Bit of a Wet

I was a bit of a wet as a kid. At the tail end of Apartheid, we still had Corporal Punishment (which ended with the birth of Democracy). There were two occasions when I almost got caned, but waterworks saved me from Mr Pike and Mr Ash (not making the names up). This was the same culture that had the 2003 Springboks naked in a foxhole while having ice-cold water poured over their heads. The complicated bit is the "my parents beat me and look how I turned out" justification given. Often people who had it hard become the hardest opponents of stopping it from being hard in the first place. Like people who have made it against the odds objecting the loudest to those in poverty being given "handouts". I am still a bit of a wet. I don't regard basic foundations of kindness and respect as handouts. I don't believe in fear as an incentive.

Caning stand from British Prison in Hong Kong