A lack of compassion is the start of inhumanity

Oskar Groening is 93 years old, and his alleged crimes took place over 70 years ago. Yet, such is the horror of the mass extermination of human beings that nobody thinks that what happened is so far back in the past, or indeed that he is too old now, that the trial shouldn’t take place.

The holocaust is the example many of us think about when we hear Robert Burns’s line “man’s inhumanity to man.” Sadly, though, such inhumanity and cruelty is far from an historic phenomenon; Burns penned the line in the 18th century and fast forward hundreds of years, on Sunday the terrorist group Islamic State released videos showing the brutal murder of 30 Ethiopian Christians.

Inhumanity to man is a real and present danger, to pinch a phrase from John Major (who was using it in an election context for goodness sake).

I’ve also watched reports this week of the awful deaths of hundreds of migrants trying to escape poverty and war in Africa and the Middle East on boats to Europe. Someone said they weren’t even seeking a better life, just a life because of the nightmare existence in their homeland.

Evil men try to take advantage of their situation to make money by smuggling people into Europe on overcrowded ships. One ship heading from Libya sank, killing 800 people, many of them women and children in the lower of three decks packed with people. They had no chance and perished in the waters.

This is far from a one-off; a few days earlier migrants died while travelling on a ship off the Greek island of Rhodes.

In 2014, a total of 3,279 people died in the Mediterranean trying to make these horrible journeys, and this year so far a further 1,757 people have died.

It is truly heart-rending to think that people so desperate are being used as cargo by men trying to make money; lives are expendable and cheap.

One would think that you would have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by this situation.

But listen to the words of Sun columnist Katie Hopkins, who describes migrants as “cockroaches”.

“Rescue boats? I’d use gunships to stop migrants” said The Sun’s headline.

Ms. Hopkins describes migrants in Calais who try to board trucks heading to Britain as “a plague of feral humans”.

She says we don’t need Save the Children “encouraging” migrants to make the journey. “What we need are gunships sending these boats back to their own country”.

She adds: “Some of our towns are festering sores, plagued by swarms of migrants and asylum seekers, shelling out benefits like Monopoly money”.

This isn’t the ranting of a lone mad voice. Hopkins writes for the Sun, with millions of readers and has such a following that she has been given her own radio show by LBC in London. Nolan brings her on to his Radio Ulster show from time to time to spew her nonsense and she can be pretty offensive about others whom she considers low life; from overweight people to people living on benefits.

I’m of the view that this woman is often best ignored. Paying attention to her odious views only delights and encourages her.

But enough’s enough, surely.

She’s not alone in many of her views, though.

Consider this week the young boy filmed in an election report; when asked by a Labour candidate who he’d vote for, the 10-year-old replied, “UKIP”.

Why, asked the Labour man. “To get foreigners out of our country,” replied the boy on camera.

As we say in these parts, the cub didn’t pick it up off the road. Racism and intolerance is alive and well in society, and while this may seem a long, long way from the inhumanity of the Nazis, let us not forget how the evil of Hitler thrived by playing on such fear.

I’m not so naïve to think that throwing open Britain’s borders and taking in all refugees and immigrants is going to work; neither am I ignoring the genuine concerns of the British people about the changes in their society’s ethnic make-up.

I just find the personal intolerance and lack of compassion that is so prevalent today a worrying trend.

What can each individual do, though? Well, a softening of hearts is badly needed.

The Russian journalist and human rights activist, Anna Politkovskaya once said in a different context: “How we react to the tragedy of one small person accurately reflects our attitude toward a whole nationality, and increasing the numbers doesn’t change much.” Also, and finally, let us not despair either. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, and often the intolerance of the minority gets the attention.

But human decency is alive and well. There are far more good people than bad, and compassion is within many of us. One would hope that those in authority can continue to battle against the unscrupulous forces who would kill on behalf of an ideal or expend innocent lives in pursuit of money.

