http://www.facebook.com/justiceformichaela is a facebook page that has been set up to demand justice for the failure of the legal and judicial system in the case of the high profile unsolved murder case of Michaela McAreavey. The justice that this page demands however, with 20.874 followers and counting, is the full boycott of tourism to the tiny island of Mauritius where the murder took place. Their argument is pretty simple; that because of the failure of the police, state, judicial system and press, that every Irishman should boycott tourism to Mauritius.
Of all the people in the world, who should understand first hand that the persecution of a whole nation for senseless acts of violence by individuals therein, only causes pain and suffering to the innocent hard working members of that society, it shocks me to the core that it is an Irishman who came up with this campaign. Are memories SO short? The wounds caused in this case will not be healed in this endeavour, just as hate campaigns didn't heal the wounds caused by years of violence in Ireland. Such a campaign of hate can only ever be counter-productive and cause more negativity.
Put into perspective, the originators of this facebook page are asking the people of Ireland which has a population of 4 million people and is spread over 84.000 km2 to contribute to the downfall of the main economic foundation of Mauritius which in contrast has only one quarter of the same population spread over 1860 km2. In so doing, the followers of this site are advocating the destruction of jobs for poor hard working people, many of whom battle everyday just to put food on their tables, trying to make the best of the world into which they have been born, with the shackles of centuries of poverty, colonial rule, slavery and indentured labour to weigh them down. You would have thought that the followers of this page would extend the hand of friendship and understanding to the Mauritian people, sharing, by way of this case the injustices that they have to face in their day to day reality.....evidently not.
In the middle of all of this hatred is a family desperately trying to come to terms with the horrific reality that has been dealt them. Their pain and frustration is understandable, but where would we be if we boycotted every country in the world where a murder had taken place?
Without even taking into consideration the distress caused to thousands by way of the "troubles", imagine how the people behind this page and it's followers would react if the French demanded that Irish tourism be boycotted because of the still unsolved brutal murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier? Would they deem that a fair exchange? http://www.independent.ie/national-news/highprofile-killing-remains-unsolved-over-a-decade-later-1432461.html ...someone should be doing their homework about unsolved murders that have taken place in Ireland over the years....people in glass houses and all that!
Maybe we should ask the good people of France to set up a similar page and see how these "followers" would like to be persecuted through the destruction of their tourism industry?
Thank goodness that in contrast an anti-site has already been set up, http://www.facebook.com/groups/ourbelovedmauritius/ boasting 21.329 followers already, fighting back by advocating the wonders of this tiny little island in the middle of the Indian Ocean with demonstrations of love, patience and hope. God Bless the people of Mauritius at this time - may the fire in your bellies put pay to this ignorant nonsense. Thankfully there are enough intelligent, balanced people in this world to counter the ignorant forces of misdirected hate and destruction. It would be far more positive to advocate travelling to Mauritius and actually getting to know the country and its people rather than sitting in judgement 5 thousand miles away.
But lest we forget and most importantly, God bless, protect and bring peace to the McAreavey/Harte families at this terrible time. A point which appears to have been lost in all the misdirected hate - although hopefully a point which has started to sink into the hearts of the creators of this hate page.
“God created Mauritius first and then heaven” Mark Twain.
No comments:
Post a Comment