Changing The World
I think the recent catastrophic events of major proportions, namely Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Katrina, has caused President Bush to receive an increased amount of public outlash. People give him stick for how sloppy he was in administering rescue aid, how he was partially at fault for a loss of life on such a great scale. I'm not really going into the nitty gritty details here, and I'm certainly not here to criticize him. In fact, the people I want to point out are those criticizing him (but I'm not here to critize them though).
it's the anti war rally in American recently that got me thinking alot; namely the real reason why people actually join in these rallies, lashing out against Bush and the Republicans etc. The anti war rally was quickly reduced to a angst-fest where people were yelling crazy crap absolutely not pertaining to the world at all, like how certain things Bush does are racist etc etc. (?!!). Why did these people join in the anti-war rally? Perhaps it could be due to their sheer frustration and disgust towards Bush, but part of me actually thinks that some of thse people are here with the belief they are making a difference-- that they are improving the world in some profound way.
I've never really understood the appeal in participating in a rally (or angst-fest), and probably never would. If a rally was to ever take place in Singapore one day (hopefully never), I might.
Anyhow, my conjecture is that, people like being herad by thousands of other like-minded individuals. and perhaps, with the unwavering belief that all their actions (namely ranting and protesting) would amount to something; that they would have some sort of impact on the world.
I think that changing the world doesn't lie simply in having big, idealist visions about changing a nation's president or trying to force him into retirement or anything of that sort. Neither does the key to changing the world lie in organising huge rallies to voice out anger and dissent.
When I was in the 1st year of my junior college, a group of schoolmates and I went over to China on an Overseas Community Involvement Project. We were doing some social/community developmental work in a tiny impoverished village right smack in the rather run-down state of Henan. We weren't there to overthrow the Communist Regime (like that's even possible), we weren't even there to unveil some grand project like a water treatment system. What we did were just little things -- teaching the kids in the village basic English, planting a garden for them, playing games with the kids, befriending. We were concerned with how to transport the plants over to the garden, which was situated in front of their newly constructed school. We were concerned about having enough gifts to award to the kids. It was just things as simple as those.
I seriously think the real work of improving the world lies in the little achievements of the day. Like in my case, imparting a small thirst for knowledge, a hunger for the English language into the hearts of these kids. No big, idealist visions of any sort (although that is also important, I will probably write about that sometime later).
Yet it saddens me that, the people who are the most capable of improving the world, the people who are the most hardworking, caring and giving, often lack the ambition and ego to want to be a leader; they care too little about superficial rewards, like it wouldn't matter even if their name never ever appears on the newspapers, or if they die without their name being recorded within the annals of history. I guess a little dose of idealism would be great to these people, because really, they are the ones most willing to work for improvement.
That is another post for another time. I'm getting incoherent as it is.
it's the anti war rally in American recently that got me thinking alot; namely the real reason why people actually join in these rallies, lashing out against Bush and the Republicans etc. The anti war rally was quickly reduced to a angst-fest where people were yelling crazy crap absolutely not pertaining to the world at all, like how certain things Bush does are racist etc etc. (?!!). Why did these people join in the anti-war rally? Perhaps it could be due to their sheer frustration and disgust towards Bush, but part of me actually thinks that some of thse people are here with the belief they are making a difference-- that they are improving the world in some profound way.
I've never really understood the appeal in participating in a rally (or angst-fest), and probably never would. If a rally was to ever take place in Singapore one day (hopefully never), I might.
Anyhow, my conjecture is that, people like being herad by thousands of other like-minded individuals. and perhaps, with the unwavering belief that all their actions (namely ranting and protesting) would amount to something; that they would have some sort of impact on the world.
I think that changing the world doesn't lie simply in having big, idealist visions about changing a nation's president or trying to force him into retirement or anything of that sort. Neither does the key to changing the world lie in organising huge rallies to voice out anger and dissent.
When I was in the 1st year of my junior college, a group of schoolmates and I went over to China on an Overseas Community Involvement Project. We were doing some social/community developmental work in a tiny impoverished village right smack in the rather run-down state of Henan. We weren't there to overthrow the Communist Regime (like that's even possible), we weren't even there to unveil some grand project like a water treatment system. What we did were just little things -- teaching the kids in the village basic English, planting a garden for them, playing games with the kids, befriending. We were concerned with how to transport the plants over to the garden, which was situated in front of their newly constructed school. We were concerned about having enough gifts to award to the kids. It was just things as simple as those.
I seriously think the real work of improving the world lies in the little achievements of the day. Like in my case, imparting a small thirst for knowledge, a hunger for the English language into the hearts of these kids. No big, idealist visions of any sort (although that is also important, I will probably write about that sometime later).
Yet it saddens me that, the people who are the most capable of improving the world, the people who are the most hardworking, caring and giving, often lack the ambition and ego to want to be a leader; they care too little about superficial rewards, like it wouldn't matter even if their name never ever appears on the newspapers, or if they die without their name being recorded within the annals of history. I guess a little dose of idealism would be great to these people, because really, they are the ones most willing to work for improvement.
That is another post for another time. I'm getting incoherent as it is.
