Museums are the guardians of history. They are home to the legacies of the past and evidence of where we come from. That is why museums are protected from the outside world of violence even during war. If anything their treasures are ransacked to ‘enrich’ the invader. But even he ensures that their safekeeping is given importance.
Ergo, museums are not killing fields and their sanctity is what makes the human race believe it has a faint grasp on civilized conduct.
What happened in Tunis belies everything that is positive about the human race. To create a bloodbath in a place of historical sanctity and to curate murder instead of artifact makes one wonder if there is anything left which is sacred to the terror groups who seem to up the ante with every act of mindless violence.
These victims were defenseless — they were visitors imbibing the signposts of yesterday. They were not targets for bullets and even the hostages. Many of the 21 dead were on a cruise and had stopped over to witness the precious collection that makes the Bardo museum a must on every tourist itinerary.
Who were these four or five gunmen and what were they hoping to achieve besides creating chaos in Tunisia and cracking a fragile and young democratic nation by bruising its tourist potential?
These are enemies of the state. There is no doubt about that. But they are also enemies of the people, the common people whose highest priority on a given day is to work, to strive and to earn enough to keep the family fed and clothed and housed. By tearing the fabric of society every such assault makes a nation poorer and there can be no dividends in that aim, if, indeed, that is the aim.
A question that overrides everything else is why is cowardice seen as a loyalty to a cause. To which part of the mind can killing civilians and elderly men and women be seen as an act of courage and conviction?
If that be so, who are these people and what makes them tick? Who brainwashes them into entering a mindset so foul and so without reason that they willingly load and cock their weapons — and even risk their lives without knowing exactly why they are doing it?
The only sliver of consolation in the aftermath of such blood splatters is that the world as an entity is swiftly realizing that logic and reasoning are flimsy defenses and the problem of violence is no longer isolated or geographically limited. It is global and no one can afford to be outside its purview or be unaffected. Consequently, the collective defense mechanisms have to be expedited and the scourge eliminated.
