There will never not be a time in western government, when hard choices must be made, coming down to shared cultural and strategic bonds in which the human beings are considered, but seldom primary. I have known at least one young man whose courage has surmounted this, and argues for greater American concern in lands more distant:
He always sat on the front row, but kept nervously looking at his shoes. All the students in my speech class, one by one, rose to give presentations on their families, country of origin and why they had chosen to attend JSU. Still, he sat silent, knowing that his turn was coming; dreading it. Now he faced the Dean's deadline to complete class assignments and graduate. Slowly, he looked up, his face a blank: "I am from Rwanda. My name is (confidential). My tribe is the Tutsi."
Because of periodic unrest in Rwanda and nearby nations, he needed to remain anonymous beyond known facts of a ghastly holocaust which had erupted at his home years before, nearly wiping out one of Africa's historic, respected tribes.
Rescued by an international aid association, he was now my student, 20 years old, studying for a technical degree which might take him home again, if he chose to live there. Haltingly, he described the horror of his tribe's being assaulted and massacred by rivals, the dreaded Hutu.
Years earlier, this group had launched a savage war against his people and family, for reasons not clear, but having to do with disputes over ancestral lands, power in the Rwandan parliament and the need to control tribal boundaries and people. His home village was a target. Slashing and burning families to death in their houses, his enemies flattened the village to ashes and dust, setting every house on fire, chasing and slashing victims for sport. All this, he remembered.
He had watched in terror as a tiny boy of three, hiding in the bush to see what no child's eyes should witness. A young man now, intelligent and gifted, my student's face froze into a stiff mask as he recounted the horror of seeing his mother and sister hacked in pieces, his father beheaded and the rest of his clan running desperately into the trees and scrub to escape worse fates. Press communique's reported "There are no devils in hell....they are all in Rwanda!" The world watched, but did not act.
The picture was clear in his memory as he told the tragedy of his peaceful people in a monotone, his deep voice betraying no hint of the terror he had felt as a stunned and grieving child.
The whole class sat transfixed, stunned, and so did I. Because of chance and the mercy of God, the tall young African was alive, but carried a memory of suffering which might dim as he got older, but could never be completely gone. He was one of few survivors, eventually rescued, but not soon.
Reeling from the sight of battered corpses, he searched for a long time to find a living person, until government soldiers drove into the camp and he was safe. Knowing these things were happening, the American President at that time chose non-intervention.
The gentle Tutsi and their troubles were far off and not strategic to the United States; the massacre was confined to one area of Africa, and there was no tactical urgency for the U.S. to act. The American Vice President, made of more sympathetic and less cautious stuff, pushed to take compassionate action through the U.N. and send soldiers. From America, however, nothing was done. We looked away.
Similar atrocities happen now in Burma, renamed by its ruling junta of generals: Myanmar. The usual script: hunting down and killing opposition rebels who wish to be free. They are not; almost nothing appears in the western press. This ancient land is not presently strategic to U.S. interests........they and their ethnic Rohingya are not high on our radar.
In Sudan and Somalia, another war has raised an alarm and babies die when a few ounces of formula would have saved them. Humanitarian organizations do all they may, but America is not involved. There is a US Africa Command located on the continent, but does not act on internal national affairs
Compassionate help frequently cannot get in for relief because of ongoing firefights. In the Eritreyan countryside, families suffer as Ethiopia, a long and ancient enemy of the Pharaohs, grinds them down over another territory dispute.
Battle and ethnic lines of demarcation may shift overnight, changing who is friendly and who is not. Again: there is little strategic interest from western countries in these one-sided conflicts. The only nation where there IS an active presence and concern is - Ukraine. More battles, check. Bloody missile strikes, check. More Russian missile-rattling next door, check. Geography indicates involvement. And the United States, along with our allies, has intervened.
A cynical person would spot what looks like raw racism in these ongoing situations. Brown, Black and Asian children who live in "non-strategic" parts of the globe get little help except from Red Cross, Good Samaritan, etc. In these far lands of desert and jungle, those who have lived in the global south and east for millennia seem not like "us" in more ways than Ukrainians do, for whom we continue to send trainers, weapons, howitzers, missiles and drones. Ukraine's future IS of definite strategic interest to us, and to all of NATO and the western allies. On the world map they are close to home, and Russia, the perennial Big Bear, is unpredictable and chronically dangerous.
They and other totalitarian "bad actor" regimes have covert and overt operations now ongoing in the Donbas, no surprise. Iran, grasping an opportunity, has entered the war front on the Russian side, glad to strike and flee from Ukrainians' advances if it hinders the United States.
North Korea openly, and China somewhat covertly, are also part of this global sub- surface dogfight, no surprise there. Ukrainians will win their war with our help, partly from the Russian Army's music-hall ineptitude, but because they are "like us" and part of western culture which the U.S. maintains. A firm bridge is already there.....for the Third World, it is not yet solid.
Compassion pulls us to care for all these countries; what drives us to help Ukraine is simple geographic, strategic proximity, and pragmatic political sense.
For some Asian and African children, who must wait to live and be free, and whose suffering is known only to God, I cannot believe that intense, compassionate prayer as well as humanitarian relief action will not work miracles. The United States, when it as yet remained a fractious, disjointed group of English colonies, received miracles, and survived. I am believing for those in distant lands and their little children to receive them, too.
Linda Berry is a Northsider.
