News that the stupendously rich of the wealthiest country in the world are prepared to part with half their fortune to benefit charity has sparked in me a dream. You see the problem with charity is that it is self-perpetuating, just like wealth. The more you have, the easier it is to make more and I’m not just talking about wealth. Charity is safe. Giving one’s surplus earnings to charity is seen as a saintly act which makes the philanthropist feel good but does little lasting good for the receiver. As Dom Helder Camara of the underdeveloped north-east of Brazil said, ‘I I feed the poor, I’m called a saint. I ask why the poor have no food, I’m called a communist’. Wouldn’t it be great if these rich and therefore powerful people used their influence to question the political structures that keep people poor.

I was listening a few nights ago to a Christian Palestinian from Gaza where there is 80 percent unemployment, children go to school in shifts of just three hours a day, in classes of some 60 students where there are few resources. Miraculously some learn to write their names, many don’t. Their wealthy neighbour, Israel, is a major superpower in terms of nuclear capability, the recipient of the US’s largest annual aid allocation.

Constantine from Gaza said that if these children were educated and employed there would be less violence. ‘We want to see that the children of the country … the treasure of the nations (are safe) but they are being killed psychologically.’

My dream is that these American billionaires once they’ve divested themselves of their surplus wealth, might use their influence to address some of these questions with the world’s superpowers to allow people like the Palestinians to achieve a just, lasting and peaceful self-determination.

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