Frustated. I'd give anything just for people to care!

I've graduated on doing
community involvement work and all that

Words coming out from a friend when I asked him to join Amnesty International. It never fails to amaze me how easy it is for people to brush off something that could have given a big effect on both their lives and others. On how easy it is to say yes to have a one night stand or whatever compared to giving just 5 minutes of your time per week. Yes, you can do things in AI with just 5 minutes of your time. You can boast to other people that you gave your freakin precious 5 minutes of your time for the rest of the suffering people in Iraq or Zimbabwe.


But nooooo.. Rarely do people want to help. It's a dog eats dog world out there. Sheesh. No wonder suicide rates are so high now..

Which reminds me of what Aneil, the AI London Director for membership and mobilization said last Annual General Assembly of AI in Manila:

Why do we brush our teeth? We don't ask ourselves that. We just do it. It's something that is inherent to people. They want to look good, to feel good, to be presentable to the rest of the human race. The average person brushes his/her teeth for about three minutes.. So in a month that's about 1 hour you spend brushing your teeth. And in a year, combine all the minutes and the hours, that's probably a day. Imagine for one year, you spent an entire day just brushing your teeth...

Now, imagine the last time you saved a life. Or you cared for someone in your community. Or was concerned for someone whose rights were stepped upon in China or Zimbabwe or anywhere in the world. When was the last time? In AI, you can spend 5 minutes of your time sending a formatted message to certain public officials whose attention should be grabbed. Saying that somebody is watching at them. That they won't easily get away with the violations they've made.


Aneil really touched me with his message and despite the pessimism this world has to offer, I'll still continue this! I just hope people would rather spend 5 minutes of their time saving a life than brushing their teeth.