People say to me," As an American, I have a right to not get vaccinated." I just simply don’t understand it. One friend I understand it from him. He’s busy on his perpetual motion “free energy” machine. And spreading Trumpster lies.
^ As an American, I believe that I have a responsibility to protect my neighbors, the community, and everyone living here. That includes avoiding spreading diseases. That includes taking positive steps to stop disease from spreading.
I don’t understand how people can be so wrong-headed and inconsistent. If Martians were invading, a lot of these anti-vax types would be out fighting bravely, proud to do their bit. They’d risk life and limb, suffer injury and hardship, and march in parades after we’d (hopefully) won. But ask them to help battle a lethal disease, one that can cause long-term damage to those who survive, one that kills, one that could kill their nearest and dearest, they refuse to help.
Martens found this multinational study-based personality profile of anti-vaxxers in a psychology journal which highlights their obsession with “conspiracy theories and an overwhelming belief in personal freedom, aka libertarian attitudes.”
I have a neighbor who does business with some fabric manufacturers in India, selling decorative scarves and the like at craft festivals. She told me that she has been in contact with some of her friends in India, and that the situation is MUCH WORSE then most people know, with bodies being burned in Parking lots, with WAITING LISTS for the cremations, as so many people are dying that the bodies are piling up, and the authorities simply cannot keep up!
Of course, the Qpublicans could not care less, since it’s BROWN PEOPLE who are dying…
I suggest we’re seeing some pretty accurate images of what Hell looks like. I suppose it would be cynical to point out that the crisis in India doesn’t help the “it will disappear in warmer weather” theory and puts sort of a grim new take on “Keep the Home Fires Burning,” doesn’t it?
I watched a BBC clip featuring a Brahmin priest overseeing last rites for Hindus and the disposition of their corpses. The entire crew each gets three hours of sleep per day and eat something once, in the late evening. They’re working as hard as is humanly possible to do what is right. And Modi? Hah!
Saw a right wing conservative podcast sent via email claiming Biden is sending vaccine to India when there are lines of people waiting to get the vaccine here in the States. But——this was the same podcaster who has claimed the Virus was a hoax, people should not take the vaccine because no one knows what is in it and lots of other propaganda.
Clay missed it again, with the red 45 hat. It’s a mix of all types who don’t want to get their vax, not just Trump people, as well as people in India. And yet India makes much of the vax for other countries, how messed up is this.
This is NOT meant to be funny or /S, but India is out of options. Fish food is the only practical way to go.
They are going to have to bag them up, load them onto a ship that has one of those hulls that open in the back, sail out a hundred miles or more and let them slip into the sea.
Otherwise many more dangerous diseases will take out more people. Of course, the religious will stop any idea of doing that and choose dying…IF they are not sick and well insulated from the unwashed masses.
I feel terrible for India; and can’t help wondering what they were thinking, gathering in huge numbers without masks. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/03/india-covid-crisis-charts-show-the-severity-of-the-second-wave.html
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is facing criticism for allowing large crowds to gather for religious festivals and election rallies in various parts of the country. Commentators said the mass gatherings likely turned into super spreader events.
An ironic tragedy, is that India makes some of the vaccine, but for other countries. Also, now that the vaccine is widely available in the US, West Virginia no longer holds the record for most vaccinated population, in fact they have fallen to the lower half. It seems that once their elders and front-line workers were vaccinated, the average “Joe” declined to brake the shot. Gee, how many MAGAidiots live in West VA? Enough to keep their Democratic Senator on a VERY TIGHT LEASH!
Unclaimed bodies pile up in India for a host of reasons: they could be people who lost their lives in road and rail accidents, or people who died far from home – pilgrims, migrants, old people abandoned by their children.
Some impoverished patients die in hospital with no-one to take care of the funeral.
But what to do with the bodies? Back in 1992, many districts in India didn’t have a mortuary facility. It was fairly common practice to dispose of unclaimed bodies quickly.
Burial was the preferred method, but in some places in north India they dumped unclaimed human remains into rivers to save money, time and effort.
Mr Shareef’s family have long suspected that Rais’ body ended up in the Gomti river. It flows past Sultanpur, the city where the young man had been working as a chemist in December 1992 – the month when Hindu fundamentalists tore down the 16th Century Babri mosque in Ayodhya, Mr Shareef’s home, 65km (40 miles) away.
Rais went missing amid the bloodshed which followed.
“After my son disappeared I searched for him everywhere for a month, like a mad man,” his father says. “I didn’t find him anywhere. I even went to Sultanpur to look for him.”
