by Nomad
When the town of Harrison, Arkansas decided to cancel a planned visit by a delegation from Ghana, was it just ignorance about Ebola or old-fashioned racism?
Lately a lot of people from the Far Right have been making some pretty irresponsible and ignorant remarks about Ebola. It's not just hysteria. Actually, it's a symptom of something worse- an outright betrayal of the public trust.
Africa and Ebola in Perspective
Sarah Palin might not realize it but Africa is not a country. It is a continent and a mighty large one at that. Africa covers a full six percent of the Earth's total surface area and over 20 percent of the total land area. But then geography - along with any other subject you wish to name- isn't really Palin's forte.
As the second most populated continent, Africa has a population of around 1 billion people. Depending on who you ask, there are 47
countries on the African continent, (53 if you count some of the islands
off the coast.) Of those 47
nations, only five of them have had
reports of the much-discussed, much-feared disease known as Ebola.
As scary as it is, the deaths and the infection rates from the Ebola virus are not very impressive. The disease
has up to now claimed more than 1,400 lives and infected over a thousand more
across West Africa.
Dreadful, terrible. And yes, it is better to do something before the situation gets any worse. Now is the time to act.
