Manning warns on handouts

Prime Minister Patrick Manning has warned those who give charitable handouts must be careful of their own motives, as he addressed the 35th Anniversary Charity Dinner of the Rotary Club of St Augustine on Friday at the Hilton Trinidad. Saying it was befuddling that the world still suffered famine, Manning said: “I have a suspicion that some among the rich require the sustainability of poverty in order to look ‘good’ as they perform their acts of charity.” Noting that this admonition did not apply to the Rotary Club of St Augustine, he added: “But care needs to be taken about the nature of charitable handouts lest the perception be conveyed that you place self about service.” Manning hailed the Rotary for its charitable works which were both global and designed to make a difference, including helping in different theatres of deprivation.

But noting the two mottos of the St Augustine Roary, he observed: “There is more to charity than lending a hand or in placing service before self.” He made his point by reading a verse from an old translation of the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13. He observed that in modern translations the word “love” was substituted for “charity,” saying the verse meant that however virtuous one’s deeds, they amounted to nothing if one did not have love. “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing.” Manning explained the verse: “It requires us to give beyond a statistical evaluation of our charity and our gift giving. It requires us to give, not so much in numerical terms but in terms of spirit.”