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Ebola deaths in Liberia are ‘far higher than reported’ as officials downplay epidemic
The Guardian (UK) ^ | 10/18/2014 | Mark Townsend

Posted on 10/18/2014 10:13:27 PM PDT by RightGeek

The true death toll from the Ebola epidemic is being masked by chaotic data collection and people’s reluctance to admit that their loved ones had the virus, according to one of west Africa’s most celebrated film-makers.

Sorious Samura, who has just returned from making a documentary on the crisis in Liberia, said it is very clear on the ground that the true number of dead is far higher than the official figures being reported by the World Health Organisation.

Liberia accounts for more than half of all the official Ebola deaths, with a total of 2,458. Overall, the number of dead across Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea has exceeded 4,500.

Samura, a television journalist originally from Sierra Leone, said the Liberian authorities appeared to be deliberately downplaying the true number of cases, for fear of increasing alarm in the west African country.

[snip]

He said another striking feature was that the ineffectiveness of years of aid had been laid bare: “Money has poured in from the west, but it has gone to waste. Ebola should make us think about how the west gives aid to Africa; aid has not been used to create a system able to cope with this challenge. Ebola has exposed the fact it is not working. That money has gone to waste.”

A committee of MPs recently criticised the Department for International Development and the EU for failing to address the problem of aid being misappropriated. It said just £2.4m of £37m of aid had actually made its way to Liberia’s health ministry.

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: ebola; eboladeaths; ebolaoutbreak; liberia
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Anyone for a bat meat sandwich?
1 posted on 10/18/2014 10:13:28 PM PDT by RightGeek
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To: RightGeek

I’m reading articles that hospitals have to turn people away ... There is no room.

And that people just don”t go to the hospital, they’d rather die at home


2 posted on 10/18/2014 10:17:31 PM PDT by BunnySlippers (I LOVE BULL MARKETS . . .)
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To: RightGeek

As long as it’s a sourdough panini with stoneground mustard and the bat meat is extra rare.

:~)


3 posted on 10/18/2014 10:19:25 PM PDT by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget (God punishes Conservatives by making them argue with fools.)
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To: RightGeek

Mmmmmm. Bat meat: ‘Chicken of the Cave’.


4 posted on 10/18/2014 10:24:28 PM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives.)
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To: RightGeek

And that’s where Obama is sending the soldiers to die. Osama bin barack will kill more than Bin Laden

And also account for the kids dead due to his illegal importation. The filthy illegals are killing America. Do I need emphasis? They are KILLING America!


5 posted on 10/18/2014 10:28:44 PM PDT by Viennacon (Obola is a muslim terrorist & his viral illegals need to be deported NOW!)
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To: RightGeek

The world needs to quarantine the entire area and let the disease burn itself out.

I know it sounds inhumane, but this is a very dangerous plague. Better to shoot a few people trying to escape than allow the disease to become established in a city like Lagos with millions in close proximity, then start spreading across the globe.


6 posted on 10/18/2014 10:30:01 PM PDT by MediaMole
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To: LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
Meats in Africa are not really cooked. They dry them in strips with a light bulb in a box or in the hot sun. It's like biltong (http://www.instructables.com/id/BiltongNOT-jerky/)

Biltong is a South African method of meats preparation. It comes with a warning about what you dry to eat.

7 posted on 10/18/2014 10:30:19 PM PDT by blackdog (There is no such thing as healing, only a balance between destructive and constructive forces.)
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To: Viennacon
"And that’s where Obama is sending the soldiers to die. Osama bin barack will kill more than Bin Laden"

Some men are evil and work hard at it. Others are evil and just get elected and do it the easy way.

8 posted on 10/18/2014 10:32:31 PM PDT by blackdog (There is no such thing as healing, only a balance between destructive and constructive forces.)
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To: MediaMole
The world needs to quarantine the entire area and let the disease burn itself out.

I know it sounds inhumane, but this is a very dangerous plague. Better to shoot a few people trying to escape than allow the disease to become established in a city like Lagos with millions in close proximity, then start spreading across the globe.

