The Nigerian Schoolgirls

[wayneL]

Actually I meant that generally people don't care what happens in Africa. We'd have 24 hour rolling coverage if this had happened to a group of white girls.

We still seem to get every possible update on Madeline McCann's disappearance. In seven year's time this African girls will be long forgotten, whatever the outcome.

Why do you think this is so Mac?

Are you suggesting we are all white supremacist racists? From my own point of view, everything that comes from Africa is so utterly horrific, it's actually overwhelming. One mind boggling atrocity quickly superceded by another and probably dozens we never hear about in between. How can we maintain the outrage of so many so very appalling incidents?

 

[basilio]

A view of what has happened in Nigeria from a 14year old school girl in Timbuktu

Aminata Ahmed Dicko, 14, from Timbuktu, Mali
'The men who have taken the Nigerian schoolgirls are the same types as we had here't

Going to school is important to me because I want to be chief prosecutor of the international criminal court, like Fatou Bensouda. We need more justice in Africa.

My school was closed for nearly two years when the jihadists occupied Timbuktu. They used the school as a firing range and chopped up the desks for firewood.

The men who have taken the Nigerian schoolgirls are the same types as we had here. You cannot called them Muslims. They are just criminals. We had thought they were nice people but what we saw went far beyond the limits of Islam. They raped and beat girls. There were unwanted pregnancies. If they saw a girl who was not properly dressed they would take her away to the prison. I never went to their prison but I heard there was a mattress in the prison with a blanket and a mosquito net, and when they had finished with the girl they would send her home. People thought she had been imprisoned but actually she had been raped.

My father, who is a Marabout [traditional Muslim preacher, considered heretical by fundamentalists], made me and my four sisters stay at home. We did household chores and read the Qur'an. If we went out it was for quick errands, never after dark. We had to wear those big veils that they imposed on us. Our father told us to pray day and night for the liberation of Timbuktu. Our prayers were answered when the French came.

School is important but even in peacetime we do not have the equipment and means – like electricity or computers – to study to high standards. During the occupation, one of my teachers organised secret lessons at his house. He was very brave because he taught girls and boys together. But he had to stop after the jihadists came to his house one day.

We went back to school in November last year but my school has only six teachers and more than 1,000 pupils. A few weeks before we went back to school there was a suicide car bombing on the army barracks just 100 metres from Bahadou. Flying debris punched a hole in the roof. It was them again.

We are still frightened. Even now there are regular rumours that a jihadist pick-up has been seen or whatever. When that happens we are all sent home.

It is easier to be a boy than a girl. Many girls get married really young. If they want to continue to go to school they have to defy their husbands. That is a sin so you would not do it. Marriage is a gift from God but if you are a girl you must resist it for as long as possible.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/08/muslim-girls-react-nigeria-kidnapping

For the full story check the following link

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/07/nigeria-boko-haram-mass-kidnapping-vital-questions

 

[McLovin]

Why do you think this is so Mac?

Are you suggesting we are all white supremacist racists? From my own point of view, everything that comes from Africa is so utterly horrific, it's actually overwhelming. One mind boggling atrocity quickly superceded by another and probably dozens we never hear about in between. How can we maintain the outrage of so many so very appalling incidents?

I think it's more what we relate to. A white child from an upper middle class family being abducted while on holiday hits home more than black girls being kidnapped in a country that many would struggle to point to on a map. You'd struggle to find an Azaria Chamberlain, Daniel Morcombe type crime that received as much coverage where the victim wasn't white.

I agree with you that most of what comes out of Africa is pretty horrific.

 

[bellenuit]

I think it's more what we relate to. A white child from an upper middle class family being abducted while on holiday hits home more than black girls being kidnapped in a country that many would struggle to point to on a map. You'd struggle to find an Azaria Chamberlain, Daniel Morcombe type crime that received as much coverage where the victim wasn't white.

I agree with you that most of what comes out of Africa is pretty horrific.

I think that is simply because we are more concerned with issues we can relate to and are emotionally close to. We can be devastated by events within our own family, such as the death of a parent or sibling, or something particularly sudden, such as a fatal accident. We may show our concern to our neighbours or others we know should a similar event happen to them. If it is someone we don't know, but in our town, we may talk about it for a while, but we don't feel the need to express our sympathies directly with those effected. You get the drift. As we become more removed physically, culturally and emotionally, our response diminishes. It is not racist, but just how things are. It is probably an attribute of our evolution as a species.

 

[Calliope]

Are you suggesting we are all white supremacist racists? From my own point of view, everything that comes from Africa is so utterly horrific, it's actually overwhelming. One mind boggling atrocity quickly superceded by another and probably dozens we never hear about in between. How can we maintain the outrage of so many so very appalling incidents?

