A child is a gift. A child is a reward. A child is . . . a blessing.

Yet here am I, in what I thought was peaceful, sunny Malaysia when I was jolted awake from my rose-tinted fantasies by a darkness so deep, so black, so . . . vile it caught not only me, but the rest of the Malaysian populace with its sheer, unrelenting cruelty.

A child--a girl--of ten years old was kidnapped just dozens of yards away from her home.

She was found dead--beaten to a pulp and completely starved--after days searches and frantic poster-handlings ("Have you seen this girl?") stuffed in a duffel bag with a cucumber and an eggplant stuffed in her . . . Let's just say this goes beyond the pale. Beyond the line that separates our humanity from mere animals. Is this what it all comes down to?

I'm not talking about this little girl. But countless other cruelties that were inflicted upon unsuspecting people . . . things that just makes you throw up your hands in despair--despite countless Kool-Aid--and scream "WHAT'S THE FUCKING POINT??!!!???"

I'm not just talking about her parents being accused for negligence. They didn't leave her strapped to a baby chair in a parked on midsummer Las Vegas. They didn't forget to feed her. They  didn't starve her, or beat her to an inch of her life, didn't keep her caged in a pen with straws for bedding . . . they didn't do anything but trust her to go to the weekly night market held just dozens of steps in front of her house to buy something to eat.

It was a trust that will remain unbroken . . . but the trust in their fellow man was irrevocably destroyed. Our ability to trust others is now challenged. Is the man a pervert? or is he just kind to children? Can we be sure of his motives? or of even our own?