Cable: UN peacekeepers traded food for sex

[kangofu]

Cable: UN peacekeepers traded food for sex
Source - AP NewsABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) - United Nations peacekeepers in Ivory Coast enticed underage girls in a poor part of the West African nation to exchange sex for food, according to a United States Embassy cable released by WikiLeaks

Comments

[maianarisa]

And my faith in humanity has gone down.

Also, Lester Pearson is probably rolling in his grave right about now.

[hinoema]

I echo the sentiment, but I'm excising the 'humanity' part from my repertoire. This part of humanity is no longer accepting tacit responsibility to what is, by all evidence, an almost entirely male practice of using any means possible to subjugate vulnerable members of a society for sexual pleasure.

My faith in masculinity has gone down.

[mswyrr]

My faith in masculinity has gone down.

It's helped me to think of it in terms of masculinities. The dominate mode of masculinity says find a vulnerable person (preferably female), and exploit! Exploit! Exploit! Prove your power!

But there are other masculinities, thank fuck. I just wish like hell they weren't so comparatively unpopular.

Re: let me raise your faith in masculinity a bit

[lickety_split]

This is like the "I know a few nice cops" meme though. 5 articles ain't enough, tbh. A few men doing a few nice things doesn't change much.

Re: let me raise your faith in masculinity a bit

[lickety_split]

A Lot Of Stuff, like what? Like male privilege? Testosterone? Chuck Norris

Re: It's a matter of not allowing Lowered Expectations

[lickety_split]

Congratulations, but we all know "good men". Most of us have "good men" in our lives. In fact, there are a lot of "good men" in this community. All of them have Male Privilege. None of them need you sticking up for them in a post about men raping desperate women and children.

Re: let me raise your faith in masculinity a bit

[roseofjuly]

1 in 60 may be rapists, but a good 'nother 54 are enabling the rapists by turning their backs on rape culture and remaining silent when they see sexual violence happening in their own communities instead of speaking about it, or are brushing it off as "boys will be boys," or are asking the women what they were wearing during the trial and acquitting these douchebags. Male privilege and oppression isn't only about the overt act; it's about the tacit levels of protection that are built up around the actors.

Re: let me raise your faith in masculinity a bit

[lickety_split]

Do you know any cops? Because most of them will tell you with a straight face that 90% of their "other brothers in blue" are complete fuckwits.

Re: let me raise your faith in masculinity a bit

[serious_mccoy]

...but I wanted to be a cop for a while. D:

Anyway, yeah, I know a decent ex-cop. He's an ex-cop because he's decent. He was disgusted by the corruption in law enforcement and just couldn't be a part of it anymore. If he was any less awesome, he'd probably still be in it.

Some people (like almost me, and the aforementioned guy) do go in to it out of an earnest desire to do the right thing and protect the innocent- that whole thing. Naivety, in other words; thinking you can really change things. So I wouldn't say everyone "goes in to it" because of dishonest desires. BUT, they definitely seem to stay in it because of dishonesty, more often than not.