Enough of being selfish!

Lately, we have been flooded with pictures of helpless parents that are struggling to protect their children, and meanwhile, here we are, posting various messages in solidarity, hoping to make a difference. But are we really? Sitting and expressing your anger over social media is not going to help these families, nor is it going to save children from dying on their quest to a better future.

Countries are trying to put the responsibility on each other, but as we are going through this debate, more and more people are suffering. In Scandinavia, countries are debating whether or not to take in more refugees, and while most of the citizens argue that we should as it is our responsibility to humanity, others claim that we need to deal with our own issues first. Yes, it is true to a certain degree, and yes, you could argue that your own citizens should come as a first priority, but at the end of the day, these are our fellow beings.

What makes one life more valuable than the other? The other day I was having a conversation with an old woman on the bus and she claimed that we should close our borders as the huge influx of refugees throughout the years is affecting us and that helping others should not come at the expense of your own people. But how is that even an argument when we have just seen pictures of Aylan Kurdi washed up on shore? That was a child, a son, a sibling, a cousin and a grandchild, shouldn’t that be enough to make us act?

— The reader is a Swedish student based in Stockholm, Sweden