I came across this poem written by Pastor Martin Niemöller in 1976 who initially supported the rise of the Nazis and later opposed them:
Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.
Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich nicht protestiert;
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.
Als sie die Juden holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Jude.
Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte.
Translation:
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
Ok, I must admit that I was on MC today so I didn't report for work. It has provided a good opportunity to catch up on the latest happenings around the world which I will have little time or energy to bother about in my otherwise fast-paced daily life.
Being updated on the latest geo-political and socio-economic affairs is a double-edged sword. On one hand, you have greater situational awareness on what's happening around the world. On the other hand, you can't help but feel depressed when you read about the conflicts around the world.
Conflicts... Ah, the one word that really defines human history. It is amazing that in the so-called "high-tech and modern" world that we live in today, conflict persists in countless forms and the reasons for conflicts can't be more primal. It can be just because of money, tribal allegiances, ideological differences etc. In short, one is likely to get somewhat depressed by all these bad happenings around the world.
The above poem speaks about the dangers of people, who are best able to help, not doing anything to halt the march of evil. I found it in one of the comments on an article of the descent of Pakistan's Swat Valley into chaos in the face of a Taleban insurgency.
There's another quote to ponder about by English philosopher Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the rise of evil is for good men to do nothing."
Perhaps, it's because there are just so many conflicts in today's world to solve. The "good men" are just maxed out or it's just that there are too few "good men".
Either way, the world still remains volatile and conflicts will continue to arise. The propensity to create conflict resides in our subconscious primal level. That's something modernity or high technology cannot eliminate.
shermon blogged @ 9:58 pm
name: ong kah han shermon
b-day: 12 feb
pri sch: pei chun public school 1996->2001
sec sch: raffles institution 2002->2005
jc: raffles junior college 2006->2007
bmt: cougar coy, platoon 3, 01/08
ocs clm: delta wing, platoon 1
ocs svc term: air wing, flight 3
ocs pro term: afs, c3 wing
unit: ???
ccas: rinpcc, ricsc, rj club alchemy, recas