Irony of Micro-Finance Business: Appearance of Loan Sharks

The poor are easily abused. In India dozens of poor people, who have found themselves trapped by micro-loans, have committed suicide. How ironic! The micro-loan-idea that earned  Mr. Yunus of Bangladesh his Nobel Peace prize, are being abused by loan sharks.

Poor, ignorant people are offered loans upon loans, that they are not able to pay back. It seems like there are always those who see an opportunity for wrong and take it. It is not that the idea of micro-finance is bad, but that people are bad.

The poor need a hand from us, the wealthy of the world.  But, I think this shows again that if you give people money or rice, but don’t give them a new way of living or hope, what is the point?

There are reasons why people are trapped in poverty. Sometimes it is lack of knowledge and bad choices. Sometimes it is lack of confidence.  Sometimes it is an unjust and corrupt system that keeps the poor in poverty. Sometimes it is abuse, wars, natural disasters and the list goes on.

This is why the Biblical message of everyone’s equal value in the eyes of God is crucial. If you know you are loved and every wrong you ever did and do is forgiven, it changes everything. If you know there is a God who is inherently Good, it gives you hope. But also the Bible is a very practical and realistic book giving wise advice on living (don’t take loans you cannot repay, don’t speak behind people’s backs because they will find out)  and tells the history of Israelis with all their failures and shortcomings.  And learning all of this will change the way you look at yourself, your neighbor and your situation. You will have hope, which helps you to keep going through the tough times and you will have wisdom to make good choices. And this can bring about true change.

Read BBC story here.

Roma, The Untouchables

The largest Roma population in the EU resides in Romania. Although Romanians are different from the Roma, many people equal Roma with Romanian. For Romania this is uncomfortable, because they don’t want their reputation tarnished by wandering and thieving Gypsies.

The Roma are most likely originally from India, where approximately one in four Indians are the poorest of the poor, downtrodden, soul-less, untouchables – Dalits. According to the Hindu sacred texts, the Vedas,  people without caste (social status by birth) are not entitled to even basic human rights of education or respect.

Now the Romanian government is attempting to pass a new bill, where the Romas won’t be confused with Romanians anymore. They will be called by a new name, Tigan, which comes from Greek meaning “pagan”, “heretic” and “untouchable“. Obviously Roma activists are furious about this and have organized protests on the streets of Bucharest.

In the “civilized” Europe we easily condemn human rights abuses in India and other distant places, but practice the same kind of oppression in our own, perhaps more sanitized way.

Read more from The Economist or Time.

India’s Christians Persecuted

Today I watched people being dragged out of churches. Men, women and children were beaten with sticks. Even grown men were whimpering on the homevideo and us, the audience, sat up uncomfortably, because it wasn’t a 15s clip on CNN. We watched this raw footage for 15 minutes, where shaky cameras were held above people’s heads and what you see feels as real as your breakfast cereal.

Some amazing things are happening in India today. The ancient caste system is crumpling as Dalits (the lowest caste, actually beneath any caste system) are being educated and many of them are hearing for the first time that they are equal human beings to the rest of us. Hundreds if not thousands of churches have sprung up among the Dalits as many choose to leave the Hinduism behind that is reason for their oppression.

Hindu extremists are not happy about this and have started to persecute the Christians. Some have been killed, many have been burned and beaten. This is one of those atrocities that doesn’t get much media coverage, which doesn’t make it any less real.

For more information check out the All India Christian Council and Dalit Freedom Network.