[afro-nets] Roy Innis on malaria (18)

["Jeff Buderer" <jeff@onevillage.biz>]

Roy Innis on malaria (18)
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George,

I would have to humbly say that I think you actually get to the heart of the matter. We have to take responsibility for this situation all six plus billion of us.

The people get the government they deserve. The leadership will only be as good as the people in the societies of the world demand it to be. If they/we continue to allow themselves/ourselves to be manipulated by cynical and power driven people, then what does that say about humanity itself. Indeed more to your point most of us are simply - when you get down to it - concerned about our own needs and we have become oblivious to the concerns and realities of others - esp those in absolute poverty. 
This selfishness and self-centeredness is actually encouraged by the social mainstreams in nearly all the world societies.

I find Craig's comments to be going against my experiences of the American educational system which for the most part from my view encouraging conformity and discouraging critical thinking. To be fair, I doubt if the US educational model is the outlier globally. So then should we be surprised that the world's citizens for the most gravitate to the logic of the lowest common denominator of human existence which is every person for themselves? This is an important role of consumer culture - keep people distracted on superficial things so that they do not become aware of what is really going on in the world.

The bottom line will be no real solutions to these health problems we are talking about until this pattern of behavior changes on a very large scale.

The US is not the source of the world's ills but it bears a high level of responsibility because it claims to hold itself to a higher standard and has a great deal of influence in the world due to the simple fact that it still controls 30 percent of the world's economy (despite having only about 5 percent of its population!). Yet it still continues to stifle its most creative people by encouraging a superficial approach to exploring and solving the world's complex problems and of course its global policies more reflects the needs of the power rather than considering the needs and views of the people in the country?s' affairs it has intervened in - in the past such as Iran. So the result is not surprising, increasing resentment and distrust of the US and the West among the developing world. Here we go again...Interestingly of course these patterns parallel that which is going in each respective country.

These health issues we discuss here disproportionately affect the very poor who have no resources to deal with them, while the rich get exponentially richer. How encouraging it is that Warren Buffet has donated much of his fortune to help. However one wonders if it is in time to address the world urgent issues that threaten to destabilize the globalization. Will Buffet's donation to Gates Foundation compensate for the negative aspects of his wealth creation on the world? Much of Buffet's profits came from cigarette companies, fast food and the like... So when all those billions are tallied and earmarked for the benefit of humanity, will there be a net gain for humanity - or a net negative?

I only hope that we can form global alternatives to this failed model in a timely manner. Current events seem to indicate that time for a real change in global policies is indeed short.

Indeed as you seem to imply, the issue is not them it is us. We need to take responsibility for the global situation not just as professionals but as human beings.

The real question is not so much about whether to use or not to use DDT to fight malaria but rather can we find the common ground to act in a balanced, comprehensive and thoughtful way.

Thanks for your comments..

Jeff Buderer
mailto:jeff@onevillage.biz