December 23, 2005
Ethiopia in the Mirror
Yesterday's Daily Mirror had a good illustration of how Ethiopia is still seen in the UK.
Newspapers here have been covering a horrific case of child abuse in Sheffield, a city in what used to be England's industrial heartland. A couple were jailed for neglecting their five young children, leaving them in squalid conditions and almost starving them to death. Here's the Mirror piece:
Ignored to death...One of the children - a 13-month-old twin boy - had just hours to live when an ambulance was finally called. He was even passing live fly maggots into his nappy.
And police officers were almost sick when they entered the house in Sheffield, such was the horror of the sight that greeted them. One said: "It was more Ethiopia than Sheffield."
The next time I write about Ethiopia's ongoing child malnutrition crisis (which is still ongoing) maybe I should use the phrase "in conditions reminiscent of a Sheffield council house..."
Posted by aheavens at December 23, 2005 10:37 AM