24 May 2009

Politically Incorrect, and Undeniably True

From Nicholas Kristof's most recent column on mass rapes after the wars die down...
The State | 05/23/2009 | Wars end, but mass rapes continue:
In modern times, we’ve seen mass rape as an element of warfare in Congo, Darfur, Bosnia, Rwanda, Liberia — but the lesson here in Liberia in West Africa is that even when the fighting ends, the rape continues.


Let me point out the obvious fact here, which no one else will for fear of being labeled a racist: every one of these problems is in Africa.
Now, this is not to say that every African man is a rape machine waiting to be unleashed. But there have been wars raging off and on in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Chechnya, and others, around the world. Mass rapes - particularly those outlasting the conflict in question - are limited to Africa. Clearly there's something more going on here.
Mass rapes were a weapon of choice among Serbian nationalists in the wars around the breakup of Yugoslavia. Plenty of testimony exists about the problems in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. Are continuing mass rapes of 5-12 year-old girls an extant problem in the Balkans? No. It's an African problem, not a conflict problem. And we'll never get any closer to a solution until we acknowledge this impolitic fact, which will no doubt send racial apologists running for cover behind any number of rhetorical facades, none of which contain the truth.

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