Monday, October 01, 2007
i will admit that i'm not a person who's like damn studious and likes to read everyday and thus keep in constant touch with the global situation. i only knew about the myanmar crisis like today. haha. but did a little reading into the situation because i felt guilty about not knowing what the hell was happenning.
it really opened up a lot of new things and perspectives which i never really bothered about these 2 years.

"It had never occurred to me before that Ghandi's political activity and the exit of the British from India might not be causatively related - we just assume that they are."
John Francis, Lauderdale, Tasmania

like it can even link to such issues which happened decades before. history never dies huh. i would think that alot of singaporeans are really ignorant of what goes on in the world. i take example from my immediate surroundings, which is my camp. if i put it into statistics, like 40% of the people in my camp doesnt know and care about the situation in myanmar and probably another 40% who wont treat this seriously.

'your best bet would be to ask the leadership of the United States and Britain to do another one of those "Invasions for Democracy" that they seem to specialise in. This time, because there is no oil in Myanmar, (did the name change escape your attention?), they may even have some credibility.'
annonymous

right. i see that there are still some people that are really disillusioned and skeptical about american policies. this brings about matters which i just want to bring up briefly. first is the idea of a government exploiting another state for its own selfish purposes. it is wrong ? i must agree with many others that it is. but if we take a look at america's ever burgeoning trade deficit and etc. would you fault them for making use of the situation for their own good ? if you had the power, would you be tempted to use your power for the good of your people, while of course, at the expense of others ? another point is that, how much of experience and knowledge would we have of the government ? of course we wont agree with certain issues, and certain consequences these issues created but are we in a position to argue with the guys in charge ? we are. but with that said, we do act in a advisory position that we are an indicator of what the government should do. ultimately, the choice should reside with the government because they have access to more knowledge than we do. they see in more perspective than we can. i must add that, this is the ideal situation of which the government works - that it takes into account different needs of the state and act after careful consideration.

its the same situation that happens again and again. like in the case of zimbabwe, darfur and etc. i read this line in an article online but cant find the source already, it said something about the sympathy and attention span of the world, generally. it uses a caravan as a metarphor for the above mentioned, because it travels and never stops at one point for long. so like now we're so focused on myanmar just like how aware we were of iraq some time ago, but it'll die and move on to another crisis happening on the globe. i'm not going to criticise this, but i'm just questioning the modern human mentality. i think we find comfort in critisizing certain unacceptable situation. and in doing so, we have done our job and can carry on with our daily lives ridden of guilt and responsiblity. we expect governmental and global bodies to take up the responsibilty and show results which match our expectations because by virtue they were charged with the power to enable changes. i feel this way la, dont know whether you will agree with me. haha.

alson
by ~me~ at 6:02 PM ©

---