The trial has started of a former Nazi SS guard, accused of being an accessory to the murder of at least 300,000 Jews in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War Two.

Oskar Groening is 93 years old, and his alleged crimes took place over 70 years ago. Yet, such is the horror of the mass extermination of human beings that nobody thinks that what happened is so far back in the past, or indeed that he is too old now, that the trial shouldn’t take place.

The holocaust is the example many of us think about when we hear Robert Burns’s line “man’s inhumanity to man.” Sadly, though, such inhumanity and cruelty is far from an historic phenomenon; Burns penned the line in the 18th century and fast forward hundreds of years, on Sunday the terrorist group Islamic State released videos showing the brutal murder of 30 Ethiopian Christians.

Inhumanity to man is a real and present danger, to pinch a phrase from John Major (who was using it in an election context for goodness sake).

I’ve also watched reports this week of the awful deaths of hundreds of migrants trying to escape poverty and war in Africa and the Middle East on boats to Europe. Someone said they weren’t even seeking a better life, just a life because of the nightmare existence in their homeland.

Evil men try to take advantage of their situation to make money by smuggling people into Europe on overcrowded ships. One ship heading from Libya sank, killing 800 people, many of them women and children in the lower of three decks packed with people. They had no chance and perished in the waters.

This is far from a one-off; a few days earlier migrants died while travelling on a ship off the Greek island of Rhodes.

In 2014, a total of 3,279 people died in the Mediterranean trying to make these horrible journeys, and this year so far a further 1,757 people have died.

It is truly heart-rending to think that people so desperate are being used as cargo by men trying to make money; lives are expendable and cheap.

One would think that you would have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by this situation.

But listen to the words of Sun columnist Katie Hopkins, who describes migrants as “cockroaches”.

“Rescue boats? I’d use gunships to stop migrants” said The Sun’s headline.

Ms. Hopkins describes migrants in Calais who try to board trucks heading to Britain as “a plague of feral humans”.

She says we don’t need Save the Children “encouraging” migrants to make the journey. “What we need are gunships sending these boats back to their own country”.

She adds: “Some of our towns are festering sores, plagued by swarms of migrants and asylum seekers, shelling out benefits like Monopoly money”.

This isn’t the ranting of a lone mad voice. Hopkins writes for the Sun, with millions of readers and has such a following that she has been given her own radio show by LBC in London. Nolan brings her on to his Radio Ulster show from time to time to spew her nonsense and she can be pretty offensive about others whom she considers low life; from overweight people to people living on benefits.

I’m of the view that this woman is often best ignored. Paying attention to her odious views only delights and encourages her.

But enough’s enough, surely.

She’s not alone in many of her views, though.

Consider this week the young boy filmed in an election report; when asked by a Labour candidate who he’d vote for, the 10-year-old replied, “UKIP”.

Why, asked the Labour man. “To get foreigners out of our country,” replied the boy on camera.

As we say in these parts, the cub didn’t pick it up off the road. Racism and intolerance is alive and well in society, and while this may seem a long, long way from the inhumanity of the Nazis, let us not forget how the evil of Hitler thrived by playing on such fear.

I’m not so naïve to think that throwing open Britain’s borders and taking in all refugees and immigrants is going to work; neither am I ignoring the genuine concerns of the British people about the changes in their society’s ethnic make-up.

I just find the personal intolerance and lack of compassion that is so prevalent today a worrying trend.

What can each individual do, though? Well, a softening of hearts is badly needed.

The Russian journalist and human rights activist, Anna Politkovskaya once said in a different context: “How we react to the tragedy of one small person accurately reflects our attitude toward a whole nationality, and increasing the numbers doesn’t change much.” Also, and finally, let us not despair either. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, and often the intolerance of the minority gets the attention.

But human decency is alive and well. There are far more good people than bad, and compassion is within many of us. One would hope that those in authority can continue to battle against the unscrupulous forces who would kill on behalf of an ideal or expend innocent lives in pursuit of money.