Sign the get-well book for Malala Yousafzai
Fri, 2012-10-19 19:22
#1
Sign the get-well book for Malala Yousafzai
Fri, 2012-10-19 19:38
#2
You're welcome.
Fri, 2012-10-19 19:39
#3
http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/page/s/malala-yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai is the 14-year-old girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban for daring to teach young girls how to read. Please sign her guest book to with her a full recovery from her wounds.
There is NO excuse for shooting a child in the head for helping other children learn. In fact, there's no excuse for shooting a child in the head, period.
Fri, 2012-10-19 19:45
#4
Left Turn
Thanks for posting this, Ken.
ETA: posted this to my fb.
Fri, 2012-10-19 20:51
#5
Should this be cross-posted to the Feminism forum as well? If so, I'd encourage any female Babbler to do so.
Fri, 2012-10-19 21:57
#6
Sven
What a courageous young girl.
Sat, 2012-10-20 10:40
#7
Malala, The Worthy Victim - by Margaret Kimberley
http://www.voltairenet.org/article176279.html
"...Malala is the worthy victim du jour among a sea of unworthy victims created by our government. If Malala Yousufzai had been maimed by an American drone attack, the media would probably not have reported on it at all..."
Sat, 2012-10-20 17:55
#8
Sven
"...Malala is the worthy victim du jour among a sea of unworthy victims created by our government. If Malala Yousufzai had been maimed by an American drone attack, the media would probably not have reported on it at all..."
The death of an innocent bystander who is just going about her daily life (whether from a drone or a suicide bomber) is fundamentally different than the killing (or attempted killing) a young girl simply because she wants girls to have the right to get an education. Malala purposefully put her life at risk to advocate for something no reasonable person disagrees with -- and that is what distinguishes her from a nameless victim of other violence.
Sat, 2012-10-20 20:17
#9
Malala, The Worthy Victim - by Margaret Kimberley
http://www.voltairenet.org/article176279.html
"...Malala is the worthy victim du jour among a sea of unworthy victims created by our government. If Malala Yousufzai had been maimed by an American drone attack, the media would probably not have reported on it at all..."
I wasn't priveleging Malala over any other victims of the conflict. The link I posted at the start was run by people on the Left, not a CIA front organizatiion. And what she was doing was not about serving the cause of imperialism(unless you argue that anti-imperialists have to back the Taliban on its insane and apparently unchangeable misogyny.
(on edit). I've now read the link, and agree with what the article says...it bothers me, though, that you would imply that I'd somehow cooperated with U.S. war propaganda in starting this thread. A thread calling for a full recovery for all child war victims in Pakistan could be started, and more should be done to end the undeclared U.S. war within Pakistan. Please tell me you weren't working under the assumption that nobody that has reacted to Malala's story cares about the other victims.
Sat, 2012-10-20 20:19
#10
They were pretty much invented by the Reagan Administration, after all. Nothing the 'ban has done has ever served the cause of anti-imperialism.
Sat, 2012-10-20 20:23
#11
Yeah I'm not high on the Taliban either. To hell with the Taliban - they represent only about one-fifth of the total "insurgency" according to reports from the U.S. Military. If they ever do allow free and fair elections, I wouldn't vote for the Taliban, and I doubt that a majority of Afghans would.
Sat, 2012-10-20 20:32
#12
Right on, Ken. Thanks. Yes the Taliban are violent right wing misogynists like their fathers the mujahideen and many in Karzai's government, and like "Al Qa'eda" and Qa'eda knock-off groups. Our right wing fundamentalists tend to prefer dealing with right wing fundamentalists in other countries as a rule. And it's because they understand one another and thus more easily controlled by the other at various key periods of the great game.
Sat, 2012-10-20 22:29
#13
Malal Yousufzai: Women's Rights and the Narratives of Ruling Elites - by Akram Javed
http://www.the-platform.org.uk/?p=7119
"After the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan shot 14 year-old Malala Yusufzai for encouraging girls' education, Pakistan's liberal intelligentsia and the Western media went into overdrive..."
