The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World
by Jacqueline Novogratz. (Harper and Collins, 2009)
Jacqueline Novogratz is an American entrepreneur, author and the founder-director of ‘Acumen Fund,’ a non-profit global enterprise dedicated to the removal of global poverty. Novoratz’s story started with the gift of a blue sweater with an African motif painted on it. It was her favourite. When teased by her schoolmates for wearing it too often, she donated it to a store. Eleven years later, during a visit to Africa, she saw the very same sweater worn by an African boy, complete with her name tag on it. For her it became a turning point, seeing in it a symbol of the connectedness of all humanity. She set on a global quest to study third world poverty and seek effective solutions. At first, her efforts appeared naïve and ineffectual.
In Africa she came across some ordinary but resourceful people among the poor. Their resilience, courage and enthusiasm, motivated her efforts to create ‘Acumen,’ bringing remarkable changes in Asian and African nations, including India and Bangladesh, where she was able to learn and help out with the micro financing schemes of Muhammad Yunus and G Venkataswamy, the founder of the Aravind Eye Hospital. Novogratz’s initiative has brought new hope and life to millions of people in the third world. No one lives in poverty by choice, as the wealthy sometimes would argue. She gives numerous examples of people who do want to get out of poverty but do not know how to, or where to begin. Novoratz lays great stress on self-worth and dignity. Poverty often takes these away and people settle into resignation and fatalism. Corporates that invest in the third world seek profit, exploiting the local resources rather than helping people to be self reliant. Novogratz introduces the idea of ‘Patient Capital’ instead. It means long term investments with low profit expectation and sustainability and encompassing all-round welfare. This vision took her away from her lucrative job in the Chase Manhattan Bank, to African Development Bank and then on to the creation of Acumen fund. The beautiful memoir is an assertion of human connectedness and its power to renew the world.
The Nature, Dignity and Mission of Woman
by Fr. Karl Stehlin (Kolbe Publications, 2018)
The book addresses the current cultural issues projected by secular feminism. It explains why the Christian ideal of womanhood is valid for all times and rejects the unquestioningly accepted secularist idea propagated through the media that the sexes are not only equal but “the same.” . In secular feminism, power relations gain centrality. But the mystery of woman is a lasting value, and one can grasp it only by exploring the depths of its nature. The whole truth of the human phenomenon can be understood only when we see it as God sees it. Contrary to the ideology of women’s liberation built on an atheistic world view, the author sees masculinity and femininity as most profoundly symbolic, an expression of eternal, divine realities, an unfathomable mystery. The essence of man and woman is “spirit in flesh,” an immortal soul in a body uniquely animated by it, and rational. The human being is God’s creation, in God and for God as “his image and likeness.” Even as their missions vary in their particulars, man and woman essentially have the same nature, standing as human beings before God, endowed with the same gifts, destined for the same goal. Human sexual identity does not determine which of the two one day will rank higher. In the world the complimentary differences are expressed in many ways. The perfect imaging of God’s inmost nature occurs, only when they unite in the indissoluble bond of love. Woman’s other-centredness is the antidote to what John Paul II called the “culture of death.” The author’s experience as a missionary in Africa proves how the virginal power of devoted lives have drawn thousands of people to the Church, sometimes in miraculous ways. Women have shaped the spiritual traditions of the church in many ways. The book recalls the great women of the Bible and of Church history, and the positive role of friendships between women and men. The modern world tempts woman to cast off her profound femininity in the vanities of the media-driven culture. It can be remedied by a renewed consciousness of her primordial powers and essential mission and a transformative encounter with Christ like that of the Samaritan woman. Mary, strong and faithful woman, is the prototype of full womanhood.
Prof Gigy Joseph
To subscribe to the magazine, click Subscribe
