Brickbat: Difficult Labor

Santos06 / Dreamstime.com

Police in the United Arab Emirates have arrested a maid from Somalia for giving birth out of wedlock. The baby is being held in the prison nursery where the mother is allowed to visit only to feed him.

Comments

[Bra Ket]

Subtitle of the article: "Woman is now in prison awaiting sentencing in strictly conservative country, where laws discriminate against women and migrants".

Let's see so we associated this absurd behavior with mysogny, xenophobia, and conservatism. And that about covers it.

[Hamster of Doom]

Yes. Well. It would be darkly amusing if they weren't actually doing any of that.

[Suthenboy]

Because conservatism in the Arab world is exactly like conservatism in America?

[Bra Ket]

I feel like there may be another significant difference between the cultures but I can't quite put my finger on it.

[Trigger Hippie]

"They [the hospital] should not accept such cases of unmarried pregnant women," a spokesman said.

Note to self: when given the chance, kick a UAE police officer in the nuts while wearing my steel-toed boots.

[straffinrun]

The real mystery is why are Somalian maids giving birth to white kids? Imperialism, will it ever end?

[The Hyperbole]

The 30-year-old maid, originally from Ethiopia,

Apparently all African nations look alike to Chuck.

[straffinrun]

Especially when he needs a Djibouti call.

[thrakkorzog]

Where is Swiss when you need him?

Fine. I will narrow my gaze.

[Radioactive]

I got ya narrow gaze right here...

[Jimbo]

Now just wait a minaret!

[thrakkorzog]

The US regularly locks up pregnant women for drug related offenses. And and they can either go for an abortion, or choose to be handcuffed while giving birth.

Neither scenario is exactly celebrating the birth of new life.

Yeah, That's not a great argument, but I think we really should lead the UAE on our treatment of unmarried mothers. That seems like that should be an easy 7 foot tall limbo pole.

[Pat (PM)]

Eh, different issues really. You can be married or unmarried and still get nailed for a drug violation (although there's a rather remarkable correlation between drug abuse and unwed motherhood). It might be wrong to punish unwed motherhood *and* drug use, but that doesn't make them comparable.

[thrakkorzog]

Fair enough.

But doesn't that make it seem like we should try to split up drug and prison reform? After all, those are after all two similar, but separate issues.

[Hamster of Doom]

One of my gaming kingdom mates is in the UAE, and according to all of the expert statistics enjoys more economic freedom than I do.

It's almost as if there's a really complex human story going on here, across more than one country, if we could just be man enough to tell it.

[Fist of Etiquette]

So they're right after all. Libertarianism's trade off for free markets is women in chains.

[Hamster of Doom]

Also acceptable fun responses would be references to free-market slavery, roller derbies and any comment in excess of 750 characters explaining why expanded freedom for some while limited freedom for others seems to be this sugartit binky for those who recognize the economic benefits from the former but haven't yet stopped being horrified that profit motives work.

I have weird fetishes, though. Also, wet bread and raw tomatoes are icky.

[thrakkorzog]

That's a really weird fetish. Personally, I hate tomatoes because of their texture. But to each their own.

[Hamster of Doom]

Nailed it. I'm fine with cooked tomatoes, I'm fine with pureed raw tomatoes, but chewing on raw tomatoes gives me the willies. Something about the texture has always been like nails on a chalk board to my palate.

Rhubarb, though. Tastes like strawberries, looks like celery, mouth-feel like green beans. That's just fucking wrong. That's some alien bullshit, that is.

[straffinrun]

I'd give my Somalian maid for some Rhubarb pie. 35 years is way too long to be deprived of such pleasure.

[Suthenboy]

Where are you getting your tomatoes?

[Suthenboy]

Sounds like you are doing it wrong Hamster.

[Hamster of Doom]

I am entirely ready to stipulate this, but you're still not getting raw tomatoes onto my plate unless I've been able to deconstruct the dish, work around it, or otherwise manage to disguise the texture somehow.

I make a fucking bomb tossed pasta which is basically sauced with a caprese salad run through a food processor.

[thrakkorzog]

I'm ready to stand with Hamster on this point. Diced Tomatoes are great in soup, in pasta, Ketchup, or even a hangover cure.

But I fucking hate hate raw tomatoes. Some people try argue that tomatoes can be eaten raw, like apples. That just disgusts me even further.

[Pompey: Ho Class Mothersmucker]

The best part is sucking the slimy symmetric tomato seed clusters into your mouth, swishing them about your maw-cavity and tongue for mouthfeel, then letting the seed clusters slowly dribble down your throat. Basil seed drinks are even better. Swish swish!

[UnCivilServant]

You people are strange.

[Suthenboy]

I am betting you get those pink, grainy, tasteless things from the grocery store.

Grow your own and pick them after they ripen on the plant - bright red, smooth texture and sweet, sweet. Slice one up and drown in sweet Vidalia onion dressing.

[Suthenboy]

Often at breakfast for my wife and I I will slice one, salt and pepper it, lightly apply fresh basil, a slice of sharp cheddar and a pickled jalepeno slice.

Yum.

[UnCivilServant]

Do you pickle the jalepenos yourselves or do you buy those?

[Suthenboy]

I grow then and pickle them myself. A little garlic, a little salt and a quarter of a sweet onion. The onion is delicious.

[thrakkorzog]

Nope, I used to pick them out of my Grandpa's victory garden. I never argued that tomatoes aren't tasty, just that they have a really weird texture.

[thrakkorzog]

I would argue that the prohibitionists are bigger fans of women in chains at this point.

[Jerryskids]

But as long as you put men in chains right alongside the women it's cool, it's the discrimination that's wrong. It's like socialism - equality in misery is preferable to inequality in plenty.

[Bra Ket]

Is it too soon to make a joke about Princess Leia in chains?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Well, it was a long time ago.

[Pat (PM)]

Economic freedom and personal freedom needn't go hand in hand, so it's entirely possible that your friend does enjoy, by some objective measure (like ease of starting a business or corporate tax rate), more economic freedom, but less personal freedom. The correlation you're hinting at seems to work very consistently for personal freedom. Perhaps less so for economic freedom.

[Hamster of Doom]

You may be overestimating me. Flatterer.

... but haven't yet stopped being horrified that profit motives work.

It was more a redneck-educated finger-pointing that a few countries have Top Men who see that there's more economic growth - and therefore more economic goodies - with more economic freedom, and yet even those can't quite lose the command-and-control mindset because I got bills to pay, I got mouths to feed, ain't nothing in this world for free.

[Suthenboy]

In other news the strictly conservative state of California has been locking up single women and forcibly sterilizing them.

[Jerryskids]

When she reported the rape at a police station, she was detained and charged with "extra-marital sex", a crime punishable by jail, flogging and stoning to death in the strictly conservative country.

If you punish the victim severely enough, it gives them a hell of an incentive to not be victimized. I'll bet those conservative Arab states have the lowest number of reported rape cases in the whole world, so it must work.

[Nunya]

Clayton Williams had something to say about that.

[invisible furry hand]

Is anyone surprised that a Somalian has flouted the law? First the kid, then a roadless UAE, and then finally the dead rising from the grave, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together ? mass hysteria.

[Radioactive]

+1 ghostbusters ( the original, not that shit fembomb remake craptatstic doucheathon)

[Rich]

Well, at least the authorities didn't stone the baby to death yet.