Lecture on Islam

Last night  Dr. Muhammad Kahlil’s  gave a lecture titled, “Islam, Terrorism, and Osama Bin Laden.” He has a doctorate in religious studies and his focus for this lecture dealt with the Islam religion and it’s response to the 9-11 terrorist attacks. It was very intriguing and very evident that Dr. Kahlil has done vast amounts of research on this. He discussed many examples from the Qur'an that were taken out of context and made it seem violent, and that is what Islam is about. The Qur'an holistically is not one bit violent, but it does allow them to fight when they need to defend themselves. Another aspect that was mentioned was the Jihad, which means a noble struggle. Jihads can encompass almost anything, but from the 100 listed from medieval Muslim scholars, only 5 had to deal with violence. Jihad is what the people struggle with, now it is being twist and turned to make things fit so it can be “noble”.

Dr. Kahlil did not directly state that this affects the health of the Islam people, but it does. Infrastructure is almost impossible to keep in a country that has people like Osama, making Muslim people whole-heartily believe that they are doing something that is righteous when clearly some aspects do not follow the guidelines of the Qur’an. Nonetheless, Osama Bin Laden was very charismatic and could play on people emotions that truly made them believe in the cause. Hatred leads to violence, and when there is violence this leads to people not being able to live their lives’ as they would normally because just walking outside could harm them.  Thus, leading to children not being able to go to school, and simple resources not being got. Then as discussed many times, people would be displaced because they fled. Ultimately, it’s a pitfall trend.

Polio

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1104329

This article, “The Polio Endgame” discusses polio. Polio is not a problem in developed countries. The last recorded case was reported in 1999 from the US. Polio in the developing countries is not as big of a problem as HIV or other diseases, but different wild polio types are starting to appear and ultimately the developing countries are at risk. The authors of this articles have proposed a way to decrease the infection rates of the wild types of polio by, “Achieving a polio-free world will eventually require stopping routine immunization with OPV and eliminating vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPVs), particularly circulating VDPVs, which are Sabin-strain viruses that have acquired both neurovirulence and the capacity to circulate.” The polio “endgame” has never really been able to be achieved till now. Shockingly, in all the chaos of all the other epidemics and pandemics around the world, polio may be once and for all be eradicated. Another issue would be to make sure that the viruses do not get out of the laboratory from the tests for this to be possible.

            If polio were to start infecting a big mass of people, this would become a world problem. There are so many people who travel to other countries and go back to their homes. Also, people in the militaries would bring it back to their homes. Especially for Americans this is a risk. Afghanistan is one of the developing countries that would be most likely infected, and we have troops there. The men would be susceptible to this wild strain, and could bring it back. Ultimately, putting their families and friends at risk. If polio were eradicated for good, the world be able to check one thing of the checklist of problems. 

TB: Good News and Bad

This article talks about good news and bad news about tuberculosis. TB is the second, behind HIV, infectious killer to adults. The good news, TB rates have dropped from nine million to 8.8 million. Also, data show that the death rates have dropped by 40% within the last decade, except Africa. This is not a surprise however. The biggest drop however, was by China. China dropped rates by 80%! This is interesting, but it makes sense. China is on the rise to becoming a developed country, and has a “stable” government compared to the developed countries. Their IMR is low as well. A stable government is the key to being able to control pandemics and epidemic outbreaks. The infection needs access to health care, and in developed countries they are more likely to have that access. Maybe not every person that needs it, but more than just a few. Also, a non-corrupt government is more likely to let foreign aid in and help out without a threat to those workers. In corrupt governments, they do not care about their people, and aid sometimes is denied. It is a global problem.

            The bad news, multi-drug strain resistant TB is spreading at a fast and scary rate, and there are not as many drugs to cure it anymore. Unfortunately, this is going to affect the developing countries the most because of the lack of a stable government. To keep this from becoming a crisis, the country needs to be defensive against it. Some developing countries do not have prevention, but try to react. However, sometimes they cannot even react defensively against it and are helpless. New strains are being tested everyday, so for the countries that can be preventative and fight against it they are in decent shape, but what about the developing countries?

http://www.care2.com/causes/world-health-organization-reports-first-ever-decline-in-tb.html

Land rights for Africans

This article discusses the land rights of Africa and how they are going to change for the better. The land in Africa is very useful, and when put into perspective most of the income made from the African people is from farming. Therefore, they want to focus on getting land out to those people who need it most, and shockingly they want to work on women’s rights to land. The article did not address the effects of this besides that it will alleviate some poverty; it was more on the how this program was going to work.

            Without saying it directly, they are going to empower women. Giving them land to farm and sell goods ultimately gives them the power to handle the finances. This would be an incredible step if it works out. It is proven that women handle money much better than men. When the female spends the money, the family strives. The money she spends goes to essentials, such as food. When males handle money, they will spend some of it on pleasure items, like beer. Also, if more people have farms, they are making food for themselves. The next step to this would be teaching women about microfinance, but in hindsight this could be pushing it too much. Men would not truly allow women to have “ALL” the power.

            Another aspect would be that it would alleviate some poverty. If poverty is alleviated even by a small amount, things are subject to change. It would be a positive for progression. Africa could truly start developing. Although, when reading all this, there is still that saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Overall, this action plan, “Nairobi Action Plan” would be a positive step into the future.

http://www.newsfromafrica.org/newsfromafrica/articles/art_12946.html