Really! What’s wrong with the world these days?

Am I the only one who feels that the world as we know it, and the social-political order that we were used to, are crumbling around our ears? From the war in Ukraine to the tragedy in Gaza, from the capricious policies of the Trump administration to the upheavals in the world economic arena – nothing seems certain anymore. 

Singapore, where I come from, and which has been nicknamed “the Little Red Dot”, has managed to weather many global upheavals over the past six decades since its Independence. But things feel different this time. A weakened United Nations and Trump’s tariff policies are threatening to disadvantage small states like Singapore, which depend on a rules-based global system. And Singapore society, which has long prided itself on social cohesion among its many races and religions, has, over the past decade, seen young people radicalized online and making plans to attack people of other races and religions. 

And just recently, a man was arrested and charged for sending a parcel containing pork to a mosque. It seems that he had done this to other mosques, too. This revelation sent shockwaves through Singapore society. 

Watching and reading the daily news hasn’t helped. The daily round of non-stop negative news from around the world certainly throws a cloud over one’s sense of hope and joy in life. 

However, for me, there has been a silver lining, and it came from the challenges of navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. That painful, drawn-out experience, I felt, taught Catholics some valuable lessons. At that time, when churches were shut and prayer groups stopped meeting, people started joining prayer sessions on Zoom. My elderly mother and I joined these sessions, and we found them comforting and inspiring as people reached out to connect with one another online.

Even when social restrictions were lifted and the Zoom prayer sessions stopped, my 85-year-old Mum and I still felt the need to pray together for the needs of the world. 

This has become almost a nightly routine for us -- praying either a decade of the Rosary, or just short prayers like the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be for peace in the world, an end to wars, healing of those who are sick, etc. 

And perhaps at this point in time, that’s all we can do, pray, believing that God hears the cries of our hearts and will act in His own time and in His own way.

 (Christopher Khoo is a Singapore-based freelance journalist and educator).