Sun, 2012-10-21 03:36
#14
Malala, The Worthy Victim - by Margaret Kimberley
http://www.voltairenet.org/article176279.html
"...Malala is the worthy victim du jour among a sea of unworthy victims created by our government. If Malala Yousufzai had been maimed by an American drone attack, the media would probably not have reported on it at all..."
(on edit). I've now read the link, and agree with what the article says...it bothers me, though, that you would imply that I'd somehow cooperated with U.S. war propaganda in starting this thread. A thread calling for a full recovery for all child war victims in Pakistan could be started, and more should be done to end the undeclared U.S. war within Pakistan. Please tell me you weren't working under the assumption that nobody that has reacted to Malala's story cares about the other victims.
NDPP:
Hi Ken,
I imply/ assume no such thing. The link was posted to broaden the thread and discussion, from the narrow parameters and intentions of its MSM coverage and steering. Since you have now read it you will know that it includes:
'"She has been lauded and rightly so for taking such a principled and risky stance. It is all the more ironic because it is the United States which brought Taliban terror to Pakistan and Malala in the first place. Hopefully Malala Yousoufzai will recover and she and her counterparts will be able to exercise their rights to be educated without fear of violence.
Hopefully there will also come a day when the United States stops killing Pakistani girls and boys and men and women Until then, the least the rest of us can do is make these worthy of our concern."
Death by drone is a growing and alarming practice by our western democracies, made more so by how little attention we pay to them, among many other things. So of course I support your suggestions. I have updated the drone thread also since it has some relevence as well...
best
ndpp
Sun, 2012-10-21 14:05
#15
My only question is does anyone know how many nameless and faceless young women the British forces have murdered in the last 11 years. I think the Taliban are evil but I also think the British are imperialist and thus equally evil.
It is like the guy next door who screams and yells at his wife and daughters but only hits them a little bit starting a petition to support women's rights. It makes me want to puke despite the brave young woman who is at the centre of this story.
Sun, 2012-10-21 14:47
#16
Then perhaps we should keep our focus on the brave young woman at the centre of this story, instead of the sideshow.
Believe it or not, sometimes the notoriety of tragic events isn't just cooked up as part of some conspiracy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phan_Thi_Kim_Phuc
And even when they are, that still doesn't change what is at the centre, unless the only thing that matters is running everything through that sad "who's got it worst" algorithm that seems to be so popular in some circles.
Sun, 2012-10-21 14:57
#17
Believe it or not, sometimes the notoriety of tragic events isn't just cooked up as part of some conspiracy:
And even when they are, that still doesn't change what is at the centre, unless the only thing that matters is running everything through that sad "who's got it worst" algorithm that seems to be so popular in some circles.
My post is part of a fucking conspiracy theory? I would love to tell you the same things that Fidel said in the other thread but I will refrain. I take this as a personal insult.
Sun, 2012-10-21 15:05
#18
No k.
I said "the notoriety of tragic events isn't just cooked up as part of some conspiracy".
Have you been publicizing this horrible assassination attempt? I don't think so.
I was talking about the sentiment in NDPP's links that the western media has been twisting this story.
Sun, 2012-10-21 18:00
#19
"unless the only thing that matters is running everything through that sad "who's got it worst" algorithm that seems to be so popular in some circles."
Your insults are always too cute by half and as far as i am concerned are deliberately written to be an insult while allowing you plausible deniability of your intentions. Your denial of ill intent is predictable but personally I am unable to believe it.
Have a nice day.
Sun, 2012-10-21 19:00
#20
The Malalas You Will Not Hear About - by Wendy McElroy
http://www.fff.org/comment/com1210o.asp
"...If Malala had been killed in a drone attack, you would neither have read updates on her medical status, nor would she be called 'daughter of the nation', nor would the media make a fuss about her. General Kayan, would not have come to visit her and neither would the world media be constantly reporting on it.
'The pliant Western media and its liberals do not give even 1% of this attention to the Pakistani and Yemeni girls their government kills with drones every day. Even humanitarian outrage, they only express when it serves the interests of their snake governments.'
