First they watched him being beaten up, then they went to ask him if he was all right and ‘to apologise on behalf of our country’
Published:
March 4, 2014 at 1:17pm
Perhaps they don’t understand that standing by while somebody is set upon by others is appalling behaviour too, and that an apology is required even for that.
The other passengers helplessly watched on as they were too afraid to enter the fray, seeing that the two men formed part of a much larger group.
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http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-03-04/news/spaniard-punched-and-kicked-for-playing-harmonica-at-gozo-terminal-4141711360/
Ultimately the law tells people that a punch only costs €7 so why not go round punching people they say?
Scared sheep, the lot of them!
Those who don’t stand between the evil and the innocent are just as evil.
What the witnesses could have done (if it was possible) is try and take details of the attackers. Perhaps a number plate of one of their cars. I’m sure at 05:00 and being a group they had at least one car between them.
That is as much as I would do. There is no way i would even risk getting involved in a fight especially if it does not concern me personally.
Lets hope they have CCTV recording which might help catch the attackers and if they catch them an example should be made out of them.
Welcome to Malta.
Why are you all expecting the police to intervene for a small fight when they do not even interrogate people who bribe and steal thousands of euros from the state.
Where is the ‘Tourist Protection Unit’ deployed, in Paceville?
Were there no ‘regular’ policemen at hand?
Daphne, if you were in that position I seriously doubt that you would walk up to the guy and stop him, or try reason with him… you have no idea what he was like, him or the others that were with him. Although from reading the story that is the first reaction you would get, but being in the scenario is a completely different story.
[Daphne – You are wrong. I have done it before and I will have no hesitation in doing it again. Being a woman is a tremendous advantage in these situations because men don’t know how to react. One man might round on a woman and hit her in private but no bunch of men or even a single one is going to start laying into a woman physically in public, not necessarily because of social conditioning against hitting women, but more properly because of the fear of being seen as a ‘p*fta’. Also, who said anything about reasoning with them? You don’t ‘reason’ with people in a situation like that. You break it up. Men can break it up by pulling them apart (and I am sure there were many other men in the queue, so why didn’t they get together and do that) but women can break it up really effectively, I have discovered, by using a really stern and angry tone. Men will do anything to get away from or stop the sound of an angry woman: it’s the most fantastically good trigger for the flight response.]
Given also that it was 5 in the morning, and you wouldn’t know the guy, talking to the victim afterwards and assuring him that there are some with good will in this country would comfort him after such a trauma. Also, trying to apologize for other fellow country men that resort to violence just because they are not civilized, ignorant, or just do not know otherwise.
Trying to reason with an idiot in a rage is never a good option… and getting your ass kicked for just trying is not very bright.
[Daphne – You don’t seem to understand that failing to intervene when somebody is being savagely beaten up, and when there are many of you who can intervene, is a grave dereliction and just as poor a reflection on the ‘national character’, if that is your main concern here, as actually beating somebody up. If I were assaulted and beaten while queuing for a ferry in Germany, while the many other people queuing with me just stood by and watched, I would not say ‘those Germans are animals because three of them beat me up’. I would say, ‘those Germans are animals because while I was being beaten up, none of the people queuing and watching did anything to intervene and help me.’ You see, you just don’t get this: the individuals who beat people up are not seen as representative of a society because every society has its criminals. But queues for ferries contain normal, ordinary people, and it is THEY who are representative of a society. Therefore it is the ones in the queue who watched one man being set upon by several others and did nothing to help or protest who will be seen as representative of their society, and not the ones doing the beating. That much is obvious even to me, and I am not an outsider to Malta.]
Daphne, although I have great respect for you, I am actually disappointed by your thread, which leads me to believe that the media can sometimes misinterpret events based on certain cues and emphasis on phrases in a report. I am by no means intimidated by thugs who believe that they can resolve conflicts with their fights, as I have been caught up in a fair share throughout my life – however, lessons learnt through experience have taught me that my first obligation is towards my loved ones and could not always be resolved justly by using force. My intention was to get back at these people in a smarter way by appealing to the general public.
Watching someone being beaten up is by no means a situation for people to look-on in awe, however the fight did not escalate to the extent perhaps that you envisage. The whole point of coming forward and reporting this event to the Malta independent was to create awareness to the general public that there is something seriously wrong with the mentality of certain people (harming the reputation of this country) and even worse, with the law enforcement personnel who should be defending the rights and protecting the common “Joe”.
[Daphne – There you go again. Your greatest preoccupation is with the harm caused to the Great Nation, rather than with the harm caused to a lone individual set upon by others in full view of a queue of people who did nothing except, afterwards, go up to him and apologise – not for his sake, but to save the reputation of the Great Nation. This is quite astonishing. Forgive me if I think there is something deeply wrong with it and with your reasoning.]
I am by no means ashamed of my actions. If anything I feel that approaching and apologizing on behalf of the Maltese population to the young man on the ship later on, as he weeped in anger at the violation of certain basic human rights, has changed the situation around to some extent – at least (as you correctly stated) from the small sample size representing Maltese citizens, I hope to have leveled out the Maltese reputation which he and other tourists present around him will be remembering throughout that event.
[Daphne – As somebody with a modicum of insight into human behaviour/psychology, I can tell you that the young man’s weeping with frustration and anger will have had only partially to do with being beaten up and mostly to do with the fact that nobody went to his assistance but instead stood around and watched. To normal people operating in normal societies, the greater cause of the shock would have been the latter not the former. You fail to understand that very many people in the more civilised parts of the world are taught to stand up to be counted and to go to the aid and defence of those who are being set upon/bullied. It comes as a shock to them to encounter societies in which people are taught the very opposite: ‘Le, ta, ahjar ma tindahalx’.]
I am fully aware that you are a person will not be swayed to believe otherwise, and I am in no means trying to demean your article (rightly so, you have a right to your own opinion). However please be careful at the message you portray to your followers, as this may actually have made the situation worse and defeated the scope of the article.
[Daphne – My message to my ‘followers’ (they are actually readers) is this: when you see somebody being beaten up, and when it is clearly not a bar-room brawl but a vulnerable victim being set upon by others, intervene and get those around you to help. Anything else is cowardly and despicable and sets a very bad example to your ‘loved ones’. I’ll ask you this: what if that were a woman or a child being beaten up? Would you have stayed out of it and watched just the same, because you were scared of the men? So how was this different? This man couldn’t fight back either. Shameful.]
I rest my case
The given advice in such cases is to address the victim not the aggressors, and to try to remove them from the confrontation. Easier said than done, obviously.
A few years ago there was shock and a lot of soul-searching in the city I live in after a man died following a confrontation with teenagers who had been taunting a school boy on a train.
The train was packed and that man was the only one to do something for that scared boy. Nobody lifted a finger – something to do with herd mentality apparently. So it does not only happen in Malta.
On the other hand, I find the “Great Nation” mentality ridiculous.
I also cannot fathom how we repeat the mantra that the Maltese are in any way more helpful than other nationalities when I have often seen co-nationals who go out of their way *not* to help a stranger (and I don’t mean asking for directions).
Unfortunately these things happen a lot. I’m not sure if this is something that is happening today because we care less about each other or if this has always been the case.
OK, nobody likes getting punched and I understand that people don’t want to get hurt (and these days you don’t know what these idiots could be carrying with them) but where is our altruism, our values and our religious beliefs.
Joe, you are wrong. It’s not enough. Sometimes you need to stand up and be counted. We cannot live our lives as cowards.
Imagine that young man was your son would you just wait for it to be over and then go and help after or would you jump right in. Wouldn’t you want every one else to do the same?