People in Glass Houses

This year in my quest to do it all, I was on the hunt for volunteer or internship work at an NGO. Not only am I really quite obsessed with human rights and equality, but I also study International Relations and Social Policy, so this kind of work would certainly complement my studies.

In my search I came across a position to do communications on a locally run campaign by the international development organisation, Oxfam. The position was to work on 'Close the Gap', an initiative which aims to close the life expectancy gap, of almost 20 years, between Indigenous Australians and the wider community in one generation. It also aims to close the gap in mortality rates of Indigenous children under five years old, who die at more than twice the rate of other Australian babies.

These are staggering figures when we consider that we live in a democratic, first world nation with health and welfare benefits. One would expect these figures in a developing country but in Australia... surely not?

I have always been a huge advocate of international aid and development and fully thrown my support behind refugee rights, women's empowerment and grassroots development of the earth's poorest nations. Admittedly, I never looked in my own backyard. If I had, I would have seen the violation of numerous human rights, from land ownership to health.

I had always naively assumed that in a country full of people so quick to judge and condemn other countries on questionable actions toward their citizens that we should be pretty free from human rights violations ourselves.

How wrong I had been.



I now look around the world at all the first world countries who pride themselves on having achieved a 'civilised' democratic state and see the ways in which they deny or ignore Articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Also on how they condemn other nations on the very rights they also violate. 

What is an example, you ask?

I will state the most hypocritical and most obvious due to the countries position in the international arena. In Article 3 of the Declaration it states "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person," I do believe this loosely translate as DON'T KILL PEOPLE! Now let's think who breaks this... oh yeah the United States. I should clarify here I'm talking about the death penalty still legal in many states, not the humanitarian/military intervention in the Middle East, although that arguably breaks a whole other set of international laws.

That is just one example, although there are hundreds, indeed reading through the first ten articles one can immediately jump to numerous examples of how many times the US has violated these rights since 9/11 in 2001 using 'freedom' as their motive.

 However, that is a whole other blog post.

So I did get the gig at Oxfam and have now been working on the campaign for a few weeks. In these few weeks I have really understood the power of beginning any kind of aid work in our own backyard. It provides context and nuance in understanding that people of any minority, in any country are quite possibly struggling an uphill battle of equal rights to basic living provisions.

It is important to recognise that because we believe ourselves to be in a better situation than many other nations around the world, this may not be the case for all of our citizens.

To find out more about Close the Gap click on the image link below -

Sign the pledge to show the Australian government that health equality still needs to be on the forefront of the national adgenda if we are to really call ourselves a civilised nation.

Being Kind

Some things really piss me off about people. One of those things is when people push past others on the bus without any kind of regard for the person they are sending sprawling, usually crutch first, into a seated person. Why can't people be more kind?

As I was on my way to work, I and a few others were getting on board the bus, there was one elderly lady amongst us. As we all shuffled on, a middle aged lady and a well-to-do looking man literally pushed past the older woman trying to insert her ticket in the wrong side of the machine and upside down.

I quickly said I'd do it for her and put it in the right way. She looked at me like she was about to cry and said, "Thank you dear, I can't see very well, I don't want to be a nuisance and hold everyone up." What a darling. As I was getting off at my stop she grabbed my arm and said thank you again about three times and said I was lovely.

Well, that did put a pep in my step, and the thoughts in my head were something like, I AM lovely aren't I, helping out an elderly woman.

Conveniently, the next day I read an article about random acts of kindness on Mamamia. This made my brain tick over time to all the Random Acts of Kindness that we can do for people, but rarely do.


From a purely selfish point of view, I don't see why we don't do kind things all that often. I mean, regardless of the other person, it makes you feel great! It makes you feel as though, yes I am pretty awesome and I am a kind person. This thinking, however selfish, does have positive effects for others.

The problem is that, being kind isn't that big a deal to people anymore, probably because we get the "I am pretty awesome" feeling from so many superficial things nowadays.

Remember the stories of the good old days, when we helped our neighbours, chivalry was alive and well and the elderly deserved our respect and patience. My theory is that this was because we didn't have much of the self inflating ego things like brands, technology, a dominant hierarchy of clothes, to make us feel like we were someone. You were someone because of the things you DID.

Living in a city there is that idea of alienation, anonymity and separation, but personally, coming from a place where everyone knows your name (yeah, like in Cheers), I can't help but shake off some of those things that you do when you know everyone. My boyfriend doesn't quite get why I always say thanks to the bus driver or why I get pissed off when he rustles his chip packet all through a movie because it might annoy others.

