Monday, July 28, 2008

Civil Civilization?

Recently, a woman in London stabbed and killed an expectant mother then cut out the near-term baby from her womb. Then she went to a hospital claiming that she had just given birth to this infant. She did this to cover the fact that she had lied to her husband about being pregnant when they got married.

Also, witch doctors and their agents in Tanzania are killing albinos and harvesting their body parts for potions and amulets. More recently a male albino in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s capital was killed (beheaded with machetes) and his hands and testicles cut off for these mystical purposes. His wife, also an albino, was seriously injured by these same marauders, but was saved by neighbors. Two of their three children, also albinos, have been placed in protective custody.

Such atrocities make one realize how very close we all still are to being ruled by superstition and barbarism … and how very far the peoples of the world must travel to achieve the Eden that the many assume (and insist) is just around the corner.

Clearly, the patina of man’s civilization remains paper thin.

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