What defines a human?
Lately I’ve been watching a lot
of documentaries on extraordinary people and also life behind bars including
children. It made me think a lot because there are just so many questions that I so seek for its answer.
For example, those documentaries
on extraordinary people showcase people that are different from us or what we
like to call the ‘normal’ ones. Like this one girl named Terri Calvesbert who
was caught in a fatal accident when she was 2 years old in which the room she was
sleeping was burned including her. She suffered 85% burns throughout her body and
it was considered a miracle by the doctors that she managed to survive. The
biggest question that popped into my head while I was watching this was how was
she able to face those around her; the public basically. How will she continue
her life living and looking the way she is now? Because her injuries were so
fatal and horrible that her physical appearance including her face was no
longer like the ‘normal’ ones. She was bound to be teased and people were bound
to be disgusted by her. However, the opposite happened. She was accepted
majorly by public because her bravery touched their hearts and importantly, her
personality is so wonderful that people look past by her appearance and see her
for what she truly is, a beautiful girl.
Then maybe we human really are
nice and compassionate.
But then again this thought
disrupted me when I watch the next documentary. Documentaries on life behind
bars for children as young as the age of 9 years old. For example in the
country of Mongolia a boy was imprisoned for 8 years for stealing a cellphone.
A nine years old.
8 years in prison.
On top of that the condition of the
prison is so horrible that one room consist of 9 people stuffed together inside
a tiny space. They are not able to go outside, they feed only bread and plain
water and worst of all, they are never to be released until their parents come
and fetch them in which what shocked me the most that most of their parents
doesn’t.
This again made me wonder what
really makes us human being. To do something so cruel to those children that
are just so young and so vulnerable. I’m not saying that stealing is right. But
what those children needs is proper education and a warm place to be called
home. A proper punishment for what they had done. Not such a cruel treatment
that will eventually disrupt their mental health. They don’t deserve to be
treated like adult criminals for something as petty like that. A different
argument can be acceptable however, if they did horrible crimes such as murders
and molestation.
Everything is so wrong in that
system, so wrong.
As someone who is learning child
development I could tell and understand how wrong these all are. How this will
eventually affect those children in their future lives. What they need is not
prison but a proper punishment and education in the right way.
And the story that breaks my
heart the most is this one little boy who was imprisoned for stealing food at a
local shop. When he was interviewed he told the media that he was only trying
to help his family. His grandmother was sick that she could not work and
provide food for them and her little sister was also very sick. He said that if
he didn’t steal those foods he and his family would have died out of starvation.
So should we blame the boy who
steals or the government that allowed for such families to exist?
Again the question remains the
same.
What defines a human?
Are we really full of love and
acceptance like those people in the story of Terri or are we cruel like those
stories of children behind bars?
What makes one story different
than the other?
Why do we react that way towards
Terri and another way towards those children behind bars?
Why really?
And these questions remain.
Cut.
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