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India-Pakistan
1.2 million children to be at the mercy of polio virus
2009-01-21
Around 1.2 million Pakistani children of a lesser god, under the age of five years, is at the risk of becoming victim of the ongoing militancy and subsequent military operations in some areas of the country, as these kids are unlikely to get the polio drops during the first round of polio vaccination campaign in 2009 launched on Monday.
The heart [burp!] burns bleeds.
Even heavy snowfalls in some parts of the AJK and the Northern Areas are said to have added to the problems of health workers, planning to visit these areas to save the children from the looming threat of becoming handicapped for the rest of their lives.
It's too bad they're too inept to run a competent public health program...
What to talk of other violence-torn areas, 377,075 children in Swat district alone would not get polio vaccination during the current campaign, raising instant alarm bells in donor agencies, if not within the Pakistani society and the media that Pakistan might soon see a rising numbers of polio cases as the government had no idea about this shocking human tragedy in the making in the militancy-hit areas of the country.
No doubt everyone will thank Mullah Radio for his contribution to the nation's health and well-being...
Background interviews with several concerned officials revealed that the health authorities were trying to hush up the shocking issue amid the rising political temperature in Islamabad. Even the opposition parties were not interested in the sorry tale of these children. "How can you control the spread of the deadly poliovirus when the government is not ready to halt the ongoing military operation in the NWFP and the Fata to give some space to workers to go and administer the vaccination?" an official source said.
Even if they halted the military operations, the guys with the turbans and automatic weapons would bump off the public health workers as they came in to try and dose the little miniturbans.
He also blamed the religious extremists who, he said, were also playing with the lives of innocent children by not allowing health workers to visit those areas. Neither the government nor the militants are ready to show any mercy to the future generations of these war-torn areas, lamented one source.
Pakistain's a pretty merciless place. So what else is new?

Posted by:Fred

#9  I read an article the other day (here, perhaps?) that families who want their children properly educated -- especially those with daughters -- have been emigrating from the Taliban territories to the more civilized parts of the Land of the Pure. No doubt these same families will ensure that their children are vaccinated. Can an entire region be given a Darwin Award?
Posted by: trailing wife    2009-01-21 19:35  

#8  Around 1.2 million Pakistani children of a lesser god...

Ah-HA! They admit it!!
Posted by: tu3031   2009-01-21 16:22  

#7  Alaska Paul, you are so right. Many years ago I was taught by my first business mentor that sometimes you have to let people fail. Not until then will there be a teachable moment where your advice might be heard.

Of course he followed up by saying "Some of these morons can never be taught, better to leave them to stew in their own juice."
Posted by: AlanC   2009-01-21 09:20  

#6  Either they die on their own or take some of us with them. I'm gonna go with not real sad about this one.
Posted by: Hellfish   2009-01-21 08:22  

#5  Send them crutches. Very difficult to fire a Kalashnikov effectively while on crutches.
Posted by: Besoeker   2009-01-21 07:22  

#4  Live like in the 7th century, die like in the 7th century. They're making their own choices.
Posted by: Darrell   2009-01-21 07:19  

#3  We can but hope that the One will change all that.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2009-01-21 04:35  

#2  Sometimes, you just have to let people go, and hope that they bottom out. But letting children be exposed to polio by these islamic nutcases is total insanity. I guess that the disease of ignorance will have to run its course in Pakistan. There is no other way.

Who knows, maybe POTUS O will wave his wand and make it all right.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2009-01-21 01:33  

#1  How about starting a fund raising drive in Mumbai?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2009-01-21 00:33  

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