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Ebola Quarantine Center In Liberia Looted

An anonymous reader writes The BBC and other outlets are reporting that a major quarantine center for patients who have been infected with the Ebola virus in Liberia has been looted and ransacked. Reports vary on the motive of the attack, but officials have confirmed that the Ebola patients are missing and that the quarantine center's medical supplies have been stolen. Officials say that the looters are highly likely to contract the virus themselves and worsen the epidemic further, as the WHO counts 1000+ lives claimed by the virus total."

65 of 359 comments (clear)

  1. Forget the Purple Hearts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Start mass-producing the Darwin Awards.

    1. Re:Forget the Purple Hearts by Bearhouse · · Score: 2

      Indeed. While you're at it, you can produce some for us (the "West").
      I'm no leftie nutjob, but you've got to admin that the a lot of such problems are historically down to us...Africa, Middle East...)
      We brought technology without knowledge - if we had spent as much time educating these people over the centuries as we had killing and exploiting them, well, maybe things would be better.
      As it stands, this thing spreading out of control is just a short flight away...

    2. Re:Forget the Purple Hearts by Le+Marteau · · Score: 4, Interesting

      > They aren't called "Arabic numerals" for quaintness.

      Actually, they are. Literally.

      "It should be noted that the Arabic numerals were neither invented by nor used by the Arabs. They were developed in India by the Hindus around 600 A.D"

      http://www.mediahistory.umn.ed...

      --
      Mod down people who tell people how to mod in their sigs
    3. Re:Forget the Purple Hearts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Then also keep in mind that the cultured population that devised such a concise and useful numbering scheme and utilized it for many mathematical advances was exterminated by the ancestors of the current populations of those lands.

      To explain what happened in Koran terms, the faction that accepted "when on jihad, do not harm women, children, or people of the book (Jews and Christians)" was murdered by the faction that accepted "take not the Jew or Christian for a friend, execute the infidel." The world lost a lot of beneficial culture and insightful literature (scientific and non) when that happened.

    4. Re:Forget the Purple Hearts by CRCulver · · Score: 2

      Some of it. And most of that had it roots in Greece, since they had access to those writings after Rome fell;

      No, Arabic/Indian numerals did not have "roots" in Greece. The classical Greek system of representing numbers was to use letters of the Greek alphabet (sometimes with what looks like a prime symbol following it) that were assigned numerical values. The system was rather clunky, and the adoption of modern numerals from the Near East during the Medieval era was a huge step forward.

  2. Re:Niggers. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There is more to it. Media hide a lot of shit. My family got quite repulsed when I told them the problem of contagion is due to in most parts of that area, the ritual ceremony being drinking the water you use to wash the corpse.

  3. 12% of the population is Muslim by Chrisq · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I just hope this isn't a deliberate attempt to spread the virus, remove medical supplies and become martyrs

    1. Re:12% of the population is Muslim by Nyder · · Score: 2

      I just hope this isn't a deliberate attempt to spread the virus, remove medical supplies and become martyrs

      I doubt it. Most likely just the typical bullshit you get in a 3rd world country. Low education, coupled by poverty, corrupt government and when you get a health epidemic, people panic and do stupid shit.

      Family supposed got some of the sick, which is understandable that they want to spend the last days with the people, and same for those that supposedly left when the riot started.

      As for the looting of the place and the start of the riot, who knows the real agenda there. Panic? Planned? Stupidity? Guess we might find out.

         

      --
      Be seeing you...
    2. Re:12% of the population is Muslim by cold+fjord · · Score: 2

      Most likely just the typical bullshit you get in a 3rd world country. Low education, coupled by poverty, corrupt government and when you get a health epidemic, people panic and do stupid shit

      Terrorism is pretty common "bullshit" in some 3rd world countries. The culture of some groups that engage in terrorism celebrates self-sacrifice when engaging in terrorism. Indeed, there is essentially a death cult there when they state "we love death more than you love life." Terrible diseases like Ebola induce terror while killing many people. Modern air travel has reduced the what had been the travel of months to a few hours. Hmmm. Hmmm.

