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I get the feeling the reason this is out of control is the political climate, at one point in time, a good US president or EU council would've sent aid, doctors

I get the feeling the reason this is out of control is the political climate, at one point in time, a good US president or EU council would've sent aid, doctors, equipment, etc to help tackle this, now everyone is so broke (allegedly) and angry that it's just political suicide to say you're sending money to help "foreigners" in Africa. The face of rich people and philanthropy has changed too. The billionaires (and nearly trillionaires?) don't need to pretend to care anymore. They have a moat right now where it's fine to be hoarding all the money while thousands die from something which we could stop if the resources and political clout was available to help. China was entering into this space but seems not to be helping now either, I guess because the west isn't helping, they don't need to pretend anymore that they're the good guys. Obviously, it's the right thing to do is help, even if just for selfish reasons, ie we don't want this thing in other countries, but you cannot do that anymore because it's just political suicide to do so.

fliglr 24d ago
How many decades have we been helping Africa for, and for what?
- inference-god 24d ago
  When Ebola is eating your face you will find out for what. Africa might be the least fortunate people but you don't get a pass for ignoring that and not helping, we're all in this together, like it or not.
- dumberquestions 24d ago
  Why ever help people in need?
- pensatoio 24d ago
  It went, primarily, to their politicians and warlords. The West needs to face the fact that we aren’t the world’s savior, and fixing other countries problems is not our job.
- thrance 24d ago
  Such a bad take. Africa was still mostly colonies until the mid 20th century. And today, it's ruled by corrupt dictators that the North ensures stay in place so they can bribe their ways to getting concessions, to extract resources and cheap labor. Looking at import/export and capital flows, any "helping" we did was nothing but the barest of compensation for the ongoing massive theft of Africa's wealth.
- rurp 24d ago
  To prevent countless thousands of easily preventable deaths. Human problems don't just stop at some point, especially in poor areas that are also getting hit the hardest by climate change. Are you also upset that western countries have been giving their poorest citizens food for decades?
thinkcontext 24d ago
For those that don't recall or weren't around the Obama administration send thousands of medical and military to assist with the 2013-2016 outbreak. A big part of what they did was construct medical wards, but they helped with treatment, PPE, testing infrastructure, etc. That outbreak had 11K dead and things were on the verge of being a lot worse. There were beginning to be neighborhood level lockdowns to prevent spread and civil unrest. Its difficult to play what-if games but it certainly was a very serious situation. From what I've heard this outbreak is spreading faster than that one at the same stage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_African_Ebola_epidemic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_African_Ebola_epidemic

fliglr 24d ago

How many decades have we been helping Africa for, and for what?

inference-god 24d ago
When Ebola is eating your face you will find out for what. Africa might be the least fortunate people but you don't get a pass for ignoring that and not helping, we're all in this together, like it or not.
dumberquestions 24d ago
Why ever help people in need?
pensatoio 24d ago
It went, primarily, to their politicians and warlords. The West needs to face the fact that we aren’t the world’s savior, and fixing other countries problems is not our job.
thrance 24d ago
Such a bad take. Africa was still mostly colonies until the mid 20th century. And today, it's ruled by corrupt dictators that the North ensures stay in place so they can bribe their ways to getting concessions, to extract resources and cheap labor. Looking at import/export and capital flows, any "helping" we did was nothing but the barest of compensation for the ongoing massive theft of Africa's wealth.
rurp 24d ago
To prevent countless thousands of easily preventable deaths. Human problems don't just stop at some point, especially in poor areas that are also getting hit the hardest by climate change. Are you also upset that western countries have been giving their poorest citizens food for decades?

thinkcontext 24d ago

For those that don't recall or weren't around the Obama administration send thousands of medical and military to assist with the 2013-2016 outbreak. A big part of what they did was construct medical wards, but they helped with treatment, PPE, testing infrastructure, etc. That outbreak had 11K dead and things were on the verge of being a lot worse. There were beginning to be neighborhood level lockdowns to prevent spread and civil unrest. Its difficult to play what-if games but it certainly was a very serious situation. From what I've heard this outbreak is spreading faster than that one at the same stage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_African_Ebola_epidemic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_African_Ebola_epidemic