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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHorrible Update on Ebola Outbreak in Liberia.
I cried when I read it this morning. Our country is extremely fucked up right now, but I am so grateful to have what I have...clean water (for now as corporations are polluting it as fast as they can) to take a shower, brush my teeth, drink, a toilet....imagine how grateful those poor people would be to have that, which is something we take for granted of every day.
Please keep them in your thoughts.
MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) Riot police and soldiers acting on their president's orders used scrap wood and barbed wire to seal off 50,000 people inside their Liberian slum Wednesday, trying to contain the Ebola outbreak that has killed 1,350 people and counting across West Africa. Hundreds of slum residents clashed with the gunmen, furious at being blamed and isolated by a government that has failed to quickly collect dead bodies from the streets. One 15-year-old boy was injured trying to cross the barbed wire as security forces fired into the air to disperse the crowd.
The World Health Organization said the death toll is rising most quickly in Liberia, which now accounts for at least 576 of the fatalities. At least 2,473 people have been sickened across West Africa, which is now more than the caseloads of all the previous two-dozen Ebola outbreaks combined. The U.N. health agency also warned of shortages of food, water and other essential supplies in West Africa's population centers.
And if it's bad in these capitals, it's much worse inside West Point, a densely populated slum surrounded by floating sewage that occupies a half-mile (kilometer) long peninsula in Liberia's seaside capital.West Point suffers from government neglect even in the best of times, and mistrust of authorities is rampant. Open defecation is a major problem. Drinking water is carted in on wheelbarrows, and people depend on a local market for their food. Now many of the market's traders are stuck inside, prices have doubled and "the community is in disarray," slum resident Richard Kieh said. "Why are you ill-treating people like this? How can we take this kind of government to be peaceful? It is not fair We are human," complained another resident, Mohamed Fahnbulleh.
West Point has been a flash point. Days earlier, residents ransacked a screening center where people in contact with Ebola victims were being monitored. They dragged out sheets and mattresses covered with blood and feces, accusing the government of bringing sick people into their neighborhood. Dozens of potential carriers were taken elsewhere in the city.
Link: http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/WHO-West-Africa-Ebola-death-toll-rises-to-1-350-5701134.php
defacto7
(13,485 posts)As cynical as I can get at times, I still see how much I have compared to most people in the world. The basic everyday simple things we take for granted are luxuries or even completely unknown to so many people. And to think that for some, life itself is worthless... except for their own.
I weep for humanity lost.
RiffRandell
(5,909 posts)That's exactly how I feel. I can't even imagine having to live in those conditions.
Thanks for the recs all.
TeeYiYi
(8,028 posts)August 19, 2014 | 1:47 pm
Earlier this year, Detroit's Water and Sewerage Department began turning off water utilities for overdue or delinquent accounts. Since April, the department has cut off the water for nearly 3,000 households per week meaning roughly 100,000 Motor City residents are without water. Entrenched at the bottom of Detroit's current economic crisis, many of those without water are the city's poorest residents.
The city's shut-off campaign has garnered international press attention, and has been called "an affront to human rights" by representatives of the United Nations.
VICE News traveled to Detroit to see first-hand how residents are dealing with the water shut-offs, speak with local government representatives about the issue, and discuss possible resolutions with activist groups.
https://news.vice.com/video/water-war-dry-in-detroit
TYY
RiffRandell
(5,909 posts)I've had violators in my neighborhood that would continue to water when we were in a sever drought and supposed to conserve. Selfish idiots.
Not the same situation as Detroit, but people where I live have the mentality if you can't pay your bill, you deserve it.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Hopefully when this is all over the world will finally get off its collective ass and recognize that the lack of medical infrastructure and appalling, dirt-poor living standards in these countries are all of our problem.