Auschwitz.

Before I begin on what's my mind on this late summer night after a good drink or two (or three) of beer, I will just like to say hi to Kenneth and for sharing his views. I will like to read through it once again when I am more sober. =)

Just before I go to bed, I would just like to share that tomorrow I will go to Auschwitz. Unlike many who put it on their to see list when they visit Poland, I hesitate much about going there cos I was afraid of what it will make me feel...of facing the sheer display of humanity's capability of inflicting fear, pain and hurt on people that are about the same as them if not for the society's tendency to put us all into neat little boxes called race, religion etc.

Someone once told me that there is simply too much done and said about the pain of the Jewish people. In a sense that is right because there is so much more sadness in the world that many of us in developed countries do not see unless the media decides to tell that story to us and the story of the Jewish people is just one of these terrible stories. Thus, in our ability to feel greatly for the Jews terrible fate; we might not feel so much or even know about the sufferings of many others in the world ( in a strange sense, what i mean is that these Jewish stories take up too much space in history- i know this is so controversial and politically incorrect but trying to be politically correct all the time will only end one up living a life of what others want to hear and see of us) Our perceptions are shaped much by what the media has to say. What will make us feel sad, what matters, what is in fashion etc...

But in other sense, I do not think it is right to say that. Cos these people have seriously suffered and lessons of their pain will hopefully help the world in the future learn to do or not to do something. But of course the most important lessons are often forgotten.

The human mind is sometimes so forgetful... we forget easily about history and thus end up stumbling on the same rocks over and over again. But because we are forgetful, we as a race can survive and move on. What strikes me most after the tsunami incident was that in a while's time, people in our world will soon relegate that disaster to the back of their lives; even those who have just manage to escape the calamity- those who will survive are those who can forget and move on...

in a sense forgetfulness is both a bane and blessing to the human condition...