Last drop of faith in humanity: gone.

[Vicsun]

We have hit a brand new low; pull the planet over, I want to get off.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4145591.stm


Criminals target tsunami victims
By Kate McGeown
BBC News

Children-survivors board a C-130 transport plane at military-controlled airport in Banda Aceh, 1 Jan 2005
Young victims of the tsunami are especially vulnerable
They have already survived an experience that most people can scarcely imagine. But the victims of the Asian tsunami now face a new danger - criminals and opportunists trying to cash in on their misfortune.

"Unfortunately it's a golden opportunity for people to make money," said criminal psychologist Mike Berry.

"Some people will be incredibly depressed and that makes them easy targets. They are very vulnerable," he told the BBC News website.

Given the scale of the disaster, it is remarkable that only isolated examples of crime have emerged so far. But for the already traumatised victims, the impact can be devastating.

There are already reports of looting in many of the affected countries - with homes, shops and even dead bodies being targeted.

And in Sri Lanka, some of the disaster victims have allegedly been raped in refugee camps.

One of the most disturbing allegations is that criminal gangs are befriending children orphaned by the tsunami, and selling them to sex traffickers.

The Indonesian government has banned children under the age of 16 from being transferred from the devastated province of Aceh amid fears that trafficking syndicates were moving into the area.

The UN's children's' agency, Unicef, said it had received several reports of criminals offering kidnapped children from Aceh for sale or adoption.

A spokesman for Unicef in Indonesia, John Budd, said there had been one confirmed case of a child being smuggled from the devastated Indonesian province of Aceh to the nearby city of Medan for trafficking purposes.


I don't think you could have a more vulnerable child on earth than a child in this situation
John Budd, Unicef
He said there were also unconfirmed reports of up to 20 other children being taken to Malaysia, and possible hundreds to Jakarta.

"I don't think you could have a more vulnerable child on Earth than a child in this situation," Mr Budd told the BBC News website.

"A young child who has gone through what they have witnessed will be barely surviving in terms of psychological health."

While he stressed that at least some of these children could have been taken by people who are simply well-meaning, Unicef was very concerned that others were being abducted by organised gangs, posing as NGOs or family friends.

Mr Budd has recently become aware of an SMS message being sent widely around Asia advertising 300 Aceh orphans for sale.

He said that as a matter of urgency, Unicef was setting up registration schemes around Aceh to account for all children currently on their own.

False uncle

The threat to children is not confined to Aceh. There are reports that a 12-year-old Swedish boy injured in the tsunami in Thailand may have been kidnapped from a hospital.

The boy's American father flew to Thailand to find him. But although staff said he had been there the day after the disaster, there was no longer any trace of him.

According to Unicef, a man in India who claimed to be one child's uncle turned out to be a fraud.

A Tamil woman grieves over lost relatives in last weekend's massive tsunamis in a makeshift refugee camp, Sunday, Jan. 2, 2005,
Victims who are traumatised make easy targets
In Sri Lanka, the National Child Protection Authority is investigating reports that two girls were sexually abused at a shelter in Galle, and a separate report that another woman was gang-raped.

Police told the AFP news agency they had received no complaints of rape, but a rights group in Colombo, the Women and Media Collective, said it had been told of "incidents of rape, gang rape, molestation and physical abuse".

"There is likely to be a lot of anger around, and this can be taken out on the women," said Mr Berry.

Even the dead are not safe from those who want to cash in on the disaster.

Jewellery has been reportedly stolen from the bodies of victims in Thailand - and from their homes and shops.

Other countries in the region have been plagued with fake tsunami warnings.

In both East Timor and Malaysian Borneo, false reports of an imminent disaster have forced people from their homes - leaving them empty, and ideal hunting grounds for looters.

Opportunists are not only targeting the countries directly affected by the quake, but also others - many on the other side of the world - which have lost citizens in the disaster.

More than 2,000 people are feared dead in Sweden, but the authorities in Stockholm have said they are not publishing the names of those affected for fear that thieves could break into their properties.

Even those who want to donate to the crisis have been affected.

A collection box for the disaster appeal was stolen from Salisbury Cathedral in England, and fake e-mail messages claiming to be from Oxfam have been sent to people in Hong Kong, asking them to donate money to the relief effort.

Any money donated went instead to a bank account in Europe, according to police and charity workers.


