AN EASTER CELEBRATION OF
RE-BIRTH
...WHATS NEXT?
When we walked in I saw a dozen babies laying in beds and baskets with pacifiers, bibs, blankets, and toys. It looked just like a home nursery except with a lot of babies...and in a mall. Looking around the store I became increasingly concerned as to what all these babies were doing in a store...in a MALL! My first thought was, "Oh my god, are these abandoned babies for people to adopt and they are selling them life freaking toys in a mall!??!"
The fact that I could even consider this may come as a surprise, but I really didn't know what to think. Not to mention that while I was living in Florence, one day walking home, I casually passed by a "baby drop box" on the side of a building in the middle of an alley.
I really thought it was just a joke, a very elaborate joke at that, until weeks later when I was informed that it was very much NOT a joke and in fact the Italian government's response to the many abandoned babies found dead in the streets of Florence.
In Italy, and many other countries for that matter (Japan, Russia, Germany...) you can actually anonymously drop off your abandoned baby in this box in the street. It's like this; you put the baby in the box, and either the box is connected to a hospital, or as the ones in Florence, it is just on the side of a building and it triggers an alarm that the nuns (or in the case of a hospital the nurses) rush to collect the baby.
I was pretty disturbed to see that in Italy. However, on one hand I think that IF there are mothers or fathers out there that don't want their child (which in itself is a very difficult concept to grasp) and they are so ashamed to give the baby to an agency that they are leaving their babies to die in an ally, I suppose its a good thing that there is an anonymous and safe place for them to leave the baby...I suppose.
On the other hand, without intension of making this a political blog, and yes this is coming from a typical San Francisco liberal, but wouldn't it be better to just make abortion legal? I mean if there are people willing to actually kill their babies leaving them on the streets or in trash cans, and it's SO COMMON that they need a baby drop box...then there are likely even more women neglecting their kids in other ways, less obvious but also extremely harmful. Again, not to be overly political on a travel blog, but I think I would prefer to live in a country that allows a woman's right to choose rather than one that needs baby drop boxes.
(If you want to learn more about the baby drop boxes, you can look up 'baby hatch' on wikipedia)
I really thought it was just a joke, a very elaborate joke at that, until weeks later when I was informed that it was very much NOT a joke and in fact the Italian government's response to the many abandoned babies found dead in the streets of Florence.
In Italy, and many other countries for that matter (Japan, Russia, Germany...) you can actually anonymously drop off your abandoned baby in this box in the street. It's like this; you put the baby in the box, and either the box is connected to a hospital, or as the ones in Florence, it is just on the side of a building and it triggers an alarm that the nuns (or in the case of a hospital the nurses) rush to collect the baby.
I was pretty disturbed to see that in Italy. However, on one hand I think that IF there are mothers or fathers out there that don't want their child (which in itself is a very difficult concept to grasp) and they are so ashamed to give the baby to an agency that they are leaving their babies to die in an ally, I suppose its a good thing that there is an anonymous and safe place for them to leave the baby...I suppose.
On the other hand, without intension of making this a political blog, and yes this is coming from a typical San Francisco liberal, but wouldn't it be better to just make abortion legal? I mean if there are people willing to actually kill their babies leaving them on the streets or in trash cans, and it's SO COMMON that they need a baby drop box...then there are likely even more women neglecting their kids in other ways, less obvious but also extremely harmful. Again, not to be overly political on a travel blog, but I think I would prefer to live in a country that allows a woman's right to choose rather than one that needs baby drop boxes.
(If you want to learn more about the baby drop boxes, you can look up 'baby hatch' on wikipedia)
Anyway back to the baby store at the mall, after seeing the baby drop boxes in Florence, I really could believe that perhaps something as potentially disturbing as a orphan store actually selling and advertising babies like merchandise could exist...I mean who knows?
But, to my surprise Thiara said, "Os bebes nao sao de verdade", meaning the babies aren't real. At the time the most likely possibility was that I didn't understand since the babies were so obviously real, but then I realized none of these babies were moving or making noise. I really couldn't believe it, but when I walked closer to the shelves of babies, I realized that they were in fact baby dolls made of plastic, but were made to look so damn realistic that from only a five to ten feet distance they were as good as real. Although it was certainly a relief they weren't selling real babies like merchandise, the store was still creeping me out.
 |
| THIS IS NOT A REAL BABY. THIS IS NOT A REAL BABY. THIS IS NOT A REAL BABY. |
But wait, because it actually gets worse...
Not only do these baby dolls look creepily realistic, you can actually bring in a PHOTO of your baby and have them make an exact replica! Now that is just going too far. I mean honestly, if my parents were storing a seren faced and recreated baby in the attic or worse on display somewhere in the living room, I really would not be comfortable with that.
And did I mention how much these cost?...$2,000 to $3,000, yea that is two to three THOUSAND. So aside from the fact that someone came up with the idea to create this, which is already bizarre, the fact that there is even a market for it in this city where people are spending $3000 on a fake baby is even more disturbing!
Now I had to ask what kind of person would even be interested in this.
Thiara said firstly that a lot of young girls who play with baby dolls want these because it makes them feel so much more realistic. This reason I can excuse because as a kid girls love to play house and these things, and I probably would have loved to have a baby that looked so real. (Okay, it still doesn't excuse the parent's that are spending $3000 on a toy for their daughter...but I'll give this one a pass)
The second reason is that mothers want to have a replica of their baby as a baby for the rest of their life. This reason is a little less easy to understand. I mean don't you think technology has gone a little too far this time? Or maybe not, maybe people felt this way about photography when it was first invented and that it would be weird to hold on to a photo of your baby forever...but I don't think so since there were paintings before that capturing the images of babies and people forever...anyway I really don't see this as the same thing.
And the third reason, the most disturbing, is that apparently women who can't have kids like to buy these babies to pretend...yea that reason goes over the top and way out of the reality.
On the up side, Thiara and I decided that if people in this city have enough money to blow $3000 on a plastic baby doll then they certainly have enough money to buy some paintings...haha we'll see.
Thiara said firstly that a lot of young girls who play with baby dolls want these because it makes them feel so much more realistic. This reason I can excuse because as a kid girls love to play house and these things, and I probably would have loved to have a baby that looked so real. (Okay, it still doesn't excuse the parent's that are spending $3000 on a toy for their daughter...but I'll give this one a pass)
The second reason is that mothers want to have a replica of their baby as a baby for the rest of their life. This reason is a little less easy to understand. I mean don't you think technology has gone a little too far this time? Or maybe not, maybe people felt this way about photography when it was first invented and that it would be weird to hold on to a photo of your baby forever...but I don't think so since there were paintings before that capturing the images of babies and people forever...anyway I really don't see this as the same thing.
And the third reason, the most disturbing, is that apparently women who can't have kids like to buy these babies to pretend...yea that reason goes over the top and way out of the reality.
On the up side, Thiara and I decided that if people in this city have enough money to blow $3000 on a plastic baby doll then they certainly have enough money to buy some paintings...haha we'll see.
HAPPY EASTER!
 |
| Another grossly realistic baby, this one to look like a newborn... |
No comments:
Post a Comment