IN reaction to our coverage and commentaries on the ongoing refugee crisis affecting Europe and other parts of the world, several readers have suggested our attention should be directed to the many displaced and otherwise persecuted people in our own country, rather than the plight of others.

That point of view – “worry about our own problems before worrying about someone else’s” – is wrong, and runs counter to the ideals of compassion we believe most of our countrymen as Filipinos and people of faith strive to uphold, however imperfectly. We live in a different country, not a different planet. The problem of people forced out of their homes by war and despotic rulers, left with no choice but to make a dangerous and all too often deadly trek to an uncertain future in search of a place where they can find a little safety and dignity is not a “Syrian problem,” or a “European problem,” or a “Muslim problem,” it is a human problem. Our sense of humanity demands that we be aware of it, and try to help.

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