Why have the children killed by US drones received so little attention? The drone strikes are no less vicious than the shooting of Malala, and every drone victim deserves to be acknowledged.
The case of the selective rage for Malala and the selective silence for the 176 Pakistani children killed by American drones is purely political. American lives matter; Pakistani children's lives do not...unless of course, their lives and deaths can contribute to the narrative of terrorism and war being spun out of the White House.
The fact that politicians, the military, and the media consider some dead children to matter while consigning other dead children to an Orwellian memory hole merely spotlights the depth of their depravity."
Sun, 2012-10-21 21:30
#21
Your insults are always too cute by half and as far as i am concerned are deliberately written to be an insult while allowing you plausible deniability of your intentions.
What I said was that any speculation about media spin is far less important than the near fatal attack on this young woman and her cause of women's education. It is even less all about you.
I mean, if we want to challenge western misconceptions, fine. There are enough ways in which our education system and the rights of women falls far short. But please, let's at least keep it on the issue she took a bullet for, and not reduce this to a body count.
Sun, 2012-10-21 22:46
#22
My only question is does anyone know how many nameless and faceless young women the British forces have murdered in the last 11 years. I think the Taliban are evil but I also think the British are imperialist and thus equally evil.
It is like the guy next door who screams and yells at his wife and daughters but only hits them a little bit starting a petition to support women's rights. It makes me want to puke despite the brave young woman who is at the centre of this story.
This petition wasn't started by the British Army or the British government, though-those who did start it are not complicit in the suffering of those killed by the outside forces and I'm sure they'd agree with you about stopping ALL the killing and remembering all the victims.
Sun, 2012-10-21 22:52
#23
But please, let's at least keep it on the issue she took a bullet for, and not reduce this to a body count.
Unlike the drone victims mentioned above she lived so obviously this story can't be about the body count. Anything else inane you would like to say.
This story is about western propaganda even if you refuse to acknowledge it. Just because you believe that our propaganda mills are not manufacturing consent for imperial murder and mayhem that is not a view I share. So go on keep the channel on propaganda 101 and keep telling us all that we have to buy into it. I know the message, "The Taliban is evil but Britain and the West are the protectors of the weak and innocent. That is why we must pay our taxes to support the war machine because it is good against evil." Quite frankly just because you are gullible doesn't mean you should demand we all share in your illusions.
Sun, 2012-10-21 23:15
#24
If you want to argue that we need to tell of ALL the victims, that's fine. If you're arguing that we have to say nothing about this victim because acknowledging here might, in theory, help the imperialist, that's not so fine.
Malala is a sister in pain to all the other victims. We need to take a stand to stop all the killings.
Sun, 2012-10-21 23:29
#25
Ken you started this thread so where is your link to a petition that says end all the killings. It is the disparate coverage that offends me because it is propaganda plain and simple. Not a single British MSM reporter can find out the names of drone victims and bring their stories to the Homeland so that people can realize how evil NATO really is. I will applaud this kind of story when there is actual coverage of all the killings until then this makes me sick because I see it as a type of abuse against a brave young woman. Her story is not being used to end the killing it is being used to justify more.
Mon, 2012-10-22 00:23
#26
Her story is not being used to end the killing it is being used to justify more.
Unmistakeably...and lots of gulls to go along too
"...The US has long pressed Pakistan to launch an operation in the remote and mountainous North Waziristan Tribal Area, home to enemies of Islamabad as well as to militants fighting US troops in Afghanistan. The recent attack on 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai has given new momentum to the debate..."
Pakistanis Divided on Army Offensive After Malala Attack
http://dawn.com/2012/10/17/pakistanis-divided-on-army-offensive-after-ma...
