Make Poverty History

2005 will go down in history as having been the year of "Make Poverty History", white wristbands, Live 8 and Bob Geldof (amongst other things). But has it all been worth it and indeed was it a valid cause in the first place?

Personally I've been a moderate supporter of Make Poverty History (I wore my white band until it became so dirty that it would almost have been unhygienic to continue wearing it!). It's fairly blatantly obvious that the rich-poor divide in our world has been getting greater. It's simply not fair that as a global population we have resources a-plenty yet there are those who are dying in want. Every day people die of preventable diseases. Every day people die from a lack of food when in the west we can go to a supermarket and pick a meal off the shelf 24-hours a day. MPH ran extensively their "click" advertisements, which claimed that for every click in the advert (one every three seconds), a child dies as a result of extreme poverty. These facts must shock anyone who possesses a heart. For this reason I'm totally behind the principle of Make Poverty History, but doubt it can be achieved. Just because you can't complete something fully though, doesn't necessarily mean it isn't something worth striving for.

Live 8 was a fantastic event. Brilliantly organised, with fantastic intentions and many of the best bands and musical acts in the world. It was a privilege to be there. Coldplay, Keane, REM, Robbie Williams and The Killers amongst others provided a quality day of music that I'll never forget. The sun was shining, everyone was up-beat and it was great to be there with friends. The videos with the MPH message and the speeches of Bob Geldof, Bill Gates and others were very moving and one of my highlights of the day was the 200,000 people in Hyde Park standing in absolute silence watching an extended "click" video. Despite the way that people seemed to be moved by these videos on July 2nd, I'm dubious about how commited to Make Poverty History most people in this country actually are.

Sure, people in the UK seem to have been behind the cause of MPH - 200,000 at Live 8 in Hyde Park, white bands were everywhere earlier this year and so on. Yet I'm majorly underwhelmed by people's overall desire to see poverty relief. I've lost count of the number of strangers who have noticed my white MPH wristband and asked whether I was at Live 8 (why does wearing this necessarily mean that I was at the concert?). Every person that I've met in this way has wanted to talk almost exclusively about the entertainment value of Live 8. Granted in terms of entertainment it's probably the greatest event I've ever been to, but when I've been talking to strangers I always try to bring the conversation round to the MPH cause and no-one seems interested. I am far from convinced that people in this country are willing to make any real sacrifice. The general attitude seems to be "Yeah, nobody should be poor - that's injustice - I'll give to that cause ... as long as it doesn't affect me too much - I'm supportive as long as it does nothing to detract from my own comfortable, affluent lifestyle".

So, since the start of 2005, aid has been increased significantly; pledges have been made that corrupt leaders will be named and shamed; and modifications to trading laws have been promised. Will the money filter down to those who need it though? And will the money be used for the most beneficial things such as sustainable development, rather than for quick-fix solutions?

As a Christian I believe that ulitmately there's another reason why MPH is unlikely to do as well as many might hope and this is due to the fallen nature of man. As someone pointed out to me not so long ago, gospel freedom really needs to come before social freedom. Money will never be distributed fairly whilst man is living for himself. Man is by nature selfish, but Christ can free us from that. People may make great efforts, but ultimately human greed will surely undermine those efforts unless all hearts are changed by Christ.

So, whilst I'm sceptical, this does not mean that I'm against Make Poverty History. The principles are sound - we should do all we can to further the relief of the poor (What would Jesus do? Well, he fed the hungry, so surely we should do likewise). How will we answer future generations if we haven't even tried to aid the relief of poverty? We must do all we can, but I firmly believe that ultimately hearts need changing permanently by the one true power that can permanently change hearts to bring about any significant and lasting, permanent change.