Abuse in state and faith-based care
Why everyone needs to read the report
(At least the Executive Summary)
I used to ask my third-year uni students - why do so many young adults not keep up to date with local, national and international news? I remember one answer in particular - because its depressing. I reflected on the answer much later and came up with the aphorism - ignorance is not bliss, it’s ignorance.
One of the features of capitalism (more specficaLLY neoliberalism) is an absorbed focus on self (individualism sits at the heart of liberalism) - Look after yourself and do whatever you need to do to make your life better. Of the disadvantaged, society in general and local communities - they will take care of themselves and they’re not your concern. If you do well, everyone will do well. The “trickle-down” logic that underpins capitalism has failed the world abysmally both financially and socially.
The horrific decades of abuse documented in the Royal Commission’s report pre-dates the 1970s and the introduction of neoliberalism (think Rogernomics in New Zealand’s case) but it doesn’t pre-date the logic after yourself and of looking the other way. For decades we have hidden the vulnerable, infirm, aged, children, disabled and difficult out of sight and out of mind. If we’re honest, we created the society that we would have had if the mad eugenics devotees really had had their way. And by hiding tens of thousands of the vulnerable people, we left them at the mercy of the those in charge. Our faith that they would be well-cared for was badly misplaced.
That’s why everyone needs to read (at least) the Executive Summary of the report - it happened, and is happening, on our watch. It is a much milder version of what happened after the concentration camps were liberated at the end of World War II. The allies made German citizens, who must have been aware of the crimes and horrors happening in the camp, witness the scene and bury the bodies.
Aotearoa New Zealand society sees itself, in general, with rose-tinted spectacles. We live in an egalitarian paradise - God’s own. Except we don’t. Tens of thousands of people suffered disgracefully while the majority enjoyed (reaped and raped) the benefits of “God’s own” society.
“These gross violations occurred at the same time as Aotearoa New Zealand was promoting itself, internationally and domestically, as a bastion of human rights and as a safe, fair country in which to grow up as a child in a loving family. If this injustice is not addressed, it will remain as a stain on our national character forever.”
The report is hard reading because, for most of us, what happened is unimaginable. Unimaginable that anyone could perpetrate such crimes. Unimaginable that it happened under society’s, under our collective, noses. I think if everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand reads the report, it would be impossible for politicians not to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission - the public would demand it. Once you know what happened, you can’t unknow it and common decency demands we do whatever we can to put it right.
And maybe, just maybe, society would become a better place for everyone, not just those who have enough money to insulate themselves from “the lives of others”.
“Everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand has a part to play in preventing abuse and neglect in care. Everybody needs the knowledge and tools to achieve this, so that the beliefs that contribute to harmful and discriminatory experiences in care can be eliminated, and abusers can be identified and stopped.”
There are many resources online that provide an overview of the Royal Commission’s work and what the report spells out. Try these …
