Pope Francis has ignited a useful and necessary conversation about our responsibilities to the poorest of the poor–those who some may be tempted to write out of the script of history as hopeless cases. That conversation would be enhanced if participants in it took a close look at Paul Collier’s suggestive book, The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It (Oxford University Press).
Collier shares the Holy Father’s passion for the well-being of the poorest of the poor. As he wrote, “I have a little boy who is six. I do not want him to grow up in a world with a vast running sore–a billion people stuck in desperate conditions alongside unprecedented prosperity.” The poorest of the poor–the “bottom billion,” in Collier’s trenchant phrase–should be a challenge to everyone’s conscience.
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