:: Wry-wing conspiracy ::

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

King Mswati III of Swaziland is largely considered to be Africa's last remaining absolute monarch. Back in January, what little opposition exists staged a strike. Here's some general background from the Telegraph's coverage of that incident:

Some 39 per cent of adult Swazis are infected with HIV/ Aids, the highest proportion in the world. King Mswati responded to the crisis in 2001 by banning virgins from having sex for five years. Any man caught deflowering a virgin would be fined one cow.

This law proved too rigorous for the king. Months later, he chose a 17-year old bride and fined himself one cow.

Dear big media: please don’t let critical tragicomic juxtaposition become a casualty as you purge your work of subjectivity and opinion. I need my boy-decrees-nation-wide-abstinence, boy-meets-girl, boy-marries-girl, boy-proves-he-is-an-autarchic-polygamist-hypocrite, boy-is-hoisted-by-his-own-bovine-petard narrative hairpin turns.

And, while we're on the topic of polygamy, what happens when - just like most of the world - 50% of your town's teenagers are male but due to the mathematics of your bigamy of choice marriages require at least a 3:1 female to male ratio? Expel the young men permanently, dumping them on the side of a road and leaving them to fend for themselves in a hostile, foreign world at the tender age of 16, or sometimes younger. Do it about 400 times, and make sure to throw in a nice parting zinger, too, like "Just to let you know, when the final devastation comes, you will be destroyed."

Posted by morland @ 04:23 PM

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