On March 8, 2014, 227 passengers and 12 crew members on Malaysia Airlines flight 370 disappeared. For the past thirteen days, the missing plane has been the lead news story on just about every media outlet. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has become a universal fascination as one of the world’s greatest unsolved mysteries.
We Are The World
The collective world effort to locate the plane and find the 239 people can be described as nothing less than astounding. Nation after nation has joined in an international effort to track down the missing plane. It has been heartwarming to see the collective compassion and common concern exhibited by people all across the globe.
Astonishingly, during the same thirteen days, there has been another great unsolved mystery. However, this cliffhanger has gone under the “proverbial radar”. Unlike Flight 370 this mystery is not a story about GPS or a turned off transponder. Since March 8, 2014, 284,932 children were reported missing and 71,233 children are now victims of commercial sex exploitation. Yes, you read those numbers correctly and your eyes have not deceived you.
According to The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children 8 million children will go missing this year and 2 million children will be victims of commercial sexual exploitation. To make matter worse – as if the outrageous numbers of missing and commercially sexually exploited children were not bad enough – 300 million children in this generation will be victimized sexually before they reach adulthood.
Do The Math
If the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members is a crisis garnering worldwide attention then how and why have we heard relatively nothing and seem to care so little about the 284,932 children gone missing and 71,233 victims of commercial sexual exploitation occurring over the same thirteen days? Surely, the fact that there are almost 290,000 missing children and more than 71,000 victims of commercial sexual exploitation since March 8th qualifies for, at the very least, equal media attention.
The numbers of missing and commercially sexually exploited children is not just a crisis it is a catastrophe of epic proportions. Yet despite the 1,192 times more compelling the number of missing children are mathematically, the national and international community seem far less interested in locating the whereabouts of missing children than the 239 people on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. And even though the number of families affected by the commercial sexual exploitation of children is 298 times the number of families affected by the disappearance of the commercial jet, the national attention and international heartbeat working to resolve this emergency is barely palpable.
Missing Is Missing Right?
Pointing out the mathematical differences between the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and the number of missing and commercially sexually exploited children is not intended to minimize the mystery of the missing plane nor diminish the importance of finding the plane and its passengers. Without question, locating Flight 370 is crucial for the well-being of the families of the 239 missing people.
I’m certain that the hourly and daily anguish of the families hoping for a happy resolution to this unenviable event has been immeasurable. I’m also certain that the pain and suffering of the 8 million children who will go missing and the 2 million children who will be victims of commercial sexual exploitation is no less immense.
As a parent, if my child were missing, all that would matter would be that my child was missing. I wouldn’t care if my son was last seen boarding a plane or boarding a school bus. I would simply want my son to be found and returned to me unharmed. It doesn’t appear that the media shares my position.
The worldwide focus over the last thirteen days has exhibited a stance very different from mine and revealed much more than the ins and outs of Flight 370 and the interworking of the Boeing 777s. The last thirteen days have shown that we care more about a sensationalized story than the ongoing, second by second tragedy that can be located without radar, GPS or a flight transponder.
The world is consumed about a flight potentially lost at sea more than the disaster unfolding right under our noses where 8,000,000, 2,000,000 and 300,000,000 children go missing and are sexually exploited. Thankfully, I’m not a parent languishing the whereabouts of a child who boarded Flight 370 nor am I worrying about the location of my child who I haven’t seen since boarding the school bus thirteen days ago.
Nonetheless, I can’t help but believe that we need to give equal time, attention and resources to locating and aiding the missing and sexually exploited children with the same veracity we are searching for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. I suspect any parent of a missing child would agree with me that missing is missing.
What measures are you taking to keep your child from going missing? What measures are you taking to make sure your child is not exploited?