HOW FAR SHOULD WE GO WHEN SELECTING, ADOPTING AND ADAPTING WESTERN EDUCATIONAL SYLLABI FOR OUR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES? Commentary.

We do not need a Niagara of heartfelt words or million dollar ones to tell you that you are wrong when you take certain decisions to digress from the norm for your political or philosophical gains that are ephemeral. An African aphorism goes that if you do not accompany a neighbor to their farm you have to attend to yours. What happens when you do not have yours? You will be bound to seal your mouth when capable farmers are discussing burning farming issues. We do certain things in compliance with our jurisdictions or beliefs but we tend to forget that the authors who propounded them were for their cohorts of their era. Applying some of  them today verbatim with Teutonic or Spartan rigidity would appear like forcing square pegs into round holes. They put us at disadvantaged positions in our apparently homogenized and harmonious world of today. They need to be revamped for the contemporary users as they are already démodé. We assume or strive towards monoculture in our world and that is awry. Some intelligentsia tend to ignore the harm this is inflicting on minorities or those whose cultures cannot raise their heads above the sea-level to glimpse at the approaching yardarm. Oftentimes the values of these minorities are eroded and they come in stack naked in their birthday suits as go-go dancers who strip to entertain muzzy men after which they are hollow and are looked down upon as a horde of ner’-do-wells who cannot offer anything beneficial under normal circumstances.

Far from it! Those danseuses are not vacant. In their natural world they are queens and divine but when we drag them into ours they are found wanting not because they are born that way but because they have to adopt and adapt to our ways. Whatever we conceive them to be; in some special cases we have to adapt if not we are sent into oblivion. We will see below where there is that need to learn others’ values, let us call it knowledge or wisdom that might not have emanated from our original homes and has nothing to do with our philosophy then and in the future. However with time they might be beneficial. When welcoming or supplanting them with ours, care must be taken not to throw away the bathwater and the baby.

We find ourselves in some climatic regions that are different from what we have at our homes. The only way to be comfortable is to adopt and adapt if not we live in isolation and banish ourselves. When it comes to health as having money, many of us could do the impossible to have them: We have seen the crippled walk stalwartly, the blind seeing and mermaids turning into mermen and vice versa just to get what they want.  We are going to substantiate with the treatment of certain diseases. There are some that are confined in certain climatic regions because the climatic factors there are ideal for the growth of certain bacteria or vectors of those harmful bacteria. In that case the doctors or scientists of those regions, though not educated to our expected standards are more than qualified to handle special diseases than apothecaries in those regions where they are not inherently their homes.

A Caucasian Quebecker who was working in Gabon in Central Africa died from malaria he contacted while working over there. The locals some of you still call natives were used to it and he could have been cured in less than two weeks. Instead, he got agitated and bore in his mind that he was not to be treated efficiently in Gabon. His immediate desire was to be evacuated. Evacuated he was. On reaching Quebec his home town in Canada, he was rushed to a hospital and the local doctors who were not used to treating malaria had to take samples, fluid specimens from his body to ship to laboratories away where malarial microbes were analysed. By the time all the tests were done and results returned to the doctors the malarial microbes had spread in him enormously as those of the most dreaded Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). By the time drugs were ordered to be administered, this man went into coma and eventually died.

What happens when malarial patients show up at any tropical hospital? Their temperatures are taken and if it is above certain Celsius, his or her blood is examined not in the laboratory. How? His eye lids are simply opened by a nurse and the amount or red blood corpuscles or color tells him or her that the patient has contacted malaria. The patient is immediately treated for malaria with its drugs without necessarily waiting for laboratory results. In this way death from malaria are minimized. Thence the chances of anyone dying from malaria once it is detected at its early stage of development are slim. It goes to reason that if our Quebecer had been allowed to be treated in any hospital in Gabon he would not have died. Many North Americans on secondment in the tropics are efficiently treated this way in Africa and return home after their ordeals to tell their tales..

However the previous allusion is not our cardinal point of discussion. It is our insinuation that sources of knowledge are not to be minimized or prejudiced. Eventually all are found to be beneficial not necessarily because they could not be applicable in the regions where they are not required. In some North American classification of languages, they often ignore African languages which they minimize by calling them dialects. When it comes to some vital communication, a modicum of these dialects could mean a matter of life and death to field scientists and even others for intelligence gathering.  It tells us that it would be beneficial for Russians, North Americans and Europeans to study malaria and its repercussion not necessarily because they would one day have conditions favorable for the spread of anopheles mosquitoes but because they could have their citizens working in the tropics where assorted malaria are prevalent. They could be there for visits, military maneuvers as during the Vietnamese War with America (1959-1975), work or for other emergency contingencies. As such they could be exposed to malarial parasites as any other inhabitant of the tropics. Their foreknowledge would be beneficial.

Therefore should we be bothered teaching out students tropical medicine, geography, history or any other sciences or knowledge that is generally beneficial to those living under tropical conditions? It will be prudent to teach all subjects that may be more beneficial to people far away from us than to discriminate on the assumption that we would one day not visit those regions or have nothing to do with them since we were not a megalomaniac colonial master with colonies around the world or having future colonization ambition.

It is a fact that there are countries in Africa that have taken away the teaching of glaciology (glacier and glaciation) from their syllabi as being immaterial. Is it? It is not only glaciology but they have taken away histories of other European, American and Asian countries from their syllabi. The irony is that they teach Chinese, American English, and English, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese and other European languages. How do you draw a rigid boundary between sciences and dictate with rationales that others should not be studied as they have no positive influence on the progress of your countries? So when you see Boko Haram and all those repulsive men associated with a philosophy called Mohammedanism barring the teaching of Western type of education you have a feeling that they are short sighted, if not deranged. Here we have some third world states rejecting their bucketful of multitude of economic, social and other panacea for their vistas of woes.

We will tell them a story that will make them wonder and think if at all they could. There are ever some jokes of a ‘Swiss navy’. The reasoning is that Switzerland is landlocked and needs no navy as Great Britain, Canada, America, Brazil, South Africa or Malaysia where they have access to the seas. It does not hold as Swiss interest is not only confined within its borders. If their interests are attacked, in say Indonesia, the only solution would have to be using their frigates to fight as no other nation state is going to relinquish theirs when there are eminent treats of wars.

Furthermore we have another case where many Europeans even ethnographers casually ignored an African script for being insignificant as many still look at some African languages as moribund and not worthy of being studied. You will be surprised to find out that many learn Japanese and would never touch Hausa whose native speakers are numerically more than those who speak Japanese. Why won’t they study Hausa bakwai? They put financial remuneration to be derived from such studies above all. If there is none in the study of Hausa it is dropped. Are they following the right path?

We will proceed with another illustration, script that gainsays motive for others studying your language. The language script of interest here is that of the Vai in the Ebola riven Liberia of today. This is often compared with Bamum script in Cameroun Republique, Africa (see the plate below). These rank among the few scripts that Africans had used comparable to well-known ones as Arabic, Roman, Russian, Hindi, and Greek scripts.

Sample of Ba-Mum script, a ka uku mfe mfe. Route map from the the capital to the sovereign's estate in 1909. Primitive this script may look but it is a gem of a genius. (c) Viban Viban NGO. 2014.

The Allied Forces during the Second World War had ignored the study of Vai. The French instead imprisoned Chief Njoya of Bamum who invited the script, aka u ku mfe mfe for being recalcitrant after having learned nothing from it. The Germans who were the first colonial masters of Kamerun in 1884  who stumble on it in 1909 started learning it before being chased out when they were defeated there in 1915 by the Allied Forces. It might have been primitive to other Europeans but the primitive Vai the Germans learned gave the Germans a relative advantage over the Allied Forces during the outbreak of the Second World War, 1939-1945. While others were looking at Vai script in askance, the German Government had sent specialists who mastered it avariciously. Hitler’s navy was aware of the fact that their cousins had also mastered German and could intercept coded messages sent to their submarines, and war frigates in the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. With this knowledge they sent information around that was intercepted by Americans, British, and the French but they were Greek to them.  

The Germans went on that way and were able to inflict untold mayhem to the Allied troops. They torpedoed, lay mines and sank ships in places where they were least expected and could slip through the Allied ambuscades with ease.  We are not talking of the damage of the Soames and above all Gallipoli the Turks inflicted on the British navy during the First World War. The Germans were way ahead of the rest of their cousins and had previewed the progress of the Second World War. Before the Allied could discover that an African script was being used for communication, the damages had been done and what could have been curtailed at its bud was deadly spiraling out of control.

Why are we concerned with the alluded example? It is to demonstrate that no knowledge is useless. Come to think of it, there are few Americans who know of the Kumbo Blue Plateau reputed to having most probably the best climate in the world where spring conditions in North America are replicated as in no other place on earth year in year out. The point is that most American generically subsumes Africa under terra incognita for spurious reasons as Ebola, and other diseases. This ignorance is accentuated by charities that pay hefty sums to advertise Africans on Western televisions and other media by using skeletal kwashiorkor ridden sea of Africans children to engender sympathy and get money for their projects.  Additionally, pharmacies who want to sell their drugs and often tell them if they had been to countries or a country where there are fungi or infectious tropical diseases. The picture of the tropic is like those of the 16^th to the 19^th century when man had not discovered bacteria and diseases and sicknesses were attributed to witchcraft that bring the hearts to the mouths of most rank and file North Americans.  It is all wrong for those who are interested as modern colonialists as the Chinese and Indians quietly come and even settle to exploit. Europeans and Americans who started and even carved out colonies have to reason fast if not they may one day have not a trading inch in the vast Sahara and parched Namibian Desert not to mention the tropical jungle of Central and Western Africa.

