Cannibals
One of the best features of our cable tv is this channel called Video-on-Demand. Basically, it's a channel with stored programmes that you can watch for free at any time. So we have the whole Buffy season 4, Chicago Hope season 2 or West Wing season 4 to watch, among many others. When I saw that they had the whole series of "Murder, She Wrote", I lost a few hours watching that great serial killer Jessica Fletcher "solve" some crimes. I also discovered this great british comedy called "Black Books" which I think all of you should check out.
We also get documentaries, and we have been watching this on going series on cannibalism. Did you know that there are no laws in Britain against cannibalism? If you eat a human body (but were not involved in its death) nothing will happen to you (that's the conclusion I drew from the programme.) There was an interesting episode aswell on how the tribes on the British isles during the Iron Age used to cannibalise their enemies. And, of course, they had a whole episode on famous cannibals like Dahlmer. There is one cannibal who is alive and free today, in Japan. He killed a dutch girl in 1981 in Paris, and ate her body for the next 5 days until the french authorities caught him. Because a panel of psychiatrists deemed him mentally unfit to stand trial, he was deported back to Japan. Due to a technicality (the french authorities never asked the Japanese authorities for him to be tried for murder) he discharged himself from a mental hospital in Japan after 18 months and is now living life as a free man and a celebrity in Japan.
It was quite interesting when they described the features these cannibals seem to share with each other. First of all, 3 out of 4 of the ones shown in the programme had suffered trauma to their front lobes (which is a part of the brain in charge of regulating our "morals") during their childhoods. There was also history of neglect (Dahlmer's mother never touched him, a Russian cannibal was constantly threatened by his mother with being eaten if he didn't behave himself) and odd behaviour that was encouraged by the parents (Dahlmer's father thought it was brilliant that he dissected road kill and bleached their bones - I suspect my dad would have been impressed with me too if I did that!)
When the portuguese sailors arrived in Brazil in 1500, they also encountered cannibalism. And there are also the tales of cannibals in Fiji (in their case, tribes served the bodies of their enemies to priests so that their souls could be destroyed by the tribe's god.)
See? I might be unemployed but at least I'm learning something from TV.
We also get documentaries, and we have been watching this on going series on cannibalism. Did you know that there are no laws in Britain against cannibalism? If you eat a human body (but were not involved in its death) nothing will happen to you (that's the conclusion I drew from the programme.) There was an interesting episode aswell on how the tribes on the British isles during the Iron Age used to cannibalise their enemies. And, of course, they had a whole episode on famous cannibals like Dahlmer. There is one cannibal who is alive and free today, in Japan. He killed a dutch girl in 1981 in Paris, and ate her body for the next 5 days until the french authorities caught him. Because a panel of psychiatrists deemed him mentally unfit to stand trial, he was deported back to Japan. Due to a technicality (the french authorities never asked the Japanese authorities for him to be tried for murder) he discharged himself from a mental hospital in Japan after 18 months and is now living life as a free man and a celebrity in Japan.
It was quite interesting when they described the features these cannibals seem to share with each other. First of all, 3 out of 4 of the ones shown in the programme had suffered trauma to their front lobes (which is a part of the brain in charge of regulating our "morals") during their childhoods. There was also history of neglect (Dahlmer's mother never touched him, a Russian cannibal was constantly threatened by his mother with being eaten if he didn't behave himself) and odd behaviour that was encouraged by the parents (Dahlmer's father thought it was brilliant that he dissected road kill and bleached their bones - I suspect my dad would have been impressed with me too if I did that!)
When the portuguese sailors arrived in Brazil in 1500, they also encountered cannibalism. And there are also the tales of cannibals in Fiji (in their case, tribes served the bodies of their enemies to priests so that their souls could be destroyed by the tribe's god.)
See? I might be unemployed but at least I'm learning something from TV.