(Post)Imperialism ... and Empathy

I thought I'd span my thoughts beyond the usual egotistical introspection today and look at the 'larger' world.

It seems that our terrorist friends Al-Qaeda have made their presence felt again. The devastation was nothing compared to that inflicted on America yet nonetheless it took away 27 lives, with the British high consul along.

One begins to ponder: we live in a world that is fearfully dangerous, risky and risk-filled in every sense of the word. Yet living where we are gives us a false sense of security. The world around me is going on just as it would any other day - the A levels are still on, invigilation must still be done, the CG life-cards have to be completed, and the drama rehearsal goes according to schedule. Yet across the globe (well, not exactly way across), there is bloodshed, devastation and destruction.

Can we truly empathise with something so remote? Do Singaporeans really care? Do I care? And so what if Osama's friends have scored victory again? Despite my attempts at empathy, I feel indifferent and apathetic. Perhaps that is the tragic reality that surrounds us - not the death and violence but the apathy, the prevalent self-centredness. And that is the tragedy of existence in modernity, of existentialism - existence before essence. Preserve thy own existence, and speak of any metaphysical essence later, if it even exists.

Yet in some strange sense - and I would probably be crucified by pro-democratic WASPS - that the presence of prescribed 'evil' is necessary. It reminds us, the world, especially the Western 'liberal' democratic world that there are alternatives to their Western metaphysics, laws, dictates, beliefs, and religion - that 'democracy' is but ONE of several political ideologies; that relativism is necessary in a world devoid of absolutes, where the sign is dislocated, where the metaphysics of presence has been deconstructed. In the knowledge of a post-modern fragmented existence, the Western world (if there is a collective identity) still chooses to erect and uphold a fallacious construct of value systems that should be adopted by anyone and everyone - but are we all white? Do we all worship the same God? Do we all eat the same food?

I constantly wonder. 'Post-colonial' blood runs beneath my sub-altern tongue yet I am so consciously aware of my own dislocated, cultural-less, diasporic, and hybrid identity. Perhaps liminality is the solution?

Enough of the intellectual rummage.