Hello all.
I am a final year engineering student from India.
I am posting on this forum because I want to get the opinions of others regarding a seemingly weird but important issue which is neglected in our everyday life, something when encountered makes us think for a while but our state of helplessness w.r.t the issue makes us forget about it. I am talking about the injustice and cruelty going on in the world, and our apparent lack of empathy as reflected in our lack of actions.

I am not even sure if this is the right forum to post about this, but I hope that fellow members would identify with my feelings after they have read the full post.

To illustrate my point, let me talk about one issue which I feel strongly about- the farmers’ suicides in India. Although I had read previously about the plight of farmers in my country and the seriousness of the issue, I never really felt like acting upon it until I read an article. Here is the link to it for those interested in knowing about it.

http://thelogicalindian.com/news/try-to-understand-why-we-die-a-farmers-wake-up-call-to-india/

I won’t be going into the numbers here but on average, apparently 2 farmers commit suicide everywhere in India. And the thing which bugs me is that we all go on about our lives as if it is just something normal. That too, when our own existence and health depends on these farmers. I had tears in my eyes when I read this article and started to think about ways to do something about it, and realized that on ground level I can’t change the conditions – the government policies and their implementation, the corruption of the middlemen, the weather, etc. are the factors which actually affect the situation. The only thing I could think of is to post on social media on it. I thought of tagging famous personalities on twitter(politicians, actors, etc.) so that more and more people take cognizance of gravity of the situation. One point : The issue is well-debated on several news channels in India and the government has brought in some policy changes, so this issue is in general awareness, it’s just that most people are not aware of the astonishing figures of deaths and even if they are aware, the inability to make an impact prevents them(‘US‘) to take a step.

This was about a month back. However, I have still not posted this on twitter. I was ‘trying to make time to draft a post which could force some people to take notice’. Almost every other day, the thought of doing something about it comes to my mind, but my own work takes priority and therefore I do nothing.

Now, I have some questions. I would really appreciate if you could at least read them and think about it and give me some ideas.

1. Do we strongly care about the world and its problems or do we read and think about these things because it brings some novelty in our lives/ it gives us a feeling of depth and of being in the present moment(awareness) in our fast lives/ it stimulates us intellectually ?
I ask this question because even though I cried reading the article, I didn’t actually do anything about it – I found my own life with its fun, ‘problems’, etc. deserving of more attention than the issue.

2. How should a person act in such a situation?Can I do something about the situation in North Korea? If not, should I just hope for the situation to improve and go on with my life?

3. I know that such situations require administrative actions which are outside the realm of a common man, but then if we are so helpless, what is the point of taking action ever? We can just hope that none of us ever faces such a situation and live our lives in comfort tending to our needs and desires and those of our immediate family. I believe that we are already living like that, but this is what scares me – suppose I am in such a situation later in my life. How would I be feeling if the world around me was indifferent to my situation? Am I suppose to just continue to suffer hoping for some divine intervention?

If you have read the full post, thanks for being so patient and kind. I feel guilty and helpless at the same time. Just need some suggestions to work on.