Wednesday, April 02, 2008

News I read yesterday. Surprising and Shocking

I am a regular reader of Dallas Morning News and every day its content evokes surprise, shock and an array of reactions deep within me. I would like to share two small and almost insignificant news items in yesterday's newspaper which touched me.

First the surprise
I read about this courageous woman who manages a wildlife refuge and rehabilitation center here. She was mauled by two cheetah's during an exhibition show of the animals. Even after being hospitalised with cuts, bruises and stiches, she is not worried or scared. She wants to get back to work immediately. I admire this lady's courage and adventurous spirit. I have come across wildlife handlers in my experience and have found them extremely careful and courageous. I believe every human being should develop such courage.

Now the Shock
Can you believe that a 14-year-old girl could give birth to a still-born baby in the airplane toilet and say that she didn't know she was pregnant? Well, I find it hard to believe. Given a benefit of doubt that the 14-year-old didn't realise she was pregnant, surely the parents should have noticed. In the first place how did a 14-year-old get pregnant? What with so much of sex-education, awareness, free distrubution of condoms in high schools, etc going on, how did this happen? What are the school authorities doing? What are her parents doing?
I was under the impression that this kind of incidents occured only in extremely backward locations such as sub-Saharan Africa, remote parts of rural India, Nepal, some parts of SE Asia. But to read about such instances in the world's most advanced country, I am shocked beyond wits. I hope parents will read this blogpost/ article will take better care of their children and that school counsellors will educate them about hazards of unprotected sex.

3 comments:

crazypinay said...

im sure every woman knows when they are pregnant or not. especially if they already have bf and they're are into premarital sex. maybe she is just trying to keep it form her parents. its too bad that most of our youth are not responsible for their act and not too concern about their responsibility. i believe that every woman have the big responsibility on their future children start from the day they were born.

Kavitha Kalyan said...

Hi

Blaming the girl might be easy, but am sure she went through her own trauma when she knew something was wrong with her but didnt have the assistance or the funds to get rid of it in time.

And resposibility - big word for a 14 year old. people in their
30/40ies hardly show any, how do we expect it off her?

She might have been persuaded into it, she might have been raped and couldnt speak about it... there are enough reasons for her to keep silent.

But in an american society where all this is prevelant starting teens, why are you shocked? I would be if it happened in India, but USA... possible. Countries that have developed financially far better than others need not show awareness or superiority in every matter - after all we are animals at the end of the day and sex - is a part of it.

My impression, thats all...

Regds
Kavitha

treasured_creatives said...

Hi Kavitha,
Thanks for your comment. I am shocked because the incident happened despite the existence of so many support systems for single moms and teen moms.
I had earlier blogged about an increasing incidence of teenage pregnancies in the US. Please go through the archives for more info.
The point I was trying to illustrate by saying shocked is that this particular girl was not given enough comfort level to seek out thoe support systems.