130 Doctors Without Borders staff missing
Discussion
I'm surprised this story has not made the national news over here. I know bad s
t happens every day on that continent and to be honest I would not be shocked by anything they do but surley this should merit a mention?
The latest news from South Sudan is especially worrying. Some 130 staff at the Doctors Without Borders clinic in Pibor, South Sudan, are missing, according to a statement from the group.
Renewed ethnic violence in Jonglei State, South Sudan, has forced thousands of families to flee into the bush. Two Doctors Without Borders medical facilities have been targeted and the independent medical humanitarian organization has been forced to temporarily suspend its much needed medical activities in Pibor County.
Doctors and nurses had to evacuate a hospital in the town of Pibor and two outreach clinics as a column of 6,000 armed youths from the Lou Nuer tribe descended on the town in pursuit of a rival tribe, the Murle, according to the Telegraph. The hospital was reportedly torched by the attacking forces.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-bl...
t happens every day on that continent and to be honest I would not be shocked by anything they do but surley this should merit a mention?The latest news from South Sudan is especially worrying. Some 130 staff at the Doctors Without Borders clinic in Pibor, South Sudan, are missing, according to a statement from the group.
Renewed ethnic violence in Jonglei State, South Sudan, has forced thousands of families to flee into the bush. Two Doctors Without Borders medical facilities have been targeted and the independent medical humanitarian organization has been forced to temporarily suspend its much needed medical activities in Pibor County.
Doctors and nurses had to evacuate a hospital in the town of Pibor and two outreach clinics as a column of 6,000 armed youths from the Lou Nuer tribe descended on the town in pursuit of a rival tribe, the Murle, according to the Telegraph. The hospital was reportedly torched by the attacking forces.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-bl...
FurtiveFreddy said:
I'm afraid the media we rely on for important world news now deems a celebrity chef caught nicking some cheese from Tesco is more newsworthy than the atrocities taking place in Africa.
People are disaster-fatigued when it comes to Africa and who can blame them.You really wouldn't want my opinion I expect.
FarleyRusk said:
FurtiveFreddy said:
I'm afraid the media we rely on for important world news now deems a celebrity chef caught nicking some cheese from Tesco is more newsworthy than the atrocities taking place in Africa.
People are disaster-fatigued when it comes to Africa and who can blame them.You really wouldn't want my opinion I expect.
A while ago, skateboarding ducks would be featured at the end of the news but now they tend to be the lead story.
FurtiveFreddy said:
I'm afraid the media we rely on for important world news now deems a celebrity chef caught nicking some cheese from Tesco is more newsworthy than the atrocities taking place in Africa.
I think that is because if people hear too much about what actually happens in Africa that sympathy will wane.FarleyRusk said:
People are disaster-fatigued when it comes to Africa and who can blame them.
You really wouldn't want my opinion I expect.
Doubt your opinion would shock me much.You really wouldn't want my opinion I expect.
I recently met a girl I knew in university, who had gone to Africa while I knew her and become infatuated with the place. She got into the foreign aid industry and has been there for most of the last 10 years. Some of the stories she tells are shocking, and any of them could be headlines on the right day.
Headless bodies in the street. Aid workers kidnapped routinely. Rape is common currency. It's simply too much to report, and it would lose it's impact if even half of what went on there made the papers. And the aid agencies aren't really aiding anyone except themselves, with massive unaccountable budgets much of which goes straight into the pockets of their senior officials with the right sort of levies and bribes paid to the local hard men.
Let 'em rot I say. Either they sort themselves out or they kill themselves. Either way it's nothing we can fix, because the people who are fighting each other don't want to fix it.
Negative Creep said:
Jasandjules said:
anonymous said:
[redacted]
You mean, when Africans would raid rival villages and kidnap the people then sell them to the white folk waiting at the shore!???My £0.02, as well intentioned as Doctors without Borders efforts are, they are ultimately futile and the families of the people missing have my sympathy
It will take a change of culture and behaviour for the entire continent, before Africa becomes a civilised place . . . . England and the other European countries tried over the past 150 years, got somewhere as far as infrastructure and agriculture were concerned only to see it fall back into a mess only a few decades after withdrawing.
As others have already stated, many African tribes were willing to rape, pillage, murder and sell their captives into slavery 200-300 years ago and not much has changed since
My Uncle in Law was recently murdered in Nigeria (he was Nigerian btw). After months of pretend ransoms from his murderers he was found in the bush beaten to death.
