| Submit your comments on this article |
| Fifth Column |
| Children 'starving' in new Iraq |
| 2005-03-30 |
| This was just begging to be fisked. Malnutrition rates in children under five have almost doubled since the US-led intervention - to nearly 8% by the end of last year, it says. Wait, I thought that the US led blockade was causing all them kids to starve. I'm sure that the Baathists kept impeccably accurate statistics and all, so it must be them darn Merkins. They're capitalists, ya know. The report was prepared for the annual meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. It also expressed concern over North Korea and Sudan's Darfur province. Who's in charge of the HRC this year anyway? I can't remember if its Libya or Burma. UN specialist on hunger Jean Ziegler, who prepared the report, blames the worsening situation in Iraq on the war led by coalition forces. That's right. Saddam used to get very worried about kid's nutrition. Why him and his two sainted sons Usay and Qusay were known to start lopping off heads when they heard about some poor Shiite youngster going to bed hungry. He was addressing a meeting of the 53-nation commission, the top UN rights watchdog, which is halfway through its annual six-week session. At the end of which, I'm sure that they'll publish a detailed plan to end all forms of oppression worldwide along with a budget and manpower request to the security council. When Saddam Hussein was overthrown, about 4% of Iraqi children under five were going hungry; now that figure has almost doubled to 8%, his report says. Like I said, no Baathist was ever known to lie or even harm the downy head of a baby duck. Governments must recognise their extra-territorial obligations towards the right to food and should not do anything that might undermine access to it of people living outside their borders, it says. Actually, Jean, it has nothing to do with extra-territorial obligations and everything to do with the obligations of an occupying power under the Geneva Convention. But to acknowledge the GC would lend a cloak of legitimacy to the US occupation. So better just to just make up international law as you go. That point is aimed clearly at the US, but Washington, which has sent a large delegation to the Human Rights Commission, declined to respond to the charges, says the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva. "So have you stopped beating your wife?" Increasing hunger Mr Ziegler also says he is very concerned about the lack of food in North Korea, where there are reports that UN food aid is not being distributed fairly. And that would be on account of what? Sorry. I forgot the rule. We can't criticize out fellow leftists no matter how heinous their crimes are. In Darfur, the continuing conflict has prevented people from planting vital crops, he says. Is conflict the proximate cause or i-s-l-a-m-i-s-t-s? Overall, Mr Ziegler says, he is shocked by the fact that hunger is actually increasing worldwide. Well the data over at the World Bank site is far from complete, but of the countries that they have data for, child malnutrition rates have declined in 10 of 15 cases from 1990 to 2002. But I don't know about those bankers. All they care about is money, unlike those noble Baathists and NorK Communists. Some 17,000 children die every day from hunger-related diseases, the report claims, which it says is a scandal in a world which is richer than ever before. "The silent daily massacre by hunger is a form of murder," Mr Ziegler said. "It must be battled and eliminated." I'm sure that most of your speech addressed how to fix the problem and was not just an hour of moral posturing and finger pointing. That darn BBC. Their agenda always gets in the way. |
| Posted by:11A5S |
| #4 Dammit, Jackal. Ya beat me to it. :o) |
| Posted by: badanov 2005-03-30 11:47:30 PM |
| #3 And don't forget euphoric, too, Jackal. I heard it on the MSM, so its gotta be tee-rue. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2005-03-30 10:23:17 PM |
| #2 Oh, come on, now. Starving to death is a very peaceful and painless way to go. Just ask the judge. |
| Posted by: jackal 2005-03-30 9:19:42 PM |
| #1 "The silent daily massacre by hunger is a form of murder," Mr Ziegler said. "It must be battled and eliminated." Translation - We need your money; It's For The ChildrenTM. Sod off, swampy... |
| Posted by: Raj 2005-03-30 6:56:40 PM |