Maltese people: we never know when to butt out
You can get a really good view of the dying person up here
Malta is a strange place. There are either too many boundaries, as with the weird situation in Gozo or the fact that non-family members are rarely allowed into the home.
Or there are no boundaries at all, like with the way that so many Maltese never know when it’s time to butt out, or when they’re really overstepping the mark and invading other people’s space.
We look at people in northern societies with contempt because when they see an accident they keep right on walking.
But what’s worse – that, or the kind of intrusive rubber-necking that we get up to, driven by insatiable morbid curiosity rather than the desire to help another person?
It can’t be just me who finds something distinctly creepy about ‘tens of people’ standing around watching paramedics trying to bring round a dying young woman and ‘cheering her on to recover’.
If I had been that young woman’s mother – who wasn’t even there, poor woman – I would have picked up the nearest hard object and threatened them with it until they moved away.
And as they moved away I would have thrown the hard object at their scarpering heels and would have found others to throw after it.
On a crowded island, you’d think people would have more respect for the privacy of the dying, not less.
timesofmalta.com
‘She came round twice’
The young woman who died during a charity dive on Sunday came to twice while being given first aid in front of tens of people who cheered her on to recover.
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Too true – some people just cannot leave others in peace. Morbid curiosity or what ?
My feelings exactly.
What’s even worse than stopping and looking is crowding over the casualty, leaving very little space for the First Aid administrator to work in, especially if there are two of them alternating. Also the quips “Ara miskin xi gralu!, kemm hawn demm!” Subconsciously the casualty could still be hearing them. Also the famous suggestions: ‘Tih naqra whiskey, dawru fuq zaqqu’, and nobody phones for an ambulance.
[Daphne – “Nobody phones for an ambulance…”. That’s exactly what struck me about the recent incident in which a young woman was trapped in a garage which was on fire. The man who rescued her – a caretaker at a nearby hotel – happened to be driving by quite by chance and saw a crowd of people outside the garage, who told him that a woman had been moaning inside for ‘around half an hour’. And nobody had called 112.]
How is it possible NOT to call the ambulance in times of modern comforts like…äh…for example, mobiles?
Aren’t emergency calls free of charge, anyway?
Same as when there is a road accident. You get an unbelievable traffic jam even though the cars involved in the accident are not blocking the road. And why? Because drivers insist on strolling past the collision as slowly as possible, sometimes almost coming to a halt, so that they can get a good view of the wrecked cars. The frantic waving of the policemen on site egging drivers to move on does not even help.
Instead they could have continued chatting and laughing, eating an ice-cream, swim, getting a tan, changing into their swimming suit, calling/smsing a friend, laughing out loud at a joke about Gonzi….while paramedics tried to rescuscitate the woman.
[Daphne – No. They could have maintained a respectful silence at a distance or done what I would have done: gone home.]
Another problem is that often people will try and move victims of an accident, which should only be done if the victim is in grave danger of further injury where he is.
Admittedly, in my teens I distinctly recall running to Fond Ghadir to view the spectacle of the bus which went over the railing (did you run to see it too?), as did a couple of thousand other people, but I’ve grown up since then.
[Daphne – I remember it happening, but I don’t remember seeing it.]
Yes, that’s true, I remember a very bad crash on the road to the Gozo ferry, just in front of Paradise Bay. A young person got trapped in the car, her legs pinned down by the bonnet.
At once, several people swarmed over the car where the person trapped was screaming. Being trained in both rescue and first aid I naturally stopped to see if I could help. Thank goodness, because the onlookers were discussing amongst themselves how to pull out this poor girl, ignoring her completely in the meantime. I called 112 (then 196) – nobody had done so yet – and told them the girl was TRAPPED and special equipment is needed in these cases.
I literally had to elbow and push people away from the window of the car to speak to the still screaming girl, as calming the injured person is a priority if their life is not in imminent danger. An onlooker said loudly that they could recline her seat and pull her out from the back at which point I said that if anybody touched her I would break their nose which seemed to shock them into silence.
When the fire engine and ambulance arrived I left the scene, but I learned from the news that the car had to be cut to bits to get the girl out. If the heroic onlookers had their way they could very well have killed her by rupturing an artery or vein in her legs which were both broken.
People say these onlookers are well meaning. I may be cynical but I suspect in many cases it’s more to do with being a hero, and who knows, appearing in the paper as such.
I remember the incident well because my cousin was actually on that bus. I remember him telling us that he simply opened the emergency door at the back and walked off unscathed, albeit in a daze.
