Dragon Tattoos

Yesterday, a four year old girl was brought into the health center. She was quite ordinary; with the normal ring worm signs on her head and big torn clothes over a small body with an oversized belly. She, however, was unique; in that she was accompanied by several police men and a seventy year old relative. Apparently, the old man had been found raping her and, miraculously, someone reported it to the police. More miraculously, the man did not have sufficient money to pay off the police, so man and child were brought into the hospital. After alleging not to have raped the girl, the man was released. After all, there were not DNA testing facilities or cameras, etc. for proof.
Upon hearing the story, I was immediately transported back in time to 2007 in Lesotho, where such occurrences seemed normal. Unlike Uganda, Lesotho was late in structuring a plan to attack HIV; allowing various rumors and witch doctors to come up with alternative healing measures instead. One such belief was that if one slept with a virgin, he/she could be cured of HIV/AIDS. Who is more likely to be a virgin than a small child, or a baby? Several babies with ruptured internal organs and small girls with traumatic stories began appearing. At the orphanage where I lived, there were several; one particularly tiny girl had been kidnapped and used for a year as a child prostitute—sold as a “virgin” to unsuspecting HIV positive men. Her kidnappers were discovered and jailed—then released after one year. She is now 13 with raving AIDS and, when I left, she wished me the one thing that she does not hope to attain—a long life.
In Lesotho, however, as in Uganda, the traditional house was a round room, where everyone did everything—without shame. In Lesotho, due to cold, grown children dressed and bathed in the presence of their parents. According to what I was told, molestation of children by parents was so rare that there was no shame in such practices. Is it not, then, insane to have rooms in your house precisely because there is so much scandal that children are afraid of their parents’ eyes? When did Westerners start hiding from their family members--- it must have been far before Freud had to invent his crazy theories in response the insane child abuse cases he came across.
Last night, I read Steig Larssen’s “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” I have to admit that the images of snow covered Sweden and old stone houses with fireplaces were heavenly. The descriptions of sexual violence, however, were more than disturbing. 1. How could Mr. Larssen have spent so much mental energy on such sadistic and misogynistic ideas—what did he DO in his free time? 2. Why on EARTH are millions of people thrilled by such images? My mind instantly flashed to the two different Austrian men found to have kept young girls in secret sex slave basement cells for decades—one of them being the perpetrator’s daughter. I also thought of my old psychotherapy professor (now in her sixties) who was kidnapped at fifteen and raped and almost killed—until she fought her way out. She said that she decided to become a big woman, an intimidating woman, and a woman whom no one else would ever think of harming again. I thought about the many strong, physically substantial women that I know who give that impression—I am tough, I am not a delicate rose, I am serious and respectable and will never be vulnerable with you. I know that I am one of them and do not intend to change.
The book was a New York Times best seller and was hailed as a sexy thriller—I would say that it had great descriptions and character development and was extremely harrowing. But sexy? I hope not—because if that type of violence is what interests people, we have more problems than Uganda’s seventy year old men. Just to take precautions, however, I am doing Kenpo X in my small room tonight and vow to take a Karate and or RADD class when I get back to the States.