Thank God, everyone is not convinced by National’s need to placate Act. A group of concerned, mostly Christian, citizens has set up an Alternative Welfare Working Group, which starts from the same position as the official Working Party, but takes a very different path. Meetings are being held up and down the country, asking beneficiaries and unemployed people for their stories. I was fortunate enough to be present last Monday at the meeting in Wellington, where people spoke from their hearts of how they experience the system and the people who have to operate it. The Group members listened attentively and commented where necessary to clarify concerns. Each small group was asked to put forward three main concerns after sharing together. These stories will be collated and presented to Government in November, with recommendations for improving the system. This is surely a better way to involve people in planning their future, so that they are enabled to own the solutions. Do we take seriously the words of the Lord to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’? Or do we turn a blind eye when our pockets are threatened?

Dear Lord, we ask you to put a heart of flesh in place of our hearts of stone, so that we see your beloved sons and daughters in those who struggle with mental or physical ill health and lack of employment.

But there is more, I can’t help wondering if it is just too easy to expect the Government of the day and its many agencies to do all our dirty work for us. In the past, when people tried to convince me that the Welfare State was not perfect, I found it hard to see what they were on about. It was often argued that the Welfare State makes people “welfare dependent”, whatever that means. That may or may not be true, but I have come to suspect that the Welfare State makes ordinary people welfare independent – an attitude, perhaps only subconscious, that thinks it is the government’s job to look after the needy,  “I am happy to pay my taxes, and I might even be happy to pay more taxes, so that ‘they’ can look after the needy. Meanwhile I will carry on with my reasonably comfortable life content that I have done my bit.

In the days before the Welfare State, people of good will banded together and went out and did the work. They raised the money, they build the buildings, they set up the programmes. I know there are still organisations around that do this, but they are not thick on the ground.  In my own church there were, in the past, massive efforts made to educate the poor, care for the sick, and house the homeless. Such activities now seem to exist only on the periphery, while we put all or energies onto making sure we are using the correct formulas when we pray….  history records that this phenomenon also happened in the time of Jesus.

Oh God give me a generous heart and also stop me from becoming a curmudgeon in my old age.

A return to tough 1990s welfare reform is feared as the Government presses the need to change the welfare system. Social Development Minister Paula Bennett confirmed yesterday that the Government believes it “needs to do more” to tackle perceived problems with the welfare state identified in a working party report. The report, published yesterday, said the welfare system was “unsustainable, outdated and fragmented” and would eventually cost the country $50 billion. The Government set up the working party after announcing a first tranche of welfare changes in March. The legislation enacting those changes will be passed by Parliament next week and will take effect from the end of next month.

But Ms Bennett said yesterday that they were only the start.”We need to do more. This is why we asked a group of experts to canvass the issues and provide the Government recommendations to consider later in the year.” From September 27, the first changes will introduce part-time work obligations for solo parents on the domestic purposes benefit whose children are aged over six.
Ms Bennett said this was already a significant change, but “I’m open to any changes that could support people better into work and to remain independent”. Most of the report’s findings came as no surprise to the Government, she said. “And it certainly reaffirms the need to reform the welfare system.”

Prime Minister John Key said the initial changes fulfilled election promises. “But the issue of long-term welfare dependency also needs to be looked at.” Welfare advocate and former Green Party MP Sue Bradford said the impact of changes was already being felt by beneficiaries, with “much more intense harassment” of them. The direction in which the working group was headed could have even greater implications, she said.
“If they go the whole way that [working group chairwoman] Paula Rebstock is heading in, the reform would be far more significant than what National did in the 1990s, because it would change the whole basis of our social security system.” The focus on getting sickness and invalid beneficiaries working was misplaced, she said. “Should the Government’s priority be on forcing people who are sick, injured or disabled out to work when it’s very difficult for them, or should it be on the 160,000 unemployed and helping them to get jobs?” Although work was often good for people, it was not always for the best.
A solo mother, for instance, might be pushed into a night job stacking shelves at a supermarket. “That’s the sort of work that’s not going to get her anywhere and that makes her feel worse about herself, often because she’s having to do it at unsociable hours on low pay and often at the mercy of employers who demand different shifts.”
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Matthew 25/35

As I reached again for my wallet to contribute in a small way to the relief, I read that the Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said troops fighting insurgents in the north had not been redeployed to help the relief effort and that he feared the growing desperation of flood victims could play into the hands of extremists who were delivering aid..

I felt my heart sink at the thought that once again war and politics would reign over compassion and human crisis.

This might very well be an irreconcilable conundrum for a politician – but for a follower of Christ the answer is very clear – love and the lives of the people especially children come first.

