My post title makes reference to an interview with the president of the Nigerian Academy of Science, Oyewale Tomori. The link came from my former MSF head of mission, an Armenian fellow who is now my Facebook friend.
Because of my experiences, the outbreak interested me sooner than it interested our national news channels. I am proud of MSF's work with Ebola since the spring, the only organization to mount a major response in some areas. There are many other brave, brave people who have cared for the sick, both national health providers and expatriates. But from my time with MSF I harbor a special interest in their work.
Even so, Dr. Tomori doesn't see MSF as the heros of the day, rather he is looking to the regional WHO office for leadership. If you don't read the interview or at least skim it, I've copied quotes below that struck me. I see the interview as clear-eyed about both emergency response and development:
1) "Africa has the capacity and the capability to solve most of her problems, but Africa will not enable her human resources to perform effectively and efficiently."
2) "People say African countries are poor. But it’s not poverty. It’s misuse of what we have. As we are talking, with all the crises that are going on, the presidents of our countries are still traveling in the best of conditions. Some will come to New York in their private jets, although their national airlines collapsed years ago; in addition, they will bring along a long retinue of private, personal, and public assistants, all lodged in the best hotels. I am not saying the president should not be treated well, but these are issues we need to look at."
3) "I do not believe there is an African country that cannot buy gloves for its staff. Personal protective equipment may be very costly, they may need assistance on that. But let us participate."
4) "There are 600 Nigerian health care workers who want to go to Liberia....But we must find the funds to provide insurance for all national and international health workers who are currently working or have volunteered to work in the Ebola-affected areas of Africa. Bear in mind, in Africa we do not have a welfare system. I am the welfare system for my family, my brothers, my uncle. So when I go to an Ebola region, I am thinking of the 23 other people that depend on me. If there is no insurance, I will stay home."
5) "There are more than enough people in Africa—health care workers from Gabon, DRC, Uganda, Sudan—who have experience with [Ebola]."
6) "If you go to Sierra Leone or Liberia today, there must be at least 10 international groups there. At the end of this epidemic, everybody will pack their bags and leave. The African countries will be left not really knowing what has happened to them. Like someone hit them smack in the face, totally disoriented. There will be millions of scandals about how money was misspent and so on. We will focus on those and move on. Ten years from now, people will have forgotten that there was Ebola and we will be back to where we started."
Because of my experiences, the outbreak interested me sooner than it interested our national news channels. I am proud of MSF's work with Ebola since the spring, the only organization to mount a major response in some areas. There are many other brave, brave people who have cared for the sick, both national health providers and expatriates. But from my time with MSF I harbor a special interest in their work.
Even so, Dr. Tomori doesn't see MSF as the heros of the day, rather he is looking to the regional WHO office for leadership. If you don't read the interview or at least skim it, I've copied quotes below that struck me. I see the interview as clear-eyed about both emergency response and development:
1) "Africa has the capacity and the capability to solve most of her problems, but Africa will not enable her human resources to perform effectively and efficiently."
2) "People say African countries are poor. But it’s not poverty. It’s misuse of what we have. As we are talking, with all the crises that are going on, the presidents of our countries are still traveling in the best of conditions. Some will come to New York in their private jets, although their national airlines collapsed years ago; in addition, they will bring along a long retinue of private, personal, and public assistants, all lodged in the best hotels. I am not saying the president should not be treated well, but these are issues we need to look at."
3) "I do not believe there is an African country that cannot buy gloves for its staff. Personal protective equipment may be very costly, they may need assistance on that. But let us participate."
4) "There are 600 Nigerian health care workers who want to go to Liberia....But we must find the funds to provide insurance for all national and international health workers who are currently working or have volunteered to work in the Ebola-affected areas of Africa. Bear in mind, in Africa we do not have a welfare system. I am the welfare system for my family, my brothers, my uncle. So when I go to an Ebola region, I am thinking of the 23 other people that depend on me. If there is no insurance, I will stay home."
5) "There are more than enough people in Africa—health care workers from Gabon, DRC, Uganda, Sudan—who have experience with [Ebola]."
6) "If you go to Sierra Leone or Liberia today, there must be at least 10 international groups there. At the end of this epidemic, everybody will pack their bags and leave. The African countries will be left not really knowing what has happened to them. Like someone hit them smack in the face, totally disoriented. There will be millions of scandals about how money was misspent and so on. We will focus on those and move on. Ten years from now, people will have forgotten that there was Ebola and we will be back to where we started."
No comments:
Post a Comment