This article does a good job in highlighting how the affects of neo-colonialism visit themselves upon children and women who are the victims of rape and sexual abuse in South Africa. Let's not forget that South Africa also has one of the highest murder rates on the globe. It is atrocious that the government has seemingly not taken a more active and assertive role in the incidents that occurred at Oprah's school. When there is no hope and the aftereffects of apartheid are still aparrent these things are a constant reality.
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Hidden Crimes
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But belief in this canard is hardly the main reason. "There is no single cause [of abuse]," says Edith Kriel, a social worker at the Child Trauma Centre in Cape Town. "Rather, there are layers of factors that place children at enormous risk." One is cultural, with parents reluctant to talk about sex and often not believing children when they talk about a sexual encounter with an adult, she says. Another is the social structure of families, in which adults have unassailable authority, and the breakdown of families: most children grow up in poor single-parent families with no male role model and an often-absent working mother. "Poverty has an enormous impact in various ways, such as the stress it places on families, and it also makes them vulnerable to taking payment in return for accepting abusive behavior," Kriel says. Dysfunctional schools create environments in which abuse can easily occur and not be dealt with when it does—especially as teachers are often the culprits. Other analysts point to media representations of sexuality, a culture of violence seeded during the apartheid years, and the apparent inability of the government, including the education and justice systems, to deal with cases of abuse.
Ironically, the global spotlight on the case at the Winfrey school may have some positive side effects. Winfrey, herself molested and raped as a child, is being praised for her empathetic and emphatic response to events. At her Chicago press conference this week, she said she had promised to buy cell phones for all the girls affected by the scandal and had given them her personal number so that they could call her at any time. "Oprah Winfrey is a role model in South Africa," says van Niekerk. "When she says that sexual abuse is unacceptable, people listen. When she acts to stamp it out, people realize that we can do something about abuse."
© 2007
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