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Madagascar village 'hit by bubonic plague'
- soogan 13y agoIs it too soon to say they should have closed their seaport?
- pekk 13y agoWill we crack such jokes if disease hits, say, Berlin? Or there is a reprise of 9/11? No, we won't, because it isn't some third-world country full of "colored people." What a disgrace.
- verbin217 13y agoAre you aware of the meme? There was a risk-like game where you played the role of a deadly disease. The game mechanics often left Madagascar as the last hold out of humanity. http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/shut-down-everything http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/shut-down-everything
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- lectrick 13y agoIt's a Flash game reference AND an old Internet meme (based on it) reference. Chill out, dude.
- GrahamsNumber 13y agoI don't know who "we" is for you, but we will
- ars 13y agoFor anyone who doesn't get it: http://www.kongregate.com/games/DarkRealmStudios/pandemic-2 http://www.kongregate.com/games/DarkRealmStudios/pandemic-2
- teejaygreen 13y agoI was thinking how easy it would be if it STARTED in Madagascar.
- toomuchtodo 13y agoTypically, that's the only way you ever win.
- arthulia 13y agouh oh
- fletchowns 13y agoMaybe take your witty little contributions over to reddit instead?
- jonursenbach 13y agoDid you really feel you needed to respond to them this way? A simple downvote just wasn't enough?
- lectrick 13y agoSerious HN is serious. Really, though... It was a great game and an unfortunately obvious reference if you've ever played Pandemic 2 for any length of time (and you're only missing out on the fun cleverness if you haven't).
- officemonkey 13y agoIt is ironic, isn't it.
- eruditely 13y agoI go to hacker news to avoid comments like this.
- Uberphallus 13y ago> I go to HN to avoid freedom of speech. FTFY
- joseph_cooney 13y agoI never realized until recently how the high mobility of goods, flexible trade system etc. brought about by the rise of the Mongol empire a few centuries before, allowed the Bubonic Plague to spread from south-east asia through to the middle east and europe in a relatively short time. Your greatest strength is also your greatest weakness.
- ekianjo 13y agoMobility of goods has been overall more positive to those involved than negative, all factors included.
- sliverstorm 13y agoIn the long-term, sure, but when it wiped out a third of Europe, that was definitely not more positive than negative.
- ekianjo 13y agoYou fail to see the bigger picture: - exchange of knowledge/technology - exchange of goods - exchange of cultural assets (goods, ideas and languages) - establishment of trade routes and advancement of transportation systems (roads, sea routes) It was massively positive overall. And while the plague killed many people, mankind learned a lot from it: we lacked hygiene and we were able to identify measured to further protect ourselves from such afflictions.
- Mvandenbergh 13y agoWe didn't learn anything from it, we had no idea what caused the Black Death until well into the modern age, centuries after it actually happened.
- Fomite 13y agoWhile you might argue that development was a net positive overall, we didn't actually learn a whole lot from it - plague was a recurring problem in Europe for centuries. For example, major epidemic we all think of as "The Black Death" kicked off in 1347, but there were still major outbreaks (the Great Plague of London) in 1665. If any one disease is responsible for hygiene and disease prevention in the west, I think you can make a much stronger case for the Cholera outbreaks in the mid-1800's.
- Renaud 13y agoMadagascar is such a beautiful country, with lots of natural resources (oil, rare timber, minerals) and 90% of its fauna and flora is endemic. It's huge, has almost any kind of scenery you could wish and is easily one of the most interesting places to visit on earth. Those interested should check out Sir David Attenborough's 4 part series on Madagascar: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/collections/p00db3n8 http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/collections/p00db3n8 Yet it suffers from extreme poverty, an unbelievable level of corruption at all levels, and an education system that leaves everyone behind (school isn't free, so most kids can't afford it). In recent decades, poverty has made the population desperate, levels of violence have risen, kidnappings are common, there is no real reason to think that the current elections are going to solve anything, those aspiring to be in power have proven to be as corrupted as those who are already in place. On top of that, during the cyclone season (hurricane/typhoon if you come from other parts of the world), the island becomes a giant target and gets hammered by bad weather: houses destroyed, roads cuts, etc In that context, it isn't surprising to learn that old diseases like the bubonic plague could easily get a hold; sanitation isn't high in the list of priorities.
- Fomite 13y ago"In that context, it isn't surprising to learn that old diseases like the bubonic plague could easily get a hold; sanitation isn't high in the list of priorities." It should be noted that plague is still transmitted in the American Southwest on a sporadic, but regular basis.
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- gboudrias 13y agoCome on man, this isn't reddit. Your comment is not constructive.
- mehmehshoe 13y agoFunny, I've been wondering when that little bug was going to surface again. Interesting that it sprung up in a relatively secluded island nation which would be comparatively easy to quarantine. If that hit in the slums of India or Brazil...CDC would be losing their shit right now. Speaking of the CDC, nothing about the outbreak on their website right now. Neither in the news or outbreak sections. I also checked the travel section and the plague does not show up on the radar as a disease with a history in that nation.
- tsotha 13y agoBubonic plague is a common problem with wildlife in California, which has which has wild reservoirs. CDC isn't "losing their shit" because this is something they already manage.
- Fomite 13y agoCalifornia and much of the Western U.S. It's actually gotten worse in recent years as urban areas push into formerly wild areas.
- Fomite 13y agoYeah...that's really not how the CDC works. Also, if you refer to this map, you'll find that "There's plague in Madagascar" really isn't, well, news to the CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/plague/images/WorldPlagueMapWebSmall.jpg http://www.cdc.gov/plague/images/WorldPlagueMapWebSmall.jpg
- atdt 13y ago"And, indeed, as he listened to the cries of joy rising from the town, Rieux remembered that such joy is always imperiled. He knew what those jubilant crowds did not know but could have learned from books: that the plague bacillus never dies or disappears for good; that it can lie dormant for years and years in furniture and linen- chests; that it bides its time in bedrooms, cellars, trunks, and bookshelves; and that perhaps the day would come when, for the bane and the enlightening of men, it would rouse up its rats again and send them forth to die in a happy city." -- Camus, "The Plague".