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| India-Pakistan | |
| Pakistain's Blighted Generation | |
| 2012-08-20 | |
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... the younger generation has to contend with a host of extraordinary challenges. For children living on the streets the risks are even greater, and including substance abuse and routine sexual violence. And as a recent report in this paper indicated, the threat of an HIV epidemic amongst street children is an emerging concern. In the civilized world the existence of street children is a concern... According to health officials in Sindh, six out of 10 drug-using street children registered with a Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... -based NGO were found to be HIV-positive. Seems to be a problem solved by Darwin... This may reflect a bigger trend. The children had been using contaminated needles or were sexually abused. HIV is prevalent amongst injecting drug users and sex workers in the country. Because street children are exposed to drugs and sexual predators, this creates an extremely vulnerable sub-group likely to be infected with HIV. Meanwhile, ...back at the pool hall, Peoria Slim had found another sucker. He adjusted his sleeve garters, spit tobacco juice, hitting the spittoon and the wall behind it and picked up his cue... according to recent figures released by the NGO Madadgaar Helpline, over 2,300 children across Pakistain were subjected to different types of violence in the first half of this year. These included cases -- only those reported -- of rape, torture and murder. ... If you're suffering from an ego problem because you have no marketable skills and you live in a country that's a Third World craphole you probably get a transient feeling of being powerful and important whilst buggering a nine-year-old boy or raping a prepubescent girl or pulling the wings off flies... As in other areas, after devolution it is the provinces' duty to pass laws concerning children's welfare. Passing a law and actually doing something are the same thing, y'see? But barring a few exceptions, there has been a lack of intent and capacity at the provincial level to pass and implement laws to protect children. First there's the lack of interest. Then there's the fact that the Pak coppers are very deferential to the local maliks and mullahs and nazims and other big turbans. What's a kid here and there, so long as the guy with the big turban's happy? There's way more kids than there are maliks or mullahs. For example, Bloody Karachi, which observers estimate has a population of thousands of street children, does not have even a single state-operated rehabilitation home for the young ones. Only a few private concerns are making efforts in this regard. The fact is legislation is only a first step. What is needed most is compassion at the societal level for vulnerable children and the realisation that children have inviolable rights; rights that society denies them in a brutal fashion. Even the best laws are useless if not implemented. Until society reforms itself and the state moves beyond rhetoric and takes practical steps for the rehabilitation and welfare of children, we will only be bequeathing misery to the next generation. | |
| Posted by:trailing wife |