Famine, Affluence, and Morality - Essay Example

Famine, Affluence, and Morality Critique of the Article ‘Famine, affluence, and morality’ is an article written by Peter Singer thatexamines how views various emergencies that are either natural or even man-made (1972). The most recent happened in the year 1971 in East Bengal where there were increased numbers of refugees resulting from the civil wars. Civil wars are mostly caused by political indifferences where different groups support leaders with different ideologies, which cause conflicts. Most people died due to lack of food and shelter for their families as well as the lack of medical care from the kind of dangers they were exposed. These refugees have to run away from their own countries and seek refugees in the neighboring countries where there is peace. This caused major suffering which most philosophers argued that it was evitable. In my view, this is true because if we create room for dialogue ad negotiations, leaders can be able to sit and come up with ways and means of uniting their people and countries. In most cases, poverty leads to low standards of living while most civil wars normally lead to increased number of refugees running for safety from the neighboring countries. In my view, this is problems, which can be prevented if people become morally upright where they put humanity before greed and money. Again, I believe that rich nations are not helping enough to take care of the current situation in helping the affected countries in various parts of the world. Although it is not their responsibility to help the poor and suffering nations, I believe they should take it as their mandate to give guidelines on how various issues and dilemmas should be handled they arise. For instance, in cases of civil wars, representatives from the international humanitarian bodies should take responsibility of calling upon the warring leaders and bring them on board to discuss and get a permanent solution to end the wars. Further, the parliament representatives whom we elected to represent our interest to the government are not doing enough to change the current situation. As evident in most developing countries, most of them forgot the needs of people who elected in the first place once they get into the parliament. This is because they are not asking much from the government in terms assistance to help the affected persons. They are not holding enough demonstrations with the members of the public to make their interests and needs known by the national government. Other times, people even consider fasting in order to get a solution to a certain social issue that is affecting a given country. In my opinion, not much is done towards helping the refugees affected by civil wars in different countries across the globe. The governments of their own countries are not doing enough to end conflicts, which contribute to civil wars. In my views, they should hold talks and negotiate in order to get a long-term solution and end the civil wars permanently. Through this, they will be able to concentrate more on developments that will enrich the lives of the people living in their countries. However, different global leaders in different countries view these issues differently in matters of urgency and importance. For instance, the British government values an investment in a supersonic means of transport other than helping refugees stranded and suffering across the globe. Personally, I cannot judge them because they have been able to control all situations in their countries but again I think they should embrace humanity and help the suffering countries in different parts of the world. However, the situation in Bengal is not different from what people in other countries but its magnitude has spurred many social debates on what the government and humanitarian organizations ought to do. I tend to think that this is a man-made emergency because civil wars are normal because of greed and struggle for power in a given country. Further, I believe in areas where people die of malnutrition and poverty is natural causes because they are inevitable. The government should be directly involved in helping persons affected together with the humanitarian organizations operating in their countries and globally. Additionally, there are moral implications of all this for the society on what is being done, what it is not done and what can be done to prevent the future occurrence of such an incidence again. This is the reason as to why we should allow and promote dialogue and negotiations in order to get views from different people. Through this, governments will establish a common view and ground and formulate policies that will enhance peace and harmony for all. Different philosophers have given different views concerning this, but I think we should practice and uphold what the society deems upright. Further, we should ask ourselves about the moral implications of each action that we take towards helping those in need and formulating what the national government should follow in cases of emergencies. According to the author of the article, there are various assumptions that are considered by most philosophers, and I will give my honest views and opinion. To start with, I believe those peoples’ sufferings normally due to lack of food and security is not justified. This is because the government and other stakeholders have an important role to play in eliminating peoples sufferings in various ways. The government can formulate and implement various policies that will be geared towards eliminating poverty and sufferings of all people in their countries. This will further take into account what ought to be done during emergencies such as civil wars and how refugees should be treated (Singer, 1972). I believe that we all have the power to prevent some of the emergencies in our society with no sacrifice. If we put all our greedy thoughts and attitudes aside, I think we will achieve peace and harmony as we eliminate human sufferings all over the world. When we do what is right, I think we can prevent all this from happening, hence alleviating human suffering. I tend to oppose some of the Singer’s thoughts and views in his article. I think and fell that it is paradoxical to assume that every other person will contribute towards helping refugees in different countries all over the world. We all understand that the government and the humanitarian organizations have an important role to play. However, given our society’s morals, we are supposed to help those in needs, not because we have everything to our disposal, but because we are all one despite our color, race, or religion. However, in the world today, this is not what is happening because the rich nations in the world are not helping the developing ones when faced with challenges and emergencies in different areas. They believe that all these emergencies are manmade, and they could solve them alone. Further, I believe that we can all work towards eliminating all these evils. For instance, when we elect the right representatives to the national parliament, will be sure that our needs will be well voiced to the national government and we can see results after a certain period. Additionally, I believe that everyone in the society should promote peace and harmony to prevent civil wars (Singer, 1972). Finally, there is the challenge of whether taking care of these emergencies is our duty or charity. In my opinion, I believe that it is everyone’s’ duty to help those people in suffering by donating what we have may it be relief foods, money, shelter among other things. However, you will come to learn than most people in our society prefer individualism other than communism. They only mind about their well-being as opposed to those of other people. This is the reason as to why you will find poor people dying of hunger while those living in the rich neighborhoods are throwing away food. I believe that we should all embrace utilitarianism all with the aim of achieving happiness for all people in our society. It should be every person’s responsibility as well of the government to ensure all people are helped during the emergencies. Further, we should practice what the society considers upright and work towards achieving a common goal. That is, improving the quality of life by eliminating human sufferings. The national governments and humanitarian organizations should be at the forefront of helping refugees and those people who are languishing in poverty and other societal problems. References Singer, P. (1972). Famine, affluence, and morality. Retrieved from http://utilitarianism.net/singer/by/1972----.htm Read More