I had a rather unpleasant experience while driving to work this morning, one that triggered a whole host of thoughts in my mind.
Shortly after setting off from home, a couple of swans landed in the middle of the road, about 150 metres ahead of me. One of the swans was run over by a car that was accelerating at what seemed to be an extraordinary speed. The swan collided with the car’s front bumper, passed under its chassis and emerged from under the boot. Although the swan narrowly missed being crushed under the wheels, it was nonetheless badly injured, with one of its legs visibly crushed.
I stopped as soon as I could and called the police emergency number. I waited for the police to arrive and hoped that my parked car, half of which was on the narrow pavement and the other half on the carriage way, would slow down the traffic and shield the injured swan from the speeding cars.
I don’t know much about swans but one thing that I do know is that they have life-long mates. Indeed, the injured swan’s mate stayed with its friend in the middle of the road for several long minutes, despite the numerous cars that were impatiently circumventing them to the left and the right. It’s heart-breaking enough to witness any helpless, injured animal suffering, but to see the hurt bird and its mate standing by it in the middle of the road in spite of all the danger and the terror of the passing vehicles was heart-wrenching.
However, it certainly wasn’t heart-wrenching enough for the vast majority of motorists on that road this morning. First of all, the driver whose car had run over the swan did not stop – on the contrary, he or she sped off even faster. That driver must have known that he/she had run over the swan, and he/she must have seen it in the rear-view mirror, injured but not dead with its mate standing by it. Nonetheless, he/she did not stop. If what goes around really comes around, then maybe one day that driver will suffer a terrible accident and no one will stop to help him/her.
The second thought to come to my mind was how primitive and low human nature is. I am referring here to all the subhumans who terrified the injured swan and its mate by speeding to the left and to the right of them without a care in the world. May they all get their comeuppance some day soon. There was, however, one exception. A kind gentleman stopped by and tried to help by calling a special swan helpline number. He stayed with me until the police arrived.
Finally, my thoughts turned inevitably to my own people. Here I was, an Arab in the midst of “humane”, “civilized” and “animal-loving” Britain, coming to the rescue of an injured swan and cursing those who couldn’t give a damn. How would people in my own country react under similar circumstances? I ask myself.
Sadly, the answer is that they would not react at all. For the vast majority of them, it would be a non-event; it wouldn’t even register on their radar screens, so to speak. In fact, most would laugh at me for even caring! The painful truth is that, in my part of the world, compassion, whether for animals or humans, is a rare commodity indeed. Strange, you might think, for people who utter the name of "God, the Merciful, the Compassionate" dozens of times each day.
When I got home later in the evening I accidentally dialled the emergency number of the regional swan rescue centre while adding the number to my mobile phone contacts. I discovered that the swan had been euthanased – it's leg had been so badly crushed that the centre decided it would be more humane to put it down.
