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This piece was submitted as an entry in Civil Beat’s Emerging Writer’s contest.

The past year has been a tragic one. From terrorism to natural disasters, the world has been inundated with sad events, which occurred with regularity and despair in equal magnitude. These events captured the world’s attention, turning us into hapless witnesses forced to watch them transpire.

Hawaii has been fortunately immune to the suffering and tragedy. Though the state was fortunate to avoid them, it raises the issue of the role places like Hawaii should play in global affairs. The privilege of Hawaii’s freedom from tragedies should not be taken lightly. It is a privilege to evade the worst of these tragedies. But it is a privilege that warrants a greater compassion for the many places with greater burdens.

Since 2013, I have viewed disasters and suffering from the relative isolation of living in Hawaii. To interpret disasters while in Hawaii is not simply to learn about the disasters themselves, but the reaction that people on the island have to them.

From what I have seen, the reaction to most of these events is imperceptible. They are barely reported on in the state newspapers, rarely discussed in public, and there is no organized protest or advocacy on behalf of victims or causes. I don’t recall any mobilization of resources to toward the causes of human rights in Saudi Arabia, or refugees in Syria, or natural disasters around the world.

What does it say about a culture that pays so little attention to the suffering of others, and does so little to address it?

Observing the prevalent insouciance on the island has left me frustrated. How can people here remain so apathetic and detached from the suffering of others? It is something I have thought about many times, throughout my time here, yet have never fully digested.

What does it say about a culture that pays so little attention to the suffering of others, and does so little to address it?

I have posed this question to many people – friends, colleagues, acquaintances – and have received numerous explanations. In addition to the trope of feeble excuses, there is also the matter of the fundamental implications that the excuses represent. There is a greater element of injustice concealed behind the excuses.

Hawaii is isolated. This is the most common excuse, suggesting that geography or distance is a perfectly adequate vindication for avoiding the humane duty of compassion. In a globalized world, made smaller by cultural exchange, education, trade, and migration, do such excuses carry any weight? Of course not. People say them simply to shirk any obligation of involvement, to justify their detachment.

Other places are isolated too, yet have devoted much more energy and resources toward helping the sufferers of the world. This is why I find the excuse given by many people in Hawaii so inchoate.

Iceland commits plenty of money, people, and resources toward global aid and poverty. With 300,000 people, and located in the middle of the ocean, Iceland has close connections to many parts of the world.

Not only that, but Icelanders, responding to the burden of tourists and locals who have accidents and emergencies in the hazardous terrain (it is one of the most popular destinations in the world for adventure travel), have formed volunteer emergency relief teams across the country. They have saved hundreds of people through the years from injuries and disasters related to glaciers, floods, volcanoes, hikes and mountains. No such equivalent exists in Hawaii, though one could point out that plenty of hikers and mountain climbers get lost and trapped each year.

There are many other places – Norway, Denmark, Israel, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Cuba, Ireland – that, like Hawaii, are isolated and without historical ties to many regions of the world where the worst injustices and tragedies exist. All have been actively engaged in humanitarian efforts.

Cuba, the poorest of them all (and poorer than Hawaii), was assiduously involved in public health projects around the world, including in Uganda. They also have sent relief workers around the world during disasters.

I once spoke to a close friend who is a firefighter in Hawaii about the earthquake in Nepal. I asked if any of the firefighter groups or stations were sending volunteers. He looked baffled, and told me he had never heard of such a thing. I pointed out that groups of firefighters from around the world and the U.S. mainland were sending volunteers. One of the most famous groups was based out of Seattle. Washington state is no closer to Nepal than Hawaii, and doesn’t have any closer relationship or diplomatic ties. It is just that people there are more compassionate and aware.

Another excuse I’ve heard in Hawaii is that people are focused upon their own lives and problems. This is another thinly veiled disguise for being selfish and self-centered.

Every person in the world has their own problems. But the quintessential trait of compassion and humanity is the ability to recognize the suffering of others, and to temporarily set aside one’s owns interests for the sake of another. The suffering of many others in the world is much greater than in Hawaii. That is an absolute, incontrovertible fact.

The final excuse I have heard is that Hawaii has had its own trauma and suffering. The people who say this are referring to the history of colonization and war with the United States. But every nation on earth has been colonized (excepting Thailand), and most places have some history of war or suffering. Again, in contemporary times, Hawaii is much better off than the majority of the world, as it is in the wealthiest countries on Earth.

Hawaii is a part of the world as much as any other place. Our relative isolation here affords us the luxury of avoiding much of the tragedy and suffering so prevalent in other places. That luxury should not be taken for granted.

A primary motivation for many places becoming more involved in international affairs, especially humanitarian aid, has been their relative stability and freedom from tragedies. The realization by people in places like Norway and Israel of their relative privilege and wealth has encouraged their participation in making the world a better place and helping those less fortunate.

A similar realization has not really transcended the mentality in Hawaii, where people are mostly focused upon themselves, families and communities. It is not that people in Hawaii do not face difficulties or challenges. It is not that they don’t struggle and suffer. But relative to most people in the world, our suffering is less severe, and this privilege demands our awareness of other’s suffering, and greater participation in assuaging that injustice.