Ukraine war - the evil that men do

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Relate to:

=bystander effect

=Edmund Burke: All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

=A world order based on "might is right", or where "the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must"(by Thucydides)- such a world order would be profoundly inimical to the security and survival of small states.

=Julius Nyerere, then President of Tanzania, who had said: "When elephants fight, the grass suffers."

Not being able to fully understand evil also means that we would not be able to obliterate it, and we must live with the awareness that it will always be present for as long as humans are around.

But that does not mean we are helpless - the tragedy of evil is not the deeds perpetrated, but the effect and experience of the victim; what matters crucially is how we respond to evil and what we do to relieve the suffering of its victims.

the baffling indifference that the rest of the world had shown to the suffering and industrialised killing of millions of Jews.

this indifference and how it can be both "tempting" and "seductive" as it is so much easier and less troublesome to look away from the victims and get on with our life. But that doesn't get us off the hook. "In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman," he said. "Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response."

Singapore had to act when principles and norms of international law are violated, when a big neighbour invades a smaller one, trampling over the concepts of territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence.

We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere." If anything, it is our moral duty not to be indifferent. 

Qn: ‘Countries experiencing conflict should be left to sort out their own problems.’ How far do you agree? (Cam. 2016)