Still not worried about Ebola. Why? No one in my Sierra Leonean family that is living in the capital has died or gotten sick. Why? Because this is a really avoidable disease. Most of the people who are dying are the uneducated poor who for various reasons live extremely communal lifestyles with poor sanitation, and those who are treating them (doctors, aid workers, family et al). I think this is a good time for Americans to take a nice hard look at the true effects of extreme poverty on a countrys population. Those thousands who are dying arent dying because this virus is that much more deadly than malaria, measles, or mumps. They are dying because they live in unplanned communities where the government has abandoned the idea of urban planning, zoning, public safety, and welfare in general. They are dying because the government schools are terrible and the private schools the poor can afford teach them anything they want. Most of them hardly even went to school, demonstrated by the countys 35% literacy rate (70% of the people cant read). People are dying because the government is weak and the idea that healthcare isnt a universal human right has lead to an extreme shortage of doctors. Those with money have realised that the best way to not catch this disease is to NOT hang around sick people for awhile. Yes, in America a country of 300 Million people 1 person has died and maybe 20 people have gotten sick. Sierra Leone is a country of 6 million and its estimated that 1 million West Africans may die from the disease by January. There are just a lot of poor people in Sierra Leone and Liberia. I will start worrying about Ebola when people start throwing dead bodies into the street so they wont get quarantined. Even then, Ill just take it as a sign to play more video games and not touch sick people. What I worry about are the effects of poverty and extreme poverty on a nation. I worry about living in a country where not everyone has affordale, no, FREE healthcare-- because if a deadly virus breaks out it will end up being free anyway. I worry about living in a country that allows people to teach each other unfiltered superstition and doesnt truly believe that education is a universal right. I worry about living in a country that turns over a great deal of its vital services to private institutions who have no problem ditching the country if things get too hairy. Funding education and fighting poverty arent about academic posturing. The stronger the least of us are the better off everyone is, not the other way around. There are not-very to fantastically rich Sierra Leoneans that arent going to flee the country and most likely wont know anyone personally who gets sick before a vaccine is released. What are the effects of an extreme wealth gap? Extreme death. #Listen2YourCandidates
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 05:25:58 +0000
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