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Deleted member jedakk
Guest
Good job! Sometimes you witness things that you really didn't want to see, that stay with you all of your life. Sometimes they contribute to make up who you are.
I was lucky enough not to ever be forced to watch an execution. I knew others who went, just to see, maybe to find out what they would feel watching someone's life pass out of their body, maybe thinking they'll feel more alive themselves for the experience. People have always done that whether it was under the guise of a public execution or a show in the Roman Colloseum.
One of the places I worked seemed to be a major site for executions, often having five beheadings at a time. I never went, but others did. One of my friends attended one and upon his return tried to describe what he'd seen. Apparently the shock of what he'd seen was too much, and he collapsed. It turned out that he had some pre-existing heart problems that were apparently aggravated by the stress. He died two days later.
I remember one of my Saudi friends describing one of those executions at that place. He said that when the executioner swung his sword, the man's head rolled and bounced a little distance like a soccer ball. He cringed at the memory when he told me that. The executioner had his young son there with him, perhaps eight years old; he told him "Go fetch that." The boy hurriedly walked over and picked up the head and brought it back to his father.
One of the two English language newspapers in Saudi Arabia is The Arab News. It's gotten a lot better over the past few years as there were less restrictions on what they could print. Some years ago, they began doing some investigative reporting, with some very interesting articles on things like the Jeddah public library - they had trouble finding it, gravediggers, and one amazing article on a public executioner. You can read that here:
http://www.arabnews.com/node/228410
I was lucky enough not to ever be forced to watch an execution. I knew others who went, just to see, maybe to find out what they would feel watching someone's life pass out of their body, maybe thinking they'll feel more alive themselves for the experience. People have always done that whether it was under the guise of a public execution or a show in the Roman Colloseum.
One of the places I worked seemed to be a major site for executions, often having five beheadings at a time. I never went, but others did. One of my friends attended one and upon his return tried to describe what he'd seen. Apparently the shock of what he'd seen was too much, and he collapsed. It turned out that he had some pre-existing heart problems that were apparently aggravated by the stress. He died two days later.
I remember one of my Saudi friends describing one of those executions at that place. He said that when the executioner swung his sword, the man's head rolled and bounced a little distance like a soccer ball. He cringed at the memory when he told me that. The executioner had his young son there with him, perhaps eight years old; he told him "Go fetch that." The boy hurriedly walked over and picked up the head and brought it back to his father.
One of the two English language newspapers in Saudi Arabia is The Arab News. It's gotten a lot better over the past few years as there were less restrictions on what they could print. Some years ago, they began doing some investigative reporting, with some very interesting articles on things like the Jeddah public library - they had trouble finding it, gravediggers, and one amazing article on a public executioner. You can read that here:
http://www.arabnews.com/node/228410