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2004-03-04 Africa: Subsaharan

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Posted by Steve 2004-03-04 9:10:50 AM|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 DDT on lead paint chips is considered a delicacy IIRC

Posted by Frank G 2004-3-4 9:17:06 AM|| 2004-3-4 9:17:06 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 The title should read 'The Left stands accused'.

Grotesque as it sounds I would personally deliver the bodies of dead african babies to these self proclaimed caring people. Frankly they disgust me.

Posted by phil_b 2004-3-4 9:41:37 AM|| 2004-3-4 9:41:37 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 There's an idiot letter to the editor in today's Gazette, here in Colorado Springs that the reason DDT isn't used is because the mosquitos are "resistant" to it. The person that wrote the letter is a PhD - in European history. I'm sure he's so knowledgable...

DDT works. It still works for those few countries that manufacture and use it, despite the "worldwide" ban. It's just another example of how we sometimes kill people by trying to "do good to others". The whole thing's a farce, and those responsible for imposing this policy on others are guilty of killing a million people every year, period.

Posted by Old Patriot 2004-3-4 10:58:29 AM|| [http://users.codenet.net/mweather/default.htm] 2004-3-4 10:58:29 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Yes DDT works and yes overkill is poisonous. You folks are all forgetting the "if one is good two is better and then three is outstanding" mentality that used to apply to using pesticides. There is a position between digging up Rachel Carson to drive a stake through her heart and declaring mosquitoes to be protected species.

Posted by Hiryu 2004-3-4 12:05:03 PM|| 2004-3-4 12:05:03 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 ddt is evil. why dont just send them some deep woods off and skeeto nets. the can maybe get malaria vacsine to. skeeto eating fish also very helpful. you dont need kill envirement for solution.

Posted by muck4doo 2004-3-4 12:26:31 PM|| 2004-3-4 12:26:31 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 "why dont just send them some deep woods off ..."

Muck! You almost had a complete sentence (except for lack of a question mark at the end).... but then you had to go back to the typos and bad grammar. Keep working on it!

Posted by Frank G 2004-3-4 1:05:58 PM|| 2004-3-4 1:05:58 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 Old Patriot

"It's just another example of how we sometimes kill people by trying to "do good to others".

No, it is not trying to do good but having some momma boys a la Hanoi Fonda, piss industry and feel good.

BTW my English is limited how do you call those people who were born rich, drive a Porsche at eighteen (bought with daddy's money), act like spoiled brats, are part of the jet set and never worked in their life? (Hanoi Fonda is prime example). There is an expression in French "fils a papa" (son of a daddy) that I am presently translating as momma boy but I am not sure it is
the right one.

Posted by JFM 2004-3-4 1:10:42 PM|| 2004-3-4 1:10:42 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 Methinks that muck4doo has been consuming that DDT paint chip dip a little too frequently.

Posted by Bomb-a-rama 2004-3-4 1:20:05 PM|| 2004-3-4 1:20:05 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 I invented DDT, mucky. I eat it for breakfast. Must be why I'm so evil....

Posted by chainey 2004-3-4 1:22:26 PM|| 2004-3-4 1:22:26 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 Is the entire continent of Africa in some sort of perpetual childhood? If DDT (or something similar, if there are patent problems) is so marvelous, then why don't Africans manufacture it and use it in Africa? Why is Daddy always getting blamed for Africa's boo-boos?

Posted by SLO Jim 2004-3-4 1:30:24 PM|| 2004-3-4 1:30:24 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 The Rhodesians had the matter in hand (pre-2nd- Chimurenga-of-Bob) without DDT, after it was learnt that it made the shells of bird's eggs weak and was decimating flocks. Wise decision.
Left/Right question? I would much prefer to see an African Fish Eagle do what it does than 100 African people/Let the mossies get'em, and get'em quick.

Posted by Rhodesiafever 2004-3-4 2:26:51 PM|| 2004-3-4 2:26:51 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 JFM - where I come from, we call them "Kennedy classmates".

Mucky, there is no guaranteed malaria virus. Quinine is used to treat it, and the raw ingredients come from the bark of trees that grow in Africa. But once you've got it, it bothers you the rest of your life (my FIL got it in India, where malaria is no longer a major threat, but where DDT is still manufactured and used). The reason Africa doesn't use huge quantities of other pesticides or ingredients to fight malaria is simply cost - DDT is still ten times cheaper to manufacture, store, and use than ANY other agent.

Africa does produce DDT, but not in the quantity needed. "World Opinion" keeps fighting them. As for fish eagles versus people, I'm sure the "people" involved won't sympathize. The limited use of DDT would do wonders, without causing massive destruction of the environment. It takes TONS of that stuff to cause problems. Unfortunately, we used to use it that way.