I think we need to put this into perspective. Most of the atrociities coming out of Africa have been the result of tribal warfare. There is nothing tribal about this atrocity. It is a case of Muslim terrorists abducting hundreds of Christian schoolgirls to rape and torture and sell them into slavery to other Muslims.

In Nigeria only 6% of children attend high school, and only a small percentage of these are girls. Educated women offer the best hope for the advancement of third world countries The loss of so many in Nigeria is a tragedy.

I still think they will be rescued. It just requires a bit of backbone from Western (Christian?) countries. If these girls were Jewish they would have been rescued by now. Remember the raid on Entebbe 1976.

 

[Julia]

Actually I meant that generally people don't care what happens in Africa. We'd have 24 hour rolling coverage if this had happened to a group of white girls.

We still seem to get every possible update on Madeline McCann's disappearance. In seven year's time this African girls will be long forgotten, whatever the outcome.

Why do you think this is so Mac?

Are you suggesting we are all white supremacist racists? From my own point of view, everything that comes from Africa is so utterly horrific, it's actually overwhelming. One mind boggling atrocity quickly superceded by another and probably dozens we never hear about in between. How can we maintain the outrage of so many so very appalling incidents?

McLovin, my comment wasn't directed toward you. I agree with what you say.

I think Wayne has summed it up well. The amount of horrific behaviour in the world does become overwhelming. Most of us will feel overwhelmed and see little point in joining in an "isn't it awful" chorus on the internet.

It's not just Africa. For weeks now ABC Radio's "PM" has been including extensive coverage of the Royal Commission into institutional abuse. Every evening I feel more sickened than the night before at the depravity of people who were supposed to be caring for these already sad little kids.
I've been surprised at the minimal comment on various forums, but attribute that to the futility of commenting on it. What can we say? I don't have the words.

And then as the cold weather comes, I think more and more about the misery experienced by so many Australians who are homeless. There is perhaps a tendency to write these people off as deadbeats, dopes and addicts etc. It just isn't so. For someone existing week to week with rent etc., they can be only a couple of weeks of illness away from losing their home.

I feel outraged about the hideous cruelty exhibited to animals, just as another example, but feel helpless to do anything other than contribute financially to the RSPCA.

We can find many other immensely worrying and sad situations. Does it ease our sense of helplessness and frustration to discuss it here? I don't know.

 

[Calliope]

.
I think Wayne has summed it up well. The amount of horrific behaviour in the world does become overwhelming. Most of us will feel overwhelmed and see little point in joining in an "isn't it awful" chorus on the internet.

Seeing you are apparently the spokesperson for "most of us" I apologise for starting the thread. I will bow out now...suitably chastened.:bowdown:

 

[SirRumpole]

Seeing you are apparently the spokesperson for "most of us" I apologise for starting the thread. I will bow out now...suitably chastened.:bowdown:

You don't have to be sorry about starting the thread, but my feelings are similar to those expressed by others in that there is very little we can do about the situation, so is there any point in discussing it at length ?

IMO this sort of scenario is one reason why we have the UN, and the lack of action so far is indicative that it really is pretty useless in situations like these, and needs to grow some cojones or else these events will become more common.

 

[Julia]

Seeing you are apparently the spokesperson for "most of us" I apologise for starting the thread. I will bow out now...suitably chastened.:bowdown:

Hardly worth responding to such childish pique.

Needless to say, I've only expressed my own conclusions from observations and many conversations with others on the topic and my own feelings. I have zero interest in being a spokesperson for anyone.

 

[DB008]

You don't have to look far for stupid superstitious beliefs to rear it's ugly head.

It's happening on our doorstep...

Aceh woman, gang-raped by vigilantes for alleged adultery, now to be flogged

Sharia police in the Indonesian province of Aceh will publicly flog a young woman for adultery after she was turned in by eight vigilantes who had already gang-raped her as punishment.

The woman, a 25-year-old widow, and her alleged partner, a married 40-year old man, were caught inside her home last Thursday by a group of eight who were intent on enforcing the sharia prohibition on sex outside marriage, local media reports say.

The eight, who included a 13-year-old boy, tied up and beat the man and repeatedly raped the woman before dousing both in raw sewage.

They then marched the couple to the office of the local sharia police.

Ibrahim Latif, the head of the sharia police, or Wilayatul Hisbah in the town of Langsa, in Aceh’s far south-east, was quoted in The Jakarta Globe saying: “We want the couple caned because they violated the religious bylaw on sexual relations”.

Under the sharia law, which is peculiar to Aceh, each of the couple faces nine strokes of the cane in a public place.

The woman’s ordeal at the hands of her accusers would not be taken into account in delivering the sentence, Mr Ibrahim said.


http://www.smh.com.au/world/aceh-woman-gangraped-by-vigilantes-for-alleged-adultery-now-to-be-flogged-20140507-zr5x3.html#ixzz31Ckgw1dr

RE the OP - I posted this last month in the 'Religion is Crazy' thread...

 

[Julia]

A further item from the ABC's "PM" program on this:
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2014/s4001788.htm

 

[bellenuit]

Boko Haram and the Kidnapped Schoolgirls

The Nigerian terror group reflects the general Islamist hatred of women's rights. When will the West wake up?

By AYAAN HIRSI ALI

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles...0001424052702303701304579549603782621352.html

 

[Calliope]

Boko Haram and the Kidnapped Schoolgirls

The Nigerian terror group reflects the general Islamist hatred of women's rights. When will the West wake up?

By AYAAN HIRSI ALI

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles...0001424052702303701304579549603782621352.html

I read this article a few days ago and realised that the Nigerian atrocities were only the tip of the iceberg of the Jihadists obsession with the suppression of women's rights.

It is also time for Western liberals to wake up. If they choose to regard Boko Haram as an aberration, they do so at their peril. The kidnapping of these schoolgirls is not an isolated tragedy; their fate reflects a new wave of jihadism that extends far beyond Nigeria and poses a mortal threat to the rights of women and girls. If my pointing this out offends some people more than the odious acts of Boko Haram, then so be it.

(my bolds)

It doesn't augur well for the growing numbers of Muslim schoolgirls in Afghanistan when the Taliban resume control after the departure of the Americans. They already control most of the country.

 

[Calliope]

Maintain the Rage

SirRumpole said;

my feelings are similar to those expressed by others in that there is very little we can do about the situation, so is there any point in discussing it at length ?

There are many issues discussed on this forum that we can do little about. The main thing is to raise people's awareness while trying to stay within the boundaries of political correctness.

 

[Julia]

From the ABC:

Saturday 10 May 2014 8:05AM

Nigeria Image: London protest against the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian school girls (May 9th 2014) (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Fresh allegations from Amnesty International report that Nigerian authorities were warned about the likely attack on the school resulting in over 200 girls being abducted. Some teachers who were also warned allegedly kept some of the girls at home away from harm. There are also reports that the kidnapped girls have been separated into four groups increasing the difficulty in finding all the girls.

 

[IFocus]

The fact that Boko Haram can drive around the country side in armoured vehicles with out an issue from the military speaks volume to the massive rampant corruption and self interests from the political elite in Nigeria.

Sadly repeated time and again in Africa.

Here in WA there is a growing number of ex-pat South African whites as they bail out of SA. Have had some fascinating conversations over the last few years of their experiences in neighbouring county's and the endemic violence in SA.

Friend just came back from Durban where on a tour was told by the guide that in Durban 1 in 2 women will be raped.

Had an interesting read years ago of an Africans journo considered a traitor because of his left leanings. The local police used to drag him down to the police station every time some thing horrific happened.
One case was a rape of a woman by 9 blacks and a murder. 10th guy in line got impatient reckon number 9 was taking to long so killed number 9.

 

[noco]

These poor girls will be sold on the open market.....what a terrible future lies ahead for them.

"The assistance still strikes me as belated and insipid. If you have seen the video of Boko Haram’s barking mad leader, Abubakar Shekau, promising of these girls that “By Allah we will sell them in the marketplace”, you have to wonder about the wisdom of bothering to send negotiators. You can’t negotiate with these nut jobs".



http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/re...ls-shames-us-all/story-e6frf7jo-1226912945762

 

[Calliope]

The Obamas are not serious. Neither of them has the backbone, in their denunciation of the Islamic terrorists, to mention the word "Islam".

It is hard not to have total contempt for a political culture that thinks the picture at right is a useful contribution to rescuing 276 schoolgirls kidnapped by jihadist savages in Nigeria. Yet some pajama boy at the White House evidently felt getting the First Lady to pose with this week's Hashtag of Western Impotence would reflect well upon the Administration. The horrible thing is they may be right: Michelle showed she cared - on social media! - and that's all that matters, isn't it?

Just as the last floppo hashtag, #WeStandWithUkraine, didn't actually involve standing with Ukraine, so #BringBackOurGirls doesn't require bringing back our girls. There are only a half-dozen special forces around the planet capable of doing that without getting most or all of the hostages killed: the British, the French, the Americans, Israelis, Germans, Aussies, maybe a couple of others. So, unless something of that nature is being lined up, those schoolgirls are headed into slavery, and the wretched pleading passivity of Mrs Obama's hashtag is just a form of moral preening.

http://www.steynonline.com/6326/bringbackourballs

 

[noco]

i heard on the Sky news this morning that some of the girls had escaped....Sky News did not elaborate just how many.