In my country people are being murdered for "bad drives", for "bad tackles", and now I have the horror of viewing on video how another citizen with just the slightest twist of fate could have been murdered for "bad talking" another person's lack of consideration.
When I saw the video above on YouTube, I was deeply shocked. I will not be returning to view it another time because what I saw left me sick to my stomach and very disappointed in some of the fellow Trinbagonians captured on camera.
Forget for a while, whose son the assailant is, what shocked me even more was:
1. The arrogance and complete disregard for the life and well-being of another human being displayed by the assailant, and
2. The reactions, or lack thereof, of both the vendor, his assistant and the other customers, while this incident was happening.
Did the victim of this assault look for his licks? Is it that a citizen is not allowed, if he values life and limb, to complain about a countryman's actions which are causing him/her distress? And wasn't this citizen also seeking the interests of the others since whether they know it or not, or, whether they care or not, they would also have benefited from not continuing to inhale harmful fumes while eating?
I am quite certain that all of the persons at the scene had cellphones on their persons, yet I noted that no one even took out a phone even as an empty threat to call the police, not during and not after the incident.
From what I could see on the video, no one asked the victim if he had been injured or if he needed assistance. No one extended a hand of concern. To be very generous maybe the doubles eater whose back is to the camera did manage to say through a packed mouth..."Boy, ... [munch-slurp]...dis place real [slurp-munch] gone through!!" [belch].
Instead, all I saw was one customer in a striped jersey loping briskly away from the scene when he saw the assailant returning with the weapon. He hustled up the street and moved back onto the pavement beside the third car up where he stopped to look back and maco the doings from a safe distance. When he saw the assailant leave the scene, he proceeded to come back down the street towards the vendor's stand. I noted the vendor's assistant distancing herself and backing smoothly into a doorway as her client was being assaulted. I observed with some morbid fascination how the vendor's hands were never raised in protest but continued like a robot to prepare the doubles for his clients and even going on to serve the assailant! [I would have flung his money back at him and told him that I don't serve thugs.] I also noticed the red crested doubles gobbler continuing to pack his cheek pouches with food and yet another bystander playing the cool operator. If he had pursed his lips and started bug-eyed to whistle idly into the air, I would not have been surprised.
Back to the complaint that triggered this incident, there was absolutely nothing foolish about the older gentleman's concern with the idling motor where people were serving and eating doubles.
Where I am located there are anti-idling regulations to reduce pollution emitted by cars parked without turning off the engine. Check here for the fines across the USA. Although three minutes is the maximum for many states, there are some situations that allow NO minutes.
In Canada there are laws which provide fines for drivers leaving their engines running for more than three minutes when the car is stationary.
We see variations of the sign below which tell us to shut off the motor if we are not in motion:
Removing the ignition key when your vehicle is stationary according to Idlefreebc.ca would reduce fuel expenses by 20% per year. They have calculated that if every Canadian were to cut his engine three minutes a day, the entire population would save 630 million gallons of fuel and avoid $945 million in smoke each year, and the issuance of 6.3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
We see variations of the sign below which tell us to shut off the motor if we are not in motion:
Yes, this assailant's diesel powered vehicle was left idling for less than three minutes but the victim was only aware of the spewing fumes. His concern was that it was idling in a location where persons were eating, and that commonsense or common courtesy should have guided the assailant to turn off his engine.
And don't tell me that it was only a planassing. Even as a cocoa payol born with a cutlass in my hand, I would not in my wildest dreams rest as much as a cocoyea stick on the person of another human being just for talking? - and even worse, an elder who is admonishing me only with words that reportedly cannot break my bones? How the hell did we get to the point where we can injure another human being for voicing a complaint that is justified?
If the reports are correct, this victim was injured by the beating so if this assailant, caught in the act for the entire Internet connected world to witness, is not punished by law, I will be left to draw even more unfortunate conclusions about what is happening in my country.
If the reports are correct, this victim was injured by the beating so if this assailant, caught in the act for the entire Internet connected world to witness, is not punished by law, I will be left to draw even more unfortunate conclusions about what is happening in my country.
MORE OF THE SAME
Saw this today 18/10/2012. The time is different but the place - that is, uncontrolled rage - is the same.
"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.
Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.
Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare
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