One evening I watched a video of African women collecting water. Proceeding the video came the imperative from the speaker to “let it speak to your heart”. In other words, get caught up in the emotion of the vision. I guess I was supposed to be aghast that they don’t have the luxury of clean water on tap like we do in this country.
Rather than get emotional I saw great resourcefulness, community, commitment and skill. It’s a hard job, but someone has to do it. To my surprise following the vision the speaker got choked up and needed a moment to compose themselves.
The vision was beautiful but not emotional. A community making the most out of their situation. The women were smiling as they collected the water. They are probably happier and more faithful to God than we are, despite being in what we would consider a dire situation.
The speaker made the good point that we in Australia are very wasteful in comparison. Very true, we have everything yet throw it away. They have little and make the most of every last drop.
So are we wishing a western standard upon them? I get that vibe sometimes with presentations like these. Instead, lets take a leaf out of their book. We can learn a lot from them, and that will make this world a better place.
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1 comment:
Most insightful! We in the afluent West should remember that most people in the world today and throughout history have lived like those ladies collecting the water, not like the presenter who shed the tear. We are not normal, neither historically nor today. Normal is what those ladies were doing.
It reminds me of the adds that show the young girl walking bearing the water pot on her head, and that create the impression that such girls regularly make the 8 hour treck on their own. A friend of mine who lived in various parts of the African continent for the better part of his adult life pointed out that this is very unlikely to be the case. When such trips are necessary, large groups of people go together, including such girls, and men from the community go as well to provide security. A young girl would never be sent on her own.
Is the charity airing the adds deliberately creating a false impression? A very dissappointing possibility.
LB
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