Maybe BBC Verify Should Look Closer to Home

 

"They grabbed me from behind and started punching me, hitting me with spades and machetes," says Daniel Uyirwoth Welo, one of four Red Cross volunteers injured when a crowd tried to open a coffin carrying someone who had died from Ebola.The assault was triggered by rumours - circulating locally and online - that the coffin was empty.

Some in the crowd said, "No Ebola doesn't exist," Welo told BBC Verify, adding that others believed the Red Cross team was there only "to get money".

This is, frankly, pure tribalism and ignorant beliefs about witchcraft that have plagued Africa for hundreds of years,  and to call it 'misinformation' is to imply that they'd take any notice of actual information if they had it.

The attack is one of a series of incidents linked to misinformation during the latest Ebola outbreak, which has infected more than 1,700 people and killed 580 in DR Congo since mid-May, according to government data. False claims circulating in affected areas include allegations that Ebola doesn't exist, that health workers are deliberately infecting people or harvesting their organs, and that the Ebola response is a money-making scheme.

Its in line with the belief that the body parts of albino children have value in muti and that sex with a virgin can cure AIDS - primitive ignorant beliefs that the people of this benighted continent are prone to. And unthinking violence, of course.

In late May, rioters set fire to equipment and two isolation tents at an Ebola treatment centre in Rwampara after relatives of a young man believed to have died from the virus were prevented from taking his body away for burial.

So why does the BBC seek to describe this as mere ‘misinformation’? 

And It’s No Surprise They Allocate Them To More Of Their Own Kind, Is It?

On a cold morning in the heart of London, recently arrived refugees and more established migrants gather in a community centre. Their mission? To decide how £500,000 in funding will be used to support people like them.

Not 'the community', or 'the borough residents'. Just more moochers and fake asylum seekers. Are we mad? 

The initiative is part of the Borough of Sanctuary grants programme, which takes the government’s commitment to devolution a step further, using it to empower migrants and refugees. Islington in north London is one of the boroughs that has been recognised for its work welcoming people seeking refuge, people with experience of seeking asylum and those migrating, and is a participant in the scheme. The council recruited 18 people living in the borough originally from countries including Afghanistan, Ukraine, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Iran and Sri Lanka to decide how the funds should be allocated.

I wonder if there are similar programmes in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka to assist UK people who have fled the insanity for a new life?  

Having faced the challenges of navigating a new country, language barriers and the complexities of the asylum process, their insights are shaping how the grants are distributed to ensure the funding reaches those who need it most.

'Those who need it most' not including the mugs taxed to the hilt to pay for it all, of course... 

At a time when openness to refugees and migrants is often considered politically toxic, Islington council said it wants those people seeking asylum to feel not only welcome but also empowered to shape their local community. “We’ve got 250,000 residents in Islington. How many know we’re a borough of sanctuary? Probably not that many. I want all 5,000 people who work for Islington council to know we’re a borough of sanctuary,” said Sheila Chapman, an Islington councillor who leads on equalities, communities and inclusion.

And the ratepayers of Islington? Don't they get a say? I mean, they are mostly dim progressives but not all of them.  

Chapman added that welcoming people is not just morally right but also beneficial. “People who have fled war-torn places or persecution are the ones with the bravery, courage and ingenuity to get from there to here. They are the people you want.”

They are the people their country wants too, if it's ever going to break out of the Third World, did you ever think of that?