the ignorant german

Are you sometimes grateful that you live in a country where you can move freely, speak with whom you want to speak, believe in what you want to believe and where you can criticize the government without the fear of being send to prison or even get tortured for it?
Well, I am - especially when I am reminded that there exist far too many people in the world who live in a dictatorship or so and do not have any rights at all - who are severely oppressed or prosecuted or have to starve each day because their government does not care about them.
Yet it seems as if not everyone here in Germany is clear about how lucky he or she should be to live in a civilized country that respects human rights.

A friend of mine works voluntarily for amnesty international. Last week she and her fellow members had a booth at our campus to inform the students about human rights and how amnesty champions them.

Afterwards she told me that the majority of those who stopped and were eager to get to know more about that topic were exchange students from Asian or African countries. A lot of the German students just walked by or even asked her why human rights should concern them. It really striked me how ignorant and self-centered some people are. Their attitude towards such issues is "okay, it´s not me who suffers so why should I care??!!" It is these people who take their situation for granted. Half a year in China, Cuba or North Korea would definetely change their minds. All of a sudden they would learn to appreciate what a great life they are able to lead. In my opinion it is very sad that some people do only see misery if they experienced it themselves - that they need to be confronted directly with it in order to be willing face such circumstances. Isn´t it enough to watch the news or read the papers?