I was wading my way through the misery porn that passes for news these days, when I came across this article. It's not often that a story can move me to tears, but this one did. Dr Jim Swire is a retired GP who lost his daughter Flora in the Lockerbie bombing. When the news reached him that Abdelbaset Megrahi had been deprived of his pain medication in Tripoli he said that it was wrong and if he could, he would treat him himself.
I know some would regard this as foolishness. There are those who think that forgiveness is weakness. But there is something piercing about the sheer graciousness and humanity of this man in the face of the callous evil that he experienced. And at a time when the NHS is collapsing around our ears, Dr Jim Swire is a shining example of the utter professionalism of the NHS trained doctor; to treat the patient and relieve their distress, no matter who they are. Dr Jim Swire is a product of the NHS that understands their profession as a vocation and treats it as such. He is the very best of the NHS.
3 comments:
Dr. Swire is indeed a man of consumate compassion and an example to his profession. He is convinced of the innocence of Megrahi and the collusion of many in politics to ensure the real culprits were not brought to justice.
He always has been consistent in his view of the need for a public inquiry, unfettered by the politics of the need to ensure good relations with the oil producing nations of the Middle East. He has always viewed Megrahi as a 'victim', so it is unsurprising that he makes this magnanimous gesture.
As for the NHS, well he certainly is one of it's better products, but he is 'old school', not the new breed. Today it would rather that Doctors were diagnostic software than people so it eandevours to make it so, churning out sycophantic pawns, overseen by a GMC that does nothing to support patient care or good doctors, being more interested in censoring those who 'whistleblow'.
I hope when all this fuss in Libya is over and the rebels take full control, that we might find out at last who actually did this, blackdog. Then there might be closure for Jim Swire and the other relatives. There is comfort in knowing the truth.
One has to work out one's own closure. As someone who has a relation actually killed by Libyan terrorism but not in Lockerbie, I am fascinated by the case.
Like Jim, whom I know, I am convinced that Mr Magrahi is not guity and he was jailed on shabby evidence faked up by the CIA.
So I had to work out myself what had happened at Lockerbie, though I had no connection with the atrocity.
And I worked out that Iran and the US governments had conspired together to give Iran its much desired revenge for the deliberate shooring down of IR655, the Iranian Airbus.
The CIA has gone to extreme efforts to suppress this story, but the truth has a horrid habit of coming out.
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