Self and other is less of a dichotomy than a continuum. James Hamblin
I’m sorry it took me so long to see you, Alina. But I see you now. Leigh Bardugo
Human fate gives itself to human fate, and it is the task of pure love to keep this self-surrender as vital as on the first day. Martin Heidegger
We reveal most about ourselves when we speak about others. Kamand Kojouri
We are the other of the other. Marco Aurelio
Our biases against the other are empowered less by our assumptions of their otherness and more by our assumptions about our own normality. Jamie Arpin-Ricci
They think they are sweet reasonableness, and it’s you that’s in the wrong, just by being, and not being like them, or looking like them, or wanting their kind of life. Margaret Laurence
One of the joys of life is to have friends who know you well enough suggest things for you to read that both confirm and stretch your deepest assumptions. Such happened to me in Georgia a few days ago complements of Dr. Robert Thomas, a friend and Board member of Global Action.
The book he suggested is entitled “The Other” from the prolific, Polish author Ryszard Kapuściński. Quoting philosophers familiar to me in other contexts, including Gabriel Marcel and Emmanuel Lévinas, Kapuściński urges us to embrace diversity and otherness as a “constituent feature” of the human condition. Moreover, he accepts the view (as I do as well) that our contemporary predispositions to conquest, to master, to create both abstractions and dependencies are all contrary to some core human aspirations, specifically to see others clearly and compassionately and to be seen by others similarly; to practice a curiosity about the world and each other which is more than meeting, conversing and accepting but which also involves “taking responsibility” for the other, for his/her dignity and well-being as a contribution both to them but also to ourselves.
Kapuściński warns that much in our current cultural configuration is focused on establishing dichotomies than in affirming the continuum on which all our humanity rests. Despite our western access to education and technology, we are much too willing to embrace groupthink which can, as he reflects, turn the friendliest of humans into “devils.” We have demonstrated, over the over, our preference for owning a neighbor’s farm rather than having neighbors. We defer to anonymous stereotyping even when it is directly contradicted by our own experience. We continue to assess our own “normalcy” too highly and the “normalcy” of others too dismissively. We maintain “unfortunate balances” with the Other when a more mutually dignified balance lies well within reach. We have misplaced our “will to become acquainted” and thus undermined the genuine dialogue he posits as the “main goal of encounter.”
Ironically, I was devouring this short text as the UN, our primary and sometimes frustrating cover, was in the midst of some important policy deliberations, one of which was the first formal review of the Global Compact on Migration adopted in Marrakesh four years ago.
Together with Economic and Social Council deliberations on “operational activities” for sustainable development and Security Council discussions on the relationship between conflict and food insecurity, this review of migration policy in the General Assembly was timely and for the most part hopeful as it alternately recognized and enabled the wide range of persons and professions with a valid stake in both the drivers of displacement and in the care and reintegration of migrants and other displaced persons. Speaker after speaker reminded the audience of the many contributions that migrants can and do make to recipient communities, but also the many impediments – from racism and barbed wire to trafficking and the denial of vaccines and access to provisions – which mark so many treacherous migrant journeys. Some of the civil society speakers highlighted the remaining gaps between the aspirations of the Global Compact and our current, collective practices. As I understood it, this was less about scolding diplomats than about a reminder that the essentials of migrants’ lives, including the basic recognition of their dignity and humanity, remain painfully elusive. The President of the General Assembly echoed this theme, lamenting the “lost dreams” of children and families which occur when we fail our responsibilities to the Compact, including the responsibility to see with eyes of humanity as much as of policy.
I was in Marrakesh for that GCM adoption though mostly hanging out on the margins with NGOs whose first-hand testimony of migrant’s needs was mostly deemed marginal itself. However, as it turns out, I was able to spend some good time speaking with a few of the people who were in the city for another reason — to escape some harsh conditions, many of which were conflict related, far to the south across the Atlas Mountains and a vast swath of desert and savannah beyond. To my surprise, a number of those displaced persons had made their way from the Anglophone region of Cameroon beset by open, ethnic-based conflict over several years. I had previously traveled widely in that region, and it was quite an experience to be able to share stories of life in towns from which they had come and to which I had on more of one occasion made my visits.
I did nothing tangible for these people, of course, nothing at all except to confirm that they came from somewhere; that they had homes and families “back there;” that they missed much about a culture and an ecology far different than the one to which they had temporarily transitioned. They had come to believe that a future in Europe would offer more stability and opportunity for themselves and their families, and yet the borders of Europe were far from reach. Indeed, as it was explained to me, the chances of them reaching Europe were more remote than the chances that the local police would apprehend them and drop them on the other side of the Atlas Mountains, leaving them essentially to recalibrate plans and otherwise fend for themselves in the desert heat, surely another blow to both their residual resilience and their confidence in the compassion of others.
There are so many occasions and interactions in our work which cause us (or should) to question ourselves, our commitment to the well-being of the vulnerable and, even more directly, our connections to those we purport to serve. Those of us who occupy policy spaces can, if we are not really careful, get away with opinions about ourselves which appear more noble (or as we say at the UN “distinguished) than would likely be confirmed by outsiders. Indeed, one of the changes we have witnessed at the UN over the years is the presence of more voices from the field – albeit often for short interventions – voices expressly less interested in the “excellence” of our policy community and more concerned with commitments deferred, promises broken, even a failure to see deeply enough to realize that we in the policy community can occasionally enable change but should surely be more careful about directing it.
This “seeing” which in our case is often more attuned to bureaucratic processes relevant to the Other than to the task of overcoming our reserve, restraint and even mistrust of the Other; such “seeing” must be transformed through what Kapuściński called “the will to become acquainted.” Simply put, we must not allow the “mass” of media voices or economic ambitions to sideline or even overcome the personal. If we learned anything during this GCM review week it is that dignity is as important to the Other as provisions. It is mostly when migrants are invisible to the rest of us, even at times to erstwhile caregivers, that the pain of displacement is felt most acutely. It needn’t take so long, be so difficult, to see each other in a different, more attentive, more comprehensive way.
For Kapuściński, for us as well, policy which does not promote the dignity of other cultures and languages, which does not intend to exchange barbed wire for welcome signs, which does not encourage lines of sight which are clear and compassionate, is ultimately “a road to nowhere.” He believes that a rising tide of displacement and our treatment of persons on the move will, indeed, determine the kind of world we are likely to live in going forward. With threats from violence, climate change and the loss of biodiversity and agricultural land; with racist rhetoric, women’s rights rollbacks and violent extremism all on the increase; the challenges associated with overcoming what has become a contemporary cocktail of bias and indifference – in our world and in ourselves — are formidable.
We need good policy to help mitigate the many disincentives in our world which keep our hearts harder than they need to be and makes mere eye-contact with the Other a largely forsaken act. But more than policy, we need to prepare ourselves at individual and community level for what may turn out to be the greatest of all our contemporary human tests, the recovery of our long-compromised, long-trammeled ability to see each other with clarity, compassion and care.
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