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	An Unholy Conspiracy against Children Exposed The Age May 22, 2009 http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/editorial/an-unholy-conspiracy-against-children-exposed-20090521-bh2w.html A CHURCH, a state and a nation have been shamed by the horrors exposed by an exhaustive official report on the abuse of tens of thousands of Irish children over many decades. A nine-year inquiry by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse had produced "the map of an Irish hell", The Irish Times editorialised. "The sheer scale and longevity of the torment inflicted on defenceless children — over 800 known abusers in over 200 institutions during a period of 35 years — should alone make it clear that it was not accidental or opportunistic but systematic." Justice Sean Ryan's 2600-page report exposes in devastating detail the truth of state complicity; the Catholic Church, which not only failed to protect the victims but protected the perpetrators, is not alone in its utter moral failure. The twin pillars of church and state share responsibility for the abuse by "successive generations of brothers, priests and nuns". Offenders, some known by church and state to be pedophiles, were transferred to other institutions, free to abuse again. The Education Department is singled out for "toothless" inspections — it later refused to release crucial documents to the inquiry. The report makes it clear, though, that state and society as a whole preferred to look the other way rather than confront the depths of the problem. The report makes for nightmarish reading, detailing punishments, humiliations and sexual abuses that bring to mind the chilling depravity of totalitarian regimes, or of Guantanamo Bay for that matter. Some of the practices are nothing short of torture, while the unpaid work by young children amounts to slave labour. The perpetrators were not a few bad apples, the incidents not isolated. "A climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions," the report says. In boys' schools, sexual abuse was "endemic". Some Australians know that the "Irish hell" is a universal hell, since orders such as the Christian Brothers and Sisters of Mercy have long been active in this country and others. The report devotes eight chapters to the Christian Brothers, the subject of more allegations than all other male orders combined. This order and all but one other order persisted with a deliberate strategy of denial and obfuscation, challenging all allegations of abuse. The report notes that only the Rosminian order has had a more open and accepting approach to the inquiry and victims of abuse. The church still struggles to fully confess its sins. The report notes that the Christian Brothers' public apology was "guarded, conditional and unclear" and that it was "not even clear that the statement could properly be called an apology". Perhaps most telling of all is the order's preparedness to bring a lawsuit that succeeded in having the abusers' names, even those who have been criminally convicted, omitted from the report. This act alone casts doubt on the adequacy of this week's "acknowledgement of our responsibility as a congregation for what has happened". The victims, most now between 50 and 80 years old and some of them living in Australia, are rightly outraged by the failure to name names. As a result, the vast body of evidence obtained by the report, including the testimony of more than 1700 men and women about the abuse they suffered, cannot be used for prosecutions. The guilty are, in effect, still being protected. It also makes it more difficult to establish which perpetrators might have been transferred to countries such as Australia, while casting a shadow over Irish clergy who are innocent of wrongdoing. Nonetheless, the Ryan report is a landmark document that casts light on how institutions and society can become complicit in the evil acts of individuals. The systemic nature of the abuse warns us against complacently assuming that it's all in the past. Although the report does not make a recommendation on mandatory reporting, which applies in Victoria but not in Ireland, its account of how abuse can flourish when broad discretion prevails makes a strong case for such laws. This leads to an even broader issue of concern, raised before by The Age, about the lack of a truly independent children's commissioner who is free of state-imposed constraints on their ability to safeguard children, such as wards of the state, who lack the usual protections of family. The widespread abuse of children may have created an Irish hell, but this is not specifically an Irish disease. Abuse happens whenever vulnerable children lack someone to listen to them and stand up for them when powerful figures refuse to acknowledge the problems on their watch. Tourists abroad, and media at home, behaving badly THE story goes like this. Photogenic Australian tourist gets into trouble with the law overseas. Tourist heaven becomes hell. Innocence taken as a given, media and public respond with outrage, recycling slurs against "corrupt" foreigners who would have a salt-of-the-earth Aussie rot in jail. The lessons of the Schapelle Corby case are forgotten, the racist notion that foreigners are incapable of administering justice revived. Mother-of-four Annice Smoel is the latest martyr tourist. Happily for her, authorities expedited her trial — a Thai local could have waited months. Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop reportedly even paid her 1000 baht ($A38) fine after she pleaded guilty to theft of a bar mat. Ms Smoel acknowledged that the Governor, who had reason to be concerned about the impact on tourism, was "very gracious". It is a pity the same cannot be said of all Australian travellers abroad. What are locals to make of people who get drunk and abusive, show no respect for local rules or authorities and then complain of a lack of justice? Ms Smoel's lawyer said the handling of her case was "not the way an Australian citizen should be treated" for "a piece of drunken souveniring" in a prank gone wrong. Consider, though, the likely treatment if any person did the same at a bar in Melbourne, ran from police, offered a bribe — "that's the way the system works over here", said Ms Smoel — and abused them when that failed. Bar owner Steve Wood had a different view: "I think it's more of an attitude problem … She continued to abuse everyone, including the chief of police, and I think this is what the problem is." Too many Australians have an attitude of ownership towards their favourite holiday destination. When will they learn that, as guests of another country, they should show their hosts some respect?
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