Day 31: Failed By The System

Story taken from The Witness newspaper, 17 May 2012.

A 9 month old baby girl was mutilated in September 2011. Her eyes, lips, ears, 2 fingers from her left hand and nose were harvested for muthi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muti). After her attacker had taken the parts he wanted, he wrapped her in a blanket and set her on fire. Her screams alerted a child nearby who raised the alarm. The baby survived.

At the time of the attack, her mother was in a TB hospital and her father was away on work. She was left in the care of a female relative who then sold the child to her for muthi to her boyfriend.

No action has been taken by the police, despite numerous leads and offers to help from the community and family. No action has been taken by any of the state departments approached by the child's father and family. The father is unemployed and cannot afford to transport the child to the hospital in order to have further reconstructive surgeries (she has had one).

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing a system to exist which we can blame when we do not want to take responsibility for the actions, or lack of action, from a person(s).

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to blame the system, instead of realizing that we have created the system and that we have become the system and are therefore responsible.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing a system that allows bureaucracy to take precedence over life.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing a system that is used as an excuse for our inaction.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing a system that gives people the opportunity to use "the system is broken, we'll fix it" as an excuse and an illusion to keep people believing that the system works.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing a system in which muthi killings and mutilations occur.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing a system that does not effectively educate all to see and realize that practices such as muthi killings and mutilations are in fact abuse and are simply used with the intention of furthering one's own interests.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing a system that teaches people to do "whatever is necessary" to get what you want.

I forgive myself for accepting ad allowing a system that accepts and allows the mutilation of babies.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing a system where a person will sell a baby for money.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing a system that forces a huge part of the human population to commit heinous acts in order to make money so that they may survive.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing a system that does not effectively support all life.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing a system that has accepted and allowed things such as mutilation to become such a common occurrence that the act does not evoke outrage, horror, rage, fury or compassion enough for all of humanity to stand together and ensure that no child, animal woman or man will ever have to experience it.

I commit myself to never stop feeling outrage, horror, rage, fury or compassion - until a new system exists that supports and protects life, instead of exploiting it.

I commit myself to creating a system that will ensure that our world becomes a home where our children can play outside without fear.

I commit myself to re-educating people that acts such as muthi killings and mutilations are not beneficial in any way.

I commit myself to stopping this broken system so that it may never again be used as an excuse.

I commit myself to re-educating people to develop compassion so that no one would ever consider harming another in order to get what they want.

I commit myself to stopping muthi killings and mutilations.

I commit myself to stopping this system that allows only the rich comfortable lives and creating a new one where all will have enough to live dignified lives.

I commit myself to re-educating people to see that the system we have created is a reflection of who we are and that in order to create a new system we must first stop the abuse within our own thoughts, words and actions.