tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
by Debra Hanania-Freeman
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The answer lies largely in the policies of looting and primitive accumulation that have been imposed on this region, and which play a major role in the outbreaks of zoonotic diseases (those that jump between animals and humans). Humans are venturing farther and farther into the African forests, putting more and more pressure on local ecosystems through small-scale gold, diamond, and mineral mining, deforestation, and political conflicts, bringing them increasingly into contact with animal reservoirs.
More than half of Liberia's forests have been sold off to industrial loggers under President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's government. Logging, slash-and-burn agriculture, and chopping down trees to meet increased demand for firewood, since no other fuel is available, are all driving deforestation in Sierra Leone, where total forest cover has dropped to just 4%. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), if deforestation continues at current rates, Sierra Leone's forests could disappear altogether by 2018. One overall result of this is that the bats, which are literally everywhere in these forest areas, are being driven to find new habitats among human populations.
The 1994 outbreak of Ebola, which killed 31 people, occurred in gold-mining camps deep in the rainforest. Mining also appears to be a feature of this latest outbreak: Its epicenter is in the southeast of Guinea, close to iron ore reserves.
Mining has become an important livelihood activity across Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea, over the last couple of decades. And, according to epidemiologists, that not only means more mines in the forest, but also "immense movement: people going seasonally in and out of mines, coming in and out, young people coming from all over the country." Guinea is the world's top exporter of bauxite, the raw material used in aluminum production, according to Reuters.
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Another factor that is rarely discussed is the 15 years of thug warfare that has virtually destroyed the governments (and government institutions) of Sierra Leone and Liberia.
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Up to now, the international response hasn't just been inadequate, it has been criminal. In August, when President Obama brought the leaders of 50 African nations to Washington for his much-publicized Africa Summit, an occasion that should have been, at least in part, dedicated to mapping out the emergency measures needed to contain this catastrophe, he refused to even place Ebola on the agenda. Instead, he chided young African leaders for "whining" and not doing enough to help themselves.
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Timothy Flanigan, an infectious disease researcher at Brown University, put it accurately when he said on National Public Radio Sept. 11: "The U.S. Military is uniquely poised to help with this disease.... The Department of Defense runs a sophisticated health service for its own troops. Its staff includes infectious disease experts, doctors, and nurses. It can set up massive field hospitals almost anywhere. On top of that, the military can do logistics like no other: It can move fuel, food, and supplies en masse."
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http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2014/4137lose_v_ebola.html
...
The answer lies largely in the policies of looting and primitive accumulation that have been imposed on this region, and which play a major role in the outbreaks of zoonotic diseases (those that jump between animals and humans). Humans are venturing farther and farther into the African forests, putting more and more pressure on local ecosystems through small-scale gold, diamond, and mineral mining, deforestation, and political conflicts, bringing them increasingly into contact with animal reservoirs.
More than half of Liberia's forests have been sold off to industrial loggers under President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's government. Logging, slash-and-burn agriculture, and chopping down trees to meet increased demand for firewood, since no other fuel is available, are all driving deforestation in Sierra Leone, where total forest cover has dropped to just 4%. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), if deforestation continues at current rates, Sierra Leone's forests could disappear altogether by 2018. One overall result of this is that the bats, which are literally everywhere in these forest areas, are being driven to find new habitats among human populations.
The 1994 outbreak of Ebola, which killed 31 people, occurred in gold-mining camps deep in the rainforest. Mining also appears to be a feature of this latest outbreak: Its epicenter is in the southeast of Guinea, close to iron ore reserves.
Mining has become an important livelihood activity across Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea, over the last couple of decades. And, according to epidemiologists, that not only means more mines in the forest, but also "immense movement: people going seasonally in and out of mines, coming in and out, young people coming from all over the country." Guinea is the world's top exporter of bauxite, the raw material used in aluminum production, according to Reuters.
...
Another factor that is rarely discussed is the 15 years of thug warfare that has virtually destroyed the governments (and government institutions) of Sierra Leone and Liberia.
...
Up to now, the international response hasn't just been inadequate, it has been criminal. In August, when President Obama brought the leaders of 50 African nations to Washington for his much-publicized Africa Summit, an occasion that should have been, at least in part, dedicated to mapping out the emergency measures needed to contain this catastrophe, he refused to even place Ebola on the agenda. Instead, he chided young African leaders for "whining" and not doing enough to help themselves.
..
Timothy Flanigan, an infectious disease researcher at Brown University, put it accurately when he said on National Public Radio Sept. 11: "The U.S. Military is uniquely poised to help with this disease.... The Department of Defense runs a sophisticated health service for its own troops. Its staff includes infectious disease experts, doctors, and nurses. It can set up massive field hospitals almost anywhere. On top of that, the military can do logistics like no other: It can move fuel, food, and supplies en masse."
...
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2014/4137lose_v_ebola.html