Some people have more to endure than it is humanly possible to bear
People always ask why bad things happen to good people.
I am more inclined to wonder about the injustice of good things happening to bad people, though I know that the reason for this is that bad people stop at nothing to get what they want because by definition they have no moral code and no sense of decency.
Yet it goes beyond that.
If, after watching this video of a man who, at 81 and having undergone surgery for throat cancer, has to endure the knowledge that his son is next in line to have his head sawn off by his captors, but still bravely and without self-pity reads out an appeal from his hospital bed using a voice simulator, I open my mail-box to find screenshots of middle-aged or pushing-elderly Maltese Peter Pans posing with their kittens, girlfriends, guitars, or restaurant meal, or holding Facebook conversations with the tone and content preferred by 13-year-old girls, I might explode.
Grow up, all of you. This is real life. And this is how adult men think and behave.
How truly terrible things are for this man and his son.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141004/world/john-cantlies-father-pleads-for-islamic-state-to-release-his-son.538351
John Cantlie’s death could have been prevented had he been more careful. He had already been abducted and shot in Syria in 2012 before being rescued by the Free Syrian Army. Despite the ordeal Cantlie decided to return and was taken hostage a second time.
[Daphne – Yes, harmony, and women wouldn’t get raped and killed if they wouldn’t insist on walking around alone wearing short skirts at night. While I can see your point, it’s no argument.]
UK’s Channel 4 news at 8pm weeknights
http://www.tvguide.co.uk/filmon/default.asp?c=2
Welcome back, Daphne … As I have been taught throughout my life, one must always seek to do good and help others, especially those in need.
Judgement day will come and all the good you do while on this earth will come in your good stead and you will certainly be rewarded by being given a place next to the Almighty up in heaven. AMEN
And some obnoxious people are being allowed space on the internet comments board of a newspaper (not The Malta Independent) to propagate the malicious lie that “maybe” it is some Christians who are behind the ISIS atrocious beheadings of innocent Westerners and that all religions are equal.
@ DCG
You couldn’t have said it any better!
P.S. Welcome back, Ms Caruana Galizia – No news (From your blog) for these last few weeks was really BAD News for your readers.
Adult men?
Here in Malta that is a rare commodity.
Let us not forget the national maxim.
‘Omm il-Gifa Qatt ma Taghli’
Dom Mintoff was right very, very occasionally.
His bocci tal-laham speech is, in my opinion, his magnum opus.
How can anyone go to sleep at night without sparing a thought or a prayer for this very ill but brave old man?
Not addressing the real problem though are you.
Well said, Daphne.
Welcome back. You are one daily blessing.
Today I spoke to a Syrian colleague, George.
He spoke of a trip to Damascus, taken a few months ago, in an attempt to reach his village to visit surviving family members. He never reached his village and had to turn back.
He told us about a bomb that fell among a group of children playing. Several died and others were maimed. He spoke of an acquaintance whose daughter lost both legs, and who was asking her dad when he would be able to get her some prosthetic legs. The desperation of this father was palpable through what George told us.
He spoke of the massacre of Christians in his village, of the recent murder of two cousins and their families, as well as of his 82-year-old father-in-law who is doing what he can to protect their village.
He spoke of the beheadings of Christians and Muslims alike, and the strategic placing of their mutilated corpses so as to instil fear in others.
The desperation I felt in George, who is safe, and whose direct family are also safe, was saddening. One thing in particular struck me. He said that although he and his wife are safe, like his fellow villagers, he feels that death would be a mercy granted by God. Such is their desperation.
Then we have fools writing on comment-boards advocating that the Syrians fleeing the war via Libya and finding themselves here should be sent back. Are they so detached from reality?