Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Witch hunt in Jharkhand: I Demand An Idiot Hunt

(Found via Drudge Report. Link's on your right, ladies and gentlemen.)

The Discovery landed today. Just imagine, there was a group of humans who kicked sand in the face of that 97 lbs weakling (aka gravity) for a few days, orbited the third rock from the sun, carried out a few handyman type jobs and returned safely. Wow.

Now read this news item in the Washington Post.

Are we even fucking living in the same universe?
"They beat me with bamboo sticks and metal rods and tried to pull my nails out. 'You are a witch, admit it,' they screamed at me again and again," Manjhi said, tearfully recalling her four days of captivity in June.

The men beat her as her six little children watched. (it reminded me of JAP's short but poignant post on a related topic.)

I begged them and told them I was not a witch," she said, showing wounds on her legs, thighs, hips and shoulders one recent morning in this village in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand.

Bravo, motherfuckers.

No, I don't think - not even for a moment - that these village idiots believe in witchcraft. The driver here is fear and greed. But what kind of a man would beat a mother in front of her little children?

Witch trials are not exactly new. But now I learn they are not scarce either. The Post article quotes an official saying she sees "an average of five women a month being denounced as witches and tortured in rural Jharkhand".

Five women a month?

But the ultimate ironic revelation? "Only two Indian states, Jharkhand and Bihar, have outlawed witch-hunting" (also from the WP article).

Aw, gee, that's just swell. Now try not to burn and brand and beat the remaining few women in your two states, will ya?

Read also the closing sentence of the article for a "groan-and-gasp-and-chuckle-and-shoot me" moment.

And now for something completely different: this is how you spot a witch. (beware, link to a Monty Python sketch, will make you blow coffee out of your nose)

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