It's Just Africa: Ebola Ravages West Africa

 The World Health Organization (WHO) was notified of the first cases of Ebola in Guinea, West Africa in March 2014. Since then, the virus has spread past Guinea, thanks to the region’s porous borders, into Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal, and Nigeria. With a fatality rate of 70%, slightly lower than the 90% fatality rate of past outbreaks, Ebola has had a chance, due to unprepared public health systems and poorly informed citizenry, to spread steadily through the region. Ebola is thought to have spread to humans through fruit bats, which are considered a delicacy for some West Africans, as well as through other types of bush meat such as small rodents.

While Ebola does not spread quite as quickly as the Spanish flu or pre-vaccination days measles, efforts to contain the disease have already exceeded the capacity of public health systems in West Africa. The total case count of the disease has reached 6,574, as of September 29th, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to the CDC, the total number of laboratory confirmed cases is 3,626 and the total number of deaths is 3,091. The overwhelming majority of these cases have been documented in Liberia (3,458 total cases, 914 laboratory confirmed cases, and 1,830 deaths), with Sierra Leone running a close second (2,021 total cases, 1,816 laboratory confirmed cases, and 605 deaths). In Senegal, no new cases have been reported since August 29, and in Nigeria, no new cases have been reported since September 5. In Guinea, the infection rate seems to have stabilized.

Snowden, the NSA and Why Americans Don’t Care

While trolling through Buzzfeed’s list of best signs from the July 4th protests and the comments sections of various articles on the NSA/Snowden story, I’ve witnessed bold and unafraid Americans speaking up against injustice and government overreach. One of the more ironic signs spelled out the NSA acronym as ‘New Stasi Agency,’ a reference to the intelligence apparatus of East Germany that sought to 'know all.' Additionally, many readers commented on and expressed outrage toward the unprecedented nature of recently exposed U.S. surveillance programs. It’s good to know that people take seriously issues such as unwarranted seizure of citizens’ metadata and secret courts.

Courtesy of Buzzfeed

Not seriously enough, as it turns out. New insights keep piling up with minimal reaction from the American populous: the FISA court’s precedent-setting decisions for intelligence gathering, gag orders preventing tech companies (Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google) from speaking of government requests for user data, general secrecy surrounding the NSA, FISA and the latter’s trove of jurisprudence that remains largely out of sight. No legislation is on the table calling for accountability and transparency. No one is flooding the streets and their representative’s office demanding explanation or remedy. Instead, a few protests dotted America on its birthday. No one seems to care.

Does the G8 Still Matter?

The G8 summit, taking place this week in Northern Ireland, represents a yearly gathering of 8 of the world’s 11 most wealthy countries. Every year, world leaders from the Group of 8 meet to discuss primarily the global economy, but also pressing topics such as terrorism, world food supply, and this year, the Syrian conflict. Representing 50.1 percent of the world’s total GDP, there is no question that these eight countries hold more sway than most. Yet in the face of deep divisions between members such as Russia and the US, as well as the absence of China, India, and Brazil, does the G8 truly still have relevance in today’s world?