Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Happy Birthday Sis

Second one I missed, and hopefully the last. Happy Birthday, wish you a lovely twenty-first that you will remember. The world outside the bubble awaits, and though it seems scary and exciting at first, it falters hastily and slips into normalcy before you realize. Enjoy it now. And add to my tab a second Sunday cart feast at China Pearl.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Why The World Ends

The world seems to be crumbling apart. A new uprising, war, famine, dictator with each passing day. Things worsening with no end in sight. People clinging to the hope that the day is darkest before the dawn. As much as I teach myself not to care, tell myself that these are the world’s problems – they brought it upon themselves, they can fix themselves, I can’t help it. Whether I like it or not, I care. There’s not a thing I can do to change that.

Yes, providing food aid to Somalia is a bad idea. It sounds inhuman to say, but it’s the truth. Aid perpetuates a deceitfully destructive machine fueled by guilt and politics. The only way we truly learn from our mistakes is to face the consequences and to try something else next time. If we are simply handed free chances then mistakes become commodities. We no longer exercise caution and thought, discard logic, and are wasteful in our ways.

Despite all this. Despite my firm belief that aid is an incredibly unproductive solution to the problem, I still want to help. I want to do something. It’s not guilt. It’s certainly not obligation. It’s something much further inside, places quite unfamiliar to me. Humanity. Empathy. How can I let another suffer? The world could do nothing and Somalia would painfully and slowly find a sustainable solution to famine. But we can’t. I can’t.

I guess that is what separates us from most animals. To empathize, to feel and channel the emotions or sufferings of others is very queer nature. The world may seem to be in the Kali yoga, which it quite likely is, but people will not change. There are awful, ruthless characters acting as leaders in this age, but the power belongs to the people. In the years to come perhaps every leader will learn to fear the people, who for so long have been trodden upon.

At the same time people got complacent. They were happy with the lives they had and were happy to let anyone lead, as long as the status quo was maintained.