As I recall, the favelas were described according to their situation. I think it was 1,2, and 3 from acceptable to utterly miserable. I can't remember you telling us whether you stayed in what could be called a bad, better, or good one.
Harry
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Ed wrote:
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
****************************** Harry Pollard Henry George School of LA Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (818) 352-4141 Fax: (818) 353-2242 *******************************
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