There are people who don’t bother but learn what is considered to be primitive. They send along experts to live with the locals and learn their ways and what others may consider as primitive. Even if they are stricto senso primitive by their standards of today, it should be borne in mind that there is no single community in the world that never passed through the Stone Age and never lived in caves or some wilderness. The Americans discover anthropological studies the French had carried out prior to the beginning of the US-Vietnamese War once considered being primitive to be gems of intelligence.

Rare do we find what we have to teach to be so attractive to our students that they come to wait for the teacher in class hours before the teacher comes in. I recalled teaching GIS, Remote Sensing and Cartography. Some of my students remarked that everything was so important that ten minute of not being attentive made one felt as if one had missed a month of lecturing. Others told me that they glued to my lessons for they could preview their relevance in their future lives and that I was intelligent. On intelligence, I explained to them that I was never ever satisfied with what I had learned in class and it was ever my ambition to find out more. Owing to reading avariciously and taking note of details, I was able to be comfortable in the company of lawyers, economists, political scientists, anthropologists at my international Universities and did not find myself wanting. Others claimed that I was studying political science and not environmental sciences we will refer to below. Moreover, I believed that I did not know enough of what others thought I was an expert in and that catapulted me the more to go deeply into them. Nevertheless, I felt flattered but encouraged them too.  Whatever their perception of my teaching, not all they would come across in their lives would be dazzlingly enchanting and challenging. They might ignore them as being boring and they would turn out to be the most important in their lives.

When I first visited London and was using the Senate House Library of the University of London, I discovered that the CIA had written country book of all nation states conceivable on earth. Similarly, I discovered that the UK War Office or the Admiralty was also writing and drawing maps of countries that were not even related to the British Government during the Second World War. When I left LSE, my first paid assignment was to write a country profile of an African country. I began to know why country reports were valuable sources of information. They were objective and written by foreigners who were not prejudiced. You will remember now that at the time of writing we do not know the true population of a good number of African countries. It is because the government of the day dishes out amenities based on population of districts, regions, provinces or states as they variously call them. The tendency is for the censor officials to be bribed to falsify results, data and that is academic dishonesty. They are usually inflated. Similarly when one is reading information in national atlases they are falsified for propagandistic reasons. As such if big powers as France, Great Britain, the USA and others want to get information they do not rely on that provided by the government of the day but by their private informants. If Americans and British had ignored such regions as not beneficial to them they would not have written valuable country reports [see Google for them].

I ratiocinated why on earth those countries sent diplomats abroad where money was sunk into bottomless pits.  There were disasters in those countries and media would be broadcasting wrong information extracted from old secondary sources.  No one from the embassy would opt to rectify the wrongs. They were not of use as they had not mastered the history and geography of their countries prior to leaving for their foreign appointments. Therefore, it was usually a waste of time for foreigners to approach them for certain information. Missions relied on their information they have collected rather than on their embassies or high commissions who often painted bogus rosy pictures of their states when they were not so. The question was how they were to compare and contrast the growth of their economics when they did not even have an economic index?

When we have the likes of Taliban in Africa, Boko Haram and Al-Sahbaab that are bent on wiping out younger generation from central Africa because they were being schooled in Western Ways, you will think that it is because they are naïve and following some archaic philosophies of the Arabs in their Koran. No! When African intellectuals are advancing that African school and college syllabi should expunge North American and European history and geography from them, you are bound to question how different their thoughts are from the infamous deranged Boko Haram and ISIS?  If the ISIS as Saudi Arabia and others belonging to that Arc of Evil are bent on expunging Westernization, and education and African intellectual naively do away with glaciology, European History and Geography, what are the difference between them and the Taliban, Al Shabaab, Boko Haram and ISIS?

How do you engage in environmental scientific studies of tropical climate in isolation of the temperate and tundra climatic conditions because they are not related to Africa or because they are in Europe or Argentina thousands of miles away? You cannot scientifically talk of the formation of tropical climates without referring to those of the temperate lands, then that would be a travesty. The cold weathers in the temperate lands are affected by the tropical conditions and vice versa. Similarly, tropical conditions are affected by the winds, jet streams or high and low pressures in the temperate zones. The ice fields or glaciers have roles to play in the movement of the winds, the effect on the ocean currents that conversely affect the climate of the tropical zones. Therefore you cannot study the tropical conditions effectively and sufficiently without studying the climate in the northern and southern hemispheres. In consequence, if educationists who propounded syllabi for the tropical schools leaving out temperate and tundra zones, will only get a naught from me. It is because they are talking of a complete man minus his limbs. They forget that science is still science wherever it is studied in the world and even in the outer space.

It is not ironical that Boko Haram would massacred on 10 November, 2014,  47 students  and injuring 79 at a school in Potiskum in Yobe State of Nigeria as their way of stamping out Western Education and instilling the Koranic philosophies in the minds of innocent Africans. It is surprising that Boko Haram elements are Western educated and use Western military arsenals to massacre innocent people. In the same vein they employ Western tools of communication for their propagandistic aims yet denounce Western education. What are their intentions? Are they to turn able people to potatoes so as to ride on them? They naively believe as Pol Pot that they are making the world a better place. Did the Soviet Union succeed with their doctrine of Communism and the exclusion of Western free economic thinking and operations, capitalism? 

It woefully faltered. Thanks to Mikhail Gorbachev then president of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) with his doctrine of glasnost and perestroika who was augural and brought about a change leading to the pulling down of the infamous Berlin Wall built to separate the Western capitalists from the communists Eastern Europe. The remnants of the Soviet Union had since then been gradually reverting to be a better place even though President Vladimir Boris still singly wants to appear tough. China is similarly emulating free economy. The reward is glaring as their economy is burgeoning and rivaling the giant, United States of America for the first time in its modern history.

In a way, the Arab or Islamic fundamentalists in Arabic or Muslim influenced states are under developing their countries economically and culturally. For them to believe in a “god,” that should rightly be called Devil who advocates the denial of education from the society, wanton killing of the innocent peoples is preposterous.  The economic growth and peaceful progress in the world after the Second World War (1938-1945) have been attributed to peace and education. So, we are inclined to conclude that Islamic fundamentalists are embodiment of evil and should not ever be given an inch by any level headed person on earth. Their open animosity for the state of Israel and the Christian world in toto should not be taken lightly as given the slightest opportunity the world could see an incomparable pogrom by these individuals who show not remorse when decapitating even children. With this their attitude, belligerency, which person in his right frame of mind could invest in the Boko Haram, Al Shabaab, Taliban, and ISIS controlled parts of the world? Only devils like them could deal with them.

The call is for those advocating evil or supporting it to revert to an educational system that will bring peace and progress in the world now before it is too late. The Western sort of education is scientific and it is and has never been out to put down Islam or any other religion or old philosophies. There might have been the knighthood of the crusaders in the past but we are in the 21^st century and those using violence to push forward their agenda will not succeed. Their illusionary view to fly the black flag of evil dowers over the White House, Champs Elysee and the over Buckingham Palace and on Nelson's Column at Trafalgar Square in London, UK is a hollow cry of a moribund philosophy. America, Europe and their allies will not enter to be the ombudsman of the world but if they are going to be cornered by these elements, arcs of evil, there will be no choice other than facing the brunt even when President Barack Obama is still in office irrespective of his downy approach.

I once frowned when I read that St Augustine of North Africa, the writer of Confessions had said that he rather was with his dog than with someone whose language he did not understand. He might have had a point base on the society he was in. Mankind has since evolved and there are means now that we could learn a language within a short space of time and there is no question of isolating ourselves because we cannot communicate. St. Augustine might have meant ideologies that were diametrically opposing. Then human intercourse was not as fluid as what we have today. Similarly there are questioned phrases in what we see as holy books that cannot be taken with the pinch of salt as they were written based on the traditions of the day that had since changed or evolved to synchronize with modernity. We have cited a few lines here from the Quran for you the reader to judge for yourself if you would today Friday, November-14-2014 the year of Our Lord approve:

"O believers make war on the infidels (non-Muslims the authors expansion) who dwell around you, let them find harshness in you” - Quran 9:123

“When the sacred months are over, kill the unbelievers wherever you find them” – 

Quran 9:5

“Fight against Christians and Jews that believe neither in Allah nor in the last day…and do not embrace the true faith” - Q 9:29

“Fighting is obligatory for you (Muslims), even if you dislike it” - Q 2:216

“Do you think you would enter Paradise before Allah knows the men who fought hard and steadfast?” – Q 3:142

“Believers take neither Jews nor Christians for friends or helpers” - Q 5:51

“Let not the believers take for friends or helpers Unbelievers rather than believers.” - Q 3:28.

