Compassion vs rhetoric

I had the priviledge tonight of going to see John Pilger (Australian journalist) present his 2000 documentary "Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq." Pilger is a visiting professor at Cornell, and this was his first visit to campus.

The film deals with the reality of civilian life in Iraq in the light of the UN imposed economic sanctions - with the tragedy of people selling their most precious possessions to be able to buy food, children dying of curable diseases because the sanctions blocked or slowed the import of drugs, people dying of cancer with no access to painkillers other than aspirin. It is almost unbelievable to see the suffering, especially knowing that it is for nothing.

Too often we are asked to believe that the rationalised justifications for these things are somehow true. That it is worth killing 500,000 Iraqi children if the sanctions prevent those infamous (and tragically non-existent) WMDs. That the suffering of the people will somehow influence a dictator. That bombing and aggression will ever lead to peace.

Where is justice for the people of Iraq? For the many others across our world who also suffer? And what are we doing about it? Sitting in our private worlds and blocking it out, or working for change wherever we have any influence?