HELP LIBERIA FOUNDATION

Using Your Hard Earned Money To Help The Needy – Right or Wrong?

Posted by Paul Yeenie Harry on February 16, 2005

While discussing with my students at the university where I teach, I asked them to comment on the question: “Is it right for people to spend their money on expensive material things, while millions go hungry?”

One group of students said it is not right for people to spend incredibly huge sums of money on material things, when such amounts could be used to help thousands of people survive hunger, or help to undertake an initiative that could guarantee peaceful co-existence, or help to eradicate poverty, or help to educate a poor child somewhere, etc.

One male student went further to say: “Think about the soon-to-be wedding between Prince Charles and Camila Parker Bowles. Think about the total amount that they will expend for this wedding. Already, the ring that Prince Charles bought cost £60,000. This money could be used to build schools in developing countries like Liberia, helping thousands of war-effected children to have access to education, thereby breaking the circle of poverty and empower people.”

Another male student said: “If it is their hard earned money, then they have the right to spend it as they wish. No one has the right to tell them how to spend it, and what to spend it on. Once people earned their money genuinely and industriously, it is wrong for anybody to tell them that they should not spend it as they choose. It is simply wrong!”

One female student threw in: “This whole thing is a cruelty unrealised. It shows that most people are just insensitive to the plight of the millions suffering around the world. This is wrong! Think about the cost of the wedding between Prince Felipe and Letizia in 2004. They expended twenty-one million Euros on the wedding.” Why? Is this right? No! It is simply wrong!”

You (referring to me, the teacher) told us that the illiteracy rate in Liberia is about 80%. Think about how many primary schools that amount could build in Liberia. Think about it! Think about the number of clinics it could build for the thousands of Liberians that are dying of treatable diseases in the displaced camps! Think about how many doctors or nurses it could train in your country! Think about it! Think about how many children that amount could benefit in some of the orphanages in the developing countries, especially those countries that have experienced civil wars, leaving many children parentless. Think about it! It is simply wrong!”

There I was, a professional teacher, wanting to remain disinterested in the discussion. I pensively reflected on each student’s last statement: “It is simply wrong!” Who could be right, or wrong, in this case? Could both groups be right, or wrong? Could one group be right, and the other wrong? But, then, there was this forceful and regularly-occurring voice of the female student: “Think about it!”

Did she want to cajole me to take side, or did she want me to consciously recognize and admit my responsibility to humanity, especially so when she kept using my war-torn country as an example?

While reflecting on all this, my mind visited the world of philosophy – the subject of ethics. Like Henry Thomas, an American philosopher, has written: “And at the core of all the ethical teaching of the philosophers we find a single aim – to establish an honest formula for justice. In other words, the philosophers ask a question that concerns every one of us: “Is there a definite law that determines the difference between right and wrong?” The question of right and wrong, therefore, is largely a matter of time, place, circumstance, and individual point of view.”

To conclude, I would like to say that while it is true we have the RIGHT to use our resources as we wish, we must NOT FORGET that humanity is one. We are all interlinked. What affects one affects all. Hence, as the Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 6:4 – “Bear ye one another’s burden, and so fulfil the law of Christ” — we must consider it our responsibility to help those who are in need, irrespective of wherever they might be. Again, the Apostle Paul, quoting Jesus Christ, writes in Acts 20:35 – “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

A child helped today could be a great help to humanity tomorrow. Think about it!