30124: Leiderman re 30118 (opinion) does it take a billionaire to make a village? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leiderman@mindspring.com


5 March 2007

dear Readers:

thanks for posting Kelli Kennedy's March 3rd [Florida] Herald Tribune article on Frank McKinney's uppercrust vs. lowercrust life, and charitable ambitions. <www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070303/APN/703030540>  it seems like the whole Caribbean Basin is his oyster, with some successes and lots more work to do, per <http://frank-mckinney.com/caringHouseProject.php>

on one level, I kind of like him.  the website is tasteful and gets right to the point.  admiring the photos, this is the kind of project I'd be tempted to go swing a hammer for.  but then I bumped into the God-driven, from-on-high veneer that wraps around the homes and captive tilapia: "...In 2007, with your help, we will build two new large self-sufficent villiages in Haiti that will touch the lives of over 1000 desperately poor and homeless. The first village will be loacted in a small town known as Los Cacaos or Quartier Morin. This town borders the Dominican Republic where thousands of Haitiens cross the DR border daily to survive, many do not return. As soon as we have more specifics regarding the scope and size we will post in the hopes that you will help us make this new village a reality.  In 2007 our village homes will increase in number, orphanages to offer more complete care, schools to provide a higher level of education, community centers to focus more on worship and sharing the word of God, clinics to dispense more life sustaining medication, renewable food sources to include a talipia fish pond and clean water to be more plentiful. In short, every element in our new villages to improve the quality of life of villagers in 2007..."  the Herald article didn't mention McKinney's religious bent.

granted, McKinney works hard for his money and earns a lot, and the call of distressed Caribbeans seems to be as strong to him as the call of God.  but look how we spin and tolerate the relationship of wealth and poverty in the Western Hemisphere and what happens when we examine God's work in a social context rather than a savior one:

1. note, for example, the $125,000 cost of constructing one of McKinney's villages for 200 people.

2. then divide it into the three-hundred-plus million dollars ($300,000,000) in the current New York/New Jersey lottery jackpot.

3. that lottery money equals approx. 3000 Frank McKinney-style Haitian villages that could be paid for and started next week, mostly from the table money of low-income day-by-day workers, housewives and students in two of the states with the highest Haitian-American population.

in other words, the combined amount of money that mostly-poor people spend gambling in New York and New Jersey on the microscopic chance they will suddenly get personally rich could actually be invested on a sure bet that whole communities of even-poorer people in the US, Haiti and elsewhere could have secure places in the world.  where is the call of God here?  is existence a birthright or not?  is there a Universal Declaration of Human Rights www.un.org/Overview/rights.html or did our fathers and mothers dream it in 1948?  particularly Article 25, Part 1:

"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."

further, if you run the numbers, the money from a single New York/New Jersey lottery cycle such as the current one would literally swamp what Frank McKinney could do for Haiti in his entire lifetime.  there is no strategic plan on his website and not a hint of nationbuilding sentiment, even though he could convene a Haiti-wide Housing Congress with flick of his checkbook.  there's only the slogan, "For Me... It Was A Calling - How About You?"

so, I wonder.  is Frank McKinney:  a) one of a few rich people who poor Caribbeans should dutifully wait for, like the divine hand upon lottery winners? or b) an adept young American enjoying his place in the world -- albeit in Florida, home of land wreckers, real estate speculators and lots of Haitians? or c) deftly moving toward a run for governor or higher?  after all, what do you give a man who has everything?  sovereignty.  Frank McKinney, 1177 George Bush Boulevard, Suite 202, Delray Beach, Florida 33483, ph(561)274-9696, FrankMcKinney3@aol.com

thank you,

Stuart Leiderman
leiderman@mindspring.com