SA pupils burn 'witches' to death

[cali]

Two South African women have been burned to death after a group of students accused them of bewitching their high school with evil spirits.
Msaba Zungu and Thabitha Thusi, both 60, were seized from their homes near Manguzi in KwaZulu-Natal province.

Students and adults dragged them to a sports field where they were doused with petrol and set alight on Sunday.

Manhlenga High School pupils accused the women of being witches after they began to suffer strange crying fits.

Investigators said Ms Zungu died at the scene and Ms Thusi succumbed to her burns injuries on Monday.

Police captain Jabulani Mdletshe told the BBC News website: "On 17 August, the students at the mixed high school began to cry randomly and they did not know why.

<snip>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6980439.stm

Just damn.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Those poor, poor women

[ThomCat]

2. So students are dealing with stress, so it's time to burn some

harmless old ladies?
:wtf:

And it's always women that they target. Tell me this is not a manifestation of misogyny, hatred of women.

[Beaverhausen]

3. Lovely

What year is this again?

[ThomCat]

4. Hating women is coming back into style worldwide.

Not that it ever really went out of style. :(

[redqueen]

6. Exactly... it's always in style!

Someone on DU today called a woman arrested for drunk driving a 'slut'.

We've come a long way, baby! *sigh*

[closeupready]

11. No! You have to be joking.

:mad: Some members of this board utterly miss the target, and they should just be banned. They are a drag on this community.

[redqueen]

16. Nope... I wish I was.

The guy edited his comment now, but I guess he still thinks women who like sex are bad people.

I don't have the patience right now to ask, for fear of starting the next dumbassery-packed shitstorm.

:(

[northernsoul]

5. Superstition kills

Sometimes all you need is a critical mass of ignorance, credulity, and groupthink to get an innocent person killed.

[shadowknows69]

7. Sounds like a school drama club production of "The Crucible" gone bad

Won't be too long until some wack job fundie tries the same here.

[daninthemoon]

8. Let's hope this doesn't start a trend.

[Mike Daniels]

22. Actually, just continuing a trend since SA has a bit of recent history of setting people on fire

what with the whole necklacing thing during the apartheid days.

[Marrah_G]

9. Scary

Just seeing that headline is terrifying.

[obama_girl]

10. well, to be fair

They did weigh the same as a duck.

[L. Coyote]

13. How is this different from Invading Iraq? People act on their beliefs and others die!

Saddam was a "witch" and we burned his arse! Simple enough, if reduced to the most essential elements. Only the scale is truly different.

ON edit: Intended as a response to the OP!

[cali]

15. huh?

Sorry, for everybody not every damn story in the fookin' world leads back to Iraq.

[L. Coyote]

18. My question remains. How is it different? And I am serious.

Does it matter if it is the bogey man next door or across the world? Isn't it the same human behavior at work?

Based on a belief (witches or WMDs) some group decides to kill someone. What is so "huh?" about that.

If humans were incapable of defining and burning witches, we might not be capable of burning people and warfare.

[msmcghee]

20. There is more wisdom and understanding . .

. . of human nature in these two posts (yours) than I've seen on DU for a long time. :thumbsup:

[cali]

21. I can't believe I'm going to answer you:

There's a difference alright. Yeah, I guess you can compare anything to anything else if you so desire, but that doesn't mean it's particularly useful. What happened re the Iraq invasion, was pre-meditated by powerful people. What happened, as far as I can tell, in this case, is that a bunch of folks got hysterical and turned into a mob. It was almost certainly not a premeditated act. That's just one way it's different, but that's an important way.

Really, this is just not a good comparison.

[FiveGoodMen]

23. Iraq was PLANNED by a few powerful people but SUPPORTED by the same pig-ignorance as the witch stuff

I think that was the point of the comparison.

[cali]

26. And the burning of these two women

was not planned, and that's why it's a lousy comparison.

[L. Coyote]

30. How did the petrol get there?

[FiveGoodMen]

31. The burning AND the Iraq invasion would have been stopped

if there weren't so much ignorance to support them.

