I’d like to know where Kalpana Anokhi gets the idea that Scarlett was “sluttish”?

Doesn’t her diary state the she was monogamous at the time – having a relationship with only one man?

So where does the “sex addict” come in here? Im lost.

Also, teenagers the world over experiment with drugs. Just because you smoke a spliff or drop a tab every once in a while at a party does not qualify you as a “drug addict”.

Drug addiction has very specific characterisitics, Kalpana.

So where did you get these “addiction” ideas from?

I’ll tell you what I agree with and what I don’t.

Here are the Dalrymple comments;

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“Nevertheless, what the mother said in response to a senior Goanese policeman’s remarks, to the effect that foreign women ought to be more careful in Goa, strikes me as the very acme of immaturity, unpleasantly leavened with arrogance.

She said,

If they are saying it’s dangerous for British people, then it’s the government’s responsibility to warn people. There should be signs up, but there aren’t. Instead, it’s advertised as a hippy paradise, so you don’t feel it’s dangerous when you walk around.
Even allowing for the guilt that the mother must be feeling, this is a remarkable statement.

What she appears to be implying is that British visitors are so important that foreign governments have the duty to protect them at all times of the day and night from the consequences of their own behaviour, however unattractive, degraded and irresponsible it might be; and that, in the absence of official warning notices, parents should assume that it is safe and proper to leave their adolescent daughters drinking into the early hours of the morning in unknown company over which they have absolutely no control. The argument seems to go, what is now almost the norm in Britain in the line of crude, vulgar and slatternly disinhibition ought to be accepted everywhere else as the norm as well.

From the behaviour that I have observed of British tourists abroad, Mrs McKeown (the mother of Scarlett Keeling) is far from being alone in her belief. Untold thousands of young British holidaymakers believe that they have the right to behave any way they like in foreign parts, and expect the protection of the foreign authorities while they do so into the bargain.”

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Back To Me;

I understand his point about cultural sensitivity when travelling abroad. God knows I had to change almost everything about me when I moved to India, and that is why I’ve returned to my country of birth – to get my real personality back.

However, when a place such as Goa is advertising itself as a tourist destination, those who advertise it as such, whether it be the Government or the tourist agencies or both, DO INDEED HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY to inform tourists about the local norms of it’s culture, and of course, have a duty to inform about any possible dangers.

In many places around the world young people partying and having sexual partners is an accepted part of the culture. Naturally when people go on vacation they want to have fun and to many people, partying and meeting a new boyfriend or girlfriend are part of that. It may not be accepted in India, and that is where India needs to inform it’s tourists from abroad about what are acceptable norms. Then the tourists can decide whether or not they want to go to India or somewhere else instead.

I have read that some place in Rajasthan, maybe Jaipur, has produced such a brochure informing the out-of-towners that public drinking of alcohol, public displays of affection, heck, even helping a woman out of the car! and a few such other things ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE NORMS and could possibly be met with misunderstanding, disapproval and overall bad vibes from the locals.

This is a very good idea. Romantic honeymooners would then know that it’s probably not a place they want to stay in for very long and plan the rest of their honeymoon somewhere else. (Perhaps Bombay, where it’s ok to hold your husband’s hand, geez.)

So, Goa needs to start doing the same thing.

When I go to an ashram community in India, because it is not advertising itself as a “fun vacation getaway”, I know that a certain atmosphere of religious focus is what I will be met with. However Goa??? Come on!
It advertises itself as a free and easy place of fun and frolic. Well, maybe that needs to change, because what is considered “fun” by a large population of young people the world over – drinks, drugs, dancing and sex – is now something those very tourists are getting criticised for…. so India, MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!!!!

Just as tourists must make some effort to conform to local norms when they travel, those local cultures and environments must make some effort to INFORM the tourists BEFORE THEY GET THERE, on what the local norms are.

Or is Goa afraid it will be bad for business for tourists to know their little “paradise” is almost just as socially repressive for women as Udaipur?

Anyway, the crime should have been dealt with promptly and scientifically with DNA testing. The perps needed to be brought to justice immediately thereafter.

None of this has been done.

Whether or not this girl did drugs, drank or slept with your father and all of his brothers makes no difference.

Whether or not her mother was an attentive parent or not, makes no difference. A crime was committed.

You can bet a million US green-card dollars that Fiona has sharpened her parenting skills after this. Duh. Who wouldn’t? It doesn’t take a genious or Indian newspapers to make a mother who lost her daughter to murder become over-protective of her other children for the rest of her life.

