Mythbusting: A Boy’s Broken Arm
Posted by Daren Jaques on March 25, 2008
by Daren Jaques
I received the following email forward yesterday along with some anti Islamic ranting that sounded like some toothless redneck had written it with the help of his wife-sister. I think out of the hundreds of forwards I’ve verified through Snopes, only ONE has ever been true. Anyway, here is the basic text of the email (without the redneck rant part) :
Dear Friends,
My first reaction to these pictures was “I don´t believe this, it must be a photographic trick”.
Unfortunately, the truth seems evident, a little boy gets punished because he has stolen bread and they drive a heavy vehicle over his arm ….
What do you do when you receive a series of pictures like this? You ignore them???? Delete and think, thank God I am not living in Iran? This does not happen in my world ….
But the world is OURS - whether we live in Portugal, Sweden or in Iran. OUR children grow up in this world.
I feel helpless but I don´t want to think I received these pictures for no reason. Therefore, let´s use the power of the computer and internet to spread the information around the world. Maybe it can save some children from abuse in the future …???
Ignorance can be defeated …. And the internet is a wonderful weapon.
Snopes indicates that the photos are real, but it is not a punishment; rather, it is a stunt done by a magician in which the child is a confederate to the trick - hence the looks as though he is in pain.
You know, there are real atrocities occurring in Islamic countries. Forwarding fake ones just diminishes the believability and gravity of the actual human rights violations. If someone forwards you this kind of garbage, send them the Snopes link and ask them to stop spamming you.
March 25, 2008 at 10:38 am
Ok, before I scrolled down to read what was under the pictures, I was thinking: if this was a punishment, why is he not fighting. There are no guns pointed at him. Also, why the cushion under his arm? They didn’t want to get blood on the ground during his punishment? I am aware that I have grown up in a much different place, but if someone tried to run over my arm (and I wasn’t getting a crap load of money) I would certainly fight back.
March 25, 2008 at 11:42 am
What do you think about this characterization?
http://revision3.com/lilsuperstar/2008-03-24war
(The page has some cursing so may be NSFW)
March 27, 2008 at 11:27 am
Right right Daren.
All I know is that after I get my check in the mail from Bill Gates for forwarding on those emails sent by him, I will never work another day in my life! You can say you knew me when.
September 14, 2008 at 4:44 pm
ok . . i live in iran and i know every thing about this picture.
they do these works for fun to make others laughing
don’t think any more about that