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t'€™s not easy to believe in humanity. Famed British naturalist Sir David Attenborough was once quoted as saying that '€œwe are a plague on the Earth'€. French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre felt so bereft of hope that he finally gave up and his final words were '€œHell is other people'€.

How could they not? War, genocide, famine, corruption and K-Pop can make even a good man get down on his knees and wish for a swift end.

Even President Barack Obama was taking a selfie when the whole of South Africa, if not the world, was mourning the death of Madiba. He may not care about the passing of the South African hero, but he could have been more sensitive toward Michelle, who was seen sulking next to her husband'€™s merriment with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

It is more difficult to believe in humanity if you live in Jakarta. How could you? Corruption, traffic, the frequent rudeness of regular people and a plain disregard for rules have made life very difficult, even for people who only casually abide by the rules.

Driving against the flow of traffic, running a red light and driving through a closing train crossing are all so commonplace that people stop caring about the blatant flouting of rules.

And it was the last offense that led to the deaths of seven people and injuries to dozens of others earlier this week.

Many put the blame squarely on the driver of the Pertamina fuel tanker. If people responsible for carrying such flammable material fail to understand the hazard posed to other people, then all the bets are truly off.

But just when we thought that humanity was lost, a reason to believe in it once again emerges.

The action of the train driver and his two assistants in the ill-fated train should rekindle our faith in humans after they put their own lives at risk.

Train driver Sudarman Prasetyo and his assistant Agus Suroto, both in their early 20s, could have just jumped off the train seconds after realizing that a collision was inevitable. Instead, they remained in the cabin and tried to work the brakes as best as they could.

But the more heartbreaking story was about the sacrifice that assistant engineer Sofyan Hadi made on that fateful day. Seconds before the crash, he dashed into the female-only passenger car and told the commuters to move to the back of the train, hoping that lives could be saved. His action saved many. Had he not warned the passengers, the death toll could have been much higher.

His most courageous step was his decision to save the life of a toddler in car number 1. He quickly carried the toddler, who had been separated from her parents in the pre-crash chaos, to the safety of the third car.

He could have just stayed there with the other passengers, but instead he quickly returned to the engineer'€™s cabin and soon lost his life in the fiery crash.

There'€™s a recurring pattern to such heroism. In every tragedy, there are always good (young) Samaritans who do good deeds for perfect strangers.

One of heroes in the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in the US one year ago was teacher Victoria Soto, who died after throwing herself in front of gunman Adam Lanza to save her students. The final moments of Soto'€™s life allegedly involved her rushing her entire class into a closet as Lanza entered her classroom. She was 27.

Life continues after the death of Sudarman Prasetyo, Agus Suroto, Sofyan Hadi and Soto. But it is they who prove that life is possible only with the sacrifices that they made in the face of adversity. They give us hope that everything is not lost.

'€” Bambang Pramono