How important is an individual human life?

This morning, I woke up, had breakfast and went to work. I worked for 7 hours, came home, had dinner and then jumped online . That was my existence. However, I visited the World Pres Photo Exhibition on Thursday night, and I was reminded of the reality of the existence of people throughout the world: one that is frequently faced with suffering and death. As I looked through some of the photos, I was struck by the fragility of an individual human life. And not just the fragility but the pure insignificance of a single human being. Its worthless! 1 individual human life among 6,697,254,041...? How important is 1 individual life...?

What I just said is politically and socially incorrect. Many people would be outraged at what I said. But I'll describe some of the photos I saw at the exhibition:

1. A man being stoned for adultery in Somalia. Some of the men are smiling as they throw rocks at the mangled body.

2. A girl shot dead during protests against the government in Madagascar.

3. The head of a little girl. The only part of her that is not buried in the rubble of a collasped building in eastern Gaza city. It was the target of an air-strike.

4. A youth lying dead on a street due to clashes between rival drug gangs in Columbia.

5. The scene of the assassination of the president of Guinea-Bissau, a country over-run by drug cartels.

Did any of the people who were behind these deaths stop to think whether the life of a human being was worth anything? For the leaders of men who send their armies to wage war against another, for those who order long range attacks on urban settlements, for the drug lords whose goal is to make as much profit for themselves as possible, what did the the life of an individual human being mean to these people? Not much. If people got in the way of their plans or their interests, just take them out of the picture. Assassination, murder, deposition: these are the many tools that we can use to get people out of our way to further our interests.

Its disgusting isin't it? That these people would see a human being only as pawns or obstacles to their own goals. But before we begin pointing fingers, what about us? For me who spends half of my waking hours working in an office, and the other half living in recreation, what does the unneccessary death and suffering of millions of people mean to me? Not much. For those of us who contributed to spending 1.7 billion minutes on Facebook, how important is an individual human life? Important for us to be stirred to action: to do something, anything, anything at all? Or are we too busy? Too busy, like the drug lord, trying to make the most of his life for himself?

I don't know if unneccessary suffering and death happens in Sydney. What I can say for certain is that Sydney is by far not a perfect city. And though there might not be the same occurances in Sydney as I saw in the World Press Photo Exhibition, there is plenty of need for people to help those who are victims of injustice and ill-fortune.

Is an individual human life that important? Is it really worth that much? Its easy to give a resolute 'Yes!' when we live in our comfortable houses with enough food and face no restriction on our basic liberties. Its easy to say that people should stop killing other people, that no child should go without food and education, that an individual human life is significant. Its also much easier to condemn the injustice that occurs half the world away, then that which occurs within your own backyard. Isin't life just too easy...

I'm going to go on Facebook now.


The World Press Photo Exhibition is on at the NSW State Library Mitchell Wing till 25th July (one week left!). Its FREE entry and is open to 8pm on Monday to Thursday. I highly recommend it. Alternatively, you can see the photos online: http://www.worldpressphoto.org/index.php?option=com_photogallery&task=blogsection&id=20&Itemid=257&bandwidth=low2high . Its not the same as seeing it in real life...