Timely lesson from Baltimore tragedy

AN IRRATIONAL knee-jerk reaction to the accidental catastrophic collapse of the 2.5km-long Baltimore Bridge in the US is certainly bound to be: “Serves them right. God is showing them the justice that they failed to show the thousands of crushed Palestinians!”

This reaction specially from Palestinian sympathisers, of course.

Nobody can fault anybody for expressing such emotionally charged, bizarre sentiments ... but unfortunately – like every other event that, undeservingly, is blamed on or processed by an imagined Supreme Being – it remains totally emotive.

Bereft of any logic. Filled with anger. Fuelled by despair that has witnessed absolutely no positive and decisive action attempted by the rest of the world to curb the carnage.

And the worst cut of these terrible curses is that the victims of this particular terrible tragedy between ship and bridge are, as usual, totally innocent victims. Not members of the executive decision-making council at Capital Hill. Not members of the Zionist League of America.

Not ultra-wealth-worshipping senators from both sides of a power-crazed dichotomy, Democrats and Republicans – a dichotomy that believes in the very same onslaught on world peace, perhaps in two slightly different ways. Different enough to confuse the electorate.

Not Christian-Jewish fanatics hellbent on destroying all who oppose Israel. No, no none of these gory categories were on that bridge that day.

Nor were any of them part of the cabin crew or other staff on that unfortunate liner. Those affected were mostly innocent foreigners. Most from poor countries.

Poor backgrounds. So those awful thoughts about “America deserving this” are totally misplaced, misdirected and futile.

Exactly as the hundreds of thousands of American soldiers – the third-greatest military might in the world – that have been, and still are, pushed to deliberate slaughter in places across the four compass directions of this planet – Cambodia, Vietnam, Japan, Libya, Iran, Iraq, Korea, Afghanistan …

Those who make sing-along songs about “terrorist” organisations like Hamas that use “human shields” must please read a little of American history, which always, in every case, is about deliberately raising the roof in some remote corner of the world, basically in order to eventually score pitch-white brownie points to gain greater accession to voting slips back home.

Again, using lots of poverty-stricken citizens, many of whom return home in body bags.

Baltimore is a very rich and important port. Pivotal to imports and exports. Both the mayor and governor are black. But that is where the paradox begins and ends.

Most of the black people, who form the majority population there, are very poor. Racial discrimination still exists, as it does elsewhere in that country.

Unfortunate accidents like the Baltimore Bridge only, sadly, force us to again focus on the unending discrepancies of this world.

EBRAHIM ESSA | Durban