Sunday, September 28, 2008

caning led to koro?



"koro is also thought to be transmitted through food. in 1967, there was a koro epidemic in singapore after newspapers reported cases of koro due to eating pork which came from a pig that had been inoculated against swine fever. not only did pork sales go down, but hundreds of koro cases followed. the power of the press to cause panic was matched by their equal power to quell the imbalance they had caused. they gave ample access to the singapore medical association and ministry of health who convinced the people that koro was a result of fear, thus ending the epidemic."

the eating pork theory did not hold water because a small number of malays and those belonging to other races were also hit by the epidemic. it was the fear that gripped a lot of men, especially those who were not very well-endowed. already they did not have something that they could crow about and if that should retract, then what would be left.

there was an incident which happened many years after the epidemic had passed which reinforced my belief that koro did not afflict the chinese exclusively. this malay boy was punished by the discipline master for some serious breach of the school discipline. he was caned on the buttocks. the discipline teacher, though small in physical stature, wielded the cane powerfully.

sometime after the pain was inflicted, the boy reported to his parents that his organ appeared to be shrinking. he was taken to a doctor for a proper examination. the doctor suspected that it was koro. thankfully, the boy recovered and everything returned to normal.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yg, maybe u can tell me when did school banned public canning and what kind of offenses allow canning?

The last time i saw one was in 1070 when a boy was caught for stealing and the principal canned the poor boy on his buttocks after he was allowed to select his cane in the classroom. From that day we hated the school principal for this kind of act.

Icemoon said...

I thought public canning still exist, during school assembly. Won't name the school, but logically it is more possible to happen in a boys' school.

yg said...

i don't caning has not been banned in schools in singapore. it is carried out more judiciously and as a last resort. there is more administrative work to be carried out before the school metes out this form of punishment. the parents of the student has to be informed and their consent given before the school goes ahead with the caning. witness or witnesses have to be present and the act must be properly documented.

Anonymous said...

Intresting to read this. Apparently Koro was a condition experienced by males who believed that a disease was making their gentials shrink. Receiving the cane at prep school certainly made mine shrink - temporarily, with fear and anticipation, as I stood with my trousers and pants down waiting as my housemaster swished and flexed the cane he had selected for my punishment. The caning itself seemed to make everything even smaller and tighter, including my anus, which I clenched shut desperately on every stroke. As I stood there afterwards whimpering and running my hands over the welts afterwards I noticed something about my housemaster - well, actually, his trousers. They were bulging enormously at the front! I wondered what had caused this phenomenon.

After my next caning some four months later, I discovered what had caused the bulge......