Cruelty is no joke

"Boy burnt with hot lighter" is the kind of headline that hits you and makes you read the story. And not only for the facetious reason that if a lighter burns it is bound to be hot.

On the other hand I suppose a frozen lighter could also cause burns, but one is more likely to be burnt with a lighter which has been lit rather than one that has been lying in a frozen compartment.

Also, a lit lighter rather than the metal, which is hot after the flame has died, can burn one. Although it seems that the hot metal did the burning.

Now for the serious reason. As I read the story on Thursday, it just reaffirmed my current conviction that as a nation we have regressed, when it comes to, not only respecting others, but also respecting anything.

Thuggish, vile and just simply inconsiderate behaviour is becoming more and more evident all around us.

There was a time when thuggery was tacitly blamed on Labour supporters, but it is about time we come to realise that ruffian and general uncivil behaviour is not the domain of any particular political sector.

This is a national problem, which is insidiously growing and needs to be tackled.

Let's look at the hot lighter incident. Three teenage boys messing around thought it a 'joke' to inflict pain on, presumably, one of their own crowd, or maybe not, because another report called the victim a man.

However, they all frequented the same club so they must have known each other quite well. The crime occurred at the Labour Party club in Rabat in 2003.

The confusion about the victim's age could lie with the fact that the victim was described as "not having the same mental agility as they (the perpetrators) did" and "did not have the same mental capacity as they did". How's that for political correctness!

But he obviously had enough nous, not to mention mental agility and capacity, to report the abuse to the police. The victim was tied to a chair and not only burnt with the hot metal of a lighter, but a heated coin was also dropped in his pants to burn his private parts.

"A joke in bad taste" was how the magistrate was quoted as putting it, in The Times on Thursday.

Bad taste is putting it mildly. Tying the boy, or man, to a chair and burning him was a sadistic act, and no joke. Besides, mindless youth is no excuse for inflicting cruelty.

At least these boys should have been ordered to do some kind of voluntary work that would make them reflect on their actions. They would then perhaps begin to understand the feelings of others and develop a sense of human respect rather than abusive 'superiority' towards them.

But, one is bound to also question how these teenagers could tie up someone and torture them in a political party club. Where there no adults around?

The victim was, I assume, crying out in pain, unless he was gagged (there was no mention of this in the reports).

Did no one hear anything? A witness gave evidence in court that he saw what had happened. Did he just watch and do nothing? Was he asked this in court? Was whoever responsible for the premises held accountable?

Also worrying were the court expert's reported comments. "The expert declared the injuries to be of a slight and insignificant nature" (The Malta Independent).

How can an expert declare that being tied to a chair and having a heated lighter burn your skin and a heated coin burn your private parts cause "insignificant injury"?

I have no idea who the expert was, but if he was reported correctly, he definitely should not be giving the courts advice or comment. The burn scars might not be significant, but he obviously was not taking trauma and mental injury into consideration. Thankfully the magistrate did, and found the boys guilty of causing serious injury. But another magistrate or judge might have been wrongly influenced by such a declaration.

It is not the first time that we have read of such sadistic cruelty, but it is usually directed at animals. It is concerning that what most of us find revolting behaviour is obviously not seen as such by the perpetrators.

It is therefore society's responsibility to first of all find out what motivates such actions and secondly, ensure that we find ways of changing such modes of behaviour.

Cruelty is yet another horrible aspect of the bullying syndrome. Unfortunately, inflicting pain, whether physical or mental gives the perpetrator a sense of power. And the less actual control a bully has over his or her own life, the more s/he wallows in the temporary power.

Violence is getting the attention it deserves by the Criminal Justice Bureau. It is currently running an advert in the press on "Violence in the workplace", which states: "Have you ever been purposely injured at work? Have you ever been threatened at work? Have you ever been verbally abused, because of your race, gender or sexual orientation? Have you ever been sexually abused while at work? These are serious matters. Do something now."

The advert is asking people to log into their Website www.geocities.com/violenceatwork and fill in an online easy and anonymous questionnaire. I am not sure how anonymity is guaranteed online. But you can always download the questionnaire and send it in to the Bureau at 52/2 Triq il-Kapuccini, Floriana,VLT 15.

If you do not have access to the Website I am sure the Bureau will have questionnaires at their offices.

This is a commendable exercise and should provide a good source of data to help combat the problem.

Violence on the roads

Moving on. The next story does not concern wilful violence, but the result had more serious consequences. I am referring to the accident involving two trailer lorries, which hit The Malta Independent's front page and The Times' back page on Wednesday. One of the drivers was critically injured in the crash.

For the lorries to have had such an impact they must have been moving pretty fast.

Drivers in Malta, generally ignore all the rules and the bigger the vehicle the worse the offenders.

I am bigger, stronger, have more clout, more money, I drive an SUV, a lorry, a bus, have friends in high places, the list of road bullies is endless.

Big vehicles drive too fast, some insist on driving in the fast lane even when they are going slow, but at least they are less likely to crash when they are not going fast, even if it is frustrating for the other drivers in the so-called fast lane.

But what we need to see are more traffic police booking speeding vehicles and breaking other serious rules, instead of wasting time booking drivers for minor offences. I have seen examples of the latter happening.

Drivers of heavy lorries and buses do not realise how lethal their vehicles are. They are shattered when they hit people and cause serious injury and sometimes death, but unless they have an accident, they seem to be oblivious to the fact that their driving is reckless.

Too many drivers, and this includes all vehicles, ignore stop signs, traffic lights and right of way. They change lanes as though they are on a bumping car rink, even in tunnels.

It is no wonder that the roundabout on the Regional Road between Sliema Road and Kappara works better without the traffic lights. It is what the Maltese driver knows and loves - the "free for all".

The pushier you are the quicker you get past. Forget about road courtesy. It does not exist. When I first got back to Malta I used to give way at roundabouts. That had resulted in a car ramming me from behind, and the driver was either a policeman out of uniform or an ex-officer, I can't remember which. I now join the fray.

Non sequitur

The international news stations are usually pretty good at keeping us informed on world events. And recently we have been getting all the news about the woes of the United Nations administration.

But one of the channels, I can't remember which, reporting on the reforms that the organisation is proposing, recently interviewed an official who spent at least a couple of minutes going on about Formula A and Formula B in the reforms.

Considering most of the viewers, like me, had no idea of what Formula A and Formula B entailed the interviewee might just as well have been talking in his language rather than in English. He was Chinese!