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03:05 PM
Bikram Vohra
JournalismPakistan.com
May 1, 2014
I was thinking of this Italian diplomat in the Philippines who has been in jail now for weeks because he took three street kids to a water park to give them a good time and was reported by another person as it being odd that a Caucasian was with three local kids…uh oh what is going on here.
This is also pre-conceived profiling and a kind of racism. No better than David Sterling’s anti Afro American rant.
If the guy was a pedophile it is unlikely he would take the children into a public place. His track record shows he is a decent cove who likes to put a smile on the face of the deprived young. Give him a break until you can prove these charges. People frolic in the water park and that fun is open to interpretation.
That said, I agree. Don’t touch other people’s kids. We Asians love to hug and demonstrate affection for other people’s children. We ruffle their hair, chuck their chins, give them sweets and we don’t even know who they are. In a Mall, at the airport, on a flight, in an elevator, that ‘how sweeeeet’ response we give is so acceptable. To us, not to the world.
Don’t touch.
They are not your kids to ruffle. Leave them alone. It is a dirty world out there. There is suspicion bordering on paranoia and mothers today would rather err on the side of caution than allow a stranger to play with their kids.
The age of innocence is over. In a way it is sad that our first conclusion is ugly. Indian aunts, for example, thought nothing of kissing strange children on the cheek and giving them food and displaying affection openly. Try that today. You’ll probably get arrested. Like that Italian who, when he gets out, will never give a poor child a good time again. More the pity but why take chances...that is the world we live in.
(The writer is a Senior Editorial Advisor of Khaleej Times and the paper’s former Editor. He has also been the Editor of Gulf News, Gulf Today, Emirates Today and Bahrain Tribune)
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