STAY WELL & SPARKLE: Don’t lose your head

A graphic video is taking the Internet by storm. Friends may dare you to look at it.

Don’t.

I did. I wish I hadn’t. Sleep was not easy that night I saw the video. I’d prefer picturing peace on earth, good will to men. Instead, I found myself instinctively reaching for my neck, guarding it, ever so gently. What makes a mother’s bouncing baby boy grow up to commit such a horrendous crime? Just take my word for it; while quite disturbing, in the end it makes for a profoundly teachable moment.

Somewhere in Mexico, a woman is kneeling.  She is full-figured, wearing red top and blue jeans. Hands are tied behind her back. Behind her, a knife-wielding, masked man, suddenly, brutally, slashes her neck completely off…right before your very eyes. For cheating? Totally loco! Strangely, like a lamb to the slaughter, she does not resist. She utters not a word. At your deepest core, you instantly feel for this fellow human being. You feel for her family, who, with a just couple keyboard clicks, is forever doomed be exposed to that grisly evidence over and over again.

As the French would say, “Quelle horreur!” What horror, indeed!

There are lots of things on the Internet that decent people simply have no business even glancing at. So what is it about this one? What does it have to do with my well-being? Producers of lurid video games bank on customers’ morbid appetite for violent stuff.  As innocent kids looking at horror movies at the Carib, Arawak or RBD cinemas, many ducked behind the seats when Dracula bared his fangs. It was too much watching him sink his sharp teeth into that soft, defenseless jugular neck vein.

Today? People just can’t seem to get enough. If you must waste your time, why not ‘Candy Crush?’ Rather, there are those who feel their calling in life is to pass along the most gruesome trash online. The research is clear. Our insatiable hunger for desensitizing violence only breeds more rampant violence.

But I digress. Imprinted deep in the collective human psyche is the high degree of sanctity we ascribe to the head. That’s where the face resides; where personality is expressed. Much more than the heart, the head is the seat of the soul. The United Nations has crafted international agreements against such desecration. Responsible military organizations take pains to publicly prosecute their own soldiers for such violations.

It is clear that the Mexican butcher is mimicking the dramatic annunciation style of the first beheading video to hit the mainstream.  That was the sickening demise of Jewish-American journalist Daniel Pearl after being lured into Middle Eastern trap just five months after 9/11. Then again, in these parts of the world, such snuff films probably earn ,meritorious service awards. Honour killings, severing of limbs, stoning and throwing acid in faces of the unfaithful, appear to abound – seemingly woven into the very fabric of these societies.

To be fair, modern terrorists are by no means the first to use this set-up to make a powerful statement. King Vlad the Impaler of Transylvania, Romania, was the real-life Dracula of the Middle Ages. He was infamous for piecing corpses of his beheaded enemies on elevated poles. He did this by the thousands – succeeding as it were, in discouraging Ottoman conquest of Christian Europe.

‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ is based in part on the legendary Blackbeard. His entertaining avatar, Jack Sparrow, comes nowhere close to portraying the most feared buccaneer of all time. A bounty placed on Blackbeard served only to infuriate him more. When he was finally decapitated in a fierce naval raid, his body reportedly continued to swim away. Blackbeard’s head was displayed on a spike in Hampton River, Virginia, as a warning to would-be brigands. Of course, it is the French who claim credit for mechanizing the process with the ‘humane’ invention by Dr. Guillotine – a physician no less. Not much sparkle among his patients, I suppose.

Would King David be the most celebrated beheader in literature? It is his six-pointed blue star that makes up the flag of modern Israel. Back then, the Isrealite army was taunted daily by the Phillistine giant, Goliath.

David’s seminal act of courage – in course of battle – instantly transformed their army’s humiliation into a spontaneous, glorious victory. Yet, this was the same sublime David later to pen perhaps the most comforting Psalm of all: The Lord is my Shepherd.

So what’s up with all this revived fascination with beheading? Even Dominica is represented in this pantheon of perps. However, Al Capone and that young man from Wotten Waven would probably take offense to be mentioned in the same breath. Gory as they were, they still pale in comparison. Our august jurisprudence ensured that justice was duly served, even not to everyone’s satisfaction. This nevertheless, permits the populace to be level-headed once again. We can get back to focusing on family, faith and national development. We can think more pleasant thoughts – whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good repute, etcetera and so forth.

Historically, it tends to boil down to a spitting competition among boys: Men dissing & dehumanizing other men over politics, gang, booty, or a twisted love of God. The victor hoists the ‘trophy’ and roars, ”Who’s your daddy now?!” In stark contrast, this macabre Mexican incident is the epitome of domestic violence. The cowardly male uses his superior physical power to permanently control the subdued female. A true CariMan would want no part in being a detached witness or virtual accomplice. Only a person never nurtured by a mother figure would not cringe with righteous indignation.

Renowned Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe, (Things Fall Apart) declared, “When people find water rising up to your ankle, that’s the time to do something about it, not when it’s around your neck.” This vicious video exports Mexico’s shame. Now is the time for that country to restore its national dignity. Sometimes we have to hit rock bottom before can claw our way back up. And I have no doubt that we will. This poor woman’s blood cries out from the dusty Baja. The western hemisphere can expect authorities to use every resource at their disposal to deal decisively with these brutes. Doing so will make it abundantly clear to all, that we do not tolerate such demonic behavior in this part of the world.

Dr. Sam Christian is surgeon who runs the Urgent Care on 137 Bath Road. It offers general medical care, office surgery, acupuncture and microdermabrasion. He is Medical Adviser to the Dominica Cancer Society and author of the faith and fitness nutrition book, ‘Mannafast Miracle.’ Dr. Christian can be reached at 440-9133 or by writing to [email protected].