When grown-ups see children cry

April 19, 2011

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:52:00 04/18/2011

Filed Under: child abuse, Television

MANY PERSONS have asked me if I’ve seen the Jan-Jan video. I finally did and I have four words to describe it: pathetic, deplorable, sick and indecent.

It’s pathetic. I feel so sad for the little boy. Here you see him crying all the time he’s doing a striptease. It’s clear that he’s not enjoying what he’s doing. Being only 6 years old, he really does not understand full well the import of what he’s doing. But you can see the audience laughing their hearts out and reveling in what they consider comic adult entertainment: comic because it’s so incongruous.

Here’s also what’s sad about the whole thing: ordinarily, when adults see a child crying, they sympathize and try to alleviate the child’s distress. But in the video, no one’s doing anything to help the hapless child.

It’s deplorable. What one can observe is how low in moral standards the people in the audience have fallen. I hate to think that this event could be a reflection of our society in general. And I’m very glad that there are so many people denouncing it.

It’s sick. If the people in the audience can’t discern what’s terribly wrong with the whole thing, then there must be something very wrong with the way they think or don’t think. This is a sickness of the mind we must constantly wage war against: the lack of sound thinking.

It’s indecent. Decency demands that we respect persons. This poor child was not respected. When he grows up, can we expect him to respect others? If this is the way we treat our children, what kind of future are we making for them and for ourselves?

A society rises and falls on its moral standards. If we want to move forward and develop, we must keep our standards high.