December 25, 2006

Who is responsible?

Before I return to my normal blog life, I must express my feelings related to the 5 Bulgarians nurses and a Palestine physician that were condemned to death in Tripoli, Libya, last December 19th, accused of infecting almost 500 children with HIV virus.

As I said on December 25.2005, I really don’t care for who is responsible for that atrocity but what I really care is for those 452 children, some of them are now teenagers and some are dead, who were infected in a hospital in Benghazi in 1998!

Since last year, I just read one single article showing some preoccupation with those young people’s lives and nothing more.

Well, my opinion didn’t change and I do think, now more than before, that those children must be the headline on all kind of media. They are the suffers, they are the ones who may suffer preconception regarding to their illness, they may be apart of the society they belong to, they are the ones who deserve the Human Rights attention, they are the ones who deserve the international community fighting exclusively for their rights.
It’s so strange…the world is so upset looking for the monster/s of this violent act and it seems to forget the victims of it!!

So, I posted the text below last year...unfortunately nothing change to those children...
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Graphic from Laa Magazine, Tripoli, Libya, 1998
Since I found out about the case Benghazi 5, in Libya, I cannot stop myself of being very, very concerned!
In 1998 in Benghazi, 452 children were infected with the HIV virus in al-Fath Children's Hospital. There are 6 people accused of this monstrous crime: 5 Bulgarian’s nurses Kristiyana Valtcheva, Nasya Nenova, Valentina Siropulo, Valya Chervenyashka and Snezhana Dimitrova, and 1 Palestine ‘s physician Ashraf al-Hajuj.

This is a hideous crime and it seems that nobody or almost nobody cares for the most important think in this case: the children! 452 were infected and 51 have died already.

I have read a lot about this case and I’m so angry with all the media around the world. Why they don’t say anything about the suffering of those children, now most of them are teenagers, and their families? Why the Human Rights Watch just talks and cares about the 5 nurses and the physician. Why doesn’t it talk and care about the children?

Until now I just found one, just one article that had focused its concerns on those 426 children, that are now exposed to the stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS also, that persist and insist around the world.By the way, the article is from Red Cross.

Well, maybe the international media and the Human Rights are right. How would they think about only 452 children from the so-called 3rd world? These children are not from the 1st orld countries (stupid labels), anyway?!

I have many thoughts and many questions about the "Benghazi 5" case. Can you imagine just for 1 second how the media would react if this case had happened in the USA or England or Germany or Canada or Switzerland?
Can you just tell me the difference between one child who was born in Libya, Brazil, Haiti, Laos, Afghanistan, or Chad against one child who was born in the called first world countries? I do doubt if somebody in his/her perfect health of mind can find one tiny, one micro difference about children born in different parts of the world. I do doubt!!!

Why has the international media such a disgusting behavior with this specific case that occurred in Libya? Is it because of the unfair Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi’s social politics and the world was waiting for the opportunity to judge him? Or is it because there has never been a leader or president from the so-called 1st world countries that has ever condemned somebody to death penalty? I wonder!!
Well, perhaps the governments from 1st world countries have permission to kill and I have ignored that.

Who or what is the responsible for such sad and revolting situation? Some respectable scientists tried to give some explanation on that, but… Luc Montaignier, the French doctor who first isolated the HIV virus, and his Swiss and Italian colleagues, said that the epidemic was due to a lack of hygiene.

Wow, simple like that? Oh, come on!! I have worked as volunteer in some public day care in Brazil and my colleagues and I knew that was part of our job to care for the hygiene of the place and of the children and we did it. I don’t know how many times I washed walls, floors, furniture, and kitchen’s appliances there; how many times a day I cleaned the restroom after the small children used it; how many cloth diapers full with urine and/or poop I washed since pampers are very expensive there. It was my responsibility as human being not just as volunteer. I was there to help them, to help the children, to offer a good and clean environment where they could spend some quality time. So, are not the physicians and the nurses responsible for the environment they work on?

I have talked to a lot of people from different backgrounds, cultures, religious and nationalities and all of them, and I meant all of them, got so nervous and so mad about how the media treats this Libya 's case.
I need to highlight what one father said: “if one of my children were infected with any virus from any hospital, under the care of any nurse or any physician from any world I would became a criminal very easily.”

Well, I think he said everything. I have no idea if the healthy workers are culpable or not, but I do know one thing: they were very negligent about their patients if all this calamite has started due to a lack of hygiene as has said the specialists.

I do hope that these 401 children alive can have some quality life. I hope that they could find less pre-conception regarding to their illness, since there is enough suffering already for them.
I wish from the bottom of my heart that the international media could focus its sensibility on the children!

Just one more reflection: Why probable criminals or criminals seem to be more important them the real victims all over the world?

6 comments:

celestialmtn said...

It makes me so sad reading about stuff like this. I saw a program on television recently that featured five kids from Russia that were adopted by an American couple. All five kids has the HIV virus. They now have been living with the couple for over ten years now. As much as there are sad stories out there, I like to also remember the touching stories like this one that I saw on television. Somehow, it gives me a sense of hope for the world.

I hope you're enjoying the holidays!!!

Tchau!!!

sume said...

Thanks for bringing attention to this issue, leandra. I'd never heard this before. >_< I'm going to re-blog this if you don't mind.

Hajar Zamzam Ismail said...

Gr-r-r-r!
There are no words to make such a thing right or nice or to go away!

Anonymous said...

Hello there Lea

Thank you so much for bringing this case to attaention. I think the puzzule is solved; Qadhafi did it!

He's a creazy creature, who done so many creazy/sick crimes...I can't think of anyone else who might have commited it!!

Underground Breez Of Freedom!

Anglo-Libyan said...

I have posted about this dreadful subject as well and like you I am upset that the world is always talking about the nurses and the doctor but the victims hardly get any attention. who is responsible? I guess we will never know the whole truth!

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