Modern day witchcraft

Probably one of the most emailed-around articles on Election Day was this:

“In western Kenya, relatives, friends and a bull ready for slaughter were massed around the homestead of Barack Obama's late father, awaiting a hoped-for victory for their new favourite son…Leading in US opinion polls over Republican rival John McCain, Obama received some added support in Kenya with special prayer sessions and even a victory prediction from a local witch doctor.” [Obama's Kenyan relatives ready bull for slaughter, by Odhiambo Akombo, AFP, November 4, 2008]

Witch doctor?

In the wide, wide world of diversity, there's nothing quite as pungent as witchcraft. In many ways it is the gold standard of primitive anti-civilization belief systems—because it takes the human yearning for meaning and plops out credos that are reason-free and often violence-prone.

And because witchcraft and superstition represent such a complete refutation of multiculturalism—the ideology that all cultures are morally equal—there is little discussion in the polite liberal press when monstrous crimes result. The tone is one of proper shock, e.g.: isn't it terrible these things still go on in the world? Yet immigration in large numbers from these same societies is accepted with no question.