03 October 2008

Iran on Friday summoned Afghan Charge D'Affaires to Tehran al-Ghiath to inform him of its request from Kabul to take proper measures on common border areas to curb spread of ElTor cholerae there.

Deputy Director General of West Asian Affairs Department at Foreign Ministry said al-Ghiath had been summoned in absence of Afghan Ambassador to Tehran to call on Afghan government to launch stern campaign against the disease.

The Afghan diplomat was also informed of Iran's readiness to dispatch a medical team to the ElTor-prone regions to help Afghan prevent spread of the lethal epidemic.

They're concerned about its safety. Terrorists in Iraq used the cylinders in "dirty bombs." And it can mix with other constituents in water to form harmful byproducts.

Well, the month of September marks 100 years of water chlorination, with the first full-scale chlorine disinfection system in Jersey City, NJ. Within 10 years, the number of cities using chlorine for disinfection reached 1,000. In 1941, 85% of cities in the U.S. were using it to treat drinking water.

Chlorine has been responsible for virtually eliminating many infectious diseases and revolutionizing our country's health. This chemical has saved millions of lives by killing bacteria, parasites and viruses in the water, and I think it deserves some appreciation. Before the use of chlorine, thousands of people died each year from waterborne diseases like cholera and typhoid fever, with over 27,000 deaths from typhoid alone during the Civil War.

In 1989 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began requiring a residual chlorine level in drinking water distribution systems, and that requirement remains today. Chlorine is the most effective, least costly, and reliable ways to keep us healthy.

Check out the American Chemistry Council's website, 100 Years of Safer Lives for more information about chlorine and how it benefits us every day.

And raise your glass (of water) to wish a Happy 100th Birthday to this remarkable chemical.

How did the Bush team solve the clean drinking water problem so that cholera would have less of an impact on the lives of the colonized Iraqis? Is cholera still a problem for the Iraqis? Did exporting democracy to Iraq help Iraq get a "clean glass of drinking water"?

Iraq Cholera Cases on the Rise:

BAGHDAD September 25, 2008 (AP)

Iraq's Health Ministry Reports 327 Confirmed Cholera Cases Since Last Month. Dr. Ihsan Jaafar, the ministry spokesman, says Babil province south of Baghdad has had 200 cases, while 61 others were reported in Baghdad province. The statement Thursday says the death toll from the outbreak stands at five.

Cholera is a gastrointestinal disease that can be spread by a lack of clean drinking water. The problem has been worsened by the poor state of Iraq's infrastructure after years of neglect and war.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=5882110

After five years of occupation, is a "clean glass of drinking water" still out of reach for too many Iraqis? What did the Bush team's exporting democracy to Iraq mean?

It could be that the Bush team is the most misunderstood American leaders in the history of America.

Just what did the Bush team mean when it said it was exporting democracy to Iraq?

The planning for the "war aftermath" should have been the planning for the beginning of democracy in Iraq - RIGHT?

Greenstock attacks lack of planning for war aftermath

By Ben Russell, Political Correspondent
Thursday, 10 April 2008

Two of the pivotal figures in the invasion of Iraq have launched outspoken attacks on the "woeful" lack of planning for the aftermath of the war.

Sir Jeremy Greenstock, former British ambassador to the UN, and Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Burridge, who commanded British forces in the assault on Iraq in 2003, attacked the White House for allowing Iraq to descend into chaos in the days after Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled.

Their critical assessments of the invasion aftermath came as the House of Lords dismissed attempts by the mothers of two soldiers killed in Iraq to force an inquiry into the conflict.

Nine law lords rejected an appeal by Beverly Clarke and Rose Gentle who argued that human rights law required an inquiry into the conflict.

In a book published yesterday, Sir Jeremy condemned the United States for its "woefully inadequate planning and their bad mismatch of resources to tasks after the conflict was over"...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/greenstock-attacks-lack-of-planning-for-war-aftermath-807008.html

Just what did the Bush team mean when it said the Iraq war was "not about the oil"?

Was the export of democracy supposed to help the Iraqi citizens as much as BIG OIL? Iraq's hydrocarbon law is in place and BIG OIL is pumping oil, while a "clean glass" of drinking water seems to have escaped some Iraqi citizens.

