mellie
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Australian Politics
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Yes this culture are more theatrical than westerners who's children generally stand there bowing their heads with their hands behind their backs as the coffin is lowered into the grave, but I think under the circumstances, with him being estranged from his parents, being the only survivor in his immediate family, his mothers body not having been found, mentally, this would have taken it's toll, and god knows what he's endured in detention, displaced, estranged and surrounded by grieving mourning adults crying 24/7. I think even a westerners child would be distraught after having endured these circumstances.
I have only ever been to one funeral where an adult threw themselves into the grave of a small child (baby, a cot death) was my friends now deceased husband who killed himself a couple of weeks later (if that, may have even been a week). But he wasn't quite stable prior to his infant sons death sadly, he suffered with debilitating depression.
As for this little boy mimicking his role-models, from a cultural perspective....perhaps to a degree, but acting?
Most certainly not!
Culldave, what actually concerns me here is that you would think he would be acting, this tells me that for some reason or another you have failed to connect with, or feel empathy for a grieving child.
Your having even questioned this small boys reaction concerns me, particularly with an image as confronting as this.
There's no way this child was acting, and whilst cultural factors may play some part in the grieving process, re- mimicking adults around him which would have defined acceptable grief boundaries, told him what was acceptable... honestly, I don't think even cultural factors played a part in this instance, the kid is clearly broken, too traumatised to even care about such things as funeral etiquette, he's in a strange country, surrounded by strange people, his parents and siblings are dead, mothers body still hasn't been found, and to think, here we are months after the tragedy with a state and federal government using it as their venomous campaigns back-drop, as though to say..."See, we are the kinder party"..."We paid for their funerals"...then attempted the shuttle them all off back to the centre, child and all.
I find it disgusting that it's taken our authorities this long to bury these people, this and get this kid out of detention. Sickening actually, and forever will this image of a crying child be impressed in my mind when reflecting on changes this government made to boarder security and refugee policy.
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Gillards grieving detention orphan, disturbing (Read 7114 times)
