I
am not one for being abusive. Okay I have sworn but I try to do so only
as a last resort. When we talk about abuse, we think verbal abuse as in
swearing. But there are other types of abuse that society has seemingly
accepted and embraced. Have a read of this.
Chapter One: Child Abuse
It
was late and we had stopped in Kansanga, in a bar that is known to stay
open till the wee hours of the morning. It would have been 3:00am and
that is where we found her sitting at the bar with not a care in the
world.
But
she had to care because she had a child with her – well not exactly a
child but a baby who I would estimate was no more than three weeks old.
Worse still, she was sitting next to a loud speaker that was belting out
enough decibels of the song Jim by The Afrigo Band to keep Kansanga awake.
I
had to ask and I did but not her, but the owner who was quick to offer a
line of defence. He said: “But she came in at 5:00pm!” So she came at
5:00pm, it is now 3:00am.
When
the lady sensed I was making a fuss, she called out to her partner who
straddled up to me and assured me that, what his wife does with his kid
is none of my business. “You can take yours home early if you want but
don’t get involved in my affairs. Is it your kid” so he assured me.
Chapter Two: Mentally Incapacitated Abuse
I
am not too sure if ‘mentally incapacitated’ is the correct wording to
use. I have heard people use that while others say ‘retarded’. But
whether it is ‘mentally incapacitated, mentally challenged or retarded’
people who fall into this bracket are still people.
However,
we in Uganda take a dim view of them. In Wandegeya when she walked in
to beg for a dime for something to eat, the waitresses were quick to
react. In fact I have never seen waitresses move that fast! She picked
up an empty bottle of mineral water and hurled it at the mentally
incapacitated woman. And she did a verbal follow up in Luganda calling
her everything from ‘stupid, mbuzi (goat) to mulalu (mad).
When
we tried to tell the waitress that what she was doing was wrong, she
looked at us and without batting an eyelid, she said: “In here we do not
entertain mad people.”
But
it didn’t stop there. A waiter turned up and with all his rage, he
emptied her out onto the streets. With much regret nobody did anything,
nobody said anything.
But I did and the response from the waiter was curt: “You can go and join her on the streets but not in here.”
To
the waitresses, if you happen to read this article which I doubt you
are, the mentally challenged are still people who have rights just like
you and I have.
What
are we supposed to do then? Do we keep quiet when we see a four week
old baby being propped up on the bar counter at 3:00am? Do we also mind
our own business when we see the mentally challenged being thrown out of
places, being ridiculed and abused?
I
have always tried to intervene in such cases, but the response I always
get is: “TB, it is none of your business, leave it alone”.
No comments:
Post a Comment