It is likely that BIG OIL'S major goals have been met. And BIG OIL was not even a factor in the Bush team's exporting democracy to Iraq - RIGHT? What did the 2003 Secretary of Defense say about America wanting Iraq's oil?

U.S. not Interested in Iraqi Oil, Rumsfeld Tells Arab World:

by Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2003 – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed as "utter nonsense" the notion that the United States is after Iraqi oil.

"The only idea we have for the region is that it not be producing weapons of mass destruction and it not be invading its neighbors and that it be peaceful," Rumsfeld said. He added that the United States also wants to see an Iraq where the citizens can "figure out how they want to run their country free of a dictator like Saddam Hussein."

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=29374

Just what did the Bush team mean when it spoke of "shock and awe"?

Could "shock and awe" have inferred a quick ending to the Iraq war?

Just what, perhaps after a moment of reflection, did the Bush team mean when it said the Iraq war would forever be the right thing?

Hans Blix said:

The Guardian

Thursday March 20 2008

Iraq: Five years on

A war of utter folly
Responsibility for this spectacular tragedy must lie with those who ignored the facts five years ago

The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a tragedy - for Iraq, for the US, for the UN, for truth and human dignity. I can only see one gain: the end of Saddam Hussein, a murderous tyrant. Had the war not finished him he would, in all likelihood, have become another Gadafy or Castro; an oppressor of his own people but no longer a threat to the world. Iraq was on its knees after a decade of sanctions.

The elimination of weapons of mass destruction was the declared main aim of the war. It is improbable that the governments of the alliance could have sold the war to their parliaments on any other grounds. That they believed in the weapons' existence in the autumn of 2002 is understandable. Why had the Iraqis stopped UN inspectors during the 90s if they had nothing to hide? Responsibility for the war must rest, though, on what those launching it knew by March 2003.

By then, Unmovic inspectors had carried out some 700 inspections at 500 sites without finding prohibited weapons. The contract that George Bush held up before Congress to show that Iraq was purchasing uranium oxide was proved to be a forgery. The allied powers were on thin ice, but they preferred to replace question marks with exclamation marks.

They could not succeed in eliminating WMDs because they did not exist. Nor could they succeed in the declared aim to eliminate al-Qaida operators, because they were not in Iraq. They came later, attracted by the occupants. A third declared aim was to bring democracy to Iraq, hopefully becoming an example for the region. Let us hope for the future; but five years of occupation has clearly brought more anarchy than democracy...

Hans Blix was head of UN inspections in Iraq in 2003

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/mar/20/iraq.usa

Take a look at both of the below remarks about America's economy. Both remarks came from the the Bush team. One remark was made in 2003, the other in 2008.

Can you attach the below remarks to their proper dates? Did the neocons transition a good economy to a train-wreck economy or did the neocons transition a train-wreck economy into a good economy? Has the Bush team found its "atta-boy" in America's economy?

REMARKS # 1:

The entire economy is in danger.

REMARKS # 2:

Our economy is healthy and vigorous, and growing faster than other major industrialized nations. In the last two-and-a-half years, America has created 4.6 million new jobs -- more than Japan and the European Union combined. (Applause.) Even in the face of higher energy prices and natural disasters, the American people have turned in an economic performance that is the envy of the world.

Abstract

This paper identifies groups vulnerable to the effect of flooding on hospital visits due to diarrhoea during and after a flood event in 1998 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The number of observed cases of cholera and non-cholera diarrhoea per week was compared to expected normal numbers during the flood and post-flood periods, obtained as the season-specific average over the two preceding and subsequent years using Poisson generalised linear models. The expected number of diarrhoea cases was estimated in separate models for each category of potential modifying factors: sex, age, socio-economic status and hygiene and sanitation practices. During the flood, the number of cholera and non-cholera diarrhoea cases was almost six and two times higher than expected, respectively. In the post-flood period, the risk of non-cholera diarrhoea was significantly higher for those with lower educational level, living in a household with a non-concrete roof, drinking tube-well water (vs. tap water), using a distant water source and unsanitary toilets. The risk for cholera was significantly higher for those drinking tube-well water and those using unsanitary toilets. This study confirms that low socio-economic groups and poor hygiene and sanitation groups were most vulnerable to flood-related diarrhoea.

