Race Against Time by: Stephen Lewis
The dictionary's definition of tragedy: .An event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime, or natural catastrophe.. This book talks about the horrible tragedy of aids in Africa. Race Against Time, by Stephen Lewis, was a book mixed with emotion for me. Although the book itself is a quick read when you finish you are far from done. Your mind is questioning, contemplating, and wondering what can be done to stop the issues presented in the book.
Stephen Lewis pleas to the wealthy world to stand up and make a change, and it makes you angry that a change has not yet happened. I beileve people should read this book, and am thankful that I myself read it. It's an eye-opener. The book consists of Lectures by Stephen Lewis. In his lectures he talks about Aids and HIV in Africa. Lewis is a diplomat, feminist, and member of the UN.
In his lectures he examines the UN's Millenium Development Goals including: reducing poverty and hunger by half, providing universal primary education, increasing gender equality, and stopping the spread of Aids and Malaria by the year 2015. Lewis himself is angry, an anger by the end of reading this that I myself identify with. He is angry at the lack of action the United Nations has taken, and at the broken promises made by first world nations.
Throughout the book Lewis frustration, and anger seemed real to me, sincere and respectable. He tells many personal stories of his time spent in Africa, and the heartbreaking things he experienced. I find this to both add and take away from the book. The personal stories are touching, and shocking but at the same time he seems to get almost a little too wrapped up in the emotions. Although that is all part of his passion.
This is one example of the personal stories he includes: "I was greeted by the sight of four young men making miniature papier mâché coffins for infants: tiny, light, plain. As they affixed silver aluminum foil handles to the coffins, they looked at me and said, with an admixture of pride and pain, "We can't keep up with the demand."
I found A Race Against Time to be an extremely informative book, although I wished that it talked more about what we (normal people) could do to stop the devastation created through aids. All in all I would recommend this read to anyone.
Stephen Lewis pleas to the wealthy world to stand up and make a change, and it makes you angry that a change has not yet happened. I beileve people should read this book, and am thankful that I myself read it. It's an eye-opener. The book consists of Lectures by Stephen Lewis. In his lectures he talks about Aids and HIV in Africa. Lewis is a diplomat, feminist, and member of the UN.
In his lectures he examines the UN's Millenium Development Goals including: reducing poverty and hunger by half, providing universal primary education, increasing gender equality, and stopping the spread of Aids and Malaria by the year 2015. Lewis himself is angry, an anger by the end of reading this that I myself identify with. He is angry at the lack of action the United Nations has taken, and at the broken promises made by first world nations.
Throughout the book Lewis frustration, and anger seemed real to me, sincere and respectable. He tells many personal stories of his time spent in Africa, and the heartbreaking things he experienced. I find this to both add and take away from the book. The personal stories are touching, and shocking but at the same time he seems to get almost a little too wrapped up in the emotions. Although that is all part of his passion.
This is one example of the personal stories he includes: "I was greeted by the sight of four young men making miniature papier mâché coffins for infants: tiny, light, plain. As they affixed silver aluminum foil handles to the coffins, they looked at me and said, with an admixture of pride and pain, "We can't keep up with the demand."
I found A Race Against Time to be an extremely informative book, although I wished that it talked more about what we (normal people) could do to stop the devastation created through aids. All in all I would recommend this read to anyone.
Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger By: Ronald J. Sider
When I first picked up the book Rich Christians in An Age of Hunger I had no clue what I was in for. The title originally brought me skepticism, and my assumptions of the contents began to cloud my mind. I then made myself stop and think and in doing so realized that I try to live my life without judging, so why should I act any differently in regards to this book? I decided to put down all of my judgment and to not make any decisions prior to finishing. Once I opened the book and entered in with the intent to have an open mind, I soon became shocked and somewhat amazed at the opinions I ended up forming and the valuable information I have now gained.
The first chapter starts off by presenting the various luxuries most of us living in a rich culture possess. From the houses, to the cars, to the boats, an excessive amount of clothes, electricity, food, so much food, and even the little things we might not perceive as luxuries. Then the author slowly takes away all of the luxuries, he strips away all of the things that we think we need, and leaves us only with bare essentials. In our eyes what is left might not even seem to be enough to survive off of. In reality the amount that is left is an illustration of what a huge percentage of the world is living off of, and in a lot of cases the amount might be even less.
It was hard for me at first to grasp just how blessed and spoiled I have been my entire life. There are so many people around the world who are starving and are going without the basic necessities to even survive, and I, along with almost everyone in my life is living with complete excess. The more I began to think about it the more disgusted I became. Although I've contemplated this concept many times prior to reading this book, for some reason (maybe it was the statistics or the heart breaking stories) this time the guilt of the way I live my life began to truly sink in. As I continued to flip through the pages and have my eyes slowly uncovered I not only begin to feel guilty, but seemed to acquire the urgency to change my life. In a sense I had the classic light bulb moment it was almost as though I had seemed to wake up from sort of messed up dream. I realized just how easy it is to become absorbed in our own worlds without contemplating the affect our lives and our society as a whole can have on the world around us and beyond us. .
