Tsunami attacks in South Asia
26th Dec 2004
.
One year from now, this is going to be reduced to a problematic statistic. 130 000 is a horrific number, but who remembers the 100 000 killed in an Iran earthquake exactly one year before? It seems horribly pretentious to be grieving for them. I don’t know anyone involved, I haven’t visited most of those areas, I haven’t even heard of some of those places before this (Khaw Luak ??) I can’t do anything substantial for them, or perhaps I’m too afraid, ignorant, lazy, uninspired to do so. It’s unbearable and out of my depth to think about the victims and perhaps, even worse off, the survivors of the attack. (it‘s weird to use the word “attack”, like when we say “terrorist attack”, but now mother nature herself is the culpable one.) It’s been raining for the past few days, and I’m cold here in Singapore. Wonder how it is for those in Aceh. You know, if this disaster could spark off some inroads to a peace agreement between the central Indonesian government and the Aceh rebels, perhaps there will be at least some good to come out of this catastrophe.
Perhaps it’s best not to think too much about the disaster in it’s whole monstrosity, but to focus on the micro aspects of it. Dive into volunteer work. No, I’m not talking about going to Sri Lanka to help dig mass graves or direct emergency aid. Someone told me this: if you don’t know what you’re going to do, don’t go cos you’ll just be wasting everybody’s time and resources. Stay in Singapore and help ring bells for the RC or help to pack and box donated items. Donating $10 could go a long way if everyone chipped in. Japan has donated US$500 million, the biggest single donation from a country, and it touches me because if you think about it, they weren’t very much affected, in terms of geographical location, they didn’t feel any tremors. Neither did they suffer many casualties in terms of Jap tourist deaths. That’s why Bush frickin pissed me off when he initially commissioned US$35 mil for foreign aid. (He later upped the donation to US$350 mil after being sworn and cursed at by majority of the world, but it‘s still way less then Japan‘s donation, esp if you consider the proportionate size of each country‘s economy). For the record, Singapore only donated US$3 mil, whereas South korea and Taiwan have each donated US$5 mil. Well, if we’ve been experiencing “robust growth”, where have all the excess money gone to. I’m normally blindly adoring the PAP, but it’s disgusting that they prefer to keep the money in order to dangle election goodies for the people. I mean, who else are we going to vote for anyway?
.
Don’t feel guilty that you’re warm and alive while others are cold, in pain, too dead to even feel the pain, too in pain to even remember what pain is. There is no point to this guilt, and your energy would probably be more positively generated into doing actual work. Mere sympathy is not tangible, which translates into uselessness. The survivors won’t feel it, much less the deceased victims.
Sunday, January 02, 2005
Tsunami attacks in South Asia
26th Dec 2004
.
One year from now, this is going to be reduced to a problematic statistic. 130 000 is a horrific number, but who remembers the 100 000 killed in an Iran earthquake exactly one year before? It seems horribly pretentious to be grieving for them. I don’t know anyone involved, I haven’t visited most of those areas, I haven’t even heard of some of those places before this (Khaw Luak ??) I can’t do anything substantial for them, or perhaps I’m too afraid, ignorant, lazy, uninspired to do so. It’s unbearable and out of my depth to think about the victims and perhaps, even worse off, the survivors of the attack. (it‘s weird to use the word “attack”, like when we say “terrorist attack”, but now mother nature herself is the culpable one.) It’s been raining for the past few days, and I’m cold here in Singapore. Wonder how it is for those in Aceh. You know, if this disaster could spark off some in roads to a peace agreement between the central Indonesian government and the Aceh rebels, perhaps there will be at least some good to come out of this catastrophe.
Perhaps it’s best not to think too much about the disaster in it’s whole monstrosity, but to focus on the icro aspects of it. Dive into volunteer work, no I’m not talking about going to Sri Lanka to help dig mass graves or direct emergency aid. Someone told me this: if you don’t know what you’re going to do, don’t gp cos you’ll just be wasting everybody’s time and resources. Stay in Singapore and help ring bells for the RC or help to pack and box donated items. Donating $10 could go a long way if everyone chipped in. Japan has donated US$500 million, the biggest single donation from a country, and it touches me because if you think about it, they weren’t very much affected, in terms of geographical location, they didn’t feel any tremors or suffer much casualties in terms of Jap tourist deaths. That’s why Bush frickin pissed me off when he initially commissioned US$35 mil. (He later upped the donation to US$350 mil, but it‘s still way less then Japan‘s donation, esp if you consider the proportionate size of each country‘s economy). For the record, Singapore only donated US$3 mil, whereas south korea and Taiwan have each donated US$5 mil. Well, if we’ve been experiencing “robust growth”, where have all the excess money gone to. I’m normally blindly adoring the PAP, but it’s disgusting that they prefer to keep the money in order to dangle election goodies for the people. I mean, who else are we going to vote for anyway?
.
Don’t feel guilty that you’re warm and alive while others are cold, in pain, too dead to even feel the pain, too in pain to even remember what pain is. There is no point to this guilt, and your energy would probably be more positively generated into doing actual work. Mere sympathy is not tangible, which translates into uselessness. The survivors won’t feel it, much less the deceased victims.
26th Dec 2004
.
One year from now, this is going to be reduced to a problematic statistic. 130 000 is a horrific number, but who remembers the 100 000 killed in an Iran earthquake exactly one year before? It seems horribly pretentious to be grieving for them. I don’t know anyone involved, I haven’t visited most of those areas, I haven’t even heard of some of those places before this (Khaw Luak ??) I can’t do anything substantial for them, or perhaps I’m too afraid, ignorant, lazy, uninspired to do so. It’s unbearable and out of my depth to think about the victims and perhaps, even worse off, the survivors of the attack. (it‘s weird to use the word “attack”, like when we say “terrorist attack”, but now mother nature herself is the culpable one.) It’s been raining for the past few days, and I’m cold here in Singapore. Wonder how it is for those in Aceh. You know, if this disaster could spark off some in roads to a peace agreement between the central Indonesian government and the Aceh rebels, perhaps there will be at least some good to come out of this catastrophe.
Perhaps it’s best not to think too much about the disaster in it’s whole monstrosity, but to focus on the icro aspects of it. Dive into volunteer work, no I’m not talking about going to Sri Lanka to help dig mass graves or direct emergency aid. Someone told me this: if you don’t know what you’re going to do, don’t gp cos you’ll just be wasting everybody’s time and resources. Stay in Singapore and help ring bells for the RC or help to pack and box donated items. Donating $10 could go a long way if everyone chipped in. Japan has donated US$500 million, the biggest single donation from a country, and it touches me because if you think about it, they weren’t very much affected, in terms of geographical location, they didn’t feel any tremors or suffer much casualties in terms of Jap tourist deaths. That’s why Bush frickin pissed me off when he initially commissioned US$35 mil. (He later upped the donation to US$350 mil, but it‘s still way less then Japan‘s donation, esp if you consider the proportionate size of each country‘s economy). For the record, Singapore only donated US$3 mil, whereas south korea and Taiwan have each donated US$5 mil. Well, if we’ve been experiencing “robust growth”, where have all the excess money gone to. I’m normally blindly adoring the PAP, but it’s disgusting that they prefer to keep the money in order to dangle election goodies for the people. I mean, who else are we going to vote for anyway?
.
Don’t feel guilty that you’re warm and alive while others are cold, in pain, too dead to even feel the pain, too in pain to even remember what pain is. There is no point to this guilt, and your energy would probably be more positively generated into doing actual work. Mere sympathy is not tangible, which translates into uselessness. The survivors won’t feel it, much less the deceased victims.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)