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You're not going to like this...
The lowest level of the week was witnessing a woman being kicked late one night, whilst sprawled on the ground outside the Ministry building.
In the darkness, at first we thought the tiny body was that of a dog. Then, with horror from the cries of pain, we thought it might be a child.
As we approached the woman, her assaultant ran into the darkness. She lay there whimpering, in a disheveled state, with spittle foaming at her lips. Attempts to approach simply led to more cries of fear.
Angrily we turned to the Security Guards at the building. "Why didn't you stop this?!", "Why didn't you help her?", "Why didn't you call the police?", we demanded.
They shrugged their shoulders. One remarked, "We look after the building. It's not our job". Another, "She's just a crazy woman".
We were stunned at their complete insensitivity, their overwhelming thoughtlessness. My work companion 'phoned the police, who arrived shortly.
It got worse. "Ahh, she's just a crazy woman", said the police officer.
We couldn't take it anymore. "She's been assaulted, she's traumatized, she needs medical attention. And we want you to arrange it, NOW."
The officer, shrugged, ambled back to his vehicle and called on the radio. In time, an international worker of some sort arrived. We explained the situation to them. They took my work companion's name. They bundled the woman in the back of a vehicle and drove off. Hopefully to a medical center of some sort.
I don't care if it's part of your "culture" to ignore such violence. I don't care if you have a patriarchial culture and that this is "normal". I don't care that the woman was "crazy". She is a human being, and no human being deserves to be treated that way. Universal human rights must always transcend cultural biases.
So another day passes. I will be at work again, doing my requisite 12 hours. And I keep the knowledge, that the building is being guarded by people who sit on their arse, do nothing, and collect their meagre wages. And a quiet, burning anger will remain within me.
In the darkness, at first we thought the tiny body was that of a dog. Then, with horror from the cries of pain, we thought it might be a child.
As we approached the woman, her assaultant ran into the darkness. She lay there whimpering, in a disheveled state, with spittle foaming at her lips. Attempts to approach simply led to more cries of fear.
Angrily we turned to the Security Guards at the building. "Why didn't you stop this?!", "Why didn't you help her?", "Why didn't you call the police?", we demanded.
They shrugged their shoulders. One remarked, "We look after the building. It's not our job". Another, "She's just a crazy woman".
We were stunned at their complete insensitivity, their overwhelming thoughtlessness. My work companion 'phoned the police, who arrived shortly.
It got worse. "Ahh, she's just a crazy woman", said the police officer.
We couldn't take it anymore. "She's been assaulted, she's traumatized, she needs medical attention. And we want you to arrange it, NOW."
The officer, shrugged, ambled back to his vehicle and called on the radio. In time, an international worker of some sort arrived. We explained the situation to them. They took my work companion's name. They bundled the woman in the back of a vehicle and drove off. Hopefully to a medical center of some sort.
I don't care if it's part of your "culture" to ignore such violence. I don't care if you have a patriarchial culture and that this is "normal". I don't care that the woman was "crazy". She is a human being, and no human being deserves to be treated that way. Universal human rights must always transcend cultural biases.
So another day passes. I will be at work again, doing my requisite 12 hours. And I keep the knowledge, that the building is being guarded by people who sit on their arse, do nothing, and collect their meagre wages. And a quiet, burning anger will remain within me.
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I teach medieval history to kids regularly. I also read lots of history. Yes, insensitivity, etc still exists in depressing quantities. But, in the developed societies, the genuine levels of both physical and moral progress are enormous.
I nowadays also do a lot of special ed teaching. The resources which are expended on such kids say a lot of good things about our society. Yes, it is easier for us to do because we are prosperous. But it is not some weird accident that we are prosperous. And we do many fine things (and many vulgar things and many just human things) with that prosperity.
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One of the things we learn from history is that whilst technology evolves in a positive manner, morality is something that has to be redeveloped every generation. Technology and institutional efficiency increase the capacity to harm and assist.
Putting the most optimistic interpretation possible on the event, our woman in question I suppose was fortunate that there were people in the Ministry building who could, and did, assist her. I imagine if it was twenty years ago and there were TNI guards instead the situation would have been a lot worse.
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I am not sure about morality being 'redeveloped'. I don't want to get too dismissive about the past. Certainly, genuinely new situations confront us with new dilemmas. And moral lessons often do have to be relearnt.
But it is simply true that we are more decent in many ways than used to be the case.
In your particular case, I am simply not sure. It is fashionable to sneer at 'Christian charity' but we shouldn't really: the anti-slave trade agitations were firmly based on a particular Christian sensibility, for example. So, in any age there would have been people who would have ignored and others who would intervene, though the rationalisations might change somewhat.
I was more arguing against some overarching sense of despair than commenting on the particular situation.