A great example

Recently I came across a video that had an unattractive thumbnail image – a dark, murky brown scene featuring a section of a crowd of people seated in a dimly lit room or auditorium with cinema-style seating. One man sitting at the front was highlighted by a red circle drawn around him.

The text at the top of the video thumbnail said: “This man is invited on a TV show...” The smaller text at the bottom of the image said "Nicholas Winton, a true hero!" followed by a few hashtags.

I decided to click and view. As the video started, the seated people, with the exception of the man circled in red, stood slowly, almost mechanically. The music and lyrics in the background drew me in further: “Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders, let me walk upon the waters, wherever you would call me...”

By the end of the video I was in tears. It was the first occasion on which I came across the story of Nicholas Winton – or Sir Nicholas George Winton, as he became when he was knighted by the Queen for his "services to humanity, in saving Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia.”

In 1938, he cancelled a skiing trip to Switzerland in preference for what became the life-changing decision of visiting a friend in Prague.

While there, he became involved in helping refugees flee from the Nazis. Through his efforts he was able to save 669 children (mainly Jewish), organising their safe escape to England before World War II. Tragically, most of the children’s parents perished in concentration camps, but the children went on to live in freedom, finding love with new families and forming families of their own in adulthood.

What is amazing about this story is not only that Nicholas Winton saved the lives of so many children, but that he kept this monumental humanitarian act a secret for 50 years.

It was his wife Grete who, while cleaning out the attic, found his scrapbook containing names of the rescued children, and some photos. She presented this material to a journalist and the door was opened for the story to become known to the world.

This struck me. In today’s world, few people would be able to keep such a story to themselves for as long as Winton did. Media houses would be hounding them down, they would be all over social media – their story going "viral." Talk-show hosts like Oprah Winfrey would pay them millions to appear on "the show," knowing the appearance of such a hero would boost ratings.

The short video I had watched was a clip from the BBC television programme That’s Life, which featured Nicholas Winton in 1988. When the host of the show asked for anyone in the audience who had been rescued by him to stand, the entire audience rose in silence.

Winton himself remained wordless, no doubt so deeply moved that he could manage only to wipe tears from the edges of his eyes.

This video moved me immensely, not so much because of the heroic act, but the humility of the hero, the quiet respect and gratitude evident among the now adult refugees in the audience and the thought of how it must feel to know the life-changing impact one’s selfless actions have had on so many people.

Recently, Commissioner of Police Erla Harewood-Christopher said TT needs divine intervention in the fight against crime. According to her, 99 per cent of the country’s citizens believe in a superior being and, as such, we can call on that being for help in fighting the "unnaturally evil" scourge of crime that stalks the land.

Possibly inspired by old biblical movies, some may think of "divine intervention" in dramatic terms – the sky opening up, lightning flashing and a voice booming like thunder from above while a miracle occurs.

What if divine intervention can happen simply when the "spirit" touches a person, or people, inspiring them to act in ways that can bring about seemingly impossible transformation through revolutionary ideas and actions?

While Nazi concentration camps are in no way similar to conditions in TT, the word "evil" has been used in reference to both. The refugee children were spared from "evil" thanks to the "divine intervention" of Nicholas Winton’s life-saving act.

To those of us living in crime-ridden TT, in what way or through whom will our "divine intervention" manifest?