The author, Ronald Sider, quotes the bible verse James 4:17 “Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him is sin.” (pg.114) Reading this book has caused me to question the definition of a Christian and how a Christian should ideally live. I now find myself seeking the answer to the question: If I am to label myself a Christian, which I'm not entirely sure I do, how should I be living my life? I believe that the verse quoted above is the perfect example of how a Christian should live. It seems to me that if that verse and the idea of living your life for those around you and humanity as a whole that lay behind it, was how all Christians sought to live their life, I as well as the rest of the world would have a very different view of Christianity. To me, it was extremely refreshing to read that in Rich Christians In an Age of Hunger, this seemed to be the exact idea of Christianity that the author was reaching for as well as encouraging his readers to attain.
At first I wondered whether or not the author himself was in a sense practicing what he preached and towards the end of my book I found my answer. The entire novel is filled with statistics that sadly show how little Christians, rich Christians in particular have done to help the impoverished world. The negative statistics were so overwhelming that for a while it was hard for me to believe that there could be any positive actions that had been taken as well. Although the negative still seemed to outweigh the positive, there are definitely Christians out there that are living their lives in the attempt to serve others, in specific the victims of extreme poverty. One example of this conscious effort turns out to be the author himself. His household decided to adopt a graduated scale for their giving, meaning that they would “give a tithe (10 percent) on our base figure and then give a graduated tithe (15 percent or more) on income above that. For each thousand dollars above our base, we decided to increase our giving by another 5 percent on that thousand.” (188) Personally I found this to be an interesting way to increase giving. Interesting as it seemed to be it definitely was not by any means the only way or the right way (if there is a right way) for everyone to give. When I finished the last page, and began to collect my thoughts on all of the information I had gained I noticed a few changes that were beginning to break through in my world view. I knew it was time for me to decide for myself the right way for me to increase my giving. There was absolutely no way I could continue to justify the way I live my life in any longer.
One section of the book talks about repentance, and how it is the first step in changing the way we live our lives to be able to push forward to a better future. On page 178, Sider writes, “Repentance is not just coming forward at the close of a service. It is not just repeating a spiritual law. It is not justifying mumbling liturgical confession. All of these things may help. But they are no substitute for the kind of deep inner anguish that leads to a new way of living.” I have begun to personally feel the anguish he so eloquently writes about. This anguish along with heartbreak for the people world-wide has nudged me to take some form of action.
I have found what I believe to be the right first step in increasing giving in my life. Being a student with very small (non-existent) financial funds, I knew giving money was not an option for me, but I have found an alternative. For a year, I have decided to not buy anything new, other then food, medicine and toiletries. This might be a small step in helping the world around me, but I think it is a good first step. It is my hope that by decreasing the imprint I make on the world and by using the money I save by not purchasing new items to give to the less fortunate, I can make a small contribution to a astronomical problem.
When I first set out to read Rich Christians In an Age of Hunger, I had no measurement or intentions of the impact it would have on me. Now that I have finished I could not be more thankful for the opportunity and insight that reading it has brought to me. Not only do I have a broader world view in result, but I have learned a valuable lesson: What I do does not only have an affect on me but in the lives of others and the world around me. It is about time that I start viewing my life in terms of the affects my small choices today can make in the long run.
The first chapter starts off by presenting the various luxuries most of us living in a rich culture possess. From the houses, to the cars, to the boats, an excessive amount of clothes, electricity, food, so much food, and even the little things we might not perceive as luxuries. Then the author slowly takes away all of the luxuries, he strips away all of the things that we think we need, and leaves us only with bare essentials. In our eyes what is left might not even seem to be enough to survive off of. In reality the amount that is left is an illustration of what a huge percentage of the world is living off of, and in a lot of cases the amount might be even less.
It was hard for me at first to grasp just how blessed and spoiled I have been my entire life. There are so many people around the world who are starving and are going without the basic necessities to even survive, and I, along with almost everyone in my life is living with complete excess. The more I began to think about it the more disgusted I became. Although I've contemplated this concept many times prior to reading this book, for some reason (maybe it was the statistics or the heart breaking stories) this time the guilt of the way I live my life began to truly sink in. As I continued to flip through the pages and have my eyes slowly uncovered I not only begin to feel guilty, but seemed to acquire the urgency to change my life. In a sense I had the classic light bulb moment it was almost as though I had seemed to wake up from sort of messed up dream. I realized just how easy it is to become absorbed in our own worlds without contemplating the affect our lives and our society as a whole can have on the world around us and beyond us. .
The author, Ronald Sider, quotes the bible verse James 4:17 “Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him is sin.” (pg.114) Reading this book has caused me to question the definition of a Christian and how a Christian should ideally live. I now find myself seeking the answer to the question: If I am to label myself a Christian, which I'm not entirely sure I do, how should I be living my life? I believe that the verse quoted above is the perfect example of how a Christian should live. It seems to me that if that verse and the idea of living your life for those around you and humanity as a whole that lay behind it, was how all Christians sought to live their life, I as well as the rest of the world would have a very different view of Christianity. To me, it was extremely refreshing to read that in Rich Christians In an Age of Hunger, this seemed to be the exact idea of Christianity that the author was reaching for as well as encouraging his readers to attain.
