In the prime post 8am news slot, Today ran an item on the famine that afflicts the African nation of Niger.
Mike Thomson explained the woes that the inhabitants of this country face with first drought and then flood causing endless misery. However I was struck by the fact that Mike mentioned, in passing, that despite being the poorest country in the world it has a booming population. Howe odd. He didn’t mention that fact that Islam has gained a firm grip on this land. I wonder why? Does he think that this has no impact on Niger? If so, he is deluding himself and misleading listeners.
NIGER’S PROBLEM
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They don’t have the benefit of British sex education.
Tugging heart stings as usual, but did not make much of the facts they did present. They said ‘poorest country’ ‘highest birthrate’ ‘women not unusual to have 7 children by the age of 20’. Like most of Africa Niger has quadrupled it’s population in the last 50 years. No comment about being overpopulated, they then ended with a Niger woman comments she said something like ‘we are left here while most of our men are off fighting in Nigeria’. Off fighting, where did this come from, not a mention in the interview. The tugging heart strings about the worlds plight must stop and a hard dose of reality would serve the bBC much better.
‘‘we are left here while most of our men are off fighting in Nigeria’. Off fighting, where did this come from, not a mention in the interview. ‘
A smidge pertinent, one might have thought. If not to the ‘journalist’ and straw-men groupies, evidently.
Why on earth would he mention that Islam gained ‘a firm grip’ on Niger well over a hundred years ago? What relevance does that have on either the drought or the flood? The government is secular and interfaith relations are good.
Your Islam-detection antennae are clear twitching on overtime this morning…
A 95% muslim majority assures that the tiny minority of other faiths know their place in the islamic order, a muslim nation that cannot provide for its own population leaving them to starve and then beg for aid from the West.
Niger aint no paradise, islam has a iron grip and the restrictions on Christians is in place, so dont go there as a Christian trying to win converts to Christianity because the results would put a crimp in your life prospects! The exploitation of women and children and the genital mutilation of girls, the ignorance and the popualtion explosion and the poverty and the stone age subsistence of tribal people.
Nosireee Bob, Niger aint the sum of a wikipedia article.
Niger is a muslim nation so it follows by simple logic that its enforced political religion is part of the problem.
Cassie,
Funny you should mention FGM, although nothing funny about it. The BBC don’t seem to cover this dreadful subject much. I wonder why ? I guess it must be because it is not practised by Jews.
Interfaith relations in Nigeria are good? Because Wikipedia says so?
Pull the other one.
Nigeria Christian/Muslim Conflict
Nigeria’s Descent Into Religious Strife
UN chief appelas for restraint amid more inter-religious strife in Nigeria
Religious Conflict in Nigeria
Yeah, I know, it’s really about poverty and local competition for resources and political power. It’s sheer coincidence that religion is divided along the same lines.
As for the government, I suppose this counts as “secular”?
Nigeria Turns From Harsher Side of Islamic Law
David, you’re getting Niger and Nigeria confused. Niger is the country due north of Nigeria.
You’re right. My mistake, sorry, I’m thinking of the state of Niger in Nigeria. Niger isn’t a problem yet.
David P,
Some months ago in Nigeria, many Christians were massacred by muslims. The reporter on BBC “from our own correspondent ” took the boringly predictable line that it was political, nothing to do with religion.
PS Sorry I misread “Nigeria” in your post as “Niger”. I am referring to Nigeria in my above post.
Damn!
I posted on the previous open thread about this typical BBC partial report, a report that as usual misses out the most crucial information a listener needs to make sense of the Niger situation. Instead we are yet again treated to beeboid emotionalizing and beeboid propagandising for the tranzi aid groups.
Give more money, send more aid, dump more food, allow the population to expand well beyond its natural limits, ignore the stone age culture and its profligate breeding responsible for cycles of hunger and suffering and push the well known emotional buttons of the British people like crazy.
Stone age subsistence farming produces boom years and bust years like in the animal kingdom, the population expands beyond the lands abillity to provide for the population and then the population declines, the tranzi aid groups wish to interfere with the cycle by an artificial method of supporting an unviable population to increase in size so that population is at even greater risk of the next time the natural cycle turns from boom to bust.
We arew being manipulated into supporting the wrong method of helping Niger, we are being blackmailed and deceived into helping the utterly foolish tranzi aid gangs do the wrong thing for the wrong reasons.
We need to put a stop to the childish short sighted idiocy of the tranzi aid industry soon because they are causing problems on an obscene scale.
Cassie,
I noticed you had made a number of posts on the last open thread, just before DV opened a new one !
Is this a problem for other people here ? I tend to ignore the old thread once a new one is opened, really due to time constraints. Is there any way of having a “rolling” thread so old posts drop out after a number of days ? My technical knowledge is not up to this !
Grant
Yes, we can keep the one thread rolling but the sheer number of comments means that it would build to more than two hundred or so which I feel is probably too big?
David,
Yes, agreed. Once we get beyond 5/6 pages it becomes a bit unmanageable.
Half the country is desert aswell. Totally ridiculous
‘deluding himself and misleading listeners.’
Which, when you think about it, neatly describes the BBC vision of ‘interpreting events’ and ‘enhancing the narrative’.
Amazing what £3.6B of forced funding buys you: ill-informed, agenda-driven opinion.
Unique.