Friday
Another day in Paradise. Spent a good portion of the day in flats processing. Listened to more of Wizard’s First Rule. I’m enjoying this book; it is definitely good to catch-up on the parts that I missed when Jess was listening to it. After work, I went to Borders to get some reference pictures for BMX bikes and riders. My friend Melody is this month’s featured artist on Monthly Anime Gaijin and I told her that I would attempt an entry. What in the Nine Hells was I thinking?!? So, pencil and sketchbook in tow, I looked up a few pictures. After that, I came home and pretty much did nothing.

NPR/PRI
The World had a segment about something that I consider rather inhumane. To me, there is simply no other way to describe it:

Pakistan Interview (5:01)
What occurred two weeks ago in a Pakistani village was apparently not unusual. But that doesn’t make it easier to comprehend. A tribal council ruled that an 11-year-old boy was with a woman who belonged to a different tribe. Here’s how the council decided to punish the boy. It ordered that his teenage sister be gang-raped. The sentence was carried out, allegedly by four of the council members. Police today arrested one of the suspects. Hina Jilani is secretary-general of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. She’s in Lahore.

I could not believe what I heard when I listened to the lead-in. My jaw literally dropped. To think that a practice like this exists today!? Juxtapose that concept with the fact that Pakistan elected a female Prime Minister, Ms. Benazir Bhutto, in 1988 (and again in 1993).

Jess and I talk, occasionally, about her time in the Army. She served in Somalia; she was there for five months and left three (3) weeks before the events chronicled in Black Hawk Down. She has said, more than once, that she did not like the Pakistani soldiers who were assigned to protective duty over her unit; she said that they treated women like property. I usually counter that maybe it was more akin to “second-class citizen” status. After hearing this report, I retract my argument. And, I am still in shock.

Peace.