I was watching the movie In Time (Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried) last week and I
couldn’t help but pause the movie to think about a few quotes that I found to
play perfectly into thoughts I’ve had since my time in South Africa. In the
movie, time is the currency and based on which district you live in, you
receive more or less time. JT’s character comes from a poor district where he
often doesn’t have more than a day to live. Amanda Seyfried’s character comes
from the central district where her father is a millionaire, he has millions of
years to live and no real way that he loses them.
JT: How can you live with yourself watching people
die right next to you?
AS: We don’t watch. We close our eyes.
I posed this question in class discussion, in
essays and maybe a past blog post: how can people live in the Cape Town suburbs
and the rich northern townships and never venture to the other side of the
mountain? They are so close to such immense poverty and yet they continue to
turn a blind eye, not even willing to drive through just to see what life is
like in Khayelitsha or Mitchell’s Plain. And here is the global answer as to
how society can be ignorant of the misfortunes of others: We close our eyes. We
close our eyes to the suffering. We close our eyes to the homelessness. We
close our eyes to the despair. And in doing so, we close the door towards their
salvation and a chance for a better life. Because we have what we need, we have
more than we need, but with closed eyes we’ll never see how our excess could
change the lives of others. And this ties right into the second quote which
made me think:
JT: No one should be immortal if even one person
has to die.
Why do we allow some people to have such
extravagance and luxury while others are dying on the street? Awareness is key
here. Maybe in addition to the luxury tax, these people should have to do
community service or awareness trips to show how there are ways which they can
help, and not just by throwing money. Maybe if they were forced to see how
people are struggling out there they would find a passion for something that
could change lives in this country or around the world. There are plenty of
celebrities and other wealthy people who have turned philanthropist but are
they getting involved or are they throwing money. One example of a celebrity
who has gotten involved with charity and has made it her work is Sophia Bush
with Charity Water (slight One Tree Hill bias). Charity Water keeps it simple:
raise money to install freshwater wells, rainwater catchments and sand filters.
Once the money is raised to install these, the people from Charity Water travel
the world to meet the people they are helping, in addition to improving their
lives. Sophia Bush recently spent a week in Ethiopia meeting village people on
a philanthropy trip with Charity Water. She threw a ball to raise money and
also held a workshop to teach people about what she’s doing and what we can do
to help. But it’s not only the fabulously wealthy who can make a difference
(although I will say that anyone on The
Real Housewives series should really consider doing something other than
shopping and gossiping with their lives), it’s anyone with a heart and a
willingness to see what’s out there and go do something about it. We are living
in excess in ways we don’t even think about and often one of the biggest
excesses in our lives is time. I know I’m guilty of this. I could be using my
time to change a life and do something productive and instead I find myself
watching tv. It’s something I need to work on and it’s something I hope we can
all make a commitment to work on throughout our lives.
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