Eradicating Childhood Poliomyelitis
They're hugely crafty and intelligent, those radical Islamists. They know when they're being hoodwinked. You can fool them once, but then, never again. They learn quickly how to avoid the pitfalls that the West sets out to entrap them with. Particularly when they're exposed to the approach that humanitarian aid workers use convincing any who question their purpose that they are completely ideologically neutral and care only to improve the lives of the impoverished and the stricken.The underhanded manner in which the CIA used the concept of caring for the lives of children to embark on a fake vaccination program at the bin Laden Abbottabad compound represents the kind of sinister scheme that has since alerted the Taliban to the utterly malevolent forces at work against their best interests. And it was not in their best interests to abuse their hospitality extended to al-Qaeda by the strike that obliterated Osama bin Laden.
So, no, the Taliban have imposed a blockade that will not, by any means, be lifted to enable inoculation of the 35 million children under age five in Pakistan. For their part, Pakistan's health officials have come to the conclusion that there is nothing to be gained by reasoning with the Taliban that the campaign to eliminate poliomyelitis by using a tried-and-true vaccine to save the lives of children is worthwhile, and have abandoned attempts to vaccinate in Taliban-controlled areas of the country.
Pakistan itself remains humiliated at the very thought of the covert operation that took place a stone's throw from an elite military academy, under the very noses of those whose intelligence failed in more ways than one. The episode, spectacular as it was, in its lightning-strike methodology and split-second unfolding through the exquisite care given to blueprinting the escapade, remains a painful bruise on Pakistan's self-esteem.
"It absolutely exacerbated underlying suspicion and gave credence to the conspiracies", emphasized Dr. Heidi Larson, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The undertaking to inoculate Pakistan's millions of under-five children is vital because that country is one of only three in the world where polio is endemic. Almost 200 children died last year as a result of having contracted polio, in Pakistan.
It is not only the Taliban, maddened with rage over the interference of the West in the country's and the region's affairs. Some of the country's clerics too have condemned the move to eradicate polio in the country's children through inoculations. "This incident will not distract from the progress Pakistan is making this year, as the country is closer than ever to eradication", claimed the World Health Organization.
But not if the Taliban have anything to say about it.
Labels: Conflict, Health, Pakistan, Political Realities, Taliban, Traditions
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, July 19, 2012
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