Der Spiegel has an article about the factors that are making parts of Africa view Europe with an increasingly jaundiced eye. Unsurprisingly, some people are offended by the prosecution of people who save Africans trying to get into Europe and nearly losing their lives doing it. Saving a potential illegal immigrant's life can leave a fisherman open to being charged with human trafficking.

I cannot even express the rage this sort of attitude inspires in me. Clearly, in the European context it is less immediate to me, but this is typical of an attitude that exists in this country as well and I do not understand why basic human decency and concern for lives even if they are different from yours is such a difficult thing. This is especially relevant when, in the US, the acceptance and integration of people from around the world is supposed to be in our DNA. I think international travel should be mandatory in high school or something just so people would have some clue that the world does not in fact revolve around them and whatever edifice they have erected to enable ignorance of anything other. It is ludicrous, we are all Other. Unless you are being willfully ignorant, it is really not much easier to understand your own neighbor than someone from half-way around the world; your neighbor just has defenses against being understood that you are more comfortable with so that the difference can be denied. Yet, clearly nobody wants to deal with this; Foreign Affairs just came out with an article saying that Americans get many things wrong because of our unwillingness to recognize the importance of ethnic nationalism. Though I would also assert that there is a very big difference between ignoring ethnic differences and attempting to perform the same level of detailed comprehension with respect to other humans no matter what (or what combination of) ethnic nationality someone possesses.

Anyway, I am sorry for the rambling rant, this is just something that continually infuriates me. I do not understand how people can desire to avoid learning or caring about other people. In my eyes, it seems to be the whole reason we are here.

Update: I am struck by how much the thesis I am writing grows out of this viewpoint. Once you provincialize everything, you find that your neighbor is far stranger than you ever imagined and a person half-way around the world may be far less strange than you expected. In an attempt to lighten the mood, I also recommend an article claiming that it is really old people who are Other. If what you really want is information, here are some interesting reading lists on Africa in general to add to the stuff I was posting about the Africa reading group a bit ago. Of course, if you actually found my rant interesting and not excessively annoying, you should really read Lévinas, or at least something about him that comes from U of Evansville (I still miss the parties sponsored by their drama department).