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| Britain |
| A Witch's Brew of Idiocy |
| 2005-06-12 |
| from the London Times The horrible case of the little African girl, Victoria Climbié, has been back in the news. She was murdered by her foster parents because they thought she was possessed by the devil. Now, Victoria's social worker, Lisa Arthurworrey, has been told she shouldn't shoulder too much blame. She was instead, a tribunal decided, a caring and dedicated professional and, indeed, a "victim". It is often said that we live in a blame culture. This is, by definition, a ghastly place to be. It strikes me, looking at the Climbié business, that we live very much in an exculpatory culture. It is clear Arthurworrey contributed to a series of errors that resulted in Victoria not being taken into care, as she should have been. But the lowly social worker should not have been alone in copping the rap. In an "exclusive" interview with the Daily Mail — a newspaper that tends to take a robust stance towards immigrants, until they are murdered — Arthurworrey painted an interesting picture of life inside Haringey social services in 2000. One senior manager believed in witchcraft; another loathed all white people (especially the police). A third was obviously disturbed. Meetings degenerated into discussions about how unpleasant it was to be a black person living in England. The executives in the Climbié case received no punishment. All now have very remunerative jobs elsewhere in the public sector. If we live in a blame culture it's not very punitive. It's not just Haringey social workers who believe in witchcraft. There are many African immigrants who subscribe to one or another brand of one of Britain's fastest-growing religions (and who are not yet employed by our social services departments). Last month police investigating the murder of the boy whose torso was found in the Thames in 2001 announced that 300 African boys aged between four and seven had gone missing in a three-month period in the capital that year, though — a police spokesman reassured us — "there is no reason to assume that they have all been murdered". Earlier this month we had the case of "Child B", another little African girl who had been tortured by her relatives (shoved in a bin bag, chilli pepper rubbed in her eyes, etc) because the devil was deemed to have gained access to her soul. A fervent belief in the power of the Dark One is, apparently, very common among some west African immigrants. The term "ndoki" designates those who are possessed. There are many African-based churches in north London who will exorcise for a fee. At the time of Child B, the NSPCC announced "this trial has exposed some beliefs in some communities that can lead to child abuse". I suppose murder counts as "abuse". Unfortunately, we now have the Incitement to Religious Hatred Bill about to enter the statute books, so I am prohibited from suggesting that people who believe in witches, the demonic possession of children and exorcisms are either cretins from a Stone Age culture or psychologically deranged. Which is a shame, because that's what I'd hoped to do. In fact the government, through its charismatic Home Office minister Paul Goggins, has announced that people who worship the great Satan himself should indeed receive protection from the bill; so we mustn't whip up hatred when we see a wild-eyed person carrying a black bin bag, some chilli pepper and a small child. Each to his own; live and let live, etc. The bill was introduced to secure the votes of Britain's Muslims, but if it gives succour to the followers of Beelzebub, all well and good. The same principle behind this fatuous new legislation also lies behind the terrible mistakes of the Climbié case. Social services have long treated immigrant families differently from indigenous families. This whole notion of "private fostering", for example, which occurred with Child B and Victoria was, we were told, culturally acceptable within African communities. So they were dealt with by African social workers who accepted the practice with little demurral. Later it emerged that cultural acceptability had less to do with it than simple benefit fraud — but by then it was too late for Victoria. Similarly, we are cautioned — and indeed now legally obliged — to have respect for those who believe any amount of primitive superstitious rubbish because this cultural relativism demands that we should not be judgmental. Similarly, we must remove crucifixes from crematoria because they might offend people from other religions or atheists. This self-flagellation does immigrants no favours. Nor does the confusion of race with religion — of something genetic, skin deep and irrevocable with a set of ideas consciously embraced. At the end of Child B's case, NSPCC director Mary Marsh called for a taskforce of child protection officers drawn from the African community. Why must they be African? Maybe instead we should send African child protection officers to investigate white families and send white child protection officers to sort out the Africans, using precisely the same criteria in each case. |
| Posted by:too true |
| #4 Maybe the social workers could bring a scale and see if the kid weighs more than a duck. Maybe that would convince the parents? |
| Posted by: Adriane 2005-06-12 22:01 |
| #3 Frankly, I did want to maybe try the chilli thing for a second or two... |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-06-12 20:20 |
| #2 My three teenagers are all possessed, but I've never had the urge to put them in bin bags and rub chili pepper in their eyes. Grounding seems to be sufficient. |
| Posted by: Tom 2005-06-12 14:20 |
| #1 Two of my three children were possessed, but the demons gradually faded away in their 20's; the third joined the Marines. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2005-06-12 12:55 |