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  4. Darwinism as a team sport. by hooiberg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe we can create group Award, now that Darwinism has become a team sport!

    1. Re:Darwinism as a team sport. by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 5, Funny

      While keeping the yearly Darwin Award, Maybe it's time to create a World Darwin Championship, every four years. With an opening ceremony, different disciplines and medals, a Shakira song, vuvuzelas,...

      You can keep your smut to yourself. The last thing I want to see on my TV is Shakira's vuvuzela.

      And I think you spelled it wrong.

      --
      If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
  5. Re:Niggers. by mousse-man · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wasn't there enough information posted and published everywhere in the mass media in Liberia to inform even the dumbest people not to do that at all? I mean, after 1000 people die in a quite horrid way, a bunch of RFSP (Really F****** Stupid People) storms an Ebola Quarantine Center, lets the infected patients flee, steals the medical supplies and probably believes they just fulfilled the will of their ancestors.

    Then, after these RFSP let the infected escape, possibly carrying the bodies oozing with Ebola infected fluids in their own arms home, put them on a bed, washing these infected fluids away, and then using the towels to wash and dry themselves, get infected in turn. And if they didn't get infected by just caring for their relative expiring from one of the most horrid diseases, they will get infected when they kiss the deceased or 'ritually' wash him, or when they cuddle up (or doing some more improper things) with the oozing cadaver full of filovirii looking for the next host to infect. And if that was not enough, they will 'celebrate' the death of their relative by eating some bush meat, containing yet another Ebola strain.

    Lather, rinse, repeat, this time multiplied by 500, because the whole clan of course has to conglomerate around the putrid cadaver of a usually quite controllable disease. And of course, these relatives, in the two weeks that the virus takes to manifest itself, return home into their jungle villages in the four corners of Liberia and adjoining countries.

    That's how you make an epidemic spread like wildfire.

    Now, if the authorities in African countries are smart, the next time such crap happens, don't use rifles. Use flame throwers. Disinfects looters, kills the sick in a safe way and prevents more spread. As brutal as it may sound, this will probably save many more lives than just letting these people who just proved that the ancestors of homo sapiens which still live on trees are quite much smarter 'live their culture'.

    And showing the burning looters screaming in agony (because they just got BBQed by desperate authorities trying to contain the outbreak) on national TV will make sure the next bunch of idiots reconsiders their idea of looting a health center trying to contain one of the deadliest viral diseases known to mankind.

  6. Re:Niggers. by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 3, Funny

    Reference?

    None. The librarian is dead...

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  7. I would call it worst case of darwin award by aepervius · · Score: 2

    but that would be callous because , unfortunately potentially the looter might contaminate other innocent people and worsen the epidemic. And also they are making it worst by destroying the (already strapped) existing infrastructure to treat epidemic. Unfortunately with some people thinking the doctor spread Ebola, and the funerary practice and belief winning over simple science and hygiene, my expectation of the locals are low. Fortunately due to our own procedure ebola is unlikely to become an epidemic in our region.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  8. Quarantine vs. being stubborn by kruach+aum · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's probably easier to let these people die of ebola than it is to change the mind of someone who stubbornly believes in things that are false. There have been many information campaigns about the causes and prevention of transmission of ebola, up to and including rap songs, and yet they can't help themselves.

    1. Re:Quarantine vs. being stubborn by hooiberg · · Score: 4, Insightful

      These are the same people that believe that having sex with a virgin cures aids, and as such rape babies... I wonder if it is a really bad thing if the entire country were to die of ebola.

    2. Re:Quarantine vs. being stubborn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't believe that story at all.

      Unfortunately, it is true, though maybe not as prevelent in West Africa than in other regions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misconceptions_about_HIV/AIDS

      Flanagan, Jane (2001-11-11). "South African men rape babies as 'cure' for Aids". Telegraph (London). Retrieved 2009-03-25.

      Meel, B.L. (2003). "1. The myth of child rape as a cure for HIV/AIDS in Transkei: a case report". Med. Sci. Law 43 (1): 85–88.

      Groce, N.E.; Trasi, R. (2004). "Rape of individuals with disability: AIDS and the folk belief of virgin cleansing". Lancet 363 (9422): 1663–1664.

    3. Re:Quarantine vs. being stubborn by goose-incarnated · · Score: 2, Informative

      I don't believe that story at all.

      Why not? Is the reports by multiple newspapers not enough to convince you? How about a report from a local (me)? It's true, that they believe such crap is fact and is undisputed.

      But even if it's true, what we're dealing with here is an ignorant, uneducated population most of whom don't have access to information, don't watch the daily news, don't (can't) read newspapers, haven't ever heard of the germ theory of disease, and with a government the members of which are enriching themselves in the traditional African way through corruption, coercion and violence.

      You're way off base there. Look up the Marikana massacre. The idiot miners, all well past high-school with extra vocational training, went to a witchdoctor who gave them a muti that they could rub all over their body that will make them immune to bullets. They not only believed it (because that particular belief is common in this country), they bought the stuff, smeared themselves with it and then performed an all-out balls-to-the-wall assault on some 200 armed police officers (who also believe in this shit).

      The results were as bad as you would guess.

      The problem is not one of ignorance - everyone goes through the school system, no exceptions. The problem is one of stupidity; even those locals with advanced degrees still believe in muti that makes one bulletproof, or the virgin cure for HIV. The locals here are just plain stupid and no amount of education over the past two decades has managed to shake them of their beliefs in bulletproof vaseline and/or virgin cures and/or anything else that is stupid.

      Thankfully the situation in Africa is slowly improving, though I think the current generation in this locality is probably doomed to plod on in ignorance regardless.

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
    4. Re:Quarantine vs. being stubborn by goose-incarnated · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Sorry, I don't believe it just because a couple of researchers, presumably with an agenda or a desire for further funding of their anthropological tintinnabulations, have written about it.

      WTF is wrong with you? I live here, I've suffered under white rule and my entire family was a struggle family so I've got no agenda. The fact is that this is a belief that is shared by many of the locals here :-( Why don't you believe what newspapers, researchers and people on the ground are telling you - these folk are still stuck in the stone age in many respects. Grab any local newspaper you want and see for yourself the pathetic beliefs these people have:

      Virgin cure belief

      Another one of many

      Here's official african government admitting to the baby-rape problem

      How about bullet-proof vaseline and other stupidities?

      Results of the official inquiry into the massacre

      Strikers use body parts from security gaurd for their muti

      Cutting up a 6 year old girl for body parts for their muti before they even killed her.

      In fact, there are too many stories in the courts to even list. You no longer have the assertions of a couple of anthropologist's, you have the statement of a born-and-bred african who is living here, you have official reports of cases in courts and you also have independent newspapers all verifying the same facts.

      Maintaining your skepticism in the face of all this will just make you look foolish. These thugs from the above stories aren't ignorant; they've all completed high-school (equivalent to a US HS diploma) and many of them even have tertiary education. It has become abundantly clear that the problem cannot be solved by relieving these idiots of their ignorance with education; the problem is not ignorance, it's stupidity.

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
  9. Re:Motive? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Last I checked, there is a not insignificant number of people in the US who refuse childhood immunizations, and the very white, very old Vatican opposed condoms at the height of the HIV epidemic. You may argue the severity, but these are the same strain of stupidity to which all humans are susceptible.

  10. Re:Niggers. by nospam007 · · Score: 4

    "Wasn't there enough information posted and published everywhere in the mass media in Liberia to inform even the dumbest people not to do that at all? I mean, after 1000 people die in a quite horrid way, a bunch of RFSP (Really F****** Stupid People) storms an Ebola Quarantine Center, lets the infected patients flee, steals the medical supplies and probably believes they just fulfilled the will of their ancestors."

    Think of it as evolution in action.

    People who don't believe in Ebola are removed from the gene pool.

  11. You have to understand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think it's necessary to understand what's going on Liberia. People there are uneducated, prone to superstition and there's a lot of ignorance about the Ebola outbreak over there, however people are acting rationally based on what they see. What they've seen is that when people go to one of these facilities, they tend to end up dead. If you're living there, ignorance of modern medicine and viruses and whatnot and you witness a loved one being taken to a hospital, it's understandable why people will not take it willingly.

    A lot of people think this is some "white-man's poison" that's infecting and killing folks. There's enough bad history with westerners fucking around with Africa that you can't really blame them for being predisposed to being suspicious at what doctor's are doing. Of course, that doesn't mean the situation is great for all concerned - it just isn't that surprising giving the environment.

    1. Re:You have to understand by kruach+aum · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You say they act rationally based on what they see, and then describe them engaging in post hoc ergo propter hoc logic (people going to facilities end up dead, therefore the facilities are killing them), and being prejudiced against white people and doctors. I am unsure if you are clear on what "rational" means. Hint: it's not acting based on what you 'feel' is right or true, because feelings are notoriously bad at ferreting out either.

    2. Re:You have to understand by mysidia · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They are forming a reasonable (but false) hypothesis which they cannot prove, given that they do not understand health or disease, and they do not believe the explanation people give them, because they lack the obedience training that westerners have.

    3. Re:You have to understand by kruach+aum · · Score: 3, Informative

      Or perhaps it is you who should google "reductio ad absurdum". Just because I claim that believing invalid arguments are valid is irrational does not mean that to behave rationally means having to know all the laws of logic. It is perfectly rational to believe in inductive arguments, but it is not rational to believe in logical fallacies.

    4. Re:You have to understand by nedlohs · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "post hoc ergo propter hoc" is rational.

      "Everyone who has eaten those berries has died frothing at the mouth a few hours afterwards, thus we should probably not eat those berries" is rational. It might not actually be true, but it's a good first step. When people keep dieing in the same way after everyone has stopped eating said berries then you can move to a different hypothesis - but when that's all the information you have it would be irrational to keep eating the berries.

      In this case they already have other information - well I'm assuming the health care workers and government and so on are telling them something other than "oh yes, these are death camps where we torture and kill everyone who comes in the door".

    5. Re:You have to understand by ilparatzo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think that we're all taking this a bit too far down the rabbit hole and forgetting the simple answer ...

      "They have stuff over there that I could sell for money. I don't have money. I'm not a doctor, I don't know what is going on in those tents and I'm not allowed in. How about I just go and take all that stuff and sell it? If I get sick, that's okay, I've been sick before."

      Unless you're trying to write a book and need to up that word count, what more philosophical understanding does it take then that? If you're not careful, scientific over-analysis can just take you farther from the simple truth of a situation or at a minimum overly complicate it.

    6. Re:You have to understand by nedlohs · · Score: 2

      Your specific example is not irrational. It's the same situation as my eating berries example. At least until people keep dieing even after not going to said facilities. Assuming causation is what rational people do. It's the people who grab the hot pot, yell "ouch" and drop it and then proceed to grab it and yell "ouch" and drop it over and over again because they refuse to assume causation are the ones being irrational.

      That we "know" it's an incorrect hypothesis doesn't change that it's a rational first attempt for people without all the information that you have.

  12. Where were the guards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Anyone trying to breach a quarantine center should be shot.

  13. Truly sad by GeekWithAKnife · · Score: 5, Insightful


    Unfortunately this is the sort of event that can make this virus' infections rates soar beyond control.

    Because of a small group of idiots the majority will suffer needlessly.

    I see some say "fuck 'em" and some have this attitude of not our problem - for lack of understanding that their problem can become our problem. If that's not a case for a reason to put more resources into education I don't know what is.

    It's everyone's problem when some person in Liberia, is now scared for his life and flees without knowing he is carrying the virus. In 48 hours he might be sitting next to you on a bus! -what are you going to say when people start bleeding their internal organs out of all orifices?

    You want to give out Darwin awards? start by considering you may get one yourself with such an attitude.

    --
    A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
    1. Re:Truly sad by kruach+aum · · Score: 2, Informative

      No, it's fear mongers like you who are the problem. Ebola is spread by coming into contact with bodily fluids of an infected person. I don't know how you interact with people on the bus, but rarely do I get bled on on my way to work. Furthermore, people in 1st world countries are also less inclined to break people out of quarantine, think doctors are evil killers, or think that black magic is involved. On top of that, most of the people in the affected countries lack the wealth to transport themselves here, and I'm sure that people from infected countries are treated with all possible precautions when they arrive at the airport of a 1st world country.

    2. Re:Truly sad by GeekWithAKnife · · Score: 3, Insightful


      People cough, they sneeze, they perspire and touch things. If they carry a deadly virus then this is a deadly problem.

      Did you ever use the toilet at work? - ever had issues of a bad stomach doing the rounds? any idea how many people don't wash their hands after taking a piss? -people you shook hands with. I'd not bet my life on this scenario being impossible.

      The fact that this is LESS likely to happen in a "1st world country" does not help right now. I'm not trying to terrify you into wearing a face mask; I am telling you this can get out of hand if we do not do more to help get this under control.
      Look at the hate some morons choose to spew at this very moment, racists, bigots and foolhardy posts. These so called "1st world" people might just ignore what they stupidly think is an African problem.

      While it's a shame that many people simply do not care about the suffering of others; if you ignore this it may just end up killing people you do care about. Does that sink in or are they not the people you typically see when you go to work?

      --
      A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
    3. Re:Truly sad by OzPeter · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's everyone's problem when some person in Liberia, is now scared for his life and flees without knowing he is carrying the virus. In 48 hours he might be sitting next to you on a bus!

      Ha! Ain't going to happen.

      I live in a suburb in the US with ZERO public transportation options. Not only that I won't pass them on the street either as there are no frickin' sidewalks as well.

      --
      I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
    4. Re:Truly sad by ruir · · Score: 2

      They dont. I am outraged people are coming back from Africa, and they are not placed into a two week quarantine. There are already two cases heavily noticed, one in Portugal, an expat fleeing from Liberian, and another in Spain, a Nigerian boy.

    5. Re:Truly sad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ebola turning into a deadly mass plague is a real possibility

      Before lecturing about risks of a plague you should read up on it (Ebola) more. For example, you mention a face mask. Ebola is not airborne. The fact that it is spread through physical contact is exactly what makes it (relatively) easy to contain in contrast with, say, influenza.

      That actually brings me to the next point - the flu is a much more deadly disease and kills lots more people. But here you are worrying about an Ebola plague.

      Do that thing that Slashdot blowhards rarely do: read up a little on something before you start stridently opining about it.

    6. Re:Truly sad by Carewolf · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Did you ever use the toilet at work? - ever had issues of a bad stomach doing the rounds? any idea how many people don't wash their hands after taking a piss? -people you shook hands with. I'd not bet my life on this scenario being impossible.

      Ebola is not as infectious as the flu. Absolute none of those scenarios would be able to transmit the disease. So yes, you are safe.

  14. Re:Niggers. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3

    Rumors, childrens gossip and Resident Evil plot lines do not constitute reliable information sources.

  15. Stupidity by mean+pun · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Do you really believe that a culture/tribe/village/group can develop such stupid rituals to deal with the dead and diseased and survive to this day? Do you really think that `primitive' people don't know anything about quarantaine or other measures against infectious diseases? Do you really think that a group of people that has just seen some of their own die in a horrible way will quietly slink off to meditate on their sins rather than seek (quite possibly rough) justice for this? But you're not one of the RFSP, right?

    It is quite possible that this attack was stupid, but clearly we're not getting all of the story here.

    1. Re:Stupidity by TheDarkMaster · · Score: 2

      You are more ignorant than you think. Usually these groups survive because diseases and stupid behaviors are usually not strong enough to kill all the members of the group. Think about, our furry ancestors were even more stupid, and yet some of then survived to continue the species.

      --
      Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
    2. Re:Stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It used to be something of a tradition in the west for doctors not to wash their hands. After all, all disease was based in an imbalance of the "humours" of the body.

      Then this guy appeared. Zemmel? Something like that. He realized that the doctors who worked for him at his two hospitals were helping with childbirths while also doing a bit of corpse work on the side. He noticed that by having his doctors wash their hands after handling dead bodies, the amount of deaths to a particular disease dropped considerable.

      Of course nobody believed him, because HUMOURS.

      Then he died and another doctor took over. He scrapped the handwashing regime and deaths from disease immediately spiked back up to SIX TIMES what it had been when Zemmel (or whatever his name was) was the chief doctor. And nobody cared: Because obviously humours were the true cause.

    3. Re:Stupidity by Japie_H · · Score: 5, Informative

      That was Semmelweis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I...

    4. Re:Stupidity by chihowa · · Score: 2

      Almost as important, and exceedingly disturbing, is that this connection (between handling corpses and starting infections during surgery) was only made in 1847.

      --
      If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
    5. Re:Stupidity by Kojiro+Ganryu+Sasaki · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes. That's what I was getting at in my original post. The fact that despite the evidence that exists, they ignore it because it contradicts their beliefs.

      It's really quite fascinating.

      (i'm the anon you're replying to)

    6. Re:Stupidity by SuricouRaven · · Score: 2

      Not at all. It was reintroduced to the US by a load of idiots who believed that it would save males from the terrible evils of masturbation - something that medical knowledge of the time still claimed lead to insanity, epilepsy and distrophy. That's why it's still comparatively rare in Europe.

  16. Re:Motive? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No gay sex means the vast majority of the AIDS infections never happen.

    It's good for Africa that they never liked gays there, otherwise they would have an AIDS epidemic on their hands by now. Oh, wait...

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  17. Re:Motive? by cold+fjord · · Score: 2

    It isn't an isolated problem.

    Afghan Men Struggle With Sexual Identity, Study Finds

    An unclassified study from a military research unit in southern Afghanistan details how homosexual behavior is unusually common among men in the large ethnic group known as Pashtuns -- though they seem to be in complete denial about it.

    The study, obtained by Fox News, found that Pashtun men commonly have sex with other men, admire other men physically, have sexual relationships with boys and shun women both socially and sexually -- yet they completely reject the label of "homosexual." ...

    Apparently, according to the report, Pashtun men interpret the Islamic prohibition on homosexuality to mean they cannot "love" another man -- but that doesn't mean they can't use men for "sexual gratification."

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  18. Re:Niggers. by TheDarkMaster · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yor idea is sound, but will be downmodded because people in the civilized world do not understand that civilized world solutions do not usually work in a country that culturally is still in the Stone Age.

    --
    Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
  19. Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Call it eBola and we'll have another bubble

  20. Re:Motive? by SpzToid · · Score: 2

    The word you are looking for is ignorant I believe, and there's actually a cure for it.

    --
    You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
  21. Zombie literature seem so prescient.. by swb · · Score: 2

    I'd say at least half of them have some kind of scene where panicked/ignorant locals ignore the medical experts and raid the quarantine centers. And usually it's one of those turning point moments in the narrative with disastrous consequences.

     

  22. Please stop and think by TeethWhitener · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You live in a country with a wildly corrupt government that repeatedly lies to you and regularly unburdens you of your basic human rights. Then one day, officials from this government force you and everyone you know at gunpoint to submit to a series of "tests." You notice that, all of a sudden, many of the most social and/or eldest (therefore vocal, therefore most likely to be community leaders/government dissenters) among you go missing and later mysteriously die. For good measure, a number of kids randomly disappear and die as well. The ones that survive tell horrible stories about the dismal conditions in which they were held, where they were injected with any number of things and only a few days later, became sick . The government (the same government that lies to you and considers you subhuman) tells you that the cultural practices that have been with your group for a thousand years are all of a sudden, just now, for reasons they don't have time to explain, causing you to get sick and die, and it just happens to selectively be wiping out the kids and the community leaders.

    If it were the US doing this, I conjecture that at the very least, this comment thread would have a radically different tone. Less "these guys are idiots," and more "these guys are heroes." What we're witnessing in Liberia is a tragic consequence of a corrupt power structure attempting, maybe for the first time, to legitimately help people that it has previously subjugated. The whole thing smacks of people acting in their and their community's best interests based on many many previous data points telling them government=bad, therefore avoid government. Unfortunately, it takes time to build a relationship of trust between a government and its citizens, and in the face of the calamity that Liberia is confronting, neither the government nor its citizens have any time to spare.

    1. Re:Please stop and think by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 2

      Thank you for an insightful post. No discussion of this will make sense without the point you made. IMO, it only makes the whole situation seem that much more tragic.

    2. Re:Please stop and think by pehrs · · Score: 5, Interesting

      A good and insightful post.

      The only thing you forgot is to mention why Liberia is one of the most miserable parts of Africa.

      Liberia is the only country in Africa founded by United States colonization while occupied by native Africans. It was financed by the American Colonization Society, an organization created to remove unwanted freed black slaves from America, to avoid a slave uprising like what happened in Tahiti. The colonizers became known as Americo-Liberians and promptly started to enslave the locals and selling them back to the US (with support from the American Colonization Society). The Americo-Liberians, led the political, social, cultural and economic sectors of the country and ruled the nation for over 130 years as a dominant minority. The atrocities under that regime were too many to count.

      The US continued to keep it a hell hole in the effort to fight communism, and from 1940 and forward pumped enormous sums into the budget country (about half the GNP was American aid for a while...). Of course most of this money vanished in corruption. But in return the evil communists were kept out. Eventually there was a coup in 1980, finally removing the Americo-Liberians, and starting two civil wars, killing about half a million and displacing about half of the country population. About 85% of the people live under the poverty level today.

      We sometimes speak of the Ghost of King Leopold, after the horrors in Congo. But when it comes to colonialism the American version seen in Liberia was at least as bad. And by doing it as a private enterprise they ensured that, unlike the state colonies, there never was a decolonization with support for forming a stable state.

    3. Re:Please stop and think by fnj · · Score: 2

      Yes, I DO live in a country with a wildly corrupt government that repeatedly lies to me and regularly unburdens many people's basic human rights. I live in the USA.

      Funny thing, though. My IQ is greater than 10 (fine; I did not lose the genetic lottery), and I CHOOSE not to be profoundly ignorant. I know that amidst all those negatives, health measures are a good thing, not some underhanded nefarious attempt to harm the people when those in charge could far more easily and efficiently just mow us down with bullets.

  23. Re: Motive? by PIBM · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Develop a biological weapon, using one of the strongest strain of Ebola?

  24. Re:Niggers. by ruir · · Score: 4, Insightful

    http://www.refworld.org/docid/... Considering often they have lots of wives...however I can swear it is not only the wives that drink it.

  25. Re:Sounds familiar by Lester67 · · Score: 2

    Yes it is. It's funny how most of this thread is centered on "idiot looters", when there is a real possibility that someone grabbed a whole bunch of Ebola patients for the purpose of weaponizing it.

  26. Re:Nah... by ihtoit · · Score: 2

    You just called half of fourteenth Century Europe racist.

    The half that survived - most likely were. They went on to perform the most horrible atrocities on each other and throughout the rest of the known world over the next six hundred years.

    --
    Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
  27. Not fully correct by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "and only a few days later, became sick" usually by the time the people are given in the hand of governmental instiuttion theyalready have been sick. Furhtermore a lot of people died at home and at some village a sizable percentage died (50 out of 500 persons was in article recently). So it is not as if people were taken and became sick afterward.

  28. Re:Motive? by BronsCon · · Score: 2

    I'm in no way defending the use of the word, but I do want to point out that there has been somewhat of a movement, in the past few years, to redefine it to refer to a class, rather than a race. This is very much something I'd expect that particular class of people to do, regardless is the color of their skin; and I dare say that I know people of all races who are members of that class, just as I know people of all races who are not. Hell, in some areas I've lived in, most of them are white.

    That said, its use in this thread probably *is* racist; typically when someone utters the word, outside of their small group of friends who have already agreed on the refined definition, that's the intent.

    --
    APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
  29. Re: Motive? by PapayaSF · · Score: 3, Interesting

    On the bright side (?) they don't likely have the tech to weaponize anything, and will wind up killing a lot of themselves instead.. or so one can hope.

    Suicidal fanatics don't need tech to weaponize ebola. They can just infect themselves, hop on a plane, and leave spit and sweat on the bathroom door handles on the plane, plus whatever they can do when they get to their destination. The incubation period is long enough for them to fly to Mexico City, get to the US border, and join a group of illegals heading north, before they become too incapacitated to travel. But they need not bother with entering illegally: they can just fly straight in to a US airport.

    --
    Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
  30. Re:Niggers. by Eunuchswear · · Score: 2

    Demographics of slashdot: smart people.

    Hahahahahahhahah!!

    Demographics of slashdot - mostly overprivileged ignorant morons who think they're smart.

    --
    Watch this Heartland Institute video
  31. Re:Niggers. by ruir · · Score: 2

    Most of the delimitation of the countries in Angola where made by white people, and the culture/tribes are another matter. And I know for sure they surely do it in Angola too. Do not be so fast playing the stupid racism card, the last resort of the stupid.

  32. Re:Niggers. by ruir · · Score: 2

    I do know for sure Angola does it, but only found an explicit link about it about Nigeria. Boarders and borders are also two different things. And I dont need a map, I worked in Angola. "Death and Funerary Rites Many Angolan communities expect proper funeral rites to be observed and certain rituals to be performed for a dead person. Funerary rites vary somewhat from one group to another, but there are also general elements: ritual mourning, ceremonial washing of the body, and the embracing and kissing of the body by family members."

  33. Early reports indicate they may have had reasons. by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 2

    According to a report I saw (following a link from the Drudge Report yesterday):

    1)The early symptoms of Ebola are very similar to those of Malaria, to the point that people with malaria are being thrown into the ebola quarantine camps. (Also: Many of the people who HAVE ebola, or their support network, may THINK thay have malaria.)
    2) The camp ran out of gloves and other protective gear - leaving the staff and patients unable to clean up after and avoid contagin from the body fluid spillages of the actual ebola patients. Come in with SUSPECTED ebola and you soon have ebola for sure.

    That, alone, would make it rational for someone not yet sick or mildly sick, incarcerated in the camp, to break out and hide out.

    3) Stories are circulating in the area that ebola is a myth and the oppressive government factions/first worlders/take your pick of enemies are using this story, plus the odd malaria case here and there, to create death camps and commit genocide in a way that gives them plausible deniability.

    That idea, of course, can lead to mass action by some of the local population to "rescue" their fellows and sabotage the camps.

    The whole think is a real-world example of the cautionary tale "The Boy who Cried 'Wolf'". When the officials lie to the people for their own benefit, repeatedly, until the people come to expect it, the people won't believe them when they are telling the truth about a real threat - and all suffer.

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way