To Watch or To Help

I believe a type of depression hit the US people during 9/11, unrelated to the loss of lives and property, which is touching upon me now with the recent Pakistan earthquake. I furthermore believe that the cause lies in the media and passivity.

The news corporations, radio stations, individual websites, independent reporters, etc. create media stories, in this age of information. Tragedy gets “top-dollar” figuratively, and maybe literally. In such a way, the curious viewer is inundated with dozens of videos, hundreds of reports, and thousands of pictures that usually are not uplifting. 24-7 these stories reach us with doom and gloom.

In this information age, most people are passive participants. We feed off these stories; it’s not that we are interested in pain and suffering – we are trying to gain insight about humanity. We read, watch, see, search, flip the page, and scan the growing mountain of information. This is hardly a time of empowerment for many because most do not use this information to do something. In other words, the active search for information is matched by the inactive use of this information.

These factors have led me to feel a little depressed over the weekend. It’s something along the lines of, “There are so many problems in the world. What can I do?” I reside in Islamabad, I visited the Margala Towers with the intention of helping (but took pictures instead), and I have spent numerous hours on the quest for information to understand the situation and console family – but I have not taken an active role. That’s why I feel so bad, I believe. In BSA terms, I haven’t done my Good Turn Daily. I haven’t taken a role that has made me feel empowered, but rather looked upon the situation as a passive victim, “Poor Pakistan.”

At 9/11, people and aid flocked to New York City. Emergency workers were actually turned away after the initial shock because the city could not manage in the inundation of helpers. Warehouses of undistributed materials formed in this busy time. It’s my belief that when citizens of the USA were not able to give more than money directly or indirectly, and they were fed streams of information from their passive seats, that a depression formed over the people. [The mayor of NYC asked people to help in other ways that people were initially unwilling to do, such as to visit NYC and support the economy directly].

I was in Ghana and away from my small town of 10,000 people for 9/11. With no TV or internet in my house [yes, TVs and radios are prevalent in Ghana], I learned slowly about the events and I knew that I took a role in 9/11 by serving in the role of an ambassador of my country as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I was lucky to avoid what is now classified as post-traumatic stress disorder, which I believe is even experienced by individuals not present at the event.

When needs arise, I feel it is time to feel empowered, and not depressed.

How will I take an active role? More to follow…

[A global citizen? How do regular people take a role?]

P.S. Sitting outside the Margala Towers with hundreds of people, a Pakistani was the first to state a comparison to me between this collapse and the WTC.