Indifferent Callousness

The top news in everyone's blog would be the earthquake off Indonesia and the subsequent tsunamis in South-Asia.

Supposedly it is the largest since 1900.

When I first caught the news, the death toll was 3000. As the hours ticked away, it rose to 7000, and now it stands at 11,800. Add the thousands injured, missing and the millions left homeless.

I would be frank: I was indifferent when I heard the news updates. Not even reports of the 50-odd deaths in Penang moved me.

My reasoning? It didn't happen to me, so I don't care.

Am I jaded, or just a cold-hearted, selfish bastard? I know for a fact I don't have friends or relatives in Penang, or the places hit by the tsunamis such as Aceh, Sri Lanka and India.

Where did this mentality come from?

I remember calling up my friends when 9/11 happened. I sat on the couch open-mouthed as CNN played the clips of the jumbo jets crashing into the World Trade Centre. I have a relative there, and she was in New York when it happened. The entire house was frantic, jamming the phonelines to get her. To our collective relief, she was fine and was far away from ground zero.

Back to the earthquake.

I'm sure there will be a lot of people wishing this and that and exchanges e-hugs to comfort themselves. I'm not sure I would do that. I'm honest that although I feel sympathetic, I am not really sad or sorry. If I am really moved I would have skipped town, join the nearest Mercy Malaysia and be a volunteer to help the needy for disaster-relief.

I'm not that selfless, however. And I think that applies to many people too.

Probably the most I could do is to donate my change and the odd dollar bills into any donation box that I would come across.

Even then I'm cynical enough to think that the money probably won't reach the people that need it anyway.