Is apathy in our genes?

I've always wondered what motivates people to become activists. There is little tangible benefit, other than the feeling of belonging to a group of like-minded individuals, and perhaps feeling morally superior for the duration of your protest.

And then you see pictures like these. And your world shifts.

Yes, we're all busy people. We've got work, school, friends, family and a host of other commitments we should not feel guilty filling our lives with. But this deserves a place on that list.

I've never been one to go rah-rah over some cause. In fact, I think that I'm pretty cynical with most social causes. Mostly because it's too far removed from where I am, perhaps. Or maybe I'm just finding excuses to not get involved.

And why shouldn't we get involved? What is the point of debating the ethics of shooting a staged news photograph when we do not care about the subject of the photograph and its fate? Why bother building your castles in the air about morality when we cannot keep ourselves grounded in the world we live in?

I guess part of this post is a result of the ongoing discussion of ethics in our media law class. We're learning about various ethical frameworks, systems and pros/cons, etc. In a word: academia.

Being in Singapore, we've never had to deal with the hard stuff: education is provided for, very few people live hand to mouth, and housing is largely available for those who work. I'm thankful for all that I've been given; I know that I am fortunate to have the life I'm leading and the people that I've been blessed to have surround me.

Yet whenever I hear about protests, I admit that I almost always tune out. I dismiss them as attention-seekers, or people who cannot live without having to agonize over someone else's problems.

I've read the rhetoric about people wanting to make a difference, and dismissed that, funnily enough, as rhetoric.

But something that happened today changed my view on activism completely.

It began innocuously enough; I was giving tuition to my tuition kid, who was a Sec 3 Indonesian girl. We were going through English, and we were going over a comprehension passage, which dealt with wars and explosives.

I then casually mentioned Myanmar as a reference to an example I was trying to draw, when her quizzical look stopped me. It turned out that she had no idea that there was anything even going on in Myanmar which was out of the ordinary.

It may seem like I'm expecting too much of her, a Secondary 3 student, to be aware of current affairs. But that wasn't really what struck me. I suddenly felt like I was in her place, being ignorant of the world around me; living my life in my little bubble.

Is this what realising your apathy feels like? Because I feel guilty and ashamed that I have been so blase to the problems of others.

But what then, can I do? I am just me. I can vote only once. I can only eat one and a half happy meals. I can only take up one seat in a cinema. I am just me.

A good friend once told me that making a difference in this world is not about changing the world. It is about changing one person's life. And perhaps that is what happened this evening at tuition, when I took 15 minutes to educate my kid about Myanmar's troubles.

I never believed in large scale protests, or demonstrations, or petitions. Perhaps I am simply averse to confrontation?

So this is what I will do, and this is what I encourage you to do, if you want to make a difference, but on your own terms - not someone else's. Tell someone who doesn't know, about Myanmar's troubles. Give the gift of information. Open their worldviews. Give them perspective. One person at a time.

To make this more fun, wear red if you promise to tell someone. It's a promise you make to yourself; nobody's going to judge you - but you.