The Libyan Children's AIDS crisis - Update II
Last month I brought up this case and the foreign and Libyan staff implicated in it here and a possible boycott of trade with Bulgaria here . Well the Libyans have been placated by the visit of the Bulgarian Minister of Economy who states his visit was unrelated with the case ( can't be sure). Meanwhile the nurses celebrated Easter Mass on 1st May weekend in prison where a Greek priest was attending and they got to talk to their families on diplomatic cell phones ( I wish Libyan inmates had that luxury). The trial has been postponed once more until August, whilst the kids' death toll has reached 50 now. The parents have sent letters to the UN and the Bulgarian Ambassador in Tripoli, in which they basically say that the children who are also the victims here have not benefitted from international exposure while everyone has been sympathising with the health workers. That in my view smacks of 'selectivity' by the international community don't you think so? Do you have to be 'white' to qualify for humanitarian care? I've already voiced this in my previous posts, still I'm amazed at the world's hypocrisy in this regard.
Read an excerpt of the letter here or go to the above link for the full article ( and ignore the not so perfect translation):
' While we are stressing to you our strong pride and great respect for the friendly Bulgarian people - as part of the Libyan people which is proud of these relations - we also express our strong disappointment at the treatment of this case by the media institutions of your friendly country, which ignore the facts and the truth currently dealt with by the court. They also fail to respect the independence and the fairness of the court. There is also a complete absence of any serious attitude or a positive view on the part of your official institutions with regard to our children who are the real victims of this tragedy and the ones who are suffering.'
Yes I want justice to be served and before you attack me and say that the health sector in Libya sucks , I would like to say I'm aware of it, I live here you know, still malpractice can and does happen. I cannot confirm that the health workers- Libyan and foreign- did it on purpose ( at this point probably only God knows) but if the court proves they did , then it is the death penalty - nothing less in my book. If it is malpractive well compensations should be negotiated on a par with Lockerbie/UTA or any malpractice victim in the US or Europe ( very lucrative business, ask the lawyers). If they are acquitted well they should be compensated as well. And the children are the most important here, and a program should be set up to take care of them and to ensure this never happens again - regardless of the outcome of the trial. Unfortunately poor babies we will witness their funerals in the coming years as their light going off one by one.
* End of rant. Life is not fair.*
4 comments:
Good posts, this update and the prior post. Please do not consider this comment as criticism, and how could anyone minimize the enormity of the tragedy to the innocent children victims, which is the central thrust of your posts. Redneck's comment, though, is unacceptable, plain and simple. It seems to me that the crux of the international dispute is confidence in Libya's court system. If the Bulgarians intentionally injected infected blood with knowlege of the contamination into the children, then only the anti death penalty folks could disagree with the court's judgment. However, if as some of the so-called "experts" as contained in the news articles you linked to are correct, and the deaths are the result of malpractice, either on the part of the nurses themselves or hospital wide practices, then death by firing squad seems a bit unjust, especially when the Libyan nurses were apparently acquitted. Malpractice is not a crime, punishable by criminal laws, at least not in the countries with which I am familiar. If this happened in the "West", intentional murderers would receive the maximum penalty, whether death or life imprisonment. On the other hand, negligent malpractioners, including the hospital which employed them, would pay significant sums in compensation. In neither event would there be any talk about foreign governments paying compensation to free murderous citizens of the foreign government, or to compensate for the foreign nationals' professional negligence. There is something else going on here other than what the Redneck suggests, and it is a little deeper than dehumanization.
Thanks AAG , we are basically putting forth the same argument here.
Intentional murder = harsh penalty ( death in my opinion).
Malpractice = suitable necessary compensation along similar cases.However because the Bulgarian government made it a political situation and not a criminal one that is why I drew similarities with Lockerbie/Uta , but it does not have to be so.
Innocence= formal apology and suitable compensation for slander etc...However other coutries do not do that what then find former prisoners innocent so I may be reluctant to set a precedent here unless they start a counterlawsuit.
And yes you 'saw' right my main concern are the kids, plus as you've seen in the links the other Libyans including the alleged torturers are being tried although they have it better as they are set out on bail. In my post I was referring to treatment of Libyan prisoners in general as compared with how these foreign prisoners have been treated.
Redneck , I also understand where the emotions in your statement come from that is what I feel sometimes that we don't count, but I'm trying to be fair and objective to everyone.
It is not about the confidence in the Libyan court system as AGA has put it. This kind of BS always happens even in countries who have independent and fair legal system but happens to be a third world country. The westerners are always presumed to have done nothing wrong even if they have been caught with their pants down, with evidence that can not be refuted. This is called inbuilt racism, and it's better to recognize it , face it and do something about it, instead of bitching about other irrelevant issues. End of the day those kids have contracted aids, and not a friggin appology or help has been offered by the EU or the US to ease their plight, instead they bicth about the Bulgarians that may have/not been treated in a bad manner.
Redneck
Redneck, you counsel that, “This is called inbuilt racism, and it's better to recognize it , face it and do something about it, instead of bitching about other irrelevant issues.” I am not here to argue with you about whether your statement, and the offensive, incendiary statement from your prior comment, accurately describe more than one person’s views. I am sure, statistically speaking, that there exist persons in the “them” camp who fit your description. However, I strongly disagree with you that your description accurately characterizes even the smallest, fractional minority of those who in your mind seem to be taking the “Bulgarian” side of things.
I am all for recognizing racism, (which incidentally exists in everyone of us to some degree), facing it, and doing something about it. What I am against, is viewing the world through a lens which explains every event as race related. Take a look at this article, where it appears that the shoe is on the other foot. Tell me how you analyze this situation. Is not the crux of the issue for most people the confidence in the judicial system which convicted the person? Look at it with the lens and without.
Why do I care at all about your first comment, even to take the time to write these comments? Because of the logical and necessary conclusion to your statements. If one truly believes that “they” believe people of one’s own kind are not worthy of life, what should, indeed must, one do? If it were me, and I truly believed it, I would kill them all before they killed me. That is the logical and necessary course of action which your comments dictate. Contrast your comment with the post. LH in her post suggested that the situation in her view “smacked of selectivity, don’t you think so?.” She then, by reference, tied it into her prior posts on “world hypocrisy” and asked the question whether you have to be white to qualify for humanitarian care? Her statement and questions, though, at least to this reader, call upon the reader’s sense of decency, fairness, and compassion, and engage the reader to change the system. In other words, there is implicit in her post the notion that people of all colors, races, creeds can see that what is going on is wrong and needs to be changed for that simple reason, it is wrong. Your comments, on the other hand, imply that there is no commonality with these people, since they feel you are not worthy of life. Do you get what I am trying to communicate? This approach, as with hate itself, leads nowhere. Discard it before it consumes you.
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