Ok so I’m a Pollyanna:  I think that when you have 20 million people at risk of dying from starvation and disease then that‘s where your troops go – not to the border to continue fighting insurgents.

To further seal my fate as a Pollyanna, might I suggest that this catastrophe could be an opportunity for all – the Pakistani Government, their Military, the Insurgents and the International Community to come together to fight a common enemy, disease, starvation and death.

I had to question myself, was my small donation in fact only contributing towards the Pakistani war effort? Maybe – but I also know that it is irrelevant what others do – I am responsible to God only for the choice I make.

Lord give me the wisdom and strength to only see others as you do, so that the worlds last will become my first.

Sadly, 90% of disaster victims live in poor countries, where there is inadequate infrastructure or the resources to recover. Victims don’t have insurance or welfare. Pakistan is desperately poor and is already unable to service current debt to the IMF and World Bank. Yet they will need to borrow more.

At a personal level, we ask ““How can we powerless people possibly make a difference?  Aid agencies send our donations; but is that enough?

At the international level, the response has been slow but the western world is now responding to the UN urgings. That is in spite of much disquiet about the government of Pakistan and the fact that there is little generosity from the Islam world or Asian countries.

And good people ask, “But why are such severe catastrophes increasing?  Are our petitions being ignored by our God?

Perhaps these tragedies are calling us to open our mind to wider concepts of God and our world. Just maybe, the God Creator of the Universe is saying “I have entrusted to you a planet and the means to sustain it.  Act urgently. Change your ways or continue at your peril”.

Of course this would require a new world order – a new paradigm that reverses our pursuits of waring, military might, national self interest, resource exploitation, national borders, global warming  and denials of social justice.  The answer of “impossible” will come quickly. However, the hard questions will surely endure!

So again, how can we powerless people make a difference? As a start, could we too discover a new paradigm?  Might we open our minds from our ancient theism to a new concept of a Universal God in relation to and our planet? Might we spiritually transcend our divisive religions that are so bound by fundamental interpretations of the old-testament Bible or the Koran? Might we truly respect our planet in total?

Instead, might we dare to live our common “golden rule” and truly treat all others as we wish to be treated?  In short, might we act to witness credibly to a model of the world we aspire to? Then Governments might listen.

“What concerns us the most is water and health. Clean water is essential to prevent deadly water-borne diseases. Water during the flood has been contaminated badly,” he added.

The World Health Organization was also preparing to assist tens of thousands of people in case of cholera, although the government has not notified the UN of any confirmed cases, he added.

He estimated the number at risk from such diseases was six million.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told the BBC that he feared the growing desperation of flood victims could play into the hands of extremists.

But he said troops fighting insurgents in the north had not been redeployed to help the relief effort.

“We have moved additional troops to southern parts of Punjab and the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan. We are not going to permit militants to take advantage of this situation,” he said.

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That said, I have no idea what he answer is. I am not so naive as to think that everyone would willingly sign up to shared ownership. In the meantime I will examine my own conscience and consider what I must do to reduce my level of comfort so that I might feel more comfortrable.

Pray about it

Do something

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

Mark 12/41

Dozens of US billionaires have pledged to give at least 50 percent of their fortunes to charity as part of a philanthropic campaign by two of the world’s richest men – Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. Based on Forbes magazine’s estimates of the billionaires’ wealth, at least US$150 billion ($204 billion) could be given away. Among the rich joining The Giving Pledge campaign are New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, media moguls Barry Diller and Ted Turner, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, “Star Wars” movie maker George Lucas and energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens.

A total of 40 of the richest people in the United States, including Microsoft founder Gates and investor Buffett, now have taken the pledge. Since launching the campaign in June, Buffett, Gates and his wife Melinda have spoken to about 20 percent of the wealthiest people in the United States – 70 to 80 billionaires – in a bid to persuade them to give away their fortunes. “In most cases we had reason to believe that the people already had an interest in philanthropy,” Buffett said. “It was a very soft sell but 40 have signed up.” “We’re looking forward to enlisting many of these 40 to go out and make some calls also so we can report an even greater milestone but we’re off to a terrific start,” he said. The campaign asks US billionaires to give away at least half their wealth during their lifetime or after their death, and to publicly state their intention with a letter explaining their decision. Gates has an estimated US$53 billion fortune, which places him second on the Forbes magazine list of the world’s richest people, and Buffett, who made his fortune with insurance and investment company Berkshire Hathaway Inc, ranks third on the list with US$47 billion. The Giving Pledge does not accept money but asks billionaires to make a moral commitment to give their fortunes to charity.

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