Another hodgepodge

I’ll try another hodgepodge though, as I said sex is bound to raise its ugly head sooner or later. Come to think of it, let’s start with sex anyway. That one-time premier of Italy, the scallywag, Silvio Berlusconi has been sentence to seven years for having sex with an underage prostitute. The likeliness of his actually serving it is pretty remote I reckon taking into consideration all the usual legal shenanigans and appeals that are going to go ahead. Both he and the girl deny the charges and it is more than possible he didn’t know she was underage. Girls of that age can look a lot older and more sophisticated and he wouldn’t expect her to be underage.

A married thirty year old school teacher has an affair with a fifteen year old girl and they flee to France together. What they expected to do with themselves once they got there heaven only knows and, of course, they were immediately sent back to the UK, the man to face criminal charges, the girl to say she still loves him and will wait till he’s out of prison when they will marry.

Sexual attraction really is very strange and indefinable. Looking at a photograph of Diego Riviera and Frida Kahlo together you cannot help but wonder what on earth she sees in the man.  To put it bluntly he is gross. He is huge, he is fat, he is very unprepossessing. She is small, pretty and petite. Somehow I wonder if she could bear the weight.

And of course there is so often a dark side to sex, the abuse of young boys by Catholic priests. Is celibacy realistic? Women being forced into prostitution. Seven members of a gang of Pakistani and East African origin have received life or long sentences for grooming young girls for sex. Not content with having them themselves they also farmed them out to whoever. Now Muslim leaders in the UK have preached against the grooming of young girls, the sermon’s message being very clear, “this is an evil against humanity” The Koran emphasises how children and the vulnerable must be protected. Hopefully for once a religious admonition will have an effect. Interesting that there are now hundreds of mosques in the UK. How long before Sharia? Certain Muslims in London’s East End have formed vigilante groups patrolling the streets in what they now consider a Muslim area. They fervently believe Sharia is not too far away. Multi-culturism has been a total disaster.

Moses supposes his toeses are roses. Moses supposes erroneously. It is so unfortunate that the world is choc-a-bloc full of those who suppose erroneously. In the sixteenth century ground human skull was believed to alleviate fits and in Queen’ Elizabeth’s time something called “Oil of Man” was considered a cure for wasted lambs. Disgusting as it sounds oil of man was fat rendered from the corpse of an executed criminal and used as an ointment. In passing I mention the Nazis also used human fat but at least they were practical, turning it into soap which is even more disgusting. Today there are people who erroneously believe that ground rhino horn is an aid to sex and an efficacious medicine is made from the bile of bears. So rhinos are killed for their horns and just think for a moment how you would feel if every so often you were confined in a cage so small you couldn’t move and suffered a surgical invasion without anaesthetic. Why oh why oh why in this 21^st Century must so many animals suffer at the hands of crass and ignorant human beings? The stories of cruelty are too numerous. Sometime ago I saw a gruesome photograph in the paper of a dog hanging by wire from a pole because, according to its owner, it was a failure as a hunter. Recently a Bulgarian dragged a dog behind his car as punishment for killing two chickens. The dog was so badly injured it naturally had to be put down. Two South African students skin a kitten alive. In China a dolphin dies because tourists at a zoo drag it out of the water so they can have their photographs taken with it. In Greece, despite it being against the law, animals still suffer violent and agonising deaths from poisoning. In Crete there are what is known as barrel dogs: that is they are kept on a chain about a metre long attached to a metal barrel lying on its side, boiling in summer freezing in winter. They are fed on scraps and are tethered solely to bark if a predator approaches. Domestic animals that enjoy a loving and caring home are the lucky ones. Millions are born only to suffer. Will it ever change?