[mukto-mona] RE: [india-unity] Re: [TheBecoming] why this focus on rapes in India by world media?

"There is an insane sadism that comes from believing you have a right to control other people. And when people don't let you do that, it just gets deeper and more psychotic".

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/feb/07/eve-ensler-vagina-monologues-one-billion-rising

Please read this important interview of the playwright Eve Ensler. 

"She has also created a global women's campaign called One Billion Rising, which on Valentine's Day last year brought close to one billion women out on to the streets to protest against violence towards women, and will do so again next Friday."

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From: varekatx@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2014 11:30:57 +0530
Subject: [india-unity] Re: [TheBecoming] why this focus on rapes in India by world media?

 

Dear Dalvinder,

In the past when India was on the whole agricultural males could marry in their teens or in their early 20s. Now with industrialization and urbanization males have to wait into their late 20s and early 30s to find a permanent job before they can marry. In most advanced countries of the world too the marriage age has been going up steadily. But there, there are opportunities for premarital sex which acts as a safety valve. But in India such premarital relationships are looked upon as a crime worse than murder or burglary. This has created a sex-depraved society in India and the resulting sexual assaults. If we would like to do away with this stigma we have to find a way to satiate the sexual desires of the youth.

I am in tourism and cater mainly to people who want to visit Lakshadweep - I am an authorized agent for tours to Lakshadweep. The LD tour packages are by ship and some of them provide only for dormitories on board. At the mention of dormitories families shy away from the tour for the reason that they are open to sexual harassment in India if you are staying in a dormitory. In contrast outside India even young women travelling alone, stay in dormitories without any fear of assault. 

Some 6 years ago I visited Singapore. I had booked a bed at Betel Box dormitory see http://www.betelbox.com/ - The first thing I saw as I entered the dormitory was a young woman in her teens - European - drying her hair with a dryer. She had only a bath towel around her. There were 18 beds in the dormitory. I stayed there 6 days or so and every day boys and girls kept checking in and checking out in singles and in groups. This is something unimaginable in India.

Then two years ago I visited Scandinavia. I started my tour in Copenhagen. There too I stayed at a hostel - Dan Hostel, Copenhagen. This is 7-8 story hostel providing budget accommodation. There too I was allotted a dormitory with six beds in a room. Of these four beds were bunkers with one bed above the other. Then there was a double bed at the end of the room away from the door. I occupied one side of this double bed and went to sleep right away as I was tired after the long journey via Russia. I woke up next morning to find a girl sleeping next to me in the same double bed I was in. The other four bunker beds also were occupied by young men. So there was this slip of a girl sleeping besides me peacefully with 5 men in the room. I thought how things would have turned out in India if a young girl fell among 5 men.

This is a problem we have in India. We should solve the problem professionally rather than turn a Nelson's eye on it. And the only solution I can see to the problem is to sync our social life as much as possible with what nature has designed for us. Unnecessary prudery against the forces of nature is not going to do us any good. 

On Mon, Feb 10, 2014 at 3:23 PM, R. Dua <r.dua1234@gmail.com> wrote:

 

Maria ji,
Many respects to you frm India.
Actually this is from ground zero, in reference to your good post.
We are great full to the world media for bringing forth this issue. We middleclass Indians  thought these acts were part of some dark history and dont happen now.
This is taken more seriously in india as we worship our girls as godess Lakshmi a harbinger of wealth..And our guests n tourists as sign of good times.
This is not to say that the hurt of these acts will be less elsewhere.
To say the least the Press is trying to highlight the shock we indians we feel on these matters.
Regards.

On 10 Feb 2014 08:20, "Maria Wirth" <wirth.maria@yahoo.com> wrote:

 

Why this focus on 'rapes in India' by world media?

January 27, 2014 · by mariawirthblog · in Uncategorized · 37 Comments ·Edit

 

Judging from media reports, India has a BIG problem with rape. No other country seems to come even close. All over the globe "another rape in India" is reported ever so often.  On my last visit to Germany, I jolted when on 27. December 2013 the most popular TV news ended with "another gang rape in India". It was one of only five topics of the 15 minutes broadcast.

Even my sister wondered how a gang rape in India made it to the main news in Germany. That same day in a conservative estimate, over a thousand rapes would have been committed all over the world.  In the USA some 200, in South Africa some 170. In the western cities, the statistics show a high percentage, much higher than in India. Many of those rapes would have been gang rapes. In many cases, the girl or woman would have been killed. Behind each of those statistical figures are painful, heartrending stories. If we knew what is happening at this very moment on this earth – how much pain humans inflict on other humans and on animals – we could not bear it.  With so much crime happening everywhere, why is India being singled out and shamed with "another gang rape", when it actually has only a fraction of the crimes other countries have in relative numbers? In absolute numbers of course it would be no surprise if India with her huge population of four times the size of the United States were number one apart from China. Even then it is not number one. USA is.

 

The deluge of rape reports on India started with the shameful gang rape of a young woman, Jyoti, in a bus in Delhi on December 16^th, 2012. Jyoti died. The six culprits were convicted. One committed either suicide (official version) or was killed by prison inmates. Four got death sentence. The sixth was a minor, six months short of his 18^th birthday. He got away with 3 years in a reprimand home. As he allegedly was the most brutal of all and responsible for the death of Jyoti, efforts are on to try him as an adult.

 

This gang rape received unprecedented publicity. It reached national and local news all over the globe. It reached even a friend in Slovenia, who is usually oblivious of what is happening. Why was it broadcasted all over with such intensity? Was it because Indians protested in a big way and demanded harsh punishment? Those protests should have actually gone in favour of India, as they made clear that Indians consider rape as completely against their culture. But the opposite happened:

 

 

Read more at:

http://mariawirthblog.wordpress.com/2014/01/27/why-this-focus-on-rapes-in-india-by-world-media/

 

Regards

Maria Wirth

 

 

--

Regards

Xavier William

"What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence." Hitchens

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