We often hear about tragedies in the media... people who died in construction site accidents or traffic accidents, people who were murdered.
We must take action so that, if the circumstances that led to their deaths could be changed to prevent future tragedies... then such action is taken.
They were someone's son or daughter... possibly someone's mother or father. Quantifying statistics to show the scale of a problem is, of course, important, but we must also remember that these are human beings. In order to take action and change issues that led to deaths that could have been prevented, we need to start really seeing the people behind the numbers.
When looking at a photo of a traffic fatality for instance, it brings about sorrow for a brief minute or two, but ask yourself... how quickly would you forget about it? We all seem to have gotten used to so many traffic accidents on our roads, which in itself is worrying.
We all need to realize just how problematic the situation on our roads is. Each death was a tragedy... a life taken too early. We need to understand that our actions on the roads can have lethal consequences. The next person to die from a traffic fatality may be someone who you know, and we should all be more shaken by that thought. We should all be shaken by the number of traffic deaths this year. We need to make an effort to be more careful while we are on the road. Don't pick up your phone while driving. Don't rush to work. Don't try and overtake on a continuous white line. Don't drink and drive. Remember, people have lost their lives.
When it comes to accidents on construction sites, many tend to gloss over them. People would sit down, read about it in the news, maybe bring it up in conversation saying how terrible it is, and move on. But that doesn't do justice for those who were injured or killed. We keep talking about the importance of safety at the place of work, but this is something that we need to tackle through more action.
When it comes to murders, a lot more attention is given. The court cases are covered in detail, more details about who the victim was emerge, and sometimes a murder shocks the country to its core. A clear example was the brutal assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Other examples could be found this year, like the murder of Paulina Dembska, and the murder of Bernice Cassar.
In such instances we saw the country leap into action. The murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia saw people take to the streets calling for justice. A battle cry that is still going today. It is unacceptable that it took the murder of a journalist for the culture of impunity to start being tackled. In the case of Dembska, Maltese politicians introduced the crime of femicide into law, and in the case of Cassar, it is bringing about more calls for action on the issue of domestic violence.
But sometimes a murder tends to be forgotten after a while. The murder of Lassana Cisse shook the country when it took place, yes. The country began speaking about racism... but what exactly have we done to tackle racism since then? It is an issue that is often put to the side, but it is an issue that we truly need to tackle.
If we don't fight to change mentalities, to change situations that lead up to deaths - be it careless driving, lax workplace safety procedures, the culture of impunity, so on and so forth... then we are toying with the possibility of history repeating itself.