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10 Established 1961 Analysis Sunday, March 18, 2018 Established 1961 The First Daily in The Arabian Gulf THE LEADING INDEPENDENT DAILY IN THE ARABIAN GULF ESTABLISHED 1961 Founder and Publisher YOUSUF S. AL-ALYAN Editor-in-Chief ABD AL-RAHMAN AL-ALYAN EDITORIAL : 24833199-24833358-24833432 ADVERTISING : 24835616/7 FAX : 24835620/1 CIRCULATION : 24833199 Extn. 163 ACCOUNTS : 24835619 COMMERCIAL : 24835618 P.O.Box 1301 Safat,13014 Kuwait. E MAIL :[email protected] Website: www.kuwaittimes.net WASHINGTON WATCH Overcoming a history of hurt in Ireland By Dr James J Zogby ne hundred and seventy years ago, Ireland was in the throes of a genocidal famine during which the island Olost between twenty to twenty-five percent of its population. During the half-decade long famine, over one million Irish died from starvation or famine-related illnesses. During this same period, another million and one-half Irish emigrated to the United States - about one in five of whom died as a result of the deplorable conditions to which they were subjected while crossing the Atlantic. I called this humanitarian disaster a genocide because it could have been avoided but for deliberate British colonial policies that denied Irish Catholics access to their land and opportunities to become educated, find meaningful employ- Mini cars drive away kids’ fears of surgery ment, and to otherwise share in the wealth that was pro- duced in Ireland for the benefit of the British homeland. The proximate cause of the famine was blight that earing a big grin, Marame the envious glances of other young destroyed the island’s potato crop - which because of clambers into the small elec- patients. British policy had become the main source of nutrition for Wtric sports car and drives off - the Irish Catholic population. Rich farmlands had been to the operating theatre. The five-year- ‘You’re the hero’ seized by the colonial government and were operated by old girl is a patient at the public hospital A remote control in hand, a medical British landlords who produced grains and livestock for in the northern French city of staff member steers Marame down hall- export to England. All that was left for the Irish were small Valenciennes, which has begun using ways and around corners all the way to plots of less fertile, often rocky, lands on which they were toys rather than drugs to alleviate chil- the operating theatre. “She doesn’t even able to grow the potato, on which they came to depend for dren’s fears of surgery. The new scheme take any notice of me,” says her bemused sustenance. It is estimated that in the period before the for youngsters aged 18 months to eight mother, Hassiba Mazouzi, after giving her famine, the potato had become the staple food for almost years is based on similar programs in the a last hug. “Last time (she went into sur- one-half of the Irish. When the blight destroyed three-quar- United States and Australia. gery) I cried,” Mazouzi says. “But now... ters of the potato crop, the Irish starved. The playful approach, implemented in she went without crying, without any What compounded this tragedy was that Ireland was, December, has wiped out the need for problem. So frankly, I’m happy too.” during this same period, a major food exporter. While hun- anti-anxiety medication often adminis- Doctor Nabil El Beki, who heads the dreds of thousands of Irish were dying of malnutrition and tered before an operation, according to emergency unit in Valenciennes, insists the disease, Ireland’s British overlords were exporting millions of tons of food to feed their English compatriots. It is the hospital. “It allows (children) to program is not a “game”. A study is under reported that 4,000 ships laden with food left Ireland for arrive in the operating theatre in a fun way to “scientifically assess” the benefits England in just one year of the famine. manner and avoids the stress associated of the project, he told AFP. “We know that with the context,” anaesthetist Fanny anxiolytic drugs reduce anxiety but they Racism Defrancq told AFP. Sat on a hospital bed, also intensify the anaesthetic and delay the Why did the British let the Irish die? In part, because Marame looks worried ahead of her sur- waking-up process. Avoiding them is bet- they were locked into their own policies of cruel disposses- gery to remove a metal pin inserted into ter for the recovery,” he said. Julie Dupuis, In this file photo taken on Feb 02, 2018, two-year-old Souhail sits in an electric toy sion in which they had created and empowered a class of her arm after she broke her elbow. whose 18-month-old son, Issa, needed tes- car on his way to the