by Benson Agoha
A day after a lone gunman took 17 people hostage in a Sidney Cafe, the world woke up to another horror of unimaginable proportion. The Martin Place attack resulted in a 16 hour face-off with special forces, and ended only after he was shot dead.
If the incidence inside the Lindt Cafe shop resulted in 3 deaths, the shooting of 100 school children in a military school by the Taliban, only a day later, has brought a whole new dimension to an unraveling scenario on which, no one as yet, has a proper grip.
Across the plane in the middle east, the Islamic State, in their on-going drive to unleash as much mayhem on perceived enemies as possible, has reportedly killed several women (a reported 150) and buried them in mass graves - for refusing orders to marry militants. This was in addition to the thousands of unarmed civilians, already similarly killed, for either not being converts or for having sympathy for other faiths.
How come our values for human lives have taken such ignominious dimension? When a Mexican gang beheaded a woman for infidelity, and posted it on Facebook, the rebuke by Prime Minister David Cameron led to its immediate removal. Yet, the Islamic state had gone ahead to behead not one or two, but a minimum of five Western aid workers, captured and held as hostages, then posted the video on social websites.
Excessive and despicable brutality appears to have pushed its way to the fore. Reports say, the Taliban attack on school children did not just end in gun shots, but that some bodies were seen with there heads already hacked off.
But while these horrendous evil are being perpetrated, parallel reports from some countries has been about how much boost they are giving to their military, or how much they are investing in space exploration.
On Wednesday, India launched the biggest rocket into space, said to be a strong statement highlighting their ambitious space programme. The contents and components of the rocket at the time of launch, included heavier communication and satellites and an unmanned capsule, which could one day carry astronauts into space. It successfully blasted off from Sriharikota in the southeast state of Andhra Pradesh. How laudable!
India is enjoying its rising profile as a result of its ambitious space programme, even as it showcases its technological might. It went on a separate mission to the Moon after the NASA's experiment popularly known as `moon bombing', to independently confirm evidence of water. And it has an ongoing mission to land a shuttle(already on its way) in Mars.
Russia, still reeling on the weight of sanctions imposed by the West for meddling in Ukraine, has revealed it plans to put up its own Space Station, that will effectively rival the International Space Station - the current symbol of international cooperation in space research.
When the US retired the last of its shuttle fleet after 30 years of service, Russian owned Soyuz Capsules were handy - even as a compliment to private operators on which NASA had to depend to ferry supplies to the ISS. With a separate Russian station up there, such co-operation might not be possible again.
In, China the push is to develop three large nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, the designs of which were found similar to the Nimitz- and Ford-class carriers of the United States.
All these makes one wonder over the why's and how's we have managed to become `proud savages', easily slipping into a life of crudeness and morbid wickedness against fellow humans, when even animals have been granted a degree of rights - without actually asking for one.
Imagine the heartlessness of a modern man who, though manifestly well polished in look, speech and manners,picks up a kitchen knife and hacks off the head of another living being. Even animals get better treatment from the butcher these days.
So since we are busy decimating others within our own national boundaries, the question becomes: who are all these high-tech space and earthly arsenals being built for? Of course, they were products of strategic thinking from various defense headquarters, albeit initiated years ago in peace time.
The decadent condition of the human mind can be seen all around our immediate vicinity, and in our daily relationships.
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| Two muslim ladies set fire on an Islamic Flag in protest against unacceptable moral prescription. (PhotoCredit: JK) |
Our initial thoughts about one another these days have been "death...death...death". For example, man was standing beside the ticket machine in front of a train station, searching for an apparently missing item inside his bag, but as he rummaged inside the bag, another approached and stood in front of him - just looking, saying nothing. The he turned and walked away.
The object of observation suddenly looked up, cigarette dangling between his lips, changed his countenance and said.."don't go if you know maybe you want to die."
The rational question on which those massive investments have always been anchored is "If earth is threatened from outer space, what will human's do?" But while we try to respond to that question, it may seen appropriate to insist that our penchant for degrading decadence is not overlooked.
Perhaps mankind defies the theory of evolution. But if a British citizen can sneak out and join a group that hacks off peoples heads, one must wonder if it is time to redefine `the civilized man'.
Are we civilized or have simply backs lidded into the dark cave era? Or is nature simply cyclical.
