Plague, poverty, war and other quotage.

Posted on By pukeko

Most of the world is entranced by the World Cup. Apart from the English. And Spanish. But in the meantime, Mathus’ methods of population destruction continue to cause difficulties, particularly plague and war. Now war can make plague worse: both by limiting access to basic public health such as plumbing and immunization, and by destrying health care.

Or simply by impoverishing a nation so that the fight continues.


I know this is Reuters, and they are quoting MSF, which has an agenda. But Ebola should scare anyone. It’s very fulminant, and very infective.

An Ebola epidemic in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone is out of control and requires massive resources from governments and aid agencies to prevent it from spreading further, medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said on Monday.

The death toll has hit 337 since February, the U.N. World Health Organisation said last week, making it the deadliest outbreak since Ebola first emerged in 1976.

The disease has not previously occurred in the region and local people remain frightened of it and view health facilities with suspicion. This makes it harder to bring it under control, MSF said in a statement.

At the same time, MSF said, a lack of understanding has meant people continue to prepare corpses and attend funerals of Ebola victims, leaving them vulnerable to the disease, transmitted by touching victims or through bodily fluids.

Civil society groups, governments and religious authorities have also failed to acknowledge the scale of the epidemic and as a result few prominent figures are promoting the fight against the disease, the statement said.

“The epidemic is out of control,” said Bart Janssens, MSF director of operations. “With the appearance of new sites in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, there is a real risk of it spreading to other areas.”

And MSF is being bombed: in the current dirty wars the general conventions about leaving medical organizations alone are being broken. This is from the other side of Africa, in the Sudan and South Sudan.

As bombs struck the village of Farandalla on June 16, two hit the Médecins Sans Frontières hospital there. Five people were wounded in the village and one Médecins Sans Frontières staff member was injured at the hospital. Médecins Sans Frontières medical teams treated the wounded and organised the transfer of three severely injured patients to another hospital.

“We are shocked that a medical facility can be bombed, especially since it was clearly identified,” said Médecins Sans Frontières Head of Mission Brian Moller. “We also had previously communicated the hospital’s position to the authorities in Khartoum.”

Hospital staff evacuated the patients in the surroundings at the time of the attack. Medical workers returned to treat the people wounded in the attack on the village.

Médecins Sans Frontières calls for the respect of patients, staff, and medical facilities in South Kordofan. Several other medical facilities in South Kordofan have been bombed in recent weeks.

The bombs destroyed the emergency room, a dressing room, the pharmacy, and the hospital kitchen. “Damage to the Farandalla hospital is significant, but Médecins Sans Frontières’ will continue to work there,” Moller said.

In the West we may say that we are not like this. We are enlightened: we are prosperous. Well, once so was Lebanon. Once so was Babylon. Once so was Egypt. If we continue to be stupid and pig-headed in our actions, then there will be consequences: if war and plague does not get us, sheer anomie (and a lack of children) will.


I’ve been lurking your website for some time now and it’s incredible how our experiences and opinions on Seattle and the PNW parallel.

After graduating from UW a few years ago, I couldn’t find a job in Seattle and decided to look elsewhere. I couldn’t take the passive aggressive and elitist attitudes that my fellow underemployed 20-somethings seemingly all possessed either, so it seemed like it would be refreshing change. My friends thought I was crazy when I broke the news that I was moving to the Midwest for work.

One year later I realized that my Coast Guard experience (which is what originally brought me out to Seattle) would allow me to work offshore in the Gulf supplying the oil rigs. There is such a demand for these positions (all of which pay at least $300/day) that I was called 2 weeks after I applied and was basically told I was hired. No interview or anything. There are hard working guys in my company who can barely read or write making 60k and getting 4 months off a year. All you have to do is pass a piss test and do what you’re told and you’ll be fine. Lots of real diversity in these jobs too, with the exception of very few women (go figure).

While I do think the PNW is incredibly beautiful (I actually prefer the weather up there to the gulf), I completely agree with your take on the future of the region. I sort of hope the area goes full Detroit and collapses due to under-deversifying + being out competed from Asia. All the members of the parasitic class would leave for greener pastures, property would be affordable again, and you’d actually be able to meet some genuine people regularly.

I can live anywhere with this job so I keep looking at places on the pennensula and Bellingham, but I’m still torn. I think it’s only a matter of time before WA starts taxing income. There’s just not enough people there that realize what made WA such a great alternative to CA and they’re going to ruin what made it successful.

Choose wisely, and in particular choose to have a society that does not destroy the very things one needs to keep plague, poverty and war from the heartland. For if you do not keep certain infrastructures in place (and being sufficiently armed to not be invaded is part of this) then your children will not thank you as they get increasingly infected.

One thought on “Plague, poverty, war and other quotage.”

  1. I keep begging to move to the PNW – DH has relatives up there and he tells me stories and I’m like, “We could live where blackberries grow wild but we live with bangers?” I think this is why we never visit… he’s afraid I’ll stay. LOL .LOTS of Cali folks moved up there, a few recessions ago.

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