After The Apocalypse

[BitterAndTwistedDeathEater]

Sorry it's a bit of a post and run, I have just watched this programme on More4 +1.

I can't express any organised thought at this time of night, but frankly I found it chilling.

The way the women were treated throughout the documentary. I have no words.

I will be back to this thread, just wanted to post when it was fresh in my thoughts.

i dont watch telly-but i was laying on the sofa last night and i heard this proggramme.
someone read out most of the subtittles/let me know what was happening.
this proggramme was fuckin nasty and if anyone dont believe in the patriarchy-take a look at this proggramme.
poor people.
im glad i dont normally watch the telly-this had me bawling my eyes out.

The Doctor who was the head of the maternity home really scared me, he had such a God complex. And why only 'Gene passports' for the women?

yep-exactly Bitter.
mind you-i felt he was genuinly upset about the babys in the babyhome.
he was a bit of a dipstick reg hes knowledge of downs syndrome though wasnt he.
other than this-yeah he was fuckin scary.
hes mannor and thoughts towards women were atrociuos wasnt they-he wasnt on hes own with this though was he.
the guy sitting with the huge files on people was just as scary.
in fact-the only people wasnt scary was joe/jo bloggs at the "bottom"of this all.
i was sitting there wondering just how MUCH this sort of thing is going on here aswell[oviously to a smaller extent maybe-or just much quiter]
all in all-horrible!!

It was a brilliantly done documentary. The doctor started off sympathetically enough - one could completely understand his upset at disabled children being abandoned (although we were not told what % of women give up their babies or what the woman's circumstances are), then as it progressed his opinions became more and more shocking, and the point was made for more striking by the way it was interspersed with footage of a quiet, determined woman proceeding with a very wanted pregnancy.

I found it utterly chilling that he is head of maternity services for the region. I felt a real sense of fear for Bibigul and the other women under his care, and the care of his nursing assistants that the Guardian reviewer described aptly as "nightmarish".

There is a sense that, far from being seen as the victims they are, those affected by the nuclear tests and any other form of disability (the film seemed to suggest there might be further underlying reasons for the high instance of birth defects, as Bibigul's mother was born before the testing started) are seen as the new underclass. There was a dangerous whiff of eugenics, and if indeed this doctor is allowed to influence law and policy then Kazakhstan will become a very scary place indeed for women.

I thought the end of the documentary had become almost a quiet sort of horror film - I was desperately rooting for her and her baby and the ranting doctor, interspersed through the climactic scenes, seemed to take on an air of the nightmarish.

Kitty, I was exactly the same when he was talking so passionately about the birth defects, he seemed juxtaposed with the Russian guy who was involved with the actual experiments.

He just got creepier as the doc went on.

Terrifiying.