Imagine the horror of a seven year old girl as her family is killed by a disaster she doesn't understand, and is then kidnapped and raped, to be sold to others who rape her again and again until she becomes addicted to drugs and dies. I'm not quite thrilled with the state of humanity.

[Obsidian]

Disgusting and appalling.

Some people should not be allowed to exist.

[CM]

Agreed. Such people deserve to be tortured before they are executed. Society needs a good weeding out every now and then.

[Magrus]

[QUOTE=Vicsun]We have hit a brand new low; pull the planet over, I want to get off.

...............

Imagine the horror of a seven year old girl as her family is killed by a disaster she doesn't understand, and is then kidnapped and raped, to be sold to others who rape her again and again until she becomes addicted to drugs and dies. I'm not quite thrilled with the state of humanity.[/QUOTE]


I'm sorry, all of that is horrible and I'm appalled by it all, but this isn't all that out of the ordinary. I lost faith in humanity as a child with seeing how all the other children treated each other where I grew up. Being shot at by a teenager for stepping near his moms car isn't pleasant when your 8 and having to drag your little brother to safety at the same time.

A large amount of humanity does not resort to criminal activity simply because of the penalties involved in getting caught, not because of any higher moral standards or something. In a situation where chaos is reigning and everyones too busy to do anything but help the dying and injured and clean up the mess, thats a golden opportunity to get away with the things you've always wanted to do that were illegal. People will capitalize on just about any opportunity for money. Such activities have been going on all over the world for a very, very long time. Even if everyone had enough money to get anything they've ever wanted, some people just ENJOY committing horrible acts for no other reason than just that, they enjoy it.

[Luis Antonio]

[QUOTE=CM]Agreed. Such people deserve to be tortured before they are executed. Society needs a good weeding out every now and then.[/QUOTE]

While I dont share your entusiasm, agreed.

[Moonbiter]

Is anyone really surprised by this? Vicsun, did you really have a drop of faith in humanity left? What colour is the sky in the world you live in? 8 hours after the Tsunami hit, the first reports of looting came in. 12 hours after, the first bogus mails asking for aid-money circled the globe. 24 hours after, the smackheads outside my front door were presenting fake Red Cross credidentials, asking people in the street for money. 48 hours later a gang held the corpses of two little girls hostage, demanding money for their return. 50 hours later, soldiers were arrested in Sri Lanka while collecting teeth with gold fillings. On the 31th of December, Stefan Johansson, a Swede, and Peter Anstiss from Sydney were interviewed at the bar in a nightclub/brothel in Phuket, and were quoted as saying, "Well, we heard about the wave, and we don't give a toss. It's all blown out of proportion. A few people die, s*** happens. That's not gonna keep us from having a good time."

What faith in humanity would that be?

[Brynn]

Random Thug said in another thread that it looks like it all comes to an end... I wouldn't be surprised. It's high time for mankind to be purged.

[CM]

I suggest that some sort of weeding or cullling of society should occur soon. Hopefully natural. I rather not have to choose hey you you deserve to die.

[Luis Antonio]

You mean, CM, a cleansing? Like wiping the land free of life through an Avenging Angel?

[Vicsun]

[QUOTE=Moonbiter]Is anyone really surprised by this? Vicsun, did you really have a drop of faith in humanity left?[/QUOTE]
Surprised? Not at all. The fact that pillaging and maraudering are present I always took for granted. I didn't realize the tsunami was also an opportunity for child slave-traders, but it's safe to say I wasn't too surprised they didn't suddenly grow a halo and change their ways.

However, having foreseen it (not really an amazing feat), didn't make it any less disgusting. Like that funny video of that fat guy falling off a trampoline into the swimming pool. As soon as you see the beginning of the video you know exactly what wil happen. But you laugh in the end, regardless. Because it's funny.

I felt nauseated by the news. Not because it was unexpected, but because it was nauseating.

edit: come to think about it my faith in humanity was partly restored by the sight of a considerable amount of people donating sizable amounts of money. It was quickly lost as I saw others rejoicing.

[Magrus]

[QUOTE=CM]I suggest that some sort of weeding or cullling of society should occur soon. Hopefully natural. I rather not have to choose hey you you deserve to die.[/QUOTE]

Who's to say something of the sort hasn't already begun? Who's to say who should live and who should die? IMHO this planet would be better off erasing every trace of human existance and letting the other animals and such here live as they were meant to be. Looking at it from THEIR perspective, we're tyranical conquerers who slaughtered them in droves until they vacated their homelands. We steal their young and raise them as pets or for food, or for amusement in cages. I could see that in their eyes, every single one of us is no better than those people looting and selling children all over. Culling out the bad of humanity will only last until new ones are born.

