Violence

I read with some measure of disgust at reading the news today – temples being torn down and destroyed by violence. Even a monk was “hacked to death”. This brings to mind a couple of things. First, violence may appear to be evil to us. But the irony is that the more you dislike violence, the more it draws your attention. The more it draws your attention, the more you start looking out and focusing on it. It teaches a lesson that for violence to be eliminated, we need to stop pushing back. While this might be counter-intuitive to the typical thinking that surrounded decisions like the Iraq war, it probably looks like Gandhi had a point that we should learn from. Some skeptics will say ‘Gandhi is dead’. Well… I seriously beg to differ. I think it’s his spirit that keeps many people inspired and motivated toward a peaceful future.

 

Those who wish to look at chronicles of a painful and devastating past filled with the horrors of violence, click here.

Those who would like to check out the life of Gandhi (whom I would consider a social genius), I think there are lessons worth learning from this selection of books about him here.

 

Second, I was having a conversation with my friend Chris Ng. He’d just been to India and UK on a company trip, and one thing he told me was most people in Singapore wouldn’t know what luxury of life they are living if they didn’t go overseas where taxes are 40% of income, where you can’t find a decent place to buy your clothes and the like.

 

 

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