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From Magic City Morning Star R.P. BenDedek
In recent days in Australia www.thecouriermail.news.com.au, there has been a lot of media coverage of police investigations and resulting arrests in relation to child pornography, with some 500 suspects involved in the 400 warrants issued, and 200 people arrested to date. Naturally every public person has come out to express shock at the result and surprise, shock, outrage and concern over the situation. But I find the public sentiment a little strange. The first question I ask myself is, "Why should anyone be shocked that 500 people have been 'caught out? Five hundred people out of an entire population does not amount to a significant number. Certainly politicians would never be concerned with offending 500 constituents. I think that the 'shock' inherently expresses the realisation of the number of actual and potential child victims. No one would be shocked at the arrest of one paedophile who may have 500 victims, but everyone is shocked that there are 500 suspects that MAY BE paedophiles who may have only one victim. (I should point out here that these arrests relate to the possession of pornographic material, and not necessarily sexual abuse of individuals). The next thing that I find strange, is that as a society, Australians are not allowed to view cigarette advertising on TV because it 'encourages' smoking. Campaigns have been launched over the last few decades to eradicate the influence that media presentations of drinking and smoking have on young audiences. However, violence and sexual activity on television have not been banned, because presumably such presentations have no effects on viewers and apparently does not in any way promote encourage or stimulate violence or sexual activity. I find it strange to think that everyone is 'Shocked', given that our whole society is geared for 'SEX' of all kinds. I find it strange that everyone is shocked that some of the alleged offenders are police officers, teachers, social workers etc. Why? Profession is not synonomous with sexual orientation or proclivities. One corrupt police officer does not a 'corrupt police force' make, and nor does one teacher reading child pornography mean that every teacher does likewise. Many are shocked that there are people in the world whose sexual activity is aimed at children. Why the shock? Until civil libertarians win a court case demonstrating that it is just a matter of sexual orientation, sexual gratification via children is just one sexual preference (aberration if you wish) amongst many others. There are those who can only find sexual satisfaction in plastic, leather, silk, or bondage; the foot fetishers, the ones who can only 'do it' with the overweight/underweight, the old/young, the hairy/smooth, the circumcised/uncircumcised, the athletic/the scrawny, the black/asian/white, short/tall, or in some other way, 'Special'. But while these preferences/orientations/aberrations do not harm anyone, paedophilia does. Of course the question must be asked, 'Does the posession of Child pornography make one a practising paedophile?' The answer is, I think � "Not automatically". It does presuppose that given the right circumstances that they might be. The purchase of such material does however provide a market place demand that most definitely guarantees sexual abuse of Children. To quote one article "The whole objective of organised crime is to make money ... People providing credit card details to actually purchase this material are in fact feeding organised crime." All pornography encourages/satisfies sexual appetites, and our western culture is very much centered on satisfying all kinds of appetites, especially the 'sexual'. So why the shock? We have been raised to believe that we can do and have whatever we like. We have been encultured to believe that the first priority in life is to 'satisfy oneself'. Even in China, one can find pornography. If you want some, just ask a teenager. They will tell you where to get a VCD or where to look on the internet. The 'big brother totalitarian' Government however, is constantly intervening to put a stop to it, even to the extent that nothing sexual may be shown on television. We, of course, disapprove of this 'big brother' impingement upon our basic civil liberties. But it does make you wonder what would happen if the same thing were to happen in the West. Perhaps we would have less crime? I've been in this rural area of China for going on two years now, and I have not once heard a report of a sexual offense. There has, however, been one murder and one bank robbery. Given that the total population in this area approximates that of my hometown, such low statistics (I think) are a wonder. No! I'm not shocked that there are 500 suspects and that 200 people have been arrested to date. I'm only shocked to learn that this investigation has been carried out so efficiently. What is shocking is that we have sold off morality and righteousness as antiques of a bygone era, rather than recognising that they are the fundamentals of a decent society. If we are going to peddle indecency in every direction that the eye can see, then we should not be surprised to find that we live in an indecent society. R.P.Bendedek Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com R.P.BenDedek is the pseudonym of the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' (www.kingscalendar.com), and he is a guest columnist at Magic City Morning Star News. An Australian, he currently teaches Conversational English in China. King's Calendar Social Commentaries "The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the (Essene) Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls. © Copyright 2002-2008 by Magic City Morning Star |