Granted there are good and wonderful people, but still, looking at the situation on this planet, as a whole from the reality that humanity doesn't have the right to take whatever they want or can hold onto, I'm surprised every other species on this planet hasn't taken to attacking everyone in their sleep and reclaiming what once belonged to their ancestors.

[Moonbiter]

Both up here on the reef and in the US fire and brimstone preachers are telling people the Tsunami was the Will Of God, targeting the most islamic parts of Asia, heralding the second coming of JHC. Freedom of speech is nice, eh? I think the last time I felt the slightest, teensy, tiny, tiddle of shock at the pond scum that seems to constitute an increasing number of mankind, was when people put up stalls in the vicinity of Ground Zero selling 9/11 memorabilia only 5 days after the airplanes hit. After that, I'm unshockable.

[Brynn]

Who knows... maybe it's really God's will to show signs of the coming End... I'm not religious, but what if.

[Vicsun]

[QUOTE=Brynn]Who knows... maybe it's really God's will to show signs of the coming End... I'm not religious, but what if.[/QUOTE]
It would probably be the best thing to ever happen to our planet.

[Fiberfar]

There are some people saying that this is the Will of God.....dunno about that.
They was talking about this as a sentence from God to the people for crime, prostitution and more. I was probably not the only person thinking: Then why did he include all the innocent children and adult who lived a life without crime ect?

IMO this is pure ignorance.

[Magrus]

@ Fiberfar, take a look at it from the prospective of a theoretical higher power, who happens to believe he has some right over all beings here on this planet. If a species displeased you in that situation, and you wished to send them a warning, what way would you use? Punishing random people all over that have committed horrible deeds might very well cause for some celebration true, but perhaps said higher power sees something wrong with not just those who breaks laws here, but everyone involved. Thrashing a particular location on the globe in a fit of rage, like someone punching a wall or something, could very well be some very frustrated deities way of venting no?

Perhaps you could look at it as that of a parent/child relationship also as a possibility. Maybe there have been warnings before that everyones paid no heed to, and the "parent", i.e. some deity, has begun to get extremely fed up of no one paying attention and is using extreme methods to do so now.

Or maybe it was just a natural occurence that just happened. I'm religious, and hold to my personal beliefs, but I pride myself on at least considering other options and situations outside those beliefs as a possibility. Whether its the hand of some higher power, or just a natural distaster, either way, the results are there and must be dealt with and interpretated into some useful learning and growth I'd say.

[ik911]

Greedy sons of a *****es.. sorry for the language

[Ekental]

Well people see opportunity where other's see disaster.
I agree its deplorable but not everyone has high morale standards. Frankly few of us know how it is over there so it's a difficult thing to simply judge people thousands of miles away from a nice comfortable home.

[Fiberfar]

[QUOTE=Magrus]@ Fiberfar, take a look at it from the prospective of a theoretical higher power, who happens to believe he has some right over all beings here on this planet. If a species displeased you in that situation, and you wished to send them a warning, what way would you use? Punishing random people all over that have committed horrible deeds might very well cause for some celebration true, but perhaps said higher power sees something wrong with not just those who breaks laws here, but everyone involved. Thrashing a particular location on the globe in a fit of rage, like someone punching a wall or something, could very well be some very frustrated deities way of venting no?

Perhaps you could look at it as that of a parent/child relationship also as a possibility. Maybe there have been warnings before that everyones paid no heed to, and the "parent", i.e. some deity, has begun to get extremely fed up of no one paying attention and is using extreme methods to do so now.

Or maybe it was just a natural occurence that just happened. I'm religious, and hold to my personal beliefs, but I pride myself on at least considering other options and situations outside those beliefs as a possibility. Whether its the hand of some higher power, or just a natural distaster, either way, the results are there and must be dealt with and interpretated into some useful learning and growth I'd say.[/QUOTE]

I do not practice a religion. And I should have used a better word than ignorance. But the size of this disaster makes it IMO too big that I can sit there and listen when people says that it was Gods will. I belive that is was Nature and not God who made this happen. But I see what you mean.

[Jean_sans_terre]

[QUOTE=Brynn]Who knows... maybe it's really God's will to show signs of the coming End... I'm not religious, but what if.[/QUOTE]

I for one welcome our new Antedeluvian overlords.