Selective empathy

[fridi]

Thank goodness, things have finished with a happy ending for the kids in that cave in Thailand. However, let's talk about a broader related topic, one that we've actually discussed before. I often hear the question, why are these kids so important that million of people are following their story on their phones, TV and the radio? Why is the whole world sympathetic with the families of those boys and the heroic efforts of the rescue teams? Why not the thousands and millions of people suffering from starvation, war and natural disaster around the world?

It's because when you tell the personal story, it touches you inside. All the photos and videos reaching the broad world have given direct and intimate access to the work of the rescue teams, they've created the impression that we're almost part of the whole effort. No sane person would remain indifferent to the messages that those boys sent to their families, telling them how much they love them and how they shouldn't worry. One of the kids wrote his first wish after he is rescued was to have a barbeque. The FIFA chairman has promised the boys to grant them front seats at the World Cup. Etc. All this innocence is touching. And that's normal.

In the meantime though, thousands of young boys and girls are hiding in the ruins of their bombed homes. They're innocent victims too. The young refugees of war being washed out drowned at the Mediterranean shores, the thousands of kids who've taken the dangerous road to the safety of the promised land, they're also not guilty for the fate they're having. The kids who've been turned into heartless killers by cruel gangs in the Third World, they're innocent too.

I've been hearing voices arguing that the huge international attention to the fate of the Thai boys has a good amount of voyeurism in it, because, thanks to modern media and the hordes of reporters from around the world, the public has been made an almost direct participant in the tremendous effort for survival. Yes, the hourly real-time reports from places of disaster do feed some lower base instincts, but that's still not the whole story.

There's more. There's the fact that in a battle for survival of this sort, there can only be winners. The situation doesn't leave any space for cynicism, or political agendas, or conflict of interest. It's purely humanistic. There's no room for double-edged arguments such as "We just can't accommodate everybody". No one would start arguing that the parents of those Thai boys are economic migrants exploiting a welfare system, therefore they're somehow responsible for the disaster threatening their children, and according to some extreme interpretations they even deserve their fate.

Here things are simple. There are a dozen boys stuck in a cave, their only foe being the muddy water in the corridor. It's this clearness and unambiguousness that can unite the whole world. A one-dimensional, no-nuance story of tragedy and hope that doesn't leave any room for questions who deserves to live and who doesn't.

I'd sure like this moment of tense hope, sympathy and concern to unleash something bigger in us humans. Something that transcends mere media hype. And when (hopefully!) it all ends well, I'd like there to remain something more than just the usual good feeling of success. I want there to be the realization that after all, it's always about living breathing people with their story, background, dreams and hopes, people who haven't necessarily chosen their own fate on their own.