Contact: Masahiro Hashizume, Research Center for Tropical Infectious Diseases, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Japan, hashizum [at ] nagasaki-u.ac.jp

Abstract

This paper identifies groups vulnerable to the effect of flooding on hospital visits due to diarrhoea during and after a flood event in 1998 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The number of observed cases of cholera and non-cholera diarrhoea per week was compared to expected normal numbers during the flood and post-flood periods, obtained as the season-specific average over the two preceding and subsequent years using Poisson generalised linear models. The expected number of diarrhoea cases was estimated in separate models for each category of potential modifying factors: sex, age, socio-economic status and hygiene and sanitation practices. During the flood, the number of cholera and non-cholera diarrhoea cases was almost six and two times higher than expected, respectively. In the post-flood period, the risk of non-cholera diarrhoea was significantly higher for those with lower educational level, living in a household with a non-concrete roof, drinking tube-well water (vs. tap water), using a distant water source and unsanitary toilets. The risk for cholera was significantly higher for those drinking tube-well water and those using unsanitary toilets. This study confirms that low socio-economic groups and poor hygiene and sanitation groups were most vulnerable to flood-related diarrhoea.

Contact: Masahiro Hashizume, Research Center for Tropical Infectious Diseases, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Japan, hashizum [at ] nagasaki-u.ac.jp

Among the many ways you can describe Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Love in the Time of Cholera, it is most prominently a meditation on the definition of love. The way Marquez lays the groundwork is insidious, and has a way of sneaking up on the reader. When I read the blurb on the back cover of the book, the story of a man Florentino Ariza, who never falls out of love with a childhood love Fermina Daza even over the course of 622 lovers, I figured I was getting a fairly orthodox love story.

However, Marquez is not content simply with the love story between them. He avoids the mistake of offering conventional, Hollywood sorts of motivatons. As the story opens, we in fact do not meet Ariza at all, but the doctor Juvenal Urbino, as he is heading to the funeral of a poor townsperson. He dies in a mishap (in a darkly funny scene) which sets up Ariza professing his love, of all places, at the funeral. However, far from portraying this as a guignol gesture, Marquez is careful to avoid much implication. Is Ariza caught in a case of "arrested development" as ESPN's baseball/bookwork Keith Law opines? Or is he really a hopeless romantic. Marquez does not tip his hand either way. Is this true love?

What about the marriage between Urbino and Fermina? Is that true love? Marquez does not short change the story. There may or may not have been love early, but like often is the case between arranged marriage participants, does not love and regard grow between them? The love of shared sacrifice, bearing children and all? As Marquez puts it:

But in her loneliness in the palace she learned to know him [her son], they learned to know each other, and she discovered with great delight that one does not love one’s children just because they are one’s children but because of the friendship formed while raising them.

What about the affairs of Ariza, and his prodigious volume? Was that also love, even if it is love of an idea? Much like Nabokov does with Lolita, Marquez does not offer an easy answer, or indeed any real hints of what he is thinking. It is almost a meditation on not just love, but the human condition. Friends of mine who learned of my reading this recommend 100 Years of Solitude as a fuller Marquez experience, the whole reknowned magic realism leitmotif. Certainly Cholera seems much more accessible.

At least 12 people in the capital’s Chitungwiza township have died as a result of the disease but medical officials say this number is likely much higher and merely ‘the tip of the iceberg’. Health centres in Harare as well as in Bulawayo are reportedly burdened by numerous cases of diarrhea on a daily basis and more deaths as a result are expected.

The water and sanitation situation across the country has been rapidly deteriorating as the ongoing political crisis has seen the destruction of the economy and the equal destruction of the country’s infrastructure. The Zimbabwe National Water Authority has come under heavy criticism for failing to provide a proper service – a failure that has left most homes dry and dependent on unsafe, unhealthy water supplies.

