Ending the Culture of Violence. Reflections No 500, 27 August 2010
Submitted by FatherSean on Sun, 08/29/2010 - 04:34.
Ending the Culture of Violence
Fr Shay Cullen's columns are published in The Manila Times,
in publications in Ireland, the UK, Hong Kong, and online.
Fr Shay Cullen's columns are published in The Manila Times,
in publications in Ireland, the UK, Hong Kong, and online.
The culture of violence and torture is commonplace in the Philippines today. Young people in school fraternities are subjected to beatings and torture called hazing by their peers. It is so severe that many have died. The student torturers learn perhaps from what they know about the police and military that routinely torture suspects and summarily execute many with impunity. They learn from US trainers as practiced in the Iraqi torture chambers of Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo. The torturers seem to enjoy inflicting pain on their victims and video and photographing their horrific acts.
Rolando Mendoza on bus he hijacked
The video games played on home computers or in internet shops turn killing, murder, violence and rape into entertainment for pleasure-seeking youth. Adults allow it, but is it the way to prepare them for life? Minors who commit violent crimes are born innocent but learn from adults and older peers. Children are exposed to violence in the home, on television, in the movies, classrooms, schoolyard and on the streets. Students can go wild and shoot dead teachers and students.
When family, community, school and society provide little in terms of positive inputs to young people who are desperate for dignity, respect, attention, and acceptance, we can expect rebellious youth filled with anger or hatred because they are unwanted, excluded and hopeless. Many young people turn rebellious when they are excluded from a life of economic and racial equality, opportunity and education. With concern, respect, friendship and opportunity they can be inspired to live a good life but they need trusting adults they can admire and imitate. If treated well, most will become good. If abused, some tend to become abusers. They will respond to the friendly attention of a role model, and fulfill their obligations and responsibilities. I see this transformation every day in the lives of the 54 kids taken from prisons to an open trusting affirmative environment. Give respect and goodness to youth (if they are not too damaged) and you will get it in return.
Last week Filipinos here and abroad were filled with horror and disgust as they watched a cruel police torture session on television. The video showed a man lying naked on the floor of a Manila police station screaming and squirming in agony as the highly decorated senior police inspector sat over him viciously pulling a cord attached to his genitals while beating him with a belt to make him confess to a crime. Other police were standing around. One made the video recording of it on a cellphone. The victim is suspected to have been murdered later.
Another highly decorated former police inspector, Rolando Mendoza, 55, took hostage a busload of Hong Kong tourists on 23 August in a Manila park, and murdered several of them before he was shot by a police sniper. The entire nine-hour drama was broadcast live on television here and abroad. Mendoza was convicted of drug-related extortion and brutality against an innocent cook of the Mandarin Hotel in Manila in 2008. He demanded to be reinstated despite his conviction and that of his extortion unit.
In another recent ANC television report, teenagers rescued from Manila jails told of their harrowing experience of police torture and brutality. One boy showed his feet with the toenails extracted and cigarette burns on his neck. Conditions in the detention cells were described as subhuman. The videos can be viewed at www.preda.org
During a peaceful demonstration in 1996, I and my companion were arrested and beaten, punched and kicked. My head was banged repeatedly on the steel floor of the police van as I was taken to jail. My wrists were tightly handcuffed behind my back with two sets of cuffs for many hours so my wrists were cut and scared. We were jailed, interrogated and subjected to psychological abuse and foul language by the lawyer of the former mayor.
To stop such horrific abuse we need to end the culture of violence, the impunity of the powerful and work for a just and decent society where the rule of law and justice prevails and the dignity of everyone is respected and honored. END
Two visitors from Hong Kong who survived
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
Contact Fr Shay Cullen at Preda Center, Upper Kalaklan, 2200 Olongapo City, Philippines.
Email: preda@info.com.ph
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
PREDA Information Office
PREDA Foundation, Inc.
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
www.preda.org
- 2495 reads
Hazing and torture
I share Father Shay's horror of torture and hazing, the form of torture used in student 'fraternities' and 'sororities' which are a perversion of what those two words mean: brotherhoods and sisterhoods. But hazing isn't new in the Philippines. I remember reading about a fatal hazing in one of Manila's universities in the 1930s.
Nor is hazing a result of poverty, as I see it. Two of the most notorious fatal hazings in recents years involved students from the two leading Catholic universities in Manila: Ateneo de Manila, run by the Jesuits, and De La Salle University run by the De La Salle Christian Brothers. The Ateneo student murdered by his 'brothers' was a law student, as were the killers.
HAZING DEATH Raps filed vs 4
HAZING DEATH Raps filed vs 4 frat men is a headline in the Metro section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, 31 August 2010. The report concludes:
The police said the APO (Alpha Phi Omega) initiation rites were held on Aug. 14 in a house on Mayapis Street in Makati City.
(EJ Karl) Intia’s body, which bore huge bruises on the legs, was found the next day in a 30-meter-deep ravine in Laguna. The victim was identified by his father five days later at a funeral home in the province. An autopsy report showed that he died due to traumatic injuries in the head and in the lower extremities.
Tancioco said that based on the entries Intia made in a notebook and several leaflets submitted by his father, investigators were able to establish that the victim was undergoing initiation to become a member of the fraternity.
For me, such 'fraternities' are engaging in pure evil.
HR and HS in the Philippines
Human Security, in the real sense, should address these kind of issues. But even our very own Human Security Act of 2007 is of totally different agenda (only an Anti-Terrorism Law). A lot of laws, both international and local, have been passed but the country still need to uplift human rights (HR) and human security (HS). When will our Anti-torture Act of 2009 be carried out?
God bless the Philippines!
(",)
'Love is embracing all and loving especially the unlovables.'
Post new comment