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Yet Another Self-Important Blog.
Rohit Singh
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[Sat, 10 Apr 2004]
(Two) Theaters of the Absurd
Trust Dharmendra to make the best poll promises- "a Basanti for every Veeru".
Surprise Surprise, Laloo doesn't like being taken pot-shots at. Houses of glass and stones and so on...
And one would've thought that he'd stop explaining his middle name once he turned 70.
For once TOI gets out of its usual tabloid-y mode to point out something of interest- our politicians get real good deals on real estate.
If you count a Kennedy as a friend and you are in politics and you're American then you must be golden, right ? Umm...not exactly...
This poor fellow says "com'on, lets stop fighting and lets play fair.". Pat comes the reply, "not until we beat you, buster."
On Malaria and DDT in Africa
The NYT magazine has a long article on the (lack of) use of
DDT in fighting malaria. Its been known for quite some time that malaria
drugs are losing their potency, mostly because of the resistance developed
by mosquitoes. And research in malaria drugs, atleast by big pharma, is
relatively nonexistent. This is inspite of the recent sequencing of the Mosquito
and Plasmodium
genomes. Of late, the US Army has been financing malaria research, partly
because so much of its fighting is happening in tropical climates ;-) !!
Anyway, DDT got a bad name in the West- partly because the very first environmental book demonized it. That criticism was valid- the Americans used DDT as a pesticide and in those concentrations it really was bad for the ecosystem. Currently, however, it is recommended that DDT only be used in minute quantities and only for in-house spraying. The NYT Magazine article makes the point that if DDT is used in this way it is a very cheap and effective way of fighting malaria. Not to mention that it is probably harmless in those quantities.
But nobody in Africa and poorer parts of Latin America seems to be using DDT. The biggest problem is that the aid agencies, which get funding from western nations where DDT is demonized, don't fund DDT-based work. They prefer mosquito nets (which are costlier and not as effective). Needless to say, the respective govts also like nets because individuals pay for them, instead of the govt funding required for DDT spraying. Finally, the chemical industry would rather that you didn't use DDT. DDT's off-patent, you see.
But things are changing. People are taking second look at DDT. The interesting thing is that India and China are the only places that make DDT. Now that the Africans are getting more and more interested in using DDT maybe we can give it to them for free/cheap. Would be good for humanity and all. Not to mention that we can score some brownie points- might come in useful later.
On a tangential note, AIDS has sucked up a lot of funding money- money which could've gone to malaria, among other things. Personally, I don't mind this- I think AIDS really should get all the funding and exposure we can throw at it. Once it seeps into the general population, it is amazingly hard to get rid of and many cultures (read India and China) have a head-in-the-sand mentality towards all sex-related diseases and especially AIDS. Thus, we might end up ignoring it until its far too late.
When you are angry, beat your chest...
Some people have too much time on their hands. Look at this study.