Empathy Trauma

When the pain in others, magnifies our pain

The past two weeks have been significantly painful for almost everyone of us.

In the world politics, A or B, C or D, E or F and their magnum opus.

A does not want B to succeed, D severe ties with A, C is a savior of B…

Do the leaders assume their people are happy being displaced, in extreme stress, strain, homelessness, losing their loved ones and living in poverty, in tents?

Let’s come into the streets and watch how people live….

Organizations bolted down, just smoke and bricks, people in the streets, crying, wailing, homelessness, fear, agony, animosity…

People are watching… helplessly… including us.

“I am ashamed to be a silent spectator.”

I keep repeating what media repeats, every hour, every time, every bulletin…

“There is no peace happening soon.”

The natives or foreigners are displaced, moved out of their homes, forced to the streets, lost in transit, waiting for a solution or justice… when?

We are hooked onto the media… waiting… hoping someone does something and saves them… But how?

When development and technology are in the hands of the unjust, power becomes as hungry as a lion waiting for its prey. This is what happens….

Homelessness is just that. No one hears, no one knows.

Even someone who was comfortably working on a 9–5 job, binge on television dinners, scrolling on the mobile screens, watching

“… hearing blasts, commotion, screams of the father, cries of the mother, holding the child, protecting it from harm…”

People are trained in the name of protecting the masses and the same masses are in heaps of ashes. Where is the protection? Who is protected?

We are still talking of development… Really?

While I try to make sense of my daily world, at the back of my mind, I still hope the innocent survive… the innocent reach their homes safely…

I suffer from that ‘Empathy Trauma” which is still growing on my nerves. I run away from reading history, because this same history wherever we lived is training us for combat, fight for our motherland, which is covered by boundaries. Neighbors fight in the same way, which is the new norm for countries sharing borders. A or B or C or D have their people living all around the world. They are watching, praying, gulping down the pain of destruction initiated by a selected few.

The leaders want power, steal what is not theirs and still claim it’s their birthright, tell people, “I have bought it and it is mine!”

The plundering they do, they keep it for themselves. They do not do the role of Robin hood anyway, share it with their people. They keep it for themselves.

It’s seriously bad to have the “Empathy trauma” because it’s just watching, unable to do anything, feeling the pain of the people who are like us, speaking another language, living in another culture.

We are still undergoing the “Empathetic trauma,” because:

From childhood up to middle age and elderly, we are having all types of varied struggles to go on within us, around us, behind us or even near us. Everyone has the strategy to put their best face in the midst of adversity. Their inner struggles are hidden, and it eventually hurts their physical systems.

Let’s come to face the reality. We, most of us survivors by all means have undergone Physical, Mental, Spiritual Lock downs already, these past three years… we are still grieving the losses… Our loves ones, their passing, their displacement, their leaving, poverty, job losses, homelessness… the world is still gripping onto economic woes… to top with this, the leaders in palaces living like kings would not understand what the struggle is… they never will.

When leaders get their positions, the power, their status, the time of their life, people watch;

When leaders command position, declare trouble for others, destruction, people watch;

When leaders declare projects, take money in the name of tax of different names, people watch;

We are paying them everything we earn and we still watch… why?

We are bordered by political boundaries, rules and laws to protect our country. What about those countries who are invaded and still cannot do anything about it?

We are trained to watch, keep guard, and protect ourselves. We still will.

History we learn is to appreciate the roots we came from, what the leaders in those times did for us, for our freedom. It is not a guideline to destroy the development and the changes they made for us and for our generations!

Because we have given our power to let them do what they have to do… and they will continue to do… we will remain helpless.

There is only one hope remaining…

Let us no longer have such greedy leaders anywhere on this Mother Earth, having no time for the civilians other than to torture them to show their prowess!

The very people who have given them this power to rule.

Starting companies, giving jobs, paying taxes, purchasing commodities, paying taxes, ordering food, paying taxes, insurance out of fear of death or unemployment, land tax, building tax, luxury tax, income tax, sales tax. We are paying our leaders to provide us peace, security, assurance of development for us and our generations. But I repeat,

“I am ashamed to remain that silent spectator and the empathic trauma keeps growing within me. I cannot retaliate nor say a word, because I am taught to keep quiet.”

“May we have world peace returning soon,” is the prayer in my soul that remains… and in the souls of all who suffer from empathy trauma.