Increasingly insecure world
Foods for Thought
By Dr R Neerunjun Gopee
Two days ago, I met a young couple who live in San Diego, California, who are here for a brief holiday. The husband is Mauritian and his wife is American, and they have a daughter who is in 9th grade. On completing 12thgrade, she will be joining university. Mum is keeping the options open but has a preference for Europe, because she feels that it is no longer the same America that she has known in her younger days.
She is concerned about safety in civilian life, because ‘there are far too many guns. Far too many young people possessing guns.’ She mentioned the 18–24-year-old boys, who somehow or the other pick up or get involved in a fight, and will pull out a gun. And you can’t prevent them from possessing one, or two, or several – because the law allows them.
Sometime before they flew down, there was shooting in a locality- ‘downtown’ – where they have often gone for meals, known to be a quiet place. For whatever reason, there was a shoot out, and two decent people who had come from out of town for a conference were killed as they were having lunch in a restaurant.
‘It takes place at random,’ she continued, ‘but random can be anywhere, anytime.’ And who knows that you or one of yours may be at the right place, but at the wrong time?
Violence is endemic in our world, but in civilian life it is now more common. Or perhaps we feel so because communication has expanded so much and become so easy that every incident around the world is reported, so it seems more frequent. Nearly 35 years ago, I was doing a last-minute shopping at Galeries Lafayette in Marseille on the evening of my departure from there. When I reached back to the doctors’ residence, I learnt that there had been a terrorist explosion at GaleriesLafayettte in Paris! What if… I shuddered to think! Read More… Become a Subscriber
Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 29 July 2022
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