Horrific Depth of Human Depravity

There is something about the human spirit and his behaviour that that is both mystical and intriguing. That something at times makes us blush in embarrassment and shameful bewilderment. That sometimes sinks into the dept of depravity, inhumanity, and acts of such evil I presumed even troubled the creator. Humankind are separated from animals because we have the capacity to think, to reason our next step make far reaching decisions based on calculation and judgement, while animals act solely on basic instinct. Humans have the capacity to achieve greatness through the efforts of his hands, or privileged through birth have it handed down to him on a platter. Man has the ability for complicated inventions, fire racket into the far reaches of outer space, the ability to use certain elements to his own benefits. Yet we cannot solve the problem of human conflict, misery and that capacity to degenerate into animal behaviour. Behaviour sometimes, that would puzzle the animal kingdom if they were able to think like us?

Sometime ago the world was awaken to the frightening news revelation of a woman suddenly appearing to the police claiming captivity for 24 years a lifetime to many. The Austrian woman now in her forties accuses her own father Fritzl of the amazing atrocities of keeping her in a dungeon for all this time and fathering her seven children some of which had since died. Some amazing and frightening headlines spread around the world, with many asking how something like this could happen in the twenty first century. In workplaces, public gathering, and private residences it was the topical issue of the day, and even politicians took a swipe at this apparent monster. The people of tiny Austria was at odds to point out that their nation should not be labelled with the actions of this one corrupted minded individual. Was this the end of such brutal stories, or was there something or someone else hidden by circumstances ready to be revealed?

America is known thorough out the modern world for many ground breaking discoveries, the greatest nation on planet earth and the only existing superpower. Yet also you see and hear of some of the most appalling atrocities, that the “only in America” phrase becomes a negative for the nation. The world did not have to wait for very long as this week a woman Jaycee Lee Dugard walked into a police station an amazing 18 years after she was kidnapped, from outside her Californian home, having had her two children fathered by the man who snatched her as an 11-year-old school girl. Yes friends we see and hear the frightening news of young men going into schools and shooting many dead, there was limited space for an Austrian style rapist. The case has been compared to the European, but there is a marked difference between the American and Austrian Fritzl and that is one was initiated by the father the other by a total stranger. However, the ordeal is still the same for the victims of such horrendous and mindboggling activities.

Jaycee Lee Dugard was abducted by two people the accused and wife accomplice in a car from a bus stop outside her home as far back as 1991. Police confirmed that they were some 99% sure that the person who walked into the Concord police station in California was Jaycee. The accused none other than the convicted rapist Phillip Garrido, aged 58, with his wife Nancy, age 54, have been arrested on suspicion of the 1991 kidnapping and other associated offences, according to the El Dorado Sheriff's Department. The accused is also being held for investigation of rape by force, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and sexual penetration, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Department said.

The Sheriff's Department confirmed that the girl now a grown woman was apparently kept in a shed in the backyard of the Garridos' house where her children were born and brought up. They also confirmed that just three years ago they missed the opportunity to rescue the woman from her 18 year ordeal. How could this oversight or lack of professionalism happen and the department and its officials remain in their jobs? How could it be that nobody, none of his neighbours nor the police discover this hidden garden which it is reported included, camping style shower and lavatory? According to the reports the facility have only one entry which was only through a descriptive dirty tarpaulin covering what is an apparent hole in a fence.

To poor salt into the wounds of this family, this American Joseph Fritzl was allowed by the authorities to speak to a local radio station. I accept that America is a great democracy, and people are innocent until proven guilty, but he should not have been allowed to speak publicly until he is tried in a court of law. The years of nightmares and trauma this woman must have experienced could not have been made worse by listening to this mans voice on the radio. Especially, as it was reported that Mr. Garrido has confessed to the crime of kidnapping. Questions and accusatory fingers must be pointed at the sheriffs department for no amount of apology can replace the years this young woman has lost. No amount of state compensation can restore her human dignity and self worth she lost during what can only be described as a terrifying ordeal. She lost her childhood, the opportunity to play in the park with other kids her age. To join a gym play hockey, netball or basket ball to be queen of the proms, all this was taken away from. She was robbed of her youth, her innocence was taken, no mommy to introduce her to the delights of growing older, maturing into adulthood. Developing friendship with her peers, the right introduction to the opposite sex, dating and most importantly to young girls going to the mall, shopping, dressing up and being told, you look pretty in that dress. Probably never learn to drive a car, or hope to own one.

While viewing and assessing her story it is easy to forget the two kids born into that isolated environment. Like the Austrian’s children’s never seen the outside world, nor knowing what’s its like to walk down the street and cross a road, nor sit in a class room filled with children’s laughter. What will these children now face in a world indifferent to the homeless, and fatherless, the have not’s, the poor and the suffering, to those who have no one to plea their cause? The needs of this young woman and her off spring are great, there is little doubt. Will the state of California now step in and provide the counselling, the psychological profiling and adjustment to modern life? Will she be given a new identity, a new home, a new life in another location? The kids will need protection from the blare of the media, from being question at their new school, reliving their nightmare ordeal? Will leading politician from the state of California play some kind of role in ensuring that this woman and her two girls get the best state funded education and be short of nothing for the rest of their lives?

As for this American Fritzl, what kind of punishment does this poor excuse for a human being deserve? The images of men have come in for harsh criticism in recent time and to a point rightly so. When people like these are exposed it is easy to see why, as no man can stand beat his chest and say this does not affect me. We are affected one way or another, whatever is our sex for there is no man without a woman, and we are not independent of each other. Garrido’s behaviour is tantamount to robbery and murder because he stole her childhood and killed her innocence introducing her to a twisted view that only he and somebody like him Fritzl of Austria, could interpret as “most powerful, heart warming story”. Oh the frailty of the human psyche and its ability degenerate into beastlike behaviour never ceases to amaze me.