Then came the news they had been dreading: their beloved son was dead. Mr Sharif and his wife Bibi were traumatised. His wife still struggles with periods of depression to this day.
The pain is aggravated by the fact they were not able to give their son a proper burial. It is a pain no one else should go through, Mr Shareef says.
“I decided that in my district, I wouldn’t let any unidentified body be thrown away into a river,” he says.
In India’s caste-bound Hindu society, those who were at the bottom were historically forced to do the job of burial and cremations – and then treated as “untouchables” as a result.
But Mr Shareef – a bicycle mechanic by trade – was not to be deterred. He told the police about his desire to take up a task shunned by everyone else.
“When I got the first call, my heart was pounding. After the post-mortem, the police asked me to take away the body. I clearly remember that person’s neck was slashed.”
Soon, his workload started to increase. He even bought a four-wheeled cart to transport the dead.
Predictably his family members, friends and neighbours were taken aback. Even as a Muslim, Mr Sharif began to experience the same social exclusion as his Hindu colleagues.
“No-one in my family was happy at that time. They said, ‘you have gone mad’.
“Some people were afraid of me. They thought they would get infected with germs if they made physical contact with me.”
Yet Mr Shareef was resolute in his conviction. He had skipped family weddings, festivals and even prayers for the sake of unknown people. It gave him peace and solace: performing last rights is a moment to remember his son.
“It helped me to deal with the pain of my son’s death. I think about him all the time. I miss him.”
It is not an easy job. Police often struggle to identify the body, which means they may have been dead for some time. Often it is not the bodies, Mr Shareef says, but the smell which is most off-putting.
“Whenever I see a badly mutilated or decomposed body it is difficult to sleep. I have nightmares and resort to sleeping tablets,” he explains.
“Sometimes police officials come with me to the cemetery but even they stand far away.”
All the same, he always takes the time to ensure the person is given the proper treatment, usually bathing the body.
If he realises the dead person is Muslim, he wraps the body in a sheet of cloth and recites the final prayers. If the body belongs to a Hindu, he takes it to be cremated.
No-one know exactly how many bodies Mr Shareef has buried. The head of Ayodhya district administration, Anuj Kumar Jha, told the BBC that they don’t have full records of the bodies handed over to Mr Shareef.
“Our rough estimate is we would have given about 2,500 bodies to him,” he said. Mr Shareef’s family say he has given last rites to more than 5,500 people.
Yet for years, he toiled without any financial support. To this day, he works in his bicycle shop, earning the equivalent of about $3 a day.
But things are changing. He has been recognised for his dedication. The government has given him one of India’s highest civilian awards, while local shop owners now also help cover his expenses. At the age of 80, he is now able to have two paid assistants who are sharing his burden.
“Both Hindus and Muslims help me. People give me food and warm blankets. Recently I had to have an eye operation – a stranger called me and gave me 20,000 rupees [$290].”
But retirement is not something he is willing to consider. Neither his two surviving sons nor grandchildren want to follow in his footsteps, and he is acutely aware of what will happen if he stops doing this work.
“If I am not there, police will throw the bodies into rivers as they did before.”
For a man who some call the “saviour of the dead” that would be unbearable.
“I will continue doing this till my last breath,” he says.
ImDaRealAni almost 3 years ago
And yet you breath through all that smoke without a mask.
Concretionist almost 3 years ago
FreeDUMB
KennethJ.Grider almost 3 years ago
Take a bigger whiff of your so so called freedom
jimchronister2016 almost 3 years ago
Spoken like a true ignorant trump follower, notice his no vax shirt.
Kind&Kinder almost 3 years ago
Do you suppose this is Momma Nature’s way of raising the intelligence of the human race?
Cpeckbourlioux almost 3 years ago
Cruel, but fair, Mr. Jones. Cruel, but fair.
JeanMeslier almost 3 years ago
People say to me," As an American, I have a right to not get vaccinated." I just simply don’t understand it. One friend I understand it from him. He’s busy on his perpetual motion “free energy” machine. And spreading Trumpster lies.
eclairewl Premium Member almost 3 years ago
Covid disaster. Environmental disaster.
piobaire almost 3 years ago
^ As an American, I believe that I have a responsibility to protect my neighbors, the community, and everyone living here. That includes avoiding spreading diseases. That includes taking positive steps to stop disease from spreading.
