apathy/hypocrisy

i haven't made a post in quite a while - i didn't feel as if i had anything to really post about. but, thoughts have been swirling in my mind, the night is yet young, and song's from backsteet boy's millennium is playing in the background - a perfect storm for blogging.

this post is about apathy. that and hypocrisy.

some background first - beneath all the friend-pats, unicorn love, and cat sounds, a rather more serious jia lurks. i feel profoundly passionate about issues related to poverty, particularly in a developing country setting where it is so often crippling that the most basic of human needs are unsatisfied. in the western world, we always espouse values like justice, equality, and equal opportunity, yet most of us stand by and do nothing as poverty grinds down these values and grinds down human life as if they were nothing. do we not understand that a person in africa is the same as a person in canada? they have friends they care for, families they love, and aspirations they dream towards - they are human beings, as much as you who are reading this blog is a human being, and they deserve a right to life as much as we do. what i find particularly horrendous is that we have more than enough resources to end poverty. many experts believe we could meet the millennium development goals if rich countries contributed a mere 0.7% of their GDP as aid to developing countries.

and yet we do not do this. we stand idly by as thousands upon millions die needless deaths. this is society's apathy.
_______________________________

but what right do i have to pontificate? if i look at my life, am i doing much more than the people i disparage in the above paragraph? is my life really that different? i am not leading a movement, heading an ngo, raising awareness for critical issues. instead i am in medical school, ostensibly to increase my capacity to make a difference in the future so that i am not someone who is 100% good intentions and 0% capacity. but perhaps i am just rationalizing away a desire for wealth and security in a cloud of false idealism. ultimately, if i ask myself 'what have you done?', i can only say 'very little'. i have been particularly critical of christian people (including my christian friends) in regards to how little they seem to care about these issues. the bible is absolutely rife with commands to show love to the poor, and yet over and over again i find that it is my non-christian friends who care more about making the world a better place than my christian ones. but as i pause to think, and once again ask myself "what have you done?", again i can only say 'very little'.

there is a rather fitting bible verse for this (Matthew 7:3)

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

if i care so much, and yet do so little, i am far guiltier than someone who doesn't care at all. this is my hypocrisy.

if only i could be more like jesus