Why the world failed to notice a tiny little girl washed up on a Turkish beach
DECEMBER 9, 20157:04PM
The body of a young girl washed up at Cesme District of Izmir, Turkey on December 07, 2015. Picture: Stringer/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Rohan Smithnews.com.au
WHEN poor little Aylan Kurdi washed up lifeless on an empty Turkish beach in September, his image was shared around the world.
The tragedy was front page news across Europe and elsewhere, including Australia, and the small child whose death was the result of a refugee crisis a world away spawned rallies in capital cities around the country and affected policy in Canberra.
The response was entirely appropriate. The world was rightly outraged and upset at the images. Though thousands have died at sea fleeing Syria just like Aylan, his face stood out above the rest. It became something to fight for and a reason to never let the same thing happen again.
But two months later, it did happened again.
Only this time there is no outrage, nor front page news stories.
The little girl washed up on a beach on Tuesday a few hundred kilometres from where Aylan’s body was discovered, according to the BBC. A day earlier the Turkish coastguard recovered eight bodies from the sea, including five young children and a baby.
There’s a reason the response to the tragedies are so starkly different, experts say. But it’s not an excuse to turn a blind eye.
The image that circulated the globe. Picture: AP Photo/DHASource:Supplied WHEN EMPATHY IS GONE
Lisa A Williams is a social psychologist based at UNSW in Sydney. She told news.com.au empathy was a complex topic and one difficult to explain.
“One way to understand differences in how people respond to the suffering of others is recognising the ‘empathy gap’,” Dr Williams said.
“We carve social circles from those closest to us out to those we consider to be out-groups. We are more likely to feel compassion or empathy for family and friends in those closer circles, but as you move out of those inner circles, a gap in compassionate responding arises.
“When there’s someone suffering who is geographically far away, who may not be the same religion, age, ethnicity, or gender as us, we are more likely to perceive that person as part of an out group — and hence feel less compassion.”
The little girl’s body lies under a sheet on the Turkish coast. Picture: Stringer/Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images
She said Aylan Kurdi “broke through” in many ways because his image was simply impossible to ignore.
“Every once in a while something will break those circles, a situation or a person that might normally be in an outer circle might break through and capture our attention. At that point we might respond compassionately.”
She said compassion is important, provided it had a purpose.
The public’s emotional outpouring following the three-year-old’s tragic drowning death was channelled into sit-ins, candlelight vigils, fundraisers and pressure on governments to change the way they responded to the crisis.
Unfortunately, because little has changed, Dr Williams said there was a feeling of helplessness which could be a factor in why the public was turning a blind eye.
“Maybe a lot of people felt they wanted to help (Aylan) but thought their efforts were ineffective or didn’t know how to help. Now they might see a similar image and feel that there isn’t a way to help.”
Aylan Kurdi’s death led to the Light the Dark vigil in Hyde Park in Sydney in September. Similar vigils were held around the country. Picture: Justin LloydSource:News Corp Australia
The little girl who drowned this week was photographed with half her body beneath a sheet. Her tiny legs, dressed in purple pants, were sticking out but her face was concealed. Dr Williams said that shouldn’t make us ignore her, but it may have played a role.
“You would hope something like that wouldn’t make a difference. There’s a question of humanity. If there’s a human face then maybe that is where our compassion resonates.”
Sadly, bodies are almost certain to continue to wash up on beaches across Europe as the world struggles to respond to migration on a scale never seen before. When they do, we should pay attention, as difficult as it may be.
“In the face of huge numbers of suffering people, compassion may give way to despair,” Dr Williams said.
“In situations like this, I think we need to rise to the challenge of finding a common humanity and resonating with compassionate responses and finding a way to help.”
