Chiedza, split, Journal of Arrupe Jesuit University, Vol 24, No. 2, December, 2022 final draft-102-142.docx

Economically there is a huge difference between nations and among

people. While some nations and people are very poor others are very

rich. But very few wonder how some came to be rich and others came

to be poor. A disturbing fact is that some people may be poor or have

become poor because others exploited them. Although there has been

relative reduction of extreme poverty over the past years the world’s

rich people and nations have generally become richer. I examine how

Africa has been empoverished through systematic exploitation. By

systematically empoverishing poor countries rich nations have

breached negative duties. Empoverishing others results in all kinds

of ills and sometimes death and is a kind of crime that has to be taken

into consideration especially when the empoverishment becomes

systematic. I argue that systemic empoverishment of others entails

that those who empoverish incur moral obligations to pay for the

poverty they cause. Prior studies show that we all have an obligation

to assist anyone in poverty no matter who caused it and how far these

poor people may be. I argue that the former obligation is more

stringent than the latter and indeed calls for an inquiry into the act of

empoverishing others. Systematic impoverishment of the other should be taken as a crime and in this case the moral obligation to

eliminate poverty should be replaced by a legal obligation to

compensate the poor for past and present wrong doings.