Ebola: The Luxury
of Indifference is Gone - Le Soir, Belgium
"At first,
the sick, the hopeless cases, were others: people who were distant, poor,
ignorant, and superstitious. They had no chance against the Ebola virus and,
for four decades, quarantine was considered the only solution. So they died,
and no-one spoke of them again. … Why worry about those living on the margins
of the world in abandoned areas or haunted by wars we didn't understand?"
At first, the sick, the hopeless cases, were others: people
who were distant, poor, ignorant, and superstitious. They had no chance against
the Ebola virus and, for four decades, quarantine was considered the only
solution. So they died, and no-one spoke of them again ...
Research was meager and unprofitable, and the results
virtually nil. Why worry about those living on the margins of the world in
abandoned areas or haunted by wars we didn't understand?
The example of AIDS should have served as a warning.
Likewise, in this case, the first known victims were nationals of Haiti and
Central Africa, and homosexual communities were particularly affected.
Those victims didn’t remain at a distance for long: we very
quickly discovered that AIDS threatened the whole world, that the plague led us
to modify our most intimate behavior, and that it required a global struggle - a
worldwide commitment.
Consequently, huge sums of money were expended, researchers made
significant progress, and the evil, even if it was not defeated, was at least contained.
How can we fail to understand that in our globalized world,
the victims of Ebola and other diseases that are insufficiently combated are
our neighbors? Neighbors who arrive by road or air, and obliviously, alongside whom
we take our vacations?
Today, more than ever, no one is distant, and problems we turn
a blind eye to develop into time bombs – certainly, bombs of epidemiology and
health. Political bombs, too, when our young people go off to fight for causes we
refuse to be interested in or attempt to remedy.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Today, being indifferent to or ignoring the suburbs of the
world, which face the greatest cataclysms, is not only morally wrong, but a political
mistake. It is also a luxury we can no longer afford.
