So a friend tells me that Anna Nicole Smith just died today, and I immediately checked my internet to make sure it was true. It was. Here's the thing though, I was just reading an article about malnutrition and death rates in developing countries--and frankly, I was getting really bored of the numbers that the article was throwing at me--when I heard the news of Smith's death. I am not a big fan of Smith, but on hindsight, I found it rather surprising that I was more interested in the death of a "celebrity" than millions of others in the world.
I think I have fallen into the trap of apathy. After having had so much stats thrown my way about world health problems, I just kind of grew indifferent to them--I was starting to accept the status quo about global health issues.
The problem is that the status quo is not doing very well in dealing with global health issues, and the status quo needs to be raised much higher. In order to do that though, we need people who are willing to recognize and change (rather than ignore and accept) the problems with society today. I commend Muhammad Yunus for being one such person.
As public health students, I am sure there are many options open to us professionally, and we have to decide how much impact we want to make professionally. The easy way out is to simply tell ourselves that we don't need bring about much change. That someone else will lead that change, and that we'll just simply follow whatever the prevailing trend is. Let's not take too much risks, let's not make too many ripples, and let's not stand out too much in the crowd. Let's be more concerned about which celebrity died than which person is going without food today. Let's just keep the status quo in my life, and the lives of the millions of others who are impoverished, malnourished, and quite simply dying.
Or we could just decide to do a little better than the average public health professional. If we can change the status quo just a little, guess what, we have just changed the status quo. And if we can learn anything from Yunus, changing the status quo just simply starts with recognizing the problems around you today, and how you can go about changing it.
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6 comments:
I too find it unsettling that more people are moved by the death of a "celebrity" than the plights of most of the world. I agree that we need to "change the status quo".
hey wilson, i really appreciate this post...it's so good to remember this reality because it's so easy to get lost in the trivial stuff. thanks for the reminder!
Very thoughtful comment, Wilson. Statistics really are just being strewn about everywhere, nurturing apathy. 1 million people die on the other side of the world, and for a second we think, how tragic, and let it pass. It never matters until these things happen to us or affect us directly. These large numbers try to bring attention to so many issues through sheer magnitude, but without knowing the individual stories behind them, they are almost meaningless. Should we follow the numbers or build our own paths?
Wilson, great post. I was thinking about the same thing. Why is it that celebrities hold so much clout? Sometimes it makes me sick. And yes, sometimes we really need to stand back and look at the big picture.
Intriguing post... For me, this made me consider whether popular culture provides the framework for the American status quo (along with nationalism)... I think this is likely to be the case for many Americans. But how exactly can we get out of the "American box" and promote an international perspective?
To some extent, I agree that changing one's immediate surroundings has an effect - but to change the status quo means much more...
I totally agree with you. Even the smallest changes can create a ripple effect that can impact larger change.
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