Human

When I began this blog last August, I called it 'Anything But Human' as a kind of call for us to become other than human, for to be human was almost to horrific to bear. This horror was brought home again last night when I watched 'Four Corners' on ABC television. The documentary 'Lost Innocence' revealed that a South African child (usually female) is raped every three minutes and AIDS is spread in epidemic proportions. Is it not enough that these children are forced to live in abject poverty, must they also live in constant fear of being sexually abused?! Disturbing still is the fact that young boys under the age of eighteen are more often than not also the perpetrators of rape. The hatred of women so endemic that these children don't understand that forcing themselves on young girls is a form of violence. But let's not take the high moral ground in this matter for here in the west abuse of young children is more covert. This week, the Ombudsman in Australia identified instances of sexual and physical abuse of children in foster care, residential homes and by relatives. Pedophiles haunt the internet and appease their lust by looking at images of young, vulnerable children. Last night I watched a twelve year old South African girl talk of being raped by her father, the tears ran down her cheek, another was raped by two boys and she was scared that she would be HIV positive. 'I feel like a cat or a dog' she said, 'But I am human'.