They say that your expertise increases in proportion to your distance from home. When I’m visiting Africa, people often assume that I’m an expert on subjects of which I have only a passing knowledge. I think the reverse is true for responsibility, which decreases in proportion to your distance from home. So if you’re a long way from home, you can be an expert with no responsibility.
There aren’t many people in Australia who wouldn’t lend a hand to stop a next-door neighbour from starving to death as a result of poverty. Most people would help the neighbour find appropriate community services, and would even provide meals from time to time. However, when it’s people who live a long way away, people that you’ve never met, and there are large numbers of them, somehow it ceases to be your problem. Australians have enough problems to worry about. Africans can look after themselves.
Followers of Jesus aren’t free to take this attitude. When Jesus answered the question, Who is My Neighbour, with the story of the Good Samaritan, he implied that each of us is responsible for anyone who is in need. So you don’t have an option of ignoring poverty. You can’t be a follower of Jesus unless you’re doing something to address the world’s problems.