Upon which we ruminate on Ebola, bowling balls, and messing with The Jesus

[WilliamPitt]

I posted the following image:



...with the caption, "How Not to Catch Ebola," in honor of the NYC doctor who has inspired the latest media frenzy. Of course, I was scolded: "Not funny. Ebola is killing people."

Upon which I replied:

===

"Ebola is killing people." So is cancer and AIDS and Parkinson's and diabetes and cigarettes and fracking and oil...

...and, by the bye, so is the very computer you're scolding me with: when you're done with it and chuck it, it will wind up in a town in China, where it will be rendered for its parts and then burned, the toxic waste from which will kill children, but only if they're lucky enough to die without being born with horrific birth defects from the pollutants from the computer you used to scold me. Look it up if you don't believe me; dealing with discarded American computers has become a cottage industry in dozens of Chinese communities, and the process is laying waste to the populace where it's being done. Thanks to the thing you used to scold me.

Are you wearing clothes? Like as not, the tag at your neck has the name of the kid who died to make your shirt.

Ever give a beloved a diamond? Have you any idea of the bloodshed involved in dragging that rock out of the ground?

Got a cell phone? Do you have any idea how much butchery is involved in controlling the mines needed for the basic components involved in your ability to send a text?

Welcome to being an American.

All I have is gallows humor with my left hand, and my effort to change all this with my right hand.

Go scold someone else. Thanks.

===

Take it to heart.

P.S. If you haven't seen "The Big Lebowski" yet, I despair for you. Rectify that situation at speed, because this aggression will not stand, man.

Eight-year-olds, Dude.

[MADem]

1. I am wearing clothes I bought thirty years ago, made in USA, my cellphone is a dumb tracfone

I've had for six years now, and the only diamond in any proximity to me belonged to my long-dead grandma, who got it before the stock market crashed nearly a hundred years ago.

Tired of "collective guilt." It's not about "being an American."

Those cheap clothes are sold all over the world, so are cellphones and diamonds.

Griping isn't changing anything either--it's just griping.

Americans are hardly the cellphone kings, FWIW--we're not Number One in that regard, either. We don't even use our collective cellphones to pay bills and buy restaurant meals to the extent that people in other countries do.

http://www.sitesatlas.com/Thematic-Maps/Mobile-phone-subscribers-per-capita.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_mobile_phones_in_use

And as for conflict diamonds, at least USA is trying:

On January 18, 2001, President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 13194 which prohibited the importation of rough diamonds from Sierra Leone into the United States in accordance with the UN resolutions.[36] On May 22, 2001, President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13213 which banned rough diamond importation from Liberia into the United States. Liberia had been recognized by the United Nations as acting as a pipeline for conflict diamonds from Sierra Leone.[37]
United States enacted the Clean Diamond Trade Act (CDTA) on April 25, 2003,[38] and implemented on July 29, 2003 by Executive Order 13312.[39][40] The CDTA installed the legislation to implement the KPCS in law in the United States. The implementation of this legislation was key to the success of the KPCS, as the United States is the largest consumer of diamonds. The CDTA states: 'As the consumer of a majority of the world’s supply of diamonds, the United States has an obligation to help sever the link between diamonds and conflict and press for implementation of an effective solution.[38]
The United States Department of State also maintains an office for a Special Adviser for Conflict Diamonds. As of March 5, 2013, the position is held by Brad Brooks-Rubin.[41]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_diamond#American_policy

The glass isn't always half-empty....

[seveneyes]

2. The glass isn't always half-empty

I'll drink to that.

[MADem]

3. Ha ha!! nt

[MineralMan]

4. Hmm...I saw your reply in the other thread.

It didn't seem to match that thread, either. A couple of people thought your gallows humor was inappropriate. I was one of them.

As for The Big Lebowski, I've seen it more than once, and don't really see the application of it to the problem of Ebola. Maybe I'm just dense.

Happy posting.

[WilliamPitt]

6. Thanks again

[MineralMan]

8. Always a pleasure, certainly.

[B2G]

5. Maybe 3rd thread will be a charm

[jberryhill]

7. I understand how you feel

Tens of thousands of people die every single day.

Among the biggies are pneumonia, road injury, diabetes and diarrhea. Ebola comes nowhere near the big leagues in relation to the casual mortality of everyday human experience on this planet.

Whenever I express my own surprise at how one particular, and relatively insignificant, cause of death becomes "King for a Day" due to media obsessions, I find it odd that I am the one called callous or insensitive - and for pointing out the callousness required to accept that well, sure, tens of thousands of people die on roads in the US each year but we can't really be expected to DO anything or care about it that much. Because, you know, cars.

Ebola is a well-understood infectious disease. In a relatively well-off economy with adequate sanitation and hygiene, controlling and containing it is not outrageously difficult. Also, now that it is perceived as a threat to white people, research into vaccines and treatments will proceed at a more brisk pace. Certainly, it requires appropriate vigilance and response, but we know how to do all that.

The thing is, ebola kills for no reason. Yes, of course, the level of consumption, demand and wealth in the US requires that persons in far off places be mistreated and worked to death. Our political and economic position requires that we occasionally kill off large numbers of people in various countries in order to maintain the security by which we consume a disproportionate share of earth's resources.

Take your child dying in a sweatshop to make shirts. He is as dead as a West African ebola victim, but you are missing the important piece of that. I got a shirt out the deal. So there is an upside. The dead ebola victim didn't provide me with any benefit. The Bangladeshi garment workers who got lung disease from fibers or fabric treatment chemicals did something for me.