'Dancing Boy' Scandal Taints Both Americans and Afghans

[White Eagle]

For those of you that think Wikileaks is a crime. I don't think so. It is something that is needed to keep this scum out of business.
The right claims that gays are the pedophiles. This smelled of the morals of some reublicans so I checked it out. Unfortunately this DynCorp donates equally to Dems and Reps.

http://www.alternet.org/story/149352/'dancing_boy'_scandal_taints_both_americans_and_afghans

New America Media / By Shirin Sadeghi

'Dancing Boy' Scandal Taints Both Americans and Afghans
To win over Afghan locals, American contractor DynCorp bankrolled 'bacha bazi' parties -- the culturally accepted practice of pedophilia by men against boys.
December 28, 2010 |

Every culture has its dark secrets, the practices that many people on the outside would frown on or shudder at. There’s Mormons and polygamy. Hindus and sati. Muslims and virgin brides. And many other cultures that have very specific practices associated with them.

--snip--

Children were abused on American military dollars. The cables are undoubtedly an embarrassment to the war effort. Whereas previously bacha bazi was used in the media to stress the necessity of the war effort – "these people need to be liberated," so the theory went – the WikiLeaks cables have completely reversed that notion. Americans are clearly not liberators if they are promoting child abuse instead of preventing and prohibiting it.

 

[rareboy]

It really seems as though the West, once again, is being complicit in propping up a corrupt, socially sick, medieval society in Afghanistan.

All this has happened before and all this will happen again.

 

[White Eagle]

It really seems as though the West, once again, is being complicit in propping up a corrupt, socially sick, medieval society in Afghanistan.

All this has happened before and all this will happen again.

Yep. For the next 5000 years, tho I doubt I will be around to see it.

 

[EastMed]

It really seems as though the West, once again, is being complicit in propping up a corrupt, socially sick, medieval society in Afghanistan.

All this has happened before and all this will happen again.

It's a very bad idea to impose cultural change on others.
Besides, it doesn't work.

 

[JayboyCDA]

Americans are an ethnocentric bunch, thinking that they can go to some country AND impose what THEY think is the correct way of living. By no means am I encouraging any of what we North Americans consider "socially unacceptable" , but it is their way of life. One does not see the reverse happening to the Americans where others are imposing what they think is correct? Just my 2 cents....

 

[rareboy]

It's a very bad idea to impose cultural change on others.
Besides, it doesn't work.

It is a very bad idea for the West to keep handing atavistic, knuckle dragging, hypocritical warloads money to finance the continuation of abhorent practises just to 'buy' their short term support.

Besides, it doesn't work.

I posted a thread about this documentary earlier this year.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/dancingboys/view/

It will make you very sad that this is the price being paid to keep the lid on this shot pot of a country.

 

[EastMed]

It is a very bad idea for the West to keep handing atavistic, knuckle dragging, hypocritical warloads money to finance the continuation of abhorent practises just to 'buy' their short term support.

Besides, it doesn't work.

I posted a thread about this documentary earlier this year.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/dancingboys/view/

It will make you very sad that this is the price being paid to keep the lid on this shot pot of a country.

The answer is simple really. Leave.

 

[Kulindahr]

Americans are an ethnocentric bunch, thinking that they can go to some country AND impose what THEY think is the correct way of living. By no means am I encouraging any of what we North Americans consider "socially unacceptable" , but it is their way of life. One does not see the reverse happening to the Americans where others are imposing what they think is correct? Just my 2 cents....

That's a good reason for not being there.


BTW, saying "it is their way of life" is something that can be used to justify all sorts of evil.

 

[rareboy]

The answer is simple really. Leave.

It is never so simple.

Hasn't been for over 3000 years.

 

[White Eagle]

Disgusting

 

[Centexfarmer]

PBS did a piece on this recently.

FRONTLINE: the dancing boys of afghanistan.

Apparently "Bacha Bazi" has only returned recently.

In my view it's nothing short of forcing young boys into becoming sex slaves, and from the story it's also considered illegal even in Afghanistan.

 

[kallipolis]

PBS did a piece on this recently.

FRONTLINE: the dancing boys of afghanistan.

Apparently "Bacha Bazi" has only returned recently.

In my view it's nothing short of forcing young boys into becoming sex slaves, and from the story it's also considered illegal even in Afghanistan.

Illegal immigrant Afghan boys, and young men are freely available for similar entertainment, and sexual gratification throughout Europe. Often this is their only means of obtaining money to pay for food, and paying the rent to sleep on a carpet with a dozen others.

I can visit a gay bar in Athens tonight, and rent the services of an Afghan boy for Euro 50. This will enable the boy to eat for a week.

