On the sidelines of our busy lives, it makes us feel good to pick a few battles to care about. Or, more likely, let someone else pick them for us. In February 2022, Putin picked on Ukraine and Middle England breathed a sigh of relief – caring came nice and easily for a nation which felt familiar and a crisis which threatened to affect them too. A year later, Ukrainian refugees were living in our spare rooms, and the UK was spending billions on military and humanitarian aid. So, news of 7 October’s attacks, and Israel’s tone-setting response, quickly turned placid heads away from a tiring European crisis to a more intriguing war: one where they could pick sides.
Coverage of Gaza has been exhaustive, outnumbering articles on Sudan by roughly 18 to 1 over the first nine months of conflict. The mainstream media decided this was a problem last month, when, on 26 October, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) completed their onslaught of el-Fasher, in Western Sudan, through systematic civilian murder and rape operations. Until then, Sudan’s suffering had received little of the limelight. Since the conflict began in April 2023, the UK has been sending only £118m per year, which is slightly overshadowed by Gaza’s £138m, and entirely dwarfed by Ukraine’s average of £3.5bn. Yet, as soon as the media awoke to Sudan’s cries, our reluctant government doubled their aid package to £231m.
Playing a superficial numbers game with all this suffering leads to the increasingly common but unfounded diagnosis that some of the aid we’ve sent to Gaza should have gone to Sudan. This mistake over-esteems the British charitable body – both government and private donors – as though they would be, or have ever been, consistent in the issues they choose to care about. It overlooks how much it benefits a government to crack down on alleged foreign threats, to equivocate while publicising controversial wars, and to ignore the same people their citizens ignore (until they don’t). This is made bare by considering the £128m worth of military equipment funnelled from Britain to Israel last autumn, and the £172m worth of weapons exported to the UAE this summer (an accused backer of the RSF). Adding it up, Britain’s support for Gaza evens out at roughly nada, and Sudan, even with the latest boost, is deep in the red.
Recognising the terrible extent of the Sudanese crisis has hit hardest with the engaged half of Britons who chose a team in the Israel-Gaza war. Palestinians and their allies worry they’ve “unwittingly kept the compassionate world’s focus elsewhere”. Pro-Israel activists attribute the outsized attention they’ve received to anti-Israel bias, fuelled by antisemitism. Sudanese emigrants see the disproportionate reaction as a racist disregard for the lives of Black Africans. Here we must credit the conversation pro-Palestinian activists began: Western sympathies materialise in action far quicker when a crisis threatens those who look like them.
For Ukraine and Israel, the original attack they faced was sufficient for Western leaders to mobilise. The salient difference for Gaza, and now Sudan, is that without a media campaign on their behalf – one that advertises their suffering – the West fails to rally. Fortunately, Palestinians have been fantastic self-publicists; in doing so, they’ve added a new slot for caring into our busy schedules. Specifically, caring for a cause which our government will not sort out for us: one which does not threaten our lives or our way of life directly. Filling this slot is about satiating the very human desire to feel that we are helping people. It is this slot that Sudan can now join in occupying.
Of course, Sudan deserves more than being our second best. Yet, the negligible attention their plight received in the first six months of civil war, before the 7 October attacks, suggests the world was not yet primed to register their cause. So, charities should not bemoan Gaza for the attention it attracts, for it is that very attention which will now turn, better late than never, to Sudan. No penny spent on life-saving aid is misplaced, and, as marketers know all-too-well, every penny we spend primes us for more spending. Best not to self-flagellate then, nor let the right-wing press flagellate us either. Instead, let’s remark on how our capacity for caring has expanded in these last few years, and use it to do more good.
“Stop the killings and rapes in Darfur #1” by alisdare1 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Related
On Ukraine, Gaza, and (finally) Sudan: Letting attention move across borders
On the sidelines of our busy lives, it makes us feel good to pick a few battles to care about. Or, more likely, let someone else pick them for us. In February 2022, Putin picked on Ukraine and Middle England breathed a sigh of relief – caring came nice and easily for a nation which felt familiar and a crisis which threatened to affect them too. A year later, Ukrainian refugees were living in our spare rooms, and the UK was spending billions on military and humanitarian aid. So, news of 7 October’s attacks, and Israel’s tone-setting response, quickly turned placid heads away from a tiring European crisis to a more intriguing war: one where they could pick sides.
Coverage of Gaza has been exhaustive, outnumbering articles on Sudan by roughly 18 to 1 over the first nine months of conflict. The mainstream media decided this was a problem last month, when, on 26 October, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) completed their onslaught of el-Fasher, in Western Sudan, through systematic civilian murder and rape operations. Until then, Sudan’s suffering had received little of the limelight. Since the conflict began in April 2023, the UK has been sending only £118m per year, which is slightly overshadowed by Gaza’s £138m, and entirely dwarfed by Ukraine’s average of £3.5bn. Yet, as soon as the media awoke to Sudan’s cries, our reluctant government doubled their aid package to £231m.
Playing a superficial numbers game with all this suffering leads to the increasingly common but unfounded diagnosis that some of the aid we’ve sent to Gaza should have gone to Sudan. This mistake over-esteems the British charitable body – both government and private donors – as though they would be, or have ever been, consistent in the issues they choose to care about. It overlooks how much it benefits a government to crack down on alleged foreign threats, to equivocate while publicising controversial wars, and to ignore the same people their citizens ignore (until they don’t). This is made bare by considering the £128m worth of military equipment funnelled from Britain to Israel last autumn, and the £172m worth of weapons exported to the UAE this summer (an accused backer of the RSF). Adding it up, Britain’s support for Gaza evens out at roughly nada, and Sudan, even with the latest boost, is deep in the red.
Recognising the terrible extent of the Sudanese crisis has hit hardest with the engaged half of Britons who chose a team in the Israel-Gaza war. Palestinians and their allies worry they’ve “unwittingly kept the compassionate world’s focus elsewhere”. Pro-Israel activists attribute the outsized attention they’ve received to anti-Israel bias, fuelled by antisemitism. Sudanese emigrants see the disproportionate reaction as a racist disregard for the lives of Black Africans. Here we must credit the conversation pro-Palestinian activists began: Western sympathies materialise in action far quicker when a crisis threatens those who look like them.
For Ukraine and Israel, the original attack they faced was sufficient for Western leaders to mobilise. The salient difference for Gaza, and now Sudan, is that without a media campaign on their behalf – one that advertises their suffering – the West fails to rally. Fortunately, Palestinians have been fantastic self-publicists; in doing so, they’ve added a new slot for caring into our busy schedules. Specifically, caring for a cause which our government will not sort out for us: one which does not threaten our lives or our way of life directly. Filling this slot is about satiating the very human desire to feel that we are helping people. It is this slot that Sudan can now join in occupying.
Of course, Sudan deserves more than being our second best. Yet, the negligible attention their plight received in the first six months of civil war, before the 7 October attacks, suggests the world was not yet primed to register their cause. So, charities should not bemoan Gaza for the attention it attracts, for it is that very attention which will now turn, better late than never, to Sudan. No penny spent on life-saving aid is misplaced, and, as marketers know all-too-well, every penny we spend primes us for more spending. Best not to self-flagellate then, nor let the right-wing press flagellate us either. Instead, let’s remark on how our capacity for caring has expanded in these last few years, and use it to do more good.
“Stop the killings and rapes in Darfur #1” by alisdare1 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Share this:
Like this:
Related