(UNESP - 2013 - 2a fase - Questo 34)On Solidarity:

(UNESP - 2013 - 2a fase - Questão 34)

On Solidarity: Who is helped when someone is helped?

There comes a time
When we heed a certain call
When the world must come together as one
There are people dying
And it’s time to lend a hand to life

              Poverty, starvation, diseases, among other social problems, still make many people suffer in different parts of the world, despite the advances in agricultural developments, in medicine and in technology. And, as pointed out in the verses above, from the song We are the world (www.lyrics007.com), there comes a time when we heed a certain call / when the world must come together as one. It seems, however, that such time is and will always be the present time, since there has always been people dying, people suffering physical and psychological oppression. Conversely, aid is always and continuously necessary.
              Fortunately, a number of charities and non-governmental organizations have put forward campaigns to help the populations in poor areas of our planet, to lend a hand to life. This is a way through which food, money and medical help can be provided and thus counterbalance the suffering faced by the ill, the homeless, the poor. And providing aid to these less fortunate populations can be seen, according to the same song, as the greatest gift of all. The song continues, saying that

We can’t go on pretending day by day
That someone, somehow will soon make a change
We are all a part of God’s great big family
And the truth, you know, love is all we need

              The call for help and the claim for responsibility towards the needs of the poor is made to every human being, then everybody should do something because we are all a part of God’s great big family.
              My question is, in fact, what reasons really motivate us to help other people? To what extent are we motivated by the arguments presented in the song? Or are there other reasons involved in solidarity?
The chorus tells us that

There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true we’ll make a better day, just you and me

but I would question such choice as motivated by the desire for a better world that includes everybody, a world with no big social differences. Perhaps that we actually see solidarity as a way to literally save our own lives, and that you and me would not include as many people as it should. Rather than thinking about so many people who need help, we engage in charity and make donations for our own benefit, to build up an image of solidarity from which we could end up as beneficiaries. Not to feel guilty, to sort of “buy a place in heaven”.
              We certainly need more than romantic love to commit ourselves to true solidarity.

Qual o significado da expressão the greatest gift of all? A que essa expressão se refere?