As a volunteer worker with Amnesty I can supply you many heart breaking stories of 15 year old boys escaping the war in Afghanistan, and making their way to Greece with no money in their pocket. How they manage it is beyond my understanding. But they succeed. Renting is an essential part of their survival strategy.

I can add to this list, boys from Iran, Iraq, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Moldavia etc.


Life is cruel for not a few people. Need grows solutions.

 

[MoltenRock III]

I can add to this list, boys from Iran, Iraq, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Moldavia etc.


Life is cruel for not a few people. Need grows solutions.

Yup. Similar stories can be told from Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, and elsewhere. It's sick. It's heartbreaking. And it's something we should strive to end.

 

[Centexfarmer]

Illegal immigrant Afghan boys, and young men are freely available for similar entertainment, and sexual gratification throughout Europe. Often this is their only means of obtaining money to pay for food, and paying the rent to sleep on a carpet with a dozen others.

I can visit a gay bar in Athens tonight, and rent the services of an Afghan boy for Euro 50. This will enable the boy to eat for a week.

As a volunteer worker with Amnesty I can supply you many heart breaking stories of 15 year old boys escaping the war in Afghanistan, and making their way to Greece with no money in their pocket. How they manage it is beyond my understanding. But they succeed. Renting is an essential part of their survival strategy.

I can add to this list, boys from Iran, Iraq, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Moldavia etc.


Life is cruel for not a few people. Need grows solutions.

I understand what you're saying but after watching the Frontline piece that I linked to Bacha Bazi doesn't seem to be the same.

In fact many of the families seemed to be completely unaware of where, and what some of these men were doing to and with their boys. Of course their being compensated in some way (financial or otherwise) acted as a deterrent I'm sure.

When several of the boys tried to return home, they were murdered.

 

[kallipolis]

I understand what you're saying but after watching the Frontline piece that I linked to Bacha Bazi doesn't seem to be the same.

In fact many of the families seemed to be completely unaware of where, and what some of these men were doing to and with their boys. Of course their being compensated in some way (financial or otherwise) acted as a deterrent I'm sure.

When several of the boys tried to return home, they were murdered.

In the tribal communities of Afghanistan the options available to many boys, and young men are limited to joining The Taliban, who feed you, and pay you a small income. Or, follow the dictates of the village elders. If you are handsome then you may well be selected as a concubine for a wealthy man, who will ensure that you are well compensated for your sexual services. This may appear rather sordid to us, but to survive there often is no other option for the children of poverty stricken families.

 

[Kulindahr]

In the tribal communities of Afghanistan the options available to many boys, and young men are limited to joining The Taliban, who feed you, and pay you a small income. Or, follow the dictates of the village elders. If you are handsome then you may well be selected as a concubine for a wealthy man, who will ensure that you are well compensated for your sexual services. This may appear rather sordid to us, but to survive there often is no other option for the children of poverty stricken families.

Maybe we would have done better in Afghanistan, instead of sending soldiers, to have just offered stipends to all the poverty-stricken boys and make them available as workers for villages that repudiate the Taliban.

 

[EastMed]

Maybe we would have done better in Afghanistan, instead of sending soldiers, to have just offered stipends to all the poverty-stricken boys and make them available as workers for villages that repudiate the Taliban.

A very wise suggestion - but I would also add that you can't exclude the Taliban. They will feature in any future power structure in Afghanistan.


(PS: Happy New Year everyone!)

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

Disgusting

Compared to all the other crap the USA and its allies (and formerly the Sovjet Union) have pulled with their tax monies, this is fairly tame.

The Frontline documentary is excellent, btw.

 

[bankside]

BTW, saying "it is their way of life" is something that can be used to justify all sorts of evil.

So is saying "It's our way of life."

Sexuality can be very different in other cultures. Most of us acknowledge certain aspects of sexuality which are not implemented humanely or realistically within each of our respective cultures, and I think we have to consider that as part of the analysis.

Having done that, I don't think it changes the outcome of the analysis, at least not as far as I'm concerned: I don't see a culture that acknowledges early awareness of one's own sexuality and makes allowances for it, as some cultures do. I don't see it as part of a cultural and economic reality that just makes people look out for themselves at a much younger age. It looks more like common coercion and exploitation of young men and boys who feel they have no options, and who feel they have to put out to survive.

So, half the country grows up in this system? And then go on to perpetuate it. That's not the same thing as "preserving a cherished cultural tradition." The thing is though, it is just one more violation of autonomy in a country awash with coercion. In a country like Afghanistan, if you asked people there "What's the worst thing that ever happened to you?" this bacha bazi stuff probably wouldn't even register in the top 10.

 

[rareboy]

^ Except for the boys that are sold into sexual slavery and who may be abused or killed.

Yeah, I think that it would register in the top five for them.