Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last few weeks or do not own a TV set, you’ve seen it. I allude to that sepia-toned movie clip in which 1212 (official name: Belgisch Consortium voor Noodhulpsituaties) asks the Belgian people for donations to battle the current famine in Somalia and the Horn of Africa. Children with white tubes up their nose, sinewy hands groping for food, shoulder blades protruding from backs like the wings on a drowning butterfly. You’ve seen it.
But have you really seen it? I mean, have you actually watched it from start to finish? I haven’t. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I guess it’s normal. It hurts to watch this kind of thing with honest eyes, and besides, these movie clips are designed to make you tear up and feel guilty. But while their hard colours and that sad piano in the background might be orchestrated by a clever director, the message that goes out from such a movie clip is nothing if not real. In fact, its moral appeal can be quite a shock. Here you are in your couch, perhaps enjoying a glass of wine or even a snack, and suddenly you realise that the lives of 12 million people are threatened by drought. That should keep you from complaining about the Belgian summer for a while…
Now this moral appeal has always fascinated me. I consider it one of the most beautiful (tragic, but beautiful) human emotions. Seeing the face of the other and understanding its appeal as something that transcends us, sharply defines our own existence. The words are not mine, but are the metaphors used by Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995), whose whole philosophy consists of an ethics of the other. But besides fascinating, the feeling of a moral appeal is at the same time extremely bothersome. If you really attend to it, it bugs you, it gnaws at you, and it questions your actions. And almost inevitably the crushing weight of responsibility you feel, will prompt the age-old question: “What can I do?”. And indeed, I don’t mean to be cynical, but ask yourself honestly: What can I do about the 2011 famine in the East of Africa?
I’ll tell you what I did. I donated 100 Euros to 1212.
But I didn’t feel better for it. Not in the least. Even now when I type it, it seems so easy and so little. One hundred Euros, what difference does that make? Another cynical question.
So I started honestly thinking the matter over. Seriously, what can I do?
And then it hit me. What’s the real problem here? The famine in Somalia? Or the fact that I will always feel frustrated, no matter what I do, that injustice and poverty still exist?
That’s right…
So, what can we do? That’s for everyone to decide for himself/herself. But whatever we do, we shouldn’t expect to feel any better about human misery because of what we do to fight it. In fact, I’m glad it never gets any better to watch those images of dying children. So, please do what you can for Africa and 1212. (The press recently pointed out that Belgium is preposterously behind other countries in this matter.) And if you want a clean conscience: do not give because you need to. Give because someone else needs it. Badly.
(Donations for the Horn of Africa can be made through BE 19 0000 0000 1212. Click here for more information.)
But have you really seen it? I mean, have you actually watched it from start to finish? I haven’t. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I guess it’s normal. It hurts to watch this kind of thing with honest eyes, and besides, these movie clips are designed to make you tear up and feel guilty. But while their hard colours and that sad piano in the background might be orchestrated by a clever director, the message that goes out from such a movie clip is nothing if not real. In fact, its moral appeal can be quite a shock. Here you are in your couch, perhaps enjoying a glass of wine or even a snack, and suddenly you realise that the lives of 12 million people are threatened by drought. That should keep you from complaining about the Belgian summer for a while…
Now this moral appeal has always fascinated me. I consider it one of the most beautiful (tragic, but beautiful) human emotions. Seeing the face of the other and understanding its appeal as something that transcends us, sharply defines our own existence. The words are not mine, but are the metaphors used by Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995), whose whole philosophy consists of an ethics of the other. But besides fascinating, the feeling of a moral appeal is at the same time extremely bothersome. If you really attend to it, it bugs you, it gnaws at you, and it questions your actions. And almost inevitably the crushing weight of responsibility you feel, will prompt the age-old question: “What can I do?”. And indeed, I don’t mean to be cynical, but ask yourself honestly: What can I do about the 2011 famine in the East of Africa?
I’ll tell you what I did. I donated 100 Euros to 1212.
But I didn’t feel better for it. Not in the least. Even now when I type it, it seems so easy and so little. One hundred Euros, what difference does that make? Another cynical question.
So I started honestly thinking the matter over. Seriously, what can I do?
- Could I perhaps give more? Two hundred Euros? Five hundred? A thousand? Would I really miss that money? But money cannot be a miracle cure, can it?
- Should I try to do something more substantial? Like supporting Oxfam or Doctors Without Borders every month? But I already do, and surely I need to do something more than the usual this time…
- Should I try to raise awareness? Like writing letters to the European Union or blogging about the problem? But I’m doing just that, and I can’t say I feel tons better now. Besides, what an armchair-solution to famine is that?
And then it hit me. What’s the real problem here? The famine in Somalia? Or the fact that I will always feel frustrated, no matter what I do, that injustice and poverty still exist?
That’s right…
So, what can we do? That’s for everyone to decide for himself/herself. But whatever we do, we shouldn’t expect to feel any better about human misery because of what we do to fight it. In fact, I’m glad it never gets any better to watch those images of dying children. So, please do what you can for Africa and 1212. (The press recently pointed out that Belgium is preposterously behind other countries in this matter.) And if you want a clean conscience: do not give because you need to. Give because someone else needs it. Badly.
(Donations for the Horn of Africa can be made through BE 19 0000 0000 1212. Click here for more information.)
The problem with appeals to the emotions is, well, that they are appeals to the emotions. The goal is short-termed and short-sighted in this case; it aims at alleviating famine and poverty in regions which it has always been in the interest of developed nations to keep in a dire state. I might be a bit of a radical, but I'd say that unless we tackle this and other problems in a rational, less self-interested, way (reduction of the debts of third-world countries, an end to the exploitation of their natural resources and further interference with their internal and foreign affairs, just to start with), there is no point to cry. Rather, this exacerbates the problem in that it makes us feel good with ourselves provided that we send a small check.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there ever was or will be a solution to injustice, but I'd say that some political and economic systems are more humane than others. I have to admit that I'm not too fond of the situation we are in. Life is beautiful, but the world we live in at the moment is nasty. Unrestrained capitalism is partly to blame, wouldn't you say so, Tom? Thinks are not going well here in America. With interest rates at 0% by the Fed, we're in for another round of economic bubbles. The machine must go on, so they say. To big to fail. Well, I say we're heading for a catastrophe...