Gaza massacre

Tariq has hit the nail on the head. If the powers in the Arab world would stand up to the west instead of showering them with gifts, perhaps change could be found. What Tariq mentions about man-made islands and 7 star hotels is what is just so exasperating even when it comes to issues like funding research to cure thalassemia. At the Dubai conference, I spoke with Dr Michael Sadelain, about what is the main obstacle to running gene therapy trials...money. Dr Sadelain talked about how at a conference that attracted hundreds of thal patients from Saudi Arabia, that he wanted to make an appeal to the Saudi Arabians for $3 million to help finance the trials. While one sheik bought a jet for over $300 million, no money has come to fund this research, even though so many of their fellow countrymen suffer from thal. I have also used connections through diplomatic channels to ask money from the Kuwaiti princes, one of whom is a good friend of the ambassador I know. This ambassador has a thal daughter. Again, nothing came from the efforts. These greedy leaders enjoy things as they are and have no interest in helping their own people, let alone helping others in the Muslim world.

We can point fingers all day at the western nations that took away the land from the Palestinians and put Israel in their midst as a way of having a foothold in the Mideast, so we will always have an excuse to take the oil. It has been in the interest of the western powers to keep the Mideast unstable so that the governments there can be easily manipulated and controlled. In the 1970's people like Cheney and Wolfowitz designed the Plan for a New American Century (PNAC) which states exactly what I just said. Keeping the Mideast in a perpetual state of unrest is the plan and so far it has worked as they hoped, as the US was able to attack Iraq and kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis with impunity. Until the leaders of these Mideastern countries stand up and unite to change this state of affairs, this is how it will stay. No US president will ever stand against Israel as this would be political suicide. The only solution can come from the countries in the Mideast because the US and Israel will never leave the area in peace. Israel will continue to steal Arab lands and label as terrorists anyone who opposes their actions.

Nothing will change until countries like Saudi Arabia replace their corrupt kings and decide to lead rather than bow to the wishes of their US protectors. How many countries are like Saudi Arabia and have tens of thousands of US troops stationed there, solely to keep themselves in power?

Tariq

Muslim govts and muslim leaders, all they do is call a conference, talk nonsense and go back home to their life. They are all paid enough to enjoy their good night sleeps in their palaces

I totally agree about this 100%

Only Iran is the country whose leader is a true leader and who has guts to show thumbs down to Bush in front of the whole world.

Totally disagree, when it came to practice where is their role now??? They have been accusing everybody of betrayl. what did they do now. It is all about  INTERESTS

Sharmin

An American man runs this website.  A man who does not have thal, nor does any member in his family.  He travels all over the world and for years has answered all of our queries night and day.  His mission is to learn more and more in order to help us fight this disease - he worries about our iron levels and transfusion requirements.  It is an American girl whose picture appears on the top of this page a girl who lost her life but left behind this site to help all of us - to unite us so that we can share our feelings and conquer this disease.  Sajid was a Pakistani muslim who gave up a chance at life so that a little boy in India could live.  

I am sure Andy knows that we are mainly talking about goverments, not people and we all do respect all nationalities, what we all condemn is the politics not the people, the people of  the US, Pakistain , India, Isreal, Palastien,... the common peole are only hoping to live in peace no more and just have the simple life. We are criticizing the politics in general and this include all the world including our own leaders, i hope we all have the same understanding.


Finally i am really happy on how we all disscuss a sensitive issues, though we all come from different culters, but we have great respect to each other. Whether we agree or disgree what i like is the tone of respect wehave for each other



One important conclusion:[/u]

After reading all about this thread, don't you think that thalassemia is really something soooo minor and easy to deal with and there are other hardships in life that God had saved us from, So we have to thank him, i guess

Hope the coming year will bring more peace

manal

Andy, you are totally right , this is the solution, i totally agree to each and every word. You understand the situation so right. None of the leaders work for the people.

