I check in with the NY Times online a few times a week - usually the Op-Ed columns. The one below I found particularly hard to stomach. I swear sometimes I think I should stop paying any attention to the news whatsoever, but I also know that it's that kind of apathy that leads to a world where people think that not only is it okay to brutalize women and children, but know they can get away with it because the rest of "us" don't care. I have officially sworn off watching the Olympics considering China's support of Darfur.
The Weapon of Rape
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: June 15, 2008
World leaders fight terrorism all the time, with summit meetings and sound bites and security initiatives. But they have studiously ignored one of the most common and brutal varieties of terrorism in the world today.
This is a kind of terrorism that disproportionately targets children. It involves not W.M.D. but simply AK-47s, machetes and pointed sticks. It is mass rape — and it will be elevated, belatedly, to a spot on the international agenda this week. Click here to read more.
7 spoke up:
First - i don't really watch the olympics anyway... but i know that i'm an eclectic individual who doesn't really "go with the flow" of most of humanity anyway. That said: articles like this kinda make me chuckle (not cuz it's funny) b'cuz media reveals what it wants & twists how it wants. THIS country was founded & built on brute force including rape & genocide (have u seen the few Native peoples recently?). While much of the "rape" of folk of color here may not be a result of war - Ummm, was slavery ever declared war? Was jim crow ever declared war? was police brutality ever declared war? There are so many undeclared war victims walking this soil on which i stand that again - articles that point the finger at other nations makes me chuckle....
See? I was trying NOT to get political in your comments, Sistah Nicole & u pulled it out of me, anyway;-). While I get enraged less as I mature - i'm still alert & as the sistah in the waiting room tolja - i just smile & enjoy the peace that I have. Not that I'm complacent - i just know that can't take the world's ails into my heart & soul either...makes u bitter & that's bad for the skin;-).
Enjoy your life & BeCome your Dream!
Cap, you can wax political all you want here. And I'm loving your "BeCome your Dream" motto. Working very hard on finding my writing groove again...I let that slip in recent months.
I agree that there's something hypocritical about US media/govt pointing fingers at the horrible atrocities committed by and in other countries. There are few nations that can claim their fortunes weren't built on the backs of others - usually people of color and/or the poor. But most are eager to admit the evil that was and move beyond those legacies (even if they've done so without apologizing or pubicly owning up to past mistakes). And even during slavery in the US, I've never heard of rape camps or anything similar being set up as a government sanctioned tactic of controlling people. Although, yes, murder, rape, and worse were routinely used by individuals for the same purpose. I just cannot believe, nor stomach, the ways in which we as humans (supposedly the superior species) can find to be cruel and inhumane to one another. Then again, after slavery, the Holocaust, internment of the Japanese, etc, I guess I shouldn't be surpised by anything any more.
I think this NY Times commentary also bothers me because men both in and out of politics continue to see women's sexuality as something to be taken at will, used, bought, sold, and controlled as they see fit. It's simultaneously something to be ashamed of and something to be flaunted. Girls and women around the world are still not in control of their own bodies, and when you destroy a person's self-respect like that, it eats away at the mind, too.
Hi Nicole...I'm back....
IT IS ABOUT TIME!!!!! You got some 'splainin to do! Missed ya.
I've been aware for a long while that mass rape is commonly a part of war and its aftermath, but from that report it seems to be getting a lot worse. It's true that it's less obvious because there isn't the visible evidence of a pile of bodies and because women don't like to talk about it. It's scandalous that politicians don't take it seriously enough and just shrug it off, if they acknowledge it at all.
Nicole - sis, your comment is inspiring a post over at the new spot:
PChats - all about regaining control & self-respect!
& i gotta check out sistah XP since she's back;-).
I got as far as the part about rape camps. I can't even take it. Ugh. But I do like the idea of someone writing about this and exposing some truths about things that most folks don't want to discuss.
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