Humanity - A Tribute To The Souls
One word. Humanity.
Inspired by Hotel Rwanda. In 1994, a genocide occurred in the African country of Rwanda. It only lasted for 100 days, but nearly a million people were slaughtered. The entire industrialized world ignored it. Even when the little aid was given by the U.S., it was delayed due to the debate on the cost - Because human lives don't matter if it costs too much.
I dug out an old article of TIME that included dozens of photos showing the state Africa is in right now. The continent is in a complete mess. Thousands upon thousands of people die every day. Just one percent of America's budget could completely transform that continent forever, and yet we sit here and do nothing. I took a good look at the state of our country and myself. I was on an elevator a few days ago and saw the person across from me take a swig of Gatorade with chips in his other hand. I thought, "That money probably could have bought a meal for a dying child tonight." And then I looked down at the Mini-Muffins in my hand I had just bought. The hypocrisy kicked me in the nuts. I'm spending so much money needlessly. I'm eating three meals a day when most of the world can barely manage a few crumbs. How the hell did I manage to hit the jackpot and get this life? What did I even do to deserve this luxury of a life that I every day take for granted?
I have shelter, I have food and water, I don't have a family who loves me, but hell, at least I am still alive. And you still see people, including myself, who complain about meaningless things in their lives, even though half of humanity barely has half of those things that I just listed. I wish the world wasn't like this. I wish things were different. But they're not. They're not and people who deserve nothing less than a bit of food to eat have to live in complete poverty and die in the mud without the world knowing or caring that they ever existed. A pre-teen girl sold on the sex-slave trade doesn't care if Tom Cruise and whatever goddess he's dating break up. A child dying of tuberculosis doesn't care how her hair looks. A child doesn't care about the latest fad diet when he's staring into the eyes of his dead mother. These things don't matter. 13 people just died of tuberculosis, 20 people just died of AIDS, and more than 5,500 babies just died of preventable respitory infections all as I was typing this, and I was not informed of it because Dick Cheney accidentally shooting a friend of his is a good comedy bit.
Sometimes people like to call me a pessimist. "Why are your thoughts so deep and heavy?" they inquire. I'm sorry, I just can't find a "bright side" to a girl weeping over her dead brother's body. You can't just turn your head away and pretend this stuff doesn't happen. If acknowledging it means I'm a pessimist, then I'm a pessimist. But quite honestly, I feel sorry for someone who ignores these things because it makes them feel icky. It's our world. Stop shielding yourself from it and open your eyes.
1994: Rwanda.
Today: Darfur.
What happened to "Never Again"?
How perfectly human it can be to be perfectly inhumane...