Mission Yearbook Rebuttal

Presbyterians have a long tradition of praying for ministry around the nation and worldwide using The Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study. Today's entry is about ministry in Asia and the Pacific. The entry includes the following:

In the last decade, the Asia and Pacific region has experienced major shifts in both international and ecclesiastical contexts. Their effects will certainly continue to impact the mission and ministry of world mission in the coming years. The world economy has faltered. Asia's great successes have come at the expense of the poor and the middle class. Gaps between rich and poor, capitalists and laborers, grow ever wider across the globe. (Go here.)

So over the last decade, we have seen a decline in the plight of the poor and middle class. Here are some United Nations data from Gapminder for some emerging nations in Asia with substantial populations.

Life expectancy at birth and the infant mortality rate (children who die before their first birthday per 1,000 births) are considered two of the most important indicators of overall societal well-being.

 

Concerning China, with more than 1.3 Billion people, the World Bank reports:

China's record over the last quarter century in reducing extreme poverty has been remarkable. Between 1981 and 2004, the fraction of the population consuming less than a dollar a day fell from 65% to 10%, and more than half a billion people were lifted out of poverty.

Between 2001 and 2004 the pace of poverty reduction accelerated, and there are indications that poverty has continued to decline rapidly up to 2007.

The Christian Science Monitor offered this graph a couple of years ago:

Concerning India, with more than 1.1 Billion people, the World Bank offers this graph:

We have a long way to go toward dealing with global poverty, but the "poor are getting poorer" idea is simply not accurate about Asia. There are some very wealthy people emerging, but unless you take a zero-sum view (i.e., an increase in one person's wealth is at someone else's expense) of the economy, it is not evident in what way they are becoming wealthy at the expense of the poor and middle class.

If you want a quick twenty-minute education on what has been happening to income and well-being in recent years, then you need to visit Hans Rosling's TED presentation below.