Neither Hot nor Cold.

The power of love
can be as immense as
that of hate.

But how about
Indifference?

Is it neutral,
and therefore,
harmless?

Does it bring peace?

*

The next speech that inspires me
most from ''Speeches that Changed the World''
is made by the Nobel Peace Prize receipient [1986],
Elie Wiesel,
at the Seventh White House Millenium Evening
in 12 April 1999.

Wiesel has been the greatest voice
for the Jews who suffered the
concentration camps of Nazi Germany.

Drawing from his own experience,
Wiesel often speaks out for oppressed minorities,
including the Soviet Jews and refugees worldwide.

Addressing President Clinton and the US Congress in 1999,
Wiesel stirred and burned the audience hearts
with his speech,
'The Perils of Indifference.'

Wiesel has taught me
that Indifference, compared with rage,
is the greater evil
of humanity's pain.

*
''Fifty-four years ago to the day,
a young Jewish boy from a small town in
Carpathian Mountains woke up,
not far from Goethe's beloved Weimar,
in a place of eternal infamy called
Bunchenwald.

He was finally free,
but there was no joy in his heart.
He thought
there never would be again.

Liberated a day earlier by
American soldiers,
he remembers their rage at what they saw.

And even if he lives to be a very old man,
he will always be grateful for
their rage,
and also for their compassion.

Though he did not understand their language,
their eyes told him
what he needed to know -

that they, too, would remember,
and bear witness...''

''We are on the threshold of a new century,
a new millennium.
What will the legacy of this vanishing century be?
How will we be remembered?

Surely it will be judged severely,
in both moral and metaphysical terms.

These failures have cast a dark shadow over humanity:
two World Wars,
countless civil wars,
the senseless chains of assasinations
[Ghandi, the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, Sadat, Rabin],
bloodbaths in Cambodia, Nigeria, India, Ireland, Rwanda.......
And on a different level,
Auschwitz and Treblinka.

So much violence;
so much
indifference.''

*

What is indifference?

''Can one possibly view indifference
as a virtue?

Is it necessary at times
to practise it simply
to keep one's sanity,
live normally,
enjoy a fine meal and a glass of wine,

as the world around us
experiences harrowing upheavals?

Of course,
indifference can be tempting -
more than that,
seductive.

It is so much easier to look away
from victims.

It is so much easier to avoid
such rude interruptions to
our work,
our dreams,
our hopes.

It is, after all,
awkward,
troublesome,
to be involved in another person's
pain and despair.

Yet for the person who is indifferent,
his neighbours are of no consequence.

And therefore,
their lives are meaningless.''

*
[Wiesel is on the second row, seventh from the left]

''Over there, behind the gates of Auschwitz,
the most tragic of all prisoners
were the Mesulmanner.

Wrapped in their torn blankets,
they would sit or lie on the ground,
staring vacantly into space,
unaware of who or where they were -
strangers to their surroundings.

They no longer felt pain,
hunger, thirst.

They feared nothing.
They felt nothing.

They were dead and
did not know it.''

[to be continued]

*