Syria

[HairOfTheDog]

Oh for fucks sake HoTD, are you trying to take stupidity to an all time low here in Mock? I work in health or have you forgotten? I have work overseas in health too. I have also witnessed on Al Jazeera these hospitals and how inadequate they are to cope with the current status quo. If you want to go to an outpatient appointment for your ovarian cyst, think again, you are on the wrong place on the planet.

I don't mind getting into a shit fight with you, but if you insist on sinking to a level well below a normal IQ I will be forced to ignore you. I just don't have the patience. There is no fucking health care in Syria, it is a worn torn country that at best could probably perform meatball surgery. The times there are desperate, I wish it was not the case, I really do. I feel love for the Syrian people and compassion, they deserve better, but your boyfriend will not step aside.

Well, damn, aussie, now you've really made me feel stupid!

Have you been to Syria - I mean besides at youtube.com?

Stereotyping is like an art form to you. Visiting one or two Middle Eastern countries and working in health care doesn't make you an expert on every Middle Eastern country, believe it or not.

Have I forgotten that you're in health care? Well, considering that I don't have Alzheimer's, the answer is "no". I mean, it's not like you ever mention it or anything.

And, I've seen evidence of your claimed expertise in other health-related discussions. As a result, I'm gonna have to trust the World Health Organization, the United Nations, other hands-on professionals, and my international experience over my friend aussie when it comes to health care and other Syrian matters, pre and post war.

No one is contending that it's not desperate times in Syria, when it comes to daily living and health care. You stated emphatically that there was no health care, which is pure bullshit and you've no facts to back it up.

You don't have a monopoly on compassion, aussie, not by a long shot. Tunnel vision, however, is another matter.

So, if you choose to ignore me because you don't like to have your unsubstantial assertions questioned and you can't take a mock, I will just have to live with the heartbreak.

As for me, it's just a healthy disagreement and some fun.

[BlueTiki]

I have also witnessed on Al Jazeera these hospitals and how inadequate they are to cope with the current status quo.

There is no fucking health care in Syria . . .

You stated that there was no health care, which is pure bullshit and you've no facts to back it up.

Because civil unrest and armed conflict is disrupting services to the population, in aussie's continuously educated mind, it doesn't exists.

Aussie fails to refute if a governmental health care system was in place, prior to the uprising.

She's a perfect intellectual fit for our new hematology specialist.

Come to think of it, if he watches Al Jazeera with aussie, too, he just might realize that hematology is a specialized field within Internal Medicine and NOT just a hum-drum "lab tech" vocation.

[HairOfTheDog]

Because civil unrest and armed conflict is disrupting services to the population, in aussie's continuously educated mind, it doesn't exists.

Aussie fails to refute if a governmental health care system was in place, prior to the uprising.

She's a perfect intellectual fit for our new hematology specialist.

Come to think of it, if he watches Al Jazeera with aussie, too, he just might realize that hematology is a specialized field within Internal Medicine and NOT just a hum-drum "lab tech" vocation.

There was never health-care with a level of country-wide accessibility and quality on par with most western countries in Syria. I think that's probably obvious enough that it goes without saying to anyone actively engaged in this thread. But, maybe not. Perhaps to the Australian Mental Health professional and Middle Eastern expert that means that health care never existed in Syria.

Or, perhaps an interference with standard civilian service due to civil war interruption and focus is equivalent to health care being currently "non-existent" according to aussiefriend standards.

In either case, "no" obviously doesn't literally mean "no" to aussie. It's just an absolute that she tossed out there, likely due to lack of understanding or in an inept attempt to bolster her point.

Anyway, I found the Syrian tax and health care stats/data released by the World Health Organization interesting in context with the discussion upthread, even if Director Cho failed to run them through the aussiefriend logic translator prior to release.

[BlueTiki]

I found the Syrian tax and health care stats/data released by the World Health Organization interesting in context with the discussion upthread.

So did I.

WHO cares.

[aussiefriend]

I wouldn't have a flu shot in Syria, but you kids go on ahead.

[HairOfTheDog]

And the beat goes on...Rebels make a come back

(Reuters) - Syrian Islamist rebels have killed around 200 people in a three-day offensive in the mountain stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect and driven hundreds of villagers to seek refuge on the Mediterranean coast, activists said on Tuesday.

Since launching the surprise assault at dawn on Sunday, the mainly Islamist rebel brigades led by two al Qaeda-linked groups have captured half a dozen villages on the northern edges of the Alawite mountain range, the activists say.

The rebel strike into Alawite territory and their capture of a military airport north of Aleppo mark two major gains for Assad's foes after months of setbacks during which they lost ground around the capital Damascus and the central city of Homs.

Combined with a steady fightback in the southern province of Deraa, they highlight the challenge Assad faces in trying to restore his authority across Syria after two years of conflict that has killed 100,000 people and fragmented the country.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/0...N520130806

[username]

Go al Qaeda led rebels?

[BlueTiki]

I thought Obama said we defeated them?

[username]

I thought Obama said we defeated them?

I dunno but a lot of our troops have been defeeted by those damn IED's.















I know. That was bad.

[Duchess]

I know. That was bad.

I laughed.

[HairOfTheDog]

Can negotiations, with international moderation, lead to compromise? Will it ever take place?

