LaFleche: To live as a resident of the pale blue dot

By Grant LaFleche:

When I was in university, I read a book by Carl Sagan titled Pale Blue Dot.

In it, the great astronomer reflected on a photo of Earth from the Voyager 1 space probe, by then some six billion kilometres from the planet and beyond the orbit of Saturn.

In that photo, our planet appears as nothing more than a pinpoint of dull light, a pale blue dot as Sagan put it, utterly insignificant in the deep sea of black that is most of the universe.

Looking at that photo it occurred to me if that point of light were to go out tomorrow, a pitiless universe would not care.

In that context, it would be easy to adopt a nihilistic point of view, wouldn’t it?

Not so, said Sagan. That striking demonstration of our cosmic insignificance was not depressing to him.

Rather, he wrote, “it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

The idea that we have a responsibility to each other as a species stayed with me.

It is easy, after all, to care about a problem that is right in font of us, in our communities or our homes. But if Sagan was right, as I think he was, should the compassion that moves us to help our neighbours not also apply to those in far away countries?

I submit that it should. Fortunately I am not alone in thinking so.

In less than 48 hours, I will board a plane bound for Guatemala where I will spend the better part of 10 days in a community near Jalapa, one of the poorest places in our hemisphere. Education levels are depressingly low, by our standards. Infant mortality rates are high. There is no social safety net, no infrastructure to help pick a person up.

Clean water, something we take for granted, is a luxury. Thousands are stricken every year by serious illnesses from contaminated water. Far too many of them are children.

For more than a decade, Niagara’s own Wells of Hope charity has been in the region doing what it can to help. Digging wells is its primary purpose, but the organization has expanded its work to include education, hygiene and employment programs.

There are a few reasons why I am going.

First, I am going as a journalist. For 11 years, Wells of Hope has survived on the support of donations — cash, goods and services — from Niagara residents. The Standard has always covered the organization locally, but we’ve never been on the ground in Guatemala to see how those donations are used.

So I am there to report on what Wells of Hope does, good, bad or ugly.

I’ll also report on the lives of people in the region, the challenges they face and how they cope day to day. It is important, I think, to understand how our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world live, if only to place our own lives in context and understand the blind luck of being born in a wealthy nation.

As I conduct interviews and take photos, I will be working alongside Wells of Hope volunteers, helping with their work be it building a home, digging a well or distributing food.

Inasmuch as I am there in a professional capacity, I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty.

I think we have a responsibility to help others when we are able to.

It is an idea shared by Wells of Hope, even if part of the charity’s motivation springs from a different source than mine. The founders were and are driven by Catholic notions of social justice. Mine arise from a more humanist ethical philosophy of the type so ably represented by men like Sagan.

But in this case, that difference is hardly significant. The result is the same — we want to try to make life a little better for other people on this pale blue dot.

After all, we are all in this mess together.

Youtube Clip: The Pale Blue Dot

 

To read article 3 click here

 

On the ground in Guatemala

For most Canadians, access to clean water is as simple as turning on the tap.

For people in some other countries, though, it is a luxury that’s hard to come by.

From April 11 to 19, Grant LaFleche will report on the Wells of Hope organization’s work from Jalapa, Guatemala where for the past 11 years volunteers have been working to supply clean water to people who have none. You can also follow LaFleche on Twitter @grantrants and join the conversation using the hashtag #wellsofhope

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Join Grant LaFleche and Wells of Hope chair Scott Maxwell Friday at 4 p.m. for a live chat at www.stcatharinesstandard.ca about the organization, Guatemala and poverty in the Third World.