IS MODERNITY AN ENEMY OF MORALITY?Cathy Majtenyi
A trip from the western outskirts of Nairobi into the city centre involves passing through many worlds. There's the world of lush, manicured lawns that surround mansions of refinement behind large gates. Closer to the core are marbled fountains and chandeliers found in the city's classiest hotels and office buildings. In case our appetites aren't whetted by this show of opulence, bright billboards with catchy slogans remind us of what we need to have to be happy, fulfilled human beings. Squeezed in between the lawns and the chandeliers is the world of informal settlements, where 55 percent of Nairobi's population live on one percent of the city's residential land area in such places as Mathare, Korogocho, and Kibera. Life in these places - scenes of which could come straight out of Dante's Inferno - is truly "nasty, brutish, and short." Even a toilet is considered a luxury in this world. Street children clothed in filthy rags sniff glue and stare up at the glowing faces plastered on the billboards advertising a lifestyle that is almost impossible for them to attain in this life. Once upon a time, somewhere in the distant past, we used to live in communities where we took care of one another. Different cultures had their own ways of ensuring that no one was left destitute because of poverty or misfortune. For instance, in the Gikuyu culture, people of the same age group had an obligation to care for one another, as reflected in the saying: Riika na nyumba itiumagwo (Age mates of the same clan do not abandon each other). In the Nuba Mountains of central Sudan, people who walk for hours - sometimes through rough terrain - to get to where they have to go will stop off in villages along the way, exchanging news while the villagers give them nuts and other food to sustain them on their journey. In traditional societies, people had the basics so that they could focus their energies on developing sophisticated networks of human relationships. While differences in societal status, clans, and affiliations meant that certain people had more access to wealth than others, those differences were negligible as compared to the fantastic and widening rich-poor rift that we witness in modern societies today. Besides, the wealthy in many traditional societies often had obligations to provide for the rest of society, particularly the poor. Traditional and mainstream religions, too, are quite explicit on obligations towards the poor and the role of wealth in peoples' lives. For instance, the Bible is full of pronouncements of how people must share what they have, and, indeed, goes as far as to say that salvation itself can be contingent on the rejection of materialism: “Jesus told him, ‘If you seek perfection, go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor. You will then have treasure in heaven. Afterward, come back and follow me’” (Matthew 19:21); and “ I repeat what I said: it is easier for a camel to pass through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24). Modernity has brought with it a whole new ethos. While it has made our lives easier and more comfortable in many ways, modernity has also ripped away the moral fiber that sets up equitable, fair, human relationships in traditional societies and world religions. By its very nature, the acquisition and possession of goods and services is a very individualistic, competitive process that necessarily excludes the other. The end result is that fewer and fewer people reap a larger share of the wealth, while a dramatically increasing number are condemned to the depths of misery and poverty. Statistics showing this widening rich-poor gap are damning. On a global level, the income gap between the fifth of the world's population living in the richest countries and the fifth living in the poorest jumped from 30:1 in 1960 to 74:1 in 1997.1 The world's 200 richest people more than doubled their net worth from 1994 to 1998; those people are now are worth a cool $1 trillion. The combined wealth of the world's 225 richest people is the same as what 2,500 million of the world's poorest people earn. Things are no better at the national level. In its Interim poverty reduction strategy paper for the 2000-2003 period, the Kenya government reports that over the past 25 years, the number of poor people2 in Kenya has increased from 3.7 million in 1972-3 to 15 million at present. Nyanza province has the highest level of poverty followed by Coast province, while Central province has the lowest incidence of poverty. More than half of Nairobi's population is considered poor. In Nairobi, residential densities can reach 250 units per hectare in informal settlements such as Mathare or Kibera as opposed to 15 units per hectare in Karen, Loresho, and other high-income suburbs, according to United Nations figures. Systems of morality that traditionally would have prevented or minimized such gross distortions in wealth distribution have been virtually stamped out with the advent of modernity. The cultural and economic imperialism occasioned by globalisation (“neo-colonialism”) has rendered traditional religions, cultures, and even mainstream religions obsolete and "backwards." The wide-scale rejection of cultural and religious beliefs and practices has left a vacuum in societies, a vacuum that materialism has moved in to fill. In the past, we used to mark our societal status and progress by special ceremonies and rites of passage such as circumcision and marriage. These rites, ceremonies, and other cultural events - and the moral and ethical values that provided the foundation of our cultural and religious expression - gave us a sense of belonging, meaning, well being, and connection with others. Now, we mark our progress by what we can buy. We know we have become mature, successful human beings when we purchase a car, a house in the “right” part of town, a mobile with e-mail access. Our heroes have become those people who are the most skilled at building business empires and acquiring the possessions we so fervently desire. We turn to advertising to tell us what is morally right. Witness the message of Tusker beer: "Makes us equal. Has no equal." To be able to break out of the trap of materialism is no small feat. We incorporate into our subconscious the many billboards, newspaper adverts, radio and television clips, and dozens of other images that bombard us daily. It takes a conscious effort to de-programme ourselves from basing our morality and identity on what we own rather than on the fact that we are God's creation, made in his own image. Implementing a conscious decision to lead a life of simplicity, prayer, and good relationships runs counter to our modern culture, but it is clearly what God requires of us.
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 A JOURNAL OF SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS CONCERN Published Quarterly by DR. GERALD J. WANJOHI Likoni Lane - P .O. Box 32440 - Nairobi - Kenya Telephone: 712632/311674/312822 The Online publishing of WAJIBU is by Koinonia Media Centre. GO TO WAJIBU HOMEPAGE |