… and then there was the time when a young mother crashed on the Salina/Burmarrad Road short-cut. Luckily, neither she nor her two young children (both under six) were badly injured, though the car had to be cut open by the SAG for the mother to be freed. The car was left on the scene, while the driver and passengers were taken to hospital by ambulance … and the children’s toys, Pokemon cards, etc, were stolen from the car. How low can one go?
What is even more striking is that fact that during a fund raising event there was no ambulances on site and it took 40mins for an ambulance to arrive.
This is the second fatal incident this year whereby a person drowns in the presence of others….. (including the young soldier), with no ambulances on site. High time that regulations are imposed for events such as fund raising etc, including the amount of competent and trained personnel per capita participating.
What do you mean “including the young soldier”? Are you suggesting that an ambulance should should drive alongside the patrol during every forced march?
Yes Mr Baxxter — that is exactly what I meant. This is what happens during military training exercises overseas. They have their own medics and first aid accompanying them.
That is completely incorrect. And even the best armies in the world have fatal accidents during training: Hypothermia, heatstroke, dehydration, drowning, the whole lot. If you’re referring to a training exercise involving a whole battlegroup, then yes, a medical detachment would be provided because that’s the way the battlegroup would operate when deployed. But to suggest that a foot patrol on a night march should have an ambulance (and I suppose you mean a civilian ambulance) driving alongside is ridiculous – and completely wrong.
Same thing when there’s a traffic accident – cars almost grind to a halt to see what happened completely oblivious to the fact that they are causing a jam.
I remember when my father died in an accident at home a few years ago, one neighbour who never usually spoke to my mother came over with the usual ‘lungi giorni’ crap and the “kemm ahna xejn” platitudes and then enquired “so what happened exactly?”. I guess the vague news that a man died in a fall was not titillating enough to share with family over dinner.
Seems to me that many who boast about their religion and are regular participants at their parish, don’t really practise it in real life. Then there are those who deep down feel good because of others’ tragedies.
My father’s neighbour was complaining about the service level of Water Services Corporation because they did not come to repair the leak in front of his door. I asked him whether he reported the fault on the freephone service ……obviously he wanted others to do the thing; his job was to watch the ‘tragedy’.
On a positive note: there are people who go to help, or check whether it’s some relative of theirs.
To enter in a garage full of smoke is not something for the untrained. The hotel plumber who saved the girl was trained for such an eventuality. For example crawling is the only way one should enter a smoke filled building, the only place where one may find some air is a small layer on the floor.. That girl was lucky, she even was assisted by a doctor who was driving by.
Calling 112 is the first thing one should do. Onlookers can only make things worse.
Collective responsibility?
I agree with the suggestion that on special events an ambulance should be on hand. The organisers would do well to make sure that this is organised even if it means having a private one or enlisting the help of St. Johns’ Brigade.
On a totally different note: a friend of mine who was activating his web-check in re a flight to the UK had to fill in his passport details, etc. as seems to still be the rule when travelling to UK. Besides entering one’s passport number one has to also fill in the date when the passport is due to expire. He noted that the words were ‘Expiration Date’ – surely this is not correct and one should use ‘Expiry Date’ – can anyone confirm this please?
[Daphne – It’s expiry date, but everyone’s speaking American these days.]
Something snuck in, eh?
[Daphne – Yup.]
Then you get websites feeding the voracious appetite of curious idiots with all the gory details.
Vide: http://www. johnpisani.net
Or worse, have you ever seen someone picked up from Mosta valley following a suicide? I was caught in the traffic once – literally, about 80 onlookers. By the time we moved on, I got to know the name, life situation, everything of the poor lady.
Why aren’t curious onlookers sent away? They could readily be an obstacle to a rescue or retrieval operation.
Only a police officer can make people move on, Corinne, the most anyone can do is ask, but that will surely fall on deaf ears.
That’s what I meant. Why, when police are on site, aren’t the nosey-parkers asked to move away?
OK but the wording was on an Air Malta website and I would have thought we use the English language – American is not a language per se.
[Daphne – Air Malta tells us routinely that its emergency exists are ‘clearly signed’, so I’m not surprised the airline asks people for their card’s expiration date.]
Has anyone ever noticed the ‘No Entrance’ sign in the arrivals’ lounge at the airport?
Could it be one of those ‘Only in Malta’ jokes?
All this is very upsetting and completely the opposite of an incident that happened to me when I was young. It so completely contrasts that I’m not sure what to make of it.
[Daphne – I’ve read your story here and I know exactly what to make of it. Nobody wanted to be called to court as a witness for the prosecution when the speed-boat owner faced criminal charges. In the case of the dying girl a couple of days ago, there was no criminal act, so they could stick around and watch the soap opera.]
