Reciprocal Activism in Digital Spaces

N. Hajj
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Abstract

In the middle of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Mina H (a pseudonym), a young doctor living in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, sent out a plea on Facebook and WhatsApp to her extended family and village network around the globe for food and medicine. Just as the rest of the world was experiencing shortages of basic goods like flour, toilet paper, and protective gear, Palestinian refugees were facing dire shortages of food and other essential items. Within a few days of her plea, thousands of dollars had poured into the camp to help buy basic goods like food and medicine. Refugees around the entire world are confronting suffering unlike anything most of us have seen in our lifetime: 68.5 million refugees have lost their homes, their livelihoods, and access to basic goods and services. Yet Dr. Mina’s pleas did not go unheeded. The response illustrates the strategy Palestinians have developed for helping the community weather scarcity and catastrophe. In her memoir Circle of Quiet, Madeleine L’Engle asserts that communities maintain their wholeness and thrive when the gap between our virtuous selves and our daily actions is a narrow one. Building on this idea, Bryan Stevenson asserts in Just Mercy that when there is scarcity, violence, and injustice, “There is no wholeness outside of our reciprocal humanity.” (2014, 290). Reciprocity helps us reduce that gap. It gets people to give greatly of themselves even in terrible conditions. Readers of this book can learn a lot from Palestinian refugees about how to survive catastrophe and solve collective problems while remaining united. We can extend Palestinian refugee strategies to our own suffering communities, closing the gap between our virtuous selves and our daily actions by engaging in reciprocal activism.
数字空间中的互惠行动主义
在新型冠状病毒大流行期间,住在巴里德河难民营的年轻医生米娜·H博士(化名)在Facebook和WhatsApp上向她在全球的大家庭和村庄网络发出了食物和药品的请求。正如世界其他地方正在经历面粉、卫生纸和防护装备等基本商品的短缺一样,巴勒斯坦难民也面临着食品和其他必需品的严重短缺。在她发出请求的几天内,数千美元涌入难民营,帮助购买食品和药品等基本商品。全世界的难民正面临着我们大多数人一生中从未见过的苦难:6850万难民失去了家园,失去了生计,无法获得基本商品和服务。然而米娜博士的请求并没有被忽视。这种反应说明了巴勒斯坦人为帮助社区度过物资短缺和灾难而制定的战略。玛德琳·恩格尔在她的回忆录《宁静的圈子》中断言,当我们的道德自我和日常行为之间的差距缩小时,社区就会保持整体性和繁荣。在这个观点的基础上,布莱恩·史蒂文森在《公正的仁慈》一书中断言,当稀缺、暴力和不公正存在时,“在我们相互的人性之外就没有完整可言。”(2014, 290)。互惠可以帮助我们缩小这种差距。它使人们即使在恶劣的条件下也会付出很大的努力。这本书的读者可以从巴勒斯坦难民身上学到如何在灾难中生存,如何在保持团结的同时解决集体问题。我们可以将巴勒斯坦难民战略扩展到我们自己的苦难社区,通过参与互惠行动,缩小我们善良的自我与日常行动之间的差距。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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