Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | A | Arena Magazine

The democratisation of compassion? A culture of fleeting information and images, evident in the response to the tsunami, threatens to undermine more consistent ethical behaviour.

Article Excerpt
The 21st century has had its share of apocalyptic scenarios, including the Y2K bug, the spectre of global terrorism, and a plethora of disaster films to name only a few. Despite this, despite even the general acceptance of global warming as a genuine end-of-the-world-scenario, the Boxing Day tsunami came as a sudden shock, both in terms of the sheer scale of disaster and its aftermath--a seemingly unprecedented act of compassion on behalf of the West towards those who had suffered the full impact of the ocean. Indeed, the amount of money pledged by private citizens came as a surprise to aid organizations. Groups such as Medecins Sans Frontieres had to stop accepting money because they simply did not have the infrastructure to deal with such a sudden and large influx of cash.

As the horror began to subside, the response to the disaster itself began to gather praise. Former President Clinton (perhaps unable to let go of his internet boosterism) claimed that the number of e-donations pledged by private citizens marked a new era of 'the democratisation of charity'. In many cases both the liberal left and the right came to agree that the response to the tsunami marked the possible re-emergence of a common humanity. Gerard Henderson even took a swipe in the Age at fellow conservative Patrick West's 'conspicuous compassion' thesis, arguing that after the tsunami, any criticism of Western compassion is 'pointless', even 'counter-productive'....

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!