Following the recent news of yet another boat of refugees sinking, one can’t but wonder whether humanity is completely lost? How many boats have to sink before our world leaders will act? How many more Aylan Kurdi’s have to be washed up on shore before we citizens of the world will stand up and help our fellow human beings? I am tired of logging into my Facebook account to find pictures of refugees abandoned on the borders of a European country or even those still struggling to leave their own borders. Now, with winter here, millions of women and children are freezing to death. What are we doing about that while most of us will probably be sitting in our cosy sofas having a cup of tea, while reading this? Will it make us act or will we just continue to read the next page?
As human beings, we love to play the blame game and point fingers at the next person, or in this case, the next continent or country, but why does it have to be like that? The boat that sank in Greece with 44 people dead, included someone’s father, mother, brother, sister or cousin. We don’t react because it doesn’t really affect us and it is happening far away from us. Is what’s far from the eye, really far from the heart? We need to stop and do something about it. We can’t realistically have world peace, but we can certainly lend a helping hand. So don’t turn the page just yet. Instead, think of what you can do to help these people. It might not make a difference to your life but wouldn’t you want to be the reason for someone else’s smile?
- The reader is a Swedish student based in Umea, Sweden