Obama, Clinton, UN Chief Condemn Attack on Malala
http://dawn.com/2012/10/10/clinton-condemns-attack-on-malala-yousafzai/
"...I know that the President found the news reprehensible, disgusting and tragic', White House spokesman Jay Carney said, adding that US Forces were ready to offer transport and treatment to Malala Yousafzai if appropriate. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also condemned the attack. She said the attack should serve as a call to action for those promoting the rights of women and girls. Clinton said the shooting of Malala Yousufzai should galvanize support for 'brave young women...who struggle against tradition and culture and even outright hostility ,and sometimes violence to pursue their rights. UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon is expressing outrage and the strongest condemnation over the shooting..."
Mon, 2012-10-22 01:23
#27
It might be a bit different if there weren't already a number of threads devoted to the conflicts in that part of the world, including one specifically on drone strikes.
Where are we off to next? The book club or the photo thread to hector them too? How dare anyone have frivilous travel fantasies when there's an Imperialist War Machine running roughshod over the entire globe?
As it happens, my partner brought something from this campaign home last month. For what it's worth, it is a way to respond to this incident that doesn't involve attack.
Mon, 2012-10-22 05:48
#28
She said the attack should serve as a call to action for those promoting the rights of women and girls. Clinton said the shooting of Malala Yousufzai should galvanize support for 'brave young women...who struggle against tradition and culture and even outright hostility ,and sometimes violence to pursue their rights.
With the recent spate of mass shootings of women in the US, should Florida and Wisconsin start worrying about 'calls to action.' I think not.
Mon, 2012-10-22 08:09
#29
http://www.canadianwomen.org/improve-equality
When women and girls live free from violence, poverty, and rigid stereotypes that limit their potential, our neighbourhoods are safer, our economy is stronger, and our pool of future leaders is more diverse.
Helping women and girls moves us all forward.
Mon, 2012-10-22 11:34
#30
Catchfire
I'm unable to link to it right now, but rabble editor Derrick O'Keefe published an excellent comment on this story on rabble.ca. I think it's called "There are many Malalas" or some such. I would be grateful if someone else posted it here..
Mon, 2012-10-22 11:44
#31
Derrick O'Keefe: [url=http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/derrick/2012/10/misuses-malala]The misuses of Malala[/url]
Mon, 2012-10-22 11:52
#32
That is a piece that I agree with completely.
The Pakistani alternative publication Viewpoint notes that 'there are countless Malalas':
"Reprehensible as the shooting of Malala Yusufzai is, it does not justify imperialist drone attacks on peoples living in tribal areas. Reprehensible as the targeting of a 14-year-old girl is, it does not justify the Pakistan Army's often indiscriminate operations that have led to the displacement of millions of people."
These widely held positions are rarely given a hearing by media personalities like Piers Morgan; it falls outside the preferred narrative that reinforces the idea of the West as saviour and the rest as villains (or victims of their own culture and society.)
Look at Malalai Joya, the young Afghan politician and women's rights activist who shares Yousafzai's namesake. (The British-empire-nostalgic Morgan will be dismayed to learn that both were named after Malalai of Maiwand, a heroine of Afghanistan's 19th century wars of independence against the British. In an interview with Christain Science Monitor a couple years ago, Yousafzai said that Joya was a person she hoped to emulate, "I want to be a social activist and an honest politician like her.")
Joya, like Yousafzai, fought for the right of girls to go to school, teaching at secret underground schools during the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan. Joya survived assassination attempts and was even elected to the Afghan Parliament back in 2005. She was then kicked out of her elected position and has been subjected to more threats and violence, forced now to live on the move, surrounded by bodyguards. No Bush or Obama administration officials ever condemned her suspension from Parliament. In fact, last year, the U.S. government refused to give her an entry visa for public speaking events, only relenting after a public pressure campaign demanded she be allowed to enter the United States.
In 2010, TIME magazine included Malalai Joya in their 'Top 100' list of the most influential people in the world, but then the write-up completely erased her anti-war, anti-NATO positions.
That's really the only way they know how to tell the story. For all the talk of 'liberating women,' they actually prefer an essentialized, one-dimensional image -- they want victims, not empowered agents of their own liberation.
Mon, 2012-10-22 11:55
#33
I had read it previously and thought it was spot on.
