Thursday, March 31, 2011

SUVs Are The New Broomsticks











While it might be statistically true that a more successful person is more likely to practice magick, or at least more likely to be good at it, on the whole lucky breaks tend to be randomly distributed throughout any population and can only be influenced by spells to a certain degree. Somebody always eventually wins the lottery, magick or no magick.

But this sort of persecution presents an enormous challenge to anyone hoping to improve the lives of people living in these rural communities. Nobody is going to move back to one of these villages and start up a small business, for example, if it means risking their lives. Such businesses create jobs and over time prosperity can spread throughout the whole area as more employment options become available.




South African authorities are taking the murders of Motopela and Lemaho very seriously, hoping to set an example for others. With many of these traditional beliefs, though, this is often an uphill battle. The crackdown on albino killings in Tanzania and Burundi back in 2009 resulted in many arrests and executions, but the murders go on there, fueled by the belief that albino body parts have magical properties.





By Wednesday morning, nine people had been arrested.



With such a group of young people involved one I will say that I'm left wondering about the degree to which the witchcraft accusations resulted in the mob's behavior and to what extent it was simply a convenient excuse for violence. After all, in developed countries without widespread belief in witchcraft a significant percentage of violent crimes are committed by people in the same age group. If somebody has a natural propensity for violence, young adulthood seems to be the point at which they are grown up enough to start doing serious damage to those around them. The only difference is that nobody bothers accusing convenience store clerks of witchcraft before robbing and sometimes killing them.

Here's hoping that the arrests will be effective in curbing the violence in Limpopo. People should be able to drive whatever kind of vehicle they want without risking death at the hands of a bunch of deluded idiots.

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Hypnovatos said...

It's truly atrocious. I lived in a Greek village for a while, quite a few years ago. While there, you would hear similar gossip going on. Anyone doing well was either "doing magic" or having sex with the mayor. It was almost always aimed at women as well. Their mentality is that men work hard and earn their good fortune, women find ways to work around the system, cheating. Mind you, the second you want to know your future, you go to the "cafetsou" and she reads your coffee grounds to tell you if your gonna have a boy or make any money. She tends to be the same person that arranges marriages too... go figure.
My take is that it is all due to a lack of education and experience. The scary part is that the US, through its de-funding of education, is heading in that same direction.... likely within one generation... just look at the Diesel Jeans "Be Stupid" commercial... case in point.

Scott Stenwick said...

It's basic human nature to try and make sense of the randomness of privilege and success. The idea that "people are poor because they're lazy" is the form it tends to take here in the US, when in reality the working poor work at least as hard as the more financially successful.

I don't know that my predictions regarding the state of education in the US would be as dire as yours, but I agree that the current defunding trend is a serious problem. A society that glorifies stupidity is only undermining its own future potential for success.

nerinedorman said...

Speaking as a South African with esoteric leanings, I can report that the Satanic panic is alive an kicking throughout all the income groups. It's really quite sad. I tend to avoid discussing religion with people. It's just not worth bashing my head against that wall.