On Christmas Day, 2018, a homeless man called Joby Sparrey
died in the doorway of a shop in the small country town of Malvern, in England.
He was one of several thousand people counted as homeless in the United
Kingdom. There is no exact statistic, and no exact definition of homelessness,
but a shop doorway is not a comfortable place to live at any time.
Joby Sparrey was born and raised in Malvern, and was therefore known to a lot of people in the town. I do not actually know how he came to be without a home, but the important point is that society allows this to happen. All human beings are inter-related, so he was a distant cousin of mine.
In addition to those sleeping on the streets, under bridges, and in one-man tents, there are thousands more people “sofa-surfing” in the homes of friends, or in hostels, hotels, “bed and breakfast” accommodation and the like, because they have no home of their own. Some of these people are more likely to appear on an official statistic than are the nameless people on the streets, especially if they have children with them. Bahá’u’lláh, Who had His home and possessions taken from Him, had direct experience of being homeless when He was in the mountains of Kurdistan. He also suffered from imprisonment, torture and exile. He wrote: “O children of dust! Tell the rich of the midnight sighing of the poor, lest heedlessness lead them into the path of destruction, and deprive them of the Tree of Wealth.” Knowing that the physical conditions in which a person lives are usually due to external factors, He urged us not to judge, even if we suspect a person to be in error: “He should forgive the sinful, and never despise his low estate, for none knoweth what his own end shall be.”
Joby Sparrey was born and raised in Malvern, and was therefore known to a lot of people in the town. I do not actually know how he came to be without a home, but the important point is that society allows this to happen. All human beings are inter-related, so he was a distant cousin of mine.
In addition to those sleeping on the streets, under bridges, and in one-man tents, there are thousands more people “sofa-surfing” in the homes of friends, or in hostels, hotels, “bed and breakfast” accommodation and the like, because they have no home of their own. Some of these people are more likely to appear on an official statistic than are the nameless people on the streets, especially if they have children with them. Bahá’u’lláh, Who had His home and possessions taken from Him, had direct experience of being homeless when He was in the mountains of Kurdistan. He also suffered from imprisonment, torture and exile. He wrote: “O children of dust! Tell the rich of the midnight sighing of the poor, lest heedlessness lead them into the path of destruction, and deprive them of the Tree of Wealth.” Knowing that the physical conditions in which a person lives are usually due to external factors, He urged us not to judge, even if we suspect a person to be in error: “He should forgive the sinful, and never despise his low estate, for none knoweth what his own end shall be.”
When humanity has sorted out its political divisions, and
created a world-wide economic system, there will be a universal net of
protection for the most vulnerable people. Among the list of fundamental
principles of the Bahá’í Faith is the elimination of both extreme wealth and
extreme poverty. No-one should be destitute. One of the most basic roles of the
Local House of Justice – the elected Bahá’í body of the future - is to ensure the
welfare of the most needy. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’u’lláh’s Son, stated that “They
must do their utmost to extend at all times the helping hand to the poor, the
sick, the disabled, the orphan, the widow, irrespective of colour, caste and
creed.” This “helping hand” surely includes help for those who have become
addicted to harmful substances. In Iran, where the Bahá’í community developed
much earlier than in most countries, the Bahá’ís built up a model welfare
system which worked for decades, until it was disrupted by hostile government
forces. Bahá’ís foresee that in the future every town and village will have a
local “storehouse” which will make payments to those whose necessary
expenditure exceeds their income. (The storehouses of local, national and
global communities will of course be interlinked.)
Crucially, however, a new spirit of mutual love and understanding must pervade the human race. One of the most basic Bahá’í principles is the oneness of humanity. This has fundamental implications for social conditions, according to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: "You must turn attention more earnestly to the betterment of the conditions of the poor. Do not be satisfied until each one with whom you are concerned is to you as a member of your family. Regard each one either as a father, or as a brother, or as a sister, or as a mother, or as a child. If you can attain to this, your difficulties will vanish, you will know what to do.” He also stated that in the future, people would not be able to sleep if they knew that someone in another part of the world was without basic necessities. Homelessness, as experienced by people living on the streets in the richer countries, takes other forms in other parts of the world. Many cities have enormous areas on their outer edges occupied by shanty towns or favelas – thousands of homes constructed of branches, corrugated iron sheets, pieces of plastic or old sacks. Hundreds of thousands live as refugees in camps, in tents kindly provided by others, but with little in the way of dignity or possessions. There are many causes of homelessness across the world, but surely in the richer countries at least, it should be within our capacity to eliminate the problem in our own small towns and cities.
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I wrote much more about the proposed “storehouse” system in my blog post entitled “There *is* a better way”, published in April 2016: https://paddyvickers.blogspot.com/2016/04/
Crucially, however, a new spirit of mutual love and understanding must pervade the human race. One of the most basic Bahá’í principles is the oneness of humanity. This has fundamental implications for social conditions, according to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: "You must turn attention more earnestly to the betterment of the conditions of the poor. Do not be satisfied until each one with whom you are concerned is to you as a member of your family. Regard each one either as a father, or as a brother, or as a sister, or as a mother, or as a child. If you can attain to this, your difficulties will vanish, you will know what to do.” He also stated that in the future, people would not be able to sleep if they knew that someone in another part of the world was without basic necessities. Homelessness, as experienced by people living on the streets in the richer countries, takes other forms in other parts of the world. Many cities have enormous areas on their outer edges occupied by shanty towns or favelas – thousands of homes constructed of branches, corrugated iron sheets, pieces of plastic or old sacks. Hundreds of thousands live as refugees in camps, in tents kindly provided by others, but with little in the way of dignity or possessions. There are many causes of homelessness across the world, but surely in the richer countries at least, it should be within our capacity to eliminate the problem in our own small towns and cities.
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
I wrote much more about the proposed “storehouse” system in my blog post entitled “There *is* a better way”, published in April 2016: https://paddyvickers.blogspot.com/2016/04/
So painful and touching. Am Evans Omuga. This my wife's email
ReplyDeleteAs your own experience shows, Evans, society does not regard support for the less fortunate as the most important thing.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I donated to a food bank in my hometown after reading your post.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Wilytrout. You are setting others an excellent, humane, example.
ReplyDeleteHomelessness on our own streets is not the only problem in the world. "Them" and "us" also happens on an ethnic scale. In November, 2015, I wrote a blog post called "We are in a minority", about how "minorities" are treated, when we are all, really, minorities, unless we replace "them and us".
ReplyDelete