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submitted 2 days ago by Wudi@feddit.uk to c/world@lemmy.world
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[-] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 71 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

An angry crowd set alight a section of a hospital at the epicentre of the Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after family and friends of a young man thought to have died from the virus were prevented from taking his body away for burial.

The body of a dead Ebola victim is highly infectious and the authorities need to ensure safe burial to stop the spread of the virus.

The man who died was a popular figure in the local community and those upset by his death did not "grasp the reality of the disease," Jean Claude Mukendi, who is co-ordinating the security response to Ebola in Ituri, told the Associated Press.

I hope it doesn't get worse.

[-] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 34 points 2 days ago

We really are about to fail as a species.

[-] kurmudgeon@lemmy.world 32 points 2 days ago

We already have.

[-] Siegfried@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

I really wouldn't blame the very base of the freaking pyramid of assholes that we have created of our failure as a species

[-] patruelis@lemmy.world -2 points 2 days ago

Perfect response!

[-] SharkAttak@kbin.melroy.org 2 points 2 days ago

Are they that dumb? They can't "grasp" how a disease spreads? They should at least have heard about Ebola, it's not yesterday news.

[-] magnetosphere@fedia.io 25 points 2 days ago

They’re not dumb. Their leaders haven’t prioritized education, so they just don’t know. Of course, it doesn’t help that outside countries/religions are constantly fucking with them.

[-] ryannathans@aussie.zone 28 points 2 days ago

Malembe said the crowd did not believe the virus, which has so far killed more than 130 in eastern DR Congo, was real.

It's worse than that

[-] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Same as elsewhere: lack of education paired with unstable living conditions strengthen belief in conspiracy bullshit.

[-] SharkAttak@kbin.melroy.org 3 points 2 days ago

It's not algebra, it doesn't take much to get "Oh, that dude just died shitting blood, then after a while his whole family died shitting blood, and their neighbours that tried to help too, maybe we shouldn't go near there at all"

[-] michaelmrose@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Most of the people around you are morons habituted by lots of training like animals to do increasingly sophisticated tasks correctly like trained animals while most of the facts are just drilled into their heads not arrived at organically or intelligently. Take away that training and they would obviously be morons to you. Let the morons raise other morons and it would be increasingly obvious.

DRC citizens aren't inherently any dumber than Americans or French people. They are just average people without the beneficial effects of society possibly with some environmental poisoning and malnutrition. If we could actually help instead of pretending to help and exploit them they could be peers.

[-] ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Those backward people, so ignorant of science and the world around them... You know who I'm talking about. Republicans, I mean.

That is to say: fear and ignorance is a dangerous mix, and that these people and their actions aren't as alien as many would like to think...

[-] ryannathans@aussie.zone -1 points 2 days ago

Yeah I don't see this being a resolvable issue

[-] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 33 points 2 days ago

I'm reading Everything is Tuberculosis (great book by the way), and the author posits a reason for African mistrust of Western medicine. As a civilization, we have created a surge and abandon standard of care in Africa.

Clinics open up on grants, send doctors and facilities, then evaporate when the grant/interest dries up. There is no continuity of care, no training of local doctors, and no reliable facilities and supply lines. Of course there is no trust.

We need to be investing in training and sustainable care if there is to be any changes in the culture around medicine in Africa.

[-] DrWorm@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

But isn't this specifically by design as well? We don't actually want to invest in Africa, we want to keep it destabilized so we can continue to exploit those countries and its people for resources. It's a form of imperialism. We can overload them with aid, they in turn have to be dependent on that aid. This then de-incentivizes those countries from putting any resources into the problems.

So yes, John Green is right. I haven't read the book, but I don't know if he talks about how the geo politics, all of this is by design. The Global Perspective: Reflections on Imperialism and Resistance by Torkil Lauesen talks to how the global south gets exploited for profits.

[-] HasturInYellow@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago

The clinics are not intended to uplift the people there. It is to prevent an outbreak that could spread to other areas that the politicians do actually care about. That is it. If it were at all possible to keep the diseases contained to Africa, politicians would do that instead.

[-] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 8 points 2 days ago

TBF sustainability in aiding poorer countries has already been a topic for a long time.

To what extent it goes beyond talk idk.

And of course it doesn't help if one megalomaniac decides to just pull out completely from one day to the next.

[-] Eternal192@anarchist.nexus 15 points 2 days ago

So let me get this straight some popular guy dies and in their infinite wisdom their response is to make the virus spread worse jfc...

I have the strangest feeling a word or two could be added to 'angry' to really describe the situation.

'Fucking stupid', perhaps.

'Ignorant morons'.

this post was submitted on 21 May 2026
127 points (99.2% liked)

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