Go read this article by Peter at Bayou Renaissance Man.
This is yet another aspect of the biggest problem in Africa: tribal identity and culture. There is no concept whatsoever in African tradition that the individual matters. It's all about the tribe. You are born into a tribe, and that basically circumscribes most of your life. You work for the good of the tribe; you die (if necessary) for the good of the tribe (including older people walking out into the bush to starve if there isn't enough food, so that what's available will keep the youngsters - the future of the tribe - alive); you identify so strongly with your tribe that all others are regarded with, at best, suspicion, if not fear and/or hatred. You work to strengthen your tribe in every way possible, including by weakening all other tribes (this is why so many African civil servants will bend or break all the rules to accommodate their tribe, while applying them rigorously against the interests of others). I could go on, but you get the idea.RTWT.
Then, for deeper background, go read (or re-read) Kim DuToit's classic essay, Let Africa Sink.
The former will give you plenty of insight on the problems in DRC that're going to make this Ebola outbreak far worse and more widespread than the one in W. Africa in 2014.
The latter essay should be mandatory reading (with a post-test and minimum score required) for everyone going to Africa for public or private employment, particularly anyone employed by the State Department, every member of Congress, and any actual or potential recruit to the Do-Gooder Brigade going to the continent, or even thinking about it.
Anyone scoring below 85% on a 50-question exam on that essay should be refused government employment, and denied an exit visa by the State Department.
And that's the perspective of two transplants from Africa to the US who spent years of their lives there.
I also remind you that airfare from Nairobi to Atlanta is currently less than US$800.
The biggest hurdle (and really, the only one) keeping Ebola in Africa most years is the fact that Democratic Republic of Congo is the absolute poorest country in the entire world - actual dead last, not just bottom five - and the average person there makes US$394.25 per year. And for everyone there who makes far more, a lot of people there make far less than that.
So airfare. Nothing else.
That's what's keeping you fat, dumb, and happy.
Sleep tight, America.
11 comments:
I see they just burned the hospital and two health stations in Katwa where they have had at least 53 confirmed cases of Ebola. Good example of what the health care people are up against. TPTB over there call it the "ongoing resistance".
Exactly. You're dealing, both metaphorically and literally, with teenagers toting AK-47s, kids with machetes, and babies with live hand grenades.
The only solution is either send in five divisions, line abreast, and kill everybody who looks at you cross-eyed, or else build a containment ring out of napalm and Arc Light strikes about 20 miles wide, around the entire region, and use Spectre gunships to keep people inside that line.
Anything less is mollycoddling the problem.
Can't figure out if the picture is Africa, Europe or Michigan....
Western civilization has been trying for centuries to change the tribal culture of Africa, failing miserable for the most part.
The worst mistake WCiv made was exporting the ignorant tribal inhabitants to use as cheap labor.
China is actively gaining a foothold in the continent, perhaps their solutions to overcoming the tribal mentality will be more effective.
Meanwhile, as the European governments choose to self-immolate their countries, we have to hold on to hope that the American government (and people) will recognize the Ebola threat and act accordingly. Unless of course, their plan is to kill off half the population....
Sub Saharan Africa is the way it is because of the people who live there. Same with Detroit, Philadelphia, Baltimore. You get the idea....
Somebody on N100 masks ...
http://readynutrition.com/resources/ask-tess-what-is-the-difference-between-n95-and-n100-respirator-masks_19092014/
Better to keep far away from people with Ebola.
I would use the N100 masks the same way I'd use a military protective mask: to GTFO of the affected area, not to stay and play amongst it.
Here here I second that motion...
Even if I had a full bio suit and respirator I would still be running as fast as my legs would carry me out of the affected area😂
Once again, you nail it sir. Thank you.
This suggests that Ebola is aerosol transmissible between humans, between pigs, and between pigs and humans:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4885103/
Apparently pigs are a perfectly good host for Ebola virus.
Bats are believed to be the most likely natural host for Ebola. But this has not been 100% confirmed.
Nebraska medical facility says it's monitoring American possibly exposed to Ebola
"If indications of Ebola are seen, the individual will be admitted and the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit will be activated.
'This person may have been exposed to the virus but is not ill and is not contagious,' said Ted Cieslak MD, an infectious diseases specialist with Nebraska Medicine. 'Should any symptoms develop, the Nebraska Medicine/UNMC team is among the most qualified in the world to deal with them.'
Observation of the individual could last as long as two weeks and is being done in a location that neither the public nor patients can access, the facility said."
Tick tock.
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