THE TITLE MAY BE AFRIKAANS FOR "SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN," but I think such relates to a couple of interesting stories of late from across the world as relate to just how cruel and sadisto children can be subjected, especially when "discipline" is expected to be the object.

First off, there's the strange and sickening case of a onetime corrective school/orphanage in the Channel Islands enclave of Jersey by name of the Haut de la Garenne ("rabbit warren heights" in the Norman French patois known locally as Jerriais), until recently a youth hostel: Over recent weeks, some 160 former residents thereof came forward to the local police with tales of abuse and cruelty back when they were so resident in the 30 years before its closing in 1986, reinforced with police dogs discovering fragments of human skulls in several underground chambers as were suspected of having been sadistically abused to their deaths.

As a reporter for the BBC explained it:

More than 160 people who claim to have been abused at Haut de la Garenne have now spoken to police, and all are believed to be telling the truth about the rapes, beatings and torture which they say occurred here during the 30-year period being investigated by police.

Some say they were drugged with valium before being abused at drunken parties organised by staff, to which people from outside the home were invited.

It was those first-hand accounts which led police to focus on a bricked-up cellar beneath one wing of the building.

When police broke through to it on [February 27th] they found a room measuring 12ft by 12ft and around 8ft deep.

Within it mountains of rubble, and - crucially - features which corroborate the victims' stories.

What they also found was a further wall beyond which they believe is another chamber yet to be investigated.

And now a former member of staff at the home has informed them of a third underground chamber - a store room - which will also be investigated.

The victims of abuse at the home say their allegations were never taken seriously.

"Most of us were vulnerable children who were taken into care through no fault of our own," one told me.

"But as soon as you went into Haut de la Garenne it was assumed that you were no good. It was our word against theirs and nobody believed us."

Until 2006, that is, when police began investigating the claims. Last November they went public with it.

At the same time Jersey's former health minister, Stuart Syvret, launched an outspoken attack on the institutions of government in Jersey of which he had once been a part.

They had, he said, engendered a "culture of disregard" to the protection of vulnerable children and accused the island's senior politicians of covering up the abuse.

(In any case, Haut de la Garenne had a nasty reputation for sadistic abuse and maltreatment of its residents long before the now-infamous name was adopted in 1960: First opened as the Jersey Industrial School in 1867, it became the Jersey Home for Boys in 1900, during which time one former inmate recalled seeing a fellow such having his fingers cut off @ the tips following a flogging with a very sharp cane.)

Suffice it to say, though, that the revelations of Haut de la Garenne's sadistic excesses have cast a rather glaring light into the quasi-secretive political ways of the States of Jersey, as explained by the BBC:

Neither part of the UK, nor entirely independent from it, Jersey is a nine miles wide by five anomaly.

The quirks of history, from which its blend of British and French culture evolved, have also rendered the island, literally, a law unto itself.

Although tourists flock to its golden beaches, the island's status as a tax haven and its dark history of Nazi occupation loom large.

And long before the latest abuse accusations surfaced, Jersey had gained a reputation for idiosyncrasy.

Threat of sanctions

The writer Victor Hugo - author of Les Miserables and a one-time Jersey resident - described the Channel Islands as "pieces of France dropped in the sea and picked up by England". History bears him out.

When the English King John lost the Duchy of Normandy in 1204 to France, Jersey's inhabitants chose to remain loyal to their erstwhile Duke.

The islanders were confirmed as subjects of the English crown, but were never absorbed into England nor, subsequently, Britain. They held onto their own judicial system, and remained more or less self-governing.

As a result, Jersey's official status is a British crown dependency. It relies on the British government for defence and international representation, but pays no taxes to London, sends no MPs to Westminster and retains its own Norman legal code.

Culturally, it has developed into a curious blend of its two neighbours, where English is spoken but Norman names abound. Some islanders still speak Jerriais, an odd blend of Norman French and Norse.

Prying eyes

The ability of this tiny island, with a population of just over 91,000 to make its own rules (it does not belong to the EU) has allowed it to develop its status as a tax haven.

With no VAT, no capital gains or estate tax and income tax capped at 20%, Jersey has attracted both wealthy incomers and investors attracted by the lure of offshore banking. Although its maximum speed limit is 40mph, the island has the highest concentration of Porsches in the world.

But like any other tax haven, Jersey has relied on being able to keep private information away from the glare of prying eyes.

Until 2002, it refused to share information on tax evasion with the world's largest economic monitoring group, the OECD. It only relented under threat of sanctions.

This "culture of concealment", the island's former health minister Stuart Syvret claimed when interviewed by a BBC News website reporter when the Haut de la Garenne allegations became public, was responsible for Jersey's failure to address child abuse in its midst.

Jersey's parliament, the States, may be democratic: It is composed of 12 senators and 29 deputies, all directly elected, and 12 constables appointed by parish councils.

But the lack of a strong party system - all members of the States are currently independents - has led to what Mr Syvert identifies as a lack of scrutiny and a "one-party state".

But this ability to keep their own counsel in the face of outsiders has been a source of pride for many on the island - in particular, during occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II.

Resistance was only ever passive, and an estimated 900 children were the results of liaisons between local women and German soldiers. But there was no pro-Hitler political movement as in other occupied areas, and no islanders were implicated in handing over Jews. Indeed one Jerseyman, Albert Bedane, concealed a Dutch Jew, a French prisoner of War and Russian slave labourers from the SS.

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STAYING ON THE SUBJECT OF "SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN," FROM AUSTRALIA COMES WORD OF REVELATIONS that long-haul truck drivers "Down Under" have solicited sex from Aboriginal girls in a remote part of New South Wales state.

As The Sydney Morning Herald (via AAP, as in Australian Associated Press, the major wire service down there) reported:

Truck drivers have been accused of participating in a child sex trade using indigenous girls in a remote NSW town, a report says.

It's alleged that girls as young as eight in Boggabilla have had sex with the drivers in exchange for cash and in some cases have been drugged and raped, ABC TV reported.

There have been no prosecutions because the girls refuse to testify, people aware of the cases said.

One unidentified girl told the broadcaster that she had two 14-year-old friends who had sex with truck drivers passing through town in exchange for about $50.

One teenage girl had been selling sex for many years, Boggabilla resident Judy Knox said.

"It's believed that she started when she was about eight years old ... she'd recently become a mother, 15-year-old mother," Ms Knox told ABC TV.

Most of the girls sold their bodies so they could buy drugs like speed and ice, the report said.

There are also allegations of drink spiking, with girls waking up in state capital cities not remembering how they got there.

In response to the report, an Australian Trucking Association spokesman said: "Most trucking companies ban passengers from the cabs of their trucks.

"Professional truck drivers know that their truck cabin is a workplace."

NSW state MP Kevin Humphries said he told police about child prostitution and truck drivers a year ago but the girls refuse to report the drivers.

"Until people actually step up and say 'Yes I will be a witness I will verify that', it makes it very difficult for the police to actually follow through on anything," Mr Humphries told ABC TV.

In a statement, NSW Police said: "Police have been working very hard with other government agencies to obtain evidence of child sexual assault.

"We continue to work closely with the community to gain information that can lead to arrest."

Boggabilla is about 750 km (465 miles) north of Sydney.

Now, reader ... imagine what the situation would be like if children of welfare "basket cases" were tricked into turning tricks for truck drivers just to get out of welfare all the quicker (cf. Neal Boortz' infamous suggestion to a Katrina refugee in Atlanta)....