Circumcision nutters tout their fetish as a necessity which offers a
slew of medical benefits.  However, scratch beneath the surface and
you discover a homo-erotic undercurrent; the procedure is about
exerting power over others and initiation.

The medical claptrap put forward to promote the bizarre practice of
circumcision is simply a smokescreen.

Here we have a news article from South Africa about a bunch of men who
are miffed because they're prevented from getting their hands on young
boys so they can mutilate their genitals.

Nice work if you can get it, I guess.

<http://www.weekendpost.co.za/article.aspx?id=491349>:

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DISGRUNTLED Eastern Cape traditional leaders want the Health
Department to relinquish all powers vested in it to save initiates’
lives during the forthcoming summer initiation season.

The traditional leaders recently launched a bid to have the
Application of Health Standards in Traditional Circumcision Act
amended.

About 54 boys died and 13 others lost their genitals because of
botched circumcisions during the winter circumcision season in
Transkei.

Areas affected included Ngqeleni, Libode, Lusikisiki and Qumbu.

One effect in the Act, passed by the Eastern Cape legislature in 2001
to address problems relating to the custom, was that traditional
leaders were made to play fringe roles.

Congress of Traditional Leaders of SA (Contralesa) provincial
secretary Chief Xolile Ndevu said this week the leaders wanted
“complete power” to drive the tradition.

According to the Act, traditional surgeons and their attendants cannot
perform circumcisions unless they are approved by a medical officer
appointed by the department. No initiation school may operate before
obtaining permission from the local medical officer.

Ndevu said he felt government had given too much power to the Health
Department to run the tradition.

“We say the Act should be amended and depict clearly what role the
Health Department should play. They mustn’t hand all powers to the
department.

“Boys should go to a hospital for check-ups before going to the bush,
but everything else should fall under our jurisdiction as traditional
leaders.

“All these years we have been begging the department to have this Act
amended, but to no avail.”

Although he would not say much, Contralesa chairman Chief Ngubo
Mgcotyelwa confirmed that the bid to have the Act amended was an
“ongoing” initiative.

However, provincial Health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said this week his
department would not back down, and would continue to intervene in the
custom. “We will continue to play our part as long as there is a
problem that is health-related.”

He claimed the department was not interested in running the practice
itself. “The only thing we are concerned about is the health of these
young boys who go to the bush. So any goal that is aimed at protecting
their lives is welcomed by the department,” he said.

Kupelo brushed off claims that the Act had given the department too
much power over traditional leaders regarding the custom. He said the
only problem traditional leaders had with them was probably “that we
are too good in what we do” (protecting the lives of initiates).

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