Over the last few days, I've talked to two people who had been there: one was a chap who specialises in plants for deserts and dry climates, who'd been to Khartoum, and expressed the view that the "protests" were probably set up by someone who wanted to get the school in question closed down, because it's a valuable piece of real estate in Khartoum. I have no idea if this is true.
The other person was a friend who's half Sudanese, who'd actually attended that school (Moo, for those who know her) and she said when she was there, they had had a Christian nativity play and everything .... apparently this radical Muslim sensitivity is quite recent ...
So what do you think? Pick one :-
- (A) It's outrageous, it's a barbaric regime, rape victims getting punished, etc etc, how can naming a teddy bear be wrong? She didn't intend offence. "If it's not wrong here, how can it be wrong there" as one poster on RW said.
- (B) If you go to a foreign country to hold a responsible job like teaching young children, it behoves you to know and follow their laws and customs, whatever they are. If you think the laws are wrong, don't go there. We expect people who come here to follow ours.
- (C) Something else? Email me
It seems to me that I can see a lot in a culture declaring something to be sacred, whatever it is. If they've decided that the name Mohammed will mean something, and you won't take it lightly ... I kind of like that. I think some things should have significance. I can see how they look at our western culture where nothing means anything, and think we've lost the plot.
As to their choice of punishment, that's another matter. In this case, it seemed too severe.
I think the question of whether public corporal punishment is more or less humane than imprisonment is an interesting one though. And that's not just a question of which seems more severe -- punishments are after all meant to be severe in some cases. It's about "how can we publicly show our disapproval of someone without criminalising them further" ... a tricky concept ... and I'm not sure which has a worse effect on someone, a public flogging, or forcing them to do nothing for a long time and be around other criminals. Lots of people say "corporal punishment -- inhumane -- we're just not having that" which I can understand ... but aren't our prisons just as inhumane?
