The Silent Emergency
21/5/10 09:16![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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talkpoliticsImagine what it would be like iif a whole planeful of schoolage kids got onto a jumbo jet- you know, a Boeing 747,and the plane crashed on the main runway at Heathrow Airport on landing.
This would probably hit the headlines on every front page, in every land around the world. the media would turn up- CNN, BBC, Sky News, they would all be there. people would want to know how, why this happened, and make sure that it didn't happen again.
Back in the 1980s, when I first got involved in serious campaigning, I was told thatactually, two million young children died every year through measles - a vaccine preventable illness. And two million a year, divided by 365 days, meant that it was the equivalent of at least a planeload a day, every day, for the whole of that year. but CNN and the BBC were not turning up to ask why. There were no banner headlines. And all because these kids died in several places around the world. They did not all die in one moment and at a single place - and so the world never noticed.
" And it will be the same this year, and the next, unless we do something" the speaker said.
That is what I mean by "The Silent Emergency". Kids are dying. And they are dying needlessly. Dying because they lack a vaccine that costs about 10p to administer. Seriously, It's a no brainer - is a human life worth 10p? That is ten lives for one British pound - about two US dollars.
Back in the day when I was a relatively young, fairly idealistic activist, I decided that I, at least, would do something. i lobbied politicians in my country to support the GOBI initiative.
the UN was asking governments around the world to put money into
Growth monitoring
Oral Rhydration therapy
Breastfeeding and
Immunisation - GOBI for short.
Those four things were supposed to combat infant deaths. And the money was raised and the programmes implemented. And Infant Mortality Rates (IMRs) fell - all around the world.
However, in many lands more than 50 kids in every thousand still do not reach the age of 1 year old. Even today, they die before their first birthday. 50 per 1,000. that's one in 20.
And it's not just measles that is killing them - it's things like Polio - equally preventable. It's TB and other infections, brought on by living in slums, brought on by bad housing and poor sanitation. And why do they live in slums, you may ask - why don't their parents just move out?
And the answer is money. their parents lack an education that will get a job in the big city, so they and their children are forced to stay in the shanty towns of the developing world - what we used to call the Third World.
Oh, well, some say - lets fly out, build factories and give them jobs - problem solved. Er, no. foreign investors want cheap labour. They pay a pittance, then go and sell what the poor produce on the world's markets for a small fortune. A soccer ball costing £80 in London's Oxford Street will be made by kids earning less than 5 US dollars a day. And it won't take all day to make one soccer ball.
This is why I am skeptical about globalisation. If we are going to use industrialisation as a tool to end poverty, we have to say that either employers set up a Japanese style management 9 this means that employers build housing and provide schools and healthcare for workers0 or we say that workers get to join Unions and demand higher wages along with getting voting rights to join and elect political parties in free elections.
Me, I don't care which way it gets done, so long as workers get decent housing, primary education and healthcare. The very reason that Nike and other big companies go to 3rd world countries is that if they went to the US and the UK and tried to make kids work for even ten dollars a day, the unions would have their arses inin court. we just would not let them pull that sort of crap over here.
But, they can pull something like that in a third world country, and collectively, they can get away with it. And kids are dying, just because their parents are poor.
Wake up, people - this is an emergency! Solutions have been found, we just need the political will to implement them. we can talk about those in the comments.
This would probably hit the headlines on every front page, in every land around the world. the media would turn up- CNN, BBC, Sky News, they would all be there. people would want to know how, why this happened, and make sure that it didn't happen again.
Back in the 1980s, when I first got involved in serious campaigning, I was told thatactually, two million young children died every year through measles - a vaccine preventable illness. And two million a year, divided by 365 days, meant that it was the equivalent of at least a planeload a day, every day, for the whole of that year. but CNN and the BBC were not turning up to ask why. There were no banner headlines. And all because these kids died in several places around the world. They did not all die in one moment and at a single place - and so the world never noticed.
" And it will be the same this year, and the next, unless we do something" the speaker said.
That is what I mean by "The Silent Emergency". Kids are dying. And they are dying needlessly. Dying because they lack a vaccine that costs about 10p to administer. Seriously, It's a no brainer - is a human life worth 10p? That is ten lives for one British pound - about two US dollars.
Back in the day when I was a relatively young, fairly idealistic activist, I decided that I, at least, would do something. i lobbied politicians in my country to support the GOBI initiative.
the UN was asking governments around the world to put money into
Growth monitoring
Oral Rhydration therapy
Breastfeeding and
Immunisation - GOBI for short.
Those four things were supposed to combat infant deaths. And the money was raised and the programmes implemented. And Infant Mortality Rates (IMRs) fell - all around the world.
However, in many lands more than 50 kids in every thousand still do not reach the age of 1 year old. Even today, they die before their first birthday. 50 per 1,000. that's one in 20.
And it's not just measles that is killing them - it's things like Polio - equally preventable. It's TB and other infections, brought on by living in slums, brought on by bad housing and poor sanitation. And why do they live in slums, you may ask - why don't their parents just move out?
And the answer is money. their parents lack an education that will get a job in the big city, so they and their children are forced to stay in the shanty towns of the developing world - what we used to call the Third World.
Oh, well, some say - lets fly out, build factories and give them jobs - problem solved. Er, no. foreign investors want cheap labour. They pay a pittance, then go and sell what the poor produce on the world's markets for a small fortune. A soccer ball costing £80 in London's Oxford Street will be made by kids earning less than 5 US dollars a day. And it won't take all day to make one soccer ball.
This is why I am skeptical about globalisation. If we are going to use industrialisation as a tool to end poverty, we have to say that either employers set up a Japanese style management 9 this means that employers build housing and provide schools and healthcare for workers0 or we say that workers get to join Unions and demand higher wages along with getting voting rights to join and elect political parties in free elections.
Me, I don't care which way it gets done, so long as workers get decent housing, primary education and healthcare. The very reason that Nike and other big companies go to 3rd world countries is that if they went to the US and the UK and tried to make kids work for even ten dollars a day, the unions would have their arses inin court. we just would not let them pull that sort of crap over here.
But, they can pull something like that in a third world country, and collectively, they can get away with it. And kids are dying, just because their parents are poor.
Wake up, people - this is an emergency! Solutions have been found, we just need the political will to implement them. we can talk about those in the comments.
(no subject)
Date: 21/5/10 22:53 (UTC)