Traumatizing Children and Degrading Moral Values

The gruesome and grotesque political spectacle of the televised hanging of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has had a global impact. Agence France Presse (AFP) reported that at least seven children worldwide had been hanged to death in grisly re-enactments of the hanging of Saddam Hussein they had seen on television. Video and photograph images of the Orwellian show trial hanging of Hussein were broadcast worldwide on December 30, 2006, five days after Christmas. The hanging was shown on Saturday morning, when children watch programming for children. Psychological and emotional trauma for children was inevitable.

In the United States, Sergio Pelico, a 10-year-old boy copied the hanging of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein by accidentally hanging himself on New Year’s Eve. Pelico had watched the hanging of Hussein on television at his home in Webster, Texas. He then went into his bedroom, took a piece of clothing, tied it into a slipknot, placed it around his neck, and accidentally hung himself from a bunk bed. Police and relatives blamed the hanging on Pelico’s watching of the Hussein execution. His mother reported that Pelico watched the Saddam Hussein hanging on the Spanish-language Telemundo news broadcast. Julio Gustavo, Sergio Pelico’s uncle, blamed it on the televised Saddam Hussein execution:  “I don’t think he thought it was real. They showed them putting the noose around his neck and everything. Why show that on TV?”

In Harborcreek, Pennsylvania, Robert Martin, a 16-year-old, hanged himself by jumping off a loft after viewing wall-to-wall coverage of the Saddam Hussein hanging. Martin “had a New Year’s Eve party for friends and two days later was dead. One cannot help but think that viewing the Saddam video again and again and again and again planted the seed.”

In Pakistan, Mubashar Ali, a 9-year-old, watched the video of the Hussein hanging on television and later hanged himself while re-enacting the hanging with his older 10-year-old sister. Ali tied a rope to a ceiling fan and around to his neck in imitation of the Hussein hanging. His father blamed the hanging on the televised Hussein execution. He reported that the children had been watching the video on television and tried to imitate the hanging. Pakistani police stated that he had attempted to “copy scenes from the execution video” of Saddam Hussein.

In Algeria, a group of schoolchildren hanged to death a 12-year-old classmate in imitation of the Hussein hanging.

A 12-year-old boy in Hafr al Batin, Saudi Arabia hanged himself by standing on a chair and wrapping a wire around his neck.  which was tied to the door. He had just watched the televised Saddam Hussein hanging.
In Yemen, two 13-year-old boys were hanged imitating the Hussein hanging they had watched on television. In Sanaa, Saddam Hussein al-Jaki hanged himself from a tree by wrapping a cord around his neck. In the Yemeni village of Syani, Mohammed al-Razami accidentally hanged himself to death by placing a rope around his neck that was attached to a tree while playing with other children.
 
In India, a 15-year-old girl, Moon Moon Karmarkar, hung herself from a ceiling fan after watching the Hussein execution.

In Turkey, a 12-year-old, Alisen Akti, hanged himself from a ceiling fan in his home “copying Saddam Hussein’s execution.” The boy’s father was quoted as saying that the youth had been “affected by television images of Saddam’s execution.” The father blamed the media for the hanging death of his son: ”These television images are responsible for my son’s death.”

The US-orchestrated and US-stage managed political show trial hanging of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has raised troubling moral and ethical issues. US barbarism and savagery masquerading as “justice” is repulsive, disgusting, and morally appalling. Moreover, the way it was televised on televison and network news stations, satellite, and cable news networks, newspapers, magazines, and the internet as an Orwellian spectacle out of 1984 has raised the issue of its impact on society as a whole. Televising what is essentially a lynching degrades the society and everyone in it. Such wanton and gratuitous barbarity makes a mockery and a travesty of justice. The Saddam Hussein hanging has desensitized and dehumanized and brutalized adults and children alike around the world. Is this what we want to teach children? Children learn from adults. Children mimick, imitate, and copy the behavior of adults. Children look to role models. Like in George Orwell’s 1984, the government and media of Oceania teach the children in the society. Morality and ethics and values are instilled by the government and media. In Oceania, children enjoy with delight and pleasure the hanging of war criminals in the monthly public spectacle. In Oceania, children are taught to follow the dictates of Big Brother and not to question authority or the unending wars. Children act as spies and snitches in Oceania and rat out their parents or anyone else that does not follow the dictates of Big Brother.

In the New World War, hanging is presented as a spectacle for children and adults to enjoy and to savor. War itself is merely a fun activity or a fun game of amusement. Iraqi government leaders are tracked down like animals using a deck of cards to playfully characterize the goal to “kill or capture”. President Saddam Hussein was on the ace of spaces. Bombing cities and civilian targets becomes a video game thrill, like Xbox360, but with real people getting their brains blown out and their blood splattered all over the pavement. Dismembering and incinerating civilians becomes a sport and amusement.

This is what we are teaching children. Adults are not the only ones who feel the impact. Children feel the impact as well.