OPINION
MONDAY. FEBRUARY 28, 2005
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Add avian influenza to list of things to worry about
CONDITIONS EXIST
PAGE 5A
I have a modest list of worries that includes, among other things, finding a job after graduation and the fact that girls don't seem to like me.
Avian flu mainly affects
WHEATON ELKINS
welkins@kansan.com
Last week, I added one more item to my list: avian influenza.
poultry — the virus has killed millions of chickens in Asia and other parts of the world over many decades.
According to the World Health Organization, the United States experienced an avian influenza outbreak in the mid-1980s, which "resulted in the destruction of more than 17 million birds."
Michael Specter recently wrote an article for The New Yorker covering this disease, and he details how a particular strain of avian influenza has shifted from infecting birds to infecting and killing other animals, including humans.
The World Health Organization thinks avian flu has potential to cause the next pandemic, which is an extensive and overwhelming outbreak of a disease.
The World Health Organization believes that a deadlier, more contagious strain of avian influenza might transform our Earth into a fetid hellscape where birds threaten the very existence of mankind.
In this way, the World Health Organization is a lot like Alfred Hitchcock.
So how does a person catch the flu from a duck in the first place? Well, have you ever seen a duck cough? They don't cover their mouth.
Catching this avian fluer terrifies me. Understand, I am a weak link in the evolutionary chain, a poor swimmer foundering in the shallow end of the gene pool.
If we were living in caveman times, I wouldn't last.
Nature has dealt me a fragile, temperamental body. I have no body fat, which means I freeze any time the temperature dips below 80, and an underdeveloped bladder forces me to the bathroom every 10 minutes. Also, I look terrible in leopard print.
Imagine the males of the tribe leaving the cave
to go hunting. They tell me to stay with the women and sew hides together. "But sewing hurts my fingers," I said.
"Hey Darrel," one saber-tooth tiger says to his pal. "See that skinny kid who looks
On the other hand, if I go on the hunt I'll surely be eaten.
"You mean the one that's shivering?
"Yeah. Let's eat him the next time he goes in the bushes to pee.
So I worry I might not survive a flu pandemic.
Fortunately, modern man has two tools that might combat such an outbreak: vaccines and anti-viral drugs.
But, as Specter points out, there is enough of neither. He writes that the entire world is capable of producing only 100 million flu vaccines per year. Fewer doses of suitable anti-viral drugs exist.
Fortunately, America has reelected two men with experience when it comes to birds and biological threats.
Dick Cheney is to feathered friends what Britney Spears is to music — a shameless and wanton destrover.
About a year ago, Vice-President Cheney and a couple buddies went to a hunting club in Pennsylvania. A Pittsburgh television station reported that Cheney and his friends killed more than 400 farm-raised pheasant in just a matter of hours.
He knows how to handle birds.
And two years ago, President Bush created Project Bioshield, which set aside money for research and response to agents of bioterror, such as small pox and anthrax.
His awareness of dangerous diseases and their threat should enable him to direct our government to counter a possible pandemic — by ordering Cheney to patrol our borders with a shotgun.
Should birds with the avian flu evade Cheney and strike America, you won't find me hanging around Lawrence. I'll be in a cave.
*Elkins is a St. Joseph, Mo., junior in English.*
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Lawrence and University provides opportunities to learn about cultures
On Feb 15th the Kansan published an editorial: "Broaden world perspective, begin with Brazil tutorial" from Julia Melim Coelho.
I believe the article runs into hasty generalizations and lacks on enthusiasm about how to take positive actions about our worldview right here.Lawrence and especially KU has countless opportunities to learn about different cultures and meet people from all around the world.
In my case, for the first time I have been able to fast during Ramadan week, celebrate Chinese New Year, dance Latin music every week and assist to different conversation tables. Indeed, if you would like to taste Brazilian food or discuss with Julia her article, you just need to participate on the Brazilian Week next March.
I cannot tell how many times I have been asked where Uruguay is located. I even designed a system to explain it using my hands. To be honest, I do not care because we all need to be educated and is the attitude what counts. So, if you recognize me on campus, please ask me something about my country and tell me something about yours.
Roque Gagliano Molla
President KU Fulbright Association
Graduate student in electrical engineering.
Montevideo, Uruguay
REPORT CARD Pass
Pass:
Dennis Rader's daughter. The dugout of suspected BTK killer, the serial murderer who terrorized Wichita in the '70s and '80s, apparently gave police DNA evidence from her father to help police finally apprehend him after all these years.