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L'histoire de la médecine est toujours passionante et les personnages que l'on y rencontre parfois de véritables héros - héros souvent ambitieux et aux dents longues il est vrai, mais qu'importe le flacon. Le dernier épisode d'une courte série de Michael Mosley (BBC) fait un rapide historique de quelques tournants significatifs dans l'histoire de la chirurgie en particulier. Parmi ces tournants, l'anesthésie.

James Young Simpson (1811-1870), un médecin écossais, fut le premier à utiliser le chloroforme, inventé seulement quelques années plus tôt. Après quelques essais sur un chien, Simpson se mit à l'utiliser sur ses patients avec succès. Le chloroforme était administré par un l'intermédiaire d'un mouchoir, le patient inhalait les vapeurs et s'évanouissait, laissant champs libre au chirurgien. Un grand progrès par rapport au plus traditionnel éther, qui non seulement était extrèmement inflammable mais qui rendait aussi les patients (inconscients) agités, ce qui n'était pas idéal pour travailler dessus.

Fort de ses succès, Simpson fit à grand profit la publicité de sa découverte et devint rapidement un des médecins les plus respectés du pays. L'emploi du chloroforme se répandit et tout le monde était content. Excepté qu'en réalité ça ne marchait pas si bien que ça: beaucoup de patients ne se réveillaient pas et les morts par chloroforme commençaient à inquiéter.

C'est là que John Snow (le gars dans la vignette à gauche) une nouvelle entrée dans mon panthéon personnel, intervient. John Snow s'interroge sur ces morts par chloroforme, et commence à étudier le phénomène. Il compile les registres de décès, calcule des statistiques et se rend compte de faits a priori incongrus, parmi lesquels: plus un patient est nerveux au début de l'opération, plus il a de chance d'y passer. John Snow non seulement n'a pas peur des chiffres, mais il fait aussi des expériences de labo. En utilisant le chloroforme sur des animaux, il se rend compte que le dosage est très sensible: une dose trop légère et le patient se réveille rapidement, une dose trop forte et le patient meurt d'un arrêt cardiaque directement dû à l'anesthésiant. Voilà pourquoi des patients pourtant dans la fleur de l'âge passaient l'arme à gauche: les patients nerveux tendaient à retenir leur respiration jusqu'au dernier moment, puis inhalaient une dose si forte qu'ils en mourraient. John Snow développa un système de dosage bien plus précis que le chiffon imbibé, et le nombre de patients morts par chloroforme s'effondra.

Tout y est dans cette histoire: l'utilisation de données, compilation de statistiques, expériences, identification du problème et finalement, mise en place d'une solution. Et tout cela, d'une seule personne: John Snow. Mais John Snow est plus connu pour une autre de ses réussites: il est un des pères de l'épidémiologie moderne. Mais je laisse à Stven Johnson le soin de raconter cette histoire:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/steven_johnson_tours_the_ghost_map.html (vidéo, 10 min).

[...]

According to Franck Bouvet, UNICEF's regional water, hygiene and sanitation specialist, international agencies over-estimated the government's ability to coordinate the battle against the epidemic, costing valuable time.

Emergency response teams from the UN and government, MSF-Spain, French NGO Médecins du Monde and the Guinea Bissau Red Cross, are trying to make up for lost time.

[...]

UNICEF is disinfecting city wells and other water sources with bleach or chlorine in the capital with local organisation Aqua Guinea-Bissau (AGB) and volunteer sanitation brigades. [T]he is working with the Guinea Bissau Red Cross and UNICEF to go from door-to-door to give hygiene tips to avoid cholera.

[...]

The US-based Centre for Disease Control [...] is currently carrying out a [nation-wide comprehensive] study [...] to find out how the infection is spread, [and] its source.

"There are behavioural, climactic, and socio-economic determinants to the cause and spread of cholera and it can be hard to identify exactly why it appears when and how. However, we know that key factors increase the risk of an outbreak: inappropriate hygiene behaviour, lack of drinking water, and inadequate sanitation," Bouvet said.

Source: IRIN, 17 Sep 2008

[...]

