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Are we really disconnected from the world?
With the recent tragic bushfires in Victoria I felt proud to be an Australian when I saw how quickly and willingly we, as a nation, rushed to help those people who lost their homes and loved ones. Within days we had dug deep and raised over 10 million dollars, loaded up trucks with food and clothing and offered our spare rooms to help accommodate the thousands left homeless. This, in a time of economic downturn when the government is giving away billions to boost the economy is indeed an impressive response.
But whilst we felt compelled to give money, food and clothing I believe we also felt a connection to these people’s plight. These were Australian’s like us and but for the geography their situation could easily have been ours. It was like we had been spared their pain but we understood and felt a sadness as if we knew these people personally.
After seeing in the paper the faces of children who had died in the fires, I felt enormously fortunate as I put my own children to bed that night. I noted on my Facebook page that I gave my kids an extra long hug as I counted my blessings that they were safe. Sentimental, I know, but I’m a mum – I’m allowed to be, aren’t I?
Expecting to see similar comments added to my Facebook page I was instead served a blunt reality check from one of my friends the next day who added some sobering statistics of his own. He wrote:
“Over one 1000 palestinian men women and children killed and maimed. All bombs deliberately lit, zimbabwe cholera 3,000, chinese earthquake 2008 70,000 killed, darfur 400,000+, Iraq 650,000, congo 3.4 million in 4 years, 99.99% of these will have no social system support. Next time you give your children that long hug. Think hard and make it extra long.”
Bearing in mind that 97.6% of all statistics are made up on the spot the numbers quoted may not be 100% accurate but the statement itself is none the less compelling in the truth it is driving home. So was my friend saying I was unjustified in feeling sad about a few hundred Australian’s losing their lives when this figure pales into insignificance compared to the enormity of loss of life happening everyday around the world? Perhaps, but I don’t think this was the intention. After all there is no scale on pain, what I feel cannot be compared to what another feels in terms of depth. The scale exists, however on the severity and magnitude of the circumstances which cause us pain and this is what hit me hard with this comment.
It made me stop and think – was I so disconnected from the world that I couldn’t feel the same depth of emotion reading these staggering large numbers on human suffering worldwide as I felt seeing the faces of two children, lost to bushfire, in the local paper?
Can we push our feelings aside so readily because we don’t believe this will ever happen to us and therefore it is easy to pretend it is not really happening? Or are we simply saving our energy and passion for a worthier cause – like when something happens close to our own backyard? Is this really human nature or have we just missed something?
I don’t believe I am the only person struggling with this. If I was, then I would standing alone surrounded by people rallying, with the same enthusiastic response as we saw in Victoria to help people, all around the world for all sorts of things like famine, war, child abuse and human rights.
But I don’t see this. Sure, there are a lot of valuable charities working hard to claw our cash from us to support their worthy causes but this is not what I am talking about. I am talking about the general feeling of “us and them” that exists in the world and when it’s “us” we are awakened from our sleep with a fire in our belly to overcome our crisis and we feel it we feel a real empathy for those in need. If it is “them” there is an attitude of “we’ll help out but at the end of the day it’s not really our problem”.
Perhaps this is all okay and we are designed by nature to look after our own first and foremost. Perhaps this is how the world is supposed to work and I’m making a fuss over nothing but somehow I don’t think so.
So, here is my question – if we are “all in this together” why do we feel so separated?
I think we are so separated because we’re conditioned to be so and possibly for the benefit of people that wish it to be so, but the truth of the matter is that most people are fundamentally good and feel the pain and enormity of other people’s suffering when they are made aware of it. The trick is to make yourself aware of it and do something to change it. More people die of poverty than of anything else, including terrorism. We can change that.