Monday 14 March 2011

Deathly Halo

We read the news, hear the reports, watch the footages, but truthfully, Japan is a land far, far way, isn’t she?

The devastation, the misery is surreal.

Perhaps I am generalizing far too much so let this be in the first person: let me thus replace We with I instead.

I am stunned by my lack of empathy to the unfolding tragedy in the land of the rising sun. It was as if I am merely watching one of the many – far too many, to me – disaster movie, driven by over the top CGI where the heroes and heroines win and hopes restored.

In my mind, I see a man munching away at potato chips, bits falling onto a semi plush carpet, while in the idiotbox, a news caster pays homage to growingly bigger death count (somewhere, the man thinks, not here); the children bickering just earshot away.

It's a cold image.

Maybe it’s just me; but even as I type this, colleagues around me are doing what they (we, really) usually do on any typical working day: fun and frolic, worries kept until towards the month’s ending when the wallet thins.

Japan: too far, nobody we know. We feel pity, but hey, life goes on.

The heart is a cold, cruel world.

When did compassion die, I wonder?

No comments: