We call ourselves human beings. But, what does it really means to be human? To be human is certainly what differentiates us from animals. Did any of us ever wonder why it is so? The first things that will come to everybody’s mind are that human intelligence is way above most animals’ intelligence, human civilisation is probably the greatest form of civilisation on this planet, etc. These are surely very important and crucial to be human. Yet, there are things that many are forgetting; the main differences between animals and human beings, which in fact makes up the whole concept of humanity, is where human conscience and compassion are concerned. It circles around the ability to think and reflect on our actions and their consequences, to be kind and loving, to care about other living things and to differentiate between what’s good and what’s wrong.
However, as human beings, we are strange in many ways. Ironically, we try to ignore the morals and the values our humanity gifted us and instead we focus on the materialistic aspect of life. The result after this is that we are so focused on our own self that we become completely selfish creatures. Is this really our goal as humans? Because at the end of the day, this is what we achieved.
It is true that most of us work very hard to get the comfort and the pleasure we want from life. We all want to be happy and what it means to be happy varies for different people. Many of us believe that “it requires determination, will power and hard work to obtain what you want in life.” We all do a lot of sacrifices to get the comfort, the luxury, the high salary or the decent life we live. Yet, there are still some people who are less motivated than others. These are the unfortunate, the poor, the disabled, the homeless… There are many of them in the whole globe. It may seem unfair that at times, people who work hard are taxed or they need to spend from their hard earned income to help satisfy the needs of those who do not try to improve their own state. After all, we have what we have because we had to invest a lot for it, in terms of sacrificed leisure time and sleep, energy, thought and so on. Still, does it feel right knowing that while we possibly own more than we realistically need in life, there are people somewhere who are being killed because of their skin colour?
Of course, as human beings, we are not perfect. We cannot stop all the wrong in the world out of the blue. Even though many of the bad things happening in the world are not our fault, it is still happening because of other human beings. We are very often unable to change people’s mind to stop them from doing wrong things. However, it would be completely wrong to say that these are in no way related to us. Because let’s face it, these people suffering out there are our people too. They are related to all of us for they are human beings too, our first and foremost racial status. Similarly, it is still our people, other creatures who call them themselves human beings who are responsible for people’s misery somehow. As human beings therefore, and as people of this Earth, it is our duty to try and bring that change to help mankind.
At ELI Africa, we believe in thinking and acting different. Individually, it is true that it would be hard to bring much change. But, together we can make a big difference. So, join us in our quest and let’s make our world a better place for all.