It can be said that there is nothing so abhorrent as the killing or harming of children. Across the world today, there are numerous groups, state-led and otherwise, who care nothing for the lives of the young.

Whether it is Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Myanmar, Palestine or any of the other multitude of conflict zones, children are always forced to suffer.

Nor do such attacks upon the most vulnerable among our species stop with the end of a war.

In so-called ‘civilized’ societies, children are the forgotten victims of governmental and social failures. In the UK, for example, repeated governments have always found sufficient funds to pay for missile systems and nuclear submarines, yet they have difficulty ensuring that every child has food and clothes, shelter and security.

The US is no different. The ‘defense’ budget, which involves increased military spending so that more countries can be bombed and invaded, has expanded exponentially whilst US children lack medical care and the opportunity for a good education free from harm. US children are among the most disadvantaged in the ‘developed’ world, yet the US military continues to grow.

UNICEF: Table of relative child poverty, 35 economically advanced countries

Percentage of children (aged 0 to 17) who are living in relative poverty, defined as living in a household in which disposable income, when adjusted for family size and composition, is less than 50% of the national median income.

Bees protect the young of the hive. Ants will die to protect the young of the nest. Yet Homo Sapiens actively create the conditions whereby the young of the species suffer needlessly and die horribly. Others must endure lives of deprivation where even hope is beyond their weakening grasp. We are, in many ways, a very sick and self-destructive species and our flaws are most evident in the way in which children are treated around the globe.

Until such times as humanity realizes that our children are more important than their parents, or any parents, then we will be doomed to exist within a vicious circle of perpetual violence.

Happy children become happy adults. Happy adults build happy societies.

Today, we are trapped in a cycle of negative consequence. Until such times as our species begins to focus upon creating ‘Childcentric‘ communities, we will surely continue to witness the images of small broken corpses that have been smashed by Israeli shells, or tiny, starved and emaciated bodies that have been denied nutrients by Saudi aggression, or little limbs that lie scattered across the streets of Syria due to the interference of imperialist entities who care only about power and profit.

Childcentricity is the system whereby the funds of a state are used firstly to ensure that the young of that state are taken good care off. When this has been achieved, then public funds can be directed to the other sectors. This approach will not only satisfy parents, it will also ensure that there is greater harmony in local communities by providing a balance and stability that everyone can respect.

One thing that every citizen has in common is that all were once children. Most will have children of their own at some point. Others will have nephews, cousins, friends with young. Children and their welfare links the vast majority of any given populace. Children must surely, therefore, be the hub around which a healthy society exists.

Is it time that the philosophy of Childcentricity was fully embraced?  Looking out for the children. Looking after the children. Looking to the children. Looking at the future that we are making for them.

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