Mon, 2012-10-22 19:00
#34
You know, if the real story and the only thing of importance here is the media story, perhaps this should be in the media forum.
Though frankly, I find dragging so many ot these issues, from Pussy Riot to Julian Asange to the uprising in Libya into that territory is focusing on the western angle and western spin at the expense of the things that are really happening.
I mean, that's a fine article on media manipulation 101, but for most of us conversing here it is grade school. I know many in the media lie and manipulate, and I don't see the value in someone trying to drag me back to grade one and hold my head in a book rather than talking about the actual issue of concern to this activist - not victim - women's education. And you could probably add to that wider issues of basic living standards and legal protection for women. It may not be as inflamatory as talking about war and attack drones, but it is an area in which imperialists are just as culpable, and which has probably caused far more death and misery in those nations.
For that matter, I have read and heard coverage of Malalai Joya, and I have to ask who is playing the victim card here, because that isn't the impression I got of her at all.
(edit)
THat is to say, the article is fine 101 when it comes to pointing out the spin of others, while at the same time having a nice little curve of its own.
Mon, 2012-10-22 19:19
#35
Gee next you will be saying lets just move on from racism 101 and misogyny 101 because you get it. Ergo we don't need to talk about them because from the height of your knowledge the topics are now irrelevant to any discussion. This thread can't be about media spin especially with the OP that highlights all the subtle issues and doesn't treat this young woman as a victim. I'll repost the OP so you get my point.
Mon, 2012-10-22 20:32
#36
How would you expect someone who has been shot in the head to look, k?
Perhaps more significant is the actual book Ken linked to which, contrary to some of the spin, doesn't use her case as an excuse for imperialist agression. On the contrary, it says straight out that it is the same abuse which takes place in developed nations. And far from reducing Yousafzai to a one-dimensional object and a victim, it links to her blog, and has her make her case herself.
Maybe it's that hope not hate part that sticks in the teeth a bit.
Mon, 2012-10-22 20:46
#37
Maybe it's that hope not hate part that sticks in the teeth a bit.
Then I suggest you get some dental floss and attend to your teeth before they rot.
Mon, 2012-10-22 23:32
#38
Catchfire
Thanks, onlinediscount, for posting the story. It's excellent. I don't think it's 101 at all. That doesn't mean I don't want the personal attacks to stop, though.
Tue, 2012-10-23 00:23
#39
My point CF is that this is the latest of a string of topics that winds up sidetracked into how the imperialists and their media lapdogs are twisting it for their own ends, or how the imperialists are doing things (usually unrelated to the actual topic) that are worse.
I doubt there is a person taking part in this conversation who doesn't know that already. It is 101. As I said, O'Keefe's article is a good primer. Though I think his point about reducing people to stereotypes and victims is more serving his own argument than a real look at the range of coverage, and his argument is an example of that same spin.
This is all fine. Problem is when it overshadows the actual subject matter. Western navel gazing is still western navel gazing, even if you are looking at the greasy lint and grimacing
Want to bash the U.S.? Fine. I can do that, but maybe given that the topic here concerns an activist who was nearly assassinated maybe we can keep it a little closer to the issue for which she was injured. Just negating her cause, and turning it into a media football seems - well - kind of crass.
I mean it's not like it's hard to keep on the actual topic. Canada's cuts as part of its maternal health plan is probably going to kill more women and children than all these military attacks. Our countries are lending support to the very systems which oppress women there, And the state of women's security and education isn't all that great in our country either.
Some of those links were made pretty clearly in Ken's link, so I don't get the criticism.
No it didn't mention drone atttacks. It didn't mention rabid dog attacks either - also a problem in that part of the world.
Guess why? She wasn't campaigning against rabies.
Tue, 2012-10-23 08:26
#40
There is a qualitative difference between victims of drone attacks, and women like Malala Yousafzai who have made themselves a target by putting their faces on the fight against misogyny. Not acknowledging this difference minimizes her heroism by lumping her in with all victims, blameless though they are, who have not put themselves into the public eye like she did.
