Taliban blocks UN polio treatment in Pakistan

[Coventina]

Source: The Telegraph

Miliants in northern Pakistan have triggered a medical emergency by refusing to allow health officials to conduct a polio vaccination campaign.

Taliban militants in the former tourist destination of Swat Valley have obstructed officials from vaccinating over 300,000 children.

Militants have seized control of most of Swat and its capital, Mingora, and have extended their rule since striking a peace deal with the government and army earlier this year.

“There is a real emergency there. It is urgent to go in and vaccinate children,” said Dr Nima Abid, the Polio Team leader from the World Health Organisation in Pakistan.



Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/5057026/Taliban-blocks-UN-polio-treatment-in-Pakistan.html

[msongs]

1. so where is the outrage in the arab/muslim world over these nuts who have hijacked islam? nt

[Sultana]

4. No where but if you draw Mohammed cartoons...

you better watch out.


:eyes:

[nradisic]

2. beyond ignorance

Why are we surprised that totally uneducated and religiously brainwashed poor people behave in such a way? Education is the key for the whole world.

[Coventina]

3. How do you "fix" people who throw acid on little girls for going to school? n/t

[Posteritatis]

14. The ones who take it that far? The same way you fix any other rabid animal (nt)

[ohio2007]

5. a pox on their house. nt

[santamargarita]

6. What is the difference between Republicans and the Taliban

I can't find anything. And if you talk about bombings, what about abortion clinics and Oklahoma City.

[Igel]

10. Quantitative and qualitative.

However, there are those who have no vested interest in actually pursuing the differences, and many others who would only care if the former wrote about it. The result is a group hermetically sealed against outside influence, and who take Taliban-like vengeance against having their in-group codes violated.

For example: Check out the number of people killed today in the mosque, and then compare it to the number of (1) Muslims killed after the horrendous cross-country pogrom against Muslims fomented by the rabid right-wing in the US after 9/11; (2) the number of people killed by the Taliban-wing of the "christofascist" party from 1990 to the present. That'll give you a clue about the quantitative aspect. Now, to hammer home the point, consider the number of people in the NWFP and Pakhtun areas of Afghanistan versus the number of people in the US.

For a qualitative example, you could research what's actually said by people who do abortion-clinic bombers and their fellow-travellers versus what the Taliban say about those they killed today. The first mostly claim to be defending life and punishing murderers (a few are just loons, with little support in any identifiable community); what's said is, in principle, something we can identify with even if we think that the life they're defending isn't really life, their definition of 'murderer' is wrong, and the punishment is excessive and vigilante-like--it's not the principle that's at issue, it's the application. While the details are crucial, at a certain level of abstraction we nonetheless agree: This, of course, isn't something we like admitting in polite society because, well, we have a psychological need to condemn those not in our honor group (in this, we are all Taliban-like). The Taliban claim that those killed are collaborators with the government, and, in all likelihood, collaboration with the infidel. What's being protected isn't life, but a kind of group boundary: Whether it's the "tribe" formed by allegiance to Baitullah Mehsud, the imposition of and allegiance to a specific kind of Islam, or allegiance to "Islam" as some sort of Form sharply opposed to everything non-Islamic and therefore un-Islamic, probably varies by the Talib you talk to.

[Coventina]

11. Excellent post!

:thumbsup:

[leftynyc]

12. Really?

Are republicans blowing up girl's schools and throwing acid in the faces of girls who just wish to be educated? Are they preventing people from being vaccinated? Are they insisting that woman cover themselves hed to toe or get beaten or arrested. The pukes aren't my cup of tea either but to compare them with the animals in the Taliban makes no sense whatsoever.

[JudyInTheHeartland]

19. Semantics

Republicans support bombing campaigns and economic embargoes that kill/maim as many if not more people than the Taliban has. It's time for Obama to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan and stop supporting this illegal war, lest the blood be on his hands also.

[Johnyawl]

7. It's beginning to look like the taliban is a self correcting problem.

Adopting 12th century medical practices to go along with their 12th century religious dogma will put some limits on the long term life span of their movement.

[Posteritatis]

13. They're "correcting" too many other people as well, though (nt)

[jeff30997]

8. I wouldn't be surprised to...

learn that they started to cut off the arms of the children who have been vaccinated.



Maniacs !

[WriteDown]

9. THIS IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO...

Vaccines are evil and do nothing.


Before I forget. :sarcasm:

[provis99]

15. how come this shit happens in Pakistan, but not in Bangladesh?

