It's a kiss ass article sucking up to the puppet government in Iraq in its first five paragraphs and in its last four paragraphs. The last four is where the World Health Organization (WHO) comes in which is a cute reworking of what happened. The first sentence announces Iraq's Ministry of Health held a press conference Saturday. It ignores Friday's press conference where a WHO representative participated in one of the most disgusting spin sessions of the year.
WHO is a part of the UN as is IRIN. Must be nice to be able to cover up for your own embarrassments. C.I. covered the Friday press conference in "Naeema al-Gasseer: the United Nations' embarrassment in Iraq" and Naeema al-Gasseer is both a doctor and someone who has confused who she works for.
Repeatedly in Friday's press conference she would say "we" and then have to back it up to explain that she meant the Iraqi government. When a UN rep can't even verbally maintain the distance she's supposed to in a press conference, there's a lot of garbage going down.
Which included al-Gasseer joining the two Iraqi government figures in slamming the media. Slamming the media is nothing new in Iraq.
Reporters Without Borders released a statement today which includes that they are "appalled and saddened by the murder of four employees of privately-owned TV station Al-Sharqiya yesterday in the northern city of Mosul. Al-Sharqiya's news director noted that the murders followed a smear campaign against the station by state TV broadcaster Al Iraqiya."
Wow, who could have guessed that the state-owned and state-controlled Al-Sharquiya would launch a verbal attack on the press? Anyone listening to the garbage coming out of al-Gasser's mouth on Friday. Friday a UN rep joined in smearing the press and, the following day, 4 journalists are murdered.
Yeah, the UN can cut off a slice of the blame pie.
Naeema al-Gasseer didn't just stand there passively as two Iraqi government officials verbally attacked the press -- which would have been bad enough considering that she's supposed to represent the United Nations. No, she joined in on the attacks.
Since the start of the illegal war, at least 217 journalists* have died in Iraq. The illegal war is also the deadliest war for journalists in the modern era.
The United Nations is supposed to be an independent body. When one of their representatives joins in verbal attacks on the press, the gloves truly have come off.
It wasn't enough for Naeema al-Gaseer to attack journalists, she also had to attack Iraqi women.
The cholera epidemic can be blamed on Iraqi women -- or, from her wording, whomever allows them to cook the way they do. Considering her constant refrain of how (fundamentalist) clergy must take control and how "cleanliness" must be enforced combined with her verbal assault on Iraqi women, we'd argue Dumb Ass al-Gaseer knowingly or not was encouraging violence towards women. She was certainly scapegoating Iraqi women.
The IRIN article has five middle paragraphs that make the article worth reading. From that section:
However, some experts have criticised some of the health authorities' hygiene recommendations.
Ismaiel Mohammed, a sociology professor at the University of Babil, said the government's recommendations to residents will add to their economic burden as they will have to pay more money for fuel to boil water or for buying bottled water.
"It [cholera] is an endemic disease and there must be real solutions that go to the roots of it and not only immediate measures whenever the disease emerges," Mohammed told IRIN. "By this we are only cutting off the octopus' arms and not killing it."
The 'health authorities' include Naeema al-Gasseer. The IRIN article does not note her but on Friday she joined the two other 'health authorities' in blaming the cholera outbreak on everything but the government.
al-Gasseer dismissed reports of an 'epidemic' and insisted that after last year's outbreak at the same time, it was perfectly normal and expected that another outbreak would take place.
What was perfectly normal was to expect that the central government in Baghdad would have addressed the problem. They have not. Not only does Nouri al-Maliki sit on billions of unspent dollars, he also hasn't cleaned up the area. Empty lots now act as overflowing trash cans. And Iraqis are expected to pay through the nose for fuel.
That would include the fuel that they would need to boil water.
al-Gasseer had plenty of time to lecture and imply that Iraqi women were stupid and just not aware that water needed boiling. She had no time to note how high the fuel costs were (or that electricity is still a joke in Iraq).
al-Gasseer has clearly confused her role within the United Nations as "I work for al-Maliki." In doing so, she has not only refused to outline the real problems of the cholera outbreak, she has not only joined in the attacks on the press and she has not only encouraged violence against Iraqi women, she's made clear to the world that the United Nations is perfectly fine with having an apologist and accomplice for a government that refuses to act. She has lowered the United Nations in the eyes of the world and it is past time for her to be assigned to another post.
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* 217? We do not draw a line between journalists and media workers. In Iraq the "media worker" is often also the stringer and much more. Many of the media workers are Iraqis who have increased access and trust for that very reason. It is not uncommon for media workers to do the bulk of the work. In a war zone, anyone trying to report -- journalist or media worker -- is a journalist in our eyes.
