COLOMBIA REFLECTION: The rich and the pure
February 1st, 2008
in:
CPTnet
1 February 2008
COLOMBIA REFLECTION: The rich and the pure
by Paul Mukerji
January 2008 Colombia delegation member
One morning, a couple of days after our Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) delegation arrived in Colombia, we gathered in the park opposite our hotel for our morning reflection in which we touched upon a number of themes including poverty. The expression “rich and poor” came up and we pondered the utility of using such descriptions.
Do these words accurately describe what we perceive? “The rich” sounds positive, while “the poor” sounds negative; the former seems to refer to the haves, the latter to the have-nots.
For most of us, “the poor” are a bunch of people who inhabit a world that we rarely venture into. They lack what we have and use illegal means to try obtaining some of our wealth. We are warned that if we wander into their world we may become a target for assault or robbery. So, as much as possible, we stay away. The other image that comes to mind is of a people in a distant land, starving with hunger, who need our help to survive. Whichever way we look at them, we tend to see their poverty before we see their humanity.
During our time in Colombia, we encountered both rural and urban poor on a daily basis, and interacting with them probably had the biggest impact on us of anything we experienced on the trip. The people we met helped us much more than we helped them and we were touched by their generosity, hospitality, friendliness, and community spirit. They enabled us to think more deeply about the way we perceive other people and about what might be missing from our own lives. They have definitely known hardship and yet in spite of, or perhaps because of this reality, they still seemed happy – happy with what we might consider simple things: plentiful food, a house to live in, healthy children…
Of course, we should not to idealize the poor too much since good and bad, happiness and unhappiness exist in everyone. However, too often our materialistic upbringing conditions our eyes to see only what people do not have instead of what they do have. While real poverty does exist, people on many occasions confuse simplicity with poverty, and in so doing fail to appreciate how the former allows more space and potential for spiritual growth.
In a world where we are used to generalizing, we will inevitably use expressions like “the rich” and “the poor.” However, while accepting that no terminology can be completely accurate, I nonetheless think we should redress the balance, to change the negative to the positive, to prioritize the spiritual over the material. After my experiences in Colombia meeting people little-tainted by materialism, I will from now on think in terms of “the rich” and “the pure.”
Members of the January 2008 delegation to Colombia included Susan Lee Barton, Richmond, Indiana, United States; Martin Bates, Salina, Kansas, United States; Mary Benson, Brainerd, Minnesota, United States; Doris Braley, New Brighton, Minnesota, United States; Tyler Braun, Montreal, Québec, Canadá; Paul Mukerji, Birmingham, England; Janie Stein, Salina, Kansas, United States; Jonathan Stucky, Bogotá, Cundinamarca, Colombia.
1 February 2008
COLOMBIA REFLECTION: The rich and the pure
by Paul Mukerji
January 2008 Colombia delegation member
One morning, a couple of days after our Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) delegation arrived in Colombia, we gathered in the park opposite our hotel for our morning reflection in which we touched upon a number of themes including poverty. The expression “rich and poor” came up and we pondered the utility of using such descriptions.
Do these words accurately describe what we perceive? “The rich” sounds positive, while “the poor” sounds negative; the former seems to refer to the haves, the latter to the have-nots.
For most of us, “the poor” are a bunch of people who inhabit a world that we rarely venture into. They lack what we have and use illegal means to try obtaining some of our wealth. We are warned that if we wander into their world we may become a target for assault or robbery. So, as much as possible, we stay away. The other image that comes to mind is of a people in a distant land, starving with hunger, who need our help to survive. Whichever way we look at them, we tend to see their poverty before we see their humanity.
During our time in Colombia, we encountered both rural and urban poor on a daily basis, and interacting with them probably had the biggest impact on us of anything we experienced on the trip. The people we met helped us much more than we helped them and we were touched by their generosity, hospitality, friendliness, and community spirit. They enabled us to think more deeply about the way we perceive other people and about what might be missing from our own lives. They have definitely known hardship and yet in spite of, or perhaps because of this reality, they still seemed happy – happy with what we might consider simple things: plentiful food, a house to live in, healthy children…
Of course, we should not to idealize the poor too much since good and bad, happiness and unhappiness exist in everyone. However, too often our materialistic upbringing conditions our eyes to see only what people do not have instead of what they do have. While real poverty does exist, people on many occasions confuse simplicity with poverty, and in so doing fail to appreciate how the former allows more space and potential for spiritual growth.
In a world where we are used to generalizing, we will inevitably use expressions like “the rich” and “the poor.” However, while accepting that no terminology can be completely accurate, I nonetheless think we should redress the balance, to change the negative to the positive, to prioritize the spiritual over the material. After my experiences in Colombia meeting people little-tainted by materialism, I will from now on think in terms of “the rich” and “the pure.”
Members of the January 2008 delegation to Colombia included Susan Lee Barton, Richmond, Indiana, United States; Martin Bates, Salina, Kansas, United States; Mary Benson, Brainerd, Minnesota, United States; Doris Braley, New Brighton, Minnesota, United States; Tyler Braun, Montreal, Québec, Canadá; Paul Mukerji, Birmingham, England; Janie Stein, Salina, Kansas, United States; Jonathan Stucky, Bogotá, Cundinamarca, Colombia.
