Much can be said about cultures as practised by the peoples of the world. One aspect that in particular consumes many words is the argument as to whether some cultures are better than others. It’s a value judgement that should or shouldn’t be made.

Depends entirely on your point of view as to how you vote on this!

Here’s one to judge if you feel strongly enough. The current President of South Africa is facing the culture police at the moment. The question being asked is whether it is right for him to practice polygamy in a modern society such as South Africa. Not only that, should he be chastised for his numerous extra-marital offspring.

Just as an aside, and for the pleasure of throwing a curveball, doesn’t it take two to tango? Women are prepared to live in polygamy and produce babies with a married man. Why is nobody wondering about that? And sure there are some countries where the women do not have a choice, but they do in South Africa.

Would you consider polygamy bad? In other words is having more than one wife morally reprehensible? What about Tiger Woods and all his activities outside the marital bedroom? Is that bad? If not why are his sponsors leaving him in droves…

Where does the concept of being faithful to one partner come from one wonders. It’s somewhere in the commandments of course. Don’t drool over your neigbour’s wife is written on one of the tablets.

Monogamy is not only dictated to by the Christian faith. Other societies and nations, for instance  Vietnam, that are not predominantly Christian also oppose polygamy.  On the other hand Muslims seem to support polygamy.  Check this map for the world wide acceptance or not of polygamy.

Of course one can argue that polygamy could have been a necessity. During war filled years many men were killed in battle leaving a whole bunch of widows unattended to. Some men took pity on them and brought them into their private harem. This definitely worked for some.

But is that still necessary? In a country such as South Africa where women have rights and opportunities do they still have to have a husband to look after them? One would imagine that argument hardly applies.

Having speculated about all of the above, and leaving out many further valid points that could be made both pro and con the culture debate and where polygamy fits into it, there’s one last point to be made here.

Does it really matter whether Jacob Zuma the current South African President has four or even six wives plus 20 kids some made with non-wives?

Who really cares? And as for Tiger Woods. Please, get a life.