Child Abusers: The brutes unparalleled

Specialist Consultant Paediatrician and Honorary Senior Fellow, Postgraduate Institute of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

There were loads of reports of all forms of child abuse over the media throughout the last few days. Maybe, tons of people are striking their breasts in contrition, grinding their teeth and cursing the perpetrators of all forms of this menace reported.

However, this is not anything new. We have seen it over and over, again and again. Little do many realise that this is just the tip of the iceberg. For each child abused, there are hundreds and perhaps even thousands of them, suffering backstage in this world. They are the voiceless ones.

We, as paediatricians too, see only the minority who come to our attention and then into the limelight. Yet for all that, there are all those hordes of faceless ones on whom we need to beam our focus. They are the ones on whom these unspeakable beasts swoop and prey on, repeatedly.

Felons, culprits and offenders of this crime against humanity often go scot-free, even though they are the scum and the pits of the world. Words fail me in expressing contempt at the very many aspects of this shame on our society. However, when words fail, lyrics of a song, ever so graphically portrayed and sung with such real feeling may capture, perhaps even better than spoken or written words, the implications and the suffering of these unfortunate children.

It is in that context and ardent hope that the following lyrics of a song, written and sung very recently for that very purpose, are reproduced here, with permission from the composer and the singers. It is also available on YouTube at the URL provided.

“Monsters on the loose”

Composed by Rukshan Perera

Sung by Melanie Bibile, Aanjanie Jayasuriya and Roshie Wickramaratne

Video available from <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvidAR16_gU> or just type ‘Monsters on the loose’ into the YouTube Search Panel/Menu Bar.

Acting with such grace, hiding bruises on her face,

Emotional scars for life, her soul is chopped with a knife,

Frightened to talk to the world, what happens every night,

The little mind is in shame, wishing to end her life,//

The mother is out somewhere, struggling to earn a meal,

A drunken dad at home, with friends he makes his deals,

Little house where they live, no windows and no locks,

When the stars are shining bright, a hell is all she’s got,//

Why the world is so blind, so cruel and unkind,

Our children must be saved, let’s help them to be brave,

They’re our future, they’re our pride, They’re our only gift to life,

Save the world, save their soul, it’s time, we save mankind.

Pretending nothing’s wrong, with a smile on her face,

Her heart is beating a drum, inside her little maze,

In a world of shattered dreams, nobody to hear her screams,

Her soul is tied to a chain, for a life sentence of pain, //

Let’s stop the world from turning, until we help them shine,

Regain their faith from burning, give strength to earn their pride,

There’re monsters on the loose, inflicting awful scars,

Now Justice must be served, let’s send them behind bars,//

Why the world is so blind, so cruel and unkind,

Our children must be saved, let’s help them to be brave,

They’re our future, they’re our pride, They’re our only gift to life,

Save the world, save their soul, it’s time, we save mankind.