I was fortunately able to persuade my son and his family to return to this country from Jo'burg some ten years ago and join my business here. Unfortunately, after a year or two, he then decided to emigrate to Australia 'cos his SA wife wanted sunshine again. Whereas my three grand-daughters out in the Sydney suburbs now have much less chance of being raped they are in danger every dry season of being burned alive in their home by yobboes who go out from Sydney and set fire to the bush around the housing lots. My son's family has now been twice in danger from this.
It seems that whatever country we live in of whatever standard of living, we are all heading towards the breakdown of the sort of community which has been the central pivot of man's behaviour for 100,000 years. Some blame Capitalism for all this. I blame the capital-intensive nature of our economy mainly brought about by fossil fuels. The consequences of this have destroyed our commitment to community in the last 200 years by making travel and commuting all too cheap and easy and distorting the very structure of human society way beyond anything that is desirable or safe. I think the only answer will be when we have a totally new energy system which will diversify production and populations once again. Without it, I really do think we're finished as a species -- or at least the majority of our species is. Middle-class gated communities might survive in reasonable heart but it would still be a tragedy if these were the only pockets left. Keith Hudson <<<< Sunday Times (Johannesburg) NEWS September 29, 2002 By Suthentira Govender Johannesburg A pilot study on sexual violence in South Africa's urban and rural schools has found that many pupils admitted raping other children . The study, conducted by Community Information Empowerment and Transparency: Africa among 9 300 children across the country, showed that between 12% and 20% of boys and between 5% and 13% of girls in both urban and rural areas admitted to having forced sex on children. Neil Andersson, executive director of Ciet, presented the findings of the pilot study at the South African Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect's national conference in Durban this week. "We were shocked by the findings and took the information back to focus groups at certain schools. The participants brazenly admitted that they did have sex with other children without their consent." Andersson said the study showed that child-on-child rape is fast becoming part of a "culture of sexual violence" in South Africa. "The children believe that this is what they have to do to be successful in life. "Girls in the 10 to 14 years age group made shocking revelations. "Many claimed to have had sex with other children without their consent. "They have tough attitudes about sex, similar to the attitudes of adult men," Andersson said. Many girls from the 10- to 14 -year group also expressed concern that they could be HIV-positive. "Focus groups in this category admitted that girl-on-girl sex without consent and sex between a group of girls against a boy was not uncommon. What is shocking is that these children find it normal to engage in intercourse without consent." The study also revealed that, by the age of 18, 30% of all schoolgoers had been victims of sexual abuse. Linda Dhabicharan, deputy director of Childline in Durban, attributed the increase in child-on-child abuse to exposure to pornographic material, violent communities and a breakdown in family life. Social workers and prosecutors are looking at using diversion programmes, which will empower juvenile offenders with life skills to avoid criminal behaviour, as an alternative to prosecution. In a paper presented at the conference, Val Melis, from KwaZulu-Natal's Directorate of Public Prosecutions, said that when dealing with juvenile sexual offenders, diversion programmes required a delicate balancing of the rights of the child victim and the rights of the juvenile offender. "It is not uncommon to receive a police docket with details of a group of 12- and 13-year-old children raping or sexually assaulting a 10-year-old child. "The committing of sexual offences by young people is extremely serious but the consequences of not dealing with such offenders effectively at an early stage of their psycho-sexual development are even more serious," she said. >>>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Keith Hudson, General Editor, Handlo Music, http://www.handlo.com 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
