For a week or so, a piece of news that's been doing the rounds is of a student at Boston University who had the appalling indecency to go around grabbing some women by their asses while he went by on his bicycle.
I'll be the first to say that such incidents aren't common on university campuses. There is that creepy 'frat culture' on some college campuses, girls do indeed get raped and by boys they know, date-rape (even if all reported incidents should not be believed) has been taken to all new levels, and there is sexual violence but it's not, excuse me, the ass-grabbing and body-parts pinching sort - not on college campuses at least. So this boy on the bicycle - what he did - is probably uncommon. But people don't know how to respond it seems. Some people have expressed doubt as to whether such incidents as 'innocent' ass grabbing can be termed as sexual misconduct. What is it then? Apparently if the boy was out for some mischievous fun - the whole incident shouldn't be treated too seriously. On the other side of the frame - you have people baying and baying furiously while talking about the 'White man's privilege' (!) and equating the incident to rape and you have them blaming the patriarchal structures and the aspect of male dominance in U.S society, and the responses to such rantings are even more non-pertinent.
Now this bit of news comes up on the news about the middle-east. It seems when odd pieces of news follow one - they really follow one. Egad. What sort of a world is this? One can laugh though, I guess. Laugh a hollow laugh.
And the same world has given us human beings who created this ....this .... this ....this ....and there are other creations that make one silent, stop one's heart, make one gasp or make one cry. There are people indeed who have the same effect. I wonder...I really wonder whether all human beings belong to the same species.
What a world...