May 28, 2008
Predators in public gardens
This has been on my mind for a while… a few months really. But I suppose I decided to write about it, after my meeting at Sahab. ( I never know when to use at and when to use in)
I had a workshop that revolved around creating a community center there. The discussion went into the direction of public gardens… since Sahab community was complaining about the lack of public spaces for children. A lady there said that the problem is not in the gardens themselves… even if there are gardens, she (as a mother) would not send her children to a public garden, since there is a lot of drugs activity going on there. …
Obviously that did not go well… people slaughtered her! They were so upset about her accusations for a number of reasons… maybe that she was a woman, maybe that we are not local and it felt like she was showing dirty laundry…. Does not matter…what matters is that public spaces have been used as ideal spaces for predators.
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I got the idea in one of those days that my sisters and I took the kids to a local park… We try to take them to a park on daily basis… truth to be known is that we don’t take them because of any brilliant maternal skills… but that is the most effective way to exhaust the kids to make sure they are in bed as early as possible…!
The thing is… I had noticed that whenever I go to a public garden, ….the demography of adults is something like: 6 Indonesian women, 5 Philippians, 4 Srilankan, one or two Europeans… No Jordanian women what so ever… European women go to public gardens to spend quality time with their children, Arab women send their maids to spend quality time with their children.
That particular day, there was a suspicious teenager going around, he would look for young children that are alone and just come close to them… with the maids busy socializing with each other and the mothers busy elsewhere doing whatever that they are doing… very young children are left vulnerable to pedophiles, drug predators, and other kinds of predators…
That particular day, my sister, who noticed this guy went to him and yelled her lungs out, questioning him on what he was doing, threatening to get the security guard… upon hearing this, the guy dissolved in oblivion… We never saw him again…
So basically, the presence of one responsible local adult, could save the future of a few children… whose duty or fault is it? Government? Predators? Children? Families? Or us locals who lack any sense of social responsibility and sense of belonging….. ? I wonder….
Speaking of different nationalities and cultures, I have recedntly watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding, for the 18the time probably… I still think it is the funniest movie ever made. It is sweet, hilarious and completely relevant.….
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