“Our Prophet (Mohammed), ordered us to fight you (non-Muslims, again our expansion) till you worship Allah alone or pay us Jizyah (extortion) in submission…Whoever amongst us is killed as a martyr shall go to Paradise…and whoever survives shall become your master” – Sahih Bukhari 4:53:386

“Fight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war…” - Sahih Muslim 19:4294

It is for that reason that some of what the Quran preaches today is decadence. How many of you will inculcate the above into your students or children?  Inciting killing in the name of religion cannot be accepted. As such when the Saudis decapitate foreigners for having stolen with the rationale that they are following the holy Quran we look at them as gaudily dressed barbarians. Should they not be ostracized from the society of civilized people if they stoically refuse to change, modernize their Quran? Have they ever heard of a disease of pilfering called kleptomania? Have they never sinned? If they have never, let them throw stone the person they claim is a sinner in the name of Allah. Of course all of them are sinners and kill as their ways of covering up their sins. How do you clean a home by putting dirt under your carpet? In this disease of kleptomania, the thief has what he is stealing in abundance yet goes on to steal. It is because he is sick and needs treatment and not being killed…. There are many in the Arab worlds who believe that an American cannot be friendly with an Arab. One of them elaborated that (12/11/2014) that the Americans’ friendship with the Arab countries was based on economic gains, fossil fuel and not natural. Friendship of convenience! So as it stands they could only be punished when the oil wells would be dried out. How long shall we wait for this to happen? It is only then that economic sanction could work when they are cordoned off from the rest of good people provided others cooperate. If the Soviet Union that is far larger could be forced to kowtow for better, what more of smaller Middle East States?

We saw above that the veracity of language learning. We do not learn a person’s language for the sake of communicating with him or her without any emoluments. When we learn French, German, Zulu or Kishwahil we do not only learn those languages, we learn the speakers’ cultures, history, philosophies and many more. Those spur us. The word ‘la nourriture’ to the French man brings to memory plenty of things: wine, sitting down of a family and friends around a table to eat, chat, exchange ideas, planning and many more. So when you learn that word, it is tagged with plenty of uncountable events or things associated with the French ways of life, now and in the past. Therefore, to restrict anyone from learning such a language is cruel and infringement on his human right or learning right we believe contradicts UNESCO’s motives.

You will observe that in librarianship, knowledge be it in book format, be it analogue or electronic, pictorial, vocal, or volumetric cannot be denied anyone if they have reached the rightful age to have access to them. If Boko Haram and ISIS are out to deny people access to knowledge because it is alleged to be Western when some of them are Westerners, it should never ever be accepted. If some naïve third world states want to deny their citizens from learning Western history, environmental studies, and glaciology as in some states in Western Africa, it should not be allowed. It is the right of all students to be inculcated with what others are learning in other parts of the world. After all they are citizens of this world and should not be denied knowledge of any part of the worlds as it is assumed that they would never have anything to do with those parts of the world.

You will see that Information Technology (IT) is highly developed in the Western world and its working language is essentially English. Students in French, Spanish and Portuguese Speaking worlds know this so well and often admit that to master IT sufficiently and effectively, it is imperative to master English. Consequently are the Boko Haram, ISIS, Al-Sahbaab followers’ right when they want to deny their people this free knowledge that is proven to be good as a teaching and working tool for the rest of mankind? Some non-English speaking countries in Europe had admitted that it were cheaper for their students to learn English as most scientific papers were first published in English before they were translated into other languages. Even when they are published in other languages other than English, it took so long before they were translated into their languages before they had that information. Then they were often late. The Dutch Government and other European nation states even including Rwanda in Africa that was under Belgium in the past that used French as it colonial language now ruled by a great tactician President Joseph Kigame agreed with me and included English as a leading teaching national language in his country. The benefits are enormous now and in the future.

Kigame’s attitude takes us to late Dr. Hasting Banda, President of Malawi (1896-1994) a graduate of a Scottish school. He set up an elite school, the Kamuzu Academy to emulate Eton of England and that had a multiplier effect. Irrespective of the fact that he was scathingly criticised for his open diplomatic relation with South Africa and the racist white regime of Ian Smith, P.M., when there were sanctions imposed on them for their despicable apartheid policies. Banda’s educational bases did have a profound positive effect on his country. My study with some students from that school who ended up studying in renounced schools as LSE and Witwatersrand University in South Africa was proof of its success. Whatever some of us still question if it were necessary to instill Latin and Greek classics in the minds of budding Africans and what good they were to be in the development of Africa. On the whole most are bases of the erudite upon which Western education is buttressed. At least he left a better system of education to his Africans and respect of women whom he stressed where not objects of dalliance as often portrayed by their revealing dressing styles and tight pantaloons which he banned from Malawi.

Having advanced some of these points, we are not endorsing the fact that there are no flaws in the Western sort of education. That is why we have all the time been advocating adoption and adaptation to meet our tailored requirements. Let us shelf that as a subject matter for a separate piece. Western education has to be welcomed as it has been proven to be a harbinger of success in Africa and elsewhere though some left wingers and Africanists may contradict our generalization. If so, let them go to their farms and prove to us that they can fend for themselves and outdistance European and others’ knowledge. However we are not going to entertain teaching Africans history of France with a beginning of a history text meant for African students starting with a ridiculous sentence: ‘We the Gauls (Gaulois)…..” The Africans who were under the French colonial regime were never Gauls or French per se and were not even, when sadly thoroughly assimilated. So, there was no question of force-feeding them with such absurd information. It is for this reason that hawkish proponents of Boko Haram and those who are not for the teaching of glaciology, temperate physical geology and European history in African schools should learn to adopt and adapt. It should be crystal clear that the content of any discipline is still the same wherever it is taught or studied.  Furthermore, it should be known that not long ago, Oxford History of Africa glaringly stated that Africans had no history until the coming of the White into Africa. That was far-fetched as the head can never be taller than the shoulders. If civilization started from Egypt, Africa before proceeding to Europe, Europeans could not have been ahead in history.  To them, if it was not recorded in written form it was not history. That is awry for oral sources withstood the test of time too. Were they right or were their reasoning prostituted by racism or another black man’s burden? That was downright a hug of patronizing-academic arrogance that cannot be accepted today without duels. Those are statements that had to be vehemently refuted.

© Dr. Viban Viban Ngo, 2014.

Could transparency, religion, or education eradicate extreme poverty in developing countries?

Summary

The treatise reviews a couple of things that could be revamped to fight against extreme poverty in developing countries. These are essentially transparency discussed under religion and agriculture. Examined are the challenges and implementation of probable solutions to overcome entrenched interminable poverty that is attributed to lack of education, managerial skills and appalling governance of the day.

Introduction

If you were to ask a bunch of students today what they thought were necessary to stamp out extreme poverty in the world they would enumerate a plethora of lofty tasks that must be thoroughly executed. The vista of commendable solutions that may be as variegated as from one person to another and as from one economy to the next could fill the Encyclopedia Britannica: We have fifty of them in our budding arsenal.  For the sake of our exercise at this juncture, we will only examine a couple.

 Some of the prescribed remedies would be described as enchanting, frightening, indigestible, unfathomable or untouchable. However they may be, some would have to be prescribed as they might be applicable in some idiosyncratic cases. So we are trading on diffused generalities as myriad colors of materials that could clad our prognostications. The truth before we proceed into this subject matter is that it is impossible to have an Utopian situation where poverty could be wiped out from our world. However, we could attempt to have a partial elimination of poverty. Why? It is because under normal circumstances we cannot expand economically without inequality in our society. Let us come home to fundamentals. The very survival of any biosphere or ecosystem is pivoted on its diversity. That diversity does not exclude humankind owing to natural or self-implicated or insensitive imposition of poverty on the have-nots by the haves often deliberately or inadvertently.

Background: Transparency and corruption

The world is still a muddled planet where any conjured solution to our economic needs still garner wide audiences. If all persons would be employed excepting the mentally and physically impaired, pills suggested to cure ailing economies could be hawkish or bilious and may never be accepted by all and sundry. Yet those suggested would not suffice to purge pecuniary elimination by any stipulated period. It is because our students earlier mentioned or we would forget one vibrant factor seasoned economists tending to ignore, indispensable to all extant creatures as air. What is this?

That last and not the least factor many would not ponder upon is religion or ethics. I will call this ‘transparency’ so as not to tread on the toes of those who believe their life ends when they die on earth and to the modern generation that believe in what they see and enjoy now and not in prognostications. Many would deliberately not mention religion for man by nature is inclined to be crooked, incorrigible and cannot be totally exonerated. Whatever their inclinations this must be pointed out. Hence many envisage transparency or religions as obfuscating and prohibited territories. 

They advance that even to the untutored eyes, religious beliefs are responsible for stupendous havoc, incessant internecine raging wars plaguing mankind as Islamic fundamentalists instilling pusillanimity in our hearts in North America, Europe, Africa and even in Australia. In others people who had lived as peas in one pod are torn apart in broad day light, as in Nigeria, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Afghanistan and many more. 

