It has been my routine for a while now. I live very close to a grocery store. Once or twice a week, I would go out for a run, stop by the grocery store get some food and bring them home. I have lived in the States for a long time now. Visiting those gigantic grocery stores has become somewhat mundane or even boring to me.
Last week, when I was bored in the store, just as any normal people would do, I did some math. If I consider to eat two to three meals a day, or approximately 2000 calories. Each aisle of food in the store can supply me for over a year, and everything in the store can potentially sustain me for a life time. Granted, many of the food items may not provide me with a healthy life, but will sustain me nonetheless.
On Christmas eve, during dinner, my friend told me a story about her grandparents, during just before the time of WWII. People couldn’t put food on their table. Sometimes, they would run for miles after a food transport truck, hoping that some potatoes would fall off so they can bring them home to feed their family. My grandma used to tell me the story that my mom loved watermelon when she was a kid, and my grandpa would walk 20 miles so that he can get two watermelons from the neighboring town and bring them home. Queen Isabella of Castille and Spain once has given her daughter a small box of sugar as Christmas gift.
Accustomed this strange and recent material abundance, I have realized that I may never fully grasp the gravity of those stories. We don’t run so that we may have food, we run because we have too much food. Where I live, our minds are not troubled by where to find the next meal, but mostly occupied by what to do next to entertain ourselves. For this, I am incredibly lucky, living in the reality of this contemporary affluence.
But our world is also profoundly unjust.
2.1 billion people lack of access to clean water. Estimated 925 million under- or malnourished people in the world in 2010. 3.1 million children under five every year die from undernutrition.
In this data driven, image drenched world, those numbers have lost their power to penetrate our defenses. Besides, I am just one small cog in this economical machines of 7 billion gears. Why would I bother myself with those upsetting news if I can’t do much to change it and it is so easy to surround myself with customized news feeds, and entertainments that would bring me happiness?
Last October, a windstorm swept through California. A wildfire spread around Los Angeles. It has caused over 50,000 people were evacuated their home, some of which were lost to the fire.
John Locke, the father of Liberalism, proposed that all mankind beings, all equal and independent, have a natural right of life, liberty, and property. The idea of natural rights has so deeply ingrained into our understanding of the society. We have come to expect that at time of need, we should be offered protection of those rights. We expect to be provided with access to clean water, food, electricity, and now internet.
But make no mistake, those natural rights did not come naturally. The American Revolution fought for idea of freedom. The French revolution fought for equal rights of all human. The American civil right movements advocated for the equality of all citizens. In short, we have those rights because someone had fought for them. In many ways, the fight is still going. As our ancestors has obtained those rights, if we do not continue to protect them, we can also lose them.
After all, I do think it is important for each of us to know and understand the tragedy and inequality in this world. If we do believe all human have the right to life, liberty, and property, and carry the expectation that others to offer protection of those rights in our times of needs, we should stand by our belief and help, especially those who are need the protection the most.
With the highly globalized economy and information network, we are at a point of history that everyone with the access to internet can make a profound difference to someone thousands miles way. Maybe as one person, we can’t change the world overnight. But we can change someone’s life, somewhere.
P.S. If readers are interested to know more about what is happening in this world, here are some of related video. But of course, there are so much more on the internet, just a search away.
RhaPsoDySea 