April 3, 2005

REFORM? WHAT REFORM?

Children 'starving' in new Iraq (BBC, March 30th, 2005)

Increasing numbers of children in Iraq do not have enough food to eat and more than a quarter are chronically undernourished, a UN report says.

Malnutrition rates in children under five have almost doubled since the US-led invasion - to nearly 8% by the end of last year, it says.

The report was prepared for the annual meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

It also expressed concern over North Korea and Sudan's Darfur province.

Jean Ziegler, a UN specialist on hunger who prepared the report, blamed the worsening situation in Iraq on the war led by coalition forces.

Thank goodness the BBC and impartial, disinterested UN officials are there to keep an eye on those awful neocons.

Posted by Peter Burnet at April 3, 2005 7:53 AM
Comments

Now that they are using U.S. standards for malnutrition in Iraq, that is.

Posted by: Randall Voth at April 3, 2005 9:53 AM

This article with the "misleading" headline was on the front page of our local liberal rag (The Daytona Beach News-Journal), but I couldn't find it online. I guess an editor woke up and took it off the net, but of course the dead tree version was already out there.

An email asking for a correction went unanswered and, guess what? -- there was no correction either online or in the paper next day. The MSM thinks of itself as totally unaccountable to the public.

Now the spin is on, at least here in Florida, to make Michael Schiavo a hero and demonize the Schindlers. Professors are chiming in with selected facts and pretty soon, we won't be able to tell which man was the most sanctified, Pope John, the holy father or Michael Schiavo, the perfect husband.

Posted by: erp at April 3, 2005 10:03 AM

Before the war they claimed malnutrition rates were 25% due to sanctions. Now they claim rates have doubled to 8%. Must be the same UN math used to account for the Oil-for-Food program.

Posted by: pj at April 3, 2005 10:40 AM

hey koffi, how them darfur kids doing ? bag your limit yet ?

Posted by: cjm at April 3, 2005 12:46 PM

pj,

Beat me to it.

One hopes that Jean Ziegler, a former Swiss PM, is not permitted near any of the banks, being so mathematically challenged.

Posted by: bart at April 3, 2005 1:47 PM

pj,bart: i wish my math skills were so nuanced :)

bart: where have you been ?

Posted by: cjm at April 3, 2005 4:27 PM

Six of the eighteen nations with the worst human rights records in the world are serving on the UN Human Rights Commission. They bring their experience to the job.

Posted by: Genecis at April 4, 2005 11:53 AM

Bart:

I don't think he was a Swiss PM. I think he was a Swiss radical leftist pain-in-the-butt, and so recognized and suffered by his countrymen.

Posted by: Peter B at April 4, 2005 9:46 PM

You're right. He was the head of the Swiss Social Democrats for a while in the 90s. Swiss Socialists, now that is cognitive dissonance on the grand scale.

Posted by: bart at April 5, 2005 10:47 AM
« IF THEY WERE EUROPEANS WE'D HAVE PUSHED HARDER: | Main | SOLEMN AND RESPECTFUL »