"Terrorism is not a faraway problem," said Singapore's prime minister, Goh Chok Tong.
In the rich world, a common response to such a nebulous and faraway problem, however, is to make a minor adjustment and consider our jobs done.
He can do this by explaining that indifference to problems in faraway countries today does not guarantee they won't become America's problems in the future.
The global population today is highly mobile and problems arising in faraway countries can no longer be ignored, if we intend to control the spread of these pathogens.
If I heard about a shooting death, I would be upset momentarily, but I always assumed it was that community's problem - a faraway issue that did not affect me personally.
You would still be a player in whatever game you spent your life playing: still invited to faraway conferences about other people's problems, if you ever were; still baking your famous chocolate-chip banana bread for the family if your life followed a less McNamarish course.
Then Margaret Atwood, the Canadian novelist, announced that she had invented a device that allows an author to remain at home while autographing books in faraway bookstores — a solution to the perennial problem of highbrow writers being mobbed by screaming fans.
There is a terrorist act committed in the US and they widen this problem to include other countries — faraway countries — because they need revenge.