At first I wondered whether or not the author himself was in a sense practicing what he preached and towards the end of my book I found my answer. The entire novel is filled with statistics that sadly show how little Christians, rich Christians in particular have done to help the impoverished world. The negative statistics were so overwhelming that for a while it was hard for me to believe that there could be any positive actions that had been taken as well. Although the negative still seemed to outweigh the positive, there are definitely Christians out there that are living their lives in the attempt to serve others, in specific the victims of extreme poverty. One example of this conscious effort turns out to be the author himself. His household decided to adopt a graduated scale for their giving, meaning that they would “give a tithe (10 percent) on our base figure and then give a graduated tithe (15 percent or more) on income above that. For each thousand dollars above our base, we decided to increase our giving by another 5 percent on that thousand.” (188) Personally I found this to be an interesting way to increase giving. Interesting as it seemed to be it definitely was not by any means the only way or the right way (if there is a right way) for everyone to give. When I finished the last page, and began to collect my thoughts on all of the information I had gained I noticed a few changes that were beginning to break through in my world view. I knew it was time for me to decide for myself the right way for me to increase my giving. There was absolutely no way I could continue to justify the way I live my life in any longer.
One section of the book talks about repentance, and how it is the first step in changing the way we live our lives to be able to push forward to a better future. On page 178, Sider writes, “Repentance is not just coming forward at the close of a service. It is not just repeating a spiritual law. It is not justifying mumbling liturgical confession. All of these things may help. But they are no substitute for the kind of deep inner anguish that leads to a new way of living.” I have begun to personally feel the anguish he so eloquently writes about. This anguish along with heartbreak for the people world-wide has nudged me to take some form of action.
I have found what I believe to be the right first step in increasing giving in my life. Being a student with very small (non-existent) financial funds, I knew giving money was not an option for me, but I have found an alternative. For a year, I have decided to not buy anything new, other then food, medicine and toiletries. This might be a small step in helping the world around me, but I think it is a good first step. It is my hope that by decreasing the imprint I make on the world and by using the money I save by not purchasing new items to give to the less fortunate, I can make a small contribution to a astronomical problem.
When I first set out to read Rich Christians In an Age of Hunger, I had no measurement or intentions of the impact it would have on me. Now that I have finished I could not be more thankful for the opportunity and insight that reading it has brought to me. Not only do I have a broader world view in result, but I have learned a valuable lesson: What I do does not only have an affect on me but in the lives of others and the world around me. It is about time that I start viewing my life in terms of the affects my small choices today can make in the long run.
The Bottom Billion By: Paul Collier
The Bottom Billion is a book about the 'bottom billion', the world's poorest people, In the book Collier expresses his opinion that, Western governments will have to offer much more than money to help, including time, possibly even troops.
Life for people in the bottom billion is progressively worsening, and Collier tells us all about it.
As an economist, he shows us cost-benefit analysis he calculates costs, crunches numbers, and gives us the real statistics.
There are four poverty traps for the bottom billion that Collier presents: conflict, being landlocked especially with poor neighboring countries, abundant natural resources, and bad governance.
You would think having lots of resources would be great for an economy but in reality the discovery of precious resources just adds to the corruption of politicians and governments, they seize the power and the money never reaches the impoverished.
Collier believes nothing will actually change if we do not directly work to change the poverty traps. says we must tackle these four poverty traps directly.
I enjoyed the Bottom Billion more then any of the other books we read for International Studies. The author chose to use statistics instead of personal stories, and I found that his points were made much clearer and seemed more reliable in doing so. He not only went into detail about what poverty is, what needs to be done to change it, but he gave realistic ways we can help, along with what seemed like plausible solutions for rich countries to actually help the bottom billion.
I was extremely skeptical when starting to read this book, because I figured it would just be another sob story without anything realistic to induce change, but I was luckily surprised with the content held within.
I believe anyone who takes the time to read The Bottom Billion will in no way be disappointed.
Life for people in the bottom billion is progressively worsening, and Collier tells us all about it.
As an economist, he shows us cost-benefit analysis he calculates costs, crunches numbers, and gives us the real statistics.
There are four poverty traps for the bottom billion that Collier presents: conflict, being landlocked especially with poor neighboring countries, abundant natural resources, and bad governance.
You would think having lots of resources would be great for an economy but in reality the discovery of precious resources just adds to the corruption of politicians and governments, they seize the power and the money never reaches the impoverished.
Collier believes nothing will actually change if we do not directly work to change the poverty traps. says we must tackle these four poverty traps directly.
I enjoyed the Bottom Billion more then any of the other books we read for International Studies. The author chose to use statistics instead of personal stories, and I found that his points were made much clearer and seemed more reliable in doing so. He not only went into detail about what poverty is, what needs to be done to change it, but he gave realistic ways we can help, along with what seemed like plausible solutions for rich countries to actually help the bottom billion.
I was extremely skeptical when starting to read this book, because I figured it would just be another sob story without anything realistic to induce change, but I was luckily surprised with the content held within.
I believe anyone who takes the time to read The Bottom Billion will in no way be disappointed.