I don’t understand how people can be so wrong-headed and inconsistent. If Martians were invading, a lot of these anti-vax types would be out fighting bravely, proud to do their bit. They’d risk life and limb, suffer injury and hardship, and march in parades after we’d (hopefully) won. But ask them to help battle a lethal disease, one that can cause long-term damage to those who survive, one that kills, one that could kill their nearest and dearest, they refuse to help.
superposition almost 3 years ago
Martens found this multinational study-based personality profile of anti-vaxxers in a psychology journal which highlights their obsession with “conspiracy theories and an overwhelming belief in personal freedom, aka libertarian attitudes.”
https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/hea-hea0000586.pdf
Masterskrain Premium Member almost 3 years ago
I have a neighbor who does business with some fabric manufacturers in India, selling decorative scarves and the like at craft festivals. She told me that she has been in contact with some of her friends in India, and that the situation is MUCH WORSE then most people know, with bodies being burned in Parking lots, with WAITING LISTS for the cremations, as so many people are dying that the bodies are piling up, and the authorities simply cannot keep up!
Of course, the Qpublicans could not care less, since it’s BROWN PEOPLE who are dying…
Zebrastripes almost 3 years ago
Ugh!
Bookworm almost 3 years ago
I suggest we’re seeing some pretty accurate images of what Hell looks like. I suppose it would be cynical to point out that the crisis in India doesn’t help the “it will disappear in warmer weather” theory and puts sort of a grim new take on “Keep the Home Fires Burning,” doesn’t it?
Masterskrain Premium Member almost 3 years ago
https://www.yahoo.com/news/india-first-country-record-400-194216233.html
Steverino Premium Member almost 3 years ago
Nobody has said it, but “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”.
Alas, poor Janis.
Valiant1943 Premium Member almost 3 years ago
No…more like Darwinism
Alberta Oil Premium Member almost 3 years ago
If.. that is what “Freedom” smells like.. sure glad I live in a socialist country.
WestNYC Premium Member almost 3 years ago
Smells like greenhouse gases. There are better ways to dispose of corpses.
Michael G. almost 3 years ago
I watched a BBC clip featuring a Brahmin priest overseeing last rites for Hindus and the disposition of their corpses. The entire crew each gets three hours of sleep per day and eat something once, in the late evening. They’re working as hard as is humanly possible to do what is right. And Modi? Hah!
Frankfreak almost 3 years ago
Saw a right wing conservative podcast sent via email claiming Biden is sending vaccine to India when there are lines of people waiting to get the vaccine here in the States. But——this was the same podcaster who has claimed the Virus was a hoax, people should not take the vaccine because no one knows what is in it and lots of other propaganda.
Vidrinath Premium Member almost 3 years ago
Damn but Glenn McCoy shows up in a lot of these ’toons.
IndyW almost 3 years ago
Clay missed it again, with the red 45 hat. It’s a mix of all types who don’t want to get their vax, not just Trump people, as well as people in India. And yet India makes much of the vax for other countries, how messed up is this.
ferddo almost 3 years ago
Now some doctors do not think that we can achieve herd immunity, due to anti-vaxxers and others who have politicalized the pandemic…
admiree2 almost 3 years ago
This is NOT meant to be funny or /S, but India is out of options. Fish food is the only practical way to go.
They are going to have to bag them up, load them onto a ship that has one of those hulls that open in the back, sail out a hundred miles or more and let them slip into the sea.
Otherwise many more dangerous diseases will take out more people. Of course, the religious will stop any idea of doing that and choose dying…IF they are not sick and well insulated from the unwashed masses.
pamela welch Premium Member almost 3 years ago
I feel terrible for India; and can’t help wondering what they were thinking, gathering in huge numbers without masks. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/03/india-covid-crisis-charts-show-the-severity-of-the-second-wave.html
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is facing criticism for allowing large crowds to gather for religious festivals and election rallies in various parts of the country. Commentators said the mass gatherings likely turned into super spreader events.
JenSolo02 almost 3 years ago
An ironic tragedy, is that India makes some of the vaccine, but for other countries. Also, now that the vaccine is widely available in the US, West Virginia no longer holds the record for most vaccinated population, in fact they have fallen to the lower half. It seems that once their elders and front-line workers were vaccinated, the average “Joe” declined to brake the shot. Gee, how many MAGAidiots live in West VA? Enough to keep their Democratic Senator on a VERY TIGHT LEASH!
grumpypophobart almost 3 years ago
Actually, it stinks. Not the way to administer a country.
briangj2 almost 3 years ago
Warning! Some may find this grim reading:
Unclaimed bodies pile up in India for a host of reasons: they could be people who lost their lives in road and rail accidents, or people who died far from home – pilgrims, migrants, old people abandoned by their children.
