FAMINE IN GAZA: CONNECTED EXTREMES IN A DISCONNECTED WORLD
Julie Hinds of the Detroit Free Press describes the years since COVID-19 as a “Black Mirror” episode where a genius hacker hits a global pause button, forcing everyone to stand on a treadmill that goes nowhere, while creating the illusion of moving forward.
Maybe that’s a good description of where we find ourselves in 2024. It’s hard to believe that the heartbreaking events of 7 October 2023 and the subsequent genocide in Gaza is already 6 months in the making. It feels like only yesterday when the news broke – and nearly 33,000 lives later we are still on the treadmill watching from a distance and having the illusion that we are moving.
- Only future generations will be able to objectively analyse how the Gaza conflict impacted history and, like the holocaust in Germany, will ask the question of why it could not have been prevented. Why did ordinary men keep quiet?
- Why was everyone troubled but no one moved?
- What prevented leaders from intervening and why were the masses silent?
Those in Gaza, facing the daily bombardments of retribution, are indeed witnessing a global pause button with no resolve, no cease fire, and no relief from relentless deaths.
But the global tragedy we are witnessing is not only because of war, hatred and extremism. The challenge is our connected extremes in a disconnected world.
Take Gaza as an example:
According to Reuters[1] the Integrated Food-security Phase Classification (IPC) projects a catastrophic famine in Gaza by May.
A famine has three stages:
- Severe shortage of food,
- leading to pervasive malnutrition,
- and ultimately mass death from starvation and disease.
The IPC’s global hunger monitor says Gaza has already surpassed the first two criteria – food shortage and malnutrition – and mass death will begin “imminently” without an immediate aid surge.
The IPC has said for months that Gaza is experiencing the most pervasive food insecurity it has ever seen. In a report in March it said 100 percent of Gazans were experiencing severe food shortages, and for half of the population – far exceeding the 20% rate associated with famine – this had reached the highest level, category 5 or “catastrophe”.
In southern Gaza, where Reuters journalists operate, some residents have resorted to feeding their children boiled leaves. Reuters saw a number of children being treated for acute malnutrition in a hospital in Rafah, while conditions are reported to be far worse in the north. Overcrowding fosters the spread of disease, and many people have little or no access to a sanitary toilet or place to wash.
Pastor Munther Isaac, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, described the situations as follows:
“Gazans are being killed by hunger, thirst and disease. They are starved to death. It is a slow death. They are hanging between heaven and earth, dying slowly, while the world is watching. They have “no form or majesty” that we should look at them… “from whom men hide their face.”
AND YET, the challenge lies not only in those who hunger, but those who hoard – in the inequality of the connected extremes.
According to the RTS[2] the world wastes about 2.5 billion tons of food every year. The United States, which reflects a lifestyle embraced by most in the Western developed world, discards nearly 60 million tons of food every year. That’s estimated to be almost 40 percent of the entire US food supply, and equates to 325 pounds of waste per person. That’s like every person in America throwing 975 average sized apples right into the garbage — or rather right into landfills, as most discarded food ends up there. In fact, food is the single largest component taking up space inside US landfills, making up 22 percent of municipal solid waste (MSW). All told, the amount of food wasted in America has an approximate value of nearly $218 billion – the equivalent of 130 billion meals.
The inequality of these two connected extremes – famine and gluttony – is the proverbial pause button on our stationary treadmill of life.
A Biblical approach
How do we rectify this?
We might not be able to feed the hungry in Gaza, even though there are many charities that will do so and need support, but we can feed the hungry that lives on our doorsteps.
2 Corinthians 8:14 clearly teaches what economic relationships God desires amongst his people.
At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality.
God neither desires his Church to be poor neither does he desire His Church to live in financial abundance. According to scripture God’s economic system is based on simplicity[3], charity[4], contentment[5] and equality[6] – especially equality.
If only this virtue is embraced as a sacrament, the world, and history, will forever be transformed.
According to Non-profit Source[7] Charitable Giving Statistics Americans Christians tithe as follows:
- Only 5% tithe, and 80% of Americans only give 2% of their income.
- Christians are giving at 2.5% of income; during the Great Depression it was 3.3%.
- Only 3-5% of Americans who give to their local church do so through regular tithing.
- When surveyed, 17% of Americans state that they regularly tithe.
- For families making $75k+, 1% of them gave at least 10% in tithing.
- 3 out of 4 people who don’t go to church make donations to nonprofit organizations.
- The average giving by adults who attend US Protestant churches is about $17 a week.
If only we understood that the extremes in the world we live in are connected. My generosity can restore equality. For me, living simply could mean that others could simply live.
We hold the key in connecting the extremes in a disconnected world
[1]https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gaza-war-after-six-months-what-are-issues-now-2024-04-04/
[2] https://www.rts.com/resources/guides/food-waste-america/
[3] 2Co 1:12 For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.
[4] Hebrews 13:16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
[5] Hebrews 13:5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
[6] 2 Corinthians 8:14 At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality.
[7] https://nonprofitssource.com/online-giving-statistics/