In the list of serious "first world problems"--or maybe "first world stupidities"--you can list the hysteria around Ebola in the U.S. i.e., the non-existent Ebola crisis in this country. And, of course, as soon as the media found some other thing to focus on, no one cares anymore that thousands of people--black people--have died and continue to die from Ebola. But, the real point to make is that Ebola isn't just a disease--it's a result of relentless global class warfare and corruption.
This came back to me in reading a report about to be released by the International Labour Organization called--drumroll for this this gripping title--"Addressing the Global Health Crisis: Universal Health Protection Policies". It's going to be officially released Friday in conjunction with Universal Health Coverage Day.
The upshot of the report:
80 per cent of the population across 44 countries are without any health protection and are therefore deprived of the right to health. These countries include Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Globally, some 40 per cent of the population is excluded from social protection in health.
And:
In many countries, such as Sierra Leone, 75 per cent of total health expenditure comes from private resources in the form of out-of-pocket payments, which has led to deep impoverishment.
The extent of impoverishing out-of-pocket payments in a country increases with the level of the population living below the poverty line. “Thus, it is the poorest with the highest needs who suffer the most from having to pay out-of-pocket healthcare expenses,” explained Xenia Scheil-Adlung, Health Policy Coordinator at the ILO.
It is no accident, then, that
Sierra Leone now has the highest number of Ebola cases in the world.
And:
Another major factor leading to the global health crisis concerns the shortage of health workers, who are often poorly paid. Globally, the ILO estimates that 10.3 million additional health workers are needed to close the current gaps and ensure the delivery of universal health care. In countries such as Haiti, Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone, as many as 10,000 people have to rely on services provided by five or fewer health workers, whereas in a high-income country like Finland there are 269 health workers available for 10,000 people.
You can see this in the graphic here:
If you wonder why 17,800 people have fallen ill to Ebola in just three countries--Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea--and 6,187 have died, that grey area on the map is the story. I won't defend our corrupt system here--it's an outrage that the drug and insurance sleazebag industries rob millions of people of their hard-earned money, a robbery Obamacare did not stop. But, the reason one or two people who got sick in West Africa survived when they were treated in the U.S. has everything to do with that light blue color in the U.S. and the grey in Africa--pretty basic things like replacing fluids in very sick patients happen in the U.S. but there is nothing like that system in Africa.
In other words, there is no health system to care for people in Africa, and in many other communities in the world.
This is a system born out of relentless class warfare and corruption in Africa over several generations. Class warfare conducted by colonial powers who pillaged country after country and the leaders who were installed in many African countries to act as puppets for the colonial powers, leaders who amassed vast fortunes, and still drain the country of billions of dollars they stash in bank accounts overseas while their people starve and die.
Just so we don't let the class warfare outside of Africa go unnoticed: the other telling section that jumped out at me was titled, again with usual ILO panache, "Effects of fiscal consolidation measures on the health crisis" (I kid the ILO but I love these guys and the work they do):
Fiscal consolidation policies aiming at economic recovery by reducing government deficits and debts might result in the opposite if they focus on health care. This is due to the fact that contracting public budgets for health protection has the potential to reduce economic productivity and increase poverty.
The impacts of such policies can also be observed in the current health crisis both, in OECD countries and in low and middle income countries. While, only a few countries managed over the last years to increase at least legal health protection–e.g. the USA, China, and the Philippines–many others implemented fiscal consolidation measures impacting negatively on the availability and affordability of health services and of essential drugs such as antibiotics, and the creation and maintenance of infrastructure.[emphasis added]
Yes, march, protest and criticize the system of policing that doesn't care about the lives of black men and women. But, then, carry the banner against the global class warfare that kills millions of people of all colors--and, in the case of Ebola, thousands of black men, women and children--just because the voracious "free market" system denies people basic health care.
Translation: All that obsession about deficits--the obsession here and in Europe--will just mean more sick and dead people.
But, hey, what's a few millions dead or sick people if it's all in the service of handing more money to elites, either through economic austerity, tax cuts or just outright bribery and theft? Small price to pay, eh?