me to be an unreasonable request, especially considering most of us could do with more vegetables in our diet, anyway. It also seems so very straightforward. How many of your meals each week include meat? What is 20% of that figure? Switch at least that many of your meals each week to vegetarian selections. That’s it! You’ll improve the health of the planet and quite likely yourself at the same time. In the process, you’ll also improve the environmental circumstances of everyone, but especially of those living in poverty who are most effected by climate change.

-Nancy Michaelis

On My Way Home

I am in the airport waiting for my flight back to the United States. My experience down here in Nicaragua has energized me for my work and given me new perspective on the challenges we face. I am sure that more stories and pictures and reflections from the trip will continue to find expression on this blog.

For now, I’d like to leave you with a Bible verse that our hosts gave us for reflection to open and close our trip. Genesis 8:22 reads, “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” There is a rhythm to life and that rhythm is being interrupted. We are called to care for the earth. The issue is pressing–creation groans waiting for redemption and those who are poorest and hungriest already feel the impact. May we find the courage to accompany those who are marginalized, to do God’s work with our hands.

“You always have the poor with you…”

img_2325-722259 Mark 14:7 has always been one of those really problematic verses for me. In this short verse, it appears as though Jesus is rather pessimistically predicting that there will always be poor people (and he may very well be). I fear that such a hopeless sentiment might breed apathy on the part of the Church–we don’t have to worry about those who are hungry, they’re always going to be around. For this reason, I’ve often thought (and a few times said out loud) that this would be one of those verses that I would like to surreptitiously remove from our Christian Bible.

Yesterday we had the privilege of speaking with Phil Anderson, the director of Lutheran World Federation in Central America. In his work with the people of Central America, he offered a different reading of the text, one born out of his struggle for justice alongside the poor and oppressed people of El Salvador. Phil suggested that when Jesus says that we will always have the poor with us, he was not offering some dark forecast of poverty ad infinitum. Rather, he was giving a command, telling his followers to be sure that they always have those who are poor and oppressed beside them and, likewise, to always be on their side.

As I’ve been in Nicaragua, I must confess that at moments the problem of global poverty feels so big, so insoluble, that I find myself wondering why I even care. Phil’s interpretation of Jesus’ words remind me of why I have committed myself to this struggle. As much as I want global hunger to end, that’s not what motivates me. Indeed it cannot: I suspect hunger will be around for quite some time yet. Rather, I do what I do because Jesus calls me to be with those who are poor. To hear their stories. To walk alongside them in their struggles. To advocate on their behalf. May we have the courage and strength to always be with those who are poor.

-David Creech

In the picture above: Women and girls fetching water for the day in the community of Mata de Cañas in NW Nicaragua. The line for the well begins to form around 4am and usually lasts until about 9:30am. It takes about 90 cranks on the wheel (which amounts to about four continuous minutes of pretty physical labor) to fill a 5 gallon bucket. The temperature when I visited was in the low 90s. Some of the women who use the well travel as far as 2 km on foot.

“Thanks for the tarps.”

img_2342-782913 I just returned from the Atlantic coast, where we visited two communities impacted by Hurricane Felix in September of 2007. The experience was, to say the least, heart wrenching. On the NW coast, in spite of the poverty we saw, I had the sense that there was possibility for adaptation. The dry spells could be countered by digging wells, creating irrigation systems, and so forth. With good planning and an infusion of resources, the insecurities brought about by the changing weather patterns could be mitigated.

However, in the communities on the Atlantic coast devastated by Felix, the situation is far more complex. It is much more difficult to adapt to the buzz saw of a category five hurricane. A very similar situation is New Orleans post-Katrina (which by the time the hurricane made landfall it was actually a category three). Even though the U.S. has a very advanced infrastructure, building codes, and abundant resources, parts of New Orleans (such as the Ninth Ward) are still (three and a half years later) in ruins. Even with all our tools and resources, we in the U.S. still cannot fully adapt to a severe storm. In a poor place with limited resources such as Nicaragua, the picture is even bleaker.

One year and four months after Felix, whole communities are still in tatters, lacking basic necessities such as food and shelter. They have also become breeding grounds for diseases like Malaria and Dengue Fever. The situation is dire.

Obviously, relief is a key component to any response (and more of it is still needed on the North Atlantic coast). People need food, drink, and medical care. They need help rebuilding their homes and planting their fields.

But relief aid alone will not be sufficient. Energy and thought and resources must also be directed towards development. In the weeks and months following Hurricane Felix, the community of Santa Marta was sent tarps from USAID to provide temporary shelter. You can see from the picture above how well those have held up. They did not receive much else. Probably the most difficult moment in the whole visit was when the local leader of the community said without a hint of irony or sarcasm, “Gracias por las tarpas (Thank you for the tarps).”

So what does this all mean? First, it is clear to me (and to the people I have visited down here in Nicaragua) that climate change is already impacting people in the Global South. We are not simply talking about the future world that we will pass on to our children. Right now, today, we need to work to curb greenhouse gases, at both a personal and corporate level. Second, we need to rethink how we do aid (Bread for the World has made aid reform a key theme in 2009, see http://www.bread.org/). Let’s get to work!

Be sure to check out the other blogs chronicling our time down here: www.mariposa2009.blogspot.com and https://blogs.elca.org/09nicaraguatrip.

-David Creech

Back from NW Nicaragua

img_2318-732627 I just returned tonight from NW Nicaragua where we saw firsthand some of the impacts of climate change on poverty and a couple of the projects that ELCA World Hunger has supported. We also had the chance to talk to the municipal authorities in Villa Nueva and the Assistant Director of the Millenium Development Corporation in Nicaragua. I saw and heard much more than I have time to share. Tonight, allow me to share briefly about one project we visited that encapsulates my experience thus far.

One of the ways in which climate change is being felt down here is through the unpredictability of precipitation. Before Mitch (1998, the marker for most of the farmers for when the weather patterns began to change), farmers in NW Nicaragua would have two planting seasons, one during the dry season and one during the wet season. The dry season has become so unpredictable that farmers are now hesitant to plant. The dry season may be so incredibly dry that nothing can grow. This first planting season has become a real gamble–seeds from the previous harvest may planted and lost without any return.

In the community of Las Jolotas, LWF has dug a well (pictured above) for a family who is now experimenting with irrigation, so that they can plant in the dry season and use gravity to irrigate their crops. This is the first dry season with the well, and, as you can see from the picture here, things are looking very good.

The effects of climate change are already being felt down here, and those who are poorest are being pushed closer to the brink. I am encouraged, though. People are banding together to help each other and good work is being done.

Tomorrow morning I leave for the Atlantic Coast, where we’ll be looking at some of the relief and development work that has taken place since 2007 when Hurricane Mitch wreaked havoc. I may be without internet again, but I will post as soon as I get back.

-David Creech

P.S. For more stories and different voices, be sure to check out the other blogs chronicling our trip: www.mariposa2009.blogspot.com and https://blogs.elca.org/09nicaraguatrip.