Social media and everyday life distract us, but we need to shift our focus back to more important issues

Ithink lack of awareness plays a major role in why we don’t look at serious issues like human trafficking. Also, it is unfortunate but we are very self-centred. Everything is all about, “Does it suit me?”, rather than “What does it mean for the other person?” If the labour is cheaper and makes our lives easier, we don’t think further than that.

However, I do think there is a total lack of awareness about this issue as well. You have awareness campaigns about many other subjects but human trafficking is not something people talk about or one can find in the media, to be honest.

Coming from South Africa, I am a little bit more aware about the issue. But that has more to do with sex trafficking. If you went deeper into the issue, I am sure you would find other aspects of human trafficking as well.

But why do we not ask whether the people around might be victims of human trafficking?

Maybe because if we found out about it, we would be quite ashamed as human beings. We keep projecting this image of how good we are and how society has progressed, while in reality, it goes back generations and generations towards slavery.

It is an uncomfortable reality and if we did think about it, surely we would have some compassion and do something about it.

We have created these problems and now we can’t deal with it. We are more concerned about the latest mobile or who’s wearing what on our social media feed. Is this life? Is this what we are living? Is this important?

Even in my own little world, I don’t think about the guy who is cleaning my car and what his life is like or and the guy who is sweeping the road.

They are human beings, the same as us, and they deserve the same respect and compassion because at the end of the day we are all trying to live our lives and life is very short.

When you think about the solution, I think it boils down to more awareness and the fact that as a society we need to take responsibility.

If you look at wealth gap and the fact that, according to Oxfam International, 42 people hold the same amount of wealth as half the world, you can begin to see where the problem is.

May be if governments and people shared the world’s riches and we were taught compassion as opposed to greed, we might be able to find a solution.

From Ms Kathy Scheepmaker