Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he [or she] stumbleth. – Proverbs 24:17.
SOLOMON WOULD HAVE FELT even stronger about one’s reaction to the fate of a brother or sister, as did his fellow Old Testament author Obadiah.
Do not gloat over your brother’s [or sister’s] day, the day of his [or her] misfortune . . . . – Obadiah 1:12.
The question these days is: is the Internet putting up a barrier between people and brotherly compassion or love?
Most insensitively, a smartphone video of the brutal and fatal dog attack on the lovable and neighbourly Verona Gibson of Monroe Village, Haggatt Hall, St Michael, on Saturday continues to make the rounds on Facebook.
The smartphone photographer at the debilitating weekend 5:30 a.m. scene would concentrate on capturing the shockingly bloody demise of the 74-year-old St Barnabas Church member and worshipper, rather than seeking help in preserving a most worthy life. To boot, the compulsive smartphone carrier would splash her heartlessness and the pictorial cruelty of seven vicious dogs, led by a female canine in heat, we are told.
Oh, if only the smartphone – which is now always in hand as if it were some magical self-defence side arm – was capable of protecting each one of us at all times from what is dangerous, life-threatening and evil! But, alas, it is not.
Society has been so fast overwhelmed and overtaken by the digital technology, we have not had the time to set any boundaries for smartphone usage; and now we find ourselves grappling with the successful recognition and installation of concern, caring, compassion, sensitivity and meaningful relationships, particularly among our youth.
The certain fallout, of course, is the pain and anguish that must be suffered by the loved ones of those victims whose bloody and sometimes demanding demise is permanently placed on record.
Surely, our religious leaders have admonished us on the growing abuse of the smartphone; but they represent not the law of the land. We need to hear from our Government and our ruling legal minds what may be done to control and restrict insensitive – and often unnecessarily intimate – Internet postings that promote more excruciating pain, no comfort; more sorrow, no solace; more evil, no good.
And we need word, cum action, from our national administration without the remotest excuse or dilly-dallying.
Or, shall we fear that we have now become irrevocably immersed in our digital existence? Shall we be made to accept as unchallengeable and irreversible our brother’s – or sister’s – smartphone gloating over our misfortunes on Facebook and Instagram, and the like?
