For those of you sitting at home and getting annoyed at your pandemic-induced state of affairs, thinking about people who have an order of magnitude less than you usually helps in feeling better. Swallowing the always-forgotten “empathy pill” has done wonders in keeping humans happy since the beginning of time.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),the population of those who are “forcibly displaced increased by 2.3 million people in 2018” and most painfully of all, by the end of the year, the total number of total displaced individuals stood at 70.8 million, a number which includes 25.9 million refugees alone. This is more than the combined populations of New York and California, coincidentally two states who are currently under stay-at-home orders by their respective governors.
If you compare those numbers to ones from 2010, the picture was very different, although quickly taking a dire turn due mainly to the financial hardships inside first world countries caused by the Great Recession (which resulted in 1st-world’s inability to interfere in conflicts due to fiscal difficulties at home). In 2010, the total number of forcibly displaced stood at 43.7 million, of which 15.4 million were refugees—a large number in itself, but more than 10 million less than what it is today.
Why give shock-and-awe figures of people who are products of war torn countries? Well these people left their countries due to a long list of reasons, whether it was bombs falling on there homes or corrupt governments turning against them, the world around these people began to crumble and they the only thing they could do: run for safety.
Similarly, coronavirus outbreak in our world is an unseen enemy that is disproportionately killing the old and weak, bringing our healthcare systems to its knees, not to mention the general economy to a complete and unprecedented standstill. It’s safe to say that the way we understood life changed literally over a span of a single week. By taking refuge inside our homes and socially distancing ourselves from everyone besides our own family members (at least most us), we are temporary feeling what it is like to be refugees, except for few key differences, of course. We have plenty of water for drinking and keeping clean, decent WiFi for Netflix and Youtube, access to food, more toilet paper than we could ever use, shelter, healthcare, and of course, security of the police. Thankfully we aren’t roughing it out like the millions upon millions of hardened refugees packed like sardines inside tent cities near dangerous border crossings. Thankfully.
At the end of the day, go to bed each night being thankful for all the things we have, instead of being sad about all the things we used to have.
Faisaling.com 
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