The Messiah Syndrome

Yesterday, i watched the Oscar winning film which the world was raving about. It was mixed emotions for me, sitting through the film. 

While i am very much aware and exposed to this level of poverty and the lack of humanity in our world due to my line of work, it was hard to be completely numb to it. I find me telling myself on a daily basis that i cannot save the world even if i were a queen. Although i was not really shocked or depressed, i still felt a pang of pain. But still, it's difficult.

Yesterday, My colleagues and i talked about the "Messiah Syndrome". A syndrom commonly encountered among social workers where they have this incessant need to be of service to the marginalized communities and beat themselves up for not being able to do it all. They beleive that they must carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. It's a syndrome sometimes driven by religion, sometimes driven by the self, sometimes by guilt even if they are put in a miserable state where they are earning peanuts and living in physical conditions they cannot come to terms with. They are often depressed, burnt out and life is a chore. 

When i talk to new people about refugees, they often ask me how i could coldly address the distress. I guess partially it's because i've repeated their plights so many times that it is easy to lose hope that not much can be done. But i believe that if i do not maintain a impartial life between work and my personal life, i will grow insane, and I too will be sucked into the "messiah syndrome".

I attended a meeting recently with a few top guns in politics and to my surprise, it was a meeting unlike any other. Now mind you, i have a prejudice towards public authority figures. I am cautious of their intentions and aims, only because i have experienced too many phony people who are actually trying to shove their agenda  in disguise of being service to the greater needs of the people. This meeting was with an ex politician who has service our country for 36 years. He was surprisingly humble, direct and honest. He was making ammends for the abomination caused by the government that he had defended for more than 3 decades.It was a breath of fresh air. For once, i felt that it was a meeting that was worth the time. There was a positive outcome, and hopefully, a new hope for the refugees in Malaysia.