Child Abuse

The problem of child abuse has become very serious
Wafaa Al-Kredia
guest contributor

CHILD abuse is a worldwide problem and not only in Saudi Arabia. We unfortunately don't like to talk about the problem and so too often ignore it. In the United States, on the other hand, the problem receives attention from many authorities and organizations for children's rights. Between 1985 and 1992, the problem of child abuse has become very serious, increasing by 50 percent - from 30 children abused per 1,000 to 45 per 1,000.

I have recently received a briefing about this problem in Saudi Arabia; it was sent to me by Dr. Huda Abdullah Qattan, chairperson of the Committee for Protecting Children's Rights at King Faisal Specialist Hospital. Dr. Huda affirms that the problem is real, horrifying and hushed-up. This is due to a number of factors, such as the difficulty of finding clear evidence of an alleged abuse, the possibility of harming the reputation of the child's family as well as other personal, social and legal considerations.

Since doctors who might go public with cases of child abuse fear being harassed by the authorities or concerned families, they decide to drop the case. This doesn't mean that the problem doesn't exist; it does - as Dr. Huda confirmed - but we lack corroborating figures or reliable statistics.

According to the report sent to me, violence in the family is due to three principal reasons: the parents' psychological state, the existence of an aggressive child in the family or some event which has caused tension and stress within the family. Violence increases in such circumstances and, the report continues, are represented by the existence of disabled children or children suffering from malnutrition, unwanted pregnancy and families who are socially isolated or run financial troubles. Violent accidents occur, first and foremost, to the females in the family, said Dr. Huda.

King Faisal Specialist Hospital has established an unprecedented program, the aim of which is to uncover cases of child abuse in the Kingdom, channels for reporting the cases and ways to avoid such cases in the future. In support of these aims, the Committee for Protecting Children's Rights was established in 1994.

IN Columbia, the police arrested a young man accused of stabbing a woman. It was not difficult to arrest him since the assault did not kill the woman and she lived to describe the defendant to the police and identify him in a lineup. The young man, curiously, confessed to the investigator that he had killed three women in the past year.

He described his three crimes in full detail. In light of his confessions, he was given the death penalty. The story should have ended here, but it did not. There was another surprise for the court when the young man calmly stated that he had killed 35 women over the past two years. Although the judge laughed when he heard the number, the young man did not flinch. When the judge asked him why he had committed such crimes and against women in particular, the young man replied that he was avenging himself for a mother who had ill-treated him when he was a child. When he married, his wife treated him the same way.

My advice to mothers and wives, 'Don't be tough. Treat your husbands and children nicely. Beware violence and ill-treatment.'

Say No To Child Abuse( click here to read more )

George Galloway Savages SKY NEWS!

The interview of Sky News with George Galloway

About the war in Lebanon.

- Question of Sky news: How can you justify your support to Hizbullah and his leader Sheikh Hassan Nasralla?

- Answer from Galloway: What a preposterous way to introduce me and a preposterous question. 24 years ago and on the day my daughter was born, I had to dash to the maternity hospital. There was a mass demonstration in London against the Israeli occupation to Lebanon. Israel was invading Lebanon all the 24 years of my daughter's life. Hizbullah are a part of the Lebanese national resistance, who have successfully driven out most of Israeli troops out of Lebanon in the year 2000 and trying to get back the thousands of Lebanese prisoners who are kidnapped by the Israelis under the terms of their illegal occupation to Lebanon. It's Israel that is invading Lebanon; it is Israel that is attacking Lebanon and Lebanon attacking Israel. You have been showing a report of Israeli soldiers getting ready to invade Lebanon and you are asking us to moan this operation as if it were some kind of a war crime. Israel is invading Lebanon and has killed 30 times more Lebanese than have died in Israel. So it is you who should be justifying the evidence bias which is written on each line of your face and in every nuance of your voice and loaded in each question you ask.

- Sky news: You put your finger on the button, didn't you? When you said that Hizbullah was set in the 1980s in order to remove every Israeli soldier from Lebanon and its soil and you said that they achieved that?

- Galloway: No, I didn't, this is a key point that you are concealing from your viewers. Israel was forced out of most of south Lebanon in 2000. It is still occupying a part of Lebanon and it has thousands of Lebanese prisons in Israeli jails.

- Sky news interrupting: According to Israeli draft, there are 3 Lebanese prisoners that were taken to court of law.

- Galloway: Please, have a slight longer memory than 4 weeks; I am talking about the thousands of Lebanese that were taken during the 18 years of Israeli illegal occupation of south Lebanon. These are the prisoners that have to be released in exchange for the Israeli soldiers that have been captured at the beginning of this wave of the crises.

- Sky news: can I ask you about a report that was today on the Sunday telegraph, which said that Iran has given Hizbullah long range missiles capable of targeting any part of Israel. Iran according to this Iranian NP who helped to establish Hizbullah who said that Iran is giving the organization authorization to attack Tel Aviv. Can you blame Israel for wanting to destroy these missiles?

