Children are our treasures, our future. If people cannot treasure our young ones, maybe they should pass them on to others who can. After all, it’s our collective future that’s at stake.
It’s the Christmas season, the season to be merry. It’s that time of the year when the jolly old man in the Coca-Cola red-and-white outfit goes around the world on his sleigh pulled by supersonic reindeers, handing out presents via chimneys that most houses don’t have any more.
But why worry about chimneys and red-nosed reindeers? It’s the presents that matter.
What matters even more are the children who receive the presents. The smiles, the grins, the shrieks of delight when the presents are opened – those precious moments are what make any festivity worthwhile.
This year, the presents were mostly electronic. Gone are the days of the toy train, the light sabre and remote-controlled cars.
In their place are now the iPads, the Gameboys, the iPhones and a myriad other gadgets from Samsung and other electronics makers.
While the presents may have changed, the aim remains the same – the happiness of the children.
This year, though, I could not help but feel a deep sadness within me. As the laughter of the children rang around me, as they ran around shouting in joy, my thoughts were on other children.
I thought of the 20 children who had been brutally gunned down in a school in Newtown, Connecticut. What of their parents and siblings? What of their Christmas? What would they be feeling? What would be under the Christmas trees in their homes, if indeed a tree had been put up?
How could someone hurt innocent children, what more kill them?
The thoughts moved closer to home.
In China, police have busted a human trafficking ring, freeing more than 80 children who had been cooped up like so many chicken waiting to be sold.
Had they not been rescued, god only knows what would have become of them.
And right here, at our doorstep – a man beating up a three-year-old. I watched the video and have no words to describe the treatment dished out to the boy.
How could anyone bring himself to rain adult-sized blows on a child for minutes on end?
He threw the child to the ground only to order the child to pick himself up. When the child did, he was beaten and thrown to the ground again. It happened again, and again and again.
I don’t know what I felt watching that terrible video – horror, disgust, contempt, anger – all of that and more. A friend opined that it was the way some people brought up their children – to toughen them up so they could take on a brutal, violent world.
Really? Why wait for others to kill your kid when you can kill him yourself, is that it?
A man has been charged for the offence. If he is guilty, I hope he is put away for a long time.
A welder has also been remanded. In his case, the child is dead. The boy was just two. He had bruises all over his body, his private parts and internal organs. How the child must have suffered.
And yet another case, another child, another murder. This time, it was a one-year-old girl. She had been stomped on until her bones were fractured and her face badly damaged. The culprit then set the child’s poor, broken body alight.
What abominable monster would do this to a child?
We are told Christmas is a time for giving and caring. But it is also a time to pause and reflect.
Pause and reflect, we should.
As the laughter and joy of Christmas dies down, we should stop to think of those children for whom there is no laughter and no joy – for children who have parents who don’t care; people who have offspring but have no idea of what parenting is.
In many parts of the world – in Yemen, in Afghanistan, in Ethiopia and yes, even here in Malaysia – there are children having children. And when they do, they have no idea about what to do with their babies.
by D. Raj.
Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/12/28/focus/12510771&sec=focus