If their argument is that religions bring wars, they could be right. But they could be right to be wrong when the wrong beliefs or philosophies are pursued as not all religions or philosophies are warmongering. Others will advance that those that are apparently pacific today were belligerent in the past and could still change for the worst in due course. However they got to know that capitalism, socialism and communism that influence some of our economies also brought and still incubate wars. Many do not sleep peacefully with the stoic stance of communist regimes in Northern Korea, remnants in Russ, and the regime in Havana at their backyards. Nonetheless, the fact remains that if there is no transparency/religion[love of God and one’s neighbor as oneself]  in our societies, as some atheists would like to have, nothing would be done effectively particularly where laws and order are brazenly disdained. 

The author once met a group of students at Paris who submitted that laws were meant to be broken, with a rider, ‘that provided the defaulter was not apprehended.’ Not only that, another person stated that in some Muslim communities one was allowed to steal provided one was not caught red-handed. Those were decadence.

 

Minus good behavior or fear of God, our set goals to eliminate poverty by whatever system we adopt would be futile. With no transparency or fear of God/religion or seasoned paragons, boldfaced corruption would step in. A well known African philosopher, Dr. Bernard Fonlon (1972) in his booklet As I see It, propounded that without religion, “teachers would poison the minds of scholars entrusted in their care.” And I would expound: that bankers would become rogues, and law enforcement officers would become highway men in uniform. It is not a matter of will but it is already eating away some nation states as gangrenes. We would add that instead of governments being bipartisan they would become money plundering bazaars peopled by embezzlers who would cater only for those who voted them into office. Cast your eyes in the poorest of the poor countries around the globe and you will see this scenario.

In the absence of morality, traders would charge for commodities way above their face values exorbitant prices. Others would hoard to create artificial scarcity so as to command higher prices for basic commodities. Many economies would revert to bygone days of starvation, slavery, slave trade and without economic rights. There would be no accountability and scenarios of dog-eat-dog would prevail. That is a modicum of a world deprived of morality we often see in some autocratic regimes. The question that would be posed is which religion or philosophy would be chosen as ideal now that Islam does not see eyeball to eyeball with Christianity and others and its extreme hardliners as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) prefers to settle scores by intimidation and duels?

Agriculture

Space does not permit us to examine all the outlined problems that are bases for hefty theses. Nonetheless, we will proceed with the example of agriculture in Western Africa [that is still a long way from being technologically intensive and enhanced,] as it is likened to a skeleton upon which is moored the pendulous of most vibrant economies. It should be underlined that without a good agricultural base, we cannot make economic progress with whatever meager factors of economic production at our disposal. 

If there are enough eateries to go round, the rest of the spirited factors of production would fall into line. Successful economies as the USA, France, Canada, Italy, UK, Australia, Italy, South Korea, Japan, South Africa and Germany that many developing economies emulate, are living testimonies. They evolved from solid agricultural bases. If you cordon off the Republic of USA, it would survive as Rhodesia now called Zimbabwe did during the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from the British Government by Prime Minister Ian Smith in 1965. Why? It was because it was self-sufficient in food production, packaging, distribution and storage. Do this with a good number of developing states and there would be outcries and starvation of Ethiopia (1983-85) and Biafra Republic (1967-1972) of yesteryear would be a child’s play. Without wars, most African states south of the Sahara are malnourished. It is because their food production bases are weak.

Adopt and adapt

Successful agricultural programs would be pivots of industrialization, job creation. The aphorism that an army marches on its stomach holds in this case. Without food workers would not work hard; they would be prone to diseases triggered by malnutrition and the general productivity in their economy would plummet. Food production could be ameliorated by adopting and adapting the right methods of agriculture that are commensurate with climatic factors, resources, appropriate management and the rate of mechanization of the economy. By climatic factors, we mean that farmers have to take care not to disrupt natural ecosystems conversant with the local climate, by the use of chemicals not well tested in the locales that may lead to the extermination of fauna, deforestation, de-savannahsation, creation of dams and dykes likely to incubate vectors of diseases as snails for schistosomiasis, mosquitoes leading to malaria, river blindness and dengue fevers.

These farmers  who belong to a cooperative were glad to show the author their vegetable field (2012). They explained that productivity could have been increased if their plowing was mechanized and if they had good storage and transshipment facilities.

For the use of appropriate technologies to be ensured, considerations unique to locales, as climatic conditions had to be scrutinized if famine of the type in the Sahel region of Western Africa and the Horn of Africa in the past are to be avoided. Measures must be taken not to exacerbate excessive exploitation of resources, indiscriminate usage without due respect for the ecosystem as in Sri Lanka that suffers constantly from landslides, drought, future generations, developed traditional methods of land use, taboos arrived at after experimentation existing since time immemorial.

Armchair farmers

On anathemas, innovation technologies have to reflect on local practices. In the former British Cameroons to the east of Nigeria, it was found out that men presented themselves in some communities as farmers whereas when it came to pragmatism, it was women who were the real farmers. Why was this so? Tradition forbade contact of women in some tribes by aliens. If agronomists came to impart agricultural innovation technologies from the capital city of Buea or from the UK men attended the training sessions.  However when it came to practical works, women were the ones set upon field drudgeries. In consequence, poor farming practices were not ameliorated and time and efforts expended in inculcating beneficial innovations were wasted. In some cases the government officials had exerted force to change certain attitudes of men to allow women to attend government or NGOs sponsored refresher or training courses. One of these was mechanization.

Mechanization of agriculture was not the. sine qua non. Where food stuffs were produced in abundance, there was need for proper harvesting, preparation, processing, storage and distribution employing opportune technologies. Where they are known the costs are prohibitive or would-be users are not taught how to operate them. Purchasing of equipment could be by agricultural cooperatives  gradually initiated so as to have economies of scale. Furthermore, when new methods are presented, there is need for incentives and backups.

In the 1970s Americans Peace Corps volunteers taught many West Africans inland fisheries. Tilapias introduced provided badly needed proteins for famished communities in the hinterland without fridges or waters where fresh fish could be caught. Their teachings were enthusiastically welcome but barely five years after their departure village fish ponds were overgrown and infested with dangerous serpents. Others introduced the use of tractors but locals could not afford spare parts and they became derelict. Many did not know that the engine oil had to be changed and many more and before long tractor engines knocked and were left derelict in the wilderness. A similar case was observed in Senegal. Therefore were needed expensive innovations sustained?

The farmers reverted to their traditional methods. In another sad scenario observed in British Cameroons/ now part of Cameroun republic some farmers were trained for animal traction, plowing. When the experts were away, the trained animals were slaughtered for food. Another love of labor lost. Men reverted to primitive plowing with crude hoes, sticks, assegais and productivity was stagnant or abysmally low. Consequently before launching any programs, scientific studies must be carried out and sustainability ascertained if poverty is to be eliminated at the envisaged time.

Drawbacks were not associated with newcomers, national agronomists only. Other field scientists tended to look for urban armchair jobs instead of bucolic services where their skills were/are badly required. In one third world state in Western Africa there are more cattle heads than in Holland whereas children there grow up to adulthood without tasting nutritious animal milk.  Peak Milk from Holland that dominates the local markets cannot be afforded by many.

Impediments: Transport and Storage

Where innovation technologies were accepted grudgingly, it was found out that there were no road-to-market roads. Where they were, they were impassible during the rainy season where there was abundance of harvest. Excesses could not be stored but were putrid in the farms or in primitive storage facilities where farmers fought with rodents, weevils and other pests for the harvest. You would not imagine it that when cabbages and potatoes were in high demand in coastal cities in West Africa, and many more the demand could only be met by importation vegetables from Europe. The irony was that children used cabbages and potatoes in rural areas as playing-balls whereas others were starving in urban areas as they could not afford exorbitant ones imported from Europe.

Corn storage at an experimental farm. Silos could be ideal but the few that were introduced are abandoned. Peasant farmers prefer storing their corn the traditional way where they are destroyed by mice and weevils. Often they do not have enough seeds for planting the next season.

So it is crucial not only to provide all-weather roads linking production areas with the markets but to ensure that adequate trucking were used to evacuate produce to the market. Cattle are still driven for thousands of miles on foot from rural areas to coastal settlements where there are abattoirs. By the time these animals reach their destinations they are/were wizened skeletons. Solution is in special trucking or use of trains to convey cattle to abattoirs for slaughter instead of taking months trekking. Alternatively abattoirs could be set up in animal husbandry zones and refrigerated trucks could ferry carcasses to the coastal markets. Local shepherds had to be taught that modern transshipment is economical instead of driving cattle for months on dirt routes where they fought for spaces on those routes with motorized vehicles and pedestrians to the markets. Even when modern implements are brought in to help farmers, they cannot afford them for they are expensive. Often urban storage facilities are vacant as electricity supply is putatively intermittent.

Humped and heavily hoofed cattle being driven from the Savannah to the coastal markets in West Africa. It will take one and a half to two months to reach their journey’s end of no-return, abattoirs in the coastal region. They will be wiry, skinny by the time they reach. There are no end to these miserable journeys for the Fulani shepherds and their interminable drives in site. A modern railway or specially constructed articulated trailers as those in Australia could alleviate their misery. Totally no human and animal rights! This pliable dirt roads had to be shared with battered vehicles and pedestrians.

How do they buy silos as found in the dust bowls of USA, the prairies of Canada, the Champagne Region of France, the velds of South Africa and the downs of Australia where there are similar conditions? The few silos introduced in some West Africans countries were abandoned and one often found them dismantled or derelict.

