MESSAGE BOARD
Experts say the solutions to the annual loss of 8.8 million lives to preventable diseases, infections, and childbirth complications are within reach. Boston.com users share their thoughts on how to begin to solve this global health tragedy.
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Vitamin A keeps the eye moist while strengthening the immune system. According to the WHO, vitamin A deficiency results in 350,000 cases of childhood blindness and two million child deaths each year. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, lack of vitamin A causes 640,000 child fatalities annually. Yet, for less than one dollar, a person can be provided with the necessary annual dosage of vitamin A to save sight and life. It is shocking that although the tools exist to combat this terrible malady, the ally of funding remains elusive.
Alec, Helen , New York, NY
Overpopulation is a major concern.
Burdening the planet with more poor through establishing means to prolong lives of unfortunate inhabitants of lands without resources is wasted energy.
The world should stop crying for people who are immoral enough to bring life into such areas of devastation. Birth control/sterilization is all we need in that part of the world to eradicate hunger, poverty, disease, etc..
The WTO, NATO, WHO, etc. are becomming breeding grounds for money sucking ingrates who have decided they are entitled to bringing wealthy nations to their knees in order to maintain world order according to their doctrine.
It's time the US bows out of the perpetuation of worthless humanity in such places.
Sorry, it may sound cruel, but we must concentrate on our own survival. We shouldn't succumb to maniacal despots who turn our goodwill against us. I agree with a previous poster who says, "let them die". We'll do them all a great favor. I wouldn't want to be born into such poverty and those poor infants who are shall only continue the cycle with their own infants in the future. j
joanne, stoneham
You want war? Here's a war that would challange our technical and human resoiurces, organizational ability and humanity. The excellent graphic maps designed by the Globe crew missed only one feature: overlays. If you could overlay malaria over TB over Aids, the results would be even more horrific. But the horror is more than sufficient. The United States is oblivious to the staggering impacts of disease in much of the developing world, and it's often completely preventable disease.
If the US would declare war on worldwide sickness and famine, and create a globar strike force to attack these killers, I believe you would have no shortage of young people willing to committ years of their lives to this effort. And imagine the positive result!
George, Lancaster, MA
Katherine , Los Angeles I don't know where you're getting your facts on HIV and AIDS, but it isn't only a "behavior-induced" disease. This disease was transmitted not *just* sexually, but through blood transfusions as well. How judgemental and pious of you to just write off those who suffer from a heinous and uncurable disease.
Heather, Melrose
I'll tell you, there's nothing quite like getting into the office on a freezing Monday morning, getting a cup of coffee and settling into the latest headlines on Boston.com only to be met by two, dirty, dead feet.
Maybe I missed the point, but maybe Boston.com should have exercised a little more restraint in its FOX-News-esque home page picture. Now about those hungry 8.8 million--geesh, I've lost my appetite.
andy, Boston
I seriously doubt that the solution to the loss of all this lives is within reach; there are some bitter truths that we should face first:
1) We know for a fact that there aren't enough resources for all mankind to live confortably; and this is why scientists are going crazy to give us a future with biotecnology, cloning and similar stuff.
2) We have priorities: some of them are real, some just shameful; here's two good examples: I'm, by principle, against war, BUT when it comes to the destruction of the world by the hand of a madman who thinks that the use of bacteriological and chemical weapons (which are notoriously non controllable) is OK and who cares if we all die, well, then I become pro-war, because ultimately it means, in this specific case, to be pro-life.
You want to talk wrong priorities? Then let's talk about the fact that, in a world of millions of human beings starving to death, mostly children, other millions are spending an enormous amount of money feeding and curing... ANIMALS!!!! Now, I love animals, but we really should do some serious thinking here...
3) Why nobody (not even the experts...) says that we should (and we could) make these populations able to provide for themselves, instead of making them dependent on our "leftovers"? Why nobody says that the answer is: there wouldn't be any cheap labor to fuel our wealth... So, as you see, the only plausible solution would be TO LOWER THE QUALITY OF LIFE to the point where everybody can survive. You'll be surprised to know that has already been tried: it used to be called comunism. It didn't work. The other hope lies in scientific research: one day we will probably able to make the best of our resources, that is if some unrealistic, brainless group of people doesn't get its way (does anybody realize that one doesn't make omelettes without breaking eggs????)
Meanwhile, before spending a dollar on your cat food or dog shot, please, think of what that dollar could do to a child who is starving... then do what you think appropriate.
carla vollaro, wakefield
I agree with the comment from the reader who asked why was this whole section at the end of the Sunday Globe?
I viewed page after page of Lexus Ads, Fur adds, and how empty nesters from Newtown are enjoying their $1million dollar Condos at the Ritz over looking Chinatown...............before coming upon this....
Not an easy subject to tackle.... Family Planning, contraception etc, need to be acknowledged. At the same time, half the Third World hates us....... screaming Death to America and proclaiming their hatred to the West.....even though we are amongst the most generous providing de-salinization, medicines, grains etc......,
Dave, boston
Dear Editor, The Globe is to be commended for the series -- and the ambition of a year-long focus -- on global health issues. The special section showed that the combined talents of the reporters, photographers and editors could indeed produce something outstanding.
That having been said, it was with some chagrin that the tone of each article could not have been varied, so that each person suffering through the maladies that befell them and their kin did not sound similar to the story -- from another country -- that proceeded it.
True, the similarities are striking. But so are the differences. When each piece begins with a focus on a person, the collective weight of the section tends to numb the reader. It is difficult to differentiate the malady and the sufferer, the country, the problem, and what is being done to find a solution.
Perhaps future follow-up can consider the need to provide this important sense of distinction. Each person described is given respect, and deserves our compassion. Editorially, we need the space in order to absorb, ponder, and then become movitated to act.
Sincerely yours,
Bob
Bob , Arlington, MA
Only a month ago, the US blocked an international agreement - already signed by 143 countries - to allow poor countries to by cheaper generic drugs. Why? Because the US said it would allow too many drug patents to be ignored.
I find this absolutely shocking. We are the wealthiest nation in the world, and yet we do so little to help others. Yes, we do give money in foreign aid, but the percentage of money that we give is minuscule compared to what we could be giving and compared to what other countries give.
We as a country will never honestly advance until we begin to see ourselves as part of a much larger world. When we allow ourselves to understand others' situations and have compassion for them, and do all we possibly can to help them, that is when we will truly be a great nation. I have worked in Africa as part of an NGO, and I have looked in the eyes of starving children. And I have seen mothers spend their last dollars on malaria medicine, instead of on food. And I have seen the schools, that have no paper and no pencils and no books. And I know they feel as much as we do - they ache, they laugh, they cry, they love. The death of their children, of their loved ones, is just as painful for them as it would be for us.
Why should so many have to suffer, across the world and in our own country, when there is so much more that we could do? Why does no one realize the connection we all share as simply humans?
The level of callousness and American egocentrism is alarming, and it is unfortunate that the US chooses to use its power for money and war. We've effectively put a price on life. Too bad more people can't afford it.
J., Boston
Screw you liberals, we can't save the world. The US butts into all kinds of foreign affairs and where does it get us? On the brink of nuclear war. It sucks that so many countries are behind us financially and philosophically, but that is how it is. Go deliver vaccines to kids in Iraq see how long you last.
Krause, Weymouth
