STRANGE CULTURE THINGS

Yesterday while I was staring at my ceiling I thought about a couple of things and people including my sister. (She means the world to me, unfortunately I'm not sure the feeling is mutual)

(I'm thinking of putting something else on my ceiling now, this is getting pretty old. Any ideas? Feel free to share)

My sister HATES set books (Literature). I on the other hand, did not mind literature when I was in high school. The lessons were rather boring but the books themselves had interesting content. One of the books we focused on was The River Between by Ngugi wa Thiong'o.

I remembered Muthoni (the defiant girl) and how excited she was about becoming a woman. She badly wanted to be circumcised so that she could be recognized by her people as a woman of the tribe (something like that). She even ran away from home to her aunt's home because her father (who was a staunch christian) did not permit her to get circumcised. Eventually Muthoni died due to circumcision.

In the past, many ethnic communities in Kenya and other parts of Africa practiced female genital mutilation. According to them, it was a way of preserving purity among the young women and also a rite of passage to womanhood. F.G.M is rather brutal, cruel, disturbing, stupid, annoying...(you name it!). Female circumcision was a way of life. It was and I hear among some people today, it still is part of their culture.

In another book Half a day and other stories - Against the pleasure principle female circumcision is explained in detail. It creates a very VERY DISTURBING image.

A few weeks ago, this article was all over my home page on Facebook. Everyone cursing and rebuking these people of Denmark for killing dolphins which are near extinction. According to these Danish citizens, this practice is a rite of passage to adulthood. However, it is cruel, insane, brutal... (you name it!).

Changing these people's thinking towards their strange activities is not easy because some of them have been practiced generation after generation. These 'strange culture things' have really consumed them that they even look forward to doing them. Of course creating awareness and coming up with laws against these practices is necessary not only to save lives but for other beneficial factors as well. Thing is, I have only given two examples but I believe that you will never fail to find 'strange culture things' around the world!