[moki]

hrm, clearly people in West Africa need to get more of those "penis enlargement" spams...

from: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ambia_penis_dc

.....

Suspected Penis Snatcher Beaten to Death

BANJUL (Reuters) - A 28-year-old man accused of stealing a man's penis through sorcery was beaten to death in the West African country of Gambia on Thursday, police said.

A police spokesman told Reuters that Baba Jallow was killed by about 10 people in the town of Serekunda, nine miles from the capital Banjul.

Reports of penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, with purported victims claiming that alleged sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear in order to extort cash in the promise of a cure.

The police spokesman said many men in Serekunda were now afraid to shake hands, and he urged people not to believe reports of "vanishing" genitals. Belief in sorcery is widespread in West Africa.

Seven alleged penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs in Ghana in 1997.

[eklipse]

¿Qué?

[moki]

Originally posted by eklipse:
¿Qué?

hehe -- my thoughts exactly

[lil'babykitten]

If this is Politics then damn this world is going crazy.

Oh and, W T F?!!

[BRussell]

If they really are snatching penises, they should be beaten to death, the dirty little penis snatchers.

Yeah it is funny, but I'm sure anorexia and chronic fatigue syndrome look pretty funny to them.

[macvillage.net]

Penis snatching is the worst crime possible.

Killing someone is bad. stealing a penis without killing is worse.

[zigzag]

Maybe the guy just said he wanted some snatch, and there was a mix-up. It happens.

[Sherwin]

Originally posted by moki:
BANJUL (Reuters) - A 28-year-old man accused of stealing a man's penis through sorcery was beaten to death in the West African country of Gambia on Thursday, police said.

Reports of penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, with purported victims claiming that alleged sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear in order to extort cash in the promise of a cure.

The police spokesman said many men in Serekunda were now afraid to shake hands, and he urged people not to believe reports of "vanishing" genitals. Belief in sorcery is widespread in West Africa.

Seven alleged penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs in Ghana in 1997.

Quite an advanced culture they got going on over there then!

[moki]

Originally posted by Sherwin:
Quite an advanced culture they got going on over there then!

Yeah sure, you say that now... but just wait until someone steals your penis through sorcery. You'll be changing your tune, oh my, yes you will!

[Spliffdaddy]

"...with purported victims claiming that alleged sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear in order to extort cash in the promise of a cure."

Yeah.

Been there, done that.

My ex-wife demanded cash in order to give my genitals back.

[pooka]

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
My ex-wife demanded cash in order to give my genitals back.

Buddy of mine got married recently. If he asks nicely his wife usually lets him borrow his testes for a couple of hours.

Sucks that you had such a mean one. I feel for ya, brah.

[boots]

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
"...with purported victims claiming that alleged sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear in order to extort cash in the promise of a cure."

Yeah.

Been there, done that.

My ex-wife demanded cash in order to give my genitals back.

LOL

Reminds me of a Sam Kinison routine. "Honey, the guys are all taking their penises. Can I take mine too?"

[AutoJC]

Gee, I wonder what they do with these stolen penises

[macvillage.net]

Originally posted by AutoJC:
Gee, I wonder what they do with these stolen penises

Just that



Polk people with them.

How did you guess?

[theolein]

Welcome to Africa, the continent where the AK-47 happily co-exists with the tradition of the witch doctor. In South Africa, where I come from, the power of the Sangoma or tribal witch doctor is a large one. In the town where I grew up there was a shop that used to sell traditional herbal medicines (you name it, for impotency, common cold, eveything). These days, in the large cities, the tradition has just about died out, but in the countryside, especially in the area where the largest tribe, the Zulu, is resident and where traditional rituals and practices are still part of life (circumcision ritual with a dull rusty blade where flinching or showing pain is automatic disqualification is one of them in case you're interested in becoming a Zulu member), the Sangomas still hold a lot of power.

The thing that makes it difficult to simply discount the Sangomas is partly tradition and partly that they do seem to have a direct line to the otherworld and higher powers on the odd occaision. I remeber an article in a newspaper once where a Sangoma "spoke" to the spirit in a python (the snake, not the programming language) in order to find out why some guy was being plagued by a spirit. Aparently the python told the Sangoma about a grave that had been violated in a town several miles away. So the Sangoma did some placating of the spirit and lo and behold, his patient got well again.

Sadly, the Sangoma are more often than not completely wrong, and sometimes prescibe some remedies or "mutu" as they're called, that end up killing the patient. They also get abused for reasons of power. In the early 90's in the Zulu tribal areas, there was a small scale civil war between supporters of the current government, the ANC, and supporters of the traditionalist Zulu monarchist party, the IFP. The IFP got its Sangoma to mix up some heady "courage drink" that its fighters would drink before going into an ANC village to slaughter the inhabitants. One of the ingrdients of that drink was human blood. The ANC side responded with the "courage drink" of a burst of fire from the barrels of the AK-47.

[christ]

Are you absolutely sure that sorcery doesn't work?

Would you be if you were five days hike from the nearest town, and you needed medicine, and the only source is the rites ansd potions of the local witchdoctor?