operating room at the Valenciennes Hospital. —AFP “landowners” who had developed political clout and whose But then a nurse comes in and leads ticle surgery, also hailed the hospital’s nov- exports were important to England. Another reason was her to three small vehicles parked in the el scheme. “He’s like at home, he’s playing racism, plain and simple. The British described the Irish as a corridor. “Which one do you prefer?” and it’s nice to see him like that,” she told “wretched lot” and saw the famine as a punishment for the nurse asks Marame, dressed in a blue AFP. “It’s reassuring for me too. I feel less oped an app called “You’re the hero” for in children’s anxiety and led to an 80-per- “Irish inequity” and an “act of providence” to help reduce hospital gown and with a white cap cov- stressed about his going into the surgery.” children aged three to 10. The young cent decrease in the use of medication, the the Irish population, thus facilitating the British colonial ering her hair. After carefully inspecting Other clinics in France are also experi- patients search for hidden objects in a vir- Rennes hospital said. “Children’s self-eval- enterprise. the models and testing out their horns, menting with ways of avoiding pre- tual room, while they are being brought to uation with emoticons showed that anxiety As disturbing as this history is, the fact that it is not the little girl gets behind the wheel of a surgery medication for children. A hospital the operating theatre on a stretcher. The curves were very low and stable,” anaes- widely known in the West, is inexcusable. While black racing car and cruises off under in the western city of Rennes has devel- distraction method has seen a major drop thetist Severine Delahaye said. —AFP Americans vaguely know about the famine, we do not learn about the role that British imperial policies played in this tragedy. It was only in the 1990s that I became aware of this history and the extent to which it is emblazoned in the Irish consciousness. My first exposure came when my wife and I were visit- Polish Ice Warriors ing Ireland and stopped to look at an old Church of England in the west of the country. Inside the building there were tell of defeat by impressive burial crypts and monuments for the lords and ladies who had governed the estate. As I exited the church, a groundskeeper off-handedly asked me what I thought of the Savage Mountain largest of these monuments, saying “so what did you think of the Lady?” He then quoted the inscription on her burial site ummelled by weeks of hurricane-force blizzards noting that it said she had been “generous and kind”, to and sub-zero temperatures - not to mention high- which he added “generous and kind, my a**. They were up Paltitude disputes - the elite climbers known as in the big house on the hill living off the fat of the land, while Poland’s Ice Warriors gave in: K2 remains unclimbed in they let us starve to death. Bloody Brits”. winter, one of mountaineering’s final frontiers. The high As I was to discover, his reaction was not uncommon and profile Polish expedition arrived in Islamabad Friday to led us to read and learn what we had not learned in school. tell of their defeat by the Pakistani mountain - the We found a book “Paddy’s Lament” - a powerful history of world’s second highest peak, which is widely seen as a the famine and its consequences. more difficult and deadly challenge than the tallest, During the past century, after a bloody revolution, the Mount Everest. Irish in the south gained their independence from Britain, It is the only one of the so-called eight-thousanders while the north remained part of the United Kingdom. Irish - the 14 mountains on the planet that are taller than This picture taken on Friday shows the team of Polish climbers posing for a photograph before sharing their expe- nationalists continued to fight for unity and independence of 8,000 m - that has not yet been summited in winter. rience after attempting to summit the Pakistani K2 mountain in Islamabad. —AFP the entire island. The Good Friday Agreement, negotiated But the Poles’ ambitious - and expensive - expedition between Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland, created a was troubled from the start by disputes over routes, framework for coexistence which brought a period of peace interrupted by a high-profile rescue on another moun- prove to be their undoing, Wielecki admitted. In win- claimed just as fiercely that they had until the spring and stability and an erasure of the border - which is now tain, and even afflicted by disagreements over the defi- ter the rockfalls on the Cesen route are constant, and equinox in late March.