In January each year two lists are published.
1. List One is the Open Doors’ World Watch List (WWL), identifying the countries where it is ‘most dangerous to follow Jesus’. Persecution is ‘any hostility experienced as a result of one’s identification with Christ’. Although people will quibble, the methodology looks pretty sophisticated, with a simple summary here. Every year they rank a Top 50 and here is the map identifying these countries. On their home page, this is what they affirm: ‘Not alone. Not forgotten. Not ever.’ Given the number of resources which they produce, we are without excuse. The people in these countries are our sisters and brothers. They are family. Expressing solidarity with them is a leading priority for the people of God today. [NB: Christianity Today has published a helpful analysis of the data].
But there is another list that comes out each January…
2. List Two is Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI), which ranks countries by ‘perceived levels of public sector corruption’. While people will quibble again, the methodology seems sophisticated. [NB: The trouble with quibbling is that it so easily closes the mind, cools the heart and freezes the hand!]. A summary of this year’s outcomes is available here. Once again, we are without excuse, as the Transparency International site is loaded with resources.
When I’ve visited a country in the Majority World for the first time in my travels with Langham over the past twelve years, I’ve asked my hosts, “What is the biggest issue facing your country?”. Without exception, in an alarmingly short period of time, each and every one responds with the same word: corruption. Then they bear witness with such intensity to this corruption (and often with a dark brand of humour!), as if their situation in their country is unique and is the worst case of corruption in the world. I’ve heard this testimony in country after country. It is such a big deal. Corruption was the pandemic before Covid. Corruption will be the pandemic after Covid. Corruption is the pandemic making Covid a whole lot worse for myriads of people around the world.
For my purposes in this blog, let’s add one more list…
3. List Three is the United Nations’ Human Development Index (HDI), which came out a month earlier, in December 2020. As you’d expect, the 2020 report is extensive, with an accompanying press release. The methodology is the most sophisticated of them all, measuring all kinds of data. You could spend hours poring over their data and spreadsheets. I selected the table/rankings which measures life expectancy, levels of education and gross national income.
Burdened by each of these maps, I decided to create my own Solidarity Index (SI). The order is straightforward. Making friends, leading to building partnerships, and then on to expressing solidarity with our sisters and brothers around the world is an essential feature of mission today. We need to learn these skills. The rescue mentality, even when it is motivated by generosity and servant-heartedness, is not sufficient anymore. More than 30 years ago, Tear Fund UK’s roaming troubadour, Garth Hewitt, sat down for lunch around our table in Invercargill (New Zealand) and expressed to me that all that is needed to end apartheid is for the global church to stand in solidarity with their black brothers and sisters in South Africa. I’ll never forget it.
So what follows is a highly unsophisticated effort to engage with the data in these three lists. There will be much raw material for quibbling. Each country is assigned a number from each list—namely, their ranking on that list. That’s it. Statistics 101, or maybe it is Statistics 000!
The WWL forms the basis, as these 50 countries with the highest level of persecution is where the priority in our solidarity should lie. If we don’t, who will? Then I include the leading 100 countries from the CPI and HDI lists, although I needed to reverse the order for both, as they start with the countries that are ‘least corrupt’ and those with ‘very high human development’.
