No love, in the time of cholera!

I went to graduate school because of my naïveté.  Living in my own bubble, I thought that the causes of the miserable human condition all around me in India and elsewhere had not been clearly understood, and that graduate school would lead to a breakthrough.

Turned out that I did learn a lot through my six years--problems continue primarily because of politics that prevents us from doing the right thing.

I don't mean politics as in elections and voting, but politics as in how we as individuals and groups prefer to view the world and, therefore, how to respond to the human condition--whether it is at the street corner or in a far away country.

Consider cholera, for instance.  Sure, once upon a time humans thought that this disease and fatality was some mysterious event.  But, a cholera outbreak in London during the height of its Industrial Revolution and urbanization was also when we humans figured out what was going on.  It is a story of geography and maps.  (Wikipedia can help, if it interests you.)

My point is this: If there are people dying from cholera in the year 2017, it ain't because we don't know what causes cholera.  We know all too well.  We know how it spreads.  We know how it kills.

So, why do people die from cholera?  Politics.

The worst of that politics is being played out in Yemen:

The Yemeni farm laborer was picking crops in a hot field when the call came. His children, all seven of them, had fallen gravely ill.
Some were vomiting, others had diarrhea, and all were listless, indicating that they had fallen victim to the latest disaster to afflict this impoverished corner of the Arabian Peninsula: one of the worst outbreaks of cholera infection in recent times.

No amount of graduate schooling by any number of eager-beaver students can help, when we are hell bent on making the human condition miserable.

For much of the world, cholera, a bacterial infection spread by water contaminated with feces, has been relegated to the history books. In the 19th century, it claimed tens of millions of lives across the world, mainly through dehydration and electrolyte imbalance.
That ended with modern sanitation and water systems. When it pops up now, it is usually treated easily with rehydration solutions and, if severe, with antibiotics.

Yep, we thought had condemned killing by cholera to history.  And then we watch it happen in real time:

Since a severe outbreak began in late April, according to Unicef, cholera has spread to 21 of the country’s 22 provinces, infecting at least 269,608 people and killing at least 1,614. That is more than the total number of cholera deaths reported to the World Health Organization worldwide in 2015.

How fucked up are we humans!

In October, the government stopped paying civil servants, prompting strikes from sanitation workers and leading to garbage pileups and septic backups. That contaminated the wells that many Yemenis rely on for water, providing the ideal environment for cholera to spread. The outbreak picked up speed in April, after dirty rainwater further polluted the wells.
Not everyone who is exposed to cholera will contract the disease. But in places like Yemen, where more than 14 million of Yemen’s 27 million people lack access to clean water and 17 million do not have enough food, people are far more vulnerable — particularly malnourished children.
“The average person lives on tea and bread. It’s just one meal a day,” said Jamie McGoldrick, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Yemen. “They are in a weakened state, and that is why they are getting sick.”
Making matters worse, the war has damaged 65 percent of Yemen’s medical facilities, denying more than 14 million people access to health care.

You have to wonder why we can't seem to get along, right?

Meanwhile, acute resource constraints in a remarkably rich world:

The United Nations says it needs $2.1 billion for its work in Yemen this year, but it has received only 29 percent of that amount despite repeated pleas for donations from aid groups.

In addition to shedding my naïveté, there is one huge difference between the graduate school me versus the me now--I am not a starving graduate student.

So, I did the only thing that I could--I donated, to my favorite group that does phenomenal work in such situations: MSF.

Making my peace

Syria
Haiti
Afghanistan
Nigeria
...
The list is endless.  A list of countries with humanitarian crises.

Yet, the reality show candidate from the "family values" party has managed to make the year-plus long campaign all about him and his penis.  Nero playing the fiddle is, by comparison, a much more empathetic act!

A couple of days ago, the New York Times had these photographs of refugees..  Fleeing from a number of countries in Africa because of the chaotic conditions there.  So chaotic that they were willing to risk it all, by attempting to cross deep waters while crammed into boats.  Crammed enough that some died merely from the conditions in the boat.  In one boat that had about 150 people, rescuers found 29 bodies--10 men and 19 women.

Yet, we continue to be focused on the candidate and his penis.

Have we no sense of shame and decency?  Have we become so devoid of empathy, and so captivated by one man's penis show?

In an interview with National Public Radio, the photographer who took those photos had this to say:

the number may never go down if we as a Western society, we don't do something to stop all this conflict and war in their countries. We have the responsibility of what's happening there because maybe we don't help or we - you know, there is something that we could do better to help this situation.

What is that "better" that we can do?  I know one thing we could have done better--we could have made sure that we brought forward a candidate who would not put on a penis show.  That itself could have helped us think about, and discuss, some of the global priorities.  We could have attempted to understand how the candidates differ in their understanding of the issues and the policy ideas they have.  Instead, we have had nothing but a pornographic political theatre.

I have to make my own peace in all these.  I made a donation to my favorite humanitarian group--Doctors Without Borders.  In the grand scheme of things, my donation will not make a damn difference.  But, a man has got to do what a man has got to do.

And, even though a stranger mocks me in her email--in response to my latest newspaper column--all I can do is wish for world peace, fully recognizing my insignificant place in this political landscape.

I bring you good news. Really.

