14-year old Pakistani girl activist shot by Taliban

[Sheilbh]

Imran Khan's an interesting figure right now.

So was Benazir Bhutto, back in the day.

Less so.  From what I can see Imran's got a unique reputation in Pakistanis politics: he's apparently incorruptible.  Aside from cricket he's most famous for using his fortune to fund a cancer hospital.  Though I understand lots of people who've joined him lately don't share that reputation.

[Legbiter]

Between the Islamoid weirdbeards and the military he might as well just make sure all his relatives get matching-colored Mercede's

If India manages to transition to something higher than an open air toilet than maybe Pakistan will feel obliged to follow suit.

[DontSayBanana]

Pakistanis Unite in Outrage Over Girl's Shooting by Taliban

Yeah, that's another thing the Taliban seem to have a hard time grasping: that martyrdom doesn't just work for them.  Or that someone could be considered a martyr without having to actually be dead.

[jimmy olsen]

These people have a different culture, a culture that is deeply offensive to us.

I'm afraid that murdering them will do no good and colonial empires have been out of fashion for some time.

Cultures can change faster than you think, just look at those thieving Germans and lazy Japanese.

http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/research/events/conferences/povertyandcapital/chang.pdf

[Syt]

Finally, the British thought the Germans to be overly emotional.
Today many British seem to think that Germans have an almost genetic
emotional deficiency. Yet talking about excessive German emotion, Sir
Arthur observed that "some will laugh all sorrows away and others will
always indulge in melancholy".
18
Sir Arthur was an Irishman; so his calling
the Germans emotional would be akin to a Finn calling the Jamaicans a
gloomy lot, according to the cultural stereotypes prevailing now.

[Richard Hakluyt]

These people have a different culture, a culture that is deeply offensive to us.

I'm afraid that murdering them will do no good and colonial empires have been out of fashion for some time.

Cultures can change faster than you think, just look at those thieving Germans and lazy Japanese.

http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/research/events/conferences/povertyandcapital/chang.pdf

Yes, cultures can change fast, but the direction of travel is important too. In the Islamic world they seem to be moving in what we would consider the wrong direction.

It doesn't help that often the most progressive elements end up living in the West anyway, further dumbing-down their homelands.

[jimmy olsen]

I don't know about that, Tunisia and Libya are definitely moving in the right direction and the judge is out still on Egypt and Syria.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I don't know about that, Tunisia and Libya are definitely moving in the right direction and the judge is out still on Egypt and Syria.

Very sceptical about that. You hope they are moving in the right direction but I am a pessimist, remove the strongman and a lot of creepy-crawlies emerge from under their stones.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

I don't know about that, Tunisia and Libya are definitely moving in the right direction and the judge is out still on Egypt and Syria.

that's not what sane people have been seeing. In Tunisia a lot of people -mainly women- fear that their rights will be eroded and then taken away.

[Martinus]

Meanwhile, a pregnant teenage girl died in Poland of an intestine cancer because doctors refused to perform chemotherapy on her because, being devout Catholics, they thought it would be tantamount to an abortion.

[Eddie Teach]

Chemo is not emergency care, why couldn't she just find another doctor?

[CountDeMoney]

Chemo is not emergency care, why couldn't she just find another doctor?

Maybe they're the only doctors in Poland?

[Eddie Teach]

 

I hadn't considered that possibility.

[PDH]

Yes, cultures can change fast, but the direction of travel is important too. In the Islamic world they seem to be moving in what we would consider the wrong direction.

It doesn't help that often the most progressive elements end up living in the West anyway, further dumbing-down their homelands.

I think a better point to take from the article is that the direction of change and what trends will happen is far harder to judge from the present within a culture or examining from outside.  That is why the social sciences are so poor as predictive studies.

[merithyn]

Meanwhile, a pregnant teenage girl died in Poland of an intestine cancer because doctors refused to perform chemotherapy on her because, being devout Catholics, they thought it would be tantamount to an abortion.

Well, it's aborted now, isn't it? 

I'm seriously starting to become more and more like Viking when it comes to religion, if only because of how the most popular religions abuse women. We seriously need a good push toward goddess-based religions to take hold if only for the sake of women.