Some days you have to be thankful you live in the West

Rob Adams over in Sparrow Chat has a disturbing tale to tell about man’s inhumanity to man. In “Evolution or Creation” he writes of the cannibalism that is taking place today in the so-called Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Today’s BBC News has a frightening tale of nature’s ‘inhumanity’ - for lack of a better word - to man. And, it also occurs in a country in Africa, Angola. Today’s news is that the death toll from the Marburg virus is now 173. That’s out of only 200 cases of it, a fatality rate of 86%. The 200 cases have occurred in only three weeks. There is no known vaccine or medical treatment for the virus, whose primary targets are kids under 5. One good thing, I suppose, is it moves quickly; you’re dead within a week or less.

The worst part of this is that this astronomical death rate is due in large part to a very poor health system. One nurse bemoans the lack of protective clothing. There is one doctor for every 13,000 people. A fourth of the children do not make it to age 5.

We do complain a lot about this country. Many of the complaints are justified. But in many, many ways we are very lucky to be living here.