There Goes Childhood

I was seven years old when I decided I would never have children - because the world was a bad and wicked place and no child deserved to come into that. I remember the moment exactly. I was standing in the garden of my grandparents' landlady. She was thin and mean - and she hated children. I don't know why. But she did. The decision came upon me in a flash and I have held to it and never regretted it. In fact, as an adult looking around at the insanity of the world, I am glad I took the decision I did. Last month I posted a rather harrowing piece about the sexual abuse of a young girl. More recently, Baino posted a piece about paedophilia and child porn. Cruelty towards children and child abuse are unquestionably amongst the greatest challenges facing all societies today. None of us are immune and we cannot afford to be.

When I posted Lee Ann’s story it was October and several of us were participating in Phoctober. It occurred to me then that it might be a gesture to children everywhere to have one day where we all posted photos paying tribute to children and childhood. Then I stopped and thought. How would we know some screwball wouldn’t come along and perve over our innocently posted images? Moreover, how might we be viewed in going out taking photos of children at play - and posting them on our blogs? Might we be seen as potential molesters, kidnappers or paedophiles? Then I stopped and thought some more. Just what sort of societies do we actually live in where we even have to worry about that? What could be more natural that photographing children at play – god knows, there are plenty of such images all over the internet. But as Baino said in her reply to my comment on her post, "Over here cameras are often banned at children's sports carnivals and swim meets for fear that some pervert might take inappropriate photographs." So, obviously I am not alone in my concern for what parents and others might think if I stood in the park and watched and photographed children at play and then posted those pictures here. It is a sad indictment of society. And as for those who would perve over the images of children… Well therein lies the rub, doesn’t it? Recent blitzes in various countries have resulted in the arrest of many paedophiles. (See Baino's post.) In France alone, in October this year, 300 people were arrested for trafficking in child porn.

In South Africa, child abuse is a major issue. Both the violent history of our apartheid past, the belief in virgin-cures for AIDS and HIV (which are of pandemic proportions here), drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, and overcrowding make child abuse a very serious concern. If you are up to it, I suggest you read about young "Lerato" and baby Tshepang. It is alleged that there are 20 000 child rapes in South Africa every year - this is a 400% increase in a decade and a half. In fact the rape of children is now so constant that it is not even news. What is of startling concern is that some of these instances of horrific abuse are conducted by children. As I drove along the other day a headline banner shrieked, "Laaitjie rapes baby". A "laaitjie" is a boy child of about 8 - 13 years old. A few days later, another headline banner yelled, "Gang of boys rapes little girl". If they start like this, how do they go on? And let me point out that these boys are children in the communities, they are not interlopers from some other neighbourhood.

Many years ago, a psychologist friend told me she was leaving South Africa. She couldn't, she said, in all good conscience, raise her young daughter here. She had recently returned from a conference in Johannesburg where one of the speakers had told of a young boy who had been beaten to death for crossing "territory". His attackers were the same age their victim - between eight and ten years old. The children dragged the body of their victim away and hid it. They returned a few days later and proceeded to eat the body. At the time, I refused to believe the story was true - though why my friend should have made up something so horrific was beyond me. Today, as I see continual reports of abuse of children by both adults and children, I yet again remember my friend's words.

Of course, one does well to remember that it is not just those from the impoverished parts of a society that are affected. Child abuse is as rampant in wealthy homes as it is in poor homes. Child abuse knows no social boundaries. Yet wherever it occurs, it is a symptom of a sick society. The fact that it is apparent that child abuse is so on the increase - not just here, but globally - must surely tell us something - yet another thing - about the state of our world. Why any sane person would willfully inflict pain and suffering on a child can only speak of far greater and deeper pains, fears and psychological traumas - experienced by the perpetrator. Circles within circles, or, as I said before, what Alice Miller calls the poisonous pedagogy. Let's also remember that child abuse isn't just about sexual abuse - there is also emotional and psychological abuse and neglect - a festering form of abuse that leaves no visible scars but which scars deeply - usually because it can continue for a lifetime, as well as physical abuse and neglect.

And so, I end this post by saying I have no images of children to show you - for the very reasons I first mentioned. What I have instead, are pictures captured almost furtively at a festival and then played with in the digital darkroom so that the original subject matter is pretty much unrecognisable - and certainly nothing worth perving over. It may be a creative way of dealing with the subject, but it also strikes me as rather sad that I felt I needed to handle the images this way.