 

It seems some of the things I do aren't very city-like. It's weird to him because as he points out, it isn't actually necessary when most people don't care.

In my head I think, but what about the people who do? It's nice to do nice things, I like seeing someone smile when they aren't expecting someone to be kind, it makes my day and makes me feel pretty awesome and the high lasts a lot longer than buying a nice piece of clothing, maybe why I am writing about this and not a recent purchase.

I can't help but notice there are a number of city folk who don't really do the kindness thing, I mean they are no doubt kind to their friends, they just don't bother with others. I'm definitely not always kind to people either. We're under the illusion that we get behind by being kind. Let someone on the bus in front of you, they get the last seat. Carry someones bags to their car, risk being stuck in a long conversation. Wave a car to go in front of you, you're stuck at the next set of lights for 5 minutes.

It's a very western way of thinking. I have a friend from Nepal who is genuinely kind to everyone, his time, his effort and his patience are never too much for someone. To be honest it was confusing when I first met him. I wasn't sure if he was being genuinely nice. Isn't that sad.

I know society has a problem when we get confused about why someone is kind all the time. I am no saint in any sense of the word, I hate most humans, most of the time. There is that saying that goes something like, be nice, everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. It is true and I want to be nicer to people around me from now on, even if it means waiting a few extra seconds to let someone on public transport first, or getting up so someone can sit. Hey, it also makes you feel great and doesn't cost a dime!

If you want some inspiration or a bit of encouragement check out these sites I found below:

Wake Up Sydney! 

Which actually sends you free kindness cards, the purpose of these are almost like a pay it forward idea. If you do something nice, say pay for someones coffee you leave a little card which urges them to one day repay the favor for someone who needs it. Or hell, just leave them anywhere and someone might see it and do something kind. Wouldn't that be worth it?

Random Acts of Kindness Foundation 

Which has ideas, stories and resources for the movement of being more kind. They have also come up with the idea of reporting acts of kindness rather than crime, because we see enough of the latter. To check out this idea go to their website or on twitter @reportkindness if you want to report kindness you can tag something #reportkindess in your posts.

Australian Kindness Movement 

This website holds so many resources for spreading kindness not only personally but in business, schools, workplaces and councils. It is an advocate of World Kindness Day and asks the question, What kind act have you done today?

How to give

For a while now I have been very supportive and excited by the idea of female empowerment as a long term and viable option in alleviating poverty and violence. This all started when I read the book Half the Sky: How to Change the World by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn, two journalists trying to spread the message of empowerment and education for women as a means to combat many of the worlds social and financial problems. To learn more or order the book go to their website: Half The Sky Movement

The problem many people, particularly students, face is that we want to help or support charities but let's face it, it's rare we have much money or time left over each week. I don't believe this is selfish, it's just the way humans are. From the time of the caveman we have been conditioned to preserve and store our food / money / tools in case of drought, famine or flood, it's a defense mechanism we've used to survive through centuries.


So I know how it feels when you're walking down the street and you see the smiling faces of yet another bunch of charity collectors making a beeline for you. Quick avert eye contact, pretend to answer your phone or run across the other side of the street (yes I have done all these). Personally the reason I find this form of giving so intrusive is, basically, I'm on the middle of the street, I'm going somewhere, I don't know you. Do I want to give you my credit card details, no. Do I want to sign up for an indefinite amount of giving each month, no. I'm not sure if i can pay my rent next week!

Instead I read the above mentioned book and it provided me with a great number of resources for giving what I can, when I can. Another great thing about many of these charities is you can choose the cause or person you would like to give to; I most prefer to give to educational causes for girls, fistula medical treatment in rural areas or micro-lending in Afghanistan which helps numerous people build themselves up financially and socially.

These are some of the best I've come across:

CARE a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty, places special focus on working alongside poor women.

Global Giving connects people who have community and world-changing ideas with people who can support them.

Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty.

Another issue is that nowadays, it is perfectly natural to be skeptical of how much of our money is going to people who are in need and not just to administration and overhead costs. Many companies (and some of the most well known) are notorious for providing less than 20c per dollar donated toward people who actually need support.

There is now a great website called Charity Navigator which is an independent financial evaluator of over 5000 charities. The basic idea of this website is that they track where donated money is spent within charities and provide detailed information to would-be donator's so they can make informed decisions on where they would prefer to help out. It's a great way to know your money is being used in the best way possible.