What year is it?

Sunnis killing Shiites, Shiites killing Sunnis, Christians killing Muslims, Muslims killing Christians.

You'd think it was 1587 not 2006. So we haven't really progressed all that much.

Oh sure, we have the Internet, 700 channels of satellite television, instant messaging with any part of the world and yet, we still find reasons to kill each other. And when we don't have guns? Or bombs to do the job, we manage. Because we're earthlings. Primitive, superstitious and just plain ignorant.

I bring this up because all of us have become so inured to daily reports of religious killing. I'm no different. But this report on CNN really caught my eye. It is a piece about the sectarian killings in Nigeria. And the story is like any other story except that one little paragraph caught my eye. Well, OK, the headline "Corpses burn on streets of Nigerian city" caught my eye too.

Ready?

"Christian mobs, seeking revenge for the killings of Christians in the north, attacked Muslims with cutlasses, destroyed their houses and torched mosques in two days of violence in Onitsha, where at least 93 people have died."

Cutlasses?????? Are you KIDDING me?????

And it was cutlasses....plural!

Where do you buy a cutlass these days? Besides the knife channel, I mean.

Is there a Cutlass Outlet store in Nigeria that I don't know about? Or are there left over armaments from Long John Silver's errant voyage to Nigeria?

Cutlasses??

But it gets better. How is that possible you ask??

Read this story from the Daily Independent in Nigeria.

It describes a world that I cannot begin to fathom.

Allow me a few random quotes from that piece:

"Ogunyemi whose leg was completely cut off by his attackers "

And you worry about yellow waxy buildup on your coffee table....

"He was stripped naked and beaten to a state of coma before he was bundled inside a bus and taken to the Eleyele Police headquarters in Ibadan where he has since been in detained."

I presume "he" is still in a coma, even in detention at police headquarters.

"Last week the entire city of Ibadan was held hostage by series of attacks by Tokyo men who held motorists hostage with violent display of guns, cutlasses, charms, amulet and other dangerous weapons...."

Well...we can't have people walking around threatening you with "amulets" now can we?!!!!

So the point today is, the next time you drive to the Wal-Mart, in your air conditioned SUV, to shop in a large, clean, well stocked food store, take a moment, drop to your knees and kiss the ground with gratitude that no one tried to hack your leg off with a cutlass or threatened you with an amulet.

Of course, I'd be wary of that ham and cheese omelette at the IHOP.