I am taking a short sabbatical from writing about my recent experiences in India to add my voice to an article written by Owen Jones which was published in the i newspaper yesterday. The premise of this article was based on a tweet which Owen Jones wrote shortly after the Boston Bombing highlighting the deaths in Iraq which had occurred on the same day. The response from the Twitter community moved him to explore whether there was in fact a ‘hierarchy of death’ The full article can be accessed via the link below.
The article resonated with me, not only because I have first hand experience of visiting India, not as a tourist, but as volunteer which enabled me to have privileged access to explore local attitudes to education, spirituality and gender issues. This experience has enabled me to build an emotional connection and as such, would respond to collective and individual atrocities in the East in the same way as I respond when I hear of shocking events in the Western world.
I was saddened to hear about the Boston bombing fatalities and this irrational act has left a grieving community and families deprived of their loved ones. But equally I am saddened when I read of honour killings, brutal gang rapes on Indian buses and children needlessly dying because of the unsanitary conditions coupled with lack of proper medical provision which they are forced to endure.
As Owen Jones succinctly stated
“all of us have a responsibility to challenge our own prejudices and to work on empathising with fellow humans who suffer in lands distant…”
rajasthanadventure 