Thursday, June 21, 2007
The price of a life.
Reading my newspaper this week I just wonder how much a life is worth? The collection of stories I have read on different days brings me to the conclusion that life can be cheap, very cheap. This is a dreadful way for our society to develop with our morals dropping lower and lower by the week. These murderous people have shown just how cheap a life can be and discarded like an empty crisp packet.
Thirty-five people were killed and 52 injured in a devastating suicide bomb attack on a bus in Kabul. Eye-witnesses claimed that the bomber waited until the bus was full before stepping on board. The force of the explosion left the bus gutted, its roof peeled open for most of its length. Passing vehicles and a wall 20 feet away were spattered with shrapnel, blood and body parts. Identical cylindrical shrapnel holes around the site suggested that the device was packed with ball-bearings to maximise casualties.
The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility. Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a known spokesman, named the bomber as Mullah Asim Abdul Rahman, a 23-year-old from Kabul province.
This story left me cold as I read it during my rest break as a National Express coach driver here in the UK. There will always a terrorist risk to public transport and it is a real fear that one day there will be a suicide bombing like this in Britain. Mullah Asim Abdul Rahman decided that he was judge and executioner, that these passengers lives were worthless. That these passengers lives were as valueless as popping a rubber balloon.
John Wooligan drowned seven 10-day-old Staffordshire Bull terriers because their yapping "got on his nerves". He was not prosecuted because experts were unable to prove that they suffered more than if they had been put down by a vet. This has become a licence to murder another creature if you choose to do so, for whatever reason.
Alan Johnston the kidnapped BBC reporter has now been held in captivity for 100 days. Nobody knows for certain if he will ever be released alive and is being kept like a chicken on a farm, not knowing if his final day will come. He has less rights than a farm animal and that is little cash value for a human life.
Some Muslims in Pakistan want to kill Sir Salman Rushdie because he has been knighted. Big deal, he wrote a book in 1989 called The Satanic Verses that some people took offence with. Nobody has to buy or read this book but we must uphold the right to free speech and expression in our country and not be bullied by these religious fanatics. To kill someone for simply writing a novel, a work of fiction is a demonstration of evil and ignorance. To throw an authors' life away is to make their life worthless.
Sian Simpson a teenager, was ambushed and stabbed to death in Croydon. This murder was committed by a gang of up to 15 teenage girls tossing her life away like a soap opera on television.
David Morales was beaten to death by a mob in Texas. He was a passenger in a car that was involved in a minor traffic accident. He was assisting at the scene when a mob gathered and beat him to death. This was mob rule and a kangaroo court of the worse type possible.
What an awful week to finish on and where will it end?
Reading my newspaper this week I just wonder how much a life is worth? The collection of stories I have read on different days brings me to the conclusion that life can be cheap, very cheap. This is a dreadful way for our society to develop with our morals dropping lower and lower by the week. These murderous people have shown just how cheap a life can be and discarded like an empty crisp packet.
Thirty-five people were killed and 52 injured in a devastating suicide bomb attack on a bus in Kabul. Eye-witnesses claimed that the bomber waited until the bus was full before stepping on board. The force of the explosion left the bus gutted, its roof peeled open for most of its length. Passing vehicles and a wall 20 feet away were spattered with shrapnel, blood and body parts. Identical cylindrical shrapnel holes around the site suggested that the device was packed with ball-bearings to maximise casualties.
The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility. Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a known spokesman, named the bomber as Mullah Asim Abdul Rahman, a 23-year-old from Kabul province.
This story left me cold as I read it during my rest break as a National Express coach driver here in the UK. There will always a terrorist risk to public transport and it is a real fear that one day there will be a suicide bombing like this in Britain. Mullah Asim Abdul Rahman decided that he was judge and executioner, that these passengers lives were worthless. That these passengers lives were as valueless as popping a rubber balloon.
John Wooligan drowned seven 10-day-old Staffordshire Bull terriers because their yapping "got on his nerves". He was not prosecuted because experts were unable to prove that they suffered more than if they had been put down by a vet. This has become a licence to murder another creature if you choose to do so, for whatever reason.
Alan Johnston the kidnapped BBC reporter has now been held in captivity for 100 days. Nobody knows for certain if he will ever be released alive and is being kept like a chicken on a farm, not knowing if his final day will come. He has less rights than a farm animal and that is little cash value for a human life.
Some Muslims in Pakistan want to kill Sir Salman Rushdie because he has been knighted. Big deal, he wrote a book in 1989 called The Satanic Verses that some people took offence with. Nobody has to buy or read this book but we must uphold the right to free speech and expression in our country and not be bullied by these religious fanatics. To kill someone for simply writing a novel, a work of fiction is a demonstration of evil and ignorance. To throw an authors' life away is to make their life worthless.
Sian Simpson a teenager, was ambushed and stabbed to death in Croydon. This murder was committed by a gang of up to 15 teenage girls tossing her life away like a soap opera on television.
David Morales was beaten to death by a mob in Texas. He was a passenger in a car that was involved in a minor traffic accident. He was assisting at the scene when a mob gathered and beat him to death. This was mob rule and a kangaroo court of the worse type possible.
What an awful week to finish on and where will it end?
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