tiring..

Money or more specifically the greed for money, makes the world, no, people go crazy. How did they have it within themselves to end the life of a 7 year old child, stuff him in a bag and dump him into a river? Reading the front page of The Star paper today was disturbing. The papers were so insensitive to the extent of showing the photo of the boy's legs lying out of the bag.

Then there was this young girl who was about to be sexually assaulted and pretended to be dead, and was almost put on fire by the assailant. She courageously went through the charade and lived to tell the miraculous escape. What was not acceptable was the fact that at least one english daily published the photo of her lying in hospital, with her parents (i think) beside her. Whatever happened to the law of protecting the identity of juveniles???????

Not only is this world rotting, the newspapers are also sensationalizing such news. Reporting is good. Sensationalizing to sell more papers at the expense of the privacy of victims and their families, is insensitive.

On kids, a few of us were having lunch this afternoon. A big extended family walked in and immediately our attention was drawn to a cute young girl, perhaps about 4 to 5 years of age who was crying. The father was fiercely trying to get her to stop. It didnt work, not surprisingly. Instilling fear only works once a while, on kids. Not always. When it fails, youve got to use other methods.

They sat two tables away, and we continued with our lunch. All of a sudden, the father got aggresive, and pulled the little girl hand leading her out of the place.. and out of the blue, while being behind her, slapped the side of her face hard. We heard it so clearly. It was violent. One loud thud. We were stunned. So were a number of people there. Everyone was murmurring amongst themselves. More than half the crowd there were lawyers. For heavens sake, a kid is a kid. Theyre meant to be like that. Why the hell slap, and that too from the back towards the cheek. She could have easily fractured her cheekbone.

After a few minutes, they came back to their chair, and the girl was obviously shaken up. They finished their meal and left.

We were talking about this. Deep down, i felt guilty. As a human being, perhaps the right thing to do would have been to confront the guy and tick him off for abusing the child. And yet, being the typical malaysian in a state of apathy or fear of confronting, i let him get away with it. I dont know why i write about this now, when in the first place i failed to act. In a fit of extreme anger, human beings have the tendency to react irrationally.

Deep down, i prayed that she would be well. She looked about the same size as my elder one, who is 5. I reminded myself again, hitting kids is not the way. And prayed that i will have the strength to always have the patience to do the right thing in their upbringing. That they will always be safe and well. It is not too much to pray for, i hope, in this wretched world.