17 June 2016

Last October, the mayoral candidate for Cologne was stabbed by an attacker with racist motives. She survived, only just, and has since been elected mayor of that city. The court case has been going on for a while and it looks like a life sentence or psychiatric hospital if the defendant is deemed criminally insane.
I have followed this in the news on and off, bits of information here and there, all very much as expected. A history of right wing activities, mostly violent, criminal record for this and that, unemployment, broke, no friends, no partner.
We can stop here and come to the usual conclusions.
In a spare moment, we can ask, who is this guy? Why on earth? Etc.
Today, I read that when he was four years old, he was found abandoned in a completely neglected flat, he had been feeding his younger siblings with bits of rice and only when all the food was gone did he knock on the door of the neighbours.



6 comments:

Ms. Moon said...

I was talking to a woman my age yesterday who doesn't have grandchildren yet and she is fine with that- she taught school for forty years. Kindergarten. I was telling her that in my opinion, the reason humans get to live long enough, generally, to know our grandchildren is because if a child has one other person to love them, support them, learn from them, listen to them and so forth, it makes a better human for this earth. I do believe that. It is not a perfect system, of course. Not all children have loving grandparents. And god help the children who have neither grandparents nor parents because this is what happens.
The anger and pain never goe away and as the child grows, so does this pain and anger and eventually, it will come out.
We humans need love and respect and nurturing as much as we need food and water.

Anonymous said...

It's amazing how the sad life of one individual can have such huge consequences. It happens day after day after day. We live lives our evolutionary ancestors never anticipated. Strangers living next door to strangers on a planet of seven billion, each with a dream or a nightmare to fulfill.

37paddington said...

The legacy of trauma. So very sad.

Elizabeth said...

Oh god. Devastating.

Colette said...

Cause and effect. There is usually a reason why someone is messed up.

Steve Reed said...

No wonder he only learned hate and anger! Can we blame him?!