Fail:
- Howard Dean. The Democratic screamer regaled hundreds of screaming fans at Liberty Hall on Friday. The Kansan is passing Dean for honoring Lawrence by picking our fair city as the first stop on his tour.
- + Oklahoma State basketball. The Cowboys couldn't be bothered to stand for the national anthem at yesterday's basketball game. This might be visiting team protocol, but how much of a hassle is it stand for the anthem for a few minutes?
- Award shows. The Oscars are supposed to attract one billion viewers.
To one-fifth of the world's population:
Don't you have something better to do with your time?
Free for All
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Call 864-0500
Hey Bill Cross, you compare me failing a test to Giddens being in a slump lately? Me failing a test doesn't cause the rest of the class to fail.
I just read "suck" twice in the Kansan, and I'd just like to say that Bill Cross is my hero.
Screw the groundhog. There's people playing Frisbee in front of Strong Hall.
Why do we have these big tacky red letters on top of the engineering building?
Yeah, I'm on I-70, and I just saw four guys in business suits drive by in a pink Mary Kay car.
To the squirrel who knocked the power out, I'd like to buy you a beer.
I just got pulled over and I think I'm gonna get a ticket for reckless driving because I'm dodging the potholes.
It's so gay to be a homophobe
What's wrong with girls wearing Ugg boots? I think they should be to keep their feet warm.
able to keep the
I have a long list of words I can't say, and moist is my number one. You're not alone, buddy. I also hate the word "panties."
I was just wondering if the main level of Anschutz Library is now a homeless shelter.
I started my week falling down a flight a stairs, and now my phone bill for this month is $1,200. Pity me. Pity me with all your might.
BEELERS' PERSPECTIVE
Nate Beeler/THE EXAMINER
JOHN'S JARGON
Democracy on destructive world tour led by United States
As the United States continues to build and rebuild the new Iraq with help from the rest of the world, here's a fun fact about another little country where we just got done waging a war.
Afghanistan ranks 173 out of 178 countries on the United Nations 2004 Human Development Index according to a new UN report. That puts Afghanistan at the bottom of the world trash barrel of human conditions.
As we have seen in both Afghanistan and Iraq, fighting the war is the easy part of "building" a democracy. After it the real work starts. But this report shows that we are not committed to focusing on the hard work. President Bush announces the overthrows and elections, but what good are they when basic living conditions are some of the worst in the world?
But worse, how should Iraqi feel about this? Where will our priorities be if we invade Iran? And then North Korea? Will President Bush leave us with a demented domino chain of democracy?
The United States has helped nations build democratic governments before. We helped both war-ravaged Germany and Japan emerge from tyranny to republican governments after World War II. But as Afghanistan and Iraq
JOHN JORDAN
jjordan@kansan.com
show, President Bush is not taking this task as seriously as the United States has done before.
First of all the United States didn't go marching into Germany and Japan guns blazing, the harbinger of democracy. We weren't the aggressors of conflict like we find ourselves today. After fighting a global war the United States, with help, took it upon itself to rebuild and encourage democracy on the nations that attacked it.
Second, we were serious about building a democracy. Building a new government takes both time and money. We occupied both for several years, helping create better conditions than either Iraq or Afghanistan had. We pumped in aid with the Marshall Plan. We brought order, which led to peace and stability, before giving sovereigntv.
Afghanistan and Iraq have neither advantage. Both require large security forces to maintain peace, yet both have already had elections. Afghanistan is lacking in every measure of a nations
Christopher Index Rating.
"The fragile nations could easily tumble back into chaos," wrote the authors of the report, according to The New York Times.
development, as shown by its abysmal Human Development Index rating.
Ripe for democracy? I don't think so.
Yet President Bush has already moved on — shifting attention and capital to Iraq. The United States is currently spending $4.3 billion dollars a month in Iraq fighting that war. The war in Iraq takes money, soldiers and media attention away from the problems of Afghanistan.
"The report has painted a gloomy picture of the status of human development in the country after two decades of war and destruction." Afghan president Hamid Karzai said in a foreword of the report.
It's true that the United States isn't the sole reason for Afghanistan's plight; our war's only the latest in a long series of conflicts there.
But if the United States and President Bush don't fully and patiently support human conditions and rebuilding after invading a country, democracy cannot survive. And our policy of bringing democracy to the world becomes a sham.
Jordan is a Salina junior in journalism.
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