Mommy Talks. Wife Stories.

While I was preparing some car insurance quotes on the web, I stumbled upon Pazette’s entry.

This hit me hard. Pazette wrote this beautifully. Im going to copy her work lest you dont even open the link (!!) but I hope you spread the word and link up her blog.

because we are so busy and live comfortably, most of us tend to forget that other people’s reality are not as rosy as ours. i know, i forget as well. we went to visit friends some weeks ago and we took a bus supposedly “for baby’s exposure”. the route was different from the ones we usually take and we got a shock when we saw that “poor” communities also exist in a rich country like singapore. needless to say, the trip turned out to be for our own exposure. it’s easier to forget than remember because human nature can’t take too much reality. lucky for us who have the choice to forget. but what about those who have to live with it?

Pazette wrote:

yesterday i was reading a mail about some recent kidnappings of children in manila. the children were returned dead, with eyes and internal organs taken out and a roll of money in their mouths “to cover the funeral expenses”. it tore my heart so much, i cried in the office.

some years ago, a little boy died here of sustained physical abuse from his own mother’s boyfriend. during the autopsy, his dead body showed a long history of beatings and burns. the boyfriend was sentenced to death and the mother was jailed for conspiring. i can’t begin to imagine what was going on in the little boy’s mind while he was being beaten and burned. the worst part of all, the people next door didn’t realize what was going on in that house. nobody came to the boy’s rescue.

several months ago, a girl was kidnapped in malaysia and was returned dead, stuffed in a sports bag. she was sexually abused and parts of eggplants, cucumbers and bottles were found insider her. i cried many nights imagining how she suffered. weeks after the body was found, another little girl was kidnapped while out playing with her older sister. it was reported that the kidnapper offered the older sister some sweets for distraction while the younger sister was being taken.

whenever i feel very depressed, darwin tells me that it’s beyond my control and the only thing i can do is to prevent it from happening to people near and close to me. he’s right. but i think i can do better than that. i can redefine “near”. i haven’t been blogging for a long time and while it is a bit depressing to reopen this journal in this note, an emotional shock is an effective (if not a horrible) way to get a move on. if i blog, i can widen my control and raise awareness to people who are not only near or close to me but to readers who are continents away as well.

there was another case of sexual abuse reported here but the offender (the victim’s father!) was immediately caught and sentenced. the victim was studying with some classmates and they got to talking about sex. this little girl admitted to sleeping with a man. her classmates told their parents and one parent immediately alerted the school principal, who called the police.

i can’t stop thinking what could have happened had the people living next door to the little boy acted like neighbors, rallied themselves and bothered a little to check if everything’s ok. or if someone else on that playground bothered to ask the girl what was going on when he spotted the stranger. we can’t have round-the-clock security all the time, so our protection can only come from being good neighbors and friends to each other.

because we are so busy and live comfortably, most of us tend to forget that other people’s reality are not as rosy as ours. i know, i forget as well. we went to visit friends some weeks ago and we took a bus supposedly “for baby’s exposure”. the route was different from the ones we usually take and we got a shock when we saw that “poor” communities also exist in a rich country like singapore. needless to say, the trip turned out to be for our own exposure. it’s easier to forget than remember because human nature can’t take too much reality. lucky for us who have the choice to forget. but what about those who have to live with it?

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