Managerial skills

Apart from managerial skills, they lack capital. They do not have collateral securities to have loans from banks. It is just of recent that Africans have started valuing lands and this idea is still to be instilled into Africans. To talk of land as capital to an African before the white came was inconceivable. Any land could be used and abandoned. The value of the land was its usufruct and not the land per se.  Therefore what do they have to present to the bank managers as collateral securities if they want to obtain loans? The modern bank managers are hawkish and would not give anyone loans when they were not sure of consistent returns or collateral. Often the bankers put before farmers higher interests. Should they weaver, they asked for bribe or a share of the clients' business. 

Africans have been used to their mini credit unions [Credit Unions] or Rotating Saving and Credit Associations (ROSCA) and as from the 1960s the Credit Union but these cannot raise enough cash for peasant farmers to buy a modern combine harvester or a tractor that is imperative. A modern farmer in Switzerland is able to feed 100 hundred farmers in Africa that is almost five hundred persons whereas one peasant farmer in Africa cannot feed himself not to talk of his immediate or extended family. Why? He needs credit and modern methods of agriculture, education, managerial skills, health, adequate irrigation techniques, good seeds, storage facilities, and processing equipment, and as we saw above all-season farm-to-market roads to evacuate his produce to consumers. He needs refrigerating trucks and good markets so that nothing is wasted. Also, with the right tools he could export only finished produce that would ascertain further creation of jobs and stamp out child labor that is endemic. How could these be done? He is unable to get a loan from bigger banks, so he may need sympathetic credit unions and or team up with others to obtain a loan to purchase equipment provided there is cooperation. Although he may have access to loans, it is no guarantee that he would succeed. Why? He had not got managerial skills adumbrated above.

Inequality in the provision of amenities

Often one saw discrepancies in road infrastructure. One region would have well surfaced roads and others would have none or where they are, they are only usable during the dry season. Those that are surfaced with tar are often neglected. There is a ridiculous case in one state in West Africa where it used to take two hours to ply from town A to B presently takes 8 hours. This is being acerbated by rumors of Boko Haram and other factions in that state that do not cooperate with the present regime with appalling governance.  In other cases, a journey of ten kilometers by battered bush taxis takes forty minutes because passengers are constantly removed from automobiles by the hawkish state armed forces to verify if they were terrorists or enemies of the state. In consequent, certain produce would not be produced for the farmers would not guarantee their transshipment to the consumers.

The government of the day ensures that it provides amenities to only those people or part of the country that supported it during a presidential election. This applies to the provision of vital amenities, infrastructures that grease the economy. That is totally wrong. There got to be balanced portfolio of investment and job creations to benefit all and sundry. This leads us to good governance we referred to above that must be bipartisan.

Governance

All being equal, without good governance nothing would work in the country. Some appalling conditions underscored which allusion has been made are idiosyncratic of dictatorial regimes that would work only to keep themselves in power and the interests of its people are tertiary. This foments political upheavals, putsches as most citizens never saw the government as belonging to them. Often one sees government officials looting government property and when questioned, they reply that it was because the commodities belonged to the government. This type of corruption is also prevalent in SE Asia, some former members of the USSR, the Middle East presently the sick man of the world and most of Africa. The citizens have not been inculcated with patriotism and often see the government as diametrically separated from the rank and file. Others believe that if they are to support the government, it had to be demonstrated to them clearly benefits to be derived from their backings. In consequence, when there are elections, cases of beer and watts of embezzled government money are dished out to partisans to woo would-be voters to ascertain that they voted for the incumbent government. Is this democracy? The government of the day becomes autocratic and after such governments as we have seen in many cases, the countries fall into civil wars as witnessed by the examples in Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Somalia and you can fill in the gaps.

Other sends raw cash to be dispensed to would-be voters. No matter the good intentions of poor opposition leaders, they are not voted on election days as voters feel they had to be paid foremost before voting if they are unable to bribe the would-be voters. Many endeavor to join the civil service with the prime objective of embezzling tax payers’ money. Again it is glaring that the government does not belong to them. Who then is the government and what are their roles in the country?

Various ministries are filled with sinecures, salaried ghost workers and tribal or men of the same kinds who are square pegs in round holes. How do we expect such a government with poisoned hearts to work for the ordinary citizens and to stamp out abject poverty?

You will see why religious teaching, morality is perchance the only panacea and grease of the state where rules or laws have woefully failed. Corruption, anarchy engenders political air tinted with fright and the only way out are coup d’états. The states revert to begging banana republics and are laughing stocks as Somalia and Burkina Faso. Then soldiers are not trained bureaucrats and the meat is taken from the fry pan to the fire. It by virtue of this that Burkina Faso citizens are not satisfied that a military dictator, who had sat on the country as a vise for 27 President Blaise Compare is being replaced by another military man Major. Gen. Honore Navare Traore (30 Oct., 2014). The people are not naive. They want a democratic government.  Dictatorship as socialism or communism does not work, has never worked and will never. It is out of the equation.

You will see that some economies in Africa, South America and South East Asia can do better if certain economic measures are adopted, structural adjustment. This leads to scrutinize raw materials. They have them in abundance. Capital could be demanded for certain projects from the World Bank, African Development Bank, African Development Fund (ADF), and Central African States Development Bank (BDEAC) and others. Then a crippling point is that they cannot manage resources and other factors of production efficiently. The author overheard Zimbabwean-Europeans saying that they were not against giving land or selling lands to Africans-Zimbabweans. Their cardinal concern underscored was if they were competent to manage lands and make them productive. A nation state like Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has all minerals in the world. They have man power but there is one thing they are lacking, the skilled manpower apart from perpetual quixotic warring that disrupts them. Loans from sympathetic banks for investment had to be sustainable. Disrupted education and perpetual migration in conflict zones disrupt all endeavors. This leads us to education.

Education for all

Education should be handled by dedicated people who have the progress and love of their people at heart; people who would not poison the minds of students entrusted in their care. It should be deigned that without solid education, without excluding women and girls, as is sadly the case in some Islamic states or areas, all their endeavors are thwarted. Western sort of education should be thorough and not discriminatory as to keep at bay women and others for spurious reasons. It should not be only geared towards the training of boys or selected few. It will be reiterated that to educate the women is to educate the world. If women are equally trained the multiplier effect would be phenomenal. You will see that Russia have got more women doctors and engineers than men. That is one thing that socialism did that could be emulated if 2030 or this millennium would see positive eradication of extreme poverty.

There is no point giving people adequate capital for agriculture when they cannot keep basic hygiene and life expectancy is abysmally low.

The author overheard a story by an African that AID/HIV was caught by very stupid people in the society. What good does it brings a society when one section refuses to be vaccinated or when one section is got rid of preventable endemic diseases and another is harboring them because they were not educated? You will see that Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is literally exterminating the less educated peoples of the three countries affected in West Africa, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. This is likened to cholera that was first heard of in India in the 1800s. Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa first surfaced in Guinea Conakry in March 2014 and affected the poor concentrated in popular urban wards were hygienic conditions are appalling. Many still get their water from wells, or communal pumps, yet it is not enough. If an infected person visited that common pump to fetch water it is easily contaminated. You will see that some persons put their mouths on the faucets when drinking communal pipe borne water. We will leave you to conjecture the outcome.

Mapping as a Public Health tool

It takes us to the case of Dr. John Snow in 1866 London, England. Dr. Snow demonstrated that cholera was from polluted water and not from bad air as some persons had erroneously thought. Ebola is this being misinterpreted as being airborne thereby causing unheard of agitation in the USA and Europe. Piped water was got from the River Thames the main river that traverse the capital city of Great Britain where raw sewage was dumped and people were thus drinking their sewage. The moment Dr. Snow discovered from a sketch map he produced of patients who succumbed to cholera as being concentrated around a pump in Broad Street at Soho peopled by commoners, he ordered it be closed and no one died thereafter from cholera. Similarly, those who are rich and have private pipe-borne pumps in their homes in Monrovia are rarely touched. The affected countries may have to take immediate action on the cleanliness of communal pipes. Also, the rich are the ones who have adequate gas or wood to properly prepared their foods or go to the hospitals when feeling ill. The opposite is true of illiterates who cannot follow basic hygiene as promoted by various health authorities.

Still on debilitation and discriminatory education, the government of the day should ensure no dunderheads are selected to be educated abroad leaving out competent ones because they had no avuncular connections or couldn't bribe authorities to obtain scholarships. Also it should be known that education at university level is not for all. People should be tested and counselled to take courses that would make them complete at recorded time and got right jobs to make their positive economic contributions. A person who loves his passing-home on earth should leave his positive economic marks on earth before he or she leaves. Where people go into what they naturally like there are compelling evidences that they excel. There should be no scenario created by any religious fundamentalism as the infamous Boko Haram, ISIS and their Islamic associates whereby some people are denied basic education because they dread Westernization, other beliefs or considered them inferior.

Peoples should not be denied possibilities of being educated and advancing in their careers because of their beliefs, religions, political inclinations, color of their skin, health, caste, physical disabilities, sex, race, tribe, our apathy and other homophobias but all should be given equal opportunities. It should be known that it is the inalienable right of everyone to learn and be employed given opportunities. Even the crippled, the blind do contribute enormously in the industrialization and economic progress of the world. There should be no question of professional beggars as found in some communities but preponderance of professional workers. The currency of opulence should be taken all along.

