Fifteen-year-old Manish Kumar was kidnapped by members of the rival caste on his way to school, had his head shaved and was thrown under a train as his mother begged for mercy, police in the impoverished eastern state of Bihar said.

Originally posted by nyk537
reply to post by KOGDOG

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CUT...
The OP isn't wrong for pointing anything out. These practices "are" different than most places in the world. Just as all countries are different, they practice different things.
You attacking the OP for his opinions is no more out of line than what you consider to be his out of line comments.
Take it easy.

The problem to me is that it happens much too often in certain countries. Not only does it happen, but a whole crowd of people participates in such shameful acts. If something like this was to happen in this USA, I am quite positive it would be an isolated act with a single perpetrator, not half the town parading a child down the street with the intention of killing him.

Why does the world look the other way at these crimes? As someone said in an earlier post, they tried to relate it to gang violence and the fact that we look the other way on that. The difference to me is that with gang violence, yes it happens, yes we know where they are, but we do not know for sure which gang members were associated with particular crimes. In instances such as this in India, they know exactly who participated. Every member of that mob should be tried the same as the person who laid the last hand on that child.

Also, not one participant spoke out for the child. Why? because they would face the same fate, if not worse, for supporting a rival caste. The atmosphere of fear created due to such atrocious crimes is evident when even the own populace is afraid of what may become if you anger people with such a mindset.

How do we change such actions that have been part of a culture for thousands of years?

I totally support punishment, but this boy was innocent. He committed no crime, but only crossed cultural bounds which brought "shame" to his family. This is something that needs to be addressed, and to me is akin to racism in the USA. When one group of people thinks they are better then another, and persecutes them for coexisting with them, is no better then the lynchings of african americans decades ago.

This type of behavior needs to be abolished. They need to learn how to accept differences, overcome their hatred, and realize that by creating such an atmosphere of violence, fear, and extremism - they are only conditioning their children to be raised the same way.

Originally posted by KOGDOG
reply to post by NuclearPaul

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Perhaps we need to expand our definition of a "caste system". The USA enforces a vicious and totalitarian "caste systems" upon this entire planet. If any "3rd world nation" attempts to move out of their position in the US dominated "planetary caste system" we will "throw under a train" your moms, pops, Grandmas, Grandpas, the kids, cats & dogs your culture along with everything your "lower caste" nation ever had or hoped to obtain. No nuclear power plants for you! No WMDs for you! YOU WILL DO AS THE USA TELLS YOU TO DO! I hear the train a comin' It's rollin' 'round the bend.... CHOO! CHOO! CHOO! You hear that all you third world lower caste nations????? Yeah....... you know that sound. How do you like your position in the USA's planetary caste system?

Might be a good time to tell OP just what you think of the USA's planetary caste system if you live in fear of being "thrown under the US of A's train".

Hmmm... I'm all for a country moving out of the darkness and forging ahead with nuclear power plants. But are you really such an apologist that you'd grant them the right to have WMD's as well? Sorry for how things are. I didn't make the rules. But no way in hell do I want to sit back and allow another country with WMD's or to develop them. It's bad enough that too many other countries have them. The US included.