'The misery of much of the developing world,' wrote U Thant in 1965. 'is a progressive misery. It threatens to grow worse.' Already it is clear that he was all too far-sighted. The problems of inflation, unemployment and social inequality, leading to starvation, oppression and despair, have already multiplied vastly. The 'third world' is bitter and disillusioned.
The problem is many-sided. It is, of course, economic, but it is also political and cultural. How are the new nations to cope with treatment which amounts to colonial exploitation, with the impact of modern technology and the way it changes traditional societies, with the need for advanced forms of education ? What emotional incentives can be provided to help people play a vigorous part in healthy national development ? What of the demands for violent change and revolution ?
These are the questions for today. And they add up to a further question, underlying them all: what is man? So they are the church's question, not only because the amount of aid flowing to the poorer countries from the churches exceeds that of all the United Nations together but because the church is concerned in this question, too. Writing from Central America the Bishop of British Honduras has produced a comprehensive manual which demands detailed study and action.