In-Built Tragedy in the Everyday Life

What would you do if your son rapes your daughter?
Not once, but thrice.

Read the article here. *CAUTION* It is a depressing read.

3 rapes and multiple accounts of molestation over 3 years. The father denied it. The mother did nothing. "One is my son, the other is my daughter. What can I do? I thought that if any action is taken, it must be her decision," she said, leaving the daughter to agonise over whether going to the police would make her parents sad!

This is just revolting. My fingers are quivering, and my mind, tingling with numbness. I bet the son is the favoured child in the family, even though the parents would never admit it. I love all my kids.

Take a step back and breathe in the enormity of this 'story'.

Imagine... The State/Govt places so much responsibility on the family unit. E.g. The family has to ensure that the kids are born (please have 3 and more! And according to most recent reports: Please have them while you are young... like 25! ), fed, clothed, washed, educated, medicated... supported mentally/ physically/ financially/ spiritually... the list goes on.

The assumption is that the family:

1. Knows what it has to do,
2. Is rational at making decisions (e.g. which parent goes out to work, how many kids can we afford to have, buying a home, which values to be passed onto the kids, whether kids sleep in the same room etc), and
3. Is ready to make those decisions.

This particular family is an extreme example of the failure of those assumptions. Of coz, pacifists can't wait to point out to me that this is merely an anomaly lah! It's sad, but overall the family unit still works lah!

But who can deny that there are less extreme yet equally detrimental consequences taking place everyday in other family units. The same favouritism, the same resistance to do what's right... It's okay as long as:

1. No one talks about it (denial), or
   
2. Many families are going through the same shite, so it's 'normal' and acceptable. 没有这样难的啦！谁谁谁也是这样嘛！

If 1 in 5 people around us had HIV, the deadly virus would be less scary. Because it gets 'downgraded' in our minds to the common cold. This is not something I've made up. Such a statistic and mindset about HIV are prevalent in certain parts of Central Africa.

But we are not third world, we say! Really?

We like to pretend that because we have art galleries, musicals, red wine, internet, iPhone, lip gloss and a high GDP per capita, that we are progressive, civilised and 'world-class'. But in fact, we are far from it. We are merely 暴发户s. Our social and collective consciousness has neither progressed along with GDP growth nor its attendant inflation rate. It has, in all likelihood, regressed.