When political correctness kills - Uganda fights back

Uganda has announced it intends to go against the political correctness that has killed 55 million people and will shortly begin using DDT to eradicate malaria. The European Union (EU) and Bayer Crop Sciences are up in arms -- the EU because they're meddling, protectionist arseholes, and Bayer because they stand to lose out if the DDT ban is overturned. 'Fuck you,' was essentially the reaction of the EU's Ugandan Charge d'Affaires: "He warned that if Uganda used DDT to save lives, the EU would ban the import of any flowers, food, or other agricultural products grown in the sub-Saharan country." Story here.

"DDT has been proven, over and over again, to be the most effective and least expensive method of fighting malaria," responded an adamant Ugandan Health Minister Health Minister Muhwezi. He's right you know. But neither EU nor Bayer are interested in 'effective' or 'least expensive'; they're interested in using PC and governments to protect their markets, even if people have to die:

"We fully support [the EU's decision] to ban imports of agricultural products coming from countries using DDT," Bayer vector control manager Gerhard Hesse said in an email exchange with malaria scientists. He admitted "DDT use is for us a commercial threat."

Bayer Crop Sciences reported sales of more than $7 billion in 2004. In a potential conflict of interest, Hesse sits on the board of the World Health Organization's Roll Back Malaria (RBM) coalition. The group has overseen an increase in disease and death rates from malaria, due in part to policies that shun DDT. RBM has been characterized as "a failing public health program" by the 'British Medical Journal.'

Protectionism, political correctness and environmentalism are killing innocent Africans: "European Greens are killing innocent Africans" say anti-malaria/pro-DDT activists. "Do Europeans care about African lives? If they do, they must turn their backs on the politically correct rhetoric of environmental activist groups and allow DDT to start saving lives."

"DDT helped eradicate malaria from Europe and the United States in the 1950s, and was used to eradicate malaria in many other countries," Richard Tren, South African director of Africa Fighting Malaria, told the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on September 28.

Explained Tren in written remarks submitted to the committee, "DDT is safe for human use, and there has never been a peer-reviewed replicated study showing any human harm from the chemical, even though billions have been exposed to it (hundreds of millions in moderate to high doses).

Links: 'Uganda Fighting for Right to Eradicate Malaria' - African Fighting Malaria (AFM)
'55 million dead and still counting ...' - Not PC
'No rerun in Presidential polls' - The New Vision, Uganda