[afro-nets] Child mortality 'at record low' (2)

["Des McHale" <cschuftan@phmovement.org>]

There is a famous saying by Churchill:
"The only statistics you can trust are those you falsified yourself" And another one (but he may have taken it from Mark Twain): "Statistics are like a lamp post for a drunkard, used more for support than for illumination." 

A recent seminar bringing together all the institutes of statistics from Africa was held in Rwanda. The host's speech stressed that Africa would remain under colonial rule if it did not muster the capacities to produce its own statistics and continued to have to rely on the UN and other developed countries' modeling.

 Rwanda has also taken the leadership in the African Union to put together the first CHARTER on statistics.

That is, the world situation is such today that most statistical output is derived from projections without basic data being collected. At present, no one knows exactly the number of inhabitants, or deaths, or births, in poor communities.

As of 2005, extrapolated statistics at WHO HQ estimated that 40% of immunizations globally were still unsafe, 5 years after the launch of a massive effort to improve safety of immunizations. Mre facetiously, a Polish scientist wrote a funny essay: "how to lie with statistics"; he said:
Most people die in their beds - proven by medical statistics. Conclusion: never sleep in your own bed!  or,  "A little inacurracy saves a world of explanation".

And to conclude:
By the way, the average human has one breast and one testicle.  

~Des McHale


   G.U.

On 9/13/07, kausar. skhan <kausar.skhan@aku.eduwrote:
>
 What this celebration by UNICEF misses is a review of those who die. With rise in poverty due to globalization and poor governance within countries, there may actually be a rise in mortality amongst the poorest. Not wearing the equity lens helps you overlook this darker side of reality