Choice Post #2: Why We Don't Donate

         Money is a major part of people, especially in America. We use our wealth to determine our success and compare ourselves to others. Same as us, countries are also rich or poor, and they too use their wealth to determine their success. And there are a lot of countries out there that are rich, especially in Europe, along with U.S., and Canada. When we compare these countires to countreis in Africa, we realize how much better off they are. We realize that they have so many thigns they take for granted that would completely alter an African's life. We all know donating would be morally correct thing to do. However, people don't donate as much as you would think. There are many people who ask others to donate all the money they don't spend on survival however, this is not such an easy task. So I started to wonder, why is it that it is so difficult for us to give up our luxuries when people in Africa don't even have them? Could it be because we are generally selfish? Or is there something else at play here? There are actually multiple factors that make it difficult for us to donate to Africa.

          Comparative wealth means that you are only as rich as you are richer than those around you; your wealth is determined by how much more of it you have compared to those in your area. In Johns Creek, we are all fairly well off. And we all know this. But how many of you really feel this? How many of you look at the things you have and are suddenly struck by how lucky you are? It is difficult to feel this way when all of our friends have all the same things. It doesn't make us feel like we have much more than the rest of the world when everyone around us has the same things we do. If, for an example, someone you know got a BMW as their first car on their 16th birthday upon recieving his/her license and you didn't even get a car until much later on, you wouldn't feel rich. You would feel the need to be richer so that you could afford a BMW as your first car as well. Your desire to be richer or to have the BMW would be as strong as someone in Africa's desire to have a small pocket mirror that someone else in the same village has. While there is a major difference between a mirror and a car, the longing for the objects would be the same between the student at Johns Creek and the person in Africa.

          Because of comparative wealth, I feel that we shouldn't donate to help African people get luxuries, just basic necessities  for life. However, we haven't done even as much as that. The reason is the second factor that determines how much we donate- Reality vs. Abstract. Africa is thousands of miles away from the nearest U.S. coast and almost none of have ever been there. We haven't seen what it's like in Africa. We don't know about the customs, lifestyles, or the problems there first hand. I feel that this is an issue stopping us from donating more than we are. The idea of all the problems in Africa are too abstract for us to be emotionally moved enough to actually make a sacrifice large enough. If you were timidly approached in the streets by a beggar in tattered clothes who asked you for $5, you would most likely help the beggar. It would be almost impossible for anyone with a soul to say no and continue walking. However, if a decently dressed person confidently marched up to you and asked you for $5 to help a peasant, it would be much easier to say no and come up with some excuse as to why not. The reason is that in the first scenario, the beggar was real, he as there, and you saw first hand what he/she went through and how  he/she lived. The same issue persists when donating to Africa. Now let's suppose you went to Africa for summer vacation to have a taste of what life is like there. You would step off of the airplane and enter a different dimension. The runway would be small and overgrown with weeds that creep further and further into the center, threatening to crumble the runway. The heat and smell would slap you across the face and leave a mark of horror as you realize that the locals are used to it. You would enter a village of skeletons- ribs, femurs, joints, and arm bones, all barely covered by skin stretched too tight, covering the body like a tight plastic tarp, threatening to suffocate the life inside. The people would be starved and malnourished, each barely scraping by day to day, waiting for death, the day of being liberated from the hardships of life. The bugs would persist on attacking you and leeching a part of you away for themselves as they too seem to be deprived. After seeing a scene like this, and then returning to America, you would definitely be more willing to donate more money to Africa. You would have seen the conditions and have experienced them first hand to realize exactly what those poor people suffer through each day. We need to establish a sense of empathy with the people we donate to in order to actually achieve giving them what they need. This issue is a problem now, but its still growing as America becomes richer and Africa becomes poorer.

          In today's modern times, it seems that the only way to make money is by investing the money you already have, business. So if you are a rich person, you have more money to invest so that you have a larger gain. However, if you are unfortunate, then what is there to invest to make a profit? When I say invest, I don't only mean in terms of lotteries, businesses, or other things of that nature. I also mean in terms of education. Even though education is provided for free up until high school, you still may lack the materials to earn the proper grades or education. Let's assume that you are someone who can't afford any of the school materials as a high school student. You wouldn't have a binder to keep your notes organized to study, a calculator to help in math, or be able to afford extra paper for notes. You would be at the mercy of your lenders. With all of these set backs, you won't be able to muster up the grades for college either. And even if you do qualify to attend a community college, you won't be able to withdraw a loan to attend the college because banks only dole out loans to those who are sure to be able to pay them back. Without this higher education, you can't get a better job than you already have and are stuck in the class you are at. However, if you are rich, you are able to pay the expenses to further yourself and, in turn, augment your profit. The same situation can be found when comparing America to Africa. We are able to afford the military to ensure that we can protect our riches.  We can afford the scientists to advance our technology and sell it to make even more money. And we are capable of spending money on investments in other countries or assert more influence on them. If a country in Africa can't afford a formidable military, then it definitely won't be able to protect its profits when they are earned, and as a consequence, the profit is lost and the saying rings true, you need money to make money. As America and Europe get richer and richer, and Africa remains in a dead lock, then the gap of wealth, with Europe and America on one side and Africa on the other, grows. This enlargement in the trench dividing the two makes it even more difficult for Americans to feel empathy towards Africa and so donate. This ditch of despair amplifies the issues mentioned previously and so Africa remains poor as America benefits from its fall. The reason people don't donate is not because humanity is selfish or evil, its because there are many adverse factors that make it more difficult. If we can't donate now, then it would be far less likely that we will donate in the future. We are not selfish and evil beings and me saying this is not to tell you that not donating is excusable, I am showing you the problem so that it can be eliminated. We must answer the call for help, even if we have to immerse ourselves into the heart of Africa, and take action now before the situation gets worse and Africa's prosperity slips into the fictional world. 

                                                                                           -Jalees N.