Crime and Punishment
on The Road Less Travelled (Cameroon), 18/Dec/2009 10:26, 34 days ago
Yesterday I witnessed quite a scene outside my office window. I saw a man on a moto chasing a little boy who was running away. He caught up to him and grab the boy and started yelling at him and hitting him. A bunch of other boys (I later found out to be the neighbourhood boys) joined in and began beating up the boy while shouting at him. They began to grab at his pants trying to empty his pockets. The man had told them that this boy had stolen some of his money and while the boy kept proclaiming his innocence the fact that he was running and the fact that eventually they found money in his pockets did not bode well for him. After about 10 minutes of shouting, hitting of the man’s and group of boys’ part and a lot of crying on the suspected thief’s part quite a crowd had gathered. Eventually the little suspected thief was grabbed by the arms by a much bigger man and restrained. The man who had accused him of stealing put him on his moto with the purpose of bringing him to his parents’ house to sort out the situation since the little boy kept saying that the money in his pocket was his. They drove off, the man quite angry, the boy crying and bleeding and the crowd talking and gossiping.This event had generated quite a crowd on a somewhat busy street, which of course led to another disaster. A moto taxi who had been driving along the street a tad faster than necessary did not realize there was a crowd in the street and was unable to stop in time and hit some gravel losing control of his bike. The bike flung out from under him right into a crowd of little girls. The driver got up without any significant injuries, but the little girls were crying quite a lot and had lots of scrapes and bruises. The most injured of the girls was carried into a nearby house. I was assured by my secretary that she wasn’t seriously hurt and that is was more surface wounds.It was quite a day. I had seen a couple moto accidents before but none right in front of my eyes. It is difficult to watch the accidents happen and the beating of children without giving into the desire to go and help. But it can be incredibly dangerous for me to go and help because I am a foreigner and it will be assumed that I can solve any issue (which I cannot, especially medicals problems) and if I can’t help them I will actually be blamed. We are all advised in our safety training to not get involved in accidents such as these. It is so difficult to remain uninvolved because back home it would be seen as negligent if we don’t help someone in need.On Monday when I was at dinner at another volunteer’s house we also witnessed a mother whipping her child with a leather strap. Evidently he had done something bad and was being taught a lesson. We saw he whip him a few times and then he ran away from her. Eventually she caught him because from the other side of the wall we heard a huge amount ofscreaming and crying.There are definitely a lot of things I have to get used to seeing here. Even if I get used to seeing them, I don’t think I will be less disturbed that they happen, at least I hope I am not.