My Cruel Indifference -- C2 Speech by Mandy Chen
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C2 Speech Title: My Cruel Indifference
Speaker: Mandy Chen
Have you read this novel “The Stolen Child”? It’s about fairies living in a black forest. Some people said they are evils; others said they are legends. They look like children and they never get old. Because they desire to be human, they monitor the human village, waiting for the right time to obtain children's identities. Once the identity of a child had been taken, the fairy becomes the child and lives with the family. And the parent will be cheated throughout their lives, unaware that their children had disappeared.
Ooh ooh!! A boy walked toward the forest to take adventure. Like a catchfly, the fairies caught the boy, fast and silently. Luckily, one fairy was seen by a human who stopped his car. The fairy was frozen. “Where is the strange kid from?” the man wondered. “Who cares! Just a kid.” He drove away and let the criminal go.
Today, I do not talk about the plot. My point is how it (the fairy) occurs without our noticing it. Actually, it can be quite difficult for us to notice it. These fairies are always waiting for the moment when the children leave the vicinity of their parents or guardians. They kidnap the child by putting their hands on the child's mouth, taking him or her away as quickly as possible. The kidnapped child has no ability to resist. Do you think this is a story merely?
It could happen anytime anywhere!!
In April of this year, during my travel to France, I was walking with my sister on the beautiful ancient streets. The sky was colorful and the music from street artists was romantic. As we walked along, we passed by a woman pushing a baby stroller. There was an Oriental faced little boy about one year old sitting in the stroller. His shrilling sounds attracted our attention. Mama, mama, he cried. It looked as if he wanted to escape from the stroller. The woman was young and European looking. No matter how hard the boy cried and screamed, the woman never looked at him and continued to walk.
“Shall we go to talk to the lady to see what’s going on?” My sister asked me. “Don’t poke our noses into other's business. She's probably a baby sitter.” I speeded up and replied.
My indifference blocked out my rational
thinking, so did the pedestrians and the whole street. The news of missing
children was played on TV several times a day. For their parents, definitely, it
is a life sentence. Some bring their children’s photos back to the scene
to search the last hope. In the following days, my sister asked me the same
question, “Did we lose the only chance to save a child? He looked so helpless.”
I had not realized my ugly indifference until then.
In many
disappearance cases, those key witnesses choose to be indifferent to the
crucial moment. Most of them expressed after the incident, “I saw a strange
person took the kid away, but I decided not to poke my nose into other’s
business.” So, what happened? In Malaysia, 13 kids are stolen a day on average.
In China, 54 children are stolen daily. In Taiwan, over 10 children are missing
a day. An international organization called 'KIDPROOF' did an experiment at a
public park. Within 14 seconds, a child was taken away by a stranger who took a
lollipop. If we saw it, would we take any action?
What kind of
future those stolen children have? If fortunate, some could be sold to good
families. But most of them were injured, forced into slavery or child
prostitution. As for the little boy we saw, I hope our suspicion was wrong.
No more
indifference now.
To protect
children, to stop more sad stories, we can report to the police immediately as soon
as we know that a child or children is gone missing. Or make an emergency phone
to call Missing Children Data Resource Center 0800-049880. Wish children around
the world a safe and healthy growth.
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