So it's not a bad comparison.

[L. Coyote]

29. What happened RE Iraq: "a bunch of folks got hysterical and turned into a mob"

It really is that simple. A bunch of folks got hysterical, turned into a mob, and invaded another country, killing hundreds of thousands of people. Only the scales, size and time, are different.

What does it matter if the mob is people in a government or otherwise. The real difference is in the power conferred on some mobs is far greater than the power of other mobs. It is still mob behavior. And there are no government actors per se, just formalized mobs.

[msmcghee]

32. Well, I answer anyone who wishes to have . .

. . a polite discussion.

The poster (L Coyote) noted how strong emotional beliefs affect individuals and even large modern nations.

I think he/she is even more correct about that than he/she realizes. Humans have intellect - but its use is the exception rather than the rule. That's especially true in highly emotional situations like war or responding to 9/11 - which was how the Iraq war was sold to us.

Coyote is quite right about all this.

[L. Coyote]

35. Thanks. Too many anthropology classes!

[daninthemoon]

33. I take your point, which I think is about finding some "other" to be

the source of trouble. Historically, witches, Jews, homosexuals, and other nation's leaders are always fair game. Kill them, and all will be well. I don't suppose the kiddies were in a power grab, but the frenzy caught them up just the same.

[L. Coyote]

36. Yes. The process is termed "othering" in anthropology writing. Slavery is a good

example of othering. Religious differences are a common tool for othering. Perceptions of "race" are another. Meanwhile, we are all one family if genealogy demographics are considered.

The 1,099 Trillion Principle.
How many ancestors do we have?
http://jqjacobs.net/anthro/ancestors.html

[mitchum]

24. BWAHAHAHA!

that's so wrong
and very funny
well done :)

[Trillo]

12. It seems those students and adults who did the dragging and burning

are the ones possessed by an evil spirit. It's curious how they've projected their own evils onto their victims. They seem to be in denial.

[Adsos Letter]

14. Reminds me of our own Salem witch trials (minus the trial part)...

...accusations based on group hysteria...

[tomreedtoon]

17. Pat Robertson will be celebrating this soon.

Just keep watching The 700 Club for instructions on how to find witches in your neighborhood and how to most efficiently burn them. Pat may even find a Wiccan and demonstrate it on camera.

[ComerPerro]

19. worried about being bewitched, but obviously not concerned about the inevitable hauntings

[tom_paine]

25. Amerika 2150: Look in the mirror...our fundies will be doing much worse

once the oil runs out.

Mentally, this nation is configured like Nazi Germany, and not much loss of properity or other hardship will serve to make this abundantly clear in 10-30 years.

[cali]

28. Sorry, I don't trust crystal balls

It's impossible to know what will happen 143 years into the future.

[tom_paine]

34. Yes, it is. But the growing trends, peak oil, climate change, anti-intellectual, the repackaging,

rebranding and reselling of Totalitarianism as form of government (BushPutinism pretending to be representative democracy, in this case), are clear as neon arrows in the dark.

Yes, the future isn't written, and maybe the longshot will come true this time, unlike in 1937 Germany (which s a very analogous time and place to Amerika 2007 in many ways except violence and overt racism), but I don't think enough people learn a damned thing from history.

Once the economy tanks and the oil runs out, you will see how much like the Germans we Impeial Subjects of Amerika are. The Bush Sub-Media will know who to blame (hint: THE LIBERALS) and all those tired and hungry and angry Freepers/Fox News Idiots do, especially when they find out they can harm Liberals and not be prosecuted (like the KKK in Mississippi in the 50s, it's coming soon if the Bushification of Law Enforcement cannot be stopped).

But here's hoping that none of it happens like that.

For myself, I cannot be as hopeful, now that it's 1937, as I once was when Bushler first took over in 1933.

I become more convinced every day that Bushler is an outgrowth of America and Americans, NOT an aberration. That we are ruled by Nazi Lite because, collectively we are VERY READY to become Nazi Lite and maybe worse...

[slackmaster]

27. George W. Bush murders again

:argh: