So I'm watching television and I see a commercial for an important new drug that helps a previously underserved population-those without thick eyelashes.
Ok, I get it. If I had no eyelashes at all I would want some, but that's not how this stuff was marketed. The spokesperson was Brooke Shields, apparently in need of eyelashes to go with the brows. (This is not a Brooke Shields slam, or a heavy eyebrow slam. In the 80s my grandmother told me that I had Brooke Shields eyebrows, and I still do.)
Back to my rant point. Could we not do a little something more about malaria before putting money into studying and marketing an EYELASH drug?
- Malaria is a preventable and treatable disease.
- It is a public health problem today in more than 100 countries inhabited by some 2,400 million people — 40 percent of the world's population.
- Malaria is estimated to cause 300- 500 million clinical cases and over one million deaths each year.
- Every 30 seconds, a child somewhere dies of malaria. In any given year, nearly ten percent of the global population will suffer a case of malaria.
- Most survive after an illness of 10-20 days.
- Children are especially vulnerable to malaria. In Africa, where 80% of malaria cases are treated at home, the disease kills one child in twenty before the age of five.
- Pregnant women are also at high risk. They have an increase risk of disease and death, as well as adverse impacts for their developing babies- including low birth weight, growth retardation, still births and death.
- In African countries, up to 60% of hospital admissions may be for malaria; that's 6 out of 10 admissions!
I’m so with you, but let me be a pain anyway.
Yesterday we went to the Warren Dunes.
For some reason everyone has decided that it is now “in” to bring a dog to the beach, though the signs forbid it. And like a growing number of Americans, one dog is not enough. One family actually had four large dogs. Oh, and by the way, many of the dogs were overweight and out of shape, bearing great similarity to their owners.
While watching this I thought–
Only in America. Only in America would we spend hundreds of dollars a month to feed and keep animals, while kids in foreign lands starve, or kids in our own land, for that matter, have less than adequate education, health care, etc.
Here’s the thing. If you know me, you know that a dog-free world, or at least a bark-free world, is my idea of utopia. Because dogs don’t matter to me, it is easy for me to sacrifice another person’s dog to wipe out malaria. There are; however, things I enjoy that I would be far more resistant to give up if someone else suggested it.
For me to suggest to a dog lover that they give up Fido to feed the children is never going to happen. I will just be viewed as a heartless ogre.
Everyone has some material item that brings them pleasure…something they could do without and put toward a better cause.
So here’s my question…how do we decide what is “excessive” and who should decide what is “excessive?”
I do not deny that America is a land of excess and waste. I believe we, the American church, will be collectively judged for being formed into the image of our culture rather than the image of Christ. We’re pretty fat and happy, while others starve, literally and figuratively.
I know I’m not plowing new ground here. Tony Campolo caused a stir at Urbana in 1987 I think “suggesting” that no Christian should own a BMW if I remember correctly. I found myself wholeheartedly agreeing. I have also never been cursed by God with wealth.
So, I look forward to some interaction on this. What is excessive and who should decide it? I’d like more than Sunday School answers as well. It’s not as clean and easy as it seems.
Thanks for the novel, Dennis!
What is excessive? That’s a personal decision that each person has to make for herself. Obviously my definition of excessive is colored by my life in a Majority World country that has much less material wealth.
I should be honest about my little rant here-I was much less horrified by this concept when I found out that it was a drug that treats glaucoma and the eyelashes are a side effect that they’re now marketing, not a new drug that they spent millions on developing.
I’m actually trying to take a swipe at the research and development priorities of pharmaceutical companies here, not people that would choose to use the meds.
Still, it is not likely a cheap drug. I can’t imagine paying money for think eyelashes. Ok, mascara for the occasional day I put on make-up, sure.
We just got back from traveling through the US. I know I could get really slammed here, but I can NOT understand all the fat people. I am not talking about chubby people, women whose bodies never quite recovered after a third or fourth baby, or older people whose muscles turned flabby and were attacked by gravity. I am talking about fat people. Like ones who have their tummy down to their knees. Ones who are so big that their arms stick out to the side. Who pant as they walk to the end of the chip aisle. Whoa! When did we all get so fat? I don’t care what argument you have about genes and being hard to lose and all that – there is no way to get THAT fat without eating too much! And people in other places are dying for lack of food, while we are dying because we eat too much!