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Flying Pigs

The WHO has argued that this recent swine flu can "no longer be contained". Perhaps. But is it not more a question that the current capitalist system - which is heavily reliant on aviation - did not want restrictive measures? Consider this option - had a limit or ban on flights to and from Mexico (even Mexico City) been implemented, and enforced, for a fortnight, until the full import of the virus could be determined, none of the cases currently in Europe, including Scotland, would have occurred. And, it is possible the life of the child who has sadly just died, because on the same plane with some other British-bound tourists, could have been saved. I understand that European tourists want to get home, but transporting them back in small tubes with recycled air for nine hours is a form of slow-motion homicide (potentially). As aviation is seen to be increasingly dangerous, to our health, why is it still allowed to thrive?

Comments

When happen a Flu case it always the same....

Social alert, Media advertisement and escandal...

I thought this only happened in Portugal, but around the world the Social Alarm is frequently

I see
Janet Vickers said…
You make a very good point here. Why do we not expect the most powerful interests to be socially responsible? Would it be because the individual has not learned the cost of seeing herself as an isolated consumer rather than a soul connected and bound by global events? Or is it because power, when reduced to its most primitive element feels no obligation to the life it preys upon?
Nice one. It's a bit badly maintained (there's nawt on swine) but http://www.pandemicaction.net/about/ is a site that explicitly links pandemic threat with global social & ecological justice

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