Bringing Home the Point

Hmmm......Asia seems to be in havoc and there's mayhem everywhere. I guess its possibly because the world is has gotten much smaller or close knitted since globalisation. Singapore is not alone and cannot survive alone. While tragedies and troubles brew thousands of miles away not marring our physical landscapes, their impact is not in anyway localised and can clearly be felt even as we watch it behind our TVs. The Mumbai siege is quite a wake up call for me as I wonder how we feel so protected under Singapore's Big Brother watch of high level intelligence and security. Maybe we are blessed that nothing has happen in our territory so far. I am no soothsayer to lay claim that we are totally terror proof. It does then bring in mind the even more fragile peace that other countries have and that we go about our lifes thinking everything will be fine. Its something like optimisim in personal probability, there is a lower chance that such bad events will befall me. While we pray hard and work towards zero casualty, it is equally as important to be prepared for the unexpected. Sometimes I feel its more difficult for Singaporeans to accept the unexpected because we plan too much and put alot of faith on predicted outcomes. Such incidents seem so surreal and unthinkable, because we feel the neccessity to rule them out as impossible to happen upon us. While we often compare our state with Israel, esp our armed forces, they seem to have the upper hand controling such situations living with bomb blasts and air raid sirens as their everyday backdrop. I do not by any means feel we need to replicate their scenerio, but the need not to feel shell shocked anymore.