Stockholm is in grief. Stockholm is in protest. A growing number of its young people have been killed by peers and same generation bystander in the open streets, at parties, in commercial centers. More than 10,000 people demonstrated against youth violence last Friday, Oct. 12 at Kungsträgården (Kings Garden), in the middle of Stockholm city. The recent brutal killing of a 16-year old boy during a party at nearby Kungsholmen triggered a massive emotional outburst against violence, among the young and old.
It is hard to believe that in Sweden -where life is safeguarded with every possible measure the state could extend, not just because of the egalitarianism of the welfare state but because the value of the child has been raised to higher levels with the UN Rights of the Child interpretation at all levels of community life. The UN convention has enshrined the rights of the child to a happy home, to an education and safe community living, but somewhere, these safety measures are forgotten. Is it not ironic that violence takes place during a social or leisure activity. Who is to blame? The schools have no extended role to intervene in the students' social life after school hours. Most parents today are modern enough to allow their children's choice of friends and social activities. The use of strict disciplinary rules to curtail children's freedom belong to the past.
Losing a child has no words to describe grief. A parent's love begins with the first pulse of life inside the womb, the first breath at birth, the first cry for mother's milk. And that love grows each day of caring and loving. There is no feeling of tiredness when it comes to loving one's child. In times of sickness, there is only one prayer that pervades in the night, "Please. God, let it be me getting sick. Spare my child!" A parent's love for their children is the purest feeling there is. So what happens when one day, when someone's 16-year old son does not come home after a party and instead some policemen knocks on your door and delivers the message of death. It is a shattering experience, a devastation that explodes one's being and leaves a permanent void. Losing a child because of an accident or illness has some mitigating factors, but there is no room for any self-appeasement when a son or daughter is brutally murdered by young offenders.
(Photo has no relation to the story.)
