Here’s another reminder that some cultures may be worse than our own, much as it seems to rile people to hear that (including some of my ostensibly non-leftist friends): Witch doctors in Tanzania have been murdering albinos to harvest their organs as good luck charms.
And still people tell me superstition is harmless (even when faced with ritual cannibalism being imported into England by immigrants, or southern Africans believing that fat from children smeared on cab wheels can bring prosperity — and never mind all the witch-burnings and witch-beatings on that continent).
I recall hearing that pygmies were being hunted and eaten in Congo years ago by both sides in a civil war, due to the belief their organs would confer luck in battle. You think your life is difficult? Imagine being half your current height, living in an impoverished wartorn region, and being hunted by two gun-toting armies of modern cannibals. That has to suck. Would it be a good idea for a (computer-graphics-assisted) geopolitical-thriller movie, though? Maybe a title like Big Fight.
UPDATE: This refreshingly well-adjusted-sounding teenage girl should definitely not visit Congo.
4 comments:
I particularly liked the pleonasm “charlatan witchdoctors.”
Can you imagine hearing this in our state of the union address: “Sometimes, word spreads around that body parts of people with certain physical attributes like bald people or albinos contribute greatly to attaining quick prosperity”?
And I thought the Bear Sterns bail out was bad!
Make that “Stearns.”
I would think targeting bald men would lead to a particularly high bodycount, though perhaps less so in areas that have shorter average lifespans to begin with.
Perhaps it’s all a ploy by the manufacturers of Monoxadil and spray-on tans.
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