HOW SINCERE IS THE AMERICAN QUEST TO SALVAGE AFRICA: A CASE STUDY OF EBOLA VIRUS INTRODUCTION: This is my personal opinion. No disrespect intended. The aim of this article is to provoke and inspire young African scientists to begin to look inward for solutions to African problems, rather than looking for it from outside. What is in your hand?. “African Scientists must prove their worth; our people are and have been perishing in unforgivable numbers! The Americans, seeing that two (only 2) of their precious Citizens, were in danger of perishing, have gone ahead and TESTED their secret medicine with a miraculous effect, reversing imminent death. Oh Africa, where art thou in the scheme of things????”~ Professor Margaret Ali~ The ongoing outbreak of Ebola virus in Western Africa is now by far the biggest in the 38-year history of the disease, with more than 670 deaths and 1200 suspected cases so far across Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, and concerns it will spread further. The Ebola virus first appeared in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks - in Nzara, Sudan; and in Yambuku, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The outbreak in DRC was in a village near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name. FACTS: Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone are in the grip of the worst outbreak of Ebola virus in history. According to the latest figures from the Centre for Disease Prevention, 672 people have died so far from 1201 cases. That number is likely to have already risen. To put that in context, the biggest previous outbreak of the disease saw 224 deaths from 425 cases, and there have only been 2,300 deaths from all previous outbreaks of the virus. Named after the country which saw the first outbreak of the disease in 1976, the Zaire strain kills on average 78 per cent of those who contract it. It is mainly found in tropical Central and West Africa and can have up to a 90 per cent mortality rate. AMERICA: America after keeping mum for 38 years and watching thousands of innocent Africans being killed by the deadly ebola virus, there seems to be hope courtesy of two American humanitarian doctors, identified as Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol – who contracted the disease while helping out in Africa. Contrary to public opinion, the duo deserved the best medical treatment available in the world. They left their family and sacrificed to help those dying unnecessarily. MORAL QUESTIONS: I am pleased that the concerted efforts have been made by the US government to save the lives of the two American humanitarian doctors on a mission to help out in Liberia. According to reports, “miraculous medicine” had been produced which according to reports had been given to Dr. Brantly who has responded to treatment within hours. This is a good news and points to the fact he will be surviving the deadly disease. However, the moral question that I could not withhold is this: Could it mean that if not for the two American citizens that contracted the disease, America and the world could have continued to keep mum and watch African citizens die like mosquitoes? Since 38 years of the outbreak of the disease, could it be that America knows and hold the “magic and miraculous” medicine and did nothing to help African children dying needlessly? I am wondering if Ebola outbreak was in America, is possible that there could not have been a cure after 38 years giving the quick response that Americans deployed in their “experimental serum” that is working the miracle to American victims of the disease? THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS I am now concerned more than ever if the foremost statement of the rights and freedoms of all human beings as contained in the universal declaration of human rights of 1948 is anything to go by. Article 1 says “All human beings are born with equal and inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms” Given how the two American citizens had been given priority treatment, and ideally, I agree that they should be and I applaud the American government for their commitment towards their citizens anywhere in the world where they are. However, my only question is this: is it true that “All human beings are born with equal and inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms.” In my own opinion, the answer is “NO”. As Geroge Owell has said in his famous work, Animal Farm, “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” While I am proud of the drastic steps that America had taken to save her citizens , and for once, I was jealous of American citizens in a positive note for the sake of the kind of commitment that their government commits to them, Africans must rise up to the challenge and stop waiting miracle from anywhere. Either they stand up and take up their destiny in their hands or continue hopping for an endless messiah to come and help them. Respectfully, if malaria were to be a “Western disease”, it could have been wiped out from the surface of the earth. Every 35 seconds, a child under 5 dies of malaria needlessly in Africa. WHAT IS IN YOUR HAND? It is this quest to look inward that CHAMA has organised a leadership conference in Ghana with the theme: “What is in your hand”? Until Africans begin to look inward, not outward, begin to appreciate and value what is in their hand, the state of Jerusalem after the captivity will be better than African in no distant time. I agree with professor Margaret Ali that African Scientists must prove their worth...
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 16:51:50 +0000
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