" In a society so often intoxicated by consumerism and hedonism, wealth and extravagance, appearances and narcissism, this Child calls us to act soberly, in other words, in a way that is simple, balanced, consistent, capable of seeing and doing what is essential," said Pope Francis, talking about Jesus in his Christmas message. He means well. The Pope is asking everyone to control our greed, our insatiable desires for material possessions at the cost of ruining the earth and our own lives. Atheists might say that it is easy for him to talk because he has a very nice job, a nice apartment at the Vatican and a Popemobile to roam around in. This is in place of sedia gestatoria, which was a chair carried on the shoulders of attendants, until stopped in 1978. Priests in India do pretty well, with some of the richest temples in the world, despite India being a very poor country. In that respect they are little different from politicians, especially in India, who tax us heavily in the name of the poor, while giving themselves hefty pay rises and many other juicy perks with a being called a 'companion', while spending time abusing others in uncouth language and wasting parliament time on completely false pretexts so that there is no debate on any bill. But in all this discussion about helping the poor with handouts no one bothers to ask the poor what they want. Do they want to remain poor so that they can be showered with kindness, while being killed softly with love or do they want to become one of the reviled rich, with cars and beautiful clothes and gorge themselves on good food, with 'companion'? Even a professor from MIT in the US has a solution to Delhi's problem with pollution. Raise taxes and parking charges to unaffordable levels and levy heavy fines so that no one will dare to buy a car. Except that the US has over 800 cars per 1000 people while India has just 18, yes a measly, shameful 18 cars per 1000 people. Does the good professor find old Dilip Kumar movies romantic, wherein he is driving a bullock cart while singing patriotic songs? Doubt the poor in India aspire to such romance while watching Formula One. Why is the professor so enamored of the poor? Because he is head of the famous Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Lab at MIT and has won prizes for his work. He will become redundant if there are no poor to research on. In that respect poverty is like cancer. People get prizes and build fortunes for discovering various cures while the sufferers keep dying. Venezuela, where Hugo Chavez helped the poor, has virtually collapsed and now Brazil, where President Lula Da Silva did the same, is in deep recession. So, are we killing the poor with our love?
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