Faith in collaboration
This article was originally posted on my newsletter: https://kiyani.substack.com
« As long as we are all together there is nothing to fear »
— kimetso no saba
I am not sure that this is still the case, but there was a time when I had a lot of faith in human beings. And in this coronavirus time, strangely, this crazy faith seems to be founded.
Every day since the beginning of March, thousands of acts of altruist are popping on the internet.
In Côte d’Ivoire, the ex-star of Coupé Décalé, Molare, provided shelter for homeless children during this curfew period. More than half a million people responded to the UK government’s call to become a volunteer for the National Health Service (NHS) when the government was only hoping to get 250,000 people to sign up. I have a group of engineers friends who meet every night after their day job on Zoom to design ventilators. This is heartwarming, but here is more.
On the enterprise level, big and small companies are not left behind. The African logistic startup Koko Networks has re-calibrated its supply chain to convert ethanol for cooking fuel to sanitation products. Lifebank founder, Temi Giwa-Tubosun has launched a national Quip register for critical healthcare infrastructure to fight COVID-19 across 200 Nigerian hospitals. In Ghana, digital diagnostics company Redbird has launched its COVID-19 self-check and resources app which will also cover Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and the US.
I won’t deny that even if I personally give them praise for their help, I can’t silence that little voice in my head telling me that some of these companies are just building their brand and that their intentions are not 100% selfless. This is the wisest business strategy, and most of them don’t have the choice to play the altruist card in times like this.
It would indeed be poor taste to try to capitalize on a pandemic. It is an implicit social rule that during a crisis, the interest of the group is the priority. This is a rule as old as our first civilization and it has been passed down from generation to generation by a gene called the altruist gene — called by me, I just invented it.
Altruism can be defined as the unselfish behavior of one group in order to enhance the wellbeing of the entire group.
It’s true that we can’t deny that competitiveness, envy, hatred, cruelty, and betrayal are aspects of human nature and that these negatives are all well represented in human history. But the driving force of our advance as a species has not been our tendency to be brutally self-interested, but our ability to be socially cooperative in times of need. And I recently learned that this force is present in every social species.
We know that certain ants literally explode as weapons in defense of the colony. Despite knowing that they will die if they deliver a sting, worker bees don’t hesitate to attack intruders and protect their homes. And it’s no coincidence that in the films, which reflect our society, you always have this protagonist who has never been brave but who suddenly finds the courage to sacrifice himself to save the rest of the group. I call it the “Courage the Cowardly Dog” effect — that too I invented it.
But more seriously, the altruist gene exists. It is an evolutionary biologist concept as old as Darwin. Simply put, it justifies why on regular basic humans are so selfish but when things are getting real (pun intended), they tend to stick together to increase their survival rate. Our ability to collaborate has kept us alive for centuries and that is kind of the point of this article.
I know we are in strange times right now. Some of us are under a lot of pressure, there is uncertainty about our jobs, school, the health of our loved ones, our failing health care system and all that is piled on top of all the other problems we already have to face.
It’s hard and it will eventually get harder. We will all be affected by the virus in one way or another. The good news is that we are made to deal with this type of situation.
We have been engineered thousands of years ago to adapt and collaborate to find solutions. This is a time to reach out and be altruistic.
If you are in a good place, try to help. And if you’re in difficulty, do not hesitate to ask for help whether it is to talk about anxiety or financial needs.
We’re in this together. We will find solutions and get through this.
Good content
As always, I have a few links that I find worth sharing with you all! They don’t call me Santa Ki for no reason. Let’s go with 4 carefully selected items :
- A book: Loneliness Human nature and the need for social connection. I have always wanted to understand why humans feel this need to connect. I have been lonely during some period of my life and thanks to this book I understand this feeling better. For example, I learned that a scan of the brain has shown us that the emotional region of the brain that is activated when we feel rejected is the same region that registers emotional responses to physical pain. We have known since we were children that physical pain protects the individual from physical dangers, right? Well, social pain, aka loneliness, evolved for a similar reason: protect the individual from the danger of remaining isolated. The sensation associated with loneliness evolved because they contributed to our survival as species.
- A documentary: “Human” by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. This is my favorite documentary. It is visually stunning and I strongly recommend it. I am ashamed to confess, if it was not already obvious, that I love humans. I find them very curious. I am fascinated by our complexity and how at the same time we are all sharing the same fear and needs. This documentary graciously explores our commonalities. When I will be the president of the universe, it would be mandatory to watch it.
- A product: angelsamong.us. ‘Angels among us’ is a simple tool for people with relatively secure financial statuses to help people whose means of livelihood have been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria. It was built in a few days by a group of developers and launched yesterday. Dozens of people have already made anonymous donations to people in need. If you are a cynic, this particular product will restore your faith in kindness. I particularly like that the product is designed to encourage anonymous donation. The focus is on helping without bragging about it. “The purest form of giving is from anonymous to anonymous — Jay Z”
- An article: The Contrarian Coronavirus Theory That Informed the Trump Administration. This article is as funny as it is infuriating. I have an uncle who likes to say, education is not equal to intelligence.
And that’s it for today. I wish you all a good week,
Take care of yourself and don’t hesitate to DM me if you want to talk about what I wrote,
Sincerely,
Ki 👋🏽
Ki. 