Conclusions

Finally, people should be taught that they rather be educated, channel their resources or incomes into beneficial investments and amalgamate for economies of scale.  The upshots would be job creation instead of indulging in debauchery, gargantuan gormandizing and Epicureanism, short-sighted greed. The impression in some African economies is that being civilized meant indulging in vices of no commercial remunerations. The outcomes are obesity, hypertension and other preventable diseases where cash is buried and cannot be exhumed with interest. Dignity of work is tossed out in some communities the moment target demands are met and the normal demand curve is skewed. Where others cannot find work in their locales they are reluctant to move to fertile grounds. Incentives for relocation or forced emigration or use of moral persuasion as last resorts might be considered.

It should be known that if family homes are solidly built, it would mean that those coming after need not construct new ones. All being equal, excess incomes generated would go into creation of further jobs. Finally, myopic primitive socialism or communism should be discouraged. Men sire several children to help them in their needy chores in lieu of acceptable natural family planning. .Mentality of negative-handouts or parasitism on the brow of others who work to exhaustion should be done away with. As such, lotus eaters, epicureans, people who do not appreciate dignity of labor but perambulate and luxuriate would be checked. If measures outlined are adhered to, some poverty could be eradicated by 2030. But, are these formidable proposals surmountable? Remember that if the French engineers had feared digging the Suez Canal we should have still been circumnavigating the entire length of Africa to reach India for our spices in 2014. Let us compute how that would have cost us since 1869.

Viban Viban Ngo, PhD.

Addendum: Share this as usual and please drop me a note to correct where I went wrong. Do not sit back and say that it is not your work. When an African child eats bush meat for lack of cow meat and gets Ebola Virus Disease and dies, it is no longer the concern of his parents, it is now ours living thousands of miles away. We could help through education and promoting transparency.  Isolating ourselves or ignoring it is no solution but banking it for the future. VVN.

HALTING GLOBALIZATION, INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND MOVEMENT OF MAN TO CONTAIN INFECTIOUS DISEASES (THE CASE OF EBOLA VIRUS DISEASE)!

[Key words and phrases: Infectious diseases, Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), inchoate globalization, free trade, borders, emigration, immigration, aviation, automobile, prognostication: trans-world train transport, accidents, statistics, cordoning affected regions, repercussions, Senator, USA, Europe, West Africa, Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, air and waterborne diseases, humans, animals and birds as vectors of diseases, effect on trade, education, agriculture, U.N.O.]

INTRODUCTION

The question at stake is how we in one corner of the world could think of isolating ourselves through restrictive migration policies so as to be insulated from deadly infectious diseases when we are all members of the United Nations Organization (UNO) working for the mutual good of all humankind. The truth is we already have labor, trade, tourism, scientific and other treaties with other nation states to exercise our freedom of movement, trade and many others. When our coveted home is being pushed down by gale, and that of our neighbor is left standing we often think of probable reasons. If we do not use our head, we could rush into conclusions at the spur of the moment that could come to haunt us in the future. When it concerns health and monetary matters many of us could do the impossible or rush into absurd ways to have them, namely, ignore treaties or abrogate them irrespective of the consequences. Could we abrogate environmental treaties? Many do today and will still do in the future. With this human behavior could we venture build barriers in all our borders or cocoons to insulate us from contagious diseases from the rest of humankind we have signed treaties with? These trigger further a barrage of questions we shall attempt to answer below with real and hypothetical situations.

Should we take lightly a disease or diseases that could bring to a standstill the growth of human population as Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) or epidemic variously called Ebola hemorrhagic fever that has destroyed 4000 persons in Western Africa at the time of writing (Monday, October-20-14)? Should it not be handled with utmost care and with the speed of lightning with all the resources at our disposal? This virus multiplies at an amazing rate, faster than the antibodies could cordon off or destroy.  Based on the present experience of Ebola, should we internationalize public health efforts?  Should health be as vital as other factors of production upon which we run our economies? Should the cost of curbing health of the dimension of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in Western Africa be a deterrent in our taking immediate action? No one in his right frame of mind can underestimate that health affects our efficient trade, movement of commodities, people, transfer of knowledge, and ways by which we could handle or solve future outbreaks of diseases.

HEALTH EFFECT ON OUR ECONOMIES

Now another crucial question is how we could isolate ourselves through restrictive migrating policies by pretending that we could be self-sufficient if we decide to live in a cocoon as suggested by some people in North America?  If we adopt restrictive immigration policies as it was the case in some countries when HIV/AIDS related diseases were discovered, would we be certain that nothing would ever happen to our health system and some of us would like to emigrate to other nation states?  Would we be vexed if those countries we once restricted from coming to seek haven at our shores retaliate and lock their gates on our faces? Or have we foreseen that we would ever be on top of the world and would never have calamities of any dimension that would necessitate the help of our neighbors?

COOPERATE OR DIE ALONE

Let us not forget the previous World Wars. We won those two world wars because of the cooperation of others and not single-handedly. All being equal, we will win ISIS because of international cooperation and not because we could shoulder it alone. The world belongs to all of us and any good or evil that emanates from any part of it should be our concern. It is true to set precedent but its pros and cons for now and in the future had to be weighed in a rational and scientific way. Ebola does not kill as much as malaria or automobiles accidents and cancer but we dread it for the way it devours its victim with impunity within a short period of his/her infection. It does not even kill as much as HIV/AIDS related diseases. Hitherto, some 13 million have died from it with the vast majority being from Africa. That is more than the total population of Africans who were brought to the New World as slaves. Yet, we fear, rather dread death from Ebola more than even small pox or cholera, cancers and tuberculosis (TB) that kill many as you are reading this treatise.

GROWTH OF POPULATION, PRODUCTIVITY, MIGRATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF DISEASES

Our apparent abundance in raw materials and wealth will be short-lived so long as our population will grow at geometrical progression and our resources being augmented at an arithmetical progression. This statement is made taking both developed and developing nations of our world, the warring ones.  If one in the 1940s told a US president that they could owe China billions of dollars in trade deficits, they would have bought that with a pinch of salt.

Let us examine some statistics here on migration and spread of diseases. According to the World Bank in 2000, around 4 million persons emigrate from their countries to others. Presently the conservative estimate is that some 150 million persons live outside their countries of birth and this number increases each year. There are people in China, Africa and South America who sincerely believe that they are living in hell in their countries of birth and given opportunities they would emigrate to fertile ones today. Ten years ago I carried out studies in a West Africa state and came to the conclusion that given opportunity, 8 in ten students would like to leave their countries of origin for good to settle in Europe or North America. Many of them pointed to appalling governance and a bleak economic future as their reasons d’etre.

We cannot forget refugees from Islamic countries, as glorified states as Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, Libya, Lebanon, Mali, and Egypt. In Africa South of the Sahara we have the Democratic Republic of Congo (D.R.C.), Central African Republic, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, Somalia, and Western Sahara. Serbia is another once upon a time peaceful country that is being torn apart by internecine war. In 1975 there were approximately 2.5 million refugees in the world that moved from their country to others. In turbulent states like D.R.C., Turkey, Nigeria …many are displaced in their own countries. In 1973 there were some 20 million persons displaced within their countries in the world. This figure has since quintupled in 2014. It is hard to get statistics of some of these as governments of the day always want to present a bold face that all was okay in their countries whereas human and economic rights were abysmal.

DISTRIBUTION BY AIR TRANSPORT

The fastest mean to transmit diseases by human vectors is by air transport. When it comes to international transport by planes, in 1951 some 7 million persons flew internationally. Aviation industry was still inchoate. It has since then blossomed that 17 years later (1967), some 50 million flew. In 1993 some 500 million flew internationally. According to the FAA Aerospace Forecast Fiscal Years 2012-2032, in 2011, 804.5 million flew; 815.3 in 2012 and in 2013 it grew to circa 846 million passengers. In 2014 some circa 900 million will fly. By 2024 the Federal Aviation Authority in their report, http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/apl/aviation_forecasts/aerospace_forecasts/2012-2032/  talk of one billion passengers for that year. Irrespective of intermittent aviation accidents, flying is still one of the safest means of transport and it is likely to grow from strength to strength.

DISTRIBUTION BY LAND

We cannot forget transport by automobiles, animal and human muscles. However, we would like to prognosticate rail travelling of the future too as another likely distributor of human diseases (see my proposed future Trans-world Railway network in red below). Fossil fuel is fast dwindling and 

MY SIMPLIFIED TRANS-WORLD RAILWAY LINE AS A FUTURE VECTOR OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES

flight of the future will be expensive. If it were possible to have intercontinental railway tracks, travelling by fast trains as had been demonstrated in some European countries would be cheaper and preferable than flying. Then alternative means of transport as ship cruising in the past could be thought of.  Intercontinental train services would come one day where it could be possible to travel by train from Australia to the US and from South America to Europe without touching the ground. Similarly one could travel from Europe via Spain to Africa and the Cairo to the Cape railway line planned by the British Colonial government of the past could be realized. The Chinese are planning to liaise all African cities with a good network of railway tracks in due course of time. Therefore, if there is international cooperation, the trans-world railway could someday come to fruition. The Channel Tunnel success by the British and French Governments apart from being a typical example of international cooperation is an encouraging glimmer of hope in this case for all of humankind. If that were to be possible, the health of an old farmer in an African or South American or in Siberia or Java jungle village would be our immediate concern in North America and that of medics in Australia.

