Quarterly Bulletin

In June 2009, Pope Benedict XVI published a powerful encyclical Charity in Truth that addresses many social, economic, and political issues with a Church social teaching eye. Fr. Joe Komakoma, the Secretary General of the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC), contextualises the message of the encyclical to Zambia’s development challenges

CONTEXT OF ZAMBIA

Recently, Zambia experienced a month long strike by civil servants, particularly teachers and health workers. The main contention by health workers was the salary package and other working conditions. Government was not prepared to go beyond a 15% increment when the civil servants wanted a 25% increment and improvement in some key allowances.

One felt sorry for the Government since they had only budgeted for a maximum increment of 11%. The fear by Government was that going beyond that figure would make them break one of the conditionalities imposed by the International Financial Institutions (the IMF and the World Bank) that governments who seek their help should not spend more than 8% of the GDP for personal emoluments.

The harsh reality here is that the Government of the Republic of Zambia does not have the freedom to sit with its own citizens to decide a salary package that meets the cost of living. Needless to say, civil servants in Zambia are poorly paid. Their salaries barely meet the basic needs basket of about US$400 per month. This has caused an exodus from the sector leaving the few teachers and nurses on Government payroll overworked.

This lack of sovereignty by our government to pay decent wages to its workers led to the month long strike with disastrous consequences. It meant that the majority of Zambians (about 70%) who live on a dollar or less per day had no access to healthcare during this period. They could not afford the cost of private healthcare. Many avoidable deaths were reported as a result. We also had such heart rending reports like the woman who gave birth on the streets as her family shuttled her from one Government health centre to the next in the hope of finding one with minimal services. That the child was still born in the process was inevitable!

CHARITY IN TRUTH

This scenario, for me, accentuates the issues the Pope has wonderfully addressed in his new and powerful Encyclical - Caritas in Veritate, or Charity in Truth. The Zambian situation is a case in point in what is deficient about the current world economic order. It shows that the so-called efforts of trying to help poor countries come out poverty and underdevelopment, many times end up increasing the poverty cycle. It also raises fundamental problem of the international development agenda where the rich and powerful countries call the shots and the poor countries live the consequences of those decisions.

True development can only be achieved through freedom and justice where each society is given space and respect to set its own priorities for national development. We cannot leave that to the whims of the IMF and the World Bank. Unfortunately, this is what is obtaining at the moment.

We are living in a world where the profit motive is paramount and not the proper development of all peoples. We do not seem to care about the means through which this profit motive is achieved, even when poor countries like Zambia are squeezed so that rich countries can continue to prosper. It is a world in which financial speculation and unregulated exploitation of the earth’s resources become acceptable.

Zambia has faced the brunt of such behaviour in the recent past. It is no secret that the IMF and World Bank arm twisted our Government to allow international mining companies to come and exploit Zambia’s   renowned   copper   at  great  profits to the investors and minimal benefit to the country. The IMF sponsored agreements with these mining companies allowed then to have minimal local investment, low taxation, and unencumbered externalisation of profits. When the current economic crisis hit, a good number of those companies were quick to close shop, leaving behind not only massive numbers of unemployed miners, but also serious environmental degradation. This is a great cost now in Zambia’s lap.

One cannot therefore but agree with the Pope that we have let human greed and self centeredness permeate our social relations to the detriment of the common good. We have let the major players in the economic and financial fields behave outside the ethical sphere in the name of wealth creation and material progress. We have let the international institutions serve mainly the interests of the rich and powerful countries.

Pope Benedict XVI ties up all these issues beautifully in his new encyclical. He proposes a whole series of values and principles that can truly bring about the development that all societies seek, if heeded. I also see the Encyclical as a clarion call around which those of us from poor countries like Zambia can rally to vigorously demand the necessary reforms that will allow us to chart our own development destinies as the situation on the ground requires.

I see the following issues, from the Encyclical, as really pertinent for this to happen.

THE DIGNITY AND EQUALITY OF ALL

The whole world has been hit by the current economic crisis and yet when it came to seriously sitting down to look for solutions, there was only room at the table for the privileged and self selected few – the G20 who met in London, this past April 2009.

That the hardest hit by the economic crisis are poor countries like Zambia was not good enough for them to have a place at the table. Yet Zambia and other poor countries will for years to come suffer the consequences of those decisions.

The Pope makes it clear that we are all equal in human dignity as individuals, states, or institutions. The principles of Subsidiarity and Solidarity are therefore pertinent in enhancing the sense of mutual respect.

Those are the principles that would allow the world society to ensure that all voices are heard, regardless of their social status, especially in the face of an international crisis like the current one.

THE PRINCIPLE OF THE COMMON GOOD

Without the common good as its ultimate end, the current economic order risks destroying wealth it purports to create and increase poverty. Zambia is a case in point as I have pointed out above. Without taking into account the necessity of fair distribution of the created wealth it makes it inevitable that the gap between the rich and poor will continue to widen.

Furthermore, interests of countries like Zambia must be taken seriously if these countries are to see the development they seek come about. It is actually in the interests of rich countries to realise that they will never, for instance, succeed to stem the flow of immigrants into their countries if some countries remain desperately poor.

CALL TO ACTION

The Pope calls for far reaching reforms and changes in the manner we co-exist as a global human society. It is hard to disagree with him that a new world political authority is desperately needed that will be able to manage the global economy, guarantee the protection of the environment, regulate migration, bring about food security and peace, and revive economies hit by the current economic crisis.

This can only happen if there is political will and commitment at all levels, at individual, national and international levels. Unless we act, nothing will change. This is where we come in as Christians. We are the ones to champion this cause.

We need to stand in solidarity from the North and South doing what is necessary in our societies. The main challenge for those of us from poor countries is to  push   our   governments   to   better     democratic governance which will then give us a solid platform to ask for what is just from the international community. Those from the rich countries are in the forefront to impress upon their governments to heed the Pope’s call for these necessary reforms since it is the rich countries that control the international system.

With the means of social communication available, thanks to globalisation, we have the basis we need to start a massive global campaign.

The new Encyclical comes as a key document for advocacy that must not be allowed to lie unused. It has come as a timely advocacy tool with very clear and specific standpoints for the required changes. These are changes that are necessary to bring about authentic human development to peoples all over the world, especially poor countries like Zambia.

Fr. Joe Komakoma
Zambia Episcopal Conference
Lusaka, Zambia