Tuesday, July 22, 2008


Breaking free of Apathy



This photo is the "Pulitzer prize" winning photo taken in 1994 during the Sudan famine. The picture depicts a famine stricken child crawling towards an United Nations food camp, located a kilometer away.
> The vulture is waiting for the child to die so that it can eat it. This picture shocked the whole world. No one knows what happened to the child, including the photographer Kevin Carter who left the place as soon as the photograph was taken.
> Three months later the photographer committed suicide due to depression

Doesn't this cause us to re-evaluate the reality of our existence?
Tomorrow seem bleak. Dark with uncertainty of what we have become.
The whole world now is plagued by apathy. No one is ever concerned with another unless it involves them somehow.
The photographer never helped the child. Why? I truly don't know. Speculation is all we have. I think what happened was that the thought of helping the boy never crossed his mind. Pure ignorance. And I suspect that since he realized what he's done, he has never stopped punishing himself. The demons of his guilt followed him everywhere, with every accusing glance of people that thought that he should have known better.
We say he is wrong, he is evil, he is unfeeling.
Rest assured, however hard we punish or blame him, he punished and blamed himself more until finally he took his own life.
So what exactly is the value of human life?
Each has a life of their own, but in this case, what is the responsibility of one life to another?
If you were in his shoes, what would you have done differently?
We look at the pictures, heard it in the news but the fleeting sympathy in our hearts don't last long. Not long thereafter there would be another thing that commands our attention, diverting our thoughts from ever considering the less fortunate.
The world is so much more than what you have now. What is happening at the other side of the world should be a concern to you because you are indeed a part of the world, right?
You're not a citizen of Mars or people of the Sun. You are a citizen of the world.
So you better do something, anything.
Yes, we are nobodies. We do not possess any power. We can't control anything.
Yes, I know that.
But, we do have the ability to control ourselves.
We can start by helping out. Do what you're able to. The help given could be in the form of financial assistance or sharing of ideas and expertise or even just carrying out your responsibility the best you can. No need for the big things, it's the little things that count.
Let me give you an example. Let's say that you're a postman. So what can you do to help the world? Nothing, if you are an ordinary postman. But no, for this purpose we need someone extraordinary. The extraordinary postman.
What do I mean by that?
The extraordinary postman would do his job the best he can honestly. He'll deliver everything on time and at the right place. If he is required to clock in at 8 a.m and clock out at 5.00 p.m, then that is exactly what he'll do. Never being dishonest by stealing mail or stealing time of work by doing things halfheartedly.
So how could this help the world?
If the postman does his job excellently the way he is supposed to, then the postal operation of the organizations actually handling the charities would be smooth. So the postman is actually contributing to the whole process to ensure that everything is going to turn out the way it is supposed to.
The same applies for everyone. Even if you're a gardener or a baker or someone selling life insurance. Everything is interconnected even when we can't see the connection. Basically what I am trying to say is that everyone has the ability to make the world better just by carrying our responsibilities with all our hearts. Give it all we have.
Then maybe, just maybe we'll make a brighter tomorrow...InsyaAllah.

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