Category Archives: Fail!

Deja vu: EBOLA Fear Like Early Reactions to HIV/AIDS Liberia: ‘Greet Him From Distance’ – Phebe Doctor Face Ebola Stigma After Survival

Even though he is completely healthy, people are afraid to come near him or to have anything to do with him.

For example, Korkor arrived on the campus of Cuttington University Monday to ‘attend to personal issues’ but was kept at bay by friends, students and loved ones. ‘We want to hug our doctor but fear we would come in contact with the virus,’ one student told FrontPageAfrica. I will greet him from a distance.’

Another student only identified as Catherine told FrontPageAfrica: ‘I am happy doctor Korkor has returned but I am totally not convinced he is Ebola free. I will shake his hands after 21 days.’

That is the level of stigma that is lingering long after the virus has been purged from Korkor’s body. ‘Thanks to God, I am cured. But now I have a new disease: the stigmatization that I am a victim of,” Korkor was quoted by a local radio station in Gbarnga. ‘This disease (the stigma) is worse than the fever. I should have died, but I responded to care, which includes intensive hydration.’

Even though Korkor said he has been cleared of Ebola, he says that people avoid him. ‘Now, everywhere in my neighborhood, all the looks bore into me like I’m the plague,” he said. FrontPageAfrica reporter who trailed the Phebe doctor on Cuttington campus Monday observed that people left places when he showed up while friends, students and loved ones avoided his handshake or eat with him.

via allAfrica.com: Liberia: ‘Greet Him From Distance’ – Phebe Doctor Face Ebola Stigma After Survival.

Analysis: “Mercy” of Israeli occupation at work in Gaza | Maan News Agency

In the midst of the ongoing onslaught against Gaza — which has resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 Palestinians and the wiping out of entire families — Israel has at times been accused of targeting civilians.

The Israeli armed forces, however, have made much of their “humanitarian” credentials and concern for civilian life, claims which have been most notably exemplified in the argument that they warn civilians of an impending attack through a “knock” — whether through the firing of a non-explosive projectile at the roof, or through a phone call or text message.

The notion that these warnings are somehow “humanitarian gestures” says much about the extent to which Palestinians have been subject to extensive dehumanization. On the basis of the military’s own proud proclamation of this policy you could be forgiven for forming the impression that the residents of Gaza should be grateful to Israel for giving them advance warning of the obliteration of their own homes.

But are these “warned” families even able to escape unharmed?

In order to grasp the extent to which the open celebration of this policy represents a fundamental perversion, we must engage with the most basic precondition of humanitarianism and imagine the position of Gazans.

For a minute, put

yourself in the shoes of the Gazans who receive these warnings.

You have just received notice that your home is to be obliterated in a matter of moments. Look around you — how would you react?

All around you there are things that you need and things which are essential to your life: Where can you go without a passport? What if your employer asks you for your birth certificate? And then there are things which are personal to you: your wedding photograph, a photograph from a now distant childhood, a gift from a friend, your child’s graduation pictures. How could you possibly choose? On what basis would you decide what is worth more to you?

You would want to be sure that you left nothing valuable behind, so you would run through the house, aware that you only have a few moments to find what is most valuable to you. You would perhaps tell yourself to focus on the task before you as you empty bags and hurl your clothes and personal belongings across the room; surely you will stop only to take the bare essentials?

It can all be replaced, you tell yourself.

But there is something that cannot be replaced — the personal significance of the objects which you leave behind: the small things you hoped to hand onto your own children, the heirlooms which your own parents had passed onto you. Perhaps your hands will pass over these objects in a fleeting moment, a final farewell to a past you must now leave behind. Only afterwards will you realize just how much of yourself has been left behind.

Even the closeness of the moment fails to fully concentrate your mind: who can be entirely practical at times like this? Your hands knock jars off the shelves, and stupidly clutch at useless cooking utensils. You enter the bathroom and grasp at a towel and toothbrush.

Momentarily your mind snaps back to reality: a holiday? Is that where you think you are going? Chiding yourself, you run back into the living room, stopping by a chair — again your senses snap you back, reprimanding your utter absurdity: do you really think you can take a chair with you?

Suddenly you awake, as if from a dream. Was it three minutes or 56 seconds? Who can be sure? It’s not as if you can ask the person with their finger on the trigger when you will die. You grab what is most valuable to you, what you could never imagine leaving behind.

In a split second you take your children’s hands and run from the house, leaving everything else behind you, knowing that you will never return and facing the unknown.

No wonder we hear the Gazans who survive talk about the slow death they experience.

via Analysis: Mercy of Israeli occupation at work in Gaza | Maan News Agency.

Cameron warns illegal immigrants: we will find you and send you home | Uk-news | The Guardian

“When we find you, and we will find you, we’ll make sure you are sent back to the country you came from,” he said.

via Cameron warns illegal immigrants: we will find you and send you home | Uk-news | The Guardian.

Thinks he is the Lord High Sheriff and all Brit parties preening for anti-immigrant voters.

