What can we do?

as a fellow human, what can we do?

By AnhPhuong

June 5^th, 2020

It is June 2020 that I am writing these words. It is hard to wrap my head around what is happening in the world. No one would have believed that in just one year:

a pandemic will kill 400,000 people around the world,
a word called "social distancing" will surface, take away the livelihood of millions, and keep millions more inside their homes for months,
death of a Black man that will expose a country's hidden hypocrisy and casual cruelty,
an anti-police brutality protest, in a country considered most democratic in the world, will take the lives of many peaceful protesters,
a devastating fire will take away more than one million lives, mostly innocent animals,

2020 was not just a year of bad luck. It was a year of truth and exposure. These are systematic racial inequality, slow-burning environmental degradation, and reckless disregard for science finally brought out to daylight.

For the first few months, I found myself sitting in my safe and protected apartments, diligently trying to sell more P&G products, dreaming about one day being able to go on vacation, without any engagement with the problems that are raging outside. The more I listened to the news, the more I was pushed to the edge and pulled into the conversation, made donations and become more committed to do something. Today, if nothing so far in 2020 has made you feel something, this video of a senior citizen being pushed by not one, but three policemen, in a protest in Buffalo, New York will surely make you sad and enraged.

At first, when I watched the video, I burst into tears thinking how sad and hopeless this situation is. People were treated like meat piece under the eyes of evil authority and I felt like my hands were tied. But that is exactly what those evil forces and bigotry agenda want you to think and feel. They are all lies. The only truth that matters is as long as you are living and you have a thought and a voice, you can do your own part to make the world a better place.

How does Black Lives Matter matter to other parts of the world, especially the parts that are predominantly not black nor white, but Asians? The devastating situation in the US right now is what happens when the systematic construct of a society constantly put down a group of minority and voiceless:

the under-representation of black people in politics and entertainment, the former has profound and lasting impact on their quality of life and the former nurtures their soul
the US long-standing hidden bigotry and contempt of a group of white people, raised to think that their complexion makes them superior, and want to unjustly demand for privilege
the above is linked to a flawed education system that widely differ from state to state, black neighborhood to white neighborhood, that bring up widely different people, it is only a matter of the time until they clash

Seeing these happenings in the US, while living inside Singapore society, is like being in the middle of two contrasts and helped me learn great lessons about nurturing a society. A good and accessible education to all, a thoughtful scene of entertainment for all, and honest and humane politics toward all. Those are the recipe of a great nation and happy people.

It is important to learn how a society work, so that you can help contribute into it, or spot the failing of a society, to make good choices for yourself and your family. Humans today were born to rely on each other in a society, otherwise the world wouldn't be so populated by us. So even if you want or doesn't want to, you are a part of society and need to learn to live in it.

My niece taught me many things.

Watching her grow up has taught me that kids are their own person with personalities, temper, compassion, and will of their own. She taught me to be more patient and trusting with people, and choose to always love people first without asking for anything in return. She also taught me that you can't tell kids how to grow up, we can only help them become a person by setting example, so they can copy and model after.

Therefore, as long as I am living, I want to be a better person for her. And I want to tell her what I did in 2020: I tried to leave the world a better place than when I found it, and I will try to leave any person I meet better than when I found them. What do you want to tell your kids, your cousins, your nieces and nephews?

If each of us can stay true to our conviction, when our voices match together - just imagine the bang.

So if you have a voice, I hope you want to speak up today to inspire your circle of influence. If you are raising children, I hope that you teach them how to live gracefully in this world.

If you have the means to donate a few bucks that won't impact on your monthly income, I hope you will want to exercise your power today. These are places that you can help. I have personally made donation to each of these platform with a total amount equal to what I budgeted for "Miscellaneous Shopping" monthly. Less of what I want but not need, more for the people who need it.

One Egg a Day

One Egg a Day is a fund created by Khuat Thi Hai Oanh, an avid social worker that my sister knows personally thanks to her years working to support social enterprises in Vietnam. During COVID19, ms Oanh started a fund that helped Vietnamese people that are sick or without income amidst COVID19, with a vision "so that no one faints out of hunger, no one needs to steal, because of COVID19". As COVID19 impacts in Vietnam lessens, they are channeling their support to people facing severe drought in Mekong Delta, whose livelihood of farming and fishery is lost.

Read their cause and donate via bank transfer here.

The Bloch Family

In a Floridian family, the Bloch, with a 21-year-old autistic kid, dad Bloch has chronic lung disease with no disability credits or insurance. He needs home oxygen machine and medicines, in the midst of the US constraint medical system that doesn't allow him to go to hospital to use hospital facility. Imagine growing older and having an adult son still under your care, and this happens. These people are just a few among many accidentally caught in what COVID19 and US politics made, they deserve a break and our help.

Help the Bloch on GoFundMe

Say Their Names

I can't imagine, accidentally using a fake dollar bill can cost your life, sitting in your own home having a stranger mistaking your house with their own costs your life, and do just anything can cost your life, and by the police. the #SayTheirNames movement helped expose the grand scale of this injustice. When your life does not matter to the people who are paid by your tax money to protect you, it is so unfair, that it almost feel like it felt wicked, written, and hopeless. No, the fight of black people in the US today, is a human fight for justice, your fight.

You can donate to George Floyd family here, the man whose notoriously publicised death helped reenergised a whole nation fight for justice, their family lost a breadwinner.

Or you can make an one-time donation here, split across organizations that are organizing protests, helping lawyer fees for black people unjustly convicted, donate to families whose members were killed by the police.

You can build a home for a koala

This story broke my heart in so many ways. The most innocent lives of all were killed to an extent even larger than COVID19. More than one million animals died. These are the graphic photos that I couldn't bring myself to save and repost. Humans died in this tragedy too, people who were inside their homes, and people who were fighting to put out the fires both. While many philanthropists have donated millions during the past few months, one help still in dire need to regrow the forests, the lost home of the animals. Donate to save koalas, who were killed and have their homes, trees, destroyed.