Some more musings on “Framing” techniques, as reported by commentator "Agape" (on the FTW Blog):
Thank goodness there is no “tech savvy” culture over where I am. Nor does it matter. People’s minds here still think simply, and they use rather clumsy approaches to undermine their foes. Things are different everywhere!
And as for the subject of “paedophilia” – well, as I say again, different societies have different perspectives, different views, and different values: Some, like in Central Asia, just don’t regard this vice as worth the fuss they think it generates elsewhere like in the West, even though discretion is practiced. It is a known trait of the Pashtun nation – in addition to their almost universal homosexual proclivities which are regarded by them as being quite normal (although now the “postmodern” West has also made that “acceptable”). If you have ever read the historic Persian poetry of the area, you will know what I mean.... Omar Khayyam, Sheikh Saadi, Maulana Rumi, etc. etc. Over in Central Asia where I am, women are normally segregated and kept hidden in their houses, and bought and sold by their menfolk in marriage – which would be a definite “no” for you people over in the USA; we have an all-male society here, and our males have mutual intimacies unimaginable and publicly unacceptable where you are. Men here are seen frequently holding hands, in public – which I don’t think any ordinary American male would want to be seen doing dead. Yet that doesn’t affect the “alpha-masculinity” of our men’s self-image. Men here are among the touchiest in the world about appearing and behaving as “macho” as they can, and for that reason 80% of them sport luxurious facial hair growth, mostly moustaches. Even a skimpy moth-eaten one is appreciated; after all, something is better than nothing! The growing Islamic fundamentalising/Talibanisation trend of the Pashtun/Afghan society has contributed towards a huge increase in beards over the last 20 years, even though Islamic tradition normally prescribes a shaven upper lip with a beard – like the Mormon Prophet Brigham Young and Abraham Lincoln sported – along with a shaven head. But those who shave their faces clean (like me) are mostly in the “educated” (read Westernised) minority here, and even in this day and age, are regarded as being among the “non-traditional” characters, even though, naturally, there are more than few with “macho” capabilities among them! But let me add, that the “active-passive” distinction in homosexuality counts very much there, with the latter being a social stigma – because being “passive” is regarded as being submissive and yielding – therefore unmanly – in this patriarchal culture, even though there are those manly types who would be gladly “passive” in private. There is even a swearword for the passive guy, as well as a plethora of proverbs. Until quite recently, even the wearing of Western pants by men was considered taboo here, as it was thought that doing so would make them “vulnerable” by exposing the shape and other details of their hindquarters, which might “turn on” another “horny” male! A good joke for you, I’m sure, but I must acknowledge my debt of gratitude to Globalism for this one thing at least – that many men have now started wearing trousers here and don’t give a damn for what their posteriors look like to anyone, or what passions hidden or open they may excite among their ogling male fellows. A lot of Pashtuns still have the shirt worn outside though, so as to cover that delicate place, and as for as a woman being seen in pants here...perish the thought. Even the “liberated” foreign women among the teeming UN and Western aid staff in the area have been instructed to take the necessary precautions of not going against traditional behaviour.
(N.B: I started off in talking about how someone may frame another for paedophilia by tampering with their computer, but ended up in writing this. I don’t know what many of you will think of what I have written or why, but what I have detailed above is a first hand, plainly spoken, honest narration by a native, of what happens normally on the ground everyday in a certain society little understood elsewhere. I seem to recall Agape saying somewhere that he had an acquaintance who had been to Afghanistan, who had told him about a lot of these things. Don’t, however, expect to find such information on official websites, in travel guides or even in NGO or web “resources”. These are things that are not publicly acknowledged or even alluded to in “standard” conversations in our world as it now is (they might have been fifty years ago); they are denied and swept under the carpet. Mentioning them is not “correct or decent procedure”, you see. On the contrary the so-called educated representatives of my society, and our immigrants to overseas countries, would like to put all foreigners at rest, especially Westerners, in making them believe that the values of their societies are as mutually alike as is possible! However Kamilov has no such axe to grind: quite the opposite. It is the fostering of such illusions and wool-pulling conspiracies that contribute towards sustaining the greater part of the present day world’s problems, yet with 9/11 that unholy façade received its first good rip).
