Notre Dame vs. World Problems
As many, if not all of you have heard. A fire broke out during the restoration of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. This fire destroyed a monument that was a historic beam for Parisians. The cathedral had survived, the french civil war, world war one, world war two and much more. But in a quick blaze the cathedral was a shell of its former (popular touristy) self. The moment the cathedral went up in a blaze, it was all over the news, people were distraught by its destruction. It was as if a huge pride of humanity and more specifically French Culture and identity was lost.
As tragic as this event may seem, we must take things into perspective. This church provided the country of France economic benefit through tourism as well as being a symbol of pride and a representation of their culture and history. But when you dig into that you realize that its significance is minute to the vast plight we face all around the world. When you compare the importance of fixing a church, to fixing famines in Yemen, or ending drug cartels and monopolies that terrorize nations and its people, you realize that the over 1 billion dollars raised towards fixing the cathedral is quite ignorant. Many may argue that those are issues that do not affect us, that helping our own is a priority. But rebuilding the church isn't truly helping anyone. France is currently, and has for a while, dealing with an issue of dealing with immigration from third world countries. Many areas are crowded with impoverished people from all over Africa and the middle east, who came to Europe to look for a way out of the dangers of their homeland. Instead of putting millions of Francs into situations such as these, the rich chose to put over a billion dollars into a cathedral.
This is a very important subject that you brought attention to. I have seen this discussion all over social media! I agree that there are many more problems in the world right now that involve actual human beings at risk, and many people are choosing to focus on a building. Money can be donated to things such as the Flint Michigan water crisis that has been ongoing for years, and a building that just burnt down are getting much more attention and donation than these bigger problems have ever gotten.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post. There are so many other things going on in the world that I feel its a bit negligent to focus all the money on the building. This does not mean this was an important monument, but if people are willing to pay for a broken building they should also be willing to shell out to issues that other humans are facing which put their lives in danger, such as not having enough food or water to survive in certain countries of the world.
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