I remember visiting two elementary school kids that I sponsored in Bo Thong Elementary School, Chiang Rai Province. When I walked into the front yard, I saw a girl and two boys standing in a muddy area with a wooden plank across a flooded front. The girl was apparently the oldest in the family. My attention soon turned to the middle boy who was wearing a dress. None of them had shoes. I later learned that was the only piece of cloth available at the time. Driving back from this visit, I was overwhelmed with a sense of sadness that I had to pull over, stopped the car and wept.
I do realize that what this little boy was experiencing is nothing in comparison to the brutality that many children are suffering all around the world. Hunger, diseases, displacement, abandonment, brutality, sexual violence and the list runs on. What will it take for children to be able to just be children? This question is deeply disturbing.
4 responses so far ↓
Joey Chen // May 26, 2007 at 6:16 am
The world sucks. The world is so filled with pain and suffering, but we don’t deserve pity because we are the cause of our problems. We are reaping what we have sowed. In the news, I constantly see poor people with upwards of 5 kids and they think they deserve help from everyone. Tell me why poor people have so many kids??? If you are poor and you cannot adequately support a child, then you should not be having a kid. You should go to jail for cruelty by bringing someone into this world with no opportunity to be happy. I don’t apologize for my thoughts because as harsh as it sounds, I believe I’m right.
People are so selfish and irresponsible. Sex is good. So people go around having sex with random people and whoops! become pregnant. And decide to have a kid. Well, now they end up on Medicare and our taxes are paying for their mistakes. Is that fair? It’s ridiculous. One thing I realized in my limited experience on this earth: Life isn’t fair. You give people one ounce of kindness and they want a ton. Give me a break. For once I’d like to catch a break.
“What will it take for children to be able to just be children?” I’ll tell you. It’s simple. When stupid parents wake up, take responsibility for their own actions and stop bringing kids into this world without giving them a chance to succeed in life.
Crowmanic // June 1, 2007 at 3:26 am
In Australia, people now receive a “baby bonus” for having children! and inducement to populate, with $6000 being given to the parent of each new born! can you imagine what that encourages the young adults and treenagers who are in poverty, on welfare, not in paid employment? Whoopee, let’s make babies… I work in community services in the suburbs of my city, and I know too well, the reasons and rationale of my “client-base” most of whom do live “below the poverty line” or on “welfare-assisted” payments or pensions.
Namaste…
Do people nnot get it? There is such a thing as “environmental poverty”, which all too many are totally ignorant of, coupled with a phenomena of nature called “entrainment” a matter of bio-physics… get these matters into welfare and goivernment policies and we may be able to slow all this birthing unwanted and damaged children, down a little, and get our focus on quality of life, not quantities of people.
In part I must agree with previous commentator, Joey Chen.
Noiw you got me going, when I was having such a peaceful morning
Julie Griffin // June 1, 2007 at 4:00 am
I think Christ tells us in scripture that there is no justice on this earth. Satan has control of this material life and all evil is the very existence with out Christ the Creator God. Yes life can be harsh and often incomprehensible. I recall as a young woman I did not want to even have children and add to the problems of this place. Probably most generations have had apprehensions about the future generations and the ability to survive the chaos. But then I developed a personal philosophy about childbirth. In my mind every child that makes ot here God has a plan for inspite of thier parentage or their environment. That is a dificult thing to grasp when we see so much anquish and abuse.
In response to Joey’s comments I understand the line of thinking - but I personally think it is narrow focused and borders on blaming the victim mentality. There are hundreds of reasons individuals are trapped in a cycle of poverty- probly as many as there are unique individuals living the consequences. Joey takes an approach that is etnocentric and is the same argument many in the USA engender to complain about welfare adn unemployment. It is audacious in my mind to assume each individual in the povery cycle has the same level of intelligence/decision making capabilities/understanding of societal institutions/or values the same things as Joey or any narrator that holds that rhetorical question out to the wind, “Why do they keep…” or Why don’t those people…?” Forgive me but most persons that are that low in the social scale are barely able to survive each day let alone ‘think’ about themselves and their circumstances or their place in the grand scale of living. I personally see this line of thinking as a cop-out, it is an individuals way of expressign their frustration with instutional wrongs that culminate in the chronically disordered lives that need basic assistance. All of us express our frustrations differently, but when we can not put our mind or our hands around the multi-facited agencies that contribute to the chronic poor - then often the poor themselves are blamed for thier condition.
This approach is neither helpful nor restoritive.
I think a first step would be to try to understand the broader spectrum. In social work we look at the person-in-environment. We take in the entire scheme including all adjacent systems that touch or infiltrate an individuals world. This includes all of the social institutions that the individual is exposed to or is precluded from. I think this is what Christ did in his earthly ministry. He took an individual where they were in the midst of their circumstances and showed them compassion without condemnation.
Sara Greene // June 26, 2008 at 6:59 am
The suffering of children is the same as the suffering we all experience. Is their suffering somehow undeserved? Can we possibly say that to someone in an internment camp or the victim of a violent assault?
As long as we inhabit these bodies and live on this earth, there will be suffering.
No one is immune, least of all the weak. Evil has no heart. The weaker the victim, the easier it is to hurt them.
Until we all have love in our hearts for all humankind, suffering will continue in the world.
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