Dark Days For Jamaica’s Children
53 Children dead in Jamaica since January 2008, most at the brutal hands of adults and the rest by other children!
This morning it was 52. Now another child is dead in Jamaica. A 9 month old baby boy, dead from sexual molestation. His little body torn apart by a man (revised) his older brother! My stomach roiled at the image in my mind when I heard the news tonight. This is another in a series of months old babies who have died as a result of sexual molestation over the past few years.
LORD GOD HOW LONG??
I can’t stop the tears from flowing….
Just got home from the radio station where I just preached a message encouraging people to trust God in the dark moments of despair when there is no visible sign that God is working. Then I come home to the news shared by my colleague in Jamaica, Rev. Luke Shaw.
And I am not ashamed to tell you that even as I am writing, I am bawling. I have to get out this pain. It’s like I’m gripped by the deep fear and trauma of every child who has to live with this. And I’m suddenly hit by the dawning realization that these children won’t believe so easily that this loving merciful God is really watching over them.
So what happened, God was taking a nap when Amanda was brutally murdered and her body thrown off a cliff into bushes? Was God out when the 12 year old boy was butchered then his torso cut in two? And was God busy when this 9 month old boy was suffering the agony of his little body being ripped apart?
How does a child understand that God is watching over him/her, and yet never protected those other children? One thing I know, any child who understands what is going on in the news must be absolutely terrified right now.
And wait, not even in church are children safe anymore. So God…HOW LONG?
If the newspapers in Jamaica are correct, then 1993 was when the first of the most gruesome murders took place in modern times. 15 years of brutality, abuse, and trauma being wreaked upon the nation’s children. And anyone can understand how vexed I am when people mount protests against abortions – ‘don’t kill the foetus’. Of course I’m not saying ‘kill the foetus’. What I’m saying is – where are those people NOW?? So much noise to save the unborn, and then we pay scant regard to their protection when they are born. Something is wrong with that formula!!
And I can’t help but wonder like the Editorial of the Jamaica Observer said of the earliest killing back in 1993 -
One thing that appalled us at the time was that, outside of journalists and some people in civil society, there was very little outcry against this savagery. Whether the muted reaction was influenced by the victims’ postal address was not clear.
The question is still relevant, is the silence because most of our children being murdered are not from the affluent sections of Jamaican society? They just happen to have the ‘wrong addresses’? So there is no major mounting of protests because these are not important children anyway? I hope to God that we are wrong. But what is not wrong is that there has been no major mark of protest to say we demand on their behalf the right of every child to be safe and protected. And what of mothers who are so quick to block the streets and burn tires for ‘dons’ and ‘innocent yute wha don’t do anyting’? Where are the placards saying ‘we want justis’? What’s going on?
I ask again, what are our children worth?
I am joining my voice to those who are making some noise that 1 is too 1 too many. It shouldn’t take 53 for us to make noise, but it’s better late than never. And even as I make it here, I’ll make it elsewhere as well…
LORD HOW LONG?
I share this poem by Rev. Luke Shaw, Do You Feel The Pain who was responding yesterday to the situation.
With a heavy heart,
Marvia
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