The Circle of Empathy
How far should our sense of empathy extend?
In a recent interview on CNN, Fareed Zakaria asks James Cameron, the famous filmmaker, why his films are so popular around the world. Cameron made three of the four largest grossing films of all time, including the two Avatar movies, and Titanic. Cameron answers that “…I try to just tap into universals of human experience…that universal sense of who we are as human beings.” Cameron goes on to explain that “…the new Avatar film is about family and bonds that we all share in any culture, any religion, any language group around the world. Titanic…is about love and sacrifice and duty…things that…mean a lot to people.”
Toward the end of the interview, Cameron says that “Our empathy will save us…But empathy is a double edged sword because typically we cast the circle of empathy too close and that creates an in group that we fight for, and an out group that we fight against…So, we need to expand that spotlight of empathy to the people that are just like us around the world, especially the ones that are suffering because of climate change and some of the other degradations.”
Cameron, an avid environmentalist, envisions a time when the fishing net of empathy will be cast far and wide to include the natural world, and all of its human inhabitants. He puts it this way, “We need to think of ourselves as the indigenous people of planet Earth and we’re all part of the same tribe.”
All this is fine and good, but is it really possible for us to extend our sense of empathy to the entire world?
I was a bit skeptical, to say the least, until I recently met Sivan Yaari, the founder and CEO of Innovation: Africa.
Sivan was born in Israel in 1978, and grew up poor. Her dad was rarely employed. The family moved to France, but their lives there did not improve much. After completing her education in the U.S., in finance and energy management, she applied for a job at Jordache jeans but the boss said that her English was too weak. She quickly added that she spoke fluent French as well. The boss reassessed, and said that they had several production facilities in Africa, and she could work there.
Sivan noticed the extreme poverty that was pervasive in many of the villages that surrounded her. The school classrooms were pitch black because there was no electricity to light them up. Only the students that could afford kerosene were able to read properly. The others languished in the dark. So she had the idea to install a few solar panels to light up the classrooms.
But even with light, the classrooms remained half empty. Why? Because the kids spent half their days collecting water from distant places. They were bone-tired by the time they returned; certainly too tired to study properly. And the water they brought back was often polluted, and was the cause of many illnesses. What could she do to help? She was just one person after all.
Sivan came to realize that even though clean surface water was hard to find, there was plenty of subterranean water in Africa. She and her colleagues drilled a well for the village, and designed a reservoir tower that would store the water, along with a solar power pump that would keep the reservoir full at all times. With light in the classrooms, and water for all to enjoy, the villagers gathered around the new well, and celebrated their new beginning with song and dance.
In 2008 Sivan founded Innovation: Africa, a nonprofit that brings Israeli solar, agricultural and water technologies to African villages. To date, Innovation: Africa has served some 900 villages, across 10 African countries, and has brought clean water and light to over 4 million people. The result is enhanced education, and burgeoning local economies as people have greater opportunities to learn new skills, and to start their own businesses.
Sivan is proof positive that it is indeed possible to extend our sense of empathy to include people around the world, who are less fortunate than we, and who deserve a chance to live a decent life, simply by virtue of being human.
We often talk about universal rights. I believe that everyone on earth has a right to eat properly, to have a roof over their head, to have access to basic healthcare, to have a realistic opportunity to earn a living, and to live in a world that is sustainable for countless generations yet to come.
If we reset the global economy in this regard, we do so not only for the sake of the impoverished who will be lifted up, but for ourselves as well, because we too will be lifted up by realizing the full measure of our destiny as a species.
The sense of meaning that Sivan has brought into her own life, and to the lives of those she serves, is the same meaning that we can bring to our own lives, and to the world at large, if we simply decide to reset some of our short term priorities in favor of our long term survival, and sense of worth.
Please take a look at our 5 minute video, What is the Missing Piece for Green? to get a better idea of how we too can help to reset the trajectory of the world away from the abyss, and toward the enlightenment of Sustainability, Economic Equity and Peaceful Coexistence.