Come on Andy, i am really so impressed an expert in thalassemia and Polticis, hats off my friend

manal

it's terrible, really, really terrible.
I also think about the fact what Andy said - the ironic thing.
I haven't read all your message though.

For me it feels like Lebanon 06. I got a friend in Lebanon and I was so scared all the time.

They are just all liars.

I know about the EU, but WHY don't you hear ANYTHING of Obama? 

I hope that the world will someday know peace.

Dore
p.s. I hope I didn't said anything against the rules of this forum...?

Manal,

I completely agree with you:)  I also believe that the leaders fail us and cause people to hate one another and that is why I was pointing out what great things we can do regardless of where we come from.  Western governments have manipulated the entire world to get what they want - they use other countries as their pawns.  The corrupt leaders and governments brew hatred in people which is heartbreaking and devastating - but that is their whole plan.  If everyone were to like each other then and there was stability then their plans would fail.  Everything that Andy has written is the point of view my dad has been telling us since we were children, and he has been warning us to not fall into the trap of believing the media around us.  It is too bad that it is not stopping and that the effects continue to be so devastating.  May there be peace someday.

Sharmin

Dore, you have only spoken the truth. And Obama will do nothing because every American politician knows that to criticize Israel means political death in the US.

Manal, my educational background and degree is in political science. I learned many years ago that what we are told is seldom the truth. I became so disillusioned with how politics really works that I never continued my education beyond my 4 year degree.

Tariq
Quote
Muslim govts and muslim leaders, all they do is call a conference, talk nonsense and go back home to their life. They are all paid enough to enjoy their good night sleeps in their palaces


Exactly, the Arab leaders joined and nothing came out of it.  On the French T.V., one of them came to discuss and said that a decision will be reached after 48 hours and the french said that in 48 hrs there will be terrestrial attack so what's the use of deciding anything at all if it will be after the attack.

I am sorry to say that but I believe that these leaders are bootlickers when they have so much money and could have used these productively to secure their power.  Israel is surrounded by arab countries, if pressurised by all of them, it would have to stop its offensive because it cannot battle on all fronts at the same time.  But unfortunately the arab leaders do not want to get involved (only God knows what they are afraid of)

@Umair

Tariq bro our state isn't a terrorist state , well we are not the most dangerous  and unstable nuclear state.

I know buddy but if you have read carefully i said that our image that is projected to whole world has made us look like a terrorist state. The fact is despite all the issues and differences, when difficult times come, we become strong and united, which we all saw in recent tension build up with India. Even the people fighting with Pak Army in northern areas offered a cease fire and even offered to fight with Pak Army in case of Indian attack.

@ Tariq
hummm .. oh yeah , i made a mistake in reading the posts carefully.

@all others
Sorry if i offend anyone, or if i said anything against the forum , forum members and against the rules of forum ...i didn't mean to offend anyone or to break rules, but in mean time i think that wat-ever i said is nothing wrong .... i m gonna cut some lines of my last post ....

@Umair

I know buddy but if you have read carefully i said that our image that is projected to whole world has made us look like a terrorist state. The fact is despite all the issues and differences, when difficult times come, we become strong and united, which we all saw in recent tension build up with India. Even the people fighting with Pak Army in northern areas offered a cease fire and even offered to fight with Pak Army in case of Indian attack.

You are totally right Traiq,i wish people who call Pakistan a terrorist state would come to Pakistan and see the state of poverty here,economic conditions have been so hard recently that even the so-called middle class is going down the lane,bombs blow up,people die,and our presidant will do nothing but praise Sarah Palin's beauty ?You remember that couple whose 2 years old daughter died and they didn't even had money to bury her? They had to leave her dead body in the Edhi charity centre? I can never forget the face of the crying father,he was crying like he had lost his mind.It was all over the news, This is all so sick,and why would US do something for us,or any country,if we are not ready to do any thing by ourselves?
Economic conditions are hard all over the world now a days,so i don't think that people in any country would even think about war? But i wish we can say the same about govts.
You must have read about a report which came in news a few months back that an american think tank developed a new world map in which Pakistan was absent,i don't know if any of you has seen the movie "War Inc",it displayed the same idea,it showed years like 2015 or something (i don't exactly remember the year),in which Pakistan was under American troops.
I don't think this madness would end untill and unless our political leaders see the wrongness of their ways,my sympathies are with Palestinians,but i wish i could do more.

