It is easy to become desensitized to numbers and to the accompanying suffering and struggles of people around us and to people in other parts of the world.
As a Canadian, I know I have.
I am writing this a few days before Christmas, my family is gathering, gifts and food have been bought, and we are not alone in these preparations. Like many Canadians, I am although I may appreciate and have awareness of what is happening to other people, they are an abstraction, my reality I literally have blinders on, and we are blind to the reality our lives are not representative of the majority of people on our planet.
Yet, as I write this and as you read my words, life is happening for other people; and it is not the life we have.
In these five minutes, fifteen children will die from diarrheal diseases, die from malaria, and respiratory infections (1) around the world. From January to April of 2023 more than 400 migrants (2) drowned in the Mediterranean trying to find a better life in Europe and more than 20,000 have drowned trying to accomplish the same goal since 2014. According to the United Nations Human Rights Council, there are more than 114 million people(3) who have been displaced by war or violence right now.
The numbers are staggering, but they are just the figurative “tip of the iceberg.” How can we possibly relate? We have issues here, one in four people will have a mental health experience in the coming year, and one in seven experience food insecurity, housing and homelessness are major issues; these are real issues. However, when we consider global issues, it helps to remember that behind each number is a real person.
My challenge to you is to imagine the following realities. Instead of looking at the numbers, consider what you might do and how you would react … if it was your child or family.
Scenario #1 – You live and work in Gaza, and you have two small children with your partner. One of your children is a diabetic. Your life has always in somewhat precarious, but you have managed to find and keep a decent job, you have provided for your family, you have a small apartment, and your child has managed their diabetes. You are not active in politics, and like many Canadians, you are just trying to survive and give your family a better life. On October 7th, your life and the lives of your family changed. In the first few days of the war, your apartment was bombed and destroyed, you and your family gathered what you could and have been simply trying to find shelter wherever possible. Your place of work was destroyed by collateral damage, you have little money, and essentially just what you were able to carry from the ruins of your home. You and your family’s lives are in danger constantly, not just from the relentless bombing, the chaos, and the lack of electricity, sanitation, water, and food. The worst of everything is your fear for your diabetic child, their live-saving insulin is not only difficult to obtain but impossible to store without refrigeration. While bombs fall, soldiers invade and occupy, World leaders debate, and the United States vetoes UN resolutions; your child is slowly dying each day before your eyes.
What would you do? How would you react? What help would you demand and or beg for?
Scenario 2 – A dozen or so years ago there was a future. After forty years of occupation, war, corruption, warlords, drugs, and death there was hope. The western countries, including Canada, were maintaining and supporting the Afghanistan government. It wasn’t perfect, but your daughter was able to go to school and personal freedoms were increasing. Occupations like teaching, being an engineer; and opportunities taken for granted in other parts of the world were new and exciting, as a parent you could believe your daughter had a whole new world open to her.
Then, with the stroke of a pen, the United States decided to leave and the dominos fell as other countries couldn’t pull their soldiers out fast enough. Troops left faster than they had arrived, you knew people who literally chased airplanes down the runway in hopes of escaping from what they knew would be coming. Those people who helped the Western powers were hunted, imprisoned, and punished by the returning Taliban. Girls like your daughter, who had glimpsed a future, had it torn away, as a new harsh regime replaced personal freedoms with a level of oppression hard for Canadians to understand. Rights and freedoms taken for granted by us, simply do not exist, particularly for women.
What would you do? Would you try to escape? Would you risk everything so your children could have a future?
Scenario #3 – You try to believe you and your family are almost safe. Together you survived a civil war in Syria. Escaping over the border had been dangerous, but it had been just the beginning of an ordeal you couldn’t have possibly imagined. The old, much too small ship for which you had paid an enormous amount was dangerously overloaded, dark, scary, and always at risk of sinking. You had heard the stories of the sinkings, the ships turned back by the navies and coast guards of countries like Italy, but somehow you made and were still together.
You had stayed together, navigating the backroads and trails of Europe with passable but obviously foreign language skills. You had slept outdoors in all weathers, ridden in wagons, and backs of trucks, and walked. Your small children haven’t attended schools, had medical care, new clothes, or toys in forever. Finally, after paying a human smuggler an obscene amount of your remaining cash, you made it to England across the channel only to get caught on the beach by the British government. Now after waiting in a detention camp, you have discovered the government has just signed into law a bill to send you all to Rwanda where you will be processed and maybe allowed to be a refugee. All are legal according to the law of Great Britain.