He ran a successful timber company that provided for about 20 of his family members. The reason he was killed was because he refused to sign over his company to some local thugs (who were illiterate and totally unable to run anything let alone an export co.).
The police's reaction was, given his standing in the community, to hunt down and execute the killers in their homes. No questions, no interviews, no judge and jury; just death.
The only reason I am sharing this is that it really illustrates the barbaric nature even of those countries in Africa that are more successful than the rest. Life is cheap and violence is endemic.
I don't think it is much of an exaggeration to suggest that the whole continent is a basket case...and is only getting worse.
He ran a successful timber company that provided for about 20 of his family members. The reason he was killed was because he refused to sign over his company to some local thugs (who were illiterate and totally unable to run anything let alone an export co.).
The police's reaction was, given his standing in the community, to hunt down and execute the killers in their homes. No questions, no interviews, no judge and jury; just death.
The only reason I am sharing this is that it really illustrates the barbaric nature even of those countries in Africa that are more successful than the rest. Life is cheap and violence is endemic.
I don't think it is much of an exaggeration to suggest that the whole continent is a basket case...and is only getting worse.
I've worked in a fair few African countries, and I can attest to the fact that I no longer give a flying fk about it as a collection of countries, nor the continent as a whole. Individuals re different, like anywhere you get bloody good people, but the tribal nature, and the 'hack your head off as soon as look at you' attitude, and the fact that life is so cheap makes me never want to go back there. The 'white man' excuse has long since gone. Much of Africa is free to rule itself, and has done for some time, but they still seem intent on destroying everything they have rather than build.
Horrible place.
k about it as a collection of countries, nor the continent as a whole. Individuals re different, like anywhere you get bloody good people, but the tribal nature, and the 'hack your head off as soon as look at you' attitude, and the fact that life is so cheap makes me never want to go back there. The 'white man' excuse has long since gone. Much of Africa is free to rule itself, and has done for some time, but they still seem intent on destroying everything they have rather than build. Horrible place.
Haggleburyfinius said:
My Uncle in Law was recently murdered in Nigeria (he was Nigerian btw). After months of pretend ransoms from his murderers he was found in the bush beaten to death.
He ran a successful timber company that provided for about 20 of his family members. The reason he was killed was because he refused to sign over his company to some local thugs (who were illiterate and totally unable to run anything let alone an export co.).
The police's reaction was, given his standing in the community, to hunt down and execute the killers in their homes. No questions, no interviews, no judge and jury; just death.
The only reason I am sharing this is that it really illustrates the barbaric nature even of those countries in Africa that are more successful than the rest. Life is cheap and violence is endemic.
I don't think it is much of an exaggeration to suggest that the whole continent is a basket case...and is only getting worse.
That's awful, but not surprising.He ran a successful timber company that provided for about 20 of his family members. The reason he was killed was because he refused to sign over his company to some local thugs (who were illiterate and totally unable to run anything let alone an export co.).
The police's reaction was, given his standing in the community, to hunt down and execute the killers in their homes. No questions, no interviews, no judge and jury; just death.
The only reason I am sharing this is that it really illustrates the barbaric nature even of those countries in Africa that are more successful than the rest. Life is cheap and violence is endemic.
I don't think it is much of an exaggeration to suggest that the whole continent is a basket case...and is only getting worse.
It's third world tribal country...and that's just the way it goes.
People who give to charities in these regions, and the well meaning aid workers are, frankly, wasting their time and money. (I was going to simply say 'stupid' but that's a little harsh)
FurtiveFreddy said:
I'm afraid the media we rely on for important world news now deems a celebrity chef caught nicking some cheese from Tesco is more newsworthy than the atrocities taking place in Africa.
Probably more to it than that. If anyone says "they've seen the news today" they have'nt, they have only seen/read the news that they (media/or those above) want us to know about. So much going on that is filtered out coming to our attention through the mainstream! Dr Doofenshmirtz said:
People who give to charities in these regions, and the well meaning aid workers are, frankly, wasting their time and money.
I think you're right.I have a pet theory that the levels of corruption are pretty much even around the globe, it's just that in more prosperous nations, the diviions of wealth and depths of poverty are less pronounced and the corruption is also less concentrated in government and thuggery, but diluted into private sector activities.
I reckon the violence (and tribalism) comes when the tension between the corrupt and non-corrupt is high and the overall wealth of a nation drops below a certian level. I dread to see where this might lead us with regard to nations such as Greece.
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