Staying Awake in a Time of Social Change

Our world is changing but many of us are still sleeping as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would say to those who seemed to be sleeping during a time of social change.

He talked about how one of the great liabilities of life is that all too many people find themselves living amid a great period of social change, and yet they fail to develop the new attitudes, the new mental responses, that the new situation demands. As a result, according to Dr. King, they end up sleeping through a revolution.

As a Public Health Practitioner I have seen and continue to see how many of us are sleeping while millions are dying locally and around the world due to diseases that are easily preventable and due to armed conflicts with all their impact on the economy and health.

The current HIV/AIDS, pandemic is raising issues of justice, apathy, judgmental attitudes, discrimination, non-responsiveness, and passive aggression in our various communities.

War and conflicts in Congo, Somalia and Uganda to mention only these three countries I am familiar with, have become effective means for the spread of this disease for which there is no cure or vaccine.

Such conflicts are destroying the basic infrastructure of these nations. They leave children orphans, schools and health care providers unmotivated by lack of salaries and basic material to work with.

We are challenged to develop a different world perspective. The world events are reminding us of the simple fact that no individual can live alone, no nation can live alone, and anyone who feels that he can live alone is sleeping through a revolution.

Dr. Pakisa K. Tshimika Executive Director & Founder