Kidnapping, Rape and Abuse, Oh My.

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Smelled something really funny about this a couple of days ago when I read it. I didn't post on it, though. Why? Who knows. A housemaid - who is not only identified by name and nationality - but also with a photograph - kidnapped a baby. Immediately - with only a couple of paragraphs to go on - I said, "Yeah. Bet the maid has not been paid. That's why she did it." I was right on the money! Lo and behold. "The mother... denied the maid's claim that she was not paid her salaries and was treated badly by the Saudi family." [Of course she denies any wrong doing - they all deny it!] Umm hmmm. She says, "The maid, who I considered as my sister, has cheated me. I never expected she would run away with my little daughter. We kept her salary with us to protect her money from theft."

Come on lady. We all know better than that. You may be able to convince the authorities why you did not give the maid her "salaries," but the rest of us know differently. You kept her money because you had no intention of paying your maid. Ever. And, that bit about how you considered the maid as your sister? You consider your own sister as a slave, then? Pluheeze! The maid is in a big load of trouble at this point. Authorities will never take the position of siding with the maid. That just does not happen, here. The maid - if she has the opportunity to do so - needs to say goodbye to her family and friends. Doubt she will ever see them again. She can also say goodbye to any money that was owed to her. She is never going to see that, either.

Just another rape. Nothing to see here folks. Move along... Police are looking for seven men - SEVEN! - who "allegedly kidnapped and raped a 15-year-old boy on his way to school." You read that correctly. It says "boy." No identifying nationality of the men - the rapists - is mentioned. We can all guess. And, since the men have not yet been found [or identified] there is no way to get photos of them. However, the identify of SIX other rapists is known. Wouldn't society be better served by having photos of those men - any men, here, who have been identified as rapists - posted in the newspapers so that everyone could protect themselves from them? Never mind. Having the photo of a maid who kidnapped a baby serves a much better purpose...

Is that all that is on the minds of men in this Country!?! For goodness sake. You would think so to read the newspapers. [And, for the record, I do not believe that it is the only thing on every single man's mind, here in the Sandbox, but it certainly seems to be the only thing on a good number of them! Nor am I, in any way, shape or form, trying to make it out that this is the only country in the world where this kind of thing happens. I am well aware that it happens all over.] A cleaner is going to be in big trouble for locking two nine-year-old boys in toilet facilities. Reportedly he did so "with the intention of raping them." Could it not have been an accident? Maybe he did not know the boys were in the facility? Who knows. Best to jump to conclusions and believe that the boys were going to be raped, right?

Abuse. A young woman is sharing her story "about 18 years of xesual abuse because she fears for the safety of her cousins." Giving the young woman the benefit of the doubt on portions of her saga... "Dania was only six years old when she woke up to find her uncle's head under her bed sheets." The incident became a daily routine. And she was the one at fault - to blame - for what she and everyone else knows is just wrong. Literary license taken to embellish the story to make for a wide-read audience? Perhaps. Dania says [of her uncle], "He tried everything short of 'the act.' I was shown his private parts, made to watch p0rn0graffick movies and he would perform xesual acts on pictures... All of this within the earshot of other family members." [I have to employ literary license, too. Only because those "words" are the ones that the powers that be want to protect me from.] Finally, when Dania was 18 she enlisted some family members to help her. Remember, this all started when she was 6-year-old - that that is 12 years of abuse, and not 18 years of abuse, which is what is reported - 18 years. "To her unpleasant surprise, her aunts blamed her for her unclen's behavior... After all, I deserved it in their eyes for being such a provacative 11 year old. That's what happens when you wear jeans..." But wait. The abuse started in 1992, and then ended in 1999 when Dania and her family went to the U.S. So, not 18 years and not 12 years, but 7 years of abuse. [Literary license, indeed.] The abuse started back up, again, in 2003, when the family moved back to Riyadh, "in the form of attempted rape" by TWO of her uncles. Nice family members. [Sarcasm, off.] Read the whole thing. The family matriarch enabled these grown men. And the xesual abuse continues with Dania's cousins "and their mothers are not protecting them." Good for Dania for speaking out. Even if she and the author choose to embellish certain points. Makes for better reading - stretching the truth a bit - in such sagas - and we all know that newspapers are in the business of selling papers. The better the story, the more juicy it is, the more papers that get sold.

Two more disposable workers. Imported laborers, doing the work that no one else will do. No worries. So what that two men are dead and another injured. There are plenty more to get where they came from.

Oh, and this. A mall in Riyadh is banning smoking. Let us know how that works out. No menton on what will happen if anyone lights up with the ban in place. My guess? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.