Passing on of the Fourth...

Today, as I turned away from my colleague after discussing some work, he asked rhetorically,"Hey! The former President just passed away, aren't you gonna pay your respects?"To my surprise, in retrospect at least, my instant reaction was "So?".

When the 1st one left for the nether world, I don't think I knew what a President meant then. The 2nd one? Tha little boy that I was was just elated we were let off from school half a day early. But now that I am at quarter-life and able to demonstrate emotions, I'm abit surprised myself at my own reaction with the passing on of the fourth.

Now, just to qualify myself, I didn't mean "So?" as in he deserves it or it's about time or anything negative to him or his family. I meant "So?" as in it's just another face in the obituary; not a close relative of mine; not a loved one of mine; but just simply ... the passing on of another homo sapien

Another qualification, I used "homo sapien" not for any other reason than to demonstrate my feelings on this matter - that it is, to me, the end of the road for just another human being of the masculine gender... no personality nor face attached to it. Religion teaches us all that death is inevitable; while in life, human hearts are touched by the Great ones. So, when Death hops along with his sickle and takes away a Great one, people would be sad right? So, why was my reaction "So?"????

I do sympathize with the family but not anymore than the family of someone I see in the Obituaries.

To put things in better chronological perspective, this incident happened at about 10.30am today (3 May 2005) and it is 7.35pm (3 May 2005) as I type. It's been haunting me ever since, as I went about work, as I was driving, as I was taking a dump, and as I was having dinner. All this time I was trying to connect with my inner self, to determine if I am just a heartless and unpatriotic bloke.

Am I heartless? Don't think so. That major calamity on 26 Dec 2004 saddened me a lot and it moved me to donate cash and kind generously by my own measure. Also, the demise of my beloved hamsters when I was a kid shed me buckets of tears that I totally staved off pets altogether cos I couldn't handle another heartbreak(how naive of me, as I learned later in life that women, not pets, are really the high-risk heartbreakers) . Am I unpatriotic? Ditto. I know if the day comes when we're at risk of colonisation again, I would be one of the few staying behind to kick some farang butts.

I can only deduce that it boils down to our culture of upbringing here, not at the family level, but more the macro level. The stuff that matter today seem to be getting the qualifications in the hope of a better future. But at what price? Singapore has always been described as a clean and green city. Ask any tourist and his instant reply is how neat everything is here. Thailand is the Land of Smiles. Japan is the epitome of politeness. What about the people of Singapore? That's what Singapore is. All hardware and no software.

My point is, finally, maybe, just maybe, we've been brought up to keep our mouths shut and leave it to the "higher-uppers" to take care of it all. No culture? Hey, just build 2 durians and pay exhorbitant prices and we're Philistines no more. No heart? Hey, just have more charity shows and entice us with more condos and cars to donate generously. No love? Hey, Romance Singapore! No faith in us as mature adults in the new IRs? Hey, just slap a $100 entrance fee on us. That'll teach us not to gamble our HDB flats away.

To a major extent, yes, maybe we can leave it to Big Brother (I know you're watching, dude). But to corner us to partake at an almost non-participatory level of social and cultural evolution will only lead to apathy. When we have no avenue other than Speakers' Corner to put a voice to our thoughts, we care less.

There you go.

Now, I sincerely offer my condolences to all who have lost their loved ones…


redcocoon