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Sunday, November 7, 2010

Bloody Vampires!


No!, not these ones...Aaliyah still managed to look pretty though.
I doubt most people, remember these...



(Courtesy: The Nigerian Nostalgia 1960-1980s project on Facebook)

They are posters from the Anti-Malaria campaign in Nigeria of 1962, Imagine that. An issue we are still fighting tooth and nail. I have been struck uncountable (I could probably count them, but..you get the picture) times by this disease, transmitted by the Queen specie and fought by several 'Quines.
Recently, I was involved in a discussion which was started by a friend, who wrote this


Dear Bill Gates,  
If you really care about eradicating malaria in Africa, why not select a small tropical African town and work very hard until malaria is completely eradicated from that town? That will bring us much closer to solving the problem than a thousand speeches about how much you care, or a million donations to professional non-profits who have never actually solved any problems.  
You're welcome. :-)

It triggered lots of opinions and solutions towards the issue. My stance has been mainly eradication of the the specie. Firstly by destroying breeding places. I think it is as simple as that. But knowing the kind of poverty people are knee deep in, and the consequent effect this has on the areas they live, I shake my head, this may be too much to ask. I was totally against some ideas, which were hinged on using computers to motivate people and what not, Someone who hasn't eaten where is he going to see computer??. Someone compared it to the weight issues abroad and how the internet helped people lose weight, C'mon!! Anyway as usual, my love for analogies didn't escape here. This is the way I see the Mosquito issue and what has been done so far about it.

This issue is like a house built on a very bad foundation in Lekki. The house begins to have cracks and the roof, holes. People are called in to patch the house and the owners are happy. After a while more patching of the roof and cementing over the cracks. One time a brand new roof is even fitted. The owners are enlightened that their house is on a bad foundation and could collapse any time. If there is any sign of rumble they should run out but in the meantime call people to help patch and cement if they see any faults. 
One day, the house collapses and kills the whole family because they were fast asleep.

Hopefully our case wouldn't get so dire. But the necessary things have to come first, a good environment to live in (for starters) is paramount.

1 comments:

jemimahnaa said...

Hmmmm..vampires/mosquitoes.like the corelation.similar attributes. malaria in Nigeria I v 2agree with u dear cannot be eradicated in Nigeria until contributing factors to the existence and beeding of mosqitoes are addressed e.g. Poverty which I believe is d major issue,re-orientation of the citizens thru different effective avenues,cleanliness of the environment next,sustainance of all d above.polio is also anoda big issue in Nigeria I believe with d address of the above,d remainin wil b easy 2attend to. God help us. Ur illustration is also quite visual speaks volumes and creates a picture in few words