Discipline dilemma-to beat or not to beat children

Having a well needed weekend off, I am leafing though VOW(Voice of Women)a Nepali magazine and I read:

Discipline is an uncomfortable element that exist between parents and children. When your children through a tantrum, when they don't listen to you, you might as well want to give them a slap or two because the belief that 'beating children for behaving badly is normal' is entrenched in our culture. News that students have been severely beaten for the violation of rules at school continues to make headlines.

The article then proceeds by offering some effective disciplinary actions(not beating)and give reasons for not beating such as the child will learn violence is an accepted way to solve problems..

I don't know how to react to this. On one hand I think it is positive that this is being talked about in a feature article but the major part of me just feel sad that in(I imagine)"modern" magazine for women this is not a subject from the past. At lest they are discussing it.

*I continue leafing through the magazine*

I am amazed at the number of ads marketing a whitening product. Whitening as in making your skin whiter. And not only to make you face "five shades whiter" but also your tan line from your t-shirt or you legs or whatever part of your body that has been exposed to the sun. There are even product to whiten your armpits(as in your deodorant)! AND there is a feature story about a competition sponsored by the company Fair and Lovely and the winner do indeed long fair and lovely. Maybe I react so much to this because I am of a pale/pink constitution myself. A fair skinned Sweden ends up in a country filled with amazingly beautiful women who i can not for my life understand why they would like to change it but maybe it is equally strange to understand the tanning industry back home.

The articles on Urticaria(hives),Why Men Want Taken Women, Breast Power exercises, self defense against somebody trying to choke you from behind, Love and Sex in the time of pornography could have been found in any magazine back home but then I come across a question from an anonymous women. She needs marital advice as she has had three daughters and her husband is very angry at her for not producing a son. She has just given birth and he is blaming her. She feels very weak and don't think her body can take another birth. They live(very commonly)with his family and she writes that her in laws are supportive of her. The answer comes: look after yourself and your little one and please note that the inability to produce a son lies mostly in the male chromosomes. He wont probably listen to that though. We are happy you have a supportive family, best of luck.

So, I am again learning that just when I think I understand a bit of this culture I realize there is so much to learn. And maybe also accepting that there are things I actually do not like. At all.