In the book of Amos, the poor were treated as outcast and were discriminated against. The government collected taxes from the poor such as rent thus fine buildings were built and pleasant vine yards were established. Selling the righteous for money and the needy for a pair of sandals tells us a lot about the social conditions of that time when the poor had to fight for their just rights, which were all too frequently ignored.
2. Explain three ways in which the poor and needy are exploited in the world today. (6)
• The poor are out casted and treated as an abomination because people think they don’t want to better themselves but yet they know they cannot help it.
• They are taken advantage of and engage in prostitution. Young females are taken by foreigners from their country to work as sex slaves.
• When they do work, they are paid in proportion to what their work is economically worth. The rich wealthy people take advantage of the poor people by making them work for low wages at hard jobs. For example in Africa, coffee farmers are exploited because they aren’t paid anything near what a bag of coffee is truly worth.
3. List and explain two causes of world hunger. (4)
Poverty is at the core of the world hunger crisis. The regions across the world that are subjected to extreme poverty conditions are at more risk to have their terrible situation exacerbated by outside forces such as natural disasters and war/conflict, thereby further deepening their difficult situation.
Natural disasters cause famine, hunger, and poverty in areas of the world that are already predisposed to crisis. In regions where food production and availability is only marginally sufficient to provide a sustainable food supply for its population, this precarious predicament intensifies when drought or other natural disasters wipe out entire crops. Once a region's food production and supply has been severely degraded,