Schapelle - why should we care?
In a previous post, I talked about some of the reasons why I believe Schapelle Corby has been treated unfairly (unfair legal process, unreasonable penalty, may be innocent). Today I’d like to discuss one of the most difficult questions for Schapellites like myself to answer. With so many other Aussies in trouble round the world, African children being boiled alive, millions of people starving in poverty, political activists disappearing in the night, glaciers melting, species on the edge of extinction, etc, etc why make a fuss about Schapelle.
1. I don’t think we get a choice about what we’re going to care about. A million influences from the sandpit through to now determine that and we’ll never even know what most of them are. So I’m not going to tell you what to care about, and don’t you tell me. Let’s face it, your choices about charities to support, or items of litter to pick up, are probably impossible to justify as well. So you go ahead and save the whales, campaign against the new IR laws and donate to starving African children and I’ll worry about orangutans, the death penalty and Schapelle. And we’ll all be happy. And we’ll all be right.
2. I contend that it is only from caring about individuals that we can really care about problems affecting large groups of people. The Port Arthur massacre had, and continues to have a profound affect on many people, largely because of the then focus on the Mikac family. Without that I suggest there would still be loonies all over Oz with semi-automatic weapons capable of killing 30 people in a few seconds. Similarly the tsunami roused Australians to donate extraordinary sums of money because of the media’s skill in personalizing the disaster. And I have no doubt that my support for Schapelle has made me less self-centred and more caring towards people in trouble anywhere.
3. These people are worth it:
- Schapelle is worth it. She’s demonstrated a great sense of humour (“Bali is the worst holiday of my life”), courage under fire (who can forget her dignity and guts on the day of the verdict), racial tolerance (married a Japanese man, loves the people of Bali) and complete lack of vindictiveness (public statement against boycotting Bali).
- Her sister Mercedes is also worth it. How many people would be prepared to relocate to Bali for as long as it takes and visit their sister in prison, daily.
- Her mum is also worth it. Sure, she’s rough and tough, but she’s also fiercely loyal to her family, has a heart of gold and is apparently unstoppable.
Have I convinced you? Probably not. And that’s OK, too.
1. I don’t think we get a choice about what we’re going to care about. A million influences from the sandpit through to now determine that and we’ll never even know what most of them are. So I’m not going to tell you what to care about, and don’t you tell me. Let’s face it, your choices about charities to support, or items of litter to pick up, are probably impossible to justify as well. So you go ahead and save the whales, campaign against the new IR laws and donate to starving African children and I’ll worry about orangutans, the death penalty and Schapelle. And we’ll all be happy. And we’ll all be right.
2. I contend that it is only from caring about individuals that we can really care about problems affecting large groups of people. The Port Arthur massacre had, and continues to have a profound affect on many people, largely because of the then focus on the Mikac family. Without that I suggest there would still be loonies all over Oz with semi-automatic weapons capable of killing 30 people in a few seconds. Similarly the tsunami roused Australians to donate extraordinary sums of money because of the media’s skill in personalizing the disaster. And I have no doubt that my support for Schapelle has made me less self-centred and more caring towards people in trouble anywhere.
3. These people are worth it:
- Schapelle is worth it. She’s demonstrated a great sense of humour (“Bali is the worst holiday of my life”), courage under fire (who can forget her dignity and guts on the day of the verdict), racial tolerance (married a Japanese man, loves the people of Bali) and complete lack of vindictiveness (public statement against boycotting Bali).
- Her sister Mercedes is also worth it. How many people would be prepared to relocate to Bali for as long as it takes and visit their sister in prison, daily.
- Her mum is also worth it. Sure, she’s rough and tough, but she’s also fiercely loyal to her family, has a heart of gold and is apparently unstoppable.
Have I convinced you? Probably not. And that’s OK, too.
posted by True Blue at 1:07 pm
4 Comments:
Hey True,
Your blog is looking great! I enjoy reading your posts...very well thought out. I really believe that we dont have control over the feelings and emotions that some stories trigger. Schapelle's situation has caught our attention and we'll continue supporting her in her plight for freedom!!
Again, great job!
Thanks for your positive comments, Michelle. I naturally have your excellent blog as one of my links, but I'm deferring adding a comment to your site until there's a post that's more recent than 2nd April. Nag nag nag nag!
But it's great that Schapelle is getting Canadian support, and I'll bet she really appreciates it.
We may not have control over what feelings certain stories trigger, but we do control how we RESPOND to our feelings. I personally do not ever wonder whether I should care more about a human being than an orangutan, nor do I have difficulty choosing to work at something specific with clear things to be done such as supporting Miss Schapelle rather than worrying about an abstaction such as "climate change" in which there is little I could do that is practical even if I was sure of the right path. The question "why do you care about THIS and not about THAT," when asked of us by someone else, is not often relevant and, I suspect, not often sincere. All of us have limited resources; people who are really serious about a particular cause have little extra time or energy to argue about what others care about instead. More often than not people who criticize what they perceive to be others' misplaced priorities are themselves doing nothing at all for anyone. It has always been easier "to curse the darkness than to light one candle," all the more so in our cynical age when people can use the( quite real) sensationalism in the media as an excuse for inaction. And the solution is not to try to manufacture feelings, nor to spend time wondering if you feel deeply enough about a certain issue enough to do something, or whether you will still feel as strongly tomorrow. Get to work NOW on what you do care about NOW, and let your feelings sort themselves out later. There is a C.S. Lewis quote on this subject which I have found all too true in my own life, "the more often he feels without acting, the less he will ever be able to act and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel." Miss Schapelle's courage and positive outlook in impossible circumstances are a constant challenge to me -- making me ask myself what I am going to do with this real opportunity to give or, if I am going to do nothing, just what is my excuse THIS time? If I cannot love someone so easily lovable or support someone so obviously innocent, how will I ever love someone difficult or work through a real moral ambiguity? One of the non-negotiable things God has told us in His word is that we are to love even our enemies (no matter how many Bible translations I read, that verse is still in there). How on earth will I ever manage that if I cannot even help somone I have never had any feelings except admiration and compassion for? Supporting Miss Schapelle long term is not something I do because I am dependent on my feelings about her, nor because I think I am personaly responsible for her or that I can singlehandedly change the world. It is rather with the cetain knowlege that I am responsible for doing right no matter how I feel, and with the calm determination that, at least in this one instance, the world will not change me.
The orangutans are on their own.
Thanks Desert Rat for such a valuable post. I must confess I had somehow missed it, so it's a good thing you pointed out the typo in your email to me, or I might never have read it. Which would have been my loss. Particularly enjoyed the C.S.Lewis quote which seems to me to be so true of all tasks, small and big.
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