The Mystery of Inequity
I have had the good fortune to connect with and mentor a few students from Nigeria, and one from Ghana, through the magic modern invention known as Facebook. These students have been participating, answering questions and seeking clarifications in the free video resources I have been posting on my social media outlets, wishing to improve their skills.
One of my mentees from Nigeria hopes to one day become a doctor. I learned today that his mother is affected by hepatitis B, which is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa. There are 20 million people living with hepatitis B, C, or both in Nigeria, and more than 80% of the people who have the disease do not even know their status.
Personally, my only experience with the disease is a booster shot my Internist suggested that I take, since I have had the normal course of vaccinations since I was a baby. Living in the developed world, there is, of course, not much for me to worry about. Health inequities? Oh, yes. Imagine trying to study for the SATs while your mother is sick, and while you could also very much contract the disease yourself. You wouldn’t have enough funds to pay for medicine, much less an SAT ticket.
I could only give him platitudes, invoking Gods plan and divine providence. I could not help feeling like a minister. He asked, “why is life just a tragedy for some and a smooth ride for some naturally [sic] I mean just from birth”?
The truth is, I don’t know. We are all born to be a cockroach, a cat, a student in Nigeria, or a tutor in Los Angeles, and you could perhaps say there are benefits and disadvantages of each. It makes one somewhat uneasy to try to justify why I deserve this nice filet of fish while my cat is eating canned cat food. No matter how you try to explain it, there is really no good way to figure out just why I had all the resources I needed to excel on my own SATs and college applications, while my friend in Nigeria is beset with troubles of all kinds.
There are, however, two things we must not do. (1) If we find ourselves on the “unfortunate” side of the situation, we must not let the apparent unfairness or jealousy of those “above” us to prevent us from working our very hardest to improve our own circumstances. And (2) those who find themselves on the “fortunate” side of the world must not forget that there are those on the other side of the globe who are not taking for granted some of the daily blessings we so presumptuously avail ourselves to, and we must do everything—albeit everything in our power—to rectify the blatant unfairness.
I am finalizing the process of creating HT Foundation Scholars, a California 501(c)(3) nonprofit, whose mission is to provide free or heavily discounted tutoring sessions for (1) high schoolers in Los Angeles whose household incomes fall below 1.5x times the national poverty line and (2) those hailing from the 50 Poorest Countries in the World, according to the IMF. I will be starting a fundraising campaign very soon to collect tax-deductible sponsorships and contributions from those who are willing to donate whatever is within their means to help students without means to also have an opportunity to gain an excellent education and a chance at a better life. Stay tuned for more details!
As the world draws us closer through technological progress, it is harder and harder to ignore the ravages of inequities and war. While the direness may be difficult to process, it is important to be thinking of the experiences of others, as much as possible, rather than what the situation means for us and our own lives. And to do the best we can to always be making the world a minutely better place, rather than an uncontrollably worse one.
