Column: Valuing humanity key to changing world

By Karen Leu     4/17/08 7:00pm

Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu.It is a Zulu phrase that I picked up while studying abroad in South Africa, and it represents a concept that I believe can bring new life and greater beauty to our world. Africans claim the phrase is difficult to translate into Western language, but Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu tries his best when he explains it as, "My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in what is yours." Another South African explains, "I am because you are, and you are because we are." It means your joys are my joys and your suffering is my suffering. It means until there is peace in the world, there cannot fully be peace in my heart.

The people I came across in South Africa understood the concept of humanity better than any other group of people I have ever met. Complete strangers would address me as "sister" despite my obviously foreign-looking appearance. Poor Africans who lived in shack settlements would treat us, privileged Americans, to expensive food despite having little for themselves or their kids.

Imagine the implications if we started to see and treat other people as sisters and brothers. Imagine how the world would change if we regarded others' needs as equal to, or even greater than, our own.

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I believe that the idea of global humanity can save the world. War, poverty, genocide, racism, climate change - the list of the world's problems goes on and on. But we can do better than this, not necessarily because we are obligated to, but because our lives are deeply intertwined with those of the 6.6 billion people around the world. Until they reach their fulfillment, we cannot reach ours.

What does it mean when we walk past homeless people on the street and so quickly dismiss the image of their often painful existence? What does it mean when we watch news broadcasts of women being raped as an instrument of war and then calmly change the channel? How can we witness systemic suffering and violence the way it exists and not feel moved to create a world where our collective joy outweighs the collective pain?

The hope of those who unite themselves as a force for humanity is greater than the despair of the world. The compassion shown when one neighbor cares for another is more powerful than the violence which kills, tortures and impoverishes. Ordinary people whose souls are stirred by suffering and whose hearts are inspired to take action have more transformative power than dictators, military regimes, disingenuous politicians and corrupt businesspeople alike.

To people of faith: Humans are all joined by a deeply spiritual bond. Regardless of your creed, I hope that you can be motivated by the universal call to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Let us work for others' well-being as we would our own.

To the Rice community: We are in our very essence a community, one in which each person has different roles and responsibilities to ensure that all of our needs are met. With much hard work and extraordinary imagination, we can extend this model to create a global community.

May the concept of humanity transform our lives and the world around us. We are one and the same, and when others' suffering is turned into joy, we can all rejoice.

Karen Leu is a Wiess College senior.

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