By Anil Netto
Over the course of human history, the human race has hankered after great wealth and power. They have fought wars and tortured, imprisoned and even killed each other for worldly gain.

They have used and abused the name of God for personal and political power. In many parts of the world, a small minority of elites often lords it over the rest, accumulating wealth beyond most people’s dreams. All the while, they keep the people divided along racial, or religious lines. In the process, another gap is often hidden — the gap between the rich and the poor.

Two thousand years ago, He came and dwelt among us as one so humble and lowly, living among the anavim, the humble and the meek. The Gospel tells us how he was born among shepherds and country folk, and only the childlike and the people hungry for justice and truth sought him out. The rich, the powerful and those who were obsessed with the things of this world had little time for him.

As we enter the “tens” after the “noughties”, it’s a relief that we have survived the last ten years. But the hard times are by no means over.

Let me try and part the curtains of the new decade to catch a glimpse of some of the challenges, many of them inter-related, that lie ahead. It doesn’t take much brilliance to do this, as many of the challenges can be predicted by following the trajectories of current trends as they snowball into graver challenges.

The economic challenge: The global economy, much like the global climate, is now far from stable. Unsustainable economic growth has even affected the climate. Millions of people continue to die of hunger and from easily treatable diseases. How will the earth cope with the expectations of people in developing countries to achieve the unsustainable affluent lifestyles of those in the developed nations?

Wealth disparities: While a small elite prospers, the majority will find life harder in view of a system that rewards with fabulous profits those with access to capital and patronage. On the flip side, this system squeezes labour, and many will struggle to make ends meet.

Militarism: As economic rivalry among China, the United States, Russia, the European Union and Latin America intensifies and oil reserves are further depleted, we will see further increases in military spending as nations try to gain strategic control of scarce resources.

The environmental challenge: we are now all too familiar with the threat of global climate chaos, which is the direct result of our materialistic life-styles and ecologically unsustainable corporate-led globalisation.

Rise in stress levels: The pressures of modern living will increase. Depression, anxiety and alienation will soar as recreational time drops and people become more sedentary. It doesn’t help that our forests and other green spaces for recreation are rapidly disappearing.

Rampant social ills: As wealth disparities rise, along with heightened pressure to earn a decent income, so will social ills spread: street crime, drug addiction, domestic violence will all soar.

Loss of community and social solidarity: Community life is disappearing, extended family networks are breaking up, and the nuclear family will be further undermined. The digital age, while providing access to a wealth of information and improving communications, will ironically lead to people having less face-to-face contact with each other. Interpersonal skills will suffer as people retreat to their own personal islands, cut off from the realities of daily life.

Neoliberalism: The trend towards neoliberalisation will lead to further cuts in corporate taxes and income tax for the rich, resulting in a drop in government revenue. A regressive taxation system will be introduced (GST or other taxes) while subsidies for the disadvantaged and the poor will be further slashed.

Mega corporations: Corporations will grow in strength and power relative to the state. These will be ‘the new rulers of the world’, to quote the title of a John Pilger book. These corporations will have an allpervasive influence in our lives, while trade unions will struggle to provide support for labour. To further stimulate flagging demand, advertising and promotion will creep into nearly all facets of life. These large corporations will attempt to further control scarce resources and essential services such as water, education, healthcare and they will continue to try and patent all sorts of things from seeds to genetic material, which by right should be the property of all humanity.

Depletion of own oil reserves: Lean times are ahead as our oil revenues dry up, and this could further reduce social safety nets.

Communal sentiments: As life gets harder, unscrupulous elements could further stoke religious and racial sentiments for short-term political gain.

If the outlook sounds grim, it is because it is. The only hope we have of overcoming these daunting challenges is for Christians and those of other faiths as well as people of goodwill to work together in the Spirit to provide an alternative vision. This vision would be one based on the values that are common in our spiritual traditions: love, justice, compassion, truth.

It is a vision of a world where the meek and the humble will be empowered and raised high, where the forests will be restored, the rivers will spring back to life:

A vision of this renewed world lies in the Psalms, which exult:

5 You respond to us with the marvels of your saving justice, God our Saviour, hope of the whole wide world, even the distant islands. 6 By your strength you hold the mountains steady, being clothed in power, 7 you calm the turmoil of the seas, the turmoil of their waves. The nations are in uproar, in panic those who live at the ends of the earth; 8 your miracles bring shouts of joy to the gateways of morning and evening. 9 You visit the earth and make it fruitful, you fill it with riches; the river of God brims over with water, you provide the grain. To that end 10 you water its furrows abundantly, level its ridges, soften it with showers and bless its shoots. 11 You crown the year with your generosity, richness seeps from your tracks, 12 the pastures of the desert grow moist, the hillsides are wrapped in joy, 13 the meadows are covered with flocks, the valleys clothed with wheat; they shout and sing for joy.

This is the vision of the world we need to work towards with the help of the Spirit.