Capacity for empathy

Understanding begets empathy.

That by itself is a very simple concept. People had, since ancient times, feared what they do not know or understand. From the roars of thunder, to creation itself.

When one fear, one hides one’s fear. But when many fear, they band together and they direct this fear into hate and prejudice.

They stand together and ridicule the different, the deviants, the unknowns.

Today I was at the bus stop, when a man walked into the bus stop. The fact that he was not mentally stable was quickly established; he was very panicky and touchy and throughout the duration I was there at the bus stop, he never once stopped moving.

Then I noticed the lady beside me inching away from him as he walked to her side. Not very close, within two arm’s length.

I find it rather tragic; is our society’s capacity for empathy so little?

He had not sinned. He did not ask for his condition. And he is but like you and me, albeit his flaws being more obvious.

I noticed he kept shooing the buses away. When one bus arrives, he would wave the bus away, like he did not want to see the bus.

I wonder what was going through his mind as he did that.

Was it fear? Fear for something he cannot comprehend? A bus is something most of us know and understand, but to him it may be something foreign and frightening.

But unlike the rest of us, he does not hide his fear. Maybe because his mental condition does not render him incapable of doing so, but the fact remains.

He, like us, feel and fear too. We fear him, and he fears us.

What is your capacity of empathy? Have you tried understanding what you fear?

Or did you just continue fearing?

Age proportional to heritage and culture? What the?

I just came back from Pre-University seminar, and written in my notebooks are many topics that I would write on, for the next few entries. But before I head there, let me recount a particularly depressing revelation by one of the participants. I will not release his name or school, but if he somehow stumbled upon this blog he would definitely know he’s the guilty.

Two videos

I came across these videos from Singapore Daily.

To me, I find myself watching two table tennis players with their own agenda. The accusations are thrown from one end to the other.

Each is right, yet each is wrong.

The lady (from SDP) who reasoned with the representatives of MDA (pardon me not knowing her names; I know her by face as I’ve seen her multiple times, but her name never registered), constantly used phrases like “Let’s be logical”, “Let’s be reasonable”.

It feels like a public stunt. To downplay the MDA representatives who, like a certain group of people, constantly preaches about a certain “truth” or “rightness”.

They don’t seem to question whether that “truth” they hold, is truly as such.

The context given was that this is a private function, the SDP is screening a certain “One Nation Under Lee” and the MDA, along with the police, party-crashed.

The reason? Because the film screened has not been subjected to censorship.

To me, it seemed like the SDP is really just gathering artillery from the screening- they screened the film, and they managed to make the MDA look like donkeys.

But it is still not enough. They are but a small voice.

Where have the voices gone?

Where have the voices gone?

Increasingly I find myself wondering this question. Where are the voices?

Is the world really so blind?

Blogs & Elections Pt II

So after posting my previous entry, I went on to think about how similar Malaysia’s situation is, to Singapore’s.

History is often a good way to study the present, so I peeked into history and there I found my answer.

Blogs & Elections

So with the recent Malaysian election, I hear a particular phrase around very often.

“The internet had played a very important part in this year’s Elections… “

Something like that.

It made me curious, and I began to check out some of the Malaysian political blogs. After a while, I noticed a certain trend.

You jump, I jump

It’s no secret that Singaporeans in general have this “Monkey see, monkey do” mentality.

How to systematically develop creativity in Singapore?

A friend of mine asked me this question recently. Indeed, creativity is such an abstract theory and term. How can we systematically promote creativity, if we cannot even define what it is?