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First a pointer to info (click on English or Français to access the real site, thisi is webdesign made in Europe): www.stopfgm.org. Or, if you read Portuguese, check out Publico's report on it.

Now, a really impressive example of Eurofudge or what Andrew Sullivan might call Leftfudge. This comes from a Portuguese source, but I will translate (with help from Altavista's version)the relevant paragraph and comment: The euro MP Emma Bonino, one of the main organizers of the conference on FGM of the European Parliament, started by stating that the campaign "STOP FGM" does not intend "to tell others how to act, to teach them the correct way", but instead to contribute for a bigger awareness of the phenomenon that affects currently 130 million women in the world and to congregate efforts in the eradication of the FGM. In the words of Bonino, the Union European "feels responsible" and sees the FGM as a question of law human beings, "that it does not have nothing seeing with religious beliefs"

Did you understand that? This is not to tell others how to act, it is to eradicate the phenomenon. I can't even begin to wrap my mind around this. Does she just hope that the phenomenon in an abstract form will go away without people changing the way they act?

This is the best, but to wards the end there is another example of leftfudge: It was the France that introduced the question that immigration has brought FGM practices into the European continent. To Pretty Weil-Curiel, president of the Commission for the Abolition of the Sexual Mutilations, the resolution of the problem does not depend on the creation of specific legislation. The law has that to be present in the mind of the immigrants in question, but for prevention. "A specific law would be, necessarily, discriminatory, since it would be directed the African population", he explained.

This is not as flagrant, but still I did not understand. He could have said A specific law is not needed since there is ample generic legislation which covers this (which is what, as I understand it, is the situation in Portugal, this would probably be considered a bodily mutilation covered by general legislation against those). He could have warned against the political habit of solving a problem by legislation. Those would be valid reasons. There is also valid reasons for legislation: it makes things clearer, leaving no room for an argument. But what does he mean that it would be directed at the African Population? First, a majority of the African Population does not have these practices. Second, either you think that this should be legal or you think that it should be illegal. Of course, it is possible to pass population specific laws masking as general ones, but the real question should always be do you want this practice to be legal? So, Mr. Pretty Weil-Curiel, do you think FGM should be legal or illegal? And what do you mean by for prevention? I read it like it should be illegal, but we should not enforce it? which is like a lot like being legal. It seems to me you are defending a gray area where you yourself are safe from being attacked intellectually, but does not really help the discussion at all and nor does it, in any way, help the victims or potentials victims of this crime. And I write crime, because I think it is a crime and people who commit it should face penalties, including jail.

Not one of these people spoke of a concrete step to wards a solution. Not one of these people faced the real issues. Should a doctor seeing a mutilated child report the fact or consider that if he does other parents will not bring their children to medical assistance which will make the problem worse? Should a teacher who hears stories from a pupil report it? Should the people who perform this practice - it should not be difficult to find them, Publico's (Portuguese reference newspaper) journalist did - be criminally prosecuted or should we see no evil? These are complicated issues and problems

It is perverse that to protect other cultures and races we are letting people of those cultures and races suffer. I wonder how much protection would be awarded to these crimes had the victims been white.