Thursday, January 10, 2008
Cold figures
I peered out between an arm and somebody's legs at the amassing pile of bodies around me, and saw my mother dieing of grief. I wondered if to join me on this amassing pile of undernourished and cold bodies might be a relief for her. I wondered whether her aching heart could be beyond numbness and starvation in a state of morbid solidarity with ten thousand more grieving mothers. The weight of featherweight bodies crushes my limbs, and I can no longer see a world which consumes without limit, yet is hungry for more tender flesh.
Inspired by the following:
"For example, a survey in Baidoa, Somalia, found that approximately 75% of displaced children under 5 years died within a six-month peoriod and the proportion of children under 5 in the displaced population fell from 18.3% to 7.8% during this period."
The stats hurt me more for what they represent: The treatment of human lives as a series of numbers. How ugly our world is for all the hurt that we keep bottled up as a series of statistics! Being empathetic and truly helping requires more emotional truth, even if it's the stats that help us know how to act!
fon @ 1:34 PM link to post * *