TRAVELING AND ACCIDENT STATISTICS

Those developments would have their short comings, accidents or technical know-how. Whatever, we cannot have a lovely rose without thorns. Today’s automobile crash accidents though diminishing with improvement in automobile improved technologies, care in driving and additional stringency as wearing of safety belts was 35,244 in 2013 in the USA. That was slightly lower than 2012 with 33,561 which was still lower when compared to 52,627 in 1970. The number of non-fatal automobile crashes each year in the US is 5,500,000. On average 80 persons are killed on US roads each day. These are lower when some third world countries are considered where thousands are killed each day and there are no solutions in sight. Five years ago 1.2 million persons were killed in automobile accidents each year worldwide most were in third world countries. In consequent, many prefer to walk it than to automobile it to their destinations because of senseless road accidents.

TRAVELING AND QUARANTINE

With the blossoming of airplane, automobile, motorcycle, bicycle and foot travel now in the world, it is totally impossible to execute any national quarantine strategy or strategies in the world even in conservative communist domains. Attempts to do this in the Monrovian ward of West Point District a month ago was abandoned owing to the agitation of the locals. http://vibanflagbooksinternatinal.blogspot.ca/2014/08/ebola-up-date-west-point-tension-kiss.html.  It should be pointed out that African or other artificial international borders are totally porous. They are sealed when one is flying or using motorized vehicles passing through customs or immigration posts. If one were to walk, there would be nothing to halt one from crossing borders in Africa, Europe and elsewhere. We will see below what happened when a section of a city in West Africa was quarantined.

MANY VAMOOSED

It will be known that before Ebola tragedy grew out of all proportion in Liberia, some farsighted executives simply vanished from their countries. They flew out to neighboring countries and some to America and Europe because they had seen no end in sight with their limited public health knowledge and resources. To them, Ebola was an overwhelming enemy that could not be halted with the most sophisticated weapons available. They vamoosed. If the fear of those executives who vanished were to come true and it comes to quarantine, could it be possible in the three affected countries in Western African, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone? Would they have the feeling that they were being abandoned to perish without aids by the rest of the world?  Let us reiterate such repercussions? Would it be apocalyptic?

QUARANTINE TRIAL

My previous assignment mentioned above discussed the case of some panic-stricken Monrovians who were quarantined by their authorities in a rundown ward of West Point District. They got panicky when starvation was penetrating. Some broke the barriers and were badly injured. Eventually, the authorities gave in and those with Ebola virus mingled with the healthy ones and that led to the exponential spread of the virus even to areas of the city of Monrovia that were once scotch free. Could the case of West Point replicate itself if the entire states were cordoned off?

THE ECONOMICS OF AFRICAN WORLDS:

With the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases, globalization or the trend geared towards integrating global economies would have serious medical costs. Once upon a time the world of man in Africa was his tribe, which was then small and ranged from 5,000 to millions strong. They were content with what was within their world. There was minimal emigration or migration of population. If there were infectious diseases that we know so much of today, they were confined within those worlds, tribes or kingdoms unless they were airborne or waterborne and neighboring tribes were not affected. Then they mostly had scattered settlements, starry distributions of clusters of homes where close contacts were rare and far between unless there were ceremonial occasions that necessitated people coming together. Neither motorized vehicles nor planes had they as in our modern cities. Thus unnecessary close contacts were naturally inhibited.

When man realized that he could specialize in the production of one commodity because he had the raw materials for its production which its neighbor did not have, he went ahead and perfected his production and had a relative advantage over his neighbor. He produced more than he needed for he knew that he could exchange or sell it to his neighbors who in turn paid better prices for it than he would have sold locally within his tribe or world. That was the beginning of this primitive microscopic globalization.

He could specialize in the production of steel because he stumbled on quality iron ore and his people capitalized on that to produce and perfected the production of steel goods. On the other hand, the people living next to him perfected in the production of food stuffs he needed because the climate and soils in their world were favorable. As such, there was international division of labor. The result was increase in production of commodities in both worlds. If they produced surplus of their products, they needed bigger markets, namely their local markets and those of their neighbors. They realized that productivity increased and they had more and were motivated to produce more and more and even went abroad to look for foreign markets.

MARKET INTELLIGENCE

In other to be more productive, they learned the cultures and psychology of their clients. We call this market intelligence. Those helped them in fostering their trade and commerce. The buyers and suppliers were happy and interacted. Happiness was, if all was equal. The world was not all that perfect. If tropical crops were produced in one locality, it was because they had those special climatic and soil factors that enabled them to produce those special crops that could not be produce by people living in mountainous and temperate climates. The mountainous inhabitants could rear cattle, goats, sheep and lamas, and many more that could not survive in the tropical zones owning to tsetse flies and mosquitoes. The forest dwellers were able to produce red oil, hard wood, fish and elephant tusks that were not produced by the highland dwellers. The two communities agreed to meet once a week to exchange their products at the zone where the rain forest and the temperate conditions abutted. Prices were agreed or fixed, based on the forces of demand and supply. One ton of cotton was exchanged for a certain number of liters of palm oil. The mountain dweller agreed that one calf was to be exchanged for also agreed tons of timber. They all were happy under that Utopian state.

INCHOATE GLOBALIZATION OR DIVISION OF LABOR

What we are talking of here was globalization or international trade at its inchoate state.  The people in the forested areas were suffering from some diseases that had never been to the mountainous zones because the temperate climates did not permit the growth of parasites that were vectors of diseases to be transmitted or survived. They were therefore healthier and happy.  Similarly, the foresters had their own diseases some of which they had from wild animals that the mountain peoples had never heard of or seen. They started mixing; there was intercourse in many ways. The first diseases the mountain people observe were diarrhea, malaria, dengue fevers, tuberculosis, and many others that were not inherently in their zones. They easily succumbed to them because their bodies had not built immunities against them. They attributed all that to witchcraft that the forest dwellers were bringing to them as a ruse to wipe them out and get all their lands and wealth. They had no clue of how these diseases were transmitted from man to man or from animal to man or from humankind to animals and vice versa. Many of them were dying. Other inhabitants from the mountain regions suggested that they killed all the forest dwellers so that their witches would stop bringing diseases to their people. Others suggested that they should kill all of them thereby killing all the diseases and they would in turn be free and healthy. Others suggested that they halt inter-world trade, call it international trade which we now call globalization.

INTERMINABLE DELIBERATION WITHOUT IMMEDIATE SOLUTIONS

·       Many disagreed that if they killed all the forest dwellers, they would not have the goods that they were bringing to them and all of them could soon die from starvation, malnutrition.

·       Another group suggested that they stopped trading with them all together as when they interacted with them, they brought in diseases.

·       Other sectors of the population advanced that if they stopped interacting with them, who would then replace the forest dwellers and the production of their products. The reply was that they, the mountain dwellers would send their surplus population there to produce the food stuff the destroyed foresters were producing. [What they were thinking about behind closed doors would have been punishable capital offence in a civilized society].

·       Then there were others who argued that it took so long to acclimatize and that before their acclimatization and acquiring the skills in the production of the products from the forest zones most of them would have been dying.

·       Another faction went on that if they had survived in their little worlds without the foresters; they could survive without them for the time they would be acclimatizing. 

·       There were others who argued that they could not afford to live without the foresters because they were not as numerous as they were then.

·       Some continued that a cure for the diseases was coming and that there might be Divine intervention and there was no reason to be agitated.

·       Many strongly remarked that before their coming into contact with the foresters, they were dying too from road accidents, lymphatic filariasis, mental diseases, HIV/AIDS related diseases, TB, and pollution related diseases, malnutrition, child birth, and other non-communicable diseases than what was coming from the forested zones. Some of their diseases were equally as deadly as those of the forested zones. They realized that in their zones girls were likely to die at the age of five and that was the same in the mountain zones.

QUARANTINE AGAIN AND COUNTER ARGUMENT

·       With such a bleak picture painted, some suggested that the foresters be cordoned off and let no one move in or out from the forested zones and they would ensure that their diseases were not transmitted into their zones.

·       When it came to the question of cordoning off West Africa, an American of the Republican Party, Senator Ted Cruz who plans to run for the post of the US presidency in 2016 reasoned on Sunday, October-19-14 that it would be appropriated to stop anyone from the three West African countries concerned from visiting or coming to the USA. He admitted that US citizens could go there and return for humanitarian purposes. Then he was unable to explain if they too would be immune from the attack of Ebola when the first persons to have brought Ebola virus before they were cured were American health professionals (CNN).

·       Others suggested that they could go into the forested zones and cut off territories to produce what they wanted and never interact with the locals there in which case they would ensure their very survival. In the case of Liberia, one was seeing the Firestone rubber plantation getting on, and he high quality iron mines digging deeper into the soil for more iron ore irrespective of what was going on around them.

