loss of innocence

I read this story with absolute horror. We may be exposed to many sad, horrific, depressing stories in the media, but this one was particularly stomach-churning.

A man forces a 21-year-old woman to abort her baby, throws the fetus in a garbage bin, and the woman later dies of complications. I am sure such incidents happen in every single country in the world, but I dedicate this horrible, sad story to all those who have an unrealistic and idealistic image of the UAE.

For many years, we never heard of crimes in the country, due to too many restrictions on freedom of press. That is slowly changing, and with it comes the horrors of life, and the vileness of human beings. It was a much simpler time when we knew nothing of the UAE's underbelly, but with every report such as this one comes a loss of innocence.

I realised that the UAE was not the safe haven everyone made it out to be long ago. I tried in vain to convince some people around me that this was a country just like any other, that crime, rape and murder happened out here...but some were too innocent to believe it. We had lived in a bubble for so long, with positive images of caring human beings all around us being portrayed and glorified. We could not for one second think that our island home was also the home of perverse and deviant people.

The story may not shock everyone the way it shocked me. But try living in a bubble for so long, and then be confronted to such disgust.

Again...I know this is the way of the world. But it's so hard for me to conceive that a human can be so evil and more importantly, so cowardly.

I bet you if that poor woman had lived, she'd be in jail right now, while the horrible man who forced her to get rid of her baby and threw it in a bin would be roaming around the streets, free as a bird.

Scary thought.