In August 1986, I was swimming at a crowded beach in Bugibba with my friends. A twin-outboard speedboat moved very close to shore, the owner more intent on showing off than on taking care not to hit anyone. We realised that there were two people snorkelling directly in the boat’s path, one of them a small boy. The inevitable happened, and the boy saw his father chopped up by the propellers.
We jumped into the water and tried to reach the man. One of us took the panicked boy to shore, while two of us searched in an ever-widening pool of red for the victim. We found him about 20 feet down and bought him to the surface, where it became apparent that he was suffering from horrific injuries.
We shouted for onlookers to help and to call an ambulance, and we saw everyone deserting the scene instead. In a flash the beach was empty except for my friends, the boy and his hysterical mother. No one wanted to get involved, and no one stayed. The man died the next day in hospital. His name was John Keith Riddle, and he was from the UK.
We got him into the boat that hit him and rushed him to the Gillieru, because the ambulance was waiting there. We were all eyewitnesses to this. No one came forward in the subsequent inquiry, except for me and my friends, who were very angry a me and upset because some of us actually went down to help and we “got them involved”. They had a point.
[Daphne – They had a point? I hope you gave them a right old bollocking. Where’s John Schembri, so that I can bring him up short about the success of duttrina classes in building model citizens?]
There was a court case afterwards, a long-drawn-out one in which th speedboat driver tried to intimidate us in every way. He was notorious for his temper and his nickname was, in translation, “he f**ked”. We were the only witnesses, and everyone else who we knew and gave their names as being there denied it to the police. The man got 20 years, which he never served as he bought himself out.
[Daphne – Explain the last bit, please.]
The point I am trying to make is that nowadays curiosity gets the best of people, and they will dispassionately watch someone dying or suchlike. In the eighties, people did not want to get involved. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I am disturbed by this lack of passion, its as if our hearts and minds have become so obsessed with work and enjoyments that there is no place for passion, pity, and humanity.
I wonder.
Daphne, it’s very simple: in exceptional cases, a prison sentence can be commuted to a fine. You can ask Joe Brincat, he was the lawyer of the speedboat driver in question.
Mario: There’s involvement and there’s curiosity. Involvement implies some sense of responsibility which, in some cases, means moving away rather than standing and staring or trying to lend a hand, as opposed to trying to get a piece of the action. Curiosity, on the other hand, is just an irresponsible invasion of someone else’s privacy, and can be put down to indifference to, rather than interest in, the victim.
There’s a parallel between the gawpers at an accident site and the sort of social vultures who circle round a hearse at a funeral, lighting cigarettes, air kissing, shrieking at the top of their voices and gushing all over each other, while the real mourners stand around looking bewildered and feeling desperate.
bought himself out?!
He didn’t serve any prison time. I believe he was sentenced to ten years,
Needess to say, I am not in contact with them. However, they never went to tal-muzew, but were St Aloysius guys like me, sans the usual dose of altruism for which we are usually known. Not everybody is comfortable with quasi-criminals who phone your parents at night and threaten them with all sorts of dire stuff unless they keep their mouths shut. I would be careful to mention them by name nowadays, because they are all fine upstanding members of the legal and professional community.
fine upstanding? They weren’t, then, were they?
Mario, I can think of a couple of your contemporaries who are now “members of the legal and professional community”. I’d drop the “fine upstanding” bit in most cases, though.
I’m being sarcastic. They acquired that veneer of respectability by going to university and building a career. But that’s all it is, a thin veneer. And veneer easily flakes off.
It’s not just the Maltese, Daph:
“Thai cameramen who had gathered at the scene tried to film Nathan’s body on the floor of the pump room. But grief-stricken Mr Clark attacked them, lashing out with a spanner.
Police have ordered him to pay the cameramen £220 in compensation over the incident.
Mr Clark, who works for international tunnel construction firm Robbins, added: ‘I was distraught with what had happened. When I saw the intrusive cameramen I lashed out. ”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1199161/British-boy-14-drowns-sucked-swimming-pool-pump-Thai-resort.html#ixzz0LRcUyUPM&D
Why single out the Maltese? This kind of incident would have drawn a crowd on onlookers ANYWHERE in the world. It’s human nature. So they cheered when they thought she was recovering; what did you want them to do, boo?
I get very tired of a certain attitude which tries to attribute every known defect specifically to the Maltese – They always do this, they never do that they all do the latter – always, of course, with the unwritten caveat “…except me…).
It’s just racism in reverse, really. If I say that “all blacks are stupid” I would be called a racist, and rightly so. But for some people it seems to be cool to do the same with the Maltese. Mur ifhem.