This wasn’t what you expected, why is life this unfair? What do you tell your partner? What do you tell your children? What can you do? How and why do the people of Great Britain support this kind of treatment of people who look to them for a chance?
Scenario 4 – You have heard the stories. Americans were building a wall between them and Mexico to stop migrants. You had heard rumors of children being separated from their parents and put into cages … that couldn’t be true. How could that be? Wasn’t America built by immigrants? Didn’t the Statue of Liberty say something about welcoming the huddled masses? It must be wrong. Wasn’t America about justice and freedom?
Besides, you couldn’t stay where they were. So, you came on foot.
At times walking forever it seemed. You and your family, sometimes strangers treated you well, other times not so much. You were alone, you saw other people, other families, everyone walking. All were poor, some were prosecuted, some were taken advantage of some simply disappeared, human smugglers offered better access and promises of security, some people could afford, we could not.
At the border it was true. A few got in, more were smuggled in, and some squatted there, in limbo or purgatory. America was not as it seemed, it seemed like a lie, and it fostered hate and resentment. How could some have so much and you have so little?
What would you do? How far would you go to find sanctuary for your family, for your children?
Scenario 5 – At fifty-eight you are considered old by everyone in your unit. No Western army would have a place for you, but here you fight beside teenagers, students, accountants, and anyone in between. Three years ago, you were a merchant, you had a comfortable life, friends, family, you travelled with your elderly parents, with your partner, with your children. Now, that seems like someone else’s memories. The countryside and cities lie in ruin, and mass graves left behind by the Russians do not surprise only anger, booby-traps and landmines rob people of lives and limbs days and weeks after the soldiers leave, the misinformation and lies have scarred everyone.
Everyone has lost family members including you, some were shot by the Russians without trial, some simply blown up as collateral damage, and others just ceased to exist from missile strikes. As each day turns into the next, your constant fear is world is losing interest and that Putin and his cronies will win, simply because the attention of the West is fleeting. You fight to keep your family safe; many have left to be safe. In the West, you think ironically many retire by fifty-eight, here you sleep on the frozen ground, your loaded rifle by your side.
Would you fight if you had to? What would you say to friends and family in other countries? What would you say to politicians who say, “This is not our fight,” those who abandon the Ukrainians like we did the Afghans, the Syrians, the Czech in 1968, the Hungarians in 1956, and very nearly the British in 1939?
Scenario 6 – You are a middle-aged Canadian. Tonight, you are watching and agreeing with the populist conservative politician who wants to cut immigration. They are blaming immigrants for everything from our housing crisis to taking good jobs away from Canadians. They say if we let too many people into the country it will jeopardize our social safety net and strain our already overtaxed health system. You and most people who think like you have opinions that border on racism, but you don’t see yourself that way. You justify your thinking because you believe we can’t afford to support immigrants, that others around the world should deal with their “own” problems, and you listen to the rhetoric of politicians who say the right things and know how to push your buttons.
Your children are safe. They never think about having clean water or sanitation. They have education opportunities, to vote, to have careers, to enjoy life, medical care, inoculations …
Our problem is that too many of us live in the last scenario. We mistakenly believe that our worldview reflects the world’s reality, when in fact, we are the aberration. We do not reflect reality, yet our beliefs and policies help contribute to the literal enslavement and lack of social equity in our world. More than half of us don’t even bother to vote. This needs to change.
We could continue to live in our reality, as unconnected as it is. We could continue to support politicians who want to limit immigration or we could consider taking individual and collective action. We need to look at what is happening, asking what if the people suffering were our children … what would we want? What can we do to help those in need?
We could start by learning about what is really happening in the world. We should stop relying on 5 and 10-second sound bites to get our information. We should ask difficult questions of our leaders and the choices they make on our behalf. We should be prepared to pay for helping the vulnerable people in our world. What would we want if it was us asking them?
With immigration, we should take as many as we can; do we have room? For those who argue Canadians’ jobs, for Canadian lifestyles would be jeopardized; put yourself in the shoes of any of the people in the first four scenarios, what do you think.
For those who still refuse to change, my question is “By what right do you have to say no?” Would you be the person in a lifeboat who refuses to pick up any more people because you are safe and more people would put you at risk? We have enough room. Open your eyes and see the inequity, the people who need our help, and help us take responsibility for those who just want a better life.
Paul.
Source: (1) Causes of Death – Our World in Data
Source: (2) Over 400 migrants died crossing the Mediterranean early in 2023 -UN agency | Reuters
Source: (3) Over 114 million displaced by war, violence worldwide | UN News