Institutionalized
so i was watching television before. yeah that's strange for me too. but it was odd. there was a show on TONIGHT, y'know, that old trevor mcdonald show. it was, well, eye opening, to say the least...
for anyone who doesn't know, the duchess of york, lady sarah ferguson, and her daughters, princesses eugenie and beatrice york are members of the british royal family. that's the best you are getting out of me, i don't do royalty.
so, lady sarah has done a lot of charity work over the past however many years, and for once, her daughters decided to go along. off the trotted to romania and turkey, to 'visit' the orphanages and institutions for disabled people.
what i saw, even on tape apalled me. how could anyone refuse a fellow human being the right to life? as they so rightly said, the human rights act, and the childrens rights act state that any child, whether they are born fully abled or requiring extra care, they have the right to develop fully, mentally, physically, and spiritually. maybe its not put so poetically as that, but thats what it means.
the sights were shocking. children were left to do nothing. they sat and rocked themselves for comfort. what kind of person can ignore the pain and suffering of someone like that? what kind of person can sit and accept that children should be treated like that?
there was one boy. her wasn't allowed outside and so he crawled along the corridors until he found a crack on sunlight. he then lay in the light, in the middle of the floor, just so he could feel the heat. who could let a child do that day in day out? how is it humanly possible to sit by and watch something so depraved as that. i know i couldn't. could you?
could you work in an environment where a thirteen year old girl has been strapped, spreadeagled, to a bed, naked, for the past ten years? could you stand by and watch as she was locked away from view, where the only contact she had was the straps around her limbs and sheets on her body? she was so thin you could see every bone. you could see the swelling around her wrists and ankles where she had been tied. apparently she had groves so deep from the cloth ties. they said a man had come into the room with them to see her. they said that he had put his hand straight into her nappy to see whether or not it was wet. a thirteen year old girl. a naked thirteen year old girl, who is sedated and immobilized. its disgusting in my opinion. not just the fact that he touched her. the fact that he willingly allows that to happen to her.
or maybe this. would you allow a child to be kept in a box? to live sleep eat and breath in that box. all because of hyperactivity. however, footage then shows the boy to be placid, calm, relaxed almost.
maybe you could let a child crave attention so badly, that the only way to get it to stop rocking is to talk to them, hold his hand, stroke her hair.
maybe you would be able to sedate fully grown men, so that they lay in bed, sat and looked out the window, had to be forcefed at the age of thirty. could you let that happen?
could you sit and watch and work as a child you were supposed to be caring for walked around with their arms bandaged behind their back? whilst their clothes were put on with their arms restrained. whilst they were treated like the walking dead?
i couldn't. i know for a fact that if i had half the resources of the lady ferguson i would be out there, trying to do something. i know that if i ever get the chance i will be doing my best to save at least one of those children.
i knew a lady once. she spent ten years trying to adopt a child from romania. she failed so many times she decided that if the child couldn't go to her, she'd go to him. she cared for the boy as if he was her own. then one day his mother came back with his supposed father. she's not seen the boy since.
it's easy to say 'oh i'll do this, i'll do that'. one day someone is going to call on you to abide by that promise.
whats really hard is to sit and see things like that, without having any chance to change anything.
someday i want to look back on this and go, actually, yeah, i've done that. i've changed somebody's life.
tomorrow i want to look back on this and go, yeah, today i did that. today i made someone smile.
we are all too cynical. that person on the street corner is there because that's where they put themselves. that person begging for money only wants to fuel their drug addiction. that woman on the street corner, selling little posies of flowers. there's an alternate reason behind her peddling her wares. that's what we as a people generally think.
if i had a talent, i'd use it well. unfortunately maths isn't going to get me to romania just yet, but maybe my life savings will get me to china. after all, there's where my journey begins...