Tue, 2012-10-23 11:26
#41
I won't pretend there is no connection at all, because sure there is, however tangential. Of course some are going to call for more military action because of this attack, as in NDPP's first article at #25.
But that's not how it was spun in that voltairenet article, nor in a number of the other arguments posted here. The implication is that her attack was seized on as a media opportunity, and that the real outrage is drone attacks.
Why drone attacks? Why not pneumonia, diarrhea, road accidents, suicide, birth trauma, low birth weight, or a number of other things related to quality of life which EACH cause more death than military action (seeing as this is being reduced to comparisons)?
I can't say, but my guess is that it is based on an assumption that drone attacks are more shocking, therefore more important, and that war is more of an outrage than death and misery caused by a terrible quality of life and lack of legal protection.
Lack of education and the rights of women isn't a secondary concern to violent conflict. It is the foundation of that miserable system which we helped create and are actively supporting. And without changing that, nothing there is going to change.
That would-be assassin knew that . Otherwise why take the time to target a young girl on a school bus? Certainly they knew she was a target that wasn't going to make them look like friends of the people.
And the source for those stats:
World Health Organization 2010:
http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/country-health-profile/pakistan
(now bad 90s web design, that IS an outrage)
http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/PB1/Pakistan_2006-07_Briefing_Kit_all...
Tue, 2012-10-23 12:02
#42
(now bad 90s web design, that IS an outrage)
Good to know where you put imperialist occupation and murder on a scale of outrageous things.
Tue, 2012-10-23 12:06
#43
PK Politics Discuss: The Staged Malala Yousufzai Story
http://pkpolitics.com/discuss/topic/the-staged-malala-yousufzai-story
there is also discussion of the MSM story's contradictions and possible 'conspiracy theories'
'Project Malala': the CIA's Socio-Psychological Intelligence Operation - by Zaki Khalid
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/10/15/project-malala-the-cias-socio-ps...
"I hope and pray that Malala, her friends and all other victims of CIA terrorism recover soon. My prayers are with them. All of them."
Tue, 2012-10-23 13:22
#44
Catchfire
There is a qualitative difference between victims of drone attacks, and women like Malala Yousafzai who have made themselves a target by putting their faces on the fight against misogyny. Not acknowledging this difference minimizes her heroism by lumping her in with all victims, blameless though they are, who have not put themselves into the public eye like she did.
I agree with this. But I don't believe that's Derrick's (for example) point. The way I read it, particularly in the very nuanced paragraph krop bolded above, is that those who are quick to victimize Malala are also lumping her in with the figure of the abused, oppressed Muslim woman who is not so much a flesh and blood person, but a means to marshal imperialist ideology. His article is about the "misuse" of Malala, at the hands of those who find her political message too dangerous or complicated to Western ideology.
We only need to ask why the chosen photo of her is in a hospital room and not in the streets, stirring shit up. The reason is obvious: she is useful as one character, and not as the other.
Tue, 2012-10-23 14:10
#45
Obviously a one-dimensional victim, tailored to promote the western view of things:
I think there is another reason to want to change the channel here, perhaps not consciously intended. What better way to inflame than to turn the focus on things - like American military policy - over which we have virtually no power in the short term, and which will not change until that system is completely destroyed.
There is not quite the same visceral reaction of powerlessness looking at struggles which may seem smaller, but in which people are actually doing something, which have far greater potential for success and are key to a lasting change and breaking that system of imperialism.
Again it gets back to Ken's first link about hope over hate.
Tue, 2012-10-23 21:40
#46
The problem I have with your theory is you think that other people should stop our military from being imperialist instead of us taking responsibility for the crimes committed in our names.
There will be no education for young women until there is peace and there will be no peace until NATO quits its imperial campaign of murder and intimidation. If we do nothing to stop our troops from killing innocent people then we are responsible for this woman's injuries just as much as the Taliban.
