The three children were flown back to Perth in Australia on Thursday to be returned to their parents.
I can't begin to imagine the bottomless grief their parents must be suffering as a result of this utterly stupid attack on a commercial plane whose passengers had nothing whatever to do with the conflict.
Anthony Maslin and Marite Norris say they are living in a hell beyond hell, that their pain is intense and relentless. "No one deserves what we are going through, not even the people who shot our whole family out of the sky."
The loss of one child is bad enough, but the loss of all three must be an unbearable agony. How can they ever recover from it? How can they have anything like a normal life ever again?
Do the fanatics who shot down the plane have even a flicker of guilt or remorse over what they did? Do they grasp in any way the massive suffering they've caused? Probably not. Probably they see the dead plane passengers as simply unfortunate casualties of war, not to be dwelt on.
Gaining territory is more important than broken hearts.
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And in a related news item, an Australian company has developed a water-based alternative to cremation that avoids the 200 kilogrammes of greenhouse gas emissions from a traditional cremation. It simply speeds up the natural decomposition process, taking about four hours in all. Stew instead of roast, as one of my Facebook friends put it. Brilliant.
I'm afraid too many people believe that. Gaining and keeping power is more important than individual lives, they think.
ReplyDeleteJean: The "greater good" is worth the collateral damage....
ReplyDeleteSorry to be blunt, Nick. I do not think that agony can be weighed by number of children involved. I have seen people go to pieces over "just" one, even if there was a line up of siblings alive.
ReplyDeleteThat you ask whether the attackers feel any remorse is naive. Of course they don't. Otherwise they wouldn't do what they did in the first place, would they? If there are people who blow THEMSELVES up for some "cause" there is little hope for those the rest of us. If your OWN life is that expendable then what value that of others? If you don't give a shit about your own mother who brought you into this world and will be grief stricken at your demise, then what thought will these people have for other parents?
You mentioned 'hatred' (again) the other day. Want hatred? Real hatred. Down the barrel hatred? You may wish to look further than your neighbour mowing the lawn at ungodly hours. On a Sunday.
Better leave it there.
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Ursula: Well, I guess you're absolutely right on all counts. Sure, just one death could be totally devastating. And yes, if someone's willing to blow themselves up, they're unlikely to feel very much about other people. Unless they're one of that small minority who suddenly "repent of their sins" and regret their murderous activities.
ReplyDeleteOh, I seem to have hit on a topic that no one wants to talk about....
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's that "no one wants to talk about" the topic. There is barely anything to add, is there? Just nodding one's head. And, in many ways that's good.
ReplyDeleteWhy not post something more frivolous this afternoon, Nick?
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Ursula, I might just do that!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure this will make sense to you, but in some ways it my be easier to lose both my children instead of just one, for a simple reason: If I lost both, I wouldn't be forced to continue living for the sake of the other. Because I'm pretty sure I'd want to check on out.
ReplyDeleteAgent: That does make sense to me. And I thought you were going to add that if you were left with one child, you'd be totally neurotic and over-protective about him/her, constantly afraid of another loss.
ReplyDeleteI have close friends who have suffered losses due to acts of terrorism and know quite well how the parents must feel. Such inhuman behaviour for some land or power or doctrine! Nuts.
ReplyDeleteRamana: I can't imagine the grief that results from such pointless and barbaric acts of terrorism. It must be impossible to make any sense of what happened.
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