Having been to India several times and spent much of my life there, there is NO WAY I would allow my kids the same freedoms there that I would here in USA. No effin way.

The very first time you exit Indira Gandhi International Airport is enough of an experience to tell you, “this place is NOT safe!!!”

That her mother was trusting enough to allow her daughter to stay with a “family friend” – a young Indian man of 25 -while she travelled elsewhere for a bit just shows that she knows NOTHING of the typcial Indian male mentality towards goris.

That is innoncence (or ignorance) on her part.

I would NEVER trust a young Indian man – with anything!

While both favorable and opposing viewpoints are essential thye should not be permitted to use another’s blog space as their own. They should be restricted to “comments” and readers left free to search and read the commenter’s blogs/sites themselves if they so wish.

Darlymple seems to be another misogynist. I am sorry he is so venerated by Indian women!

Firstly let me congratulate you for posting that wonderful comment. Seldom have I come across a more rational comment in the Indian blogosphere. Frankly I believe you should have charged a fee for it. But having said that and as you are going to realize, your intended audience sadly isn’t worth the time.

A couple of very trivial disagreements: certainly while Fiona can be booked for Negligent conduct (not misconduct), I am not sure if her behaviour would amount to culpable homicide (Indian Penal Code 299/300). There was no intent to harm in anyway and if there was, there is no means to legally prove it before the judiciary. Hence the charge isn’t legally viable.

Your charge (b) i.e. Charge of involuntary manslaughter in the second degree against Fiona McKeown for the crime of extraordinary parental neglect [a less serious felony punishable by a jail sentence] is unfortunately not valid for India because all culpable homicides (Indian equivalent term) must be seconded by a punishable crime. In India, unlike elsewhere, there isn’t a penal code for parental neglect i.e. a law to punish the parent for not caring or in this case not caring enough for their children. This is partly because it has been internalized as socio-cultural decree. It simply reflects how unique a mother is Fiona for and in India.

However I gather from friends in India that there is one law in the pipeline – esp focusing on deliberate abortion -in- utero of a female child amounting to gross parental misconduct.

But far more importantly, Indian penal code is applicable only to Indian citizens. Hence if she if is charged, eventually she will end up being deported.

Obviously lots of amendments are called for.

I don’t know if the case has been transferred to CBI, which I am expecting to happen, but regardless here is what I think should happen now wrt case:

1. The investigating team should legally prove what exactly was the crime? Was it rape? I ask this because I have not come across any remarks in the media that convincingly ruled out consent.

2. Was it murder? As in the perpetrators actually intended to kill the victim or was it just culpable homicide amounting to murder? Or just wrongful death?

1 and 2 could stem from my own ignorance and from not following the issue regularly.

3. In any case, if there have been charges of rape and murder with evidence (as I think is the case), the perpetrator and direct accomplices in the crimes must get a life term.

4. Fiona Mcewan has to be politely informed that in light of her carefree lifestyle not acceptable with that of the land, either she should legally avow her responsibility towards her other minor children before a judge in a court of law or be willing to pay a legally fixed sum of money to the state to act as in loco parentis while she is away on her adventurous trips.
5. Failing this- Goa has to contact the relevant executive in charge at the centre recommending a termination of her visa.

All of course after the investigations are concluded.

6. And in light of the event, the law has to be amended, more relevantly in Goa, to include a clause that the state wouldn’t be responsible for the likes of Fiona. and her reckless lifestyles.

7. And finally as a sop for the masses and your students referred above, we can commission someone to erect a stone-sculpture at Anjuna which would be tell to the world, the tales of the great Mom and her daughter and how sadly India failed them.

Regards.

Sunil

* The Shaming of Scarlett and Fiona: Part I [Comments]
* The Shaming of Scarlett and Fiona: Part II [Comments]
* Boycott of Sulekha over shaming of Scarlett and Fiona [Comments] ]

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There is much that can be said on the issue that may not be true because contrary points of view have already appeared where there was no evidence. A lot of stones go unturned in many murders and crimes against both women and men because of how the circumstantial evidence is framed. There is not much that can be done about attitudes in general, other than write about it and make a hue and cry. However, when this voice is heard long, it gets stronger, and as always with human beings, things improve, but slowly. Such violence (whether against women, children or men) will come under control, eventually and probably very gradually.