JULY 19 — The horror of war has come in an unexpected way and the 298 people on board MH17 are not coming home.
The innocent are paying for the sins of war and an exhausted Malaysia, still reeling from the mysterious disappearance of MH370, is now facing a new reality. It’s tragic that we are having to deal with an international conflict involving rebel recklessness thousands of miles away in a dreadful way.
This is the dark side of globalisation — the globalisation of conflict and the collateral damage that can touch our lives no matter where we live.
The bloodthirsty lunatics running berserk on the ground pull the trigger without even knowing what they are hitting. They will never go away because even the powerful US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are not in full control.
The world will continue to weep because this bloodshed doesn’t look like it’s going to stop.
It has been a tragic year for tear-blurred Malaysia and it feels as if there has been a competition to shock.
The missile attack on MH17 — coming 132 days after the mysterious disappearance of MH370 — is destined to weigh down on not just an emotionally overwrought Malaysia, but the world as well.
Both disasters will run and run and overwhelm us, but they can’t tell us Ukraine was an accident because if they do, that would mean we live in a truly violent and evil world run by maniacs.
We may never know why it happened, but that’s the way of The Almighty.
This is when we ought to realise how fragile life is. How fleeting our time together is.
Even if our resilience is tested to the fullest to make sense of such insanity, we must stand in tears and prayers together.
All the righteous anger and pontificating in the world won’t get the job done on its own.
Irwan Abdul Rahman’s facebook posting yesterday made many teary-eyed: “Today, I look at my family a little differently. As my beautiful wife prepares my kids for school, bathes them and feeds them, I take a little more time appreciating these great blessings God has given me.
“As I send these boisterous little tykes off to school, I hug them a little harder. Kiss their cheeks a little longer. Pause, and look into their eyes and tell them how much I love them.
“God, please grant your mercy, love, strength and blessing to everyone who needs them. Especially right now.”
*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