Some impoverished patients die in hospital with no-one to take care of the funeral.
But what to do with the bodies? Back in 1992, many districts in India didn’t have a mortuary facility. It was fairly common practice to dispose of unclaimed bodies quickly.
Burial was the preferred method, but in some places in north India they dumped unclaimed human remains into rivers to save money, time and effort.
Mr Shareef’s family have long suspected that Rais’ body ended up in the Gomti river. It flows past Sultanpur, the city where the young man had been working as a chemist in December 1992 – the month when Hindu fundamentalists tore down the 16th Century Babri mosque in Ayodhya, Mr Shareef’s home, 65km (40 miles) away.
Rais went missing amid the bloodshed which followed.
“After my son disappeared I searched for him everywhere for a month, like a mad man,” his father says. “I didn’t find him anywhere. I even went to Sultanpur to look for him.”
Then came the news they had been dreading: their beloved son was dead. Mr Sharif and his wife Bibi were traumatised. His wife still struggles with periods of depression to this day.
The pain is aggravated by the fact they were not able to give their son a proper burial. It is a pain no one else should go through, Mr Shareef says.
“I decided that in my district, I wouldn’t let any unidentified body be thrown away into a river,” he says.
In India’s caste-bound Hindu society, those who were at the bottom were historically forced to do the job of burial and cremations – and then treated as “untouchables” as a result.
(To be continued)
briangj2 almost 3 years ago
(Continued)
But Mr Shareef – a bicycle mechanic by trade – was not to be deterred. He told the police about his desire to take up a task shunned by everyone else.
“When I got the first call, my heart was pounding. After the post-mortem, the police asked me to take away the body. I clearly remember that person’s neck was slashed.”
Soon, his workload started to increase. He even bought a four-wheeled cart to transport the dead.
Predictably his family members, friends and neighbours were taken aback. Even as a Muslim, Mr Sharif began to experience the same social exclusion as his Hindu colleagues.
“No-one in my family was happy at that time. They said, ‘you have gone mad’.
“Some people were afraid of me. They thought they would get infected with germs if they made physical contact with me.”
Yet Mr Shareef was resolute in his conviction. He had skipped family weddings, festivals and even prayers for the sake of unknown people. It gave him peace and solace: performing last rights is a moment to remember his son.
“It helped me to deal with the pain of my son’s death. I think about him all the time. I miss him.”
It is not an easy job. Police often struggle to identify the body, which means they may have been dead for some time. Often it is not the bodies, Mr Shareef says, but the smell which is most off-putting.
“Whenever I see a badly mutilated or decomposed body it is difficult to sleep. I have nightmares and resort to sleeping tablets,” he explains.
“Sometimes police officials come with me to the cemetery but even they stand far away.”
All the same, he always takes the time to ensure the person is given the proper treatment, usually bathing the body.
(To be continued)
briangj2 almost 3 years ago
(Concluded)
If he realises the dead person is Muslim, he wraps the body in a sheet of cloth and recites the final prayers. If the body belongs to a Hindu, he takes it to be cremated.
No-one know exactly how many bodies Mr Shareef has buried. The head of Ayodhya district administration, Anuj Kumar Jha, told the BBC that they don’t have full records of the bodies handed over to Mr Shareef.
“Our rough estimate is we would have given about 2,500 bodies to him,” he said. Mr Shareef’s family say he has given last rites to more than 5,500 people.
Yet for years, he toiled without any financial support. To this day, he works in his bicycle shop, earning the equivalent of about $3 a day.
But things are changing. He has been recognised for his dedication. The government has given him one of India’s highest civilian awards, while local shop owners now also help cover his expenses. At the age of 80, he is now able to have two paid assistants who are sharing his burden.
“Both Hindus and Muslims help me. People give me food and warm blankets. Recently I had to have an eye operation – a stranger called me and gave me 20,000 rupees [$290].”
But retirement is not something he is willing to consider. Neither his two surviving sons nor grandchildren want to follow in his footsteps, and he is acutely aware of what will happen if he stops doing this work.
“If I am not there, police will throw the bodies into rivers as they did before.”
For a man who some call the “saviour of the dead” that would be unbearable.
“I will continue doing this till my last breath,” he says.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51545344
Radish the wordsmith almost 3 years ago
How many Magas would jump on Trump’s pyre?