Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Ebony and Ivory.

We complain everyday about not getting the attention we desire. But in Tanzania, albinos get so much attention that they fear for their lives. Please view the video as well.

Albinism is a condition due to the lack of melanin pigment in the body. And albinos' greatest enemy is the sun.
It is actually quite sad to see people killing people for the sake of unjustified beliefs of people towards something or someone out of the norm. It is of course nice to know that the Tanzania government is taking action to protect their minority people. But this is only after 19 albinos have been killed. I won't deny that humans tend to act when a cure is needed than when its better to prevent.

It is pretty hard for people to accept anything not normal. I had this classmate in kindergarden and she's an albino. Everyone in the class just ostracized her. Even I, being her only friend, was alienated from the class too (partially due to my height as well; I was a head taller than most of my classmates then). My classmates said she had some disease and could be contagious. I don't blame them, after all we were 5-6 at that time. But I didn't see her that way though I did ask her if she was Chinese or a Caucasian. Whichever, to me, she's just different.

I think that we can of course learn all the different techniques and ways of communicating and interacting with people; but at the end of the day, I do think its the choice we make. Do we choose to treat albinos like dirt and think that they are people with leprosy? Or do we choose to just treat them like us as how we would with another normal human being?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There are many reasons to why such things happen. Many due to ignorance of others, or rather not believing the truth and holding on to what they themselves believe. So many a times there have been cases where misunderstandings caused a divide between people. Everyone believes that they are superior and it's only that minorities that actually see beyond the situation at hand. This is only talking about the colour of our skin, the black, the white, the yellow, and the olive, can already cause pain and suffering in everyone. Just because we look different, people judge us via stereotyping and categorizing us into different groups, seeing past our individual characteristics and just accept us for who we are.

People are selfish no matter how they deny it. We tend to hold on to our own beliefs and thoughts about a particular person trying to influence our own views and feelings of that person upon others. If we would just see these differences as what makes us unique and special, then perhaps the world would be a better placE? But how many people are able to put aside their own judgement to see the other person as who he/she is - a human being?