Poor boy in the news

[CuttedUpPear]

I feel so shocked and saddened by the news today about the poor teenage boy in London who was killed by the Congolese people who thought he was a witch.

The announcement on the radio was horrific. I actually cried (which was a bit inconvenient as I was up as tree at the time (for work)).

I won't go into the description but it was the stuff of horror films, worse.
I'm finding this too terrible and have rushed to turn off the radio every news bulletin today, especially when my DS got home from school.

What a tragic thing to happen, these people, where are their minds?

Why should everyone know math? I feel awful for this boy and utterly horrified that something like this can even happen but I don't wish to know any more details about the case and don't feel that widespread reporting of every grizzly detail would do any good or be healthy for society as a whole. Professionals that deal with crimes like this get training, psychiatric help and assessment and are generally the kind of people who can deal with things like this and compartmentalise it. Personally i feel tht knowing about the crime would t make me any more shocked and it certainly wouldn't enable me to stop the next boy like Kristy being murdered it would just play on my mind. FGM is different altogether, a lot of people are not aware that it still happens and bringing it to the forefront of the publics mind might actually change something. No-one needs to know intimate details of sadistic, one off, murders. It's just voyeurism.

I am thankful our news is sanitised. Violence only breeds violence. I disagree that not reporting the full facts mean its not that bad, it means quite the opposite to me.

how common are these types of murders, in comparison to fgm? i mean i have asked somalis in the uk and they have said fgm is not common at all in this country and only a few people back home have it done their perception is it is not carried out at all in the west.
but i havent heard of many of these witchcraft related murders in the west either? i have seen documentaries about kids in africa etc

I think it is necessary to shock society so that social workers, teachers, police, medical professionals, etc., will have more support when they try to enforce the law, safeguard children who are in danger from families that hold these beliefs. The experience in Scandinavia has borne out the value of telling it like it is. Harsh penalties for abuse of girls are supported. There is no handwringing about culture, or the rights of families, or the right of girls to feel they belong in their own culture -- the kind of bleating that makes it hard for victims to know they will be believed and helped and not sent back to families to suffer consequences if they speak out.

People who live in communities that hold these beliefs are terrified beyond anything that someone from a more rational, post Enlightenment culture could possibly imagine. It is really important to let them know that there is something to be more frightened of, namely the law, and also to let victims know that the law can be relied upon to support them when they need help. When society knows exactly the sort of brutality it is dealing with, it will be far less patient with the criminals who carry out heinous attacks like this, far more likely to ignore the cultural relativsts and support measures to stamp it out.

People lie, Nailak.

WHO map showing prevalence of fgm in Africa.

In Scandinavia, it is illegal to have fgm carried out on your daughter anywhere in the world. If you as a parent allow it or facilitate it or order it or arrange for it, you are prosecuted. Doesn't matter if it is legal in the place where it is done, and it is certainly illegal in Nordic countries, you will be prosecuted if the secret comes out.

thats good.

There is a lot of unreported child murders, sexual assaults and neglect.

I don't think that most people want to hear about what goes on behind closed doors, tbh, for a variety of reasons.

is it because they want to shut their eyes and ears, live in a little bubble and pretend it doesnt happen, so they can get on with their own lives without being upset or having to think about the suffering of others?

is it so their ignorance is an excuse so they dont have to do anything?

That might be an explanation.

or?

Well, maybe it's the best explanation. It is not a good thought though, that people are more than willing to just shrug. Perhaps if more details were disclosed there would be less inclination to think about the suffering of victims.

However, I think there is also a bit of confusion as to where outrage ends and various -isms begin. Maybe people are trying too hard to be understanding when a crime is committed in the context of another culture?

less disinclination, that is..

if they were trying to be understanding then surely they would educate themselves about the culture or something?

A lot of the time, people don't know what they don't know.

If they hear something about a gruesome murder by Congolese immigrants they may be satisfied that all they need to know about this group is that they believe in witchcraft and are capable of doing horrible things to children, and they hope they never end up living near them.

When it comes to being 'understanding' or 'patient' or 'hip with immigrants and multiculturalism' people like to think they are being all of these when they refrain from passing judgement on people from other ethnic groups whose culture or religion is different from their own even when heinous crimes are committed against women or children who belong to those cultures. It's a kind of conceit that prevents them from holding some people to the same standards of treatment of children they would like to see for their own children.