Psychology

Famine, affluence and morality

The key argument of the writer is that the reaction of people in affluent nations to lack of basic needs including food, shelter and medical care had not justification. The way moral issues are perceived in these countries should be changed including the way this society has been taking for granted their way of life. As such, the sufferings and deaths that were being seen in East Bengal due to civil war were not inevitable. It was within the capacity of the affluent nations to provide the required assistance in reduction of the suffering. Both at individual and government level, there was no enough efforts to respond to this situation in the right way. Individuals had not given enough relief funds or demanded more government assistance to the refugees’ needs .The governments failed to provide aid massive enough to enable the refugees’ survival for some time.

The morality issue raised by the right involves the high amount of funds used in non-basic issues or things like Anglo-French Concorde as if they were more important than human life. The right assumes that most people would view death arising due to lack aforementioned basic needs as bad and hence, if we have the capacity to prevent these deaths without sacrificing anything of comparable significance morally, we should do it. It is therefore, moral to sacrifice things that have less important like possessions in order to save life which is very important and this should define morality.

In addition, distance should not count in trying to alleviate the sufferings if people such that we only help those who are close to us physically. This could have been excused if a person was physically out of reach so that assistance could not reach them and it would be justified if one was to help those nearer than far away. However, with existence of rapid transportation and instant communication, the moral responsibilities changed so that one is obliged to assist those in far distance. It was the moral responsibilities of individuals and governments to provide adequate assistance to refugees suffering in Bengal despite the distance.