MARCH 10 — Common throughout the world are phrases and sayings about “a man who doesn’t work, doesn’t eat.” I have heard this repeated in many cultures.
Not only have I said it myself, but my initial reaction, at least at one time, when someone says it, is agreement. It is a statement that makes sense and perhaps even seems obvious.
I often skip my morning meal as a choice, not because food isn’t available. One day I was working on a task that required significant strength and energy and I became fatigued and weak very quickly.
It occurred to me that “if a man doesn’t work, he doesn’t eat,” is much easier said, than accomplished. It is easy to say by those of us who are “full.”
I stopped myself and wondered; a man who hasn’t had a meal, how is he supposed to work? As much of the world’s hungry are poorly educated, or women and children, and most work that may be available to them are jobs requiring manual labour, how exactly are they supposed to accomplish a full day’s work when they have had no nourishment.
Have you ever fasted for a period of time and then tried to work? It is difficult. It is hard enough to think and do tasks that most days seem menial, much less being able to do hard labour. Your body doesn’t have the strength that it does when it has been nourished, and you fatigue easily.
It seems to me that though this saying is known worldwide, that it is in developed countries where we say it and don’t always mean it. In developing countries this is just a fact, a man must work for food, there are no free meals.
Yet I believe that this idea actually perpetuates a pattern of poverty whereby because of having little or no food a man is actually unable to work effectively to lift himself and his family out of poverty and hunger.
I do not know about you, but I am not a big fan of “handouts.” That being said I have spent a lot of time entrenched deep in communities throughout the world where I have done just that, given handouts.
That hasn’t always looked the same, sometimes it has been food, sometimes money—more often it is medicine and medical care in which I passionately believe must be available to every person regardless of their situation in life.
It is, however, a constant question I battle within myself; am I making a real difference. Is this helping, or harming a person? And the difficult reality is there is often a balance that needs to be struck between just giving someone food and having an expectation that a person should work for their food in some capacity.
Often I find that it is impossible to find that balance. When I see women, children, and yes even men, starving in front of me, I find it impossible to do anything other than try and help, their most immediate need being food.
But what happens when you are always giving and that person never chooses to work. I believe in order for a person to be able to work, they are going to need a meal or two to nourish their body and have the strength to do the task ahead of them, but how often? How many meals do you give before you expect a person to actually start doing something?
I think that ultimately we need to rethink charity, including feeding programs. Or, in some of our cases, we need to think about it for the first time. Giving is good, giving is needed and feeding programs are often critical.
I am also not limiting this idea of rethinking programs to developing countries, many developed countries have food subsidies and programs intended for helping out families in need but often abused by capable men and women who choose not to work.
But I think lasting change will not come in developing countries without first, access to education and medical care, and second, business and commerce instead of just many non-profits coming in and giving “handouts.”
So what do we do? We cannot just stop giving aid and help when we see the need. This is not acceptable nor beneficial, in fact it is very likely destructive and perhaps deadly. I believe we must find a way to do both. Economic growth in forms of business in partnership with the non-profit sector.
I realize most of you think I’m a dreamer, an optimist and not a realist. Perhaps to some degree I am. I dream of a world where children are not dying because they don’t have enough to eat. Where mothers are not infected with HIV and orphaning their young children. Where fathers can feed their families from the work of their hands. I dream of a world where children are not abandoned because their families can’t afford medical care.
I dream of a world where Muslim and Christian can live side by side and take care of each other as neighbours should.
But I am also a realist. I have seen the hell that people are living in in this world. I have seen evil at its worst. I dream of a better world, but I realize that I cannot make this world a better place.
What I can do is keep dreaming and keep doing my part. In my life already helping one would have been something to write home about, I have had the privilege of helping many. But, if I had just helped one, and you help one, and they help one, can you dream with me about what our world would be like if we could just do that?
What if we dropped the cliches and adages, we looked past the stereotype, we let go of our tightly held opinions, we stepped back from our fiercely held convictions and what if we actually looked around at our world with eyes not prejudiced by assumptions.
What if we were willing to look truth in the eyes and say, “Things are not what I always thought.”
What if we stopped saying things like “a man who doesn’t work, doesn’t eat,” and realize that things are more complicated. What if helping didn’t mean just donating a meal or supporting a feeding program; but it meant giving a job, inspiring or encouraging someone to follow their dreams, arguing for justice within courts, and demanding transparency in governments.
Each of us making a difference even if it is right where we are, with the talents and resources already available to us.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
