9/11. a little late.

Zapping through television the last 24 hours, it was impossible not to be reminded of the terrible incidents that happened 7 years ago in New York. 3.015 people died during the terrorist attacks and I wanted to emphasize my sympathy for them and their families, before I continue.

3015 sounds like a big number, so 9/11 is an important date. But I hope, after 7 years, I will be allowed to wonder why the 1/9 isn’t at least just as important? After all, the second world war cost an estimated 55-60 million lives. But maybe that’s just too long ago.

But what about 20/3? The Iraq War has cost estimated 100.000 lives and this was 2003, two years after 9/11.

What I have most problems with understanding is: Why are there more documetaries about 9/11 on television, than about Somalia, where 70% of the population don’t have access to clean drinking water or medical care? Or about Ethopia, where 49% of the population are malnourished? Is it because countries that have had horrific circumstances since centuries don’t shock us anymore? Have we lost interest in them, because it could never happen to us, contrary to terrorist attacks?

Out of sight out of mind they say, and I guess that’s what has happened to us. We’ve heard so much, but yet too little on the sufferings of those unluckier than ourselves. We choose to ignore it and keep ourselves busy with our own demands, wishes and dreams, as I have in the past months. Who likes to think about the one in eight* people in the world, that don’t have access to clean water, when they’re drinking their cool ice tea? And who enjoys thinking about the 1,5 million children* every year (5.000 a day!) that die as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation, whilst taking a long soak in their bath tub?

We are all not aware, that we belong to the luckiest on the planet, and we waste time not appreciating the oppurtunities we have, the education, the medication, the freedom of speech and publication. I believe we owe it to the ones less lucky than we are, to use these oppurtunities to support and help them.

In the words of my favourite historical figure of all time: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?”**

*statistics: wateraid.com

**Martin Luther King, Jr.