how can we call ourselves moral?
Tonight I am angry. Tonight on TV, Bob Geldof was telling us some of the horror stories from Africa. This site is one of many that reported the stuff he talked about:
http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2004/10/child_soldiers.php Only read it if you have a strong stomach.
Look at that story, then look at our priorities. We invade Iraq for doing much less. Our news services talk about far less important things. At a personal level, we spend our time on jobs and friends and churches and entertainment. We just ignore the really bad stuff.
Those are the moral choices we all make, every day. To look away, to do something else. Please excuse me if I am a little cynical.
posted by Chris Tolworthy at 10:35 PM
3 Comments:
And it's also kind of interesting to see what groups and politicians try to draw attention to the plight of Africa. Rock stars like Bob Geldof; NGOs like Amnesty International; and a few conservative Christian politicians (Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback) and organizations (Pat Robertson's bunch) do talk about Africa, but nobody else seems to care.
I work with immigration law as part of my job. The stuff that goes on in places like Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Somalia is unimaginable. Perhaps that's why it doesn't capture our collective imagination.
And here my mind is on whether the overdue item I bought through eBay will ever show up. I guess I am a bit shallow and my own personal trials take up a lot of time that I don't try to keep up with to many world events. My idea of news it the weather report.
I have not read enough of your site yet to see a relation with our morallity and the internal strife's of other nations in your point of view. You may be cynical of wealthy nations, I am cynical in mankind in general. I do put value into those who value others, whether directly or indirectly and my hopes ride with them.
>>I have not read enough of your site yet to see a relation with our morality and the internal strife's of other nations in your point of view.
I think it's just a question of priorities. If we give these problems enough time, we will find solutions. I'm less concerned with HOW we solve a problem than with WHAT problem we address. I have my own ideas for solutions, but I am more than happy if the problems can be solved some other way.
IMO the moral issue comes in when we decide that one thing is more important than something else. That is a moral choice.
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