Please let me start by apologising.
I have spent a sleepless night and spent the whole of today walking around like a zombie. I was almost nodding off at the wheel and felt nauseous the whole afternoon. I kept seeing the faces of my children in the place of the Iranian boy.
I am no Christian but started to pray for peace of mind as you know.
I was depressed, angry, hopeless, sad...
And serves me right for forgetting what I usually always do - verify information before starting to believe.
Though please understand that usually pictures do not lie and when it comes to topics like Islamic law, Iran, abused children one may be tempted to jump quickly and cry foul...
I couldn't find peace of mind. I couldn't understand how anybody could do this to children. I wanted to contact Amnesty International and so on.
Then suddenly I remembered that I have not verified this info. And my good friend who sent it to me is a - Jew. Ahem.
I am no Christian but started to pray for peace of mind as you know.
I was depressed, angry, hopeless, sad...
And serves me right for forgetting what I usually always do - verify information before starting to believe.
Though please understand that usually pictures do not lie and when it comes to topics like Islamic law, Iran, abused children one may be tempted to jump quickly and cry foul...
I couldn't find peace of mind. I couldn't understand how anybody could do this to children. I wanted to contact Amnesty International and so on.
Then suddenly I remembered that I have not verified this info. And my good friend who sent it to me is a - Jew. Ahem.
Also that once a taxi at Bangkok airport ran its front wheel over my foot while I was trying to board it and it didn't hurt. And my foot is not fleshy like the rest of me.
And I've told G who had lived 5 years in Iran about it and she said that she was surprised as she had never witnessed or heard of any such thing while she was there.
The pictures were true. Only the captions were not.
Apparently it involved a street stunt.
And there was a last picture (that I found elsewhere on the Net) showing the boy safe and sound at the end.
I am so relieved I want to cry. It doesn't matter if I look like a fool. He's OK!
And may this serve as a lesson to me, fancy a girl with 2 Post-Grad degrees in Political Science not verifying her sources before publishing them. Shame on me.
Please accept my sincere apologies.
Having said that, there is nonetheless truly lots of injustice, suffering and exploitation of children around the world - whether in labour, war, famine, poverty or in simple ignorance. I will keep them in my thoughts and will cherish my children all the more for that. I've been having difficult moments with Eldest Son as some of you may know and after yesterday I realised how childhood is short and fragile and that I should really try to be less hard on him.
Please excuse me again.
Dear Beau,
RépondreSupprimerJust believe that one day Eldest Son will be a superstar ;)
Certainly, every info shud be verified. Even if the Islamic law allows the amputation of limb as a punishment for stealing, it comes with several conditions before the law is meted out. As far as I know crushing the hand with a vehicle is not how it should be done. It must hav been a gory sight!
We are all humans and make errors, especially when a subject/picture like this instantly outraged and torment our hearts. And you had all the right intentions for justice and you gave the kid a voice.
RépondreSupprimerI am just very relieved and happy that at least this kid didn't suffer said punishment. Though what a life having to do stunts like that...
RépondreSupprimerAnd that person who started this hoax is a pig. As if there are not enough division and misunderstanding in this world.
But like I've said, kids around the world are suffering and I am for one glad to have this 48-hour torment to remind me not to forget that.
As for Su, I want to believe in the boy too, just so that he would not feel like a failure in life.
Meanwhile it's like debating on what's the humane way to execute a capital punishment when the real question is, "Does anybody have the right to kill in the first place?" I can try to see the point of having the death penalty in Singapore e.g. enforcing respect for the law, serving as a deterrent, a life for a life in the case of murder etc and I try to comfort myself with the fact that we do not employ it often, we have a good judiciary and we are humane...But still, humans err as can our mortal judges and death has no return.
In the same vein, amputation of limb for stealing has no justification as far as I'm concerned as the only things one can steal are often material and as such finally insubstantial. But robbing someone of his limb, his faculty to get on with life is a permanent harm, normally renders no justice and will always be disproportionate to the crime committed.
I pray too - I actually had to stop watching tv and reading internet news because I was getting way too depressed reading about all the children dying and suffering b/c of neglectful and abusive parents. I'm not even talking about news from another country - I'm talking about news from my community. So sad! But I have to believe that we are all being taken care of and there is a higher reason for everything - even if I don't understand it.
RépondreSupprimerThe only thing you were guilty of is having empathy. For all your 'fierceness' and take no prisoners stance, you are one big softie at heart. :)
RépondreSupprimerShhh...not so loud, not so loud!
RépondreSupprimer