According to Franck Bouvet, UNICEF's regional water, hygiene and sanitation specialist, international agencies over-estimated the government's ability to coordinate the battle against the epidemic, costing valuable time.

Emergency response teams from the UN and government, MSF-Spain, French NGO Médecins du Monde and the Guinea Bissau Red Cross, are trying to make up for lost time.

[...]

UNICEF is disinfecting city wells and other water sources with bleach or chlorine in the capital with local organisation Aqua Guinea-Bissau (AGB) and volunteer sanitation brigades. [T]he is working with the Guinea Bissau Red Cross and UNICEF to go from door-to-door to give hygiene tips to avoid cholera.

[...]

The US-based Centre for Disease Control [...] is currently carrying out a [nation-wide comprehensive] study [...] to find out how the infection is spread, [and] its source.

"There are behavioural, climactic, and socio-economic determinants to the cause and spread of cholera and it can be hard to identify exactly why it appears when and how. However, we know that key factors increase the risk of an outbreak: inappropriate hygiene behaviour, lack of drinking water, and inadequate sanitation," Bouvet said.

Source: IRIN, 17 Sep 2008

Diarrhea and laboratory confirmed Cholera 07/08- 19/09/08

1. Summary

Total cholera cases up to 19/09 reached 171 an increase of nine cases over yesterday's total.

• One case in each of Missan and Diala
• 2 cases in each of Anbar, Najaf and Baghdad Resafa.
• 5 cases in Basra 3 of them confirmed by the (CPHL) and 2 provisionally diagnosed as cholera by the local lab.
• 17 cases in Karbala. o 39 cases in Baghdad-Kerkh.
• 104 cases in Babil province all confirmed at the CPHL

Cases under investigation

• Babil (13) cases diagnosed by provincial Lab. o Basrah (2) cases diagnosed by provincial Lab. o Kerbala (1) case diagnosed by provincial Lab.

Total laboratory confirmed cholera deaths:

• Babil (2) deaths. o Basra (1) death. o Missan (1) death.
• Baghdad Kerkh (1) death

There are another 7 death due to Acute Watery diarrhea; however, either stool specimens were not collected (3 deaths) or stool on examination turned negative for cholera organism (4 deaths)

Tomorrow the Central Public Health Laboratory will forward cholera positive and negative isolates to WHO for confirmation, serotyping, antimicrobial sensitivity pattern and relation to last year or this year out break in Iran. - Full Report by WHO

Haiti: UN hurricane relief appeal grossly under-funded

The United Nations today appealed to donors to make up an enormous shortfall in emergency funding for relief work in Haiti, where hundreds of thousands of people are still suffering from the devastation caused by four hurricanes over the past month.

Only 2 per cent of the $108 million flash appeal has so far been donated, nine days after it was launched, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.

OCHA stressed that the situation remains very serious in the impoverished Caribbean country, where over 320 people were killed by the storms and flooding, and 160,000 others are still living in the open, exposed to disease and malnutrition.

Some $54 million are needed for emergency food aid. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has already helped feed some 298,000 people since the start of the crisis.

OCHA is also concerned over access to those who have not yet received aid, including people in the Artibonne and Nippes regions, where continued rains might complicate relief efforts.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Special Representative for Haiti, Hédi Annabi, yesterday visited hurricane victims in Hinche, central Haiti, evaluating their needs and assuring them of the commitment of the UN and the international community to help them.

Meanwhile, UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow began a five-day tour today to take stock of the devastation which has affected more than 300,000 children, according to Government figures.

Ms. Farrow and UNICEF Canada head Nigel Fisher will meet with children and women victims and visit Gonaïves, the worst-hit town, where some 70,000 people are in temporary shelters.

UN appeals for $10 million to relieve flood-hit communities in Laos

The United Nations has appealed for nearly $10 million in urgent humanitarian aid to assist communities hit by recent floods in Laos that have damaged farmland, infrastructure and the homes of over 200,000 people.

"The floods of August 2008 pose a serious mid- to long-term threat to the health, food security, welfare and livelihoods, especially of the poorest communities affected by them," said UN Resident Coordinator Sonam Yangchen Rana.

