Bigger Than Us
Sometimes I find that those of us that live in the Western Hemisphere are severely jaded. Tucked away on a separate continent away and isolated from direct contact from the daily air strikes and rebel jihads plaguing the far off regions of the world. That isn’t to say we do not face our own travesties here in the U.S. with gun violence, as the mark of 500 homicides in Chicago alone was just hit a few weeks ago. It is more to say that the perpetual civil violence and unrest across the ocean goes unnoticed until the next viral photo. Social media plays a huge role in the empathy department for Americans. The relentless blank stare of a young boy covered in dust or another slumped face down on the shoreline cover our screens and the heaviness of tragic sadness settles and we grieve for a few moments or hours or days until another viral cat video surfaces. The fleeting existence of social media makes it extremely difficult to hone our priorities with such chaotic distraction. Little or transient empathy is mainly due to the lack of understanding of the ever present tension in the Middle East. We cast aside the violence as nothing new and a world citizen’s sigh of dissatisfaction without much action.
In a recent New York Times article, Samer Attar, MD, writes on the tragedies Aleppo, Syria faces with first hand perspective. A Chicago surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Dr. Attar equates his experiences on home soil to the overwhelming situations abroad. Hospitals are being attacked daily by bombs. Syrian doctors feel abandoned in the ongoing war. The Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) created an interactive map of attacks on Healthcare in Syria fittingly entitled “Anatomy of a Crisis”. This poignant visual illustration brings the events to your fingertips. A time-lapse spanning from 2012 to 2016 marks the attacks of medical facilities. The PHR has harnessed the digital verse, the trouble is now is to direct those not in the medical field or major news outlets.
So why bring this up? Why write about a topic that is so clearly insolvable on a singular level? The point of the matter lies within the power of one individual or a group of individuals bringing to light the serious lack of support for our fellow world citizen in a time of desperation. For our tragedies, a hospital and first responders were there. That is one thing to rely upon, the overwhelming reassurance of help. In Syria, those people do not have such a faith in safety. When doctors have to operate in the basement with a continuous in pouring amount of people with shrapnel projecting from their bodies as Dr. Attar describes, it is hard for those individuals to have hope. The ability to find comfort in help is not present. This is the real problem.
The inconsistent prejudices based upon location, culture, religious affiliation plagues our minds turning them against fellow man. The world has become a battle ground for “my problems are worse than your problems” or is there is just too much tragedy in the world that if Safety Check was always activated then Facebook wouldn’t be a social platform anymore it would be nothing more than an interactive and personalized news hub. Facebook’s controversial Check-In app came under fire for its selective nature for major crises, i.e. covering the Paris shootings, but not for a hostage situation in Mali just a week later. Spokesperson for Facebook commented on the feature still being “relatively new”. Yet, it’s been recorded that Facebook used Safety Check after earthquakes in Afghanistan, Chile, Nepal and a tsunami in Japan in 2011. So why 4 years later does not all disasters trigger the safety check? Is it the changing world? Access to technology in some countries?
Social media is a double edge sword. It makes us aware of world issues we may have not otherwise seen, especially if watching or reading the news is not a priority. It provides enlightenment, but also deterioration. The sad realization is that I would not have read Dr. Attar’s article if it was not related to my work. So while the world is raging at our doorstep, perhaps instead of just sharing across Facebook how heavy our hearts are – take action. Donate to a charity aiding those less fortunate or victims of tragedies. Volunteer your time to organizations working to make a difference in the world. And if you really are unable to do much of anything, you can be an advocate. Share donation pages, share organization’s pages, utilize the digital beast for the better. Take an active role in social media, not just a passive one. Spread resources, not just empathy.
Articles Cited:
PHR Syria Map
Dr. Attar's Article: "Why I go to Aleppo"
Mali Facebook Safety Check
