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Giving preference to listening to the poor and serving them: sharing
26. If the poor, in the economic sense of the term, bear witness to the lack of concern for the common good, they have something specific to tell us. They have their own opinions and experiences with regard to real daily life about which the better-off know nothing. As John Paul II said in his Encyclical Letter Centesimus annus "... it will be necessary above all to abandon a mentality in which the poor — as individuals and as peoples — are considered a burden, as irksome intruders trying to consume what others have produced ... the advancement of the poor constitutes a great opportunity for the moral, cultural and even economic growth of all humanity(40)."
The views of those living in poverty—which are no more accurate or complete than those of the leaders—are though essential to leaders if they desire to ensure long-term work which does not lead to selfdestruction. Embarking upon difficult and costly social and economic policies, without taking account of the perception of reality by the most humble members of society, can eventually lead to extremely costly dead-ends for the whole world. This is what has happened in the case of Third World debt. If the lenders and the borrowers had heeded the personal opinions of the poorest people, as one of the essential elements of reality, greater wisdom would have meant greater caution, and in very many countries the adventure would not have turned out so badly, or it may have turned out well.
Considering the complexity of the problems to be solved, or rather the complexity of living conditions to be improved, giving preference to heeding the poor will prevent us from falling into the slavery of short-term perspective, technocracy, bureaucracy, ideology, or idolatry regarding the role of the State or the role of the market. Each of these has its essential usefulness, but only as a means and never as an absolute end.
Intermediate entities have the main function of ensuring that the voices of those living in poverty are heard and of collecting their views, needs and desires. But these entities are often quite inadequate for the task, suffering either from the fact of occupying a monopoly position which leads them to cultivate their own power, or competing with others who seek to use the poor as a means of acquiring power. The work of the trade unions is therefore particularly necessary, verging on heroism when they strive to perform such an essential function without being destroyed or taken over(41).
Under these conditions, sharing becomes genuine cooperation and collaboration in which every person contributes to all what the human community needs. The poorest play their role, which is essential, particularly in view of the fact that in reallity they are excluded(42). This is a paradoxical situation which should not surprise the Christian.
The duty to give every person the same right of access to the indispensable minimum to live on does not stem merely from a moral imperative to share with the poor, which is already a major obligation. The duty is also to reincorporate those living in poverty into the community as a whole, which without them, tends to wither and can eventually be destroyed. People living in poverty do not belong on the sidelines, in a marginalised position. Everything must be done to prevent this. They must be placed at the very centre of our concerns, at the centre of the human family. It is there the poor can play a unique role within the community.
It is in this perspective that social justice, which is also commutative justice, acquires its full significance. As the basis of every action in the defence of rights, it guarantees social cohesion, peaceful co-existence between nations, but also their common development.
Also noteworthy is the extraordinary work of an English Protestant Minister, Stephen Carr, who spent 20 years living in two African villages, using traditional resources and techniques alone. He acquired a powerful influence in these two places, and on an unscheduled visit to Washington in 198586 he was interviewed by the World Bank. What he had to tell them enlightened the World Bank specialists who had come up against one failure after another in the Bank's agricultural projects in Africa. There is a symbiosis between the peasant and his land. The land of Africa is beautiful and rich, but it is also very fragile. New farming practices by the peasants brought about by the contemporary economy and the loss of ancestral beliefs has led to the destruction of the land. Catholic missionaries—and perhaps others too—have realised this. The old missions respected the talents and above all the traditional experience of the local people. This has now been rediscovered by a number of NGOs, including the FIDESCO which is based in France and several other European countries.