Pages

Jump to bottom

8 comments

1 Bob Levin  Wed, Jul 20, 2011 9:54:59pm

It definitely qualifies as news. We do indeed need to be informed.

2 EiMitch  Wed, Jul 20, 2011 10:10:26pm

Bastards!

The next time someone tells you not to judge other cultures, point them to this.

3 CuriousLurker  Wed, Jul 20, 2011 10:31:42pm

re: #2 EiMitch

Bastards!

The next time someone tells you not to judge other cultures, point them to this.

I'd probably be more comfortable doing that if we didn't also have an infanticide problem. The numbers here aren't as high, and apparently we kill more boys than girls (presumably for different reasons), but infanticide is infanticide—it's brutal and barbaric regardless of where or why it happens.

4 theheat  Thu, Jul 21, 2011 12:46:26am

Birth control, birth control, birth control, family planning, and not make sex a culture war. If there wasn't such a stigma about s-e-x and birth control was as accessible as a stiff dick, this problem would fix itself.

No one wants to be babies murdered. No one wants to see babies starve to death.

Sex doesn't have to make babies. Whenever you add religion/culture/poverty to the equation, it tends to go terribly wrong.

Birth control. For everyone. Anytime. Anywhere.

5 researchok  Thu, Jul 21, 2011 3:21:52am

Tragic.

In some cultures, the response to infanticide is outrage. In others, the response is benign. That is the real problem.

Everyone knows infanticide (and similar type crimes) is wrong. It is getting people to be outraged that is the problem. These problems are in everyone's' back yard.

Thanks for posting this.

Sunlight, you know?

6 What, me worry?  Thu, Jul 21, 2011 6:55:16am

re: #4 theheat

Birth control, birth control, birth control, family planning, and not make sex a culture war. If there wasn't such a stigma about s-e-x and birth control was as accessible as a stiff dick, this problem would fix itself.

No one wants to be babies murdered. No one wants to see babies starve to death.

Sex doesn't have to make babies. Whenever you add religion/culture/poverty to the equation, it tends to go terribly wrong.

Birth control. For everyone. Anytime. Anywhere.

The International Center for Research on Women does a lot of this work. We need more groups like this that focus on the health and well-being of women and children in countries where they have few rights. In fact, the latest article there discusses contraception and women's choices.

You're talking about societies where males are valued over females. Where girls have few rights to education, who they marry or their own reproductive choices. We bitch about it in the states, but we have no clue how dreadful it is beyond our borders.

P.S. Follow the ICRW on The Twitter :)

7 The Ghost of a Flea  Thu, Jul 21, 2011 8:16:56am

re: #5 researchok

Tragic.In some cultures, the response to infanticide is outrage. In others, the response is benign. That is the real problem.

Everyone knows infanticide (and similar type crimes) is wrong.

It's in no way that simple, and the reaction is never "benign." The people committing this kind of infanticide are desperate, and they don't walk away feeling nothing. They just carry that guilt silently. Having worked with refugees from rural Pakistan...when they hit the US (or Canada) and suddenly have doctors and contraception and options on hand...that guilt and grief just detonates.

The gender culture and dowry are horrible--and especially taxing on the poor and uneducated. I devote a lot of my charitable giving to education programs for women in rural India and Pakistan, because it's the only way out of the cycle that's being perpetuated.

But in this case it's not the whole picture: that jump in numbers in the last year corresponds to the flooding of the primary agricultural regions, several hundred thousand people being displaced, diseased, and resource-less, to say nothing the West half of the nation being a war zone.

8 CuriousLurker  Thu, Jul 21, 2011 9:11:36pm

re: #5 researchok

Tragic.

In some cultures, the response to infanticide is outrage. In others, the response is benign. That is the real problem.

Everyone knows infanticide (and similar type crimes) is wrong. It is getting people to be outraged that is the problem. These problems are in everyone's' back yard.

I agree with The Ghost, I don't think it's that simple and I definitely don't think the response can be considered "benign" by any stretch of the imagination. There are clearly people working very hard to try to stop this practice, but as long as there are larger problems facing the entire society, I don't see the hope of much help trickling down to women & children who have traditionally been the most vulnerable members of society.

From what I've read, the corruption in Pakistan's government is rampant & systemic, and that cripples the society from top to bottom (except for maybe the elite). I think it probably also contributes to making the fundamentalists look attractive, but that's another subject for another day. (Here's an article about that very subject that I saved a few days ago.)

In any event I don't think approaching people by lambasting them as moral and/or cultural inferiors is helpful as they will hunker down into a defensive, uncooperative crouch in order to preserve what little dignity they have left after their government has finished abusing them. It's also deeply disrespectful to those who are trying to make things better because it lumps everyone together.

Thanks for posting this.

Sunlight, you know?

Thanks for responding. Even when we disagree I think we sort of function as sunlight for one another's thoughts, no?


This page has been archived.
Comments are closed.

Jump to top

Create a PageThis is the LGF Pages posting bookmarklet. To use it, drag this button to your browser's bookmark bar, and title it 'LGF Pages' (or whatever you like). Then browse to a site you want to post, select some text on the page to use for a quote, click the bookmarklet, and the Pages posting window will appear with the title, text, and any embedded video or audio files already filled in, ready to go.
Or... you can just click this button to open the Pages posting window right away.
Last updated: 2023-04-04 11:11 am PDT
LGF User's Guide RSS Feeds

Help support Little Green Footballs!

Subscribe now for ad-free access!Register and sign in to a free LGF account before subscribing, and your ad-free access will be automatically enabled.

Donate with
PayPal
Cash.app
Recent PagesClick to refresh
Texas County at Center of Border Fight Is Overwhelmed by Migrant Deaths EAGLE PASS, Tex. - The undertaker lighted a cigarette and held it between his latex-gloved fingers as he stood over the bloated body bag lying in the bed of his battered pickup truck. The woman had been fished out ...
Cheechako
3 weeks ago
Views: 368 • Comments: 0 • Rating: 1