It will not surprise anyone that 36 of the WWL’s 50 countries appear on both the CPI and the HDI lists. Persecution is not the only issue which they face. There are other layers to the suffering. When you add up their rankings on each list, this is the order that emerges in my Solidarity Index 1.0:
Solidarity Index 1.0
[countries appearing in all three lists, WWL, CPI, HDI]
1 | Somalia [3+1+10] | 14 |
2 | Yemen [7+4+12] | 23 |
3 | Afghanistan [2+12+22] | 36 |
4 | Eritrea [6+20+11] | 37 |
5 | Sudan [13+6+20] | 39 |
6 | Iraq [11+17+16] | 44 |
7 | North Korea [1+9+40] | 50 |
8 | Syria [12+3+39] | 54 |
9 | DR Congo [40+10+16] | 66 |
10 | Nigeria [9+29+30] | 68 |
11 | C. African Republic [35+34+1] | 70 |
12 | Mozambique [45+28+9] | 82 |
13 | Mali [28+49+6] | 83 |
14 | Libya [4+8+82] | 94 |
15 | Pakistan [5+57+37] | 99 |
15 | Mauritania [20+45+34] | 99 |
17 | Comoros [50+21+35] | 106 |
18 | Cameroon [42+27+38] | 107 |
18 | Myanmar [18+44+45] | 107 |
20 | Turkmenistan [23+14+75] | 112 |
21 | Bangladesh [31+35+56] | 122 |
21 | Tajikistan [33+26+63] | 122 |
23 | Laos [22+46+55] | 123 |
24 | Burkina Faso [32+93+8] | 133 |
25 | Uzbekistan [21+33+81] | 135 |
26 | Ethiopia [36+83+18] | 137 |
27 | Nepal [34+62+50] | 146 |
28 | Kenya [49+53+49] | 151 |
29 | Egypt [16+65+71] | 152 |
30 | India [10+94+58] | 162 |
31 | Vietnam [19+77+70] | 166 |
32 | Morocco [27+95+67] | 189 |
32 | Algeria [24+72+93] | 189 |
34 | Indonesia [47+79+79] | 205 |
35 | China [17+100+97] | 214 |
36 | Colombia [30+88+100] | 218 |
In this Table there are 12 countries from sub-Saharan Africa; 9 from the Arab world; 4 from Central Asia; 10 from Asia; and 1 from Latin America. Then five countries appear only on the WWL list—Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Brunei, Oman and Malaysia—while another nine countries appear on the WWL list and either the CPI or the HDI list: Iran, Mexico, Bhutan, Maldives, Turkey, Tunisia, Kazakhstan, Jordan and Kuwait.
12+9+4+10+1+5+9=50.
Whew!
Maybe you are thinking what I am thinking…
Choosing to have the 50 WWL countries form the basis of the Solidarity Index creates consequences. For example, countries in Latin America are less likely to appear because of the overwhelming Roman Catholic backdrop to these countries. True, with only Colombia listed. Nor are countries in sub-Saharan Africa likely to appear as readily because the church is so visible, so prominent, in these societies. True, although 8/36 countries are still from this region. Nor does a country like Lebanon surface, even though it is in the heart of the Arab world, because of its more Christian heritage. True again. Nevertheless, Solidarity Index 1.0 is a reasonable indicator of where the fuller, wider challenges for persecuted believers is most likely to be happening.
[But let me add a Solidarity Index 2.0, ranking the countries that are in the CPI and the HDI, but not the WWL. Persecution is not the main issue here; rather, it is corruption and ‘human development’ (life expectancy, educational opportunity, standard of living):
Solidarity Index 2.0
[countries NOT in WWL, but in CPI and HDI lists]
1 | South Sudan |
2 | Chad |
3 | Burundi |
4 | Haiti |
5 | Cote d’Ivoire |
5 | Madagascar |
7 | Equatorial Guinea |
8 | Guinea |
8 | Liberia |
10 | Congo |
11 | Djibouti |
12 | Zimbabwe |
13 | Cambodia |
14 | Malawi |
15 | Uganda |
16 | Togo |
17 | Papua New Guinea |
18 | Angola |
18 | Venezuela |
20 | Honduras |
21 | Nicaragua |
23 | Guatemala |
24 | Gambia |
25 | Tanzania |
26 | Gabon |
27 | Lesotho |
28 | Kyrgyzstan |
28 | Paraguay |
30 | Lebanon |
31 | Benin |
32 | Bolivia |
Now, we see the countries of sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America emerge a little bit more…].
At this time in human history, there is a Fourth List to consider, isn’t there? I am referring to the Covid-19 lists—be it infection rates, hospitalization rates, recovery rates, immunization rates, death rates etc. This is a further measurement of the suffering today and another reason for solidarity, for standing with people. The list I selected is the one measuring the number of deaths per million people (DPM, ‘death per million’ — column #10 in this table) in countries with more than one million people. This is not to say that countries with less than one million people are not important, but that smaller countries skew the data significantly. Once again, a Covid ranking is given to each country on this list (a Top 100) and this time four numbers are added together to give the following ranking for Solidarity Index 3.0, for those countries which appear on all four lists.
