Shooting the messenger

I liked this one, but it was not published – too long..

Your correspondent M K Grayson (Bay Times 28 July) and the earlier Hubbard cartoon (Bay Times 19 July) are both guilty of shooting the messenger. Bob Geldof took the opportunity of his visit to New Zealand to remind us that, while we are worrying about the rising cost of petrol for our cars and boats, millions are dying of poverty in the so-called Third World. He pointed out how little we as a country donate to help these people and challenged us to do more. But how much should we give? Australian philosopher Peter Singer tackles this question in his book One World: The Ethics of Globalisation. He knows that no one is going to give up all their wealth. Not many would be prepared to give half and few even ten per cent. Singer settles for one cent in every dollar. To put it crudely, he says that, if we give one cent in every dollar we earn, we can spend the other 99 cents with an easy conscience. The United Nations has come up with an even lower target for its member countries: it recommends that the rich countries give just under three-quarters of a cent in every dollar (0.7%) of their GDP to the poor countries. The latest figures show that among the most generous countries are the Scandinavians who give one cent in the dollar (1.0% of GDP). They match Singer’s figure and exceed the UN target. At the other end of the scale the USA – possibly the richest country in the world – is the least generous. To our shame New Zealand and our cousins across the ditch make up the rest of the bottom three. New Zealand as a country gives little more than a quarter of a cent in every dollar of GDP. This was Geldof’s message. We can react to it in a number of ways. We can say that this is all we are prepared to give, or we can lobby our MPs and insist that New Zealand can do better, Or we can simply shoot the messenger.


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