I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Welcome home Yorkie - it was a terrible thing to happen.

Yorkie, I'm glad you're back home. There are no words!

So glad you are home safe and sound. It feels like there has been for some time a concerted effort through Bollywood, whatever to portray only a small segment of India's upper/middle classes. Putting on a facade of beauty and culture. As if these horrific issues were a thing of the past. Little if anything has changed and its so, so sad and depressing.

Here is a link to a movie about life in India for two very different women.  We saw it this year at our film club.  It was very informative about the extremes that women will go to for their independence.

http://www.vanmusic.ca/news/indie-films/award-winning-films-coming-to-viff-2012

Yorkiemom-I'm glad you're back. I'm sorry your trip to India was so horrific. I know you were looking forward to the trip for a long time. One can always hope that all the publicity will make some sort of change possible. 

Mary

Pip, looks like a great movie. Will watch it tomorrow.

Athena, I too so hope change happens in India soon. If there isn't systemic change, I think some kind of revolution will occur. The people have had enough!

Kam, I learned by watching the India news, which covered this horror 24/7, and from reading the Indian blogs. It was as if centuries of suppressed rage just exploded out! When the bus gang rape and torture were reported I just thought it was "one of those horrific things" which happen from time to time in all societies. But then the protests occurred and people started reporting the facts about how common crimes against women are and how few are prosecuted. It all just excalated from that point. 

Any news report I heard was clear that she died from the horrific injuries.



To me any culture that doesn't value women, indeed treats us barely above their animals is doomed to chaos and failure. No matter the window dressing they try to cover it with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOgv-UuTgac

Kam - been there so, so many times. In places where an awful tragedy occurs, I mean, and things are shut, or bodyguards are summoned, there is blood and tears or curfews are declared. I think it's time India took the violence against women in that way. As a national tragedy. The "Crying Game" song with its pathos came to mind.

The girl who committed suicide was a different girl who was raped, not the one the pipe was used on. She died from her injuries.



They have so many gods in India, ( thousands). My pastor went to India several years ago to minister there. Everything with wheels was decorated..cars, trucks, bicycles, motorcycles, etc. when Pastor asked what was going on, he was told, it was their day to Worship their vehicles.

I'm not debating on religion. It is just so ironic, that they worship so many objects and animals, and treat their women so horribly.



Sad Hippy

Lewing - WOW looks fantastic - congratulations!!!

Soteria205,

Perhaps the people explaining things to your pastor used the wrong phrase.  I have studied many of the Hindu religions and none that I am aware of worship things.  Hinduism is not a religion but rather a grouping of many religions.  Some are monotheistic, some polytheistic, some atheistic.  The treatment of women varies with the religious and cultural beliefs.  My brother in law is from Delhi and he treats my sister and all the women in his family with affection and respect.

To suggest that the religions of India are directly responsible for rape makes as much sense as suggesting the Christianity is responsible for pedophilia because in the USA the pedophiles who have made the news are all Christian.

The problem is the police do not take the crime of rape seriously in India or in many parts of the world like England for instance.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8003474/Inquiry-into-treatment-of-rape-victims-shelved.html

Thank you, all of you, for your good wishes.  The wedding was in a local food bank's warehouse -- the subject of much laughter from friends ("you're getting married WHERE?"), but really, it was perfect: a big, loftlike space with beautiful wooden floors and charming murals on the walls that we transformed with candles and little white lights.  The head chef at a local soup kitchen was our caterer, and the food absolutely bowled everyone over.  I can't even remember it all -- there was a long table covered with mezze, roasted lamb shanks falling off the bone, brisket cooked in red wine and orange juice, polenta, and of course, what's a wedding without brussel sprouts (cooked, in this case, with chickpeas and feta).  Neither of us cares much for wedding cake, so instead we had a big dessert buffet with little panna cotta "shots," cheesecake lollipops, multi-colored macarons and heaps and heaps of strawberries.  I just can't say enough good things about the caterer and her amazing staff.

The DIY chuppah stood up (we gathered branches from places that had meaning to us and supported them in planters filled with sand . . . my recurring nightmare was that one or more branches would fall down during the ceremony), no one fumbled a ring (though Eric's was a little hard to get on over his knuckle . . . I guess that's good, right?), and the music system (another recurring nightmare) worked just fine. The rabbi was great, my daughter gave a beautiful reading for us, Eric's brother did a toast that was both funny and sweet, and it was all just a warm, wonderful, loving night.

Linda

Notself~It's entirely possible that person who said that to Pastor was just giving him a sarcastic answer to someone he figured was a tourist.



I wasn't meaning that religion caused the rapes. I meant that with all the different (ok, not things) animals that are worshipped there, they treat their women so horribly, but would run a train full of people off the track to their death to keep from hitting a "sacred cow." I've seen that in the news at least twice over the years.



We know by now, that pedophiles will get into any kind of work or volunteer just so they can be near children. Many people call themselves Christians, that doesn't mean they are. Talk is cheap. It's the actions that matter. Real Christians follow after Christ. To walk in love, forgiveness, mercy, compassion, gentleness, joy, and self control. If you don't see those attributes in someone who calls themselves christian, they are just using lip service. Of course, new converts are like babies. They have to be taught the ways of Jesus before they can really be anything like him.



It's very disturbing when people we believe to be men or women of God do such horrible acts to innocent children. They will surely have to answer to Almighty God. For their sins.



While I'm on this topic, NOTHING about the Westboro Church has anything to do with Godliness. I don't know what Bible they're reading, but it surely isn't the Holy Bible. They are all HATE MONGERS!



Thank you for setting me straight on the Indian religions.



Blessings

Paula