I mean, they were both part of Pakistan until 1971, but I never hear of this stupidity cropping up in Bangladesh. Is Pakistani culture just generally retarded, or what?

[ohio2007]

16. maybe some day,if enough people turn a blind eye, it will

Amnesty international won't run with this story imo

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=788_1238244410

[ohio2007]

22. Bangladeshi police investigating a madrassa established by a British charity (weapons uncovered.)

'We are very afraid after this'
Bangladeshi police are investigating a madrassa (or Islamic theological school) established by a British charity where a cache of weapons was uncovered.


snip

And a villager known as Sohidul explained: "They said there would be an orphanage, a madrassa and a hospital - we were very happy."

No-one ever suspected militant activity at the complex.

Assistant Superintendent of police H M Azimul Haque is leading the investigation team.

snip

Nitul Dey, a businessman I met on the ferry, said: "I no longer feel safe as they can throw a bomb in a busy marketplace full of innocent people, now safety has become a major concern for many of us.


"I do not understand why these educated people are doing these things when they are living relatively better than us."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7969558.stm

They will strike only where they can afford to reach

[LeftishBrit]

27. This isn't all of Pakistan; it's specific areas where the Taliban has some control

[JI7]

30. maybe that's why Bangladesh wanted independence

while they were part of the same country there were many differences.

Bangladesh does have a lot of problems though.

[christx30]

17. So...

the choices we are are... Use diplomacy with fanatical people that KNOW they are right about what they are talking about, even though they don't.
Or we could force our way in there and force them to adopt our ways (you know... vaccinating their children) and violate their beliefs.
Or we could stand by and do nothing. Watch the population get polio and get weak. Then thier army would be weak and we could stroll in there in 10 years.
Which solution would you like us to do?
The people in power are jerks.

[Posteritatis]

23. When it comes to epidemic disease I'm in the "violate their beliefs" school

My cultural relativism has its limits, and encouraging the spread of polio is on the other side of that line.

[pettypace]

18. Let the Taliban cure them their way

Why is the UN interfering in the affairs of these people.

If they wish not to immune their offspring to potential disease, let them reap the consequences. Little do they know they're wiping themselves off the map by this action.

Anyway, its Al Qaeda we should focus on, not Taliban.

The US' number one goal is to keep Al Qaeda representatives from infiltrating the United States. How difficult could this assignment be to implement? Get those 300k combat troops out of Iraq and Afghan and station them at the southern, northern, and coastal borders of our mainland.

[cali]

21. wow. disgusting stupidity and ignorance.

[otohara]

29. Yep

super stupid

[LeftishBrit]

26. Unfortunately, disease knows no borders

If a significant number of people are unvaccinated, they can spread polio more widely.

It was getting fairly close to being eradicated, but between world poverty and religious lunacy it's making a comeback.

[ohio2007]

20. Taliban abduct 11 Pakistani policemen ( guess the Pak govt broke the peace deal...again ..)

Taliban abduct 11 Pakistani policemen 29 Mar 2009 11:50:16 GMT
Source: Reuters
LANDIKOTAL, Pakistan, March 29 (Reuters) - Taliban militants kidnapped 11 Pakistani policemen on Sunday in an attack on a security post in the Khyber region on the Afghan border, a government spokesman said.

The kidnapping came two days after a suicide bomber killed 37 people in an attack on a mosque in the region, through which pass vital supplies for U.S. and other Western forces in Afghanistan.

"Militants came to the Shin Qamar checkpost before dawn and disarmed our policemen and then bundled them into vehicles," said Rahat Gul, a spokesman for the Khyber administration.

Gul said the militants had not issued any demands: "We've launched a search but there's been no progress."

Militant violence has surged in Pakistan since mid-2007, with numerous attacks on the security forces and on government and Western targets.


http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL42041.htm

[LeftishBrit]

24. What are their reasons?

Anti-UN? Religious objections to vaccination? Or just wanting to be as obstructive as possible.

Disgusting people, anyway.

[Posteritatis]

28. Obstructive as possible and pseudo-religious reasons, mainly

The idiots who decided to bring polio back in western Africa used the same "it's an imperialist crusader plot to destroy Islam" bullshit, though they weren't as violent about it as the Taliban are wont to be.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

25. Next- the return of leper colonies...

:cry: :cry: :cry:

[ohio2007]

31. California schools' risks rise as vaccinations drop

A rising number of California parents are choosing to send their children to kindergarten without routine vaccinations, putting hundreds of elementary schools in the state at risk for outbreaks of childhood diseases eradicated in the U.S. years ago



http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-immunization29-2009mar29,0,3148179.story