The older I get, the more I am convinced that we humans manage to get a few things right despite our own efforts to mess up the world.  Imagine then how wonderful the world could be if only we got our act together!

Today's exhibit: Ebola.

Remember how manically I was blogging about Ebola, Facebooking about Ebola, and tweeting about Ebola?  When the crisis unfolded, I was shocked, disappointed, and angry that most of the world--especially the United States--was not worrying about it.  Even when Doctors Without Borders kept issuing those reports, we responded with a only collective yawn.

In case you got worked up about all that, here is an update:

The three West African countries at the heart of an Ebola epidemic recorded their first week with no new cases since the outbreak was declared in March 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.
The U.N. agency said that more than 11,000 people have died in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in the world's worst known occurrence of Ebola, but there were no new cases in the week to Oct. 4.

First, a sense of relief. Phew!  And then a feeling of "can we celebrate now?"

New cases of Ebola have dwindled sharply this year, but WHO said there was still a risk of resurgence.
"Over 500 contacts remain under follow-up in Guinea, and several high-risk contacts associated with active and recently active chains of transmission in Guinea and Sierra Leone have been lost to follow-up," the report said.
“There remains a near-term risk of further cases,” the report added.

Let us see how we humans deal with "a risk of resurgence."  I am guessing we will screw it up, like we always seem to do.  But, for now, a victory, yes.

The New York Times "had more than a dozen reporters, photographers and videographers inside the Ebola zone in West Africa over the course of the epidemic" and two of them speak about their experiences.  One says:

As reporters, we needed to remain resilient ourselves. The virus was all around us but remained unseen. We were constantly under threat. We would cover our bodies and equipment in protective gear and constantly wash them off with chlorine and disinfectant spray to kill the virus. Each day was an exercise in extreme caution, and each night we would nervously go to sleep hoping we had done everything right.
However, in the midst of all the darkness of these situations is the most powerful story to be told: the human ability to remain resilient. Hope is an infectious power in times of pain. Telling the story of Ebola’s spread helps people on the other side of the world connect with these abstract feelings of suffering. It helps to bring us all together.

Yes, those "abstract feelings of suffering."  To empathize with somebody, in a country somewhere, suffering from a problem that we cannot even imagine, brings us all together.  Imagine how much good we can achieve if we can truly connect with people this way, instead of being the selfish, nasty, brutish, and short humans that we typically tend to be!

There is hope, yes.  Even when we bomb the shit out of Doctors Without Borders operating in yet another crisis.

Economy in the time of Ebola: An embargo!

I suppose the uber-religious who see a divine explanation in everything that happens might have a solid rationale for the Ebola nightmare in West Africa.  Or, for that matter, even for slavery.  But, for the rest of us rational people, we are worried that this latest outbreak of Ebola, which could have been easily contained if only the rest of the world had cared at least a tad, will set back economic conditions not only in the three primarily affected countries but in the rest of the continent too.

It will affect the entire continent because to most people in the world Africa is one country.  One big blob.  Ebola in Liberia becomes an "African" disease. An "African" problem. Thus, even as slowly the world is beginning to respond to the crisis, the irrational fear is driving individuals and businesses away from the sub-Saharan economy, in particular.

"Everybody is running away from Ebola, Kaifala Marah [Sierra Leone's finance minister] said at the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington.
"By default or design, it really is an economic embargo," he said.

An economic embargo.  How terrible!

How were the economic conditions in the three countries a few months ago?

Before the Ebola outbreak intensified, these countries were making remarkable economic progress—particularly Sierra Leone and Liberia, which experienced rapid economic growth in recent years after overcoming decades of civil strife. In 2013, Sierra Leone and Liberia ranked second and sixth among the top 10 countries with the highest GDP growth in the world (albeit their base levels of GDP are very small to begin with). Guinea, while growing more slowly at 2.5 percent in 2013, had high expectations for growth

Just when conditions seemed to be settling down, not only does the Ebola virus hit but also the irrational response from the rest of the world.

In addition to the enormous and tragic loss of human life, the Ebola epidemic is having devastating effects on these West African economies in a variety of essential sectors by halting trade, hurting agriculture and scaring investors.

The long-term destructive effect on the economies coming from the fear:

the largest economic effects of the crisis are not as a result of the direct costs (mortality, morbidity, caregiving, and the associated losses to working days) but rather those resulting from aversion behavior driven by fear of contagion.  This in turn leads to a fear of association with others and reduces labor force participation, closes places of employment, disrupts transportation, and motivates some government and private decision-makers to close sea ports and airports. 

Keep in mind that the following were estimates of impacts developed nearly a month ago:

these estimates rise to $809 million in the three countries alone. In Liberia, the hardest hit country, the High Ebola scenario sees output hit 11.7 percentage points in 2015 (reducing growth from 6.8 percent to -4.9 percent).  

Now, $809 million might not seem to be a high number.  Until you think about the estimated GDP of the those countries.

If instead of words, you prefer a picture, here is one from The Economist:

I suppose that it is only a continuation of history when we rich folks in the rich and poor countries decide that all we want to do is to lift up the drawbridges and keep the poor and the hungry and the ill away and on the other side of the moat, and casually remark that they can eat cakes.  Some fucked up humans we are!

Have you made your donation to help those fight the good fight?  I recommend donating to Doctors Without Borders.