Chris, I wasn't suggesting that free trade is a causative factor in the spread of disease. The fact that goods and people move around is a factor, but I don't see why it wouldn't be even if trade were severely restricted. People and goods would still move around, if not legally then illegally. It reminds me of a lecture I once attended on trade between eastern and western Europe during the Cold War. Though illegal, trade continued to be brisk. The Poles were particularly good at it, bringing all kinds of goods into eastern Europe via underground networks. As Canute found out, the tides don't stop just because they are commanded to. And if people and goods aren't the principal carriers of disease, something else may be, like fleas and rats during the bubonic plague, or ticks or mosquitoes, things that pay little attention to sealed borders.
My concern was about huge and growing population clusters, like Sao Paulo, and the lack of a medical infrastructure that might stand a chance of coping with an epidemic. The slum I stayed in was very densely populated and sanitation was poor. A nearby slum was even worse - indeed, far worse. There were medical facilities not too far away, but they looked more able to spread than contain disease. Turn a virulent disease loose in places like that and the results could be catastrophic. Ed Ed Weick 577 Melbourne Ave. Ottawa, ON, K2A 1W7 Canada Phone (613) 728 4630 Fax (613) 728 9382 > Ed Weick wrote: > > Keith and Chris, the prospect is truly frightening. I've spent some time in > > a huge, densely crowded slum in Sao Paulo and visited slums in other second > > and third world cities. If the kind of disease Keith poses began to spread, > > there is absolutely no way it could be stopped or confined. The > > infrastructure simply isn't there. > > Worse, the same global "free" trade that helps the spread of such diseases > also helps the spread of slums in the first place. More incentive to > oppose it... > > Wonder if at least the British royals in their newly-built high-security > rooms will be spared...? > > Chris > > > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
