You have to appreciate the fact that helping strangers really goes against human nature, it's only a tiny minority of people who will go out of their way to "run toward the sound of the guns". It's not specific to any ethnicity, I've seen White people walk around a disabled man who'd fallen over while an Islamic woman ran across the road to help him, I've also been one of two White people to run to the aid of an Islamic woman who'd upended her pram in the road while a nearby group of Islamic women stared but didn't move a muscle even though they were closer. There's no advantage to helping strangers,I'm sure those of us who will act straight away are taught how to react and in these situations the training takes over or the skills are learned via being in confronting situations. I was in St Johns Ambulance for years but who's to say that other life experiences don't instill that almost automatic response, maybe that Islamic woman in the above example had seen a lot in her life and started to move automatically. Being able to manage that rush of fear and adrenalin when you see someone injured or in trouble is a skill that has to be learned I don't believe it's instinctive so maybe there is hope for some educational approach to this issue.

The author is commenting on India and the current rape controversy, however it could really be about many other countries too.

These days many people are too frightened to get involved with violent disputes/crimes they may come upon.

Women all over the world have trouble getting convictions for their rapists, and are often painted as sluts for 'luring' their rapists to attack them somehow.

I would suggest the only reason this Indian rape case looks as if it will be successful in getting a conviction is because a man ( the victims boyfriend) was witness to the rape, and was assaulted himself.

Still, it is a start at least, in a country like India where women are often valued less than cattle in rural areas, and where female baby abortions are common place.

I dare say the caste system results in many untold atrocities in India. Here in Australia we put wealth and comfort in front of the unborn while in India cows are more important than humans. Rape against women in India, Africa and in many of our indigeneous communities is silently accepted by those with twisted world views.

To say I am shattered by these revelations would be an understatement. Not in India, surely?! Heavens, it isn't so long ago that the then Foreign Minister Stephen Smith aka 'The Walking Haircut" was making fulsome apologies to India after it alleged Australians were 'racist'. India made the allegation after some Indian students were mugged and robbed in Melbourne. The ever-obliging Smith bent over backwards to enthusiastically agree that robbery of Indian students couldn't be just about easy money for some opportunistic villains, it had to reflect on the whole Aussie population as 'racists'. The Oz commentariat agreed.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/attacks-damaged-australias-reputation-among-indians-smith/articleshow/5637091.cms

First, I believe we should stay out of the affairs of other countries.

Second, it is a mistake to treat this as simply a problem of gender. Although those Westerners who have made careers out of 'gender' would disagree. But they would do that. However it is just one aspect of broad and deep social and economic problems. For instance, around 300,000 people die of tuberculosis annually.

Western feminists would do well to acquaint themselves with the Indian fable of the six blind men and the elephant before leaping into self-righteous affray with their 'solutions'. Here it is, very much abridged,

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.
...

MORAL.

So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen