I love this comment for reminding me of what I often forget. I actually watched the Ebola Frontline last night and was fairly upset by it. The hopelessness of the ill, the lack of resources for the staff (they were out of ambulances, so they were using a hearse to transport patients to the MSF clinic), just a terrible situation. It felt especially terrible to waste brain cycles on Apple Watches while this is going on.
I briefly dreamed of dropping what I'm doing and flying to Africa to help, as if that would do anybody any good. For the price of a flight to West Africa, lodging, incidentals etc., I could easily spend $5K 'helping'. Liberia's GNI per Capita is only $800.
Donating $5K to MSF or another quality NGO could pay 15 Liberians' wages in full for 6 months. MSF would clearly be better off employing 15 Liberians to help with their outbreak than for me to give that money to an airline and a hotel and 'help' for a few weeks. The Liberians would be better off earning income that will be recycled through their communities, learning about public health, and taking collective agency over their country.
Needless to say, I dropped my pipedreams of flying anywhere and loaded up http://www.msf.org/donate.
"Liberia receives an estimated $449 million in annual off-budget foreign assistance. And this estimate of off-budget aid excludes unknown amounts of funding from UNMIL, China, private foundations, and several bilateral and UN agencies." (http://aiddata.org/blog/the-elusive-quest-for-effective-aid-...)
After all this, if a country in the world's oldest continent still can't manage (because of corruption, apathy, whatever) it's certainly not your responsibility to step in and perpetuate such incompetence. If it takes a substantial reduction in population to finally affect change, then so be it.
Blunt, controversial, I don't care. 'Africa' needs to step up and take responsibility for its own destiny.
