48 | The Lion King
O
n March 1993, Photographer, Kevin Carter
made a trip to Southern Sudan, where he
took the now iconic photo of a vulture
seemingly preying upon an emaciated Sudanese
toddler. The photograph was sold to The New
York Times where it appeared for the first time
on March 26, 1993. The picture described as a
‘metaphor for Africa’s despair’ generated so
many controversies concerning the fate of the girl,
that the newspaper had to run a special report
saying the girl had enough strength to walk away
from the vulture, but that her ultimate fate was
unknown.
Overnight, Carter became a celebrity. Friends
and colleagues complimented him on the picture
and on April 12, 1994, when The New York Times
phoned to tell him he had won the Pulitzer Prize for
the photo, it appeared like he was having the time
of his life.
Unfortunately two months after receiving his prize,
the 33 year old Carter was found dead of carbon-
monoxide poisoning in Johannesburg, in an
apparent suicide.
I was reminded of this story a few Sundays ago.
There was a fatal accident on Third Mainland
Bridge involving a ‘Danfo’ bus. The driver was
still trapped in the bus, strapped to his seat and
was bleeding profusely from his nose and ears. I
watched horrified as I noticed that the first set of
people that had arrived at the scene parked their
cars and were taking pictures and making videos
of the accident with their cell phones. Not one
of them even got close to him. The crowd were
so excited, the scene so contagious that if I were
not driving and in a hurry, I probably would have
reached out for my phone to join them.
The next day, I learnt that after being in that
state for a while, the Danfo Bus driver eventually
succumbed to his injuries and died, still strapped
to his seat. Who knows if he would have survived
if those busy taking pictures on their phones had
dropped those phones and tried to get him out the
bus to give him First Aid treatment? But no one did
and so the man died.
I have thought about that sad Sunday many times
over and over and I am asking desperately - what
has happened to our humanity? Has the need to
gain popularity on social media taken the place of
being social in the real world? When we stand by
and watch another person die just so that we can
be the first to get that person’s dying moment on
Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, then it is time to
take a real long hard look at ourselves.
How many times have you been in this same
situation? How many times have you been in the
position to help someone, but instead took a
picture and turned away? It is easy to blame our
educational system for not teaching us basic First
Aid. It is easy to blame law enforcement officers
for their practice of holding the person seen at the
scene of an accident accountable. It is easy to
blame the government for not providing enough
ambulances and emergency services. But if we do
nothing and say nothing when we see somebody
hurt and maybe even dying, are we not also guilty
of murder by negligence?
Whenever there is an emergency that has the
potential to take a person’s life, please do not walk
away without doing something, even if all you can
do is to make a phone call that could possibly help
the victim or victims. Forget about how viral your
video might go, forget about the picture that may
make you an instant celebrity. Focus your attention
on saving the person. Even if you do not eventually
save a person’s life, you have answered a clarion
call in the service of humanity. Compassion and
empathy make us human and differentiate us from
animals.
Let us not allow social media replace the need to
be social beings.
Experiences
Guilty by negligence
By Ebi Akpeti
