Our Difference Simply Do Not Matter

Date: January 14, 2005 at 10:40:03
From: M. Ali, [ool-18b99538.dyn.optonline.net]
Subject: Our Difference Simply Do Not Matter - From Common Ground

Reprinted from Common Ground News Service
-------------------------------------------------

OUR DIFFERENCES SIMPLY DO NOT MATTER
M. Ali*

Sometimes, sadly, it takes terrible tragedies, great losses or awful pain
for us to stop in our often hectic lives and think about our place in the
world and the way we are headed. We are so busy with our daily routines
that we rarely stop to consider the gift of life and our great fortune.

The tsunami that hit Asia on Dec. 26 is one of those huge incidents that
force us to consider what we can and must do; and the emphasis here is very
definitely on that little but so very important word "we."

We have a collective responsibility, and that sense of obligation should
influence and guide us all. For too long we have been focused on the things
that make us different and we have, regrettably, allowed them to divide us.
On days such as Dec. 26, 2004, differences simply do not matter.

Vaclav Havel said in his book The Art of the Impossible, "Only people with
a sense of responsibility for the world and to the world are truly
responsible to and for themselves." In effect then by helping others we
help ourselves and this help is not based on any conditions -- we must help
all of our fellow human beings.

However, there are people who will still prefer to see our differences as
divisive. They would prefer not to associate with or be responsible for
people of different races, religions, ideologies or even nations.

But this is nonsense. The destruction and death that came with the tsunami
was not discriminatory. It swept away all regardless of human categorizations.

Nature does not pick and choose who it will strike. Human life has no
categorization before nature; natural disasters, famine, disease and
poverty can strike us all. And yet we have the power to do so much to limit
the damage done by nature.

Much discussion in our modern world revolves around the concept of
globalization and whether it is a force for good or evil. Like so much in
human affairs it depends on what we humans make of it; how we choose to use it.

Again the tragedy of Dec. 26 highlights this. The disaster happened and the
global community came together to offer aid and assistance. Because of our
globalized world the victims of nature will not be left alone to suffer the
continuing vagaries and randomness of nature. Help comes to them from all around the world.

Certainly there will be those who say that the global community could do
more and could have done more before the disaster struck, but no small
amount of hindsight would be at work in such thinking.

Surely what can and should emerge from globalization is a dignified
appreciation of our diverse world and strategies for how we may be able to
serve and protect it. Globalization does not have to spread distrust and
prejudice only, but can help to achieve trust and justice for all.

We live in a world that is full of diversity -- from biological to
philosophical we have a great gift of diversity that should be valued and
kept safe. In our biological/physical world diversity is plainly there
before us to see and appreciate. Most people would see the need to preserve
biological diversity as it is priori needed.

But human diversity is also needed in all its forms. Diverse thoughts,
systems of belief and races are all highly valuable. They are all part of
the miracle of humanity and any loss should and must be painful.

Diversity is in a real sense God's gift to us. God created difference and
as we encounter difference we effectively encounter God. God may be seen in
the face of a stranger who we encounter and maybe help.

The very soul and beating heart of humanity is instilled in the blessed
differences we have. It is our differences that make us human beings and it
is our ability to learn about and respond to these differences that can and
should make us humane; allowing us to achieve a humane society and a humane
global community.

Each human life has an ultimate dignity regardless of the differences that
may be encountered in the affairs of humanity. Globalization offers us both
threats and opportunities, but the humane appreciation and appreciation of
difference can lead globalization toward positive ends.

Globalization can be the method via which we promote the cause of universal
justice and human rights, and this includes the right to dignity in life
even when disaster strikes.

Sometimes we are united with the challenges of survival. Dec. 26 laid such
a challenge before so many thousands of people of Indonesia and many other
countries. But no matter what country people are in or from, they all (we
all) deserve the right to dignity.

The response to Dec. 26 shows us how we can come together. Perhaps it is
tragic that such an awful event has to happen to bring us together but we
can and must learn from it.

###
*The writer is a senior researcher at the Cunningham Research Center in
Manchester, UK.

Source: The Jakarta Post, January 9, 2005

Visit The Jakarta Post at http://www.thejakartapost.com

Distributed by the Common Ground News Service.

Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.

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