I can remember having the trucks come by, spraying DDT on the ditches of Louisiana and Panama to kill mosquito larvae before they could become full-grown mosquitos. I think the proper use of DDT, carefully and controlled, could to far more good than harm. I think our demanding that other nations NOT use it at all is high-handed, stupid, and arrogant.

Posted by Old Patriot 2004-3-4 2:39:51 PM|| [http://users.codenet.net/mweather/default.htm] 2004-3-4 2:39:51 PM|| Front Page Top

#13 I think some of the folks in Africa are missing the big picture. The hard core environmentalists expect them to die. They believe humans are a plague on Gaia.

Posted by ruprecht 2004-3-4 2:48:14 PM|| 2004-3-4 2:48:14 PM|| Front Page Top

#14 I remember when I travelled Sicily our guide told us that for centuries villages had to be built on hills because malaria made the flat lands virtually unhabitable. Then there was WWII, and the American Army drained the marshes and liberally sprayed DDT. No more malaria and no more Germans.

Posted by JFM 2004-3-4 2:58:31 PM|| 2004-3-4 2:58:31 PM|| Front Page Top

#15 Why's everybody want DDT? Everyone south of Vidalia knows you catch Malaria from frolicking in the night air.

Posted by Shipman 2004-3-4 3:52:55 PM|| 2004-3-4 3:52:55 PM|| Front Page Top

#16 JFM - Your English vocabulary is more than sufficient to come up with a name for such people.

Posted by Matt 2004-3-4 4:27:22 PM|| 2004-3-4 4:27:22 PM|| Front Page Top

#17 Is no one going to thank Bill and Melinda Gates for the hundreds of millions of dollars that they are putting into medical research for the benefit of African? Oh, I forgot, they are evil, monopolistic capitalists from the imperialist heartland.

Posted by closet neo-con 2004-3-4 5:54:06 PM|| 2004-3-4 5:54:06 PM|| Front Page Top

#18 closet n-c - You're dead right. Last number I heard was that Gates was giving away almost $2M / day - but not to LLL causes or half-assed programs (must drive the NGO's mad)... The philosphy applied is, believe it or not folks, simple common sense: drill wells, instead of trucking in water; teach fishing, instead of giving them fish dinners. And no big staff of sycophants wearing $2K suits. Check it out for yourself. Here's an interesting place with links to others. The man's got it right, too.

[rant]
This is my world - software / puters, so I have some rather hard-won opinions here. 30 years as a programmer has taught me that there is a lot of stupidity and myth crap in the game - and ABMers (Anyone But Microsoft) are the LLL ideologues of my working world. 10% of what they say & espouse makes some sense... but that leaves 90% being wild-eyed socialistic utopian moron dogma. And they are at least as screechy as the goofiest Deaniac or other variety of LLL twit. Blinded by their zeal.

Someday, when the ABM crowd finally gets a clue from an exceptionally large and painful ClueBat, Gates will be credited for doing more actual good than all the scummy NGO's ever did - with other people's money. I use the best tool I can find (and who gives a rat's ass where it comes from?) - and often it comes from the evil M$. Life's really a bitch for the ideologically (though illogical) blind. ABMers: it really must suck to be you.
[/rant]

Posted by .com 2004-3-4 6:34:40 PM|| 2004-3-4 6:34:40 PM|| Front Page Top

#19 JFM - Silver spoon assholes would work nicely (as in : born with a silver spoon in their mouth)

Posted by Frank G 2004-3-4 7:34:58 PM|| 2004-3-4 7:34:58 PM|| Front Page Top

#20 .com - my only argument is MS's predatory actions to crush competition and their clumsy attempts at Activation Codes (well, they haven't been making great advances lately either). If they would allow competition to survive, it would be in MS's interests as well. Bill Gates does donate well, but also to causes I don't agree with. I emailed him about this, haven't heard back.....

Posted by Frank G 2004-3-4 7:40:03 PM|| 2004-3-4 7:40:03 PM|| Front Page Top

#21 Frank G - Lol! So Billy stiffed you on a reply? Sorry, bro, heh. Prolly bizzy counting his money, to use one of the fav diatribes against him. Crushing competition is capitalism. He's a really good capitalist. People who produce nothing, such as Buffett and Soros, are good capitalists, too. Yet, even though they make nothing of value, their activities are seldom vilified. I wonder why... Buying, or not, is your voice & vote - don't buy his stuff if you don't like it. Back to competition, when there is a competing product that is better, what would you do different than M$? Just wondering! I don't love Gates or M$. I don't hate Gates or M$. I just choose s/w tools based on merit. ;-)

Posted by .com 2004-3-4 8:04:13 PM|| 2004-3-4 8:04:13 PM|| Front Page Top

#22 JFM - limousine liberals is also a goody.

Posted by Anonymous2U 2004-3-4 10:08:26 PM|| 2004-3-4 10:08:26 PM|| Front Page Top

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