MONDAY morning, we awoke to screaming headlines, advising us (Observer front page) of "Brutal Murder - Headless body found in Red Hills believed to be that of missing 11-year-old girl".

For several days before, we had followed the search for a little girl with a dazzling smile who was last seen taking a bus uptown and never returned home. The reports ended with the discovery of a child's body dumped like refuse over the side of a hill in a St Andrew residential area. The problem now is - could this be Ananda?

DNA results are being awaited for conclusive evidence as to the child's identity - but already the situation has brought deep pain and anguish to her family. A graphic photo of Ananda's mother, deranged with grief, occupied one side of the Observer front page on Monday while her daughter's beautiful face, with the sunshine smile, occupied the other. Whatever may have happened to Ananda, this is not the first occasion that we have had to weep for our children. It is unlikely to be the last.

Since '08 dawned, we're told, some 50 children have lost their lives tragically. We're still mourning the St Mary boy of Ananda's age, his body cut into seven pieces. There are others, their deaths less graphic, but of no less importance. They may not be known to us but the tragedies which engulfed them have changed the lives of their families - and us - forever.

"How come, how come?" we ask ourselves (with apologies to JPSCo's advertising). By Wednesday, even as we were grieving for Ananda - wherever she is - we had occasion to weep for yet another child. This time the front page headline (Gleaner) screamed with rage "SAVAGES". A nine-month-old baby boy had been sodomised. He died subsequently from the injuries and trauma. The fact that the alleged perpetrator was only 21 years old and said to be mentally ill did little to assuage the public's angry reaction. Something is wrong. Terribly wrong.

In both this week's tragic stories, the questions follow. In the Ananda case, how do you explain the deviance of someone who, according to reports, claimed to be the child's abductor and demanded ransom in the amount of $7,000 in phone credit? If the story is true, clearly he had a lot to talk about.

What has not been questioned so far is the story that the telephone also became the instrument of torture for the child's family, as people have called them, claiming to have information on the child's whereabouts. It was all false. Such communication is categorised as prank-calls, "prank" being defined as a "trick of a mischievous kind". I would beg to differ. They are sick and malicious deviance of the most dangerous kind.

"HOW COME?" rises to the fore in the case of the baby's unspeakable abuse. How come no one heard the child screaming? For he must have screamed. The question of the family setting also arises. Besides the mentally ill perpetrator, who else was around to see to the baby's welfare? There is a post-script circulating now about who was supposed to be responsible. We now learn that the alleged perpetrator is said to be the child's uncle, which makes the tragedy even more horrific.

The poor little baby had a bad start to his all too brief life. He was born to a mother, currently incarcerated (for the third time). After his birth and a short spell with her in the correctional centre (aka prison), the baby was sent out to live with someone appointed by his mother to be his guardian.
Correctional Service authorities say the custodial situation was investigated and approved. What happened thereafter we do not know, but of one thing we're sure, that baby boy's life came to a very early and ugly end.

So once again, we're back to weeping and wailing and issuing proclamations of consternation about these acts of cruelty against our children. Wha fi do? It's made even more difficult when you consider that many of our children sometimes end up not only as victims but victimisers themselves. The harsh environment in which some grow is serving to dehumanise them, with fearsome consequences for everyone.

ACROSS THE GLOBE, children disappear almost daily and abuse grows. But no matter where it happens, when it does, it is always painful. Over past days, I have been thinking of our late media colleague Monica Dias, who was laid to rest just recently, and the determined battles she fought, along with other child advocates, to get legal provisions in order that children might receive some form of protection. One can only imagine the anguish Monica would have felt if she were still here.

We still need more resources than currently available, to equip children's homes, for instance, so that they can be more than holding places for the displaced. Many people in that system are doing their best, but a lot more remains to be done. It is official knowledge that sooner than we think, we'll be needing more space in correctional institutions to accommodate the increase in young people who are joining the criminal ranks. If they are to be rehabilitated and given a second chance, then it is going to require more resources than we have now.

It is important to remind ourselves that all is not lost. There are many young people in the wider society who are doing their best and have already begun to reap the benefits. We rejoice for them, but we can't pretend that there aren't others - far too many others, who are heading down the wrong-way street. We worry especially about our boys - as we should, but it may surprise us to discover the growing number of girls who are finding themselves before the courts. Many end up receiving custodial sentences. The implications for positive family life in the future cannot be ignored.

AS WE MOURN for our children, there's a lot of weeping to be done, not only for those gone but for those here and now. Someone told me a story this week about a pack of children - girls and boys - believed to be of the same family, who roam a certain uptown Kingston shopping plaza, terrifying adults and behaving in a most alarming manner.

A few evenings ago, according to my informant, one of the girls, aged around nine or so, was seen initiating a sexual act with a boy of her age. The disapproval of passing adults did not in any way deter her. She kept on doing what she was doing. When I asked the person telling me of this, whether she had tried to reason with the children, she said she had, but they turned on her like a pack of animals in a hunt. She has scars to prove it.

I asked her if she'd ever filed a report about them. She hadn't. She was sceptical. She didn't think much would come of it. Unfortunately, that is the response of many people. Two others told of incidents in which they had tried to get help for children being kept out of school because of family poverty. Promises of assistance were given, but little or nothing came of it, it is claimed. It is felt now that there's nothing to be gained in getting involved any further.

I don't believe in the view expressed in some quarters that we're witnessing some kind of plot to "kill off our children".
There's good and bad among us. There are still babies who are born and live to maturity. There are many parents who do the right thing by their children. What is of concern is the ones who are outside the system, for whom hope is receding. It is for them that we weep. Will there be other days like Monday and Wednesday of this week? Unfortunately, it is quite likely. Would that it weren't so.

- gloudonb@yahoo.com

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