
Rape in the world's largest democracy - sid6376
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/29/opinion/rape-in-india.html?_r=0
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indianInUS
I, as an Indian, am deeply ashamed by what has happened. But what saddens me
even more is that while our culture teaches us to respect women, we worship
several goddesses, refer to our country as "Mother" India; we rank highest
among the nations where women are the worst abused.

This has nothing to do with democracy, I believe it is a pure case of rising
economic inequality and decreasing sex ratio in India.

The protests that we are seeing in the country are just a sign of how
frustrated are people with the current political environment in the country.
Rather than focusing on development in the country and taking care of law and
order, our current politicians are way busy arguing over trivial things.

Its even sadder that this case represents the current mentality of an Indian
male. And I am not sure how to change that. I am sure new and tougher laws
will be made, but how do you teach respect and compassion that our country
seems to be missing so badly now.

It seems we as a nation are making progress but sadly at the cost of our
values.

~~~
lostlogin
Thank you for an Indian perspective. The broader problems of inequality and
poverty don't help, but raping someone to death with a steel bar seems a touch
too much to blame on Indian society and a decreasing sex ratio. There are
clearly some big problems around sexual abuse in India, but I think that some
individuals could be receiving some more condemnation and a society a bit
less.

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sunwooz
There's tons of rape going on in the good ol' US of A. Why not fix it here?
then we can go ahead and be a shining example for other countries to follow.

~~~
pdog
Are there really "tons of rape" in the United States? Are they really as bad
or as systemic as the gang rapes occuring in India?

~~~
steveklabnik
Yes:

> According to United States Department of Justice document Criminal
> Victimization in the United States, ... 1 of 6 U.S. women and 1 of 33 U.S.
> men have experienced an attempted or completed rape.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics#United_States>

~~~
mc32
While not contesting the assertion, one should be careful to note what denotes
'rape' in different countries, and the divergence from de jure and de facto.
It's not interpreted or recorded the same way in all places. Even in the US
what constitutes rape today may not coincide 100% with that it constituted 50
years ago.

For a starker contrast compare say Romania with Sweden. Which one might one
theoretically feel safer in, in which one might one feel psychologically
safer, in which one would one be physically safer?

~~~
lucian303
Sweden has a much higher (3-4x general crime rate) and an even higher violent
crime rate (about 12-14x) than Romania.
([http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index....](http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Crime_trends_in_detail)).
I don't see anything surprising here.

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andymcsherry
This really isn't hacker news.

~~~
jeswin
Upvoting you, though I commented on this thread.

Maybe when people submit articles to HN they should be asked to select a
category (Tech, News, Science etc). The app could restrict the number of non-
hacker news.

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mladenkovacevic
"India, a rising economic power and the world’s largest democracy, can never
reach its full potential if half its population lives in fear of unspeakable
violence."

I think this sentence about sums up most of the reasons I can't take
mainstream American media seriously.

~~~
zengr
And why is that? I am not sure about the American media, but the point about
"half its population lives in fear of unspeakable violence" is very true.

I have lived 23 years in India (26 now) and I know for a fact that people are
really scared of the police and some crazy people who can shoot you for no
reason and are out of the hands of law.

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lucian303
Democracy does not mean civilized society. On the contrary, the same goes for
other "democracies." Sad indeed.

~~~
jlgreco
Indeed, democracy is nothing more than a tool. Without proper built-in
safeties, it can be used for evil just as easily as it can be used for good;
that is why the constitutions of democratic countries are all longer than
_"Vote on stuff, majority wins."_ The US constitution, for example, has a
built-in safety to ensure that a mere majority cannot vote away freedom of
speech (changing amendments has a much higher bar).

It shouldn't surprise us when shitty things happen in democratic countries.
Merely being democratic implies next to nothing about a country.

~~~
dmix
Democracies (republics) are flawed because the citizens control stops at the
voting booth. Platform policies politicians get elected on are non binding.
They don't legally have to follow through with anything they said to get
elected. Once elected the only test for the politician (in legal bounds) is to
get elected again in 4-6yrs.

Politicians know that they can win elections on allegiance to parties,
platitudes and sound bites.

This creates a detachment where the political system is no longer based on
data and real results of improvement of the citizens life or the countries
well being - and turns into a game of marketing and party cheerleading.

~~~
noonespecial
Voting isn't about getting the best candidates into office, its about being
able to get the worst ones out.

~~~
lucian303
And in the US, it's about nothing at all because unfortunately one of the
protections against voters and one of the most ill-conceived ideas of
government has been the electoral college. If you're not in the small
percentage or so whose vote might count (read "swing-state), or whose state
primary / caucus comes so late it's irrelevant, walking into a voting booth
(or filling out a vote by mail, email or whatever insecure thing they do these
days) is a waste of time.

Then there's the matter of the compromised voting machines ...

