Some disasters can be avoided if only we are more mindful
HOW does the ordinary man, woman, or child avoid being a casualty of a
random massacre or bombing? This must surely be on the minds of most
people who have been following the news this past week. On Monday, two
bombs were set off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, in the
United States, killing three people and wounding 175. Two days later, on
Wednesday, an explosion at a fertiliser plant in Texas flattened nearly
the entire town, injuring about 200, and took the lives of reportedly
14 people. On that same day, in Peshawar, Pakistan, a suicide bomb
attack killed at least 17 people -- the fourth deadly attack in the
country in the week. And the memory of the Sandy Hook Elementary School
shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, which took the lives of 20 children
and six teachers on Dec 14 last year is surely still an open wound, not
just to the immediate family and friends of the victims, but to parents
the world over.
Most of these incidents were acts of terrorism (the cause of the Texas
explosion has not yet been determined). And, even though these incidents
happened elsewhere, in countries far away where the culture of mass
violence might seem more prevalent, this does not mean that it could not
happen in one's own backyard. For the world is changing -- getting
smaller and more traversable, and ideas and ideologies are just a click
away. Such acts are frightening because they put our lives at risk in
the ordinary situations of our lives -- in schools, on the bus, at work,
at a gathering -- and they are totally unexpected. And that is what
makes them so frightening. Certainly, everyone will die some day; and
not all deaths are pleasant or comfortable -- people could get knocked
down by a bus, be flattened by a slab of falling concrete, or
accidentally drive into a storm drain -- but, being the singular target
of the angel of death is somehow less frightening than to be gathered
together in the wide swathe of her scythe.
In much the same way, epidemics and pandemics, like influenza, can
sidle up among us and "explode" when we least expect it. And though that
way may seem less dramatic than that of guns and bombs, they cause the
same heartache because life is precious and its loss, through whichever
agent, is painful. Yet, the dispassion with which people approach the
dangers of deadly viruses is what makes the toll even higher than most
acts of terrorism. And, unlike terrorism or random acts of violence, the
spread of epidemics and pandemics could be contained or minimised if
only people took more care about personal, public and food hygiene.
Think of it as the ticking time bomb that it is, and do everything in
one's power to stop it from going off.
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