Good news for a change

[corydoras]

Much as I agree that she may well turn out to have been a significant agent of change in Pakistan and am glad to see that she has made a good recovery from her injuries, I also find myself slightly sickened that we are once again rolling out the red carpet at public expence for a forigner who has contributed precicely nothing to this country.

I wonder how much housing and funding her family is costing the public purse on top of her school fees, transportation and (doubtless present)security detail ?

What would you do instead Ken?

[Dave H]

I think the opposite. Odd cases like this shows we are humane . Would it have been the other way round...I think not. Good PR for the West . However i personally see a child and that's all just a child going to shool away from all the shite around her...

[Ken L]

What would you do instead Ken?

 

To be honest, I'm perplexed as to why she was brought here in the first place.

Yes, I know that the QEH has considerable expertese in treating exactly the sort of trauma inflicted by an AK47 round but the long flight to get her here could easily have finished her off.

My preferred option would have been for neighboring India to have offered her medical care and a home. Yes, there would have been diplomatic risks had she died but also a great oppertunity for bridge building between two rival nuclear powers.

 

Good PR for the West

Well maybe, but America pumps three billion dollars worth of aid a year into Pakistan ($12 a year from every man woman and child in the USA) and they're still hated, so I don't think fixing one girl who half of them would try to murder again is going to endear us to them.

[corydoras]

To be honest, I'm perplexed as to why she was brought here in the first place.

Yes, I know that the QEH has considerable expertese in treating exactly the sort of trauma inflicted by an AK47 round but the long flight to get her here could easily have finished her off.

My preferred option would have been for neighboring India to have offered her medical care and a home. Yes, there would have been diplomatic risks had she died but also a great oppertunity for bridge building between two rival nuclear powers.

 

Well maybe, but America pumps three billion dollars worth of aid a year into Pakistan ($12 a year from every man woman and child in the USA) and they're still hated, so I don't think fixing one girl who half of them would try to murder again is going to endear us to them.

You are all heart, but obviously not a parent.

Here is the full story.

[Steve Walker]

There are rational arguments for (and against) helping in this case, but I don't think the old "you'd understand if you had kids" card works - there are children across the world dying every day of preventable illnesses, we can't save everyone however much our relationships with our own loved ones causes us to empathise with their plight.

[Ken L]

No, I'm not a parent but no doubt the parents of the school that she's attending will be chuffed to know that there is every possibility that one or more swivel eyed psychopaths will turn up at there to try to finnish her off, along with anyone who happens to get in the way.

 

Given that there were clearly lots of offers to help her from all around the world (including several that would have been privately funded), it's obviously a real coup to get here here.

[Dales]

I am glad she was helped and hope life works out well for her but I can't help thinking that by supporting her we have guarenteed that she will be a target forever. I do feel we could have assisted her without the need to try to cash in on any good PR and wheel her out for photo shoots and TV sound bites.

 

I think her celebrity status will have marked her out for fanatics who will want to show that you can not disobey them and who make a point about what happens to those who fraternise or adopt western ideals. If our help was simply for her benefit she could have been whisked away, treated and given a new life some place unknown. But what would have been the point of that.

Edited March 20, 2013 by Dales

[John S]

Yes, there are children dying every day from diseases brought about by starvation and bad drinking water, all of which could be prevented if we pumped billions of pounds into their countrys' economy and at the same time ousted the corrupt governments, but not many 16 year old children are shot in the head by a religious extremist just for saying that women should be educated. A religion, by the way, that claims to be peaceful. I don't watch much TV news (and never newpapers) but IIRC the only people who raised a fuss about this attempted assassination were westerners. I don't recall a singe Imam raising as much as a whisper against this outrage.

 

I hope she lives a long and fruitful life away from persecution. After what she has gone through at the hands of one of her countrymen, she deserves it.

[captain cojones]

Her country paid all medical costs.

 

Her father is on the diplomatic staff at their embassy now..So his family is entitled to be with him............

 

In exactly the same way that British families are accommodated around the world with British diplomats.

 

This case is something that the British should be very proud of...That Britain was acknowledged as being a safe haven, with the democratic environment that would encourage this very special person.

[corydoras]

Yes, there are children dying every day from diseases brought about by starvation and bad drinking water, all of which could be prevented if we pumped billions of pounds into their countrys' economy and at the same time ousted the corrupt governments, but not many 16 year old children are shot in the head by a religious extremist just for saying that women should be educated. A religion, by the way, that claims to be peaceful. I don't watch much TV news (and never newpapers) but IIRC the only people who raised a fuss about this attempted assassination were westerners. I don't recall a singe Imam raising as much as a whisper against this outrage.

 

I hope she lives a long and fruitful life away from persecution. After what she has gone through at the hands of one of her countrymen, she deserves it.

Why is it always me that has to do all the Googling? This info was in the link that I posted in reply #14.

Whilst I am no friend of The Religion of Peace, nor any other religion for that matter, credit where credit is due.

A group of 50 Islamic clerics in Pakistan have issued a fatwa against the Taliban gunmen who tried to kill a 14-year-old girl, famous for campaigning for the right of young females to an education.

The Islamic scholars from the Sunni Ittehad Council publicly denounced attempts by the Pakistani Taliban to mount religious justifications for the shooting of Malala Yousafzai and two of her classmates as they sat inside a school bus on Tuesday.

Edited March 20, 2013 by corydoras