The stakes are exceedingly high. Not just millions of lives but also the very capacity of the world to take on big and crucial goals is at stake. In the case of malaria, we have a low-cost and highly effective package of interventions that can restore health and unleash massive economic gain, but only if countless agencies, dozens of countries and hundreds of millions of individuals can effectively take a shared action. Success in this bold venture will enable us to consider similarly urgent challenges in food production, water management, biodiversity conservation and climate control, to name but four crucial areas. The consequences of organizational failure, on the other hand, would be almost too painful to behold. The countdown to 2010 has begun.
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Add CommentGive the United Nations anything and they'll bury it in a quagmire of corruption and payoffs. Instead of concocting these utopian plans they would be better off empowering the religious missionary organizatios to do the work. The United Nations is nothing but a cadre of third world criminals masquerading as humaitarians.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYour propensity to demonize stereotypes detracts from the issue.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBefore you again suggest converting malaria victims to your particular choice in religion, it would be wise to also inform yourself in regard to programs that have already been implemented and of successes which have been achieved.
If you cannot find any then perhaps you could elaborate on you plan. If you have examples of successful campaigns against malaria in recent times by religious missionaries, you are free to cite them on this website. I am sure there are many people who would be interested and might want to help in such efforts.
A worthy goal. It might help to apply the lessons we learned from eradicating malaria in the United States, like using DDT. It is environmentally friendly and highly effective when used properly.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA problem in malaria that has bothered me is, "What will happen to the people of the malaria belt if it were eradicated?" My best prognostication is that their lands will become valuable for northern people to buy for second homes and resorts. Within 50-100 years they would be crowded off their land.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNow, much of it is very difficult indeed. HIV, malaria and the politics of warlords has guaranteed that. And yet, the people are sheltering under the eaves of malaria, just as other peoples on the edges of war are sheltering there. Nothing keeps away the juggernaut of globalization except war and disease. Everything else is falling before it.
So it troubles me. Not that I am of the idea that malaria will be eliminated.
Consider the length of time the average tropical folk spend out in the open topless/shirtless working and cooling off in the open before heading to bed at night. They are exposed to the vector umpteen times before heading to bed under a bednet in what is called a shelter.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am an advocate of taking the fight to the vector through environmental management and sound vector control practices as obtains in the South and Southeastern United States. Training in vector habitat management to compliment the use of indoor sprays and bednet is a key element in complimenting current efforts aimed at reducing infection rates.
A M Jallow
Right, because religious missionaries have such an altruistic motive. And such a great track record. "a cadre of third world criminals" is at least as apt a description, considering the toll they've taken on independent cultures.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut hey, maybe a few missionaries spreading your own outdated, dysfunctional philosophy will help. It's hard not to make some improvement in a people that have nothing, and it's it's easy to think you're a godsend when you're allowed to run amok with an entire society.
It just feels so good on such a primal level, traveling to a new tribe, and conquering them by getting them to abandon their own culture and adopt yours. Perhaps if you convince them that only your god really loves them, they'll stay subordinate to your dominion after you leave.
...and won't leave their culture completely confused and utterly screwed up down the road. ...like missionaries have everywhere else.
In other news, a recent discovery was made. Famine and disease keep species populations in line. The greater the population surges, the greater the risks.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNow lets all throw self-control to the wind, breed like crazy, for heavens sakes don't use birth control or have an abortion, live in dense populations near waterways, encroach into jungles and other areas not suitable for supporting humans, and make half-cures for diseases as they arrive, allowing them to mutate, become stronger, and further propagate.
Whether humanity or an ant colony, life spreads stupidly until something starts killing it effectively. The ones on the edges die, the ones in the middle learn from it.