> More than a quarter of men (27.6 percent) admitted to having committed rape. In 2003 in Gauteng, 40 percent of rape victims were under the age of 18. > > Almost four in 10 girls report experiencing sexual violence before the age of 18.
Horrific statistics.
These sorts of levels would be horrible anywhere in any community, but when it's a nation of more than 40 million people the sheer scale is mind boggling.
How on earth do you turn those sorts of attitudes around? (Which is the same question I'd love to be able to answer about the way our indigenous Australians suffer)
Neill, your first starting point is getting acceptance of the idea that it is a problem at all. Any hint of criticism is immediately bristles and 'you are a racist and it is my culture'. Well, the one thing I'm not is concerned with the skin colour of rapists. My attitude to them remains the same if they're sky blue-pink with lime green polka dots. And if that's your culture (and I don't care what culture it is) it's an aspect of it that belongs in dustbin of history. Our last President Thabo Mbeki got himself into a total frothy because if people said AIDS was an STD racists were implying black South Africans were immoral (I kid you not). The situation is clearly unconstitutional and in breach of the laws of this country, but a clear example of the law only really functioning se bene gesserit - at the will of the people - because for a large swathe of South Africans rape is, if not completely normal, about as serious as littering. The terrifying part was a survey of SA women, where it was found that a substantial proportion (I forget
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How on earth do you turn those sorts of attitudes around?
The only relatively quick way is Colonialism. Sati lost a ton of popularity when the British could deploy officers who could say, and mean, things like this:
"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."
However, that is not an option today. There is nobody for whom the effort of conquering and ruling South Africa is worth the cost.
The other way is cultural imperialism. If enough of their media comes from the US, eventually some kids will learn that rape is actually a bad thing. But that will take generations, if it will work at all.
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> More than a quarter of men (27.6 percent) admitted to having committed rape. In 2003 in Gauteng, 40 percent of rape victims were under the age of 18.
>
> Almost four in 10 girls report experiencing sexual violence before the age of 18.
Horrific statistics.
These sorts of levels would be horrible anywhere in any community, but when it's a nation of more than 40 million people the sheer scale is mind boggling.
How on earth do you turn those sorts of attitudes around? (Which is the same question I'd love to be able to answer about the way our indigenous Australians suffer)
Reply
Reply
The only relatively quick way is Colonialism. Sati lost a ton of popularity when the British could deploy officers who could say, and mean, things like this:
"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."
However, that is not an option today. There is nobody for whom the effort of conquering and ruling South Africa is worth the cost.
The other way is cultural imperialism. If enough of their media comes from the US, eventually some kids will learn that rape is actually a bad thing. But that will take generations, if it will work at all.
Reply
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