Our disability

The incident has disturbed us all. It is the most serious indication up to now that the situation has got out of control. Eye witnesses, including the police, have said that the bloody incident took place in front of the Prosecutor and the police chief. Residents requested to be allowed to go to their property and later, when darkness had fallen, to meet with the Prosecutor and form a group to visit the facility and see how it was being used. When the request was refused there were clashes in the dark resulting in the tragic injury to the young man. There are two versions, as always, as to who 'struck the first blow' - neither of which will replace the victim's right hand.

This iron fisted operation has had a high human cost - especially when the matters of corruption and arson have never been cleared up, leading to the cultivation of conspiracy theories.

The reduction of this type of confrontation to a military-type standoff is based on divisive convictions due to elliptical views of the management which express themselves in rage and hate.

Up to now nobody on the island has shown that they have the capability of finding a solution to the problem. And yet it is now that an end needs to be brought to this blind conflict which is soul-destroying, poisonous, bloody and disgusting.

With just a few a months to go before the next local elections, the political parties, local authority representatives and other bodies - especially those in the forefront of the conflict - can, without ulterior motives, change the agenda and their present behaviour.

The loss of the young man's hand on Sunday is our own disability, both politically and as a society, whichever god we believe in. Everything else is theories that are just 'playing it safe'!