When Death becomes a statistics
After an earthquake that measure 9.0 on the Richter scale that shook Indonesia on Boxing Day, gigantic tidal waves called tsunamis claimed many more lives in the aftermath of the disaster. Mounting death tolls were reported in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and Thailand. The current total death tolls stands at more than 40000 and even as I type, more grim news are filtering in from many inaccessible areas where communication are destroy by this sudden fury unleash by Mother Nature.
Describe as one of the worst natural disaster faced by mankind can’t be an understatement. With millions made homeless and expected casualties to be as high as 50000, it certainly brings a certain gloom to the end of the year.
Anyway, enough of news snippets of the natural disaster, I just wish to express some personal feelings about this event. When the 9 year old Huang Na was brutally murdered, thousands of people wept at her wake. However this time round, Singaporeans reactions were rather muted in response. It is indeed quite strange when you probe deeper. A death of a single child has left a far greater mark then a large scale disaster. (Powers of the media to sensationalise news) The number of death reported over the news was almost regarded as a mere statistics and one seems to be numbed by the event which took place outside the country boundary. The man in the streets don’t seem to be exactly affected by this disaster despite its magnitude and the close vicinity where it has left its mark.
Singaporeans are very generous when it comes to giving out money as shown by numerous calls received when it comes to fund raising events for NKF (National Kidney Foundation) and other charity groups when funding are short. (This caused a furore lately when NKF revealed they had reserves which could last for 3 years of funding but that is another story) But when it comes to feelings of empathy and sympathy, I do feel as a nation we are lacking in these two humane values.
I expected the various charity organisation such as Red Cross will be organising donation drive to help the victims in the next few days. Perhaps, due to the fact than most of us have never been thorough any natural disaster of any scale (even a nation wide 5 hours blackout being a big hoo ha) , most of us will never imagine the suffering of these victims. While aid are given out plentifully, I wonder aloud if the hearts of Singaporean match their generosity of their gifts? Perhaps it is time, we sit back and realise how fortunate we are to be alive and many of our problems actually pale in comparison to life and death issues.
May this chapter ends with minimal further suffering.
Describe as one of the worst natural disaster faced by mankind can’t be an understatement. With millions made homeless and expected casualties to be as high as 50000, it certainly brings a certain gloom to the end of the year.
Anyway, enough of news snippets of the natural disaster, I just wish to express some personal feelings about this event. When the 9 year old Huang Na was brutally murdered, thousands of people wept at her wake. However this time round, Singaporeans reactions were rather muted in response. It is indeed quite strange when you probe deeper. A death of a single child has left a far greater mark then a large scale disaster. (Powers of the media to sensationalise news) The number of death reported over the news was almost regarded as a mere statistics and one seems to be numbed by the event which took place outside the country boundary. The man in the streets don’t seem to be exactly affected by this disaster despite its magnitude and the close vicinity where it has left its mark.
Singaporeans are very generous when it comes to giving out money as shown by numerous calls received when it comes to fund raising events for NKF (National Kidney Foundation) and other charity groups when funding are short. (This caused a furore lately when NKF revealed they had reserves which could last for 3 years of funding but that is another story) But when it comes to feelings of empathy and sympathy, I do feel as a nation we are lacking in these two humane values.
I expected the various charity organisation such as Red Cross will be organising donation drive to help the victims in the next few days. Perhaps, due to the fact than most of us have never been thorough any natural disaster of any scale (even a nation wide 5 hours blackout being a big hoo ha) , most of us will never imagine the suffering of these victims. While aid are given out plentifully, I wonder aloud if the hearts of Singaporean match their generosity of their gifts? Perhaps it is time, we sit back and realise how fortunate we are to be alive and many of our problems actually pale in comparison to life and death issues.
May this chapter ends with minimal further suffering.
posted by Zen at 2:15 am
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