General Chat

What a fascinating documentary, wish someone had given Hussain two walking sticks or a frame. xxhugxx

I actually found it rather sad and offensive to the people concerned, I think what the scientists(some) were trying to do was make a circus out of human misery, very sad.

how fasinating, but couldnt you see that they had braindamage. didnt the mother seem a lovely lady, and how close they seemed. dont know why nobody thought to give them help years ago. jean

I just sat in ore at the end to see him walking unadded.

The scientists turned out to be a sad bunch. What a lot of self-adoring twits, all trying to score first. Anyone with half a brain cell could see that it was abject poverty, the extreme of primitive conditions and that poor woman had the 7 backward children ( a term not permitted in our civilised society) in 5 years and 12 others, fairly normal. Of course, if the poor kids had no one to encourage them up off the floor, they would stay there. Len

I was fascinated by the whole programme but so sad that the mother had gone through so many pregnancies that she was never able to give the children time to help them even walk properly. The dreadful poverty they live in is appalling in this day and age. I thought the father could have made a walking stick for the first lad who could just about walk, and then the others might have tried it too. And why didn't the tv people who fixed up the parallel bars make a ramp to the house instead of those steps, and put handrails up. There was so much more could have been done but good to see how they were improving. I hope someone sends them walking sticks, frames would be awkward on that rough ground. Hopefully their lives will improve now and they won't be subjected to so much hatred from the villagers, especially the children. That was sad to see. We moan and groan, but really we are so lucky to have the opportunities here that those folk never had. Bless them all.

Wish I'd seen it...planned to but missed it through work :-(((

I read an interesting article by a scientist pooh poohing the theory that they were 'the missing links'. This guy said that it was akin to calling Down's Syndrome children mongoloids because of their facial features - ie a fanciful idea, nothing else.

Len,I agree with you 100%! I found the whole thing very sad, to think that these poor people had not been given any encouragement to walk was heartbreaking, what these so called 'Scientists'were trying to do was WRONG!

I had to turn it off- found it quite upsetting. Those offspring were obviously brain damaged, and got about ( on all fours) i felt quite simply because no-one had encouraged them to do otherwise. jess

I have been to Turkey many times and have visited several families who live like that. They are very hospitable and love having us round for a glass of apple tea or a meal. Their houses are similar to the ones shown on TV last night. They have mod cons such as hot/cold water, showers and telly. They sleep on a very low hard beds, but most prefer the floor. The women do most of the cooking sat on the ground so they do not think it unusual to sit cross legged on the floor to eat a meal. They are very house proud and you NEVER wear shoes indoors. I did feel sorry that so many of that family were not helped to get upright to walk. I bet they suffered chronic backache. Claire

Very interesting. The father was the grand uncle of the mother. They had 7 of their 19 kids in 5 yrs, I think that is what was said. It was great to see they were getting some help. Marion

Hi everyone, I wasn't able to watch this program because I am in Turkey and the local media hasn't realised they have this story on their doorstep. I think Marion from Scotland hints at what is going on here. In the more rural areas of the country it is the custom for close relatives to marry each other, the most common being first cousins -- the reason being that thus any land they own will stay in the family rather than being divided up and given to strangers. Thus any genetic problems come out in bucketsful. The health authorites run awareness campaigns but the custom runs deep and i i will take them years to get people to recognise the risks