The Archive

Old news

One of the side effects of writing this blog is my recent habit of tearing bits out of newspapers if they register on my blog-o-meter (patent pending).

Of course, being me, I then forget about said bits of paper and, some weeks later when I'm wearing that jacket again, I dig them out, wonder what the hell that was all about and continue blithely with my day.

I just discovered one such paper, so you're getting old news I'm afraid, as it is at least easier than making something new up.

Anyway, some unknown period of time ago, three men were arrested in China for selling women.

Specifically, they bought a woman for an arranged marriage (£785, if you're interested. It doesn't say whether this represented a bargain or otherwise however) and then sold her on to her new husband-to-be's relatives.

Now here's the kicker. The husband was corpse. The woman, on the other hand, was very much not. Until the guys who bought her got their hands on her, that is.

Confused? I don't blame you.

Here's what happened. Apparently there's an old Chinese belief that men who die unmarried should be buried with a deceased woman who will become their wife in the afterlife.

So, to cater for the demand for deceased singletons, these dudes bought one woman and killed her (and killed another couple of prostitutes later for good measure), to sell for marriage.

Seriously, what kind of world is it we live in when a woman is worth more as a bride dead than she is alive? Shocking.

There is, as you might expect from someone as unpleasant as myself, a funny side of course. When caught, the guilty party allegedly said the following...

I did it for the money. It was a quick buck. If I hadn't slipped up early, I planned to do a few more.

It is just me or does that sound a little too Scooby Doo to be real? He's just an inch away from declaring 'I would have got away with it too, if it hadn't been for you pesky kids'.

I can't help thinking this chap might just have 'had a nasty fall, son' before signing that confession.

Anyway, that's it for today. Have a super weekend my internet chums.

posted by Peter The Great @ 8:14 PM