The #trending of Humanitarian Disasters

Banksy is the embodiment of the powerful collision between art and political activism. His purchase of a rescue boat complete with little girl and heart balloon motif seems to have single-handedly raised the profile of the 'them' and 'us'' divide, and the desperation of 'them' to reach 'us' by any means necessary.

Connecting with this is the new digitally determined continuum of global ethics, there is something positively Darwinian about groups of anti-maskers congregating in the centre of London - their one-dimensional cause sadly without recognition that they have the 'right' to endanger lives by demonstrating en masse. It leads me to wonder whether these are the people that also vociferously refuse to acknowledge that others seek freedom in ways they will never have to comprehend, and would actively fight against the 'other's' fight for freedom - a self-labelled, proud 'pro-lifer' with all its horribly ironic juxtapositions and connotations.

Does the humanitarian catastrophe at a gargantuan scale of a traumatic and sometimes deathly sea crossing not touch the human soul until a prolific artist joins the campaign? It has led me to think as to why some global issues carry more gravitas than others. Is this a philosophical issue? Or is it far more underwhelming - is it all about social media reach capabilities?

It is not just the mainstream media any longer that have the clout to raise awareness of injustice which is propped up by its own institutional political leanings. Indeed, when Facebook, who own Instagram have only, literally in the last week, decided to censor holocaust denial, the very benchmark of horror on Earth, one wonders what rancid poison is carefully curated to reach those who seek the self-satisying echo-chamber of their keyboards.

The perceived gravity of humanitarian disasters are directly proportionate, and reduced to an attractive filter and composition, combined with number of followers and savvy hashtags. To gain traction and 'newsworthiness', a global problem only raises awareness according to the pseudo-popularity of its content creator. In the same way that a swimwear clad twenty something performing 'spontaneous' down-dogs on a mesmorising beach whilst 'influencing' travel gathers likes; war, displacement, and human rights abuses seems to be evaluated in accordance with the numerical value of clicks they gains from a single, subjective, and often self-promoting photo.

The multiple deaths involved in any one catastrophe has to be trendy to be 'trending'. Maybe it has always been like this? In which case, have we evolved at all?