Learn to See

It’s time to accept the fact that our eyes cannot look at the world and see the full truth. If you don’t believe me, try two things:

1.) Take a Photograph

Within a camera, the shutter and aperture control the depth of field and allow picture to reveal different truths than the eye alone can see. Just look at the photograph you take, and let your eyes focus on different parts of the image. You’ll be surprised by how much more you notice when you take the time.

2.) Watch this video of two teams passing basketballs and carefully count the number of times the team in the white t-shirt throws the ball.

We’re inherently blind to so much of the world around us. If you didn’t notice anything strange in the video the first time, watch the video again and see if you notice anything weird. You’ll be very surprised when you don’t think about the basketballs and just watch it. Accept this as a challenge to learn to see.

Learn to see that temporary "band-aid" approaches in development shield us from seeing the deeper scars and infection. Images of immediate, yet short-lived successes leave us all blind. See beyond these band-aids. Measurable results evolve slowly. Returns on investments and donations don’t happen over night. Learn to see sustainable, culturally appropriate, locally supported, capability-based solutions as the meaningful investment. In his book Pathologies of Power, Paul Farmer addresses the importance of genuinely understanding the suffering that exists today in order to promote equality in community health and human rights. By moving beyond sterile statistics to examples of authentic experience, Farmer suggests that "structural violence" traps individuals in poverty due to overarching economic and social circumstances. Likewise, Farmer argues that issues of human rights boil down to the most basic "right to survive" (p. 6) and he contends that this intrinsic human right is violated because of the structural framework and power relations established in the world. The inequalities generated by gender, race, and sexual orientation fuel an environment of social and economic inequality and injustice. These structural inequalities result in discriminatory distribution of resources, including the allocation of and access to proper health care. We must hold equality and social justice as necessities to answer the paradigm of traditional aid. A new form of development is created when the "band-aid solution" and short-term alleviation from immediate problems (generating returns of increased debt, inflation, and dependency, all of which negate the ultimate purpose of aid: development) transforms into a sustained, culturally appropriate capability based solution. When this notion of aid becomes less abstract and more personal, the inconsistencies of development are obvious. Personal experiences and broadened perspectives this summer will surely be an opportunity for me, and anyone reading, to continue our ongoing process of learning to see.