When Will the Madness Stop?

Elderly teacher beheaded in Thailand

I stared at the above headline as summary of an AFP report carried by theSun on page 6 (June 16, 2005), and I wondered when will the “madness” ever stop…

BANGKOK: An elderly Buddhist man has been beheaded and four other people shot dead in the latest upsure of violence blamed partly on separatists in southern Thailand, police said yesterday.

The body of retired teacher Kamol Chunetr, 65, was discovered in Patani province’s Yaring district late Tuesday.

Police said they found a note on the victim’s body but would not disclose the contents.

A similar killing within the 10 days preceding was that of a 59-year-old plantation worker in neighbouring Yala province whose head was also left on a roadside. A note left on the victim read: “You arrested innocent people, so I kill innocent people.”


Here I would like to share with readers a poem by Thomas Hardy (1840-1928):

The Man He Killed

Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn
We should have sat us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin.

But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.

I shot him dead because –
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That’s clear enough; although

He thought he’d ‘list, perhaps,
Off-hand-like – just as I –
Was out of work – had sold his traps –
No other reason why.

Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You’d treat, if met where any bar is,
Or help to half-a-crown.

Whether it is war in ancient times, or in the 21st century, or in years to come, the basic philosophy on the battle-field applies: “Kill or be killed!” In Hardy’s poem, the irony is pointed out that had the two soldiers from opposing sides “met” at different times and in a different place, like at a bar or coffee-house, they could have treated each other to a drink or two, might even proceed to become “friends” in time to come. But being a “foes” caught in battle, one must perish at the end of a barrel of a gun! Yes, indeed, “theirs is not to wonder why, but to shoot or die!”

Desiderata parts with some "reflective" lines from Chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes, and universally known by its opening in the first verse, popularised in song by Judy Collins:

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted.
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down and a time to build up;
A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.