Nine boys and their families, maybe more, live today as victims of alleged sexual abuse at the hands of someone they trusted and emulated. What kind of society have we become?
When a religious leader betrays the inherent trust that society places in him or her, the effect is devastating to the victims. To violate this sacred position, to disappoint families in their expectation of the highest moral and ethical conduct, is to treat the society with the utmost contempt. It is the most despicable of public behaviour.
In this nation, many kids live with trauma – from gross poverty, verbal and physical abuse, poor education and so many social ills. And the society seems absolutely uncaring about their plight. We campaign and crusade for the rights of women, for a university lecturer who got fired, and in political power struggles.
But we do so little for the children who face the brunt of the society’s depravity, and social malaise.
Think of the little girl who was allegedly sexually abused by no less than a senior businessman. This man was charged with criminal conduct, but walks about freely, enjoying his lavish lifestyle. What of that girl child, who has to face the rest of her life with the memory of this violation of her body and soul?
What kind of justice is this?
What kind of society have we become?
Where is our conscience as a Guyanese nation?
The powerful, the famous, the rich seem to bulldoze their agenda on the national psyche, while the most vulnerable among us suffer in stunned silence.
The political fights we engage in serve personal interests rather than national development, with those implicated citing government victimization. How about the victimization of the children by these depraved adults? We sweep that under the nasty rug, and vent on government.
Whether government victimizes the broadcaster, or the lecturer, should not detract from the brutality our children have to face. Who cares for the children?
The weight of living in a land so socially devastated falls on the small shoulders of our kids. Who is relieving that burden? Do we really care?
If we cannot care with deep compassion for the vulnerable, the voiceless, the least among us, these voiceless victims, how could we say our body politic harbours a good conscience? The national conscience is hardened and almost unfeeling.
Over the past week, scores of university students, politicians, social activists, media operatives and even university workers took up the cause of a fired university lecturer. They protested, shouted with vehemence, picketed and kicked up a verbal storm – all over the sacking of a professor, who, by the way, was past retirement age.
No one saw fit to protest for justice for those nine boys and their families. No one protested for the little girl whose body was allegedly violated by a famous businessman who is also way past retirement age.
In fact, hundreds of people protested and picketed and pouted with political anger when the government hauled a broadcaster off the air.
Where were these protesters when the broadcaster was charged and indicted for allegedly molesting a little child?
It is incredibly heart-breaking to see what this nation has become. We have lost our conscience. We have become a brutal people, who watch the abuse and violation of our children, and do nothing.
Even in our public spaces, such as the Stabroek Market, Bourda and the bus parks, adults spew lewd language, uncaring that children hear them.
Do we care anymore what kind of future generation we are shaping? As a people we seem not to consider our children at all.
The kids seem to be non-existent. We don’t take them into consideration even in our public discourse.
This sad state of our society emanates from poor governance. Government sets the model for citizen behaviour. And government has shown for decades that the most vulnerable citizens among us do not really matter.
Government treats senior citizens and pensioners with an almost disdainful contempt. The $7,500 a month old age pension is a bitter disgrace. That’s US$37.50, with the bulk of groceries imported and sold at prices comparable to the developed world.
We treat our senior citizens with contempt. We disregard our children, caring not that many of these vulnerable kids would shape the Guyanese society of tomorrow. We leave the mentally challenged and destitute to live in squalour and filth on the streets.
The community of disabled persons fends for itself with scant regard from the State.
While we see social agitation and political protests dot the landscape, the fights we pick are all too frequently petty, and seek to redress personal agendas, with government facing off against those with a personal agenda.
Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Jennifer Webster, told a conference dealing with Child Welfare recently in Georgetown that “child protection is not the responsibility of the Child Protection Agency or the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security but all Guyanese – men, women and children, and requires their full attention, concern and vigilance,” according to the Ministry’s website.
Director of the Child Care and Protection Agency, Ann Green, said at that same conference that “more and more reports are coming to the agency of all forms of abuse of children being perpetrated by persons whom the children hold dear and trust.”
No one offered real support to the boys in this new case and their families. These families cannot afford draconian lawyer fees to fight for justice.
Those nine young boys who trusted their religious leader and obeyed their parents in seeing him as a moral mentor, and those little innocent girls whose souls are violated by powerful men who pay their way through the courts, employing rich lawyers, what of them?
These children are silent, unable to speak about their pain, innocent young lives we abandon, leaving them to face alone the depraved violation of their bodies and souls.
