Inequality is hitting me more than just a bitter nagging at the back of my mind. There is no escaping, just better bubbles we create around ourselves. I am priviledged. I have plenty to eat, clean water to drink, somewhere to sleep and bathe, and people who love me. If something goes terribly wrong in my life I can be sure that there will be someway to be rescued from that situation. There is no true physical suffering. I cannot physically understand the struggles of so many people on the world for whom the basic human rights are not respected in their lives.
It is one thing to read about these abstract people, but a completely to meet and talk with them. When you hear about people through others or books, you have a percieved idea in your head of what they are like or what the particular situation. However, when you meet that experience or person face-to-face they become real in way that is hard to ignore. For me, right now, that is the disparity surrounding me. I am sitting in my giant room with a huge comfortable bed of my host family. I have my own space. I have a large group of people on the trip to keep me company in the afternoons. I have the staff of the program there to assist me if anything happens that is less than "acceptable".
Directly outside my window, there are two indigenous women working on the sidewalk trying to sell various typical Guatemalan weavings. I hear the constant questions as people walk out of the school "handmade".. "por favor".."son bonitos"... "para tu familia"... which is all met with a "no, gracias." If one were to buy or donate money to everyone who asked, you would have to spend hundreds of dollars each day. I wish I had the money to do that. No, actually, I with we could fix the root of the perpetuating inequalities. I'm not saying that we need to move to a completely communist or socialist system, but there are a lot of ways to combat the persistant inequalites that would require less drastic measures.
That's really been on my mind a lot lately. I don't know if got my point across, but the priviledge of being a well-education woman from a society that for its problems, gives me drastically better chances at living a life where at the very least the basic essentials are covered... is hitting me in the face in a way that I definately think it should.
To move from frustration to action is the harder step, but with this afternoon's activities helping out at a local organization working toward sustainable development... we´ll make a small step!
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