- Galloway: too preposterous, America is giving Israel missiles that can target every part not only in Lebanon, but every city in the Arab and Moslem world including Iran. Why should America be allowed to give long range missiles to Israel including hundreds of nuclear missiles and Iran is not allowed to give to Hizbullah?

- Sky news, but they are a terrorist organization!

- Galloway:They are not a terrorist organization. Only in the mind of sky news, the sun, the times etc.

- Sky news, I will have to stop you there Mr Galloway, one man's terrorist, is another man's freedom's fighter. You know this perfectly well. In most people's eyes, (like the IRA), they had a choice,

- Galloway: They had nothing to do with the IRA, you are totally wrong to say that in most eyes, Hizbullah is a terrorist organization. In most people's eyes, Israel is a terrorist state. You cannot comprehend that fact that leads to the bias that's running through all your reports and every question you have asked me in this report.

- Sky news, hmm, can I ask you one more question, I was relating to the IRA that have decided to embrace politics. Hizbullah had the chance to embrace politics. They have 2 representatives in the cabinet, why did they capture 2 Israeli soldiers?

- Galloway: Because Israel occupies their country and hold thousand of their compatriots as kidnapped hostages in their dungeon. It is very simple unless you think in a clock that goes back only 4 weeks. If you know and you are old enough to know better, the origin of this conflict are not 4 weeks, 4 month or 4 years old, but decades old. You want people to think that the crises started when it started to tick on sky news?

- Sky news: No I don't, I wanna ask you one final question, do you think that the 4 weeks has set back Hizbullah's ambitions. Not only that Israelis are across the borders in sizable numbers, their claims to be a democratic organisation .... etc seems to blows now.

- Galloway: Silly question, what a silly person you are, Hizbullah is winning the war, you can see on the other half of the screen (clip of Israeli soldiers casualties was shown in the other half of the screen) . Hizbullah is more popular today in Lebanon amongst Christians, Sunni, shias and amongst all Arabs and Moslems than it has ever been. It is Israel who has lost the war and Bush and Blair for politically organizing the war, they have lost politically. It is a defeat for Israel and Bush and Blair. Everyone but you can see it.

- Sky news, Let me separate out that question then, set it in another way, Hizbullah was trying to get Israelis of their soil, aren't there more Israeli soldiers now than it was 25 days ago?

- Galloway, They seem to be having a very good hiding on the screen that I am watching, maybe you can see it, but I am watching them getting a bloody good hiding. So, if that is a success, I am not sure what a failure would look like. The reality is, that this conflict will go on. The UN resolutions solve nothing, give Lebanon nothing, give the prisoners in Israeli Dungeons nothing. Israel has even kidnapped more Palestinian politicians, members of parliament and thousands of prisoners are sitting there in Israel. This war will continue until an overall settlement is reached. This settlement must mean, Israelis must withdraw from occupied territories that it currently holds since the war in 1967. The release of all political prisoners, and a state for the Palestinians with east Jerusalem as its capital. NO JUSTICE NO PEACE. You are not going on a job as a news caster in Jerusalem soon believe me,

- Sky news, I must say, that some families will find it offensive when they moan their dead to hear you say it was a bloody good hiding.

- Galloway: You don't give a Damn, you don't even know about the Palestinian families, you don't even know that they exist. Tell me one name of the 7 family members slaughtered on the beach of Gaza by an Israeli warship. You don't even know their names, but you know the name of each Israeli soldier who was taken prisoner in this conflict, because you believe ,whether you know it or not, that the Israeli blood is more valuable than the blood of Lebanese or the Palestinians. That is the truth and the majority of your viewers already know it.

An Old Man

To his secluded nook he remains confined
Pressing his rosary bead after bead,
Chanting psalms for Him Whose Name is Glorified
And his Messenger the holder of the creed.
His face is all wrinkles and his body all through.
Each wrinkle tells the story of a painful and toilsome life.
Palsy shakes his frail body and his grey hair,
And lethe retards his perplexed brain.
Little lads and lasses we were when squatting around him
He told us wonderful stories of a bygone time.
"Glamourous was mine time ,lads, while thine is dim.
And cheerful were mine men with noble hearts
That were never grim."

Mohamed Chhilif

Like a Stargazer

Like a stargazer I spend my nights
Recalling a bygone time.
A genuine time oozing hours by hours.
Fading away and dissolving
Into the abyss of eternity.
"No time to waste," They say
In these folly-stricken days.
And nobody cares a straw about the destiny of humanity.
Of wisdom ancient philosophers spoke
And so did all the bards of the world.
Yet wisest is him who does not easily believe.
Belief nowadays is so hard an enterprise.
And likewise doubt is in no way a relief.
Forlorn am I in this world of hatred
Where kinship is forsaken
And bloodshed is the motto.
No love, no tolerance, no humanity
And man to man is for life an enemy.

Mohamed Chhilif

The life of Rosa Parks

Martin Luther King - I Have A Dream Speech - MLK