Disease, malnutrition and loss of livelihoods are among the threats facing 11 provinces hit by some of the worst flooding in a century in the South-East Asian country.

"Families who were already close to the poverty borderline risk being pushed under due to the loss of rice paddy, food stocks and other assets," the UN representative stated. "Caregivers who already struggled to ensure their children received a sufficiently nutritious diet will find the task even harder."

Ms. Rana noted that while flooding is a regular incident in the region, the calamity of this year's mid-August inundations was a severe setback to development progress in large parts of the country.

A rapid needs assessment conducted by the Government, UN and other parties has identified the immediate priorities to be addressed: clean drinking water and sanitation, food supplies, essential medicines and primary health care, emergency replacement seeds, immunization and surveillance for disease outbreaks and nutrition status.

Kick-starting the relief activities, the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has already contributed $2.024 million towards the joint appeal that proposes 15 projects in eight sectors. The appeal is requesting a total amount of $9,945,998 to address the humanitarian and essential early recovery needs.

Thailand: 16 dead in Thailand floods: interior ministry

BANGKOK, Sept 21, 2008 (AFP) - Severe flooding across Thailand has left at least 16 people dead and more than half a million people struggling to cope with damaged property and disease, officials and news reports said Sunday.

Floods caused by heavy rain have deluged 21 of Thailand's 76 provinces in the north, east and centre of the kingdom, affecting 693,550 people, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said in a statement.

Nearly 1,900 houses, 659 roads and 188,835 rai (75,500 acres) of farmland have been destroyed in the floods, which began earlier this month, they said. The cost of the damage is estimated at 28.55 million baht (840,000 dollars).

The department said that two people remained missing. It did not say how the 16 people were killed, but local media reports said most had been swept away in flood waters.

The English-language Bangkok Post and Nation newspapers also reported Sunday that more than 50,000 people were suffering from water-borne diseases, and authorities are delivering food, drinking water and medicine to those affected.

Copyright (c) 2008 Agence France-Presse

Face à l'aggravation des inondations, repenser l'affectation des terres et des sols

Depuis plusieurs semaines, des inondations dévastent de nombreuses régions du monde. En Inde, le bilan officiel fait état de près de cent cinquante morts et de millions de sinistrés. En Afrique de l'Ouest, une quarantaine de personnes sont mortes et 130 000 auraient été affectées. En Haïti, les inondations et coulées de boue consécutives au passage des tempêtes tropicales Fay, Hanna, Gustav et Ike ont provoqué la mort de plusieurs centaines de personnes et en ont touché près d'un million d'autres. La Grande-Bretagne et le Vietnam ont également été frappés, mais dans des proportions moins importantes.

Au-delà des pertes humaines, les conséquences sont multiples : destruction d'habitations, d'infrastructures, de récoltes, diffusion de maladies hydriques comme le choléra, déplacements de populations... "De nombreuses personnes perdent leurs moyens de subsistance. Elles sont contraintes de quitter leur lieu de vie et de vendre tous leurs biens ou d'emprunter de l'argent, simplement pour se nourrir, explique Colin Green, du Centre de recherche sur les inondations, basé à l'université du Middlesex, en Grande-Bretagne. Elles peuvent mettre des années à se remettre, voire ne pas se remettre du tout." D'autant plus que les personnes touchées, qui résident dans des zones vulnérables où le prix du logement est bas, sont également les plus pauvres.

Les inondations sont chaque année plus nombreuses, et cette évolution devrait se poursuivre. En 1990, le Centre de recherche sur l'épidémiologie des désastres (CRED) en avait dénombré une soixantaine, contre plus de 200 en 2007. Pour cette dernière année, elles ont provoqué 8 500 morts, affecté 177 millions de personnes et ont causé des pertes évaluées à 17 milliards d'euros.

Plusieurs facteurs expliquent cette tendance, en premier lieu le changement climatique. "Le cycle de l'eau est la partie la plus sensible du système climatique, explique Andras Szöllösi-Nagy, chef du programme hydrologique de l'Unesco. Sous l'effet du réchauffement des températures, il pourrait être en