Thursday, July 28, 2005

The End of the Abyss

About 165 miles away from Paris, is a sleepy french town. The town has a castle and that's not very famous and that not so famous castle was the town's only claim to fame. I wouldn't blame you if you had missed the buzz about this town in the last couple of years (if you were comfortably caught in the middle of a desert like I was back in 1999). A buzz about an episode involving a lot of people, whose deathknoll was sounded yesterday in the court rooms of paris.

A trial ended as you might have guessed. The numbers involved are huge - there are 65 defendants and 45 victims, spread widely across the scales of age. And what do you know, some defendants and victims are from the same family, the last names of whom are being withheld for security reasons. What was the charge? Frequents visits "to go for a coffee", as people put it in that sleepy town with a not-so-famous castle.

You can find all the details you need here or here and lots more here

My problem is ignorance - It was beyond my imagination that an event of this scale can ever occur among humans, and so I used all superlatives to events that pale in comparison to this one. I have overused the feelings of trauma, shame, anger and disbelief in this blog for what now seem to be innocent, innocous human blunders. So, what if a boy was let to die in the middle of the road, or some girl in a bus stop screamed because she was touched by a beggar - ladies and gentlemen, we have successfully found a parallel to shoving innocent families in gas chambers and transporting half-burnt corpses in goods trains.

No this one is worse.

This event demands a redefinition - of entire humanity. Let's go back to the basic tenets we hold sanctimonious. I am not talking of ethics or benevolence or consideration to a fellow human - principles that are inculcated by a proper breeding, education, religion and civilization. I am talking of the basic tenets hardcoded in our genes the moment we are born that works against even one's own good in an effort to save one's progeny.

Open the markets - there's a sale!

You can have sex with a six month old baby for a cigarette and some beer and sometimes even a car tyre!


And since you are our preferred customer, You buy this girl, you will get this boy free.

This sir, is the best one we have. I can you tell you for sure because this is my own daughter!

Here's the rapist of the month - 25 down and still going strong!

Those around are still trying to rationalize and understand why this happened - they are illiterates, they are unemployed, they are away from the society, and reasons like -

"
these were people who were unable to manage their sexual impulses. And nobody told them these things shouldn't be done"

Someone even compared them to animals (excuse me, you must be joking to call them animals!).

I really don't have anything to say. I will come back to this once again. I ought to believe that all this actually happened in the same land as I inhabit, reassess my moral scales and find words to express a deep sense of emptiness that seems to eat my entire being.

3 Comments:

Blogger Kumari said...

I don't wanna live in this same damn world and share the same air...and to know that i can't escape. I hate everything.

9:03 PM  
Blogger Sindhuja Parthasarathy said...

Rendered speechless!

12:22 PM  
Blogger krishna canchi said...

i am ofcourse pained by the story...but i also realise how "relative" the words "ethics" and "morals" are!

10:29 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home