Restore human values

A shocking incident that took place at a boutique in a semi urban area around 6.45 a.m. last week raised several questions in my mind. A man, perhaps in his fifties or sixties had fallen inside a shop.

He had visited the shop that morning to buy something and suddenly fell on a rice bag unconscious.

What I saw myself and heard was very pathetic. According to the working woman who visited the scene to ‘enjoy’ the show, some of those who were in the shop at that time had already pronounced him dead, while all the others were ‘enjoying’ the shocking scene.

Some were wandering here and there just discussing what to do. These incidents were taking place in a shop that was 100m away from the base hospital of that area.

Any man would not fall without a sickness. If that was the reason in the old man’s case, then those who gathered have wasted valuable time that should have been spent to rescue his life. In case of a stroke or heart attack even one second is more valuable than pure gold.

There was no sense of urgency to take him to the hospital and there was no one to even suggest that. Some of them were arranging to take him home.

How could a bunch of shoppers pronounce him dead? Is this how Sri Lankan people behave? Has it become normal that any person over middle age can fall and die at any time and anywhere? Sri Lankans are very popular around the world for their hospitality, kindness and care.

Ignorance is gradually achieving its top place in the present Sri Lankan society. The majority of the people have identified ignorance as the best option for many things. `If you ignore you can get rid of many unnecessary troubles’.

This is the motto of many Sri Lankans today no matter who (urban or rural) they are. In one way this affects national security too.

We cannot blame only the people for such an unacceptable behaviour because there are many reasons which promotes such behaviour in the society. From their experiences, the public has learned and understood how they should behave during a troubled times.

We have to eradicate this culture and attitudes first. Only then can we put the entire blame on the public.

When an accident, robbery or a fight takes place in public places such as roads, bus stands and shopping malls no one comes forward to assist or inform the police.

This does not mean that when a significantly larger scale incident like a tsunami or a major accident happens the Sri Lankan public ignore it. But all the other times they just ignore.

But when there is an isolated incident no one comes to help due to particular reasons.

The first being the fear of the helper or the person who come for assistance becoming the victim at a later stage when he is being called to give evidence or his name being recorded as the guardian of an accident victim who may die after admission to the hospital.

When such a situation arises the helper has to suffer, wasting his valuable time and money undergoing harassments of the officials and authorities.

He gets paid with a huge burden for his good deed.

There are occasions that the relations and friends of the victim identify the helper as the culprit. No one will like to spend days and hours in Courts giving evidence or to receive a notice demanding his/her presence in Courts to give evidence. Sometimes the good samaritons are being treated as culprits.

Therefore we cannot expect anyone to come forward willingly to assist the law enforcement officers. But do we need to stick to centuries old rules, regulations and laws? Don’t we have a practical method to change such things according to the requirements of the present situation?

Life will not see such sad ends if we can change things to the better. We cannot expect a social change first when there are restrictions in the official procedures.

We have to introduce flexibility to the existing systems. Only then can we eventually get social change. Even then we cannot expect social change overnight. The best thing we can do in such a moment is at least call 119.