There was a traffic jam the other day. So far, so normal. There’s one practically every day in my neck of the woods. Except that this wasn’t a jam we could pin down on Joe Mizzi, or sluggish public transport, or narrow roads, or the early morning rush hour. This particular traffic jam was caused by one woman trying out her photographic skills. Which would be perfectly acceptable and commendable if only she had not switched off her engine to obstruct the single lane of traffic while she snapped the burnt-out carcass of a car at the side of the road.
Oblivious to the inconvenience being caused to the waiting drivers in the massive traffic tailback she was causing, she took photos of the car wreck from every conceivable angle. When she was done with recording every crevice of the wreck, she gave her fellow road users the finger and sped off.
That evening I found out that the blackened car had burst into flames earlier in the day. A woman, her father and her baby managed to make it out of the vehicle just in time. The trauma of the accident was compounded by the way that several onlookers gathered around filming the car burning without bothering to offer any sort of help to the distressed victims.
As the mother wrote on social media: “The only thing they needed to complete the scene was a bag of popcorn. Well, dear people, that was not a movie, you could have at least offered us help instead of staying there enjoying the accident.”
It’s profoundly depressing to read such an account. I can’t help feeling that the video vultures are simply the product of the voyeuristic culture fuelled by modern technology. There have always been apathetic bystanders – who did not intervene to help. But in many cases, their inaction resulted from fear or from the fact that they did not know what to do. Nowadays, people make a conscious decision to reach for their smart phone, instead of extending a helping hand.
Several onlookers gathered around filming the car burning without bothering to offer any sort of help to the distressed victims
It’s true that technology can be beneficial in being a tool for citizen journalism, but it’s not always working out that way, is it? In this case, the video vultures were demonstrating the perversion of social media and not civic empowerment – or even basic human decency or empathy.
■ Standard Operating Procedure is a documentary about abuse and torture of prisoners at the notorious Abu Gharib prison by US soldiers.
A clip shows an American soldier explaining the use of deafening music as a form of torture intended to have a psychological impact on prisoners of war. Prisoners would be subjected to hearing loud music reaching upward of 79 decibels for weeks and even months. Heavy metal music was used, but so was the repetitive use of annoying cartoon theme music.
The same music played on a loop for hours on end would turn the prisoners into gibbering wrecks and is considered to be a form of torture.
Contrast this to the cacophonous free-for-all at St George’s Bay where commercial establishments blare out music at all hours of day and night, hindering residents from sleeping, working or even talking.
John Fenech of the Noise Abatement Society of Malta conducted a survey in the area several months ago. He said he had recorded noise levels of nearly 80dB, some 30 per cent higher than the 60dB the World Health Organisation insists should be the absolute limit in residential areas. The sound was recorded at different times in the evening at an irate resident’s apartment block. This is what lead Dean Camilleri to hold his short-lived hunger strike on the steps of Castille a couple of weeks ago. He has been ridiculed for having suspended it when the Prime Minister promised to take action.
But really – what else was he supposed to do? Anybody who has been subjected to the same unrelenting noise by commercial establishments would have gone through the same indifference, the same inaction, the same uncaring attitude by the authorities who are meant to enforce the law. As it is, citizens are constantly given the runaround, having to waste time, money and effort to try to stop the incessant din.
Camilleri did what he could to focus attention to the residents’ plight. He did the right thing.
The next time round I suggest we play Metallica at ear-splitting levels in Castille Square. That may or may not elicit the desired action, but it will be a taste of the torturous medicine residents are exposed to.
■ There are many cliches about nuns – that they are joyless, rigid and strict. As a convent school girl, I was lucky to be taught by nuns who proved all the cliches wrong – they were warm and caring.
So I felt a deep pang of sadness when I heard that Sister Rose Azzopardi, of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition, had passed away.
Sister Rose was always smiling and jolly. She will always remind me of the words of the poet Maya Angelou: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Her kindness will never be forgotten.
drcbonello@gmail.com