US: “No we can’t say that”

EU: “It’s ok this is not my problem”

The concept of Somebody Else’s Problem (let’s call it SEP) runs right through society and all issues in the world. Peter Shirley in his book “The Life You Can Save” looks at this. He calls it the bystander effect.

Shirley cites some fascinating research that goes something like this:

Researchers got people into a waiting room where they met the facilitator. Then the facilitator goes into a side room where she climbs on a stool, then pretends to fall over (crash, bang, ouch). The subjects can only hear (the side room is concealed with a curtain).

Essentially — when the subject was by themselves they were very likely to go help the facilitator. When there were two subjects in the waiting room (the second is a stooge who just sits there doing nothing), then they were very unlikely to go help!

What happened there? SEP.

We are less likely to help out when others stand by and do nothing.

I can’t think how many times I do this. I justify may lack of action by telling myself “there are other people around – they will do something”, or “if everyone else is standing around then it must be okay”.  I hate it when I do this.

However we all do this to some degree on an international scale – probably because we feel so powerless to being change.

The golden rule sets the standard high: “Do unto others…”

It’s every retailer’s dream come true, with sales in the Christmas period sometimes matching that of an entire year.  Ask most people and they’ll tell you: “It’s about family”.

However our Christmas days can also be described in negative terms – such as busy, hectic, stress.  It gets darker than that – Christmas is often the time when the pain of those that are missing is at its sharpest. A reminder of broken relationships, families, and all the good times that might have been.

So how does your Christmas day rank? 5 out of 10?  8? 2?

Here’s a Christmas story that is outrageous. Yet it’s happening. Now.

Saw Ko Nu crying for his son, April 2008

On Christmas Day 2007, a Burma Army patrol wandered into Saw Ko Nu’s rice fields. Ko Nu ran away. He’d already seen what the army could do. In 2002 he survived a massacre by hiding under the body of his dead grandmother. He lost his wife and three of his children during the incident.

This time Ko Nu had his 13-year-old son Wilbur and nephew Saw No Maw working the fields with him. He thought they were safe. After the army patrol moved on, he went looking for them.

He found their burned bodies in the rice field. They had not been shot but had been captured and tortured to death. Ankle tendons had been cut open, throats cut, bodies disemboweled and then set on fire.

This happens now.

In our enlightened progressive modern world.

Saw Ko Nu is a real man – carrying with him the overwhelming weight of his loss.

“Oh my son, my son, I tried my best for you. I planned many good things for you, but now you have no chance to enjoy them. Oh my son, my son. Oh God. Oh my son, my son, you go ahead and wait for me” – Ko Nu’s words upon revisiting the place of his son’s death.

Please read more about reality in Burma (Myanmar). Maybe we can even do something about it.

Thanks to CCB, Chiang Mai, Thailand.