Well said and anyone with a even modicum of intelligence would agree. In fact, had Thomas Eric Duncan been handled in such no-nonsense a manner, the Obola outbreak in America would have been eliminated at the source.

9 posted on 10/18/2014 10:36:01 PM PDT by re_nortex (DP - that's what I like about Texas)
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To: blackdog

I happen to love biltong. Make it from eye of round. It kicks jerkys ass by a mile.

I also happen to be from SA. Would I ever eat rodent? Hell no!!!!


10 posted on 10/18/2014 10:39:56 PM PDT by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget (God punishes Conservatives by making them argue with fools.)
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To: LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget

Not even a nice chocolate mouse mousse?


11 posted on 10/18/2014 10:47:25 PM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives.)
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To: LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget

I had a boss in the 80’s / 90’s who was from Warm Baths SA. His mom used to visit America once a year and she would make us “Farmer’s Biscuits” when she came. The most fantastic rock hard coffee dunking thing I’ve ever tasted! We ate them sparingly so they would last long after she went back. That was also where I was introduced to Biltong.


12 posted on 10/18/2014 10:47:32 PM PDT by blackdog (There is no such thing as healing, only a balance between destructive and constructive forces.)
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To: blackdog

Want a recipe for the biscuits? Super easy to make. Easier than baking a bread. About cookie making level.

My fav has shredded coconut in it, and dunking them in coffee...... Nothing better for breakfast.


13 posted on 10/18/2014 10:51:33 PM PDT by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget (God punishes Conservatives by making them argue with fools.)
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To: blackdog

ruskrecipes.com

You are welcome.


14 posted on 10/18/2014 10:55:34 PM PDT by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget (God punishes Conservatives by making them argue with fools.)
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To: LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget

Thank you.


15 posted on 10/18/2014 11:00:49 PM PDT by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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To: tumblindice

Mouse mousse

Heh. I am tempted just for the irony.


16 posted on 10/18/2014 11:03:07 PM PDT by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget (God punishes Conservatives by making them argue with fools.)
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To: LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget

A FR gem. Thanks. I now know they were the Woolworth’s Cut, Muesli Rusks. I know what I’ll be doing on my next days off from work.


17 posted on 10/18/2014 11:05:25 PM PDT by blackdog (There is no such thing as healing, only a balance between destructive and constructive forces.)
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Comment #18 Removed by Moderator

To: blackdog

Damn. Not only will I have to bake the sourdough retarding in the fridge tomorrow, now I want rusks. I guess I can make em while the boule proofs, and just bake them when the bread comes out.

Damn you blackdog

:~)


19 posted on 10/18/2014 11:16:08 PM PDT by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget (God punishes Conservatives by making them argue with fools.)
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To: RightGeek
It would be a real service if some statistician could come up with a reasonable estimate of the body count, if only in Liberia. This only confirms what most who are paying any kind of close attention have known only too well for months. It would not be unreasonable to say, for example, that half the population of certain zones, some villages, have been wiped out.

Spent a lot of time last August reading articles from the local press, as the epidemic had already created a hot zone, and the chief stories out of Monrovia were about graft, aid monies from Europe and the U.S., public and private charity, re-directed, so to speak.

It's a going concern, as the British say, a veritable industry.

The big story in Monrovia, other than the Ebola wake-up call, was President Sirleaf's intention to fire those of her cabinet and to anathematize those in the Senate there who had already fled the country with no return tickets. I'm given to understand, without confirmation, that most of these folks returned, perhaps after the Europeans lifted their commercial air embargoes.

Trying to get news out of Guinea or Sierra Leone next to impossible, like calling "Information" in Moscow.

Or, to put it like Barry Farber used to, "In Moscow, when you call Information, you'd better have some."

20 posted on 10/18/2014 11:20:38 PM PDT by Prospero (Si Deus trucido mihi, ego etiam fides Deus.)
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