Try laughing at a witchdoctor when you are face to face and he threatens to steal your manly bits. It's not nearly so easy to laugh then.

different cultures are different - they are not there solely for your amusement. (Or for target practice)

[BRussell]

It's called Koro and is a widespread, err, problem in particular in Asia but also Africa.

We have our own mass hysterias and psychogenic illnesses in the US and the developed world: day care child abuse, UFO abduction, satanic cults, Gulf War illness, multiple personality, Belgians thinking Coke is poisoning them, and on and on.

[theolein]

Originally posted by christ:
Are you absolutely sure that sorcery doesn't work?

Would you be if you were five days hike from the nearest town, and you needed medicine, and the only source is the rites ansd potions of the local witchdoctor?

Try laughing at a witchdoctor when you are face to face and he threatens to steal your manly bits. It's not nearly so easy to laugh then.

different cultures are different - they are not there solely for your amusement. (Or for target practice)

I don't know if your post was in response to me, but if it was, I suggest you read my whole post and not interpret it in a way designed to fit the chip on your shoulder.

[christ]

Originally posted by theolein:
I don't know if your post was in response to me, but if it was, I suggest you read my whole post and not interpret it in a way designed to fit the chip on your shoulder.

Nope. It was aimed at moki, and those at the start of the thread that were treating the whole thing as some sort of amusing filler story. I did read your post, in its entirety, and wouldn't dream of aiming anything at you for that post. I apologise for appearing to you to be targetting you, and I will, in future, ensure that I include a 'this post is not aimed at theolein' when that is the case. Sometimes I may overlook this, and so I apologize in advance for any possible future omissions on my part.

I wasn't aware of a chip on my shoulder, but now that I now it is there, I shall be sure to investigate ways to remove it, or at least work around it.

By the way, now that you mention it, aren't you just a tad touchy? If I weren't so scrupulous I might refer you to an old homily that goes along the lines of 'if the cap fits, let him wear it', but I am. so I won't.

Again, please accept my apologies for an unintentional direct hit.

[theolein]

Originally posted by christ:
Nope. It was aimed at moki, and those at the start of the thread that were treating the whole thing as some sort of amusing filler story. I did read your post, in its entirety, and wouldn't dream of aiming anything at you for that post. I apologise for appearing to you to be targetting you, and I will, in future, ensure that I include a 'this post is not aimed at theolein' when that is the case. Sometimes I may overlook this, and so I apologize in advance for any possible future omissions on my part.

I wasn't aware of a chip on my shoulder, but now that I now it is there, I shall be sure to investigate ways to remove it, or at least work around it.

By the way, now that you mention it, aren't you just a tad touchy? If I weren't so scrupulous I might refer you to an old homily that goes along the lines of 'if the cap fits, let him wear it', but I am. so I won't.

Again, please accept my apologies for an unintentional direct hit.

Your post appeared directly after mine, which is why I thought you were perhaps meaning me. Sorry, if that makes you feel touchy

[moki]

Originally posted by christ:
different cultures are different - they are not there solely for your amusement. (Or for target practice)

Yes, and I've been many different cultures. The condescension is not warranted, nor necessary.

...and regardless, I still find the story amusing.

[moki]

Originally posted by theolein:
Welcome to Africa, the continent where the AK-47 happily co-exists with the tradition of the witch doctor. In South Africa, where I come from, the power of the Sangoma or tribal witch doctor is a large one. In the town where I grew up there was a shop that used to sell traditional herbal medicines (you name it, for impotency, common cold, eveything).

This is actually still more prevalent than you might thing, and not restricted to Africa by any means. In many places in Asia, even more "modern" areas, people still use traditional medicinal cures, regardless of whether they work or not.

Hell, some people in the US still think chicken soup will cure the common cold... but there's a big gap between that and eating tiger penis.

[christ]

Originally posted by moki:
This is actually still more prevalent than you might thing, and not restricted to Africa by any means. In many places in Asia, even more "modern" areas, people still use traditional medicinal cures, regardless of whether they work or not.

Hell, some people in the US still think chicken soup will cure the common cold... but there's a big gap between that and eating tiger penis.

Look into homeopathy - there is not much between that and magic.

Condescension not intended.

[boots]

Originally posted by moki:
This is actually still more prevalent than you might thing, and not restricted to Africa by any means. In many places in Asia, even more "modern" areas, people still use traditional medicinal cures, regardless of whether they work or not.

The funny thing about that is, many of the remedies do have some value...but not consistently. The active ingredients in the herbs is not uniformly present in all herbs collected form all places. Its kind of hit or miss.

But we (medchemists and natural products chemists) are finding interesting things buried in the gamish that it an Herbal remedy.

[zigzag]

Originally posted by moki:
Hell, some people in the US still think chicken soup will cure the common cold... but there's a big gap between that and eating tiger penis.

Besides, tiger penis is kinda chewy.

[moki]

Originally posted by zigzag:
Besides, tiger penis is kinda chewy.

You must have overcooked it... erm... not that I'd know...