All I hear 6079 saying is don't blame us for the mayhem blame someone else. Let young women on the other side of the planet put their lives in danger but please, please don't tell me the violence is in any way our fault. And besides I am powerless to stop NATO from killing in my name so lets not even talk about imperialism.
Tue, 2012-10-23 22:56
#47
Actually, what I said was that we have several threads devoted to western imperialist actions in that region, and even one thread specifically on the topic of U.S. drone attacks. Rightly so; It is an ongoing and very important issue.
But just in case anyone missed it, here it is:
http://rabble.ca/babble/international-news-and-politics/drone-me-down-ki...
So I find it a bit odd that this thread, which is about an assassination attempt on an activist fighting for womens' education, needs to be diverted to also focus on the war that is already well-covered here, and the issue of what is wrong with our western media - again, a perennial mulberry bush.
It makes me wonder if there is something people don't want to look at in this story. Like the notion that the solution might lie not just with us reining in our war machine and saving the day, but rather with people there - in this case, women - standing up for themselves and fighting their own fight in their own way.
Again, I didn't just post that link for a joke. Over twice as many Pakistani women die from birth trauma as from war. Almost twice as many people from suicide. Over three times as many from low birth weight. Eight times as many from tuberculosis. Eight times as many from diarrhea. Twenty times as many from influenza and pneumonia.
Stop the NATO bombings and military actions and that country would still be in misery as long as basic living conditions do not change. And key to that is education and the rights of women.
Wed, 2012-10-24 10:42
#48
You seem to have missed the essential foundation and are working at shuffling the chairs on deck as the bilges fill to over following.
No Justice without Peace
Mon, 2012-10-29 19:44
#49
Imran Khan on Malala (and vid)
http://www.cbc.ca/player/Mews/Politics/ID/2296707437/
Possible next President of Pakistan interviewed by CBC moron - no wonder Canucklheads haven't a clue...
Mon, 2012-10-29 22:43
#50
Speaking of CBC, Writers and Company interviewed Pakistani author Mohammed Hanif. He mentioned that one in 10 of the worlds children without education is in Pakistan - a total of 5.1 million - although the country has a world-class education system - in its cities, at least.
http://www.cbc.ca/writersandcompany/episode/2012/10/28/mohammed-hanif-in...
The wikipedia page on Pakistan's education system tells a similar story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Pakistan
Again, although the scale is certainly different, there is a range of quality in Canada's education systems as well, particularly when you contrast the system most of us are familiar with with the situation on many First Nations. According to this article, ninety percent of Native children do not have access to ealry childhood education.
http://www.ammsa.com/publications/windspeaker/canada%E2%80%99s-aborigina...
Fri, 2012-11-02 22:18
#51
That would-be assassin knew that . Otherwise why take the time to target a young girl on a school bus? Certainly they knew she was a target that wasn't going to make them look like friends of the people.
The Taliban are there and in everyone's faces because the western world and its Afghan-Arab friends aided and abetted and ultimately created them. They were right wing fundamentalist proxies for the west from 1992 to 2001 and are probably still on our own fundamentalists' speed dial. The CIA and the Taliban and ISI are all old friends and have been meeting for discussions with one another for years.
War and conflict is the most effective way to keep whole nations on their knees and chronically underdeveloped and not focused on free or fair democratic elections. It's what imperialists do. Where e'r our imperialists go, so-called demcratic elections are typically marred by ultra-violence and taint.
And the source for those stats:World Health Organization 2010:
http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/country-health-profile/pakistan
(now bad 90s web design, that IS an outrage)
http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/PB1/Pakistan_2006-07_Briefing_Kit_all...
Pakistan is probably the most corrupt country in the world and a country whose elites are still good friends with Washington and London. And real democracy is not on any of their agendas.
Our imperialists were able to purge secular socialist thought from the region by the mid 1990's. Today it's about foisting undemocratic economic policies on millions of a desperate humanity in Central Asia. Where people rebel against neoliberal ideology they are referred to by our lapdog newz media and governments as "insurgents" and even "al-Qaeda" terrorists, even though there are no such things. Well, they do exist but not in the way that our governments want us to think of them.