What can I do: explore

I don't think there is any point in looking at what you can do to fight injustice if you have no desire to fight injustice. I doubt there is much that you can do if you have no knowledge of the issues and no will to see them eradicated. And it's so, incredibly easy to live our lives, our comfortable, secure lives, as if the issues don't exist. 

But they do.

And because they do, I don't think we can afford to let ourselves not care.

I am going to suggest specific ways that we can help, but I'm not going to suggest many, because I think that the way each of us will help will depend on who we are, on our skills, on our opportunities. And from the articles I've read, talks I've listened too, often I'm hearing the message that the traditional ways in which we look to help may not be working as well as we've thought they would. There have been large scale aid projects to set up irrigation in remote villages, but that haven't then been concerned with maintenance so, after a year, the village is back to square one, with no clean water. Or else, projects that haven't looked at the practicalities, for example, an organisation that provided computers to an area that had only sporadic electricity.

I don't want to sound negative, because the negativity is one of the things about these articles that gets to me. What I want to say is that we need new ideas, we need to get creative, we need to think out of the box.

So, instead of suggesting a whole lot of ways to help, I want to bring it back to one thing you can do: you can explore. 

I think that one of the most valuable things that each of us can do is to read about the problems, to talk to other people, to watch TED talks about social injustice, to watch movies or TV programmes that change our perspectives and make us open our eyes.

If we can increase our passion, that is when the ideas will start to flow. 

But it has to start with the passion.

For me, this journey was ignited almost like an explosion when I started reading "Half the Sky", a book written by two New York Times journalists on the greatest moral challenge we face in the twenty-first century. I don't know how to define what it was that lit the match that sparked the fire, all I can say is, read it and maybe you'll find out. 

If you don't want to start with a whole book, just start with the news. This week, in the New Zealand Herald, I read a story about a young girl in Pakistan who was raped and buried alive, only to dig herself out, and the police wanted nothing to do with it! I think I'm more aware of articles like this now, where previously, I probably just skipped over them and read the report on the latest All Blacks game or looked at this week's best and worst dressed. We don't have to look far for these stories, we just have to open our eyes to what is actually right in front of them. 

It seems that TED talks are all the rage now. I've only just started exploring them, but I have found some amazing, inspirational speakers out there, and hey, if reading isn't your thing, try watching instead. Don't know where to start? Here are a few I've discovered recently...

Sunitha Krishnan talks about the fight against sex slavery, having been gang-raped by eight men when she was fifteen.
Sheryl WuDunn, one of the authors of "Half the Sky" tells some of the stories of the women she has met, and where the solutions need to come from.
Kevin Bales talks about combatting modern day slavery. And if you're a more visual person, watch Lisa Kristene's talk, in which she shares photos that she has taken around the world that show slavery as it is happening today. 

So, this week, here's the challenge: watch or read just one of these things with an open mind, letting it lead your thoughts where they want to go. Let yourself be inspired, let yourself be educated. 
Maybe it will be the beginning of a new solution. 

(I'd love to know how you go on this and your thoughts...let me know how the week goes in the comments section here, or on my facebook page :) )