In today's news:
(Reuters) - U.S. and Russian officials agreed on Friday on the need to convene a long-delayed Syrian peace conference in Geneva as soon as possible, but they offered no concrete plan to bring the warring government and rebels to the table.

Asked whether this conference would in fact ever happen, Lavrov said that Russia already had won the agreement of its ally the Syrian government to send a delegation to Geneva without any preconditions.

"John Kerry assured me that the opposition would be persuaded to come to Geneva without any preconditions on the basis of reaching agreement with the government," said Lavrov.

But the date keeps slipping partly because the rebels are split and cannot decide who should represent them. First the talks were bumped to June, then July. Then U.N.-Arab League peace mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, who held talks with senior U.S. and Russian officials in Geneva, ruled out a peace conference before August.

Full story:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/0...Q520130809
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This will be quite a test for John Kerry in his new role.

[Cynical Ninja]

This will be quite a test for John Kerry in his new role.

He will do a better job than William Hague could ever do, I say that with 100% confidence having no foresight into future events.

[Mohammed]

There was never health-care with a level of country-wide accessibility and quality on par with most western countries in Syria. I think that's probably obvious enough that it goes without saying to anyone actively engaged in this thread. But, maybe not. Perhaps to the Australian Mental Health professional and Middle Eastern expert that means that health care never existed in Syria.

Or, perhaps an interference with standard civilian service due to civil war interruption and focus is equivalent to health care being currently "non-existent" according to aussiefriend standards.

In either case, "no" obviously doesn't literally mean "no" to aussie. It's just an absolute that she tossed out there, likely due to lack of understanding or in an inept attempt to bolster her point.

Anyway, I found the Syrian tax and health care stats/data released by the World Health Organization interesting in context with the discussion upthread, even if Director Cho failed to run them through the aussiefriend logic translator prior to release.

Before the shit hit the fan, I would say that Syria was one fabulous place. The biggest restaurant on the planet? Damascus. So if they got enough waiters to feed 30.000 people a day, surely they got nurses well qualified to dish out sponge bathes.

If foreigners judge the American Health Care system by Michael Moore's "Sicko", it makes Mogadishu look like a hospital filled with Swedish porn stars as doctors.

[HairOfTheDog]

Before the shit hit the fan, I would say that Syria was one fabulous place. The biggest restaurant on the planet? Damascus. So if they got enough waiters to feed 30.000 people a day, surely they got nurses well qualified to dish out sponge bathes.

If foreigners judge the American Health Care system by Michael Moore's "Sicko", it makes Mogadishu look like a hospital filled with Swedish porn stars as doctors.

Yeah, Syria was pretty well rated overall by the W.H.O.

The main shortfall was accessibility; lots of rural areas where there were no hospitals or facilities within a very far distance.

The civil war has definitely resulted in an interruption to standard care; it's estimated about half of the doctors have left the country (but, of course, there are doctors from volunteer countries attempting to fill in).

Even with the decline, the annual national vaccination rate was 85% last year (pre-war was 90%). This again, according to objective W.H.O. stats.

Anyway, hoping some resolution comes soon for Syria. Brain drain could be a problem; will the country be able to attract back those professionals who have fled or groom new ones fast enough to re-establish and improve what was in place before? It'll probably take some time.

[Duchess]

It's always difficult for me to imagine a country that is so "modern" falling into a war where towns are bombed, people are living in caves and thousands have died. I cannot reconcile the two as to being one & the same place. I have this weird disconnect going on.

[Mohammed]

Always like that. It's hard to imagine that some years back Somalia was one hell of a holiday destination. In 1965 Aden was after New York and Liverpool the third busiest port in the world. Damascus was awesome. Aleppo, and, and, and.

Here in Sana'a we have our traditional beggars from Somali and Ethiopia, and all of a sudden there is a huge bunch of "White Faces" among them. Syrians. Was, and still is, quite strange to experience that.

But then it's also always nice to see when things start to get back to normal, such as Mozambique. The most expensive city on the planet at the moment, guess. Not Tokyo, Paris, London or Guettersloh, it's Luanda in Angola. Fuck knows why.

[Cynical Ninja]

You really have to bow down to Heinrichs knowledge of wikipedia and google images!

To support any lifestyle u want!

That was me! That was my child! That was my wife! Sure it was! I believe u! Course it was.

[Mohammed]

What the fuck you going on about my mentally unfortunate Mc Muffin?

Remember, "was" is you. I am "is" and "always has been". Such as "Damn, Mo is fucking gorgeous and always has been." The only time there is "was" and "is" in the same sentence regarding you would be "Fuck me, that Ninja twit is such a lobotomized knob job! Thinking about it, he always was."

See.

[Duchess]

Anyone have any thoughts on what's going on in Syria right now? Any opinion on the use of poison gas? Do you think that the US should continue to stay out of it?

[HairOfTheDog]

The rebel army is claiming that the loyalist army is now using gas/chemical weapons in areas populated with civilians.

The loyalists claim that the rebels are responsible and setting them up. I read an article last year where a government official claimed to have intelligence indicating that the rebels would deploy such a strategy.

Syrian leaders have agreed to UN inspections of alleged gas attacks/sites.

IMO, we should stay out of it until that investigation is complete and let the UN do its job. If gas is indeed being used, the US should work with other UN countries to determine the appropriate action.

Until it's clear what's really going on, I don't think it's wise to take sides or retaliatory action.