Whither humanity?

Are we as a nation developing an insatiable appetite for sensational news? Everyday our TV screens are filled with images of cameras being thrust into people’s faces often without their consent

A few days ago the media was full of disturbing footage of a man lying on the ground in Dambulla surrounded by a gaggle of curious onlookers. We then saw the man being carried by two arms and one leg put into a trishaw along with two fellow passengers and taken to the Dambulla hospital where he was pronounced dead on admission.

We were later informed by the media that this man was a soldier in mufti perhaps on his way home or returning to work. The man had had a seizure and was lying on the ground while those that had gathered around filmed him. One man at whose feet this poor man had collapsed just sat at his desk and kept saying “he just fell on the ground” as if it were a daily occurrence. While the poor man was breathing his last on the floor of a building which houses a public lavatory at the Dambulla bus station there was one woman who was casually fanning flies away from the sick man while another kept saying “there he is breathing” as if they spotting from afar a whale exhaling air from his blowhole.

We were also told that some passersby did have the wherewithal to phone for an ambulance but the two or three ambulances allocated to Dambulla had been engaged on other emergency call outs. More footage emerged from the hospital of a woman lamenting the loss of this young man who was a complete stranger to her, her pitch increasing as the camera zoomed in on her

The footage initially shown did not even have the man’s face blurred. We could see the deceased prostrate on the ground, clad in a batik shirt. One man brazenly waved the deceased’s identity card in front of a phone camera and we viewers at home were able to read his name, address and other personal details. This made me wonder about the insensitivity of the people who filmed it and immediately uploaded it to social media with no thought given to the dead man’s family. The shock and grief they would endure on finding out through social media that their family member had died simply beggars belief.

Are we as a nation developing an insatiable appetite for sensational news? Everyday our TV screens are filled with images of cameras being thrust into people’s faces often without their consent. We see people being arrested with a full camera crew in tow? Are these raids or arrests planned with TV channels so that the latter can boost their ratings and the former can enhance the public perception of them?

Some people claim that no one rushed to help that man in Dambulla due to the fear of COVID-19. If that is the case then as a nation we should clearly lament the fact that COVID-19 has claimed not only our freedom but also our humanity.