·       There was no shortage of tangible ideas. Others maintained that innovations which mostly emanated from the mountain zones where they were not naturally blessed had come to the forested zones to give room to some of the diseases that were never there before globalization started. They cited the burning or cutting down of trees, that is deforestation to have room for the rearing of cattle, expansion of fields for the production of sugar cane that was used in the production of fuel for the running of automobiles, trains, planes, heating of homes, and many more.

·       The expansion of industries had meant a high demand for water, more and more raw materials and the land was being exploited in such a way that nothing was being put there in return or left for future generations. The shortage of water led to the building of artificial lakes, dykes, channel, irrigation and many more thus altering the ecosystems and encouraging the growth of other parasitic diseases that were never there in the first place, example being waterborne diseases. Animals and birds that balanced the equation were killed off or driven away from the lands and it was having drastic repercussion on all living creatures on earth. The ozone was being depleted by a sudden increase in the production of carbon dioxide and other poisonous gases thus creating room in the atmosphere for our very destruction, greenhouse effect.

·       Many were in denial and advanced that all those changes were already taking place before man peopled the world. They pointed to earthquakes, eruptions with emission of gases, lightning causing huge fires when man was not there and the world had still continued without problems they alleged were there.

·       The apparently interminable discussions continued that those from the north had developed themselves and when it now came to the turn of the forested people to the south they from the north were conjuring all sorts of ruses from their bag to prohibit them from advancing.

·       The truth was that our progress industrially, economically, and socially could be futile when we all could be destroyed with our strife to become rich and live well overnight without thinking of our future and the future of our world.

EXPORT AND IMPORT OF DISEASES, GLOBALIZATION INFLUENCE AND ECOSYSTEM

The worlds realized that they were exporting not only their products but diseases to other climates or zones or to other people who were not used to handling their types of diseases. There was globalization of population growth, urbanization, food supply, ecological and climatic changes, inadequate hygiene created owing to modernization of industries, agriculture, deforestation, inundation, “degrassification,”and desertification. A muddled landscape of our making!  As such, many of them were dying from what they never had before. They died from the remains of our manufacturing industries. Lands were filled with wastes and there was no room to take in more. Rats and other creatures emerged to share towns and cities with man as never before. The outcome were bubonic plagues, Ebola, cholera, typhoid, diarrhea, malaria, diarrhea, lymphatic filarial, schistomiasis, malaria and dengue fevers, malnutrition, parasitic diseases and other water borne diseases that fall among the 90% top killers in the world, that were never there. Rivers were used with impunity as never before and they were no longer overflowing their banks as they flew in the past where they supply waters to the marshes used by birds and other living species. In brief, they affected all their habitats or ecosystems along their channels as never before.

Many creatures even including man that had survived because of those ecosystems are become endangered species. Man and animals and birds shipped to other worlds became vectors of diseases. These transshipment had not been without consequences. Why? Creatures introduced to areas that were not their natural habitats had to adapt. Man in those zones was instead being affected. Yet man has striven on and was even contented so long as he had a modern mansion with huge rooms than he would ever use, drove five cars, and eat more than he was supposed to eat because of his new-found wealth. He became an epicurean owing to excessive engorging of food. As such he was sick and spends most of his new-found wealth on his health problems. The question then asked is if it was worth it striving to be rich and to explore and to enter uncharted territories where he is triggering or bringing diseases that are even killing him and an entire generation.

PAST PERSPECTIVE

Do our fast modern means of transport help in the spread of diseases? We saw this above and we will re-examine them here with some examples. The transshipment of diseases around the world by man is not a present day phenomenon. When Christopher Columbus had not come to America, the First Nation Peoples, American-Indians were not suffering from certain diseases. When single whites came and had intercourse with Indians, voila, they got Europeans diseases some could not handle and many were dying like flies. Out of sympathy, Bishop De Las Casas (1484-1566) then working in America suggested the bringing in of Africans to work in mines, factories and plantations since one Africans had the strength of some eight Indians and were resistant to diseases that were killing Indians. There we had intercontinental slavery being fanned owing to globalization that was then inchoate. Today we have ‘exotic’ animals being shipped from SE Asia, Europe, African and South America to North America at a fantastic rate. The stakeholders do not comprehend ecosystem, environmental governance and that they are abrogating treaties a good number of countries including the USA and Canada have signed banning the importation of the so-called exotic animals for whatever reasons. Suddenly it is in vogue to keep alien pets and when asked why the bison was nearly hunted to extinction in North America you are laughed at as a hair hairsplitter.

You do not have a modern girl growing up now without posing before deadly vectors as anaconda, monkeys, and many more whose health conditions and diseases they carry we were still dabble with and were not known and might never be known. Some persons humanize, 'bestialize' and hug those creatures believing that they are comfortable. Methinks, if we were to go deep into their heads, they would tell us to live them alone in the wilderness as it is their natural habitat and not the artificial home of man. Some men in the tropics eat them as bush meat to their demise when not properly prepared. This was seen as the prime source of Ebola virus disease in man.

Man tends to forgot that health was infectious as was happiness in the world. He could be living in the mountain believing that he was happy as there were no mosquitoes there and that was a lie. He suddenly realized that if he did not take care of the forested persons, the specialized products and services that could only be produced by the foresters, he himself would not only starve but he would not survive. Interdependence was inevitable. Therefore, he had to do all in his powers ascertain that the man of the forest was healthy. He realized that his health depended on the health of the other forest dwellers living thousands of miles away from him. This statement was echoed in black and white in my previous write-up. I had not come across the following by John Eyles in 2002. “..the health of every nation depends on the health of all others in not an empty piety but an epidemiological fact.”

CLOSING REMARKS

The disastrous upshot of restricting the movement of people can only be left to conjectures. The restriction of movement of people, goods and services owning to diseases as the case with Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in question, cholera, cause untold damage to the economies not only of the countries affected but those of others living even thousands of miles away. To say that the health sections of Europeans, U.S citizens, Canadians, Australians, Russians, Chinese, Nigerians and even developing countries is not being stretched is a hyperbole. In Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Conakry, regions in the forefront of Ebola today, many industries are at a standstill. Breweries that are usually best sellers in Africa are closed. Heineken is closed in Sierra Leone, and others are operating at the bottom line and lackadaisically. The streets that often littered with cadavers are eerie. Agriculture, education, effect on other diseases, distribution of food stuff, and the entire infra-structure is affected. What looks like a hiccup since March 2014 when there was the outbreak of Ebola in Guinea-Conakry hitherto will have resounding ramifications in time to come.

Would these three beleaguered states come out of it? Emerging from it, the three states would come out but would they learn? If they have the head to learn and what measures would they take to avoid future disasters and worldwide panicky of this caliber? The first outcome of this pandemic virus in Ebola region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 1976 taught health authorities there to bury their victims immediately followed by burning down their homes and possession without delays.

The “bidonvilles,” shanty towns would have to be destroyed and re-planned or zoned with health and health infrastructure being given priorities if a repeats of what we are seeing in Guinea Conakry, Sierra Leone and Liberia are not to be had. Towns and cities in Africa are Europeans or colonial creations (see my article: http://vibanflagbooksinternatinal.blogspot.ca/2012/12/how-climatic-changes-affect-bamenda.html If Africans want to live like Europeans, avoid infectious diseases as Ebola virus disease (EVD), cholera and others; they must also do as others are doing it successfully in SE Asia that started on the same footing with Africans; they must have to toe the line. It will not be wrong to copy what successful Japanese, Americans and Europeans have been doing and do avoid making mistakes they made before they emerged with successful economic stories. Africans cannot afford to continue to be the sick man of the world in the 21 century. They will instead be repulsing instead of attracting investors and job creation in their continent.

Good planning and health infrastructure cannot be achieved by cutting lines. Good water supplies must be a right for all and sundry; inculcation of hygiene studies in schools and colleges are vitally important. There is no question of being tribal as literally there are no Africans who had not been touched by modernization. It had to be thorough.  Had Monrovians of the West Point wards described in my previous article accepted the quarantine enforced by the beleaguered Government of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia without crying wolf and ignoring false rumors of pseudo professors who wrote bogusly that Ebola was a false European creation to halt the growth of their population, it would not have been blown out of all proportion as we see it today.

Finally, the world belongs to all of us. All of us are now concerned over the health of West Africans. It is because it should not be another African’s Grave Yard as once upon a time the Atlantic Ocean was in the Middle Passage when that West Africa had long ceased from being called the White Man’s Grave with the discovery of cures for malaria.

The truth is modern international borders; particularly those of Africa were artificial creation by foreigners for their economic interest. Present Africans states were in the strict sense colonial European plantations. There will be a time in the world when borders would be meaningless and that future generation would look at borders as a curiosity, as we look at the Chinese Wall today from the space ships, war trenches that surround old African towns, battlements and castles in Europe and the deformed Berlin Wall. There was a time if one suggested that intellectual property could be moved around the world a millions times a day criss-crossing boundaries and no custom duties paid, someone would have said that we were hallucinating. It is no longer an illusion but reality. We are all members of one global village. The question at stake is how we could isolate ourselves through restrictive migration policies in the modern world when we are all members of the United Nations Organization (UNO) working for the mutual good of all and sundry?