The image of Alyan Kurdi lying face down, dead in the surf deeply unsettled me as it did most of the world while it was passed around mainstream and social media last week.
The heart-breaking death of the toddler and the reality behind it is nothing new – the Syrian refugee crisis and many others like it have been going on for a while. But the softness of the toddler’s posture, the stillness, the unnecessary death embracing his innocence represents more than just one war or a solitary act of cruelty. What it captures is a breakdown of humanity.
It’s nobody’s fault – the world is too complex for that. But it is a natural outcome of excessive protectionism in times of crisis.
Compassion
People whose heart’s break at seeing Alyan Kurdi in the sand but who do not do anything for those suffering in their immediate surroundings are not hypocrites.
Raw compassion is easier to understand when it is not dressed with politics, entitlement, privilege, blame, segregation, history, defensiveness, confusion, fatigue, selfishness, ego, ambition and the other factors that lead us astray from the simplicity of tragedy.
What Alyan Kurdi did was cut through the complications; he allowed us to connect with our compassion without the barriers, without our protection mechanisms. That vulnerability is uncomfortable and at times depressing. But it is also exactly what is needed – as much in Syria as in South Africa.
We’re entering a very challenging period in South Africa’s growth and the only thing that can drive us down is if we allow ourselves to be driven apart.
Asylum seekers are everywhere and there are plenty right here. Zimbabweans seeking asylum from tyranny. South Africans seeking asylum from unemployment. Twelve million people within our borders seeking to escape extreme poverty (defined as not being able to afford basic nutritional requirements).
Alyan Kurdi showed us that raw compassion is still alive and fighting within us. What South Africa needs right now is for us to tap in to that compassion and feed it in to the rest of our surroundings.
South Africans are already very good at this and examples of benevolence are not hard to find.
The Nigerian writer, Chris Abani – who fought against the military dictatorship that he grew up under – said: “The world is never saved in grand, messianic gestures but in the simple accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of compassion. Every day acts of compassion.”
In that same speech he went on to explain the power of Ubuntu.
South Africa is a magnificent culture – a culture defined by how well we combine the differences of others. We cannot let this be undone. We cannot allow race, wealth and language to divide us and for the ensuing chaos to create a void where irresponsible leaders will play unchecked. Our greatest tool is our unity yet so often we strive to divide.
The greatest economic indicator is the individual. We don’t need stable exchange rates, high economic growth, a good education system, low unemployment, strong exports, efficient manufacturing, a balanced current account and low inequality to start a path to success. That is the outcome, not the initial cause. And in the same light, not having them does not mean that we’re doomed to fail.
Countries, regions and people will only grow if they work with and not against their neighbours. Just as walls in Europe and the Gulf leave toddlers face down in the surf, so too walls in our society will lead to our economy’s collapse. We need to continue to break down these walls, both on a macro and a personal level.
* Pierre Heistein is the convener of UCT’s Applied Economics for Smart Decision Making course. Follow him on Twitter @PierreHeistein
** The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Independent Media.
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