Has the world gone MAD???

A little while ago, I was checking on some content policies of some online publishing websites. It amazed me that nearly all of them appeared to agree on disapproving of the publication of images that display extreme poverty and deprivation (e.g. Famine scenes from Africa of malnourished people, or victims of wars ...etc). When I asked them as to why this is the case, their answer was that such images are considered to be "crude graphical material" which is too hurtful to watch!!!

Has the world gone mad?? Or is it just me living in a different planet???

If we choose to ignore the suffering of other fellow human beings and refuse to even look at images showing their ordeal, how on earth are we expected to help them??

How will the rest of the world know about such suffering in first place, if those images are deemed to be too hurtful to be watched by the eyes of the privileged nations, who are secure in their own homes and do not at all have to worry about their basic life needs of food, drink, shelter, education and healthcare??

Have we become too cruel and selfish to even recognise that we have become so?? Or am I being too naïve and too idealistic???

I sincerely hope that I am not alone in what I think, and that those online publishing firms represent the few less moral elite who are purely business-driven. Surely, they do not lose any sleep over the suffering of millions elsewhere in the world who live (or most likely die) in conditions that many of us would find hard to accept even for their pets.

I believe we do have a moral duty to help our suffering fellow human beings via whatever means that are available to us. Part of this help involves actively seeking to show the world the magnitude and extent of the catastrophic conditions they are experiencing on a daily basis. Hopefully, doing so would alert many of us to realise how truly privileged they are. It may also stimulate many of us to start regularly donating towards known credible humanitarian charity organisations, which are pursuing long term healthcare and food provision programmes in parts of Africa and Asia, which I hope will make a tangible difference in the future.

Choosing to ignore a problem does not get rid of it, but more often aggravates it!! Besides, we ourselves aren't immune from ending up in similar conditions to those disadvantaged sufferers. By helping alleviate their poverty and hardship, we are indirectly securing further our own future and that of our children.