Solidarity Index 3.0
[countries appearing in all four lists]
1 | Iraq |
2 | Afghanistan |
3 | Syria |
4 | Mauritania |
5 | Pakistan |
6 | Myanmar |
7 | Bangladesh |
8 | Egypt |
9 | Nepal |
10 | India |
11 | Colombia |
12 | Morocco |
13 | Algeria |
14 | Indonesia |
Maybe you are thinking what I am thinking…
Things break down here a bit! The Covid ‘waves’ flow and ebb, and then flow some more, and a single snapshot in time cannot capture the full story. True. Also, those countries in the HDI with ‘low human development’ are far less likely to have the infrastructure to be able to measure accurately the spread of Covid, or to know whether it is the cause of death, or not.
Interestingly, if you place the First 50 countries in the DPM alongside the First 50 in the CPI and HDI lists, there is no overlap in the countries on the DPM and HDI lists. The pandemic has been no respecter of wealth and power, as it has brought many of the ‘very high human development’ countries to their knees. When attention turns to the DPM and CPI lists, only Iran and Russia exist in both. That surprises me—but, I guess one of the things corruption does is to corrupt the data and make those in power look good in a crisis! And ‘we ain’t seen nuttin’ yet’, as we anticipate the corruption and iniquitous inequity associated with distributing the vaccines.
A few ideas on solidarity … as it is so easy to feel overwhelmed and powerless. I am no expert, but here are the things that help me, as I consider countries in my Solidarity Index 1.0:
1. Subscribe
Both Open Doors and Transparency International have regular, online newsletters. A few minutes each week, each month, can keep things simmering—as can utilising the remarkable range of resources and ideas available on their websites. It is so easy to become informed today. Yes, we are without excuse.
2. Resist
One of the most subtle subversions of solidarity is the phrase, “According to research done by the OECD…” In a moment, with the briefest flourish, most of the world is forgotten—especially those who most need to be remembered. It is shameful. You know how it goes: “New Zealand has the highest rate of this, OR the 3rd highest rate of that”… Lean in closer. I bet you the study is a limited one, maybe just covering the OECD countries. It is not right, especially for Christians who share God’s heart for the peoples of the world.
[NB: the OECD is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a network of just 37 wealthy countries, when the HDI and the CPI lists have 180+ countries!].
3. Pray
Open Doors sparks our intercessions and petitions in their communications, as does Operation World with their ‘prayercasts’ on YouTube and their prayer guide which comes into my inbox each week.
4. Read/Watch
A well-chosen book each year can do so much to open our hearts to this world. I just checked the ‘suffering’ label on this blog and I see there are 84 posts, some of them reviewing books that have opened my heart—like this one and this one and this one…! And, of course, alongside reading there is watching, with the plethora of films and documentaries available through streaming options today. Keep an eye and ear open for stories from the countries in Solidarity Index 1.0… I’ve returned again to watching Al-Jazeera as my main source of news on TV.
5. Make friends
This is where solidarity starts. Whether it be in-person (more difficult today), or through secure social media options and/or things like zoom (so easy today), we can build and sustain friendships with people in these countries. As we do so, let’s be shaped by the levels of faith, joy, gratitude, perseverance and hope that is often evident in their lives. Receive from them. Don’t just think we have stuff to give to them.
And a word to my fellow New Zealanders…
Be careful. Blessed with being a distant comma on the bottom of the global page, with an oceanic moat around us and with wise leadership at the helm, we are a relative haven from the covidian world—such a haven that a single community outbreak creates anxious headlines. But, wait there’s more. This latest CPI has us perceived to be the ‘least corrupt’ country in the world … and on the latest HDI we are ranked 14th out of 189 countries. Wow. There are bubbles and there are bubbles. Let’s not be a bubble that is so lost in our own little world that we close our minds, cool our hearts and freeze our hands in the face of the peoples of the world for whom a quartet of three letter acronyms—WWL, CPI, HDI and DPM—captures so much suffering.
nice chatting
Paul
I think your SI1.0 ought to have Sudan at position 5 (you have Syria twice)
Sobering reading – I am challenged to consider what difference this should make to my life – it has to be more than awareness.
Nice spotting … it kind of glares out as an error once you see it!
Changes have been made.
Paul
Thanks Paul. Insightful.