When demons attack

Well, «a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/200407070035.html" target="_blank"»this is a story«/a» you don't see every day:«blockquote»Primary school in Kiboga district was closed in May after parents reported that their children were being attacked by demons.

Bisika Primary School, located in Butemba sub-county, was later re-opened but the pupils continued to live in fear. Another demon attack was reported on June 29, in the same school.«/blockquote»
Sounds serious. Fortunately, the local government sprang into action.«blockquote»The parents accused Isma Sserunkuuma, a man, who lives near the school, of bringing the demons locally known as mayembe. They said Sserunkuma wanted the demons from a witchdoctor to help him acquire wealth.

Acting on the parents' report, the Kiboga resident district commissioner (rdc), Margaret Kasaija, ordered for the arrest of Sserunkuuma and the closure of the school until the demons would be driven out of the school. Sserunkuuma is still in detention.«/blockquote»
This is serious! It's terrible that demons are being unleashed by greedy men in the pursuit of material wealth. I'm sure there's a leftie metaphor in all of this, but the possibilities are just too great to be ignored. What if demons really existed, along with other destructive spiritual based phenomena? What would the headlines of our local papers look like? "Four homeless found undead under I45 overpass", "Zombie causes road closure along Milam and Rusk", "Vampires staked out at Wheeler MetroRail station".

It would be a lowlevel constant threat, one that could be lived with, like the common cold or flu. Kids could still play in parks, and would be taught not to trust smelly strangers. The vampires would integrate very well, even here in Houston, where they could feed with the rest of the goth wannabees at #'s. Civilization would carry on, and mayors could run on a platform of undead extermination, assuming of course that there aren't any liberal (or rightwing) organizations that would protest such acts. PETZ, People for the Ethical Treatment of Zombies.

Alas, such a world does not exist, only in movies. The dead do not come back to life to feast on the living. Demons do not actually stalk young girls, here or in Africa. Such superstitions are for the past, and I always think that our advanced civilization has failed in some way, in an age where these reports of demonic infestation appear on my desk, on my monitor, almost as it happens. On one end of the link, there's me, the pinnacle of human evolution and master of the technological, and at the other end, a bunch of people ignorant of the real world, tormented by hysteria and superstition.

Of course it is selfish of me to think that way. The diversity of beliefs and cultures must be maintained, and I would hate to oppress anyone with air conditioning and the drudgery of a nine to five job.