Jobs died from an unusual form of pancreatic cancer, it is said. He was only 56-years old. Jobs is seen as a genius who transformed the world of communications, especially with Apple's i-products — the iPod, iPhone, iPad, iCloud. Jobs will perhaps be most remembered for his undying spirit of innovation and will be an inspiration for generations that will follow.
One who will not be so-missed as Jobs is Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, better known as Col Gaddafi. Like the former ruler of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi was a tyrant and a dictator. He came into power in 1969 and ruled with an iron hand, executing those who dissented, among other atrocities. His tyranny finally came to an end on 20 October 2011 when anti-Gaddafi forces captured him — and then put a bullet in his head, instantly killing him and ending decades of fear among his own people.
Jobs and Gaddafi — one revered, the other hated. But both had huge impact on their fellow men when they walked the earth.
And then there was two-year old Xiao Yueyue in China. Ignored by 18 passersby as she was run over twice by two vehicles in the streets of Foshan, a city in the southern province of Guandong, the toddler was finally pulled to safety by an elderly woman. Yueyue died on 21 October — igniting a nationwide (and worldwide) debate on China's "moral compass".
In Singapore, six-year old Charmaine Lim breathed her last on Friday, 21 October — the same day Yueyue passed away. Charmaine had been battling advanced neuroblastoma (cancer) for two years. Her situation was first brought to Singaporeans' attention in 2009 by the media, and donations and well-wishes poured in from members of the public.
"Heavens, please have mercy on my child," Charmaine's mother, Cynthia, wrote on her blog. "Please. I don't want her to suffer anymore... free her and let her be the happy girl she has always been...."
Sometimes, death is more impersonal — taking place in another continent — where millions struggle from starvation and are near death. In August, the media reported the famine in the Horn of Africa. "[An] area straddling Somalia, Ethiopia and northern Kenya has been dubbed 'the triangle of death'", the media reported.
And in Singapore, the Ministry of Home Affairs released figures which showed thatbetween 2004 and 2010, there were 38 state-sanctioned executions in the island.
Death affects those left behind in different ways. Family members, of course, will feel the loss more deeply than others. And in cases such as Yueyue's and Charmaine's, a toddler and a young girl, they are even more deeply felt. One can't imagine how their parents feel or the searing pain which they have to deal with.
For others, where death is only experienced — if at all — from a distance, it almost is a non-event. How many care about those in Africa, or those who are waiting to be hanged on death row?
Moral lessons from death
Death provides lessons, mostly moral ones. Jobs' death has raised questions about whether we should be mourning him, given what some accused him of being — a hardcore, sometimes unfeeling, capitalist when he helmed Apple.
Gaddafi's passing is celebrated by some (perhaps many), leading to questions of whether we are morally superior or justified in celebrating his death.
State-approved killings have always been challenged — whether it is the purposeful murder of perceived enemies in war, or the dubious executions of those on death row in the name of punishment or deterrence.
But it is perhaps Yueyue's death which casts a more intense light on we as a society and on our collective humanity. We may point the finger at the passersby who chose not to care as the little girl laid on the street dying. But as my friend, filmmaker Martyn See, asked on his Facebook page, with a reference to those incarcerated under the Internal Security Act (ISA): "Outraged by the video of bleeding toddler ignored? Did you do anything when your fellow citizens were detained and tortured by the State?"
It may seem a frivolous and even disrespectful connection to make — but it does hold some truth. It is also relevant — perhaps more so — when we speak of death, especially those brought about by the state, or when death comes about because we turned a blind eye — like Yueyue's or those on death row, or those like Gaddafi who was executed without him being given a chance to defend himself in a civilised court, or the millions in Africa who hear death knocking on their door each day.
In the end, do we care? Do we care enough to want to go deeper and not just skim the surface and read all these as nothing more than our daily 15-seconds news bites?
While death may be viewed as something fearful or unwelcomed, it often — and it should — give us pause to search our souls.
"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live."