Madeleine: the outrage

You all will have heard about the story of the disappearance of a girl named Madeleine in the news recently. I thought I might share my thoughts on the matter by way of the story below.

Once upon a time, there was a girl called Madeleine. Unlike the little girl from England on the news, this Madeleine was born in Sudan. She grew up in a little village called Kintooto, with her mother, father, and two younger sisters. Her first years were very happy: she had lots of friends, and her parents were very kind to her.

But now things aren't going so well. She's still a child - only 10 years old - but she no longer lives in Kintooto. Two years ago, soldiers in plain uniforms came into the village and captured all the men and boys. That included here father, Paul. Paul was never seen alive again, but Madeleine's next-door neighbour, Mary, literally stumbled upon what looked like his head whilst fetching water down the road a few days later. They think the soldiers were purging all local villages for men and boys, on orders of a tyrannical dictator.

As for her mother, she's dead too: she was raped by those same soldiers, and contracted HIV as a result. Because of the lack of medicine in Kintooto, she died 18 months later of Pneumonia.

So how's Madeleine and her sisters? They're ok - just. Madeleine's had to give up school (though she was doing really well at it) to look after her two younger sisters, Catherine and Lucy. Particularly since Lucy (who's only 5 years old) has trouble with her breathing.

And Madeleine herself? Well, she's given up school, and has to get up at 5 each morning to fetch water from the local well. Of course, we say local, but mean 5 miles walk away. Why so early, you ask? Spose that's to avoid the local militas who wouldn't think twice about raping little Madeleine too. Age is of little concern: you've got the right holes, you'll do - male or female, young or old.

And Madeleine's friends? Hmm, not so good - many of them were taken by the soldiers, too.

By the way, they had to move. Kintooto was overrun by gangs of warlords, so now Madeleine lives in a refugee camp, ridden with disease, starvation, and suffering.

She's got a hard life, has Madeleine.


You may all think, why has he made up a story about some little black girl from an imaginery village in a fictional situation? I'll tell you why. Because that girl's life-story isn't untypical of millions of others. Did you all get that? Millions. And it's not a past occurence, either - stories such as Madeleine's continue, day by day, hour by hour, minute by terrible minute.

And what has this depressing story got to do with white Madeleine? Well, nothing, yet everything. Nothing, in that the two girls have nothing in common. Everything, in that they are both suffering - yet why is it that one obsesses an entire nation, continent even, and the other doesn't even get one measly mention?

Of course I sympathise with Madeleine's parents. I'm not a parent myself, so I can't even begin to imagine what they must be going through. But just before we commit every second of our time to thinking about one girl, why not spare a few more to the thousands of others who, by some stroke of horrific luck, are neglected - not just by their native people, but by the rest of the world.

Let us not turn our backs on anyone. But that also means, let us put an end to the wild injustices that plague our otherwise idealistic planet.



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