At work they argue that human kind needs a new software, that we need to reset the whole system and start anew. Working in an office in Jordan you stay tuned in to all the terrible news that happens around the world. In contrast to people at home, in the west, they don’t seem numbed as each report of a new shooting or beheading is shouted out on the computer screen. Instead they seem tired, sad, resigned.
I admire their solidarity with other muslims, arabs and with people in general, around the world. But I find myself equally numb as the general public in the west, as they tell me about their diminishing hope for mankind. I wonder how it is, that we have become so numb, so distanced from what is happening around the world. Some argue that it is due to constant exposure to horrid news, terrifying pictures. But here it is the same, and even worse, they do not take the same precautions when they edit the news, reality is shown in a different, more realistic, detailed and morbid way. They didn’t hesitate to show the whole video of the Jordanian pilot being burnt alive, while only screenshots of him in the cage was shown elsewhere.
The difference must be that so many here have lived it themselves, known the hardships of poverty, of war, of fleeing from a country, leaving all they know, seeking safety in an unknown place. It makes me sad though, that we have so little empathy for people, that even if we only see them on a screen, we can not suffer with them, because we have not suffered ourselves.
Everything is so close here, to the south there is Egypt, which have faced political turmoil ever since the Arab spring. To the west there is occupied Palestine, from which the majority of Jordan’s population once have fled. To the north there is Syria, a country in raging civil war, on it's fourth year. To the east there is Iraq, a country that has been torn by war and conflict for as long as I can seem to remember, now battling the hostile takeover by ISIS.
And in the middle there is Jordan. No wonder people so closely follow the news everyday, discussing the involvement of the Jordanian army in fighting ISIS with the coalition. And even though the conflicts haven’t spilled over in a sense that there is war and fighting here in Jordan, it has filled people’s minds. And every time they can breathe out and for a while forget to think about the conflicts, when the conflicts have temporarily reached a horrid kind of status quo, something escalates and the computer screens are again filled with flashing news of fighting, burnt villages or prisoners being held in steel cages. And I can see the weight weighing more heavily on their shoulders, the sighs growing ever more heavy.
Yes, we need to reprogram humanity, if not so that everyone will stop fight and argue over such things as borders, nationality and religion, but at least so that we might feel some empathy for people even though they are not our next door neighbor. Then maybe, maybe, we would take action and stand in solidarity with people suffering no matter where in the world they live, and stop supporting the systems that make the world corrupt.