Zaini.

You are totally right Traiq,i wish people who call Pakistan a terrorist state would come to Pakistan and see the state of poverty here,economic conditions have been so hard recently that even the so-called middle class is going down the lane,bombs blow up,people die,and our presidant will do nothing but praise Sarah Palin's beauty ?You remember that couple whose 2 years old daughter died and they didn't even had money to bury her? They had to leave her dead body in the Edhi charity centre? I can never forget the face of the crying father,he was crying like he had lost his mind.It was all over the news, This is all so sick,and why would US do something for us,or any country,if we are not ready to do any thing by ourselves?
Economic conditions are hard all over the world now a days,so i don't think that people in any country would even think about war? But i wish we can say the same about govts.
You must have read about a report which came in news a few months back that an american think tank developed a new world map in which Pakistan was absent,i don't know if any of you has seen the movie "War Inc",it displayed the same idea,it showed years like 2015 or something (i don't exactly remember the year),in which Pakistan was under American troops.
I don't think this madness would end untill and unless our political leaders see the wrongness of their ways,my sympathies are with Palestinians,but i wish i could do more.

Zaini.

Zaini, it's too late for me now to write all the things I want to say. So I will only say this.

Last monday I saw a program called 'Guests in Winter' (wintergasten) on the Dutch tv. This season we got a very good presentator who is a journalist in the Middle East and he's good. He interviewed  Jeffrey Sachs from Columbia University (New York) who is an economist. The concept of the program is to interview a guest for 90 minutes (without any breaks). I have heard of him since he was the head speaker of the conference of ALAS (which was created by Shakira Mebarak Ripoll and many other well-known people from South-America. I told my father to watch with me. First he was anti mister Sachs, but he was also touched by him. (Unfortunately, my mother had to work) I wished that everyone watched this program.

A summary of what he said:

All problems are caused by poverty. It's our job to get poverty out of the world. And he really accused governments of not doing that - even the American government. They all giving less than 1% of their income (right word?) to Third World*.

That's the thing what slepped of everybodies memory all the time!

Sachs wrote also a book about this issue. I haven't read it yet. I have so many - besides study - to read that the pile of books is like the mount Everest.

The next time when I post here, I want to talk about a book what discuss the Israel/USA issue. I remember me this book when Andy answered me.  I gave it as a present to my father during Sinterklaas 2007 and it's still a lonely book.

* = there's a better word for that too

Dore,

You pointed the right thing,we have to abolish poverty,but we obviously can't do it by waging wars,so if the big and developed countries can't help third world countries,they should at least try not to create more mayhem in there.

Zaini.

Giving money will only provide a temporary relief. We need to build proper economical infrastructure in country which needs help. So that foreign investment can be brought, new businesses start which in turn will create more jobs. Also improving law & order situation helps in increasing consumer confidence and will stop people from investing their savings to some other country.

Here is some info about thals in Gaza. I just heard it coming from a doctor in the Gaza Hospital of Beit Hanoun.He was on Greek news, journalists talked to him on the phone and he spoke Greek as he had studied medicine in Greece.He told that the thals of Gaza do not get blood transfusions at all,as no blood is available.
As expected that might be, at the same time it's terrible to be expressed in words. One cannot avoid put oneself in their places.
Greece has sent humanitarian aid with drugs and 150 blood units.
But are they enough?

That's really, really terrible 

Do they really attack hospitals?