With recession, global economic meltdown and Bob Geldof primed to make a killing from another humanitarian crisis it would seem that we have returned to the eighties. Since the most recent outbreak of the Ebola Virus in a small number of West African nations some five thousand people have died and the western media has created yet another poverty porn circus. A sad reality of the crisis, as raised by a number of international aid organisations, is that had Ebola been a disease of the developed world it would have an antidote already. Instead of serious international intervention in the crisis the United Nations has done what is tantamount to putting up the Batman beacon – it has called on the services of Sir Bob Geldof, the ex-Irishman who converted to Britishism. The problem with this is that Bob is perpetually confused about Africa. He seems to be labouring under the misconception that Africa is a small island nation in the archipelago of the Third World. Ebola is not a problem for most of the African continent, but the great white man fails to understand this. To him Africa is Africa – a great big it where all the worst problems of the world happen on a single street. What really matters here is that Bob and all of his ‘relevant’ musicians will get plenty of publicity… for themselves, and so guarantee their celebrity standing and saintliness until the next crisis.
Can the Great White Geldof Save Dark Africa?
Ebola Virus has become the Next Artificial Crisis
Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) or simply Ebola has resulted in more than 4,500 deaths in the past months in Western Africa. It is a serious viral disease that claims the lives of over 95% of those infected. Spread by fruit bat hosts, it infects other mammals and humans, but has a smaller R0 (rate of transmission) than the common cold. Unlike the common cold EVD is not an airborne virus and so poses a minuscule threat to people. In Europe and North America we are hearing very little of the human cost in Africa – as they are only Africans. What we are hearing is the threat of the virus to European and American aid workers and others coming in and out of affected areas of West Africa. In Ireland Leo Varadkar, the Minister for Health, has joined the political bandwagon by addressing the issue and stating that Ireland needed to step-up preparation for the spread of this apocalyptic threat. He did concede, however, that it was unlikely that emergency units would be swamped with cases. He is spot on. Ireland is unlikely in the extreme to see cases of this tropical disease in its Accident and Emergency departments. There can be no doubt that this threat is being exploited to gain political capital in a global culture of artificial crisis. These crises create political opportunities for those who are ‘prepared’ to tackle them. Our eyes are now on West Africa.
Rape in the Great War of Africa
The western media is reluctant to broadcast the fact that since 1998 what amounts to a continental war has been raging across central Africa. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Chad, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Sudan, together with Lord’ Resistance Forces and other militias, have been fighting a near endemic war with Rwandan and Ugandan backed militias with varying levels of support from Burundi. Although the war was officially concluded in July 2003 the extent and scale of the fighting has not diminished. It is estimated that five and a half million people have died in the conflict and as a result of easily preventable disease and starvation. Militias and state armies are involved in the wholesale formation of child armies; kidnapping boys from villages and towns over the affected regions. The United Nations has confirmed that the systematic rape of women and girls is being used as a weapon of war in the DR Congo. Each day in the east of the country a thousand people lose their lives and international observers on the ground estimate that there are forty incidences of rape by soldiers daily. [Read more…]
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