Ask HN: How do you get people to care?
I am from Sudan. My country has been experiencing a horrific internal conflict for a little more than a year now, and it's only getting worse by the day. However, you can hardly hear about it in the news, on social media, or anywhere else.
Now, I am not naive. I understand that the exposure a problem gets is influenced by various political, economic, and social factors, the least of which is the number of people actually affected by the issue. So, what I am asking is: what are the most effective and realistic ways to get people to care without political power, fame, or wealth? How can an ordinary person make a difference?
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12 comments
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Yes, you could call the 1993 intervention in Somalia an exception. But note both the context - trends in World Events were looking very utopian back then, vs. now - and just how badly that Western intervention turned out.
With "ordinary person" resources, I'd suggest that you start by trying to document & organize the historical facts about what's happening. That at least improves the records of the tragedy, and of the people and things being lost. While helping you network with other people who really care. And perhaps, just perhaps, that can grow into some real improvement in things. And hopefully the history that you help document can be more than a thin comfort to the survivors and boon to future historians. Try to make it both an easy & authoritative resource for any mainstream Western journalists & activists who get interested, and also useful to any mostly-well-intended Western leaders who want to Do Something. Hopefully without botching it again.
I am sorry that the beautiful people of Sudan are experiencing this conflict. I hope that the better side of humanity will bring it to an end soon.
Last week, there was a mass starvation near an Ethiopian refugee camp.[1] The refugees left the campsite due to constant harassment, kidnappings, and murders by Ethiopian militias. The UNHCR's response was to urge the refugees to return to the campsite despite the dangerous situation there, or they will withhold resources, which led to the mass starvation.
1- https://sudantribune.com/article286392/
Try Google maps.
> I don't know anyone from Sudan either.
They are people just like you.
> It isn't an economically important country either for the rest of the world...
So money is everything.
> as such unfortunately people just don't care.
Some people who have taken 10 seconds to find out where it is but who also don't know anyone from Sudan care about the lives of people just like themselves when faced with such adversity.
Why would we care about people from poorer countries, or from countries that aren't close to us?
Well, there's your problem.
We are working on it
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry