A terror called 911
There is a joke among Asians in England that gives away the picture — both of inherent discipline and equally inherent indiscipline.
The joke goes: In England, you will never hear a child bawling or a dog barking. The Asians say this is one Brit trait that remains unrivalled and difficult to inculcate.
Indian kids are by nature noisy. They have a penchant to not just bawl in the malls but also sprawl on the floor while doing so. And if that is not enough, they can unsettle shelves in a supermarket, tear up their clothes and even get into a fisticuff with their siblings or parents.
Back home, a tight slap would settle matters. In England, this might dispossess you of your child and, worst still, put you on social security watch as an unfit parent.
Actually, parents tell you horror tales about West’s famous number 911, and most accounts are identical. “Children here are little terrorists. They hold the 911 gun at you and to disastrous effect,” said one parent.
It so happened that their Class II daughter was, one day, unusually petulant and got a scolding. She rang up 911 to complain even as her mother rushed to cut the line. The callback was immediate, with the cop on the other side enquiring what the matter was. The lady apologised, saying her daughter had dialled it by mistake. “My heart was in my mouth and I had to sit down with my daughter to explain in detail how she would be taken away forever for doing this and how it would mean not sleeping with me in the night,” she narrated.
Actually, all schools in Britain tell children of their right to complain against their parents. They are told to call 911 immediately and all children, even in playschool, know this number. It is an instrument to keep the parents on tenterhooks — they can’t scold, spank or penalise wards for misbehaviour.
Yet, these very parents explain how 911 is also necessary for the society in which England, and the entire West, lives.
Child abuse by parents, couples and even foster parents is rampant and often way beyond the pale of Indian imagination.
Take the tragic and blood curdling case of the now famous ‘football baby’. Apparently, this some-months-old tinytot was abused by his mother and her boyfriend as nobody could ever fathom and finally succumbed to injuries wrought on him by the time 911 could save him from a plight worse than death. Both his mother and her boyfriend, said to be high on drugs and debauchery, used him as a punching bag, beating him up, throwing him around and even flinging him against the wall in fits of fury. Sometimes, the boyfriend even used the poor bundle as a football, kicking him around the room as he shrieked in pain. This went on for months, undetected and despite the neighbours complaining about the shrieks to 911.
The ordeal of this unfortunate baby ended, but only in death. The 911 team finally took the complaint seriously and raided the house — but only to find the baby dead. He had more than a 100 fractures and cuts on his frail body. His hair was yanked out at several points, the cheeks swollen and the pain writ large even on his dead face.
His mother and her boyfriend are since in custody but both have denied torturing the baby. The case has shook the entire country and put the mayor’s job on the block for negligence. The 911 team which had gone to the house on an earlier occasion got fooled by the mother and is in the midst of answering credibility questions.
This case may tell you of the necessity of having 911. But then, the extremes that it can go to in the name of vigilance also has a number of stories about hapless parents being misjudged and dispossessed for no fault. More on that in the next one. Till then, perhaps you can now understand why an innocuous slap by a Slumdog Millionaire father created a storm in the UK.
The joke goes: In England, you will never hear a child bawling or a dog barking. The Asians say this is one Brit trait that remains unrivalled and difficult to inculcate.
Indian kids are by nature noisy. They have a penchant to not just bawl in the malls but also sprawl on the floor while doing so. And if that is not enough, they can unsettle shelves in a supermarket, tear up their clothes and even get into a fisticuff with their siblings or parents.
Back home, a tight slap would settle matters. In England, this might dispossess you of your child and, worst still, put you on social security watch as an unfit parent.
Actually, parents tell you horror tales about West’s famous number 911, and most accounts are identical. “Children here are little terrorists. They hold the 911 gun at you and to disastrous effect,” said one parent.
It so happened that their Class II daughter was, one day, unusually petulant and got a scolding. She rang up 911 to complain even as her mother rushed to cut the line. The callback was immediate, with the cop on the other side enquiring what the matter was. The lady apologised, saying her daughter had dialled it by mistake. “My heart was in my mouth and I had to sit down with my daughter to explain in detail how she would be taken away forever for doing this and how it would mean not sleeping with me in the night,” she narrated.
Actually, all schools in Britain tell children of their right to complain against their parents. They are told to call 911 immediately and all children, even in playschool, know this number. It is an instrument to keep the parents on tenterhooks — they can’t scold, spank or penalise wards for misbehaviour.
Yet, these very parents explain how 911 is also necessary for the society in which England, and the entire West, lives.
Child abuse by parents, couples and even foster parents is rampant and often way beyond the pale of Indian imagination.
Take the tragic and blood curdling case of the now famous ‘football baby’. Apparently, this some-months-old tinytot was abused by his mother and her boyfriend as nobody could ever fathom and finally succumbed to injuries wrought on him by the time 911 could save him from a plight worse than death. Both his mother and her boyfriend, said to be high on drugs and debauchery, used him as a punching bag, beating him up, throwing him around and even flinging him against the wall in fits of fury. Sometimes, the boyfriend even used the poor bundle as a football, kicking him around the room as he shrieked in pain. This went on for months, undetected and despite the neighbours complaining about the shrieks to 911.
The ordeal of this unfortunate baby ended, but only in death. The 911 team finally took the complaint seriously and raided the house — but only to find the baby dead. He had more than a 100 fractures and cuts on his frail body. His hair was yanked out at several points, the cheeks swollen and the pain writ large even on his dead face.
His mother and her boyfriend are since in custody but both have denied torturing the baby. The case has shook the entire country and put the mayor’s job on the block for negligence. The 911 team which had gone to the house on an earlier occasion got fooled by the mother and is in the midst of answering credibility questions.
This case may tell you of the necessity of having 911. But then, the extremes that it can go to in the name of vigilance also has a number of stories about hapless parents being misjudged and dispossessed for no fault. More on that in the next one. Till then, perhaps you can now understand why an innocuous slap by a Slumdog Millionaire father created a storm in the UK.
Published July 5, 2009, Sunday Pioneer, http://www.dailypioneer.com/186956/A-terror-called-911.html
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