Signalling Gratitude
There are some beasts that are so lethal they must be approached with safety uppermost in mind.This, despite that those who approach these beasts become the very source of their continued life. Those who love and respect animals who live in zoos far from their natural habitat, for example, and whose duties include feeding those dangerous animals and cleaning their enclosures, and generally looking to their continued well being.
They must exert the utmost of care in preserving their own lives against the instinctive urge to attack that motivates these wild creatures which, in their natural environment are deadly predators, vicious and morosely omnivorous. So, approach them if need be, but at risk of your life if you are not schooled in self-protective techniques which must be respected and maintained in self-defence.
What of human beings whose visceral reaction at the sight of other humans whose physiognomy, colour of skin, thought processes, values, do not reflect their own, and cause them to lash out violently? They are no less lethal than wild animals able to use their superior strength, wild cunning, teeth and claws to eviscerate an unwary and helpless animal - or human being whose guard has lapsed.
Take someone like Margaret Hassan, a 48-year-old British national who was married to an Iraqi, and who had herself lived in that country for three decades. Her natural proclivity was to exhibit compassion for other human beings, to become sturdily involved in humanitarian work in her fragile attempt to help make life better for the oppressed and the poverty-stricken.
She had the respect and the gratitude of those whose lives her efforts had touched and enriched. She loved what she did, in improving the lives of those without reason to hope and aspire for better opportunities for themselves and their offspring. And she was held in high regard, a reciprocation of affection by the many whom her efforts assisted.
All of which impressive dedication and background in humanitarian work did nothing to protect her from being abducted by violent Islamists. She was able to speak fluent Arabic with them, to help her in her appeal for her life. She could describe to them the manner in which she had dedicated her life to assist their own people. Nothing availed her.
She was enlisted by her abductors to produce a video wherein she appealed to her country of birth to help gain her release.
"Please help me. These might be my last hours. Please help me. Please tell the British people to ask Mr. Blair to take the troops out of Iraq and not to bring them here in Baghdad. Please, please, I beg of you."A heart-rending appeal for help, when she must have known her wishes could not prevail, and the end result would be, as promised by her abductors, that her life would be forfeit. All that she had personally sacrificed for the ennoblement of her spirit and the practical help she offered to those in need, negated - in one fell, foul swoop.
CARE issued a press release on November 16, 2004, announcing this extraordinary woman's summary execution. Iraqis had rallied to beg for her release. Al Jazeera, which had never failed to report on events and atrocities refused to broadcast this one.
Labels: Iraq, Islamism, Societal Failures, Terrorism, Traditions
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, October 27, 2011
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