Very. Truly. Awful.
Sometimes, stories are so disgusting that I cannot find words adequate to describe my revulsion.
LONDON - Sexual abuse of children by aid workers and peacekeepers is rife and efforts to protect young people are inadequate, according to a report published on Tuesday.
The study said there were significant levels of abuse in emergencies, much of it unreported and unless the silence ended, attempts to stamp out exploitation would "remain fundamentally flawed."
This is one of those times. Go read, and try to keep you stomach from turning.
posted by joestrummerlives at 12:22 PM
3 Comments:
Thanks for pointing this one out, Joe. It's more than terrible. When I was in Angola, two people I worked with in two seperate realms both said to me "you're going to kearn some tings about the UN." The implication was that it was not in a good way. Indeed. My 40-something boss and 30-something compadre (another colleague) regularly partook of the 14 year old girls--quite openly. Despite the fact that my boss was Angolan himself (he'd been an ex-pat in Brazil the ten previous years so felt less at home in his home country, I suppose.) Worse, he himself had a 14 year old daughter and other children with his wife--to whom he was still married--in Brazil. I hated that these guys (my freinds, authority figures and travel partners) did this and asked them how they could, esp the father. They said that the girls know what their doing, it's business for them, and "if you feel guilty, then it takes away all the fun." I left hating the UN and realized that organizations--no matter how good they try or purport to be--are inherently as deeply flawed as the people who are part of them. I so believe the part of the article that said these organizations believe they are untouchable, because, really? They are.
12:59 PM
That is so fucked up; I am having trouble processing it. I mean seriously, aren't there some things that on their face are extremely, obviously, and unpardonably wrong?
1:23 PM
In places where there is that much of a power differential, that much of a chasm between rich and poor, that much exploitable desperation, no. Nothing seems all that wrong in places like that. There's no real aperture--or it has an aperture all its own that is measured by survival and pretty much nothing else. At least that's how Angola worked.
2:22 PM
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