The Satantic Temple uses Hobby Lobby ruling to claim religious exemption from anti-choice biased counseling laws

The Temple has helpfully provided a letter that people seeking an abortion can print out to explain to their doctor that they are exempt from informed consent mandates:

I regard any information required by state statute to be communicated or offered to me as a precondition for an abortion (separate and apart from any other medical procedure) is based on politics and not science (“Political Information”). I regard Political Information as a state sanctioned attempt to discourage abortion by compelling my consideration of the current and future condition of my fetal or embryonic tissue separate and apart from my body. I do not regard Political Information to be scientifically true or accurate or even relevant to my medical decisions. The communication of Political Information to me imposes an unwanted and substantial burden on my religious beliefs.

via The Satantic Temple uses Hobby Lobby ruling to claim religious exemption from anti-choice biased counseling laws.

New fears about Ebola spread after plane scare | Life , Health | THE DAILY STAR

{Thankfully, more and more news outlets are covering this epidemic now, even if a bit late into the process – any number of people exposed to ebola could fly anywhere in the world within 24 hours and potentially expose thousands – for real! The only saving grace is that, the disease requires direct contact with body fluids of someone infected – so it does not spread that quickly or by air. But! Someone could be exposed and not show symptoms for up toe 21 days!}

No one knows for sure just how many people Patrick Sawyer came into contact with the day he boarded a flight in Liberia, had a stopover in Ghana, changed planes in Togo, and then arrived in Nigeria, where authorities say he died days later from Ebola, one of the deadliest diseases known to man.

Now health workers are scrambling to trace those who may have been exposed to Sawyer across West Africa, including flight attendants and fellow passengers.

Health experts say it is unlikely he could have infected others with the virus that can cause victims to bleed from the eyes, mouth and ears. Still, unsettling questions remain: How could a man whose sister recently died from Ebola manage to board a plane leaving the country? And worse: Could Ebola become the latest disease to be spread by international air travel?

Sawyer’s death on Friday has led to tighter screening of airline passengers in West Africa, where an unprecedented outbreak that emerged in March has killed more than 670 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. But some health authorities expressed little confidence in such precautions.

via New fears about Ebola spread after plane scare | Life , Health | THE DAILY STAR.

Cop Allegedly Puts Pregnant Woman In Chokehold Over Illegal Grilling: Gothamist

Chokeholds were prohibited as a restraint tactic by the NYPD in 1993. Nevertheless, several instances of the maneuver have been widely publicized in recent weeks, following the death of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man who perished earlier this month as police restrained him in a chokehold. Garner, who suffered from asthma, repeatedly told cops that he couldn’t breathe as they held him.

via Cop Allegedly Puts Pregnant Woman In Chokehold Over Illegal Grilling: Gothamist.

The US is locking up pregnant immigrants despite policy against it

According to official Immigration and Customs Enforcement guidelines, pregnant immigrants aren’t supposed to be detained except if they pose a public safety threat. ICE officials have claimed this is such a rare occurrence it’s not even worth asking about.

But an investigation by Fusion found that 559 pregnant women have been detained by ICE in just six facilities since 2012. Unsurprisingly, given the inhumane conditions in many ICE detention centers, activists say pregnant detainees have been underfed and denied medical care, and at least 14 women had miscarriages while locked up.

via The US is locking up pregnant immigrants despite policy against it.

Former Israeli ambassador calls for ‘crushing’ Hamas – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

The civilian casualties in Gaza are disproportionate, with much higher fatalities and wounded among Palestinians, and Israel has violated the immunity of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) shelters in Gaza. Netanyahu is impatient to continue the project of crushing Hamas, as described by Oren. Israel’s right-wing government is returning to the impulse that led to the “crushing” of the Palestinian people in Lydda in 1948.

via Former Israeli ambassador calls for ‘crushing’ Hamas – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

Hamas announces 24-hour humanitarian ceasefire | News | DW.DE | 27.07.2014

(Deja vu WWl where opposing armies bombarded each other as truces came closer just to show they could – we laugh or wonder “what the…?” but more people die and truces falter, just because those controlling the fighters but not on front lines want to “look” strong – fail. Hamas says yes, Israel says no, then Israel says yes and Hamas says no. You put your right foot out, you pull your right foot back, you put your left foot in and pull your left foot back and shake it all about – that’s hokie-pokie war!)

The militant group Hamas has announced that it has agreed to a 24-hour humanitarian truce. This came as heavy fighting raged in the Gaza Strip after Hamas broke a previous humanitarian ceasefire observed by Israel.

via Hamas announces 24-hour humanitarian ceasefire | News | DW.DE | 27.07.2014.

Israel Creates Free Fire Zone of Death – warns displaced Gazans not to return home on threat of death | Maan News Agency

The Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a statement that those who stayed on in the neighborhood past the end of the ceasefire would be “putting their lives in danger,” as the army is expected to resume a heavy assault that has taken nearly 1,000 Palestinian lives so far.

via Israel warns displaced Gazans not to return home on threat of death | Maan News Agency.