Witchcraft!

[claidheamhmor]

This was in the news the other day:

SAFA 'owe' sangoma R90 000
2011-10-11 14:09

Johannesburg - A sangoma [witchdoctor] claims the South African Football Association (SAFA) owes him R90 000 for providing the "magic" to beat France in the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the Daily Sun reported on Tuesday.

S'bonelo Madela said Bafana Bafana would not win any matches until he got his money, hinting he was responsible for the team's failure to go through to the Africa Cup of Nations finals on Saturday.

"If the national soccer team want to start winning, the SAFA bosses must settle their debt with me first," Madela was quoted as saying.

SAFA vice-president Mwelo Nonkonyane confirmed it had used Madela's services, but said he had already been paid.

"We are going to open a criminal case against this guy," Nonkonyane said in the report.

Neither Nonkonyane nor SAFA spokesperson Morio Sanyane and Gary Mojela could be reached for comment.

Source: Sport24

So SAFA actually used a witchdoctor, and paid him for his services?!!! *boggles*

(And before you lot in First World countries point and laugh, remember that the NHS pays for homoeopathy and other quackery in hospitals, and the US has its fair share too).

Comments

[pcb.livejournal.com]

Recent medical research in Britain (sorry I can't cite a source other than 'via the BBC') shows that convincing patients that somebody is paying attention (even if it's an actor in a white coat) is beneficial to recovery.
But is it ethical to employ a person with no actual ability to help, even if their presence does? If it's organised by qualified professionals, is that any better? Is there a line between belief in the availability of non-existent help and belief in a different sort of non-existent help? Especially when belief in it helps?

[claidheamhmor]

I don't think it's ethical - at least, not paying people large amounts of money to pretend to help, especially when the staff should be paying attention to patients to start with.

[pcb.livejournal.com]

would it be ethical if they did nothing for free, d'y'think, then?

I was fascinated by the original research. It said, effectively, that people respond better to treatment, get better more quickly and have a more positive attitude to hospital if they were treated the way things USED to be done, but which were stopped because it cost too much.

[claidheamhmor]

No, not ethical then either. Still, I can see the benefit of giving sugar pills to hypochondriacs to shut them up. :)

[pcb.livejournal.com]

You should have seen the piece that said even if you TELL people they're placebos, there's still a 'placebo effect' :D

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

and if he uses magic to keep our team from winning, we'll take him to court!

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

In the Roman Empire one of the most common uses of magic was to curse rival chariot teams.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

Nancy Reagan employed an astrologer.

[suibhne-geilt.livejournal.com]

Every administration has employed economists. :-D

[gsl.livejournal.com]

In 2008 we had an episode here in Norway where a Member of the parliament (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saera_Khan) was chastized for calling fortunetellers using a phone paid for by the government.

[claidheamhmor]

The Reagan presidential decisions don't seem to have been any worse than those of most other presidents... :)

[gsl.livejournal.com]

A few years ago it surfaced that one of the football teams in northern Norway had gotten help to win matches through witchcraft from a local sami shaman, though I don't remember if it actually worked, and can't bring myself to care enough about football to look it up.

I think you'll find superstitious people no matter what world you live in.

[claidheamhmor]

Yep, that's for sure...