The world is unbalanced.
A famine sweeps across East Africa. Many people walk for weeks to make it to the Dadabb refugee camp in Kenya. They arrive in desperate condition, feet raw and bloodied, emotions shaken from attacks by bandits. Not only is food and water scarce inside the camp, but the overcrowded Dadabb refuge camp is facing criminal attacks as well.
According to an article by BBC News, a reporter watched mothers arrive with fewer children than they had when they set off on their journey. People carried stick-thin babies, desperate for food. The camp is quickly running out of resources.
I had a conversation with a friend a while back about the absurdity of human behavioral norms. The exact subject of our conversation was the famine in Kenya. She talked about how easy it would be for many people to hop on a plane and go do whatever you can, wherever you can. The immediate things that take up our time hear isen’t as imedate as the needs of some other people.
I thought about how many people in Kenya the food thrown away at restraints and grocery stores could feed. I then thought about it less globally, saying how strange it was that a homeless man can be outside at night in the freezing winter near an unoccupied hotel room.
My friend told me that Ball State Dining once asked her to throw away dozens of boxes of pasta that was in perfect condition. Why not donate this food to the Muncie Mission? It’s trendy to ‘go green’ and focus on the condition of the environment right now, but what about the condition of people?
We were talking about how weird it is that, despite how global the world has become and how easy is it is to communicate with and travel from one country to the next, people still mostly focus on what’s going on with their own lives. We seem unaffected by the lives of other people, and live as if we are the centers of our own universe.
If I am going to take up space in the world, I want to give back to it. I don’t think it’s enough to just be a “good person” if you are not striving to be good for something. We are not the centers of our own worlds.
The philosophical question of how responsible a person should be for the next person is a question that I do not have the space or time to tackle right now. However, I will say that I believe that unless you live so carefully that you never fail at anything, and have such perfect circumstances that you never need anyone’s help, it simply comes down to treating others the way we wanted to be treated because we all need help sometimes.
Americans don’t have to travel to Kenya to be a part of the bigger world around them. Offer to help a family member, roommate, or friend with a project or assignment. No matter how little time we think we have, we should make time to do something without expending to get anything in return for your time of effort.
As Ball State student’s, there are plenty of opportunities to help others from various student organizations. Student Voluntary Services can connect volunteers with organization such as the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Delaware County, Muncie Mission, Harvest Soup Kitchen, Collage Mentors for Kids and Cornerstone Center for the Arts. Other organizations have similar outreach efforts. Last semester, the Japan Club made paper cranes to raise awareness and money after an earthquake hit Japan. Cru has created a cardinal outreach team, which allows Ball State students to go out into the Muncie community on various service projects.
In addition, simply making time for the people you care about and letting them know that you care about them is a way to get out of our ‘self’ bubbles. Listen to people and get a better understanding of their ideals and problems while being honesty about yourself with them.
Smile at strangers on your way to class.
Americans can donate money that will go towards water, food, and vaccinations as part of the Kenya relief efforts at www.usaaid.gov. In the words of Gandhi, “ Be the change you want to see in the world.”
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