The news from England last week was almost entirely depressing, thanks to a report on the state of the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham. It is a colourless, working-class town in the country's northern region, in size and location roughly comparable to Thailand's town of Khon Kaen. In Rotherham, for the past 16 years, men and gangs groomed, raped, beat and actually trafficked young girls. They were aided, indeed encouraged, by police and social workers.
The acts against the youngsters were often violent, always horrific and almost certainly life-altering. Extreme cases included dousing children with gasoline. "Routine" cases involved making children watch the violence against their peers amid threats of worse if they complained. The worst acts of all were committed when their girls did, in fact, complain to police or child protection agencies. They did nothing.
Rotherham and England will have to sort out for itself this sordid, unforgiveable scandal. In a just world, the pusillanimous police and the craven "protection" agencies would receive equal punishment to the rapists and terrorising gangs. The bad news is that in Rotherham's world, it is entirely possible that no action at all will occur. The men and gangs written in the report authored by Prof Alexis Jay are mostly ethnic Pakistani Muslims. The authorities who refused to uphold both law and justice claim they knew about the crimes but were afraid they might upset what England delicately calls "race relations" if they actually took action against the criminals, to help the victims.
These odious years of inaction by English authorities deserve worldwide condemnation. But they should cause self-awareness as well. The specific actions against women by the criminal men of Rotherham may seem unique. In fact, Rotherham is not the only place where such crimes take place, with similar justification by the perpetrators and eerily interchangeable enabling by authorities. One of the places where this happens is Thailand.
According to Prof Jay's report, the men and gangs of Rotherham are raised in a culture where male children are valued above females, from birth. Criminal behaviour is tolerated for men. When men attack girls or young women, the first questions are nothing but biased justification. What did she do to make that happen? She should not have believed his sweet words.
The English scandal involves race and community relations. Authorities ignored or dismissed complaints in order to avoid upsetting apologists. Similar attitudes drive authorities in Thailand to do nothing, to look the other way even in the face of proof of the most horrendous abuses. Police often refuse to intervene in "family disputes" such as wife-beatings and rape. It should be remembered that no law to protect women and children has ever passed through parliament without smutty jokes, sexist comments and opposition that sounds just like the cowardly authorities in Rotherham — well, maybe she asked for it.
The men who rape their step-daughters, the gangs of village louts who abuse girls — these are not sick paedophiles. They feel they have the right to show their power over weaker people, especially girls. The police and so-called child-protection units who wave off obvious abuses because they don't want to upset the community — these are not peacekeepers, but enablers of much of the worst abuse in our society.
Rotherham is a terrible and stark lesson of how society lets down its most vulnerable and often most valuable members. Abusing, beating and raping girls stunts or destroys the potential of the victims. But turning a blind eye to the abuse is the worst crime of all.