Este post é sobre o abuso de crianças nos EUA;
um problema que, embora de enormes proporções, de maneira nenhuma é exclusivo a
este país. O que me chamou à atenção foi a natureza do crime, o que me
surpreendeu foi a sua enormidade. Recomendo os dez (curtos) vídeos que se
seguem a quem tiver crianças a seus cuidados (sobretudo crianças pequenas), a
quem gosta de crianças e a todos aqueles que desejam fazer uma diferença. Trata-se
de um excelente trabalho da BBC. Vejam, indignem-se...e
façam alguma coisa. E, sobretudo, abram os olhos e prestem atenção, que é o que
eu vou começar a fazer. Injustiça de toda a espécie afecta-me sempre muito, mas
injustiça a seres inocentes e indefesos põe-me doente. Vai escrito em inglês
(versão americana) por ser uma língua que, ao fim de quase 4 décadas, já me é
mais natural do que a minha língua materna. Infelizmente.
"We are breeding an army of future child
abusers"
Why
isn’t the national media bringing this to the public’s attention and why isn't
anyone talking about it? Could it be because it’s a truth too inconvenient to
bring to light? Or is it because public demand for salacious stories is greater
than the demand for newsworthy stories, for the truth? The “official”
explanation is that it is a simple equation of supply meeting demand, as what
is broadcast is what we want to see; to that, I say: bullshit! With the
proliferation of 24-hour news stations, there’s plenty of opportunity for
intelligent news stories and for real information; instead, there seems to be a
deliberate and concerted effort on the part of the current media oligopoly in
dumbing down the population with lewd sound bites and a plethora of stupid
reality shows rich in superficiality but deprived of depth. Too many “talking
heads” and not nearly enough investigative reporting; worse still, what passes
as “investigative reporting” is, nowadays, nothing more than yellow (tabloid)
journalism. It’s a sickening, loathsome,
sad reality that I refuse to accept. Whatever happened to the Edward R Murrows
and Walter Cronkites of this world? Please, give us (the consumer) a little
more credit. Please stop insulting our collective intelligence.
Most
of these stories are limited to the local news. When one goes viral and grasps
the nation’s attention, the victim is usually a little blond girl with blue
eyes who hails from a middle or upper middle-class family; how often are these
stories about little girls and boys from the “ghetto”, “hood”, or “wrong side
of the tracks?” As someone so eloquently once said, “We have an Amber alert; we don’t have a Shaniqua alert.”
Maybe,
to a certain extent, the public is at fault; but not entirely. In spite of a
certain level of denial that atrocities such as these only happen in someone
else’s backyard (and whether the culprit lies in inefficient management, the
ever-present budget cuts, the never-ending bureaucracy,
public apathy or in the lowly overworked and underpaid social worker) I’m a
firm believer that throwing a problem under the rug is no way to solve it. In
order for things to change there needs to be public outrage, even if it’s from
simple “overloading” of information. These kids without a voice need to know
that they haven’t been forgotten. And why did I have to watch this excellent
exposé in a foreign news site?
“Once
you’re abused you don’t know anything else other than anger and violence (…)
and you really have to work at it to change (…) the more damaged these kids
become, the more damaged society becomes (…)” - Stacey Kananen, former abuse victim, on the
consequences of child abuse and on how to break this cycle of violence.
Let’s
stop being shocked when the childhood lives of the likes of Ariel Castro,
Grisela Blanco and Aileen Wuornos
(just to mention a few) become
public. Does calling them monsters and
sending them to death row solve any problems? Is revenge the only solution? Not
everything is an “excuse” that should be dismissed, sometimes there are
“causes”, contributing factors that should be taken into consideration. This
world of ours is not as “black or white” as some insist; there’s an awful lot
of grey as well.
So,
let’s stop being hypocrites and let’s start by getting to the root of all this
evil. Not everyone reacts the same way to the same stressors, so why take any
chances? We already have enough psychopaths and sociopaths walking around, so let
us start with preventive measures and let us start being proactive rather than
reactive. Let us prepare for the worst and hope for the best. And more
importantly, let us stop looking the other way. The words “children” and
“injustice” should not even be in the same sentence. These kids should be
subjected to lots of love, discipline and attention, not abuse – be it verbal
or physical. Nobody deserves abuse.
It
would also help if politicians and businessmen alike stopped obsessing about
quarterly goals and next election cycles and started thinking in terms of the
long run. Too idealistic? No. Not with public outrage. Not with a well-informed
consumer. Grassroots
movements can be a thing of beauty.
