Wednesday, December 31, 2014

I open at the close (of 2014. Perhaps.)

The world is a profoundly unjust place.
It always have been and i imagine it always will be.
But that doesn't absolve us of our responsibility to look directly at problems, even if they are painful to look at.
And to try our best to do something to decrease world suck.
- John Green


We are now edging into 2015.
Meaning we are almost 15 years into the 21st  century.
What did we imagine 2014 would be like 10 years ago? 20 years ago?
How big is the difference between what we imagined and reality?

So i was reading this list of events that happened in 2014.
And i have to say, it wasn't a very happy read.
Sure 2014 is the year Germany added another star to their football team logo.
It is also the year the Rosetta spacecraft's probe landed on a certain Comet 67P.
And also the year a 17-year-old girl received the Nobel Prize for Peace, youngest ever laureate, wow!

Happy, happy thoughts.

On the other side of the coin however...
The civil unrest in Ukraine.
Some 276 girls and women abducted in Nigeria.
The disappearance of MH370, 239 people on board.
Capsize of the Korean ferry, 290 people died.
The Boko Haram killing in Nigeria, around 300 people killed.
Ebola virus epidemic, at least 7000 people died.
The so-called "Sunni millitant group" ISIS agenda killing God-knows-how-many.
The Israeli attack on Gaza, called Operation Protective Edge, killing over 2000 people.
The shooting down of MH17, all 298 people on board died.
The killing of 141 people, including 132 children in Peshawar by Taliban gunmen.

Too many killings. Too many preventable deaths.
And these are just some of those that made it to international news.

What will it take for us to see, to really see with our eyes? And to feel, to really feel and understand the situation of this world we're living in?

I mean it's been over 100 years since the identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and over 60 years since the development of antibiotic streptomycin, effective against TB, yet 1.5 million people died of TB in 2013 alone, most of which are from low-to-middle income countries.
And what about malaria, one of the oldest disease known? Over 500 000 people died of malaria in 2013, mostly children in Africa. That's like one child a minute. And this is a preventable and curable disease.

Yes, these are very complex matters that involve lots resources and departments and agencies to solve. It's not as easy as it seems.
Heck, even the truths behind them are complicated.
But that's the thing. Truth resists simplicity (another one by John Green).

But is there really nothing we can do?

And here's to hoping for a 2015 of humanity and love. Cheers.



Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.
- Dr. Seuss, The Lorax -

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