I don't mean to condemn the event. It evidently achieved its stated purpose: to raise awareness. But of what good was it? Yes, we consoled ourselves by feeling our moral sense of repugnance. How barbaric and idiotic the leadership is! If only we could do the good that we would if we could! How regrettable! But these ideologies we profess with such emotion rarely translate into any tangible reality other than to calm the turbulence of our vague sense of responsibility. So, is it really the thought that counts?
Last year, during World AIDS Week, the Student Global AIDS Campaign (SGAC) sold orange T-shirts with the word "Orphan" printed on them. The idea was to represent the fraction of children in sub-Saharan Africa who are orphaned by AIDS: one in 20. I suppose SGAC was using a visual medium for increased impact, but does anyone really believe that such tactic is still effective? Who at Princeton doesn't know that the AIDS problem is REALLY bad? The time for such information has long run out. With most of these big issues, it's clear that our inaction is not caused by lack of awareness.
The problem lies elsewhere. We are numbed by years of muted guilt, making it difficult to sympathize with those who know nothing but unfulfilled lives. Inside our infamous Orange Bubble, protected from these harsh realities, it's challenging to stop ourselves from regarding our academic and careerist concerns as being of paramount import.
Then there's the nagging doubt in many of our minds: How much difference can we as students make? Do our $1-a-day donations do any more than provide just enough food to keep these fly-stricken children on television alive, just enough to hold off death for another day, surviving on the brink of starvation, their life of pain prolonged only by our good grace? We suspect there are more efficient ways of making lasting changes, but with many of our competitive personalities sharply focused on achieving conventional success, we simply don't have the time or the energy to figure them out on our own. In short, it's naive to think that once we are aware, we will mobilize ourselves to bring about tangible changes.
Service organizations could most sensibly respond by providing avenues through which students can directly effect real change. Interests and actions only become permanent when there is some type of positive feedback loop. Without direct confirmation that our efforts are of some consequence, I doubt many of our moral selves are sufficiently noble or saintly to perpetually propel themselves. By establishing easily accessible bridges connecting our bubble to these realities and proving that we can make consequential changes, service organizations could more effectively forward their causes.
Of course, firm accomplishments are likely to be far more challenging. If student service groups are to do substantially more than let's-spend-$50,000-to-go-to-some-arbitrary-village-and-dig-a-well-and-feel-good-about-ourselves projects, there will be a significant risk of failure. The Princeton chapter of Engineers Without Borders, for example, has had to overcome some major setbacks, even spectacular failures, in its attempt to build a dam for an Ethiopian village. Nonetheless, considering the large scopes of its projects, it's had some notable successes too, for instance, installing solar panels in Peru.
On a smaller scale, the Princeton Microfinance Organization sponsored a fundraising performance called "Princeton 5,000 for 5,000: Princeton Performs for Change." The organization aims to raise $5,000 from 5,000 people at Princeton to create a village bank through an international nonprofit microfinance organization. Rather than contenting itself with educating us about the principles of microfinance, it went further and set a clear goal with which students could immediately engage. With future successes that we can actually recognize, a positive feedback loop would be formed and the organization would expand its presence on campus and address the daunting problem of global poverty.
Princeton is an educational institution and not a charity organization, and we are here primarily for education, not global socioeconomic reform. But if we're going to do something, let's do it right; it's evidently doable. We, as supposedly the best upcoming global leaders at the best university with the most resources and support, should not become complacent and accept this prevalent mode of passive activism as all that we are capable of doing.
Eric Kang is a physics major from Christchurch, New Zealand. He can be reached at eakang@princeton.edu.
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