Svajunas Beniukas

- The heartless & 5 people that fed my soul...

Today I read about this prat, Svajunas Beniukas, a Lithuanian man (using the loosest possible definition of the word, man) who decided it would be a good idea to throw a dog off a bridge…and film it (click here for the full story). That headline followed the crushing news that 5-year-old Shaniya Davis was found dead by the side of a road in North Carolina on Monday, after her mother (using the loosest possible definition of the word, mother) apparently, sold her daughter into child prostitution for crack cocaine. - Incidentally, something about the choices Shaniya’s father made regarding her welfare, doesn’t sit right with me either.

Because of the aforementioned headlines, which quite frankly, make me feel like drawing the curtains and never opening them-up again. I decided - inspired by Shaniya Davis and a need within me to make her life count - to write a list of 5 people (one person per each year of Shaniya’s life) who fed my soul. And guess what…I couldn’t do it…I had so many more names than just 5. Proof perhaps – for me at least – that despite all the bad, evil, wicked, nefarious and despicable there is in the world, and in me. There is still, hope.

• Kadija Omar - My maternal grandmother.
• Mr Baxter               - Stacey Road Primary School, Roath, Cardiff.
• Janet Baldwin - My Barnardo’s Key Worker.
• Alice Walker - Writer.
• Shaniya Davis - Child.
• Aysha Omar - Aunt.
• Claire Rayner - Agony Aunt.
• Rilke  - Poet (esp. the book: Letters to a Young Poet).
• Mrs Ambler - Howardian High School, Pen-y-lan, Cardiff.
• Jonny Kennedy - Survivor.
• Billie Holiday - Singer.
• Gladys-Mary Coles - Mentor.
• Boycie - My dog, my friend, my family.

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