[afro-nets] AFRO-NETS is about malaria (40)

[Jeff Buderer <jeff@onevillage.biz>]

AFRO-NETS is about malaria (40)
-------------------------------

Craig,

I understand what you are saying about "what will get a job done
and work toward that goal in as direct of manner as possible."
However I think we also need to know the bigger picture about
what we are really up against so we can be very clever in how we
focus our energy towards the most effective solutions. I do feel
that the less government the better but we need to ensure basic
things like security, elimination of unfair barriers to opportu-
nities for success/competition in the marketplace and the ensur-
ing of ecological integrity, human health and security within
the political borders of that governing entity.

Indeed I think we sometimes get American bashing confused with
establishment bashing. Many people are becoming increasingly
suspicious of America's intentions as to them America seems to
increasing say one thing and do another and is not aware or ac-
countable to its own growing hypocrisy.

Who can blame them really? We have to accept our responsibility
for a lack of strong leadership in this country over the last 40
years as American Citizens. Democrats and Republicans share the
blame. Without strong leadership, what has emerged as the domi-
nant political impulse is to cater to the selfish interests of
handful of American superrich. The superrich now define public
policy in a way that is not truly democratic and is not sustain-
able in any sense of the word. It is not really a political is-
sue but an economic one and we need to see it as such.

The powerful globally (not just the US) are not able to think
about the common interest because they are too obsessed thinking
about how to build their fortunes. I think that is the root of
the problem. Without seeing that construct of greed and the pure
worship of wealth and power and the patterns of human self-
destructiveness that emanate from it, we will not be able to or-
ganize ourselves properly to confront malaria as well as a myr-
iad of other challenging problems. Indeed many of the problems
in our world are due to the neglect of people and the planet
that results from the proliferation of greed based and green
driven public policies globally. If we do not overcome the greed
mentality (which is basically our addiction and attachment to
physical things and the control of socioeconomic systems that
dominate over people) that currently sustains our global economy
we will not be able to address these issues and they will over-
whelm us in a very short time. That is the bottom line.

This is why a holistic or integrated approach to development is
so important. We cannot explore any of these issues in isola-
tion; we have to see their interconnectedness and to explore the
root cause of the problem(s). For example Jared Diamond says the
increase in malaria as a problem in Africa is due primarily to
development patterns that have led to the settling of areas that
historically African did not settle in because they knew that
the malaria was strong in those areas. I think it would be in-
teresting to explore that further here.


Jeff Buderer
mailto:jeff@onevillage.biz