Merciful Death?

husband [ˈhʌzbənd]

n         1. a woman's partner in marriage

       2. Archaic

              a.  a manager of an estate

              b.  a frugal person

vb         1. to manage or use (resources, finances, etc.) thriftily

       2. Archaic

              a.  (tr) to find a husband for

              b.  (of a woman) to marry (a man)

       3. (tr) Obsolete to till (the soil)

[Old English hūsbonda, from Old Norse hūsbōndi, from hūs house + bōndi one who has a household, from bōa to dwell]

SHIP'S HUSBAND, marine law. An agent appointed by the owner of a ship, and invested with authority to make the requisite repairs, and attend to the management, equipment, and other concerns of the ship he is usually authorized to act as the general agent of the owners, in relation to the ship in her home port.

animal husbandry

n. The branch of agriculture concerned with the care and breeding of domestic animals such as cattle, hogs, sheep, and horses.

There will be other references, no doubt, but these will suffice and are representative of the whole.

There is, you will quickly observe, a link between all these. The obvious one is that they all refer to ‘husband’ in some form or another.

The second connection is that they are all terms for ‘caring’. We care for our animals to make sure that they are fat and well fed; this increases the potential profit that we shall gain from them. Ship’s husbands have a legal responsibility to care for the ship in port on behalf of the owners.

If you are the ‘Man of the House’, I took this from the Old Norse derivation, then you will need to ‘care for’ and ‘protect’ the house and the household. Naturally it is then bounden (your ‘bond’) upon you, as a husband, to look after your wife who, in Old Norse terms was also a husband (husbonde) but that term has fortuitously fallen from favour.

The presumption then is that you will look after your children.

Children are important. They cannot make judgements for themselves, they are not strong enough to go into combat or hunt. They need care.

Female children need extra care. They will be targeted by lunatics who do not have the same sense of care, that same duty of responsibility that you have.

There is a certain leering section of the community that requires ‘special treatment’. This is not confined to males, of course but it is, predominantly, a male issue.

[Note the word ‘predominantly’ from the Latin ‘dominus’ meaning ‘master’.]

These males are usually sexually inadequate. The only way that they can establish dominance (again) over a female is to rape her.

They can then show complete mastery by the added cruelty of torture.

The bemusing factor, for many men, is that there are those who rape in packs.

In time of war there was a certain understanding that the term “to the victor the spoils” meant that the winners in any combat could help themselves to any booty that was lying around—including females.

In olden societies this was regarded as acceptable because women had little, or no, worth. We cannot judge, as I have remarked before in these pages, ancient societies by our own standards.

By that token, the victors would help themselves to women. They would do this in platoon strength, perhaps, leaving the woman in dire straights. Possibly dying.

This was normal. Then.

It is not normal now.

It is, and never was, normal in peacetime.

Real men, strong men, do not feel the need to force their will upon a woman.

Real men have sufficient control over their emotions to be able to say ‘no’.

Real men will often look admiringly at women; they will look, sometimes, with eyes full of lust.

It ends there. They will take this no further.

There is never, ever, a need for a man to take a woman by force. There is never, ever, an excuse for beating a woman. There is never, ever, an excuse or torturing a woman.

Never.

Ever.

A few nights ago a woman died in a hospital in Singapore. She was from India.

She had been raped by six men and then tortured by the insertion of a rod into her vagina; this caused tearing of the tissues and internal organ damage.

She died.

We do not blame Indians. No more than we can blame any other race. Rape is endemic to many cultures worldwide. In South Africa it is a pandemic.

We do blame the participants; those six men who, by their barbarous and inhuman achievement, have earned the right to ‘special treatment’.

I invite anyone who cares to do so to comment below on their views about that ‘special treatment’.

Blunt, rusty hacksaw blades are especially welcome as are roughened baseball bats...