Tribute to MH17

Who would have dreamt that lightning does indeed strike twice?

While many of us are still left with questions unanswered about Malaysia Airlines flight 370 that is said to have ended in the Indian Ocean on May 8, 2014, barely four months after that incident, Malaysia Airlines flight 17, flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down while cruising somewhere near Ukraine on July 17, 2014.

If you follow my posts, you know that I normally do not write about news of this nature because I want this to be a happy blog.

However, having just returned from Amsterdam last month on MH17, which was also served by Capt. Eugene Choo, and probably most of the same dedicated and friendly crew members, this terror attack has hit close to home.

When you think about having taken the same flight path just a short while ago, about the possibility of the same thing happening to your flight, to you and your travel mates, it just puts a lot of things into perspective.

It makes one think about life, the purpose of life, the frugality of it, of trying harder to make the best of it, and learning to let go. And most of all, to try to be happy with the choices we make in life.

In Ipoh, Art Gene’s art teacher, Eric Lai, and three of his students paid tribute to the victims of MH17 by painting a wall mural of MH17 in flight with a black rose as backdrop.

According to Eric, whom I spoke to briefly yesterday morning while he was hard at work, after seeing all the condolence messages on Facebook, he felt the need to express his own feelings through art, to be shared with the community and those affected by the incident.

He said, “My art has always been colourful but this is to date my gloomiest piece, to reflect the gravity of what has happened.”

May the 298 victims of MH17 (and its live cargo) rest in peace. And may all those affected by it find closure soon.

Let’s pray that something good comes out of this, in whatever way, even if this tragedy is too incredulous to comprehend at this point in time.

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