Comments on: Misogyny Travelogue 2005: Spotlight on The Subcontinent

By: res publica

res publica — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Mmmm, I eat the skin too, and I’m not sorry! As far as I’m concerned, the rest of the chicken is mostly just skin-substrate.

As usual, your post blows me away. I am, however, glad to see that the Indian government posesses the political will to confront head-on the pressing problem of sorcery. Would that our own government were so bold.

By: Tricia

Tricia — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Fan of yours delurking here…

That 4000 statistic doesn’t look right to me - there are about 1000 homicides/year in the UK, and 300-400/year in Australia, according to http://www.crimestatistics.org.uk/output/Page40.asp
and http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/facts/2003/fig014.html

4000 is an awfully large percentage of that.

By: LeisureGuy

LeisureGuy — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Perhaps the 4000 figure is like the statement that Americans have never heard of the Asian subcontinent: exaggeration for rhetorical effect.

By: frobisher

frobisher — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Chicken skin rocks! As Tricia says the 4000 figure seems very high. It seems immgrants from the African sub- continent have been importing children from their homeland for “religious” purposes. This came to light after a torso of a young boy was found the in the River Thames in London. But as the victims are foreign and black the trade continues virtually unchecked. And society turns a blind eye, better that than be labelled “racist”.

By: alphabitch

alphabitch — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Rose-raspberry-lime sauce? that might be too good to be true. Is that a sprig of thyme next to it? is there thyme (or some other herb) in the sauce or on the chicken?

By: Mrs. Coulter

Mrs. Coulter — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Hmmm…I wonder if by making “sorcery” illegal, they can successfully push these accusations into the legal system (rather than having them resolved by murder). The real question, though, is would any of these alleged sorcerers be found guilty, and by what standard of evidence…and if modern standards of evidence are used (by which no one would ever be found guilty of sorcery), would the accusers then decide to take matters into their own hands again…

What a ridiculous state of affairs.

Also, I find the 4000 figure not just questionable, but impossible. In the western world (which includes Australia and the UK), people accused of witchcraft are generally accused of more tangible activities like satanic ritual abuse of children. They get arrested (and sadly, sometimes, convicted, since children are remarkably pliant interview subjects), not murdered by their accusers. During the early to mid-90s, there was a big spike in these incidents in the English-speaking world, including several high-profile cases in Australia, the UK, and the US.

By: res publica

res publica — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Man, I tried to grow thyme from seed this spring. I had all these lovely little sprouts. That promptly died.

*sigh*

By: Twisty

Twisty — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Lard knows I’m no fact-checker; the 4000-murdered-witches figure was quoted from the website to which the hypertext links. But you’re right. It does seem a bit high. I will now spend the next 15 minutes trying to track down the UN report alluded to in that post.

By: Twisty

Twisty — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Hereâ€™s the protocol for that roasted chicken, if anybody cares. I made this up as I went along, so replicate at your own risk.

What you do is, you get out your huge frying pan, like you were making fried chicken. Coat your chicken in olive oyl, salt, pepper, and thyme, roast it at 475 for 15 or 20 minutes, then throw some potatoes and leeks into the pan, stirâ€™em up with the fat, and continue roasting for 20 more minutes. Take everything out of the pan and put it in one of those big bowl/plates they use in semi-decent restaurants, and invert a mixing bowl over this to keep it warm. Put the frying pan over a medium fire, dump some frooty wine in there, scrape up the browned bits and potato starch. Add a dollop of Dijon mustard, a squeeze of honey, a few mushed up raspberries and a teensy bit of red wine vinegar. Squeeze in a lime. Stir this up for 2 or 3 minutes. Pour. Eat. Yum.

By: Mrs. Coulter

Mrs. Coulter — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Sorry, I wasn’t questioning you, but rather the quality of the source.

Here’s another site claiming that this entire story is bogus:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/news_04jul.htm

2004-JUL-25: India: Proposal to ban witchcraft — an apparent hoax: A number of websites have reported that the United Nations has released a report expressing concern about the large number of women around the world who were accused of being witches and murdered — generally by vigilante groups out of fear. The report allegedly states that India and some countries in Africa, Asia and South America have high incidences of witchcraft-related killings. They estimate that 2,556 women were accused of witchcraft and executed in India between 1987 and 2003. They report a further total of 4,000 murders in Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Australia between 1999 and 2003. The websites report that the government of India is planning to tackle the problem by outlawing witchcraft. That would be like outlawing Christianity because so many Christians are being killed by Hindus. We assume that the story is a hoax. There were zero witches murdered for their religion in the UK and Australia since 1999; there does not appear to be any UN report on this topic. 14,15,16