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Comment count is 12
Void 71 - 2014-08-07

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10316271/Sir-David-A ttenborough-If-we-do-not-control-population-the-natural-world-will .htmll


memedumpster - 2014-08-07

You mean intentional global inequality of resources will. Don't blame nature for human mass murder.


Riskbreaker - 2014-08-07

Africa: The neverending doomsday story


Kabbage - 2014-08-07

Oh Africa


Scrotum H. Vainglorious - 2014-08-07

We all deserve to die.


EvilHomer - 2014-08-08

Soldiers are deployed... a "consensus" is reached!


As I argued in the previous video, the actual magnitude of the ebola outbreak is being exaggerated by the Western media. The numbers don't lie, anyone can look them up - the ebola outbreak, while real, is still affecting only a tiny number of people, and as such the local Africans can be forgiven for carrying on with their lives as if their world isn't coming to an end. Westerners like us have a habit of looking down on indigenous peoples, assuming that they're all superstitious savages, and we (or perhaps more rightly, our journalists) also have an unusually high receptibility to medical sensationalism: SARS, swine flu, our cultural obsession with fictional "zombie" viruses. My theory is that these two factors combined are the main reason why we're treating the ebola story the way we are.


Anyway, more to this video now, I'm assuming that the villagers aren't in much real danger. While ebola corpses are highly infectious, as stated in this video, I will give the Liberian authorities the benefit of the doubt and assume that they are disposing of the corpses in a safe, hygienic manner (this would make sense; the Liberians are neither evil nor insane, and they are bound to know how to deal with ebola corpses). However, regardless of how much danger these corpses do or do not pose, the poverty-stricken locals do still have a legitimate grievance. Villagers have the right to local self-determination, and if the Liberian military is going to storm in with jackboots and assault rifles to violate that right, then that's probably the most socially-important story here! True, ebola victims need to be buried somewhere, but why does it have to be in some poor village? Why not use Liberian federal property? I don't see President Sirleaf volunteering to bury ebola corpses in her backyard.


TeenerTot - 2014-08-08

Why not cremate?


EvilHomer - 2014-08-08

I was wondering that, too. I don't know much about ebola; maybe ebola-ash is more dangerous than buried-ebola?


EvilHomer - 2014-08-08

I'd also like to specify that my first thought upon seeing these stories was that the local Africans were just being superstitious idiots, too, discounting a very threat on the basis of scientific illiteracy and magical thinking. Rereading my post, it may come off like I'm accusing everyone of being horrible white racists, but that is not the case! Or, if it is, then I will sadly and humbly admit to being just as racist as everybody else.

It's easy to make unconscious assumptions about people, particularly people who come from a part of the world popularly imagined to harbor cannibals, death squads, and penis-robbing wizards. (it does) But in this case, a closer examination of the facts suggests that the remarkably indifferent indigenous response to the outbreak is both sensible and rational, though perhaps not the most efficacious for preventing the disease.


Void 71 - 2014-08-08

The point is that ebola should not exist at all. It's like leprosy in that the mere presence of it is an indicator that your country is fucked up beyond repair.


BorrowedSolution - 2014-08-08

Cremation takes a long time and a lot of energy. It's not like you can just dump some gasoline on a pile of corpses, light it, and walk away whistling. If the goal is to get the infectious corpses out of the way quickly, burial is the way to go.


pyslexic dharmacist - 2014-08-08

If these people are drinking well water, or from nearby rivers, lakes, etc., they have every right to worry about buried bodies....unless, as I'm hoping, the corpses are sealed in the equivalent of a level 4 suit before being buried.

Ebola is NOT highly contagious; if it were as severe as herpes this wouldn't be news, the reason infected people are in isolation is because it's highly lethal, and horribly so. It's all fun and games until someone pukes in your eye.

Like leprosy, it's probably not going to be eliminated in our lifetimes, but the fact that it's cropping up as an epidemic is due to desperate measures like reusing masks and gloves. The Koch brothers, for example, could stop this in its tracks with a small fraction of their retirement funds. But they have better things to do with their money.


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