By Professor Richard A. Byron-Cox PhD
As I stepped off the escalator hurrying to Deutsche Bahn’s office to get my train ticket, he turned the corner and fell hard facedown, meters from me. I abandoned my suitcase and rushed to him. He laid motionless. I knelt; “Can you get up?” No response. Looking around I realized I was the ONLY one at this Frankfurt International Airport -with hundreds passing every second-, showing any concern for a human in distress. “Help! Please help! He is hurt!” We were invisible to this busy multitude. He was too heavy for me to lift.
Desperate, I stopped a young man. “This man is German. I don’t know him, but please, he needs help! The emergency phone is not working, and I have no mobile. Please, please, let’s help him!” He obliged. A woman, a foreigner like myself with two preteen children, and a man of possible Turkish/Arab descent joined us. Together, we got him to sit up. I was appalled at people’s indifference to his plight. But worse was to come. Having regained consciousness, he insisted, “I am alright.” I realized this was untrue and offered to take him to the airport clinic. He wouldn’t hear of it. Then it hit me!! He was shocked by us being kind! He confirms to today’s modus vivendi: inhumanity and selfishness; each for himself.
On the train to Bonn my soul was drowning in a deluge of pain. This man expected no goodness from his fellowmen. I thought to myself that this could never happen in Vincy land. We are not that alienated. But then I remembered I was returning from an SVG where the attempted murder of the Head of Government was and is all but being justified by the NDP and other political rejects. What moral authority I had as a Vincentian to point fingers at some Germans’ heartlessness? Dr. Gonsalves was on his way to work. He molested no one. An NDP sponsored and incited mob decided to kill him. Indeed, some members of that criminal body calling itself a political party, have issued many threats on his life. They almost succeeded. He was lucky this time!
The leadership of the NDP, some so-called social commentors, and wannabe rulers of the people praised, -albeit indirectly- this attempted murder of a sitting Prime Minister. None of them condemned this high treason!! It reminded me of the murder of the great Maurice Bishop and the UPM’s refusal to condemn the perpetuators. I was then a member of Vanguard Youths which endorsed the party line. I condemned that position, and left that organization, never to return!! I say emphatically that I am right to place humanity above any ideology. Not surprisingly, a former UPM member, now lawyer, was among the “very proud” defenders (his words), who rushed over to Grenada to hug, kiss, and bless, the murderers of Maurice.
Those in opposition to Dr. Gonsalves are sipping from a poisoned hateful chalice! With carping criticism and a farrago of lies, they encourage all and any evil against him. Which human heart justifies the attempted murder of the innocent, describing a diabolic act with the victim covered in blood, a side show? What leader are you who shamelessly publicly encourages civil war by declaring inter alia that you have taken the peaceful out of the protest? What decency you have when you describe the spilling of innocent blood as merely regrettable? You are naught but power-hungry breasts; evils determined to destroy not just the social cohesion of this country, but to set its moral fabric ablaze. You are an insult to human decency, and what ought to be the norms among the civilized.
Most terrifying in Europe and the US is the universal selfishness that generally characterizes these societies. It seems being the uberman a la Friedrich Nietzsche and that there is “no such thing as a society” a la Margaret Thacher are sacred credos. This thirst for self-aggrandizement, this alienation from the good and fraternal; this idiotic notion that in destroying a society you are saving it, are profound expressions of the warped mentality that misgoverns the NDP and politicians whom the populace have rightly rejected. In Europe and the US, I see societies of extreme material wealth, yet with a surfeit of depravity, hence the attack on the US capitol. Ours is relatively, a materially poor nation. We don’t need this bunch of dead souls trying to empty it of its rich history of community spiritedness; empathy and solidarity with the suffering; and its practice of taking the moral high ground. This is why we must confront this evil beast of inhumanity.
Richard A. Byron-Cox is a lawyer and diplomat and the author of “Were Mam’s Tears in Vain?”
The Views expressed are not those of Asberth News Network, all articles must be submitted to [email protected]