Mennonite
Central
Committee

Buckets, Blankets and the WTO

Will Braun

While globalization dominates the geo-politics of poverty, it hardly shows up in MCC mailings or websites. Buckets and blankets still get more play than the World Trade Organization (WTO) or the structural adjusters.

The dynamics of disparity in the world have shifted dramatically, and MCC has an opportunity to move us—the constituents—beyond the role of noble helper.

I remember Peter "Mr. MCC" Dyck and his late wife, Elfrieda, speaking about the progression of the MCC ethos: from straight-up relief work, to an added dimension of development, and then to a phase emphasizing justice. Or at least that's my recollection from MCC orientation 15 years ago. The progression seemed logical and critical.

My concern is that MCC has slipped into neutral, even though a justice approach is more necessary than ever. We seem bogged down in an us-helping-them framework that over-simplifies our relationship to poverty.

Practically everyone on earth is caught in a global web of consumption. We purchase things that connect us to unknown people in unknown corners of the globe. Monstrously large companies mediate and nurture these relationships. The process is efficient and exploitative. We benefit from it daily and, in turn, fuel it with our consumption.

While MCC runs relief and community development projects, our North American-based companies and the economic policies of our governments wreak widespread havoc. This economic globalization is, by many accounts, the most significant factor affecting global disparity. Yet within MCC it is overshadowed by the relief and development emphasis. I have to look beyond MCC to learn about these key issues of global disparity. And I don't think thrift store workers in my hometown have been told much about globalization.

Globalization is not foreign to MCC. The organization held consultations on globalization, the Washington Office has resources on the topic, and I know MCCers who address the issues. But the overall MCC message to constituents is more about us and the good we do than the intertwined issues of global poverty.

While in MCC, the anonymous words on a bookmark helped shift my approach. "Are you choosing, out of the resources of Christ's life in you, to recover from the need to make a difference?" A shift from the us-helping-them framework helped me see the dynamics of globalization and its spiritual implications. Exploitative relationships, even if we are unaware of them, have a corrosive effect on our spirits. If our actions harm others, our spirits will be affected. And so redeeming these relationships brings not only material betterment in the global south, but spiritual liberation to us in the north.

Globalization is more complex and controversial than buckets and blankets. It implicates us in the problem. And therein lies the redemptive potential.

MCC decision-makers need to trust that constituents care enough about humanity to understand globalization, if that's what service in the name of Christ requires.

My MCC experiences with people directly affected by my consumption (of oil and electricity) have changed me. The stories from these places—stories inviting me not to "help," but to redeem broken economic relationships—changed my consumer habits and liberated my heart. Such change could happen on a much broader scale.

And MCC, with its global connections, is in an unequaled position to facilitate such change. So please, MCC, help us interpret our world. Help us make the connections, engage our governments, address big companies and redeem the exploitative relationships in which we have become entangled.

Will Braun is editor of Geez magazine. He worked as energy justice coordinator for MCC Canada and MCC Manitoba from 1998 to 2001. This article first appeared in Canadian Mennonite magazine.
Used with permission of the Canadian Mennonite.

Responses

Compassion must go deeper than charity

Re: Will Braun's opinion piece, "Buckets, blankets and the WTO," (Dec. 19, page 14).

He calls for MCC to expend its energy critiquing economic globalization and the systems of oppression it spawns, rather than continuing to send blankets and buckets to areas of need.

I am thankful for Braun's critique. He is right in saying that MCC must do more to address the ways in which North Americans are part of the problem, rather than the solution, to global poverty.

A number of new MCC resources address the subject of economic globalization and invite faithful responses. These resources include videos, resource "toolkits" and the new cookbook, Simply in Season. As executive director of MCC Canada, I can say that all of them are being used well. In Canada, MCC's involvement in the Make Poverty History campaign is another way of addressing more systemic causes of poverty.

