77 million people poisoned; over 270,000 will die

[NV1962]

I doubt you've heard about the worst mass poisoning in history in the news, if you live in the US - not even while that immense tragedy occurs on top of / at the same time as the worst flooding in years in that reagion. And yet, somehow, Bush polls better on 'national security.'

Breaking news, this, anyone? We distort, you complied.

How... sickening.

[tlcandie]

1. This is horrible! I can't keep up with all the horror happening in our

world! It makes you feel so helpless and hopeless. :cry:

It seems to me that going global with news and information is going to force us to either become cold and removed or we are going to have to MAKE mutual compassion and help.. equality, rights, etc. the basic for everyone upon our planet!!

[indigobusiness]

2. I'm apalled at the apathy and self-centerdness

of so many people I try to talk to about this sort of thing.

When Americans are on the mat and looking for a hand, will the world turn its back on us?

The idea that America is immune from catastrophe is ludicrous.

While there are many empathetic Americans that actively care and work to make a better world, they are a minority and fighting an uphill battle.

[tlcandie]

4. So true indigobusiness....

When the table IS turned, I wonder how we will feel? I think that people believe it can/could never happen to us. When, in fact, it is happening even now.

Our foundation is crumbling before our eyes. Everything living is being killed. People are becoming like cattle to be herded instead of listened to. Wages are going down and cost of living is going up. Healthcare is for the few instead all. Everything we knew is now going backwards at a very fast pace. It feels like a top spinning backwards at a dizzying pace!

[indigobusiness]

7. Absolutely. Our complete cluelessness about the Eastern "mind"

is so telling in our military adventurism, foreign pilicy, etc. While our bottom-line mentality infuses our collective psyche with profit motive value-judgements that blind us to deeper meaning and significance. We are lost and sinking.

But, don't let that bother you...Bush is "optimistic".

[whistle]

3. Right, it's been known about for years [1] and....

...is also a problem much closer to home <2>:

<1> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/medical_notes/459078.stm

<2> http://wilkes1.wilkes.edu/~eqc/arsenic.htm

[Massacure]

5. 77 million people is a lot.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. We are killing

our own people. Who upgraded the allowable arsenic levels anyhoo?? Don't tell me it was junior.... again.

[lostnfound]

8. Pardon my ignorance, but how is Bush connected to wells in India? nt

[FlaGranny]

10. He's not, but he DID try to raise

the allowable limits in drinking water in the US. The outcry forced him to reconsider, I believe - if I'm remembering correctly.

[burrowowl]

12. Wells in New Mexico

and not letting arsenic in water tp be reduced to those recommended by WHO.

[NV1962]

14. in two words: deliberate ignorance

The connection is terrible reporting. The connection is that Bush can get away with invading non-threatening countries because hardly anyone can tell sh*t from Shine-ola these days - courtesy the intellectually lethal double whammy of Big Media hyperconcentration (courtesy Powell Jr) and the Bush admin's ruthless exploitation of the Big Media's cowardice and laziness by threatening to toss non-complying journalists out of the WH briefings, until they faithfully reproduce the WH press releases as the gospel... And they actually GET AWAY with it.

It's a deliberate reversal of 'the truth shall set you free.'

George Orwell cast it marvelously in 1984: 'ignorance is strength.'

[indigobusiness]

16. Have a look at Bhopal to see the Bush connection

Union Carbide is an American Co. Petrochemically driven.

http://www.bhopal.net/welcome2.html

[FlaGranny]

9. Horrible story, but something is not quite right.

I'm talking about the "arsenic divorces." The article reads like the only people who get arsenic poisoning are women. Or is it just women who are ostracized/shunned because of the lesions? That would not be surprising, I guess.

[democrat in Tallahassee]

11. but john stossel said it didn't matter. we should be allowed to

take more risks without government interference.

[DoNotRefill]

13. How is this the west's fault?

the article states that the arsenic is naturally-occurring in the soil there.

It's not like it's the result of a chemical plant spill, is it?

What is the West supposed to do? Go in and bulldoze out all of the arsenic-rich soil? How will they farm then?

That's like blaming the West for cyclones. They kill people regularly there, but how is it our fault, and what are we supposed to do about it? THEY are the ones who choose to live there, are we supposed to forcibly move them?

[NV1962]

15. See this post

here.

[DoNotRefill]

17. Ummmm....

so Bush is somehow to blame for arsenic in the soil of Bangladesh that's been there forever and got there naturally???

Dude, I think you need to adjust your dosage....

[indigobusiness]

18. It's just fun to pile on...

They make no sense...Why should we?

[NV1962]

19. 'Dude' yourself, dude...

I can't help it that you're not grasping that the connection is failed media coverage - not Bush.

I suppose that it must be hard for you to think about the world in terms other than those fitting in strictly USA-bound notions, but there really is a world out there that the average American has no effing clue about - dude

Think about it - or try, for a while.

Media-propelled ignorance is screwing you more than Bush and his cronies in the WH ever could.

[indigobusiness]

23. I think there is a problem with a critical thinking inability

coupled with Bush style incuriosity plaguing America.

Most people I oppose, intellectually and politically, seem axiomatic or dogmatic in their thinking.

Don't schools teach the basics anymore?

[AngryAmish]

20. Lots of western NGOs pushed these wells really hard

Pushed them as an alternative to polluted surface water.

[Karenina]

21. Population reduction

is key to the PNAC plan.

MASSIVE POPULATION REDUCTION. Take that to the bank.

[berry]

22. Thanks for the alert to this disaster.

Do you happen to know anything about the background to the problem? For instance, what is a tube well? And why were so many installed? Was it because of the fear of disease during floods? I'd like to know more about this--and will go a-searching, but if you have some info handy, it will be appreciated.