08 May 2013

Evil: Hitler's Food-Taster & Sexual Abuse Online


Today I found two varied and interesting pieces about evil in different forms. 

The first one, from Der Spiegel, captures the story of Margot Wölk, who was one of the food-tasters of Adolf Hitler. Forced to be a food-taster for Hitler for more than two years, the 95-year-old German says that she lived in constant fear. "I just wanted to say what happened there," she says. "That Hitler was a really repugnant man. And a pig." 

The second one makes for scary reading, especially because it talks about women who are being threatened online with rape and other forms of sexual abuse. Here's an excerpt: 

Kavita Krishnan, a prominent Delhi-based women's activist, was attacked viciously during a recent online chat on violence against women on Rediff.com, one of India's leading news websites.


"It began well. I had answered a few interesting questions. And then one person, with the handle @RAPIST, started posting abusive comments. He then asked me where he could come to rape me using a condom," she said.
Mr Jaishankar, who counsels victims of cyber crime along with his colleague and lawyer Debarati Haldar, says that Indian users online are largely male introverts who have found the web a place where they can express themselves freely and anonymously.
"These men could be respectable professionals such as doctors, lawyers or professors in real life but online, they tend to show a darker side."
Read the complete BBC piece here

2 comments:

Avinash K said...

As the article had Sickular is the right word for such people. If a top journalist, a top woman-activist, a top writer-activist face such abuses over online, can't even imagine the plight of other women in the country!

Avinash K said...

I knew about the food-tasters but an insight into what their lives have been is really touching! Glad that Wolk made it through those tough times