Buckets and blankets are not the answer to global poverty. At the same time, they are a way of building a connection between people in need and people who have more than they need. There is something very spiritual that happens when children gather relief bucket supplies for tsunami victims and when seniors—and others—sew quilts and comforters week after week for earthquake survivors. Buckets and blankets teach us about compassion.

But our compassion must go deeper than charity. It must move us to seek justice. It must also move individuals and communities to make the changes in our lives that prevent justice from unfolding. MCC needs to be much bolder in addressing the underlying causes, and not only the symptoms, of poverty, particularly when they implicate those of us who work for and support MCC. Thanks to Will Braun and others who are pushing us in this direction.

Don Peters, Winnipeg

 

Larger economic picture can't be overlooked

Both Will Braun—in "Buckets, blankets and the WTO" (Dec. 19, page 14) and Wally Kroeker, in "The wealthy in the land" (Jan. 9, page 5)—push the church to move beyond simple notions of "charity" or "wealth redistribution" when addressing issues of global poverty.

Yet Kroeker and organizations like Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) and MCC would benefit from Braun's challenge: to more critically engage the broader issues of economic globalization and larger causes of global inequality. Although donations that support micro-credit loans through MEDA, or HIV/AIDS projects through MCC, are worthy of our generosity, we need greater leadership from both of these organizations to help us become better stewards of our incredible wealth.

Traditionally, MCC and MEDA's strengths have been in practical local development—relief buckets, school kits, conflict resolution training and community economic development projects. They have not, however, strongly emphasized the need for innovative research and public engagement on larger issues, such as trade justice, environmental stewardship or our governments' aid policies.

How does a micro-credit loan help a farmer who is faced with plummeting and unstable world commodity prices? How does local peacebuilding stop our consumption of the goods that finance armed conflict? How do relief kits protect those who are faced with the effects of climate-change disasters? How does purchasing one package of fair-trade coffee at Ten Thousand Villages help all the other Third World producers behind the shelves of Costco?

As a past MCCer and MCC Manitoba board member, I am very proud of the excellent work that organizations like MCC and MEDA are doing in communities around the world. But as a student of international development, educated in our Mennonite schools, I don't think we can continue to overlook the larger picture.

Addressing these broader issues will be complicated, political, and certainly not as easy to swallow as the scrumptious farmer's sausage I have grown accustomed to at the MCC Saskatchewan Relief Sale, but it is in such wrestling that we may encounter God's grace and redemption.

Thanks to Will Braun for nudging us toward such transformation.

Bruce Guenther, Brighton, U.K.
Used with permission of the Canadian Mennonite.

 

'Buckets and blankets' comment degrades MCC

I read with interest the article by Will Braun—"Buckets, blankets and the WTO"—in the Dec. 19 issue of Canadian Mennonite.

I fully agree with his concern to do one thing and not to neglect the other. But I felt he degraded MCC by referring to it as "buckets and blankets" work. We Mennonites who created and are supporting MCC are a relatively small group on this planet and it would be hard for us to carry the world on our shoulders. But I think we can make a dent in changing it—if we put our words and faith into action.

MCC was formed to help our brothers and sisters in need and that I think is still its main mandate. MCC has birthed several affiliate organizations, like Mennonite Economic Development Associates, Mennonite Disaster Service, Supportive Care Services and Mennonite non-profit housing societies (of which I am a director) to house the homeless, seniors and mentally challenged.

If MCC is to address the issue of globalization, what exactly is it we want them to do? If it is shifting its priorities from more hands-on projects to the area of politics, who is standing with refugees, prisoners, First Nations people and those with AIDS? Who is holding the banner for justice, reconciliation and peace? If we stretch our human resources too thin, can we do a good job of addressing all of our concerns?

Some of our constituents who are not too familiar with the complexities of globalization may feel that to get too far into politics is "ungodly," and they may withdraw their support; these are often the best supporters financially and spiritually.

But perhaps the article "MCC addresses foreign policy parliamentary committee," Dec. 19, page 23, about the political involvement of the MCC's Don Peters and Bill Janzen, is a better response than mine.

Helmut Lemke, Burnaby, B.C.