Wednesday, December 29, 2004
23,000 is a fairly large number to say the least
A death of a loved one can shatter you, and another, and another, but there comes a time when you must learn to let go. People have told me that it gets easier to handle the deaths of loved ones with age, as an increasing number of friends or family pass them by. Perhaps, with experience, we will understand that death is not the nightmare we imagine it to be; that it is not for us to judge an eternity that we do not know.
Perhaps there is a certain threshold, beyond which death will cease to affect us. There are just too many ways to die these, and just too many people dying. I don’t believe the human heart was designed to cope with the amount of grief needed to mourn the loss of so many. And so tragedy leaves us blasé and unaffected; terrorist attacks and strange disease outbreaks fill us with many things (horror, outrage, fear) but seldom does sorrow take the centre stage. I can recall a time when Newsweek articles or programmes on starving orphans in Somalia or African Aids victims could reduce me to a crumpled, crying heap. They haven’t done that in a long time.
But how can anyone remain blasé about 23,000 deaths? 23,000 lives cast out from their homes, driven by the tides to a distant shore far lonelier than the one they leave behind. Just imagining the collective loss of 23,000 lives is horrifying enough. It is infinitely more excruciating when one considers each of these lives as individuals, as distinct personalities, as people we might have known. How can one stand in the face of such tragedy and remain indifferent? Death on such a scale goes beyond the sadness of loss; one is forced to look death in the eye and recognize one’s own humanity.
To recognize one’s own humanity would be to recognize that all of mankind is united, simply because it is us that make up humanity. Watching lives being thrown away,
by the thousands is not something anyone can easily ignore.
Yet it is possible. One particular incident struck me as being singularly sad. There was this guy in the news whose family had planned to visit Phuket on a holiday. The flight to Phuket was cancelled, disrupting the family’s holiday plans and forcing them to make alternative arrangements. And instead of feeling gratitude for having averted a possible tragedy, instead of expressing sorrow for the immense losses suffered by the victims in their home countries, this person fumes about not receiving compensation from the airline for the cancellation of their flight. What kind of a fucked up person can, at a time like this, look at the camera in the eye and speak of something as banal as money? be glad I do not know your name, sir, or else it would be vilified on this page beyond redemption. As a Singaporean, I am ashamed to be born on the same land that has hatched such soulless worms as yourself.
Friends tell me this is a sign of the coming Apocalypse. Would they have preferred death to facing eternal judgement? If the events of the past two days have indeed been deliberate acts of God, I have to say that I do not understand Him.
Still, there are those that have survived, and they need any help they can get.
Message received via SMS: Collection of essentials ie clothing, medicine, dried food, etc at No 19 Dalhousie Lane (behind Tekka Mall) to help Sri Lanka victims. Please send in by Wednesday and forward this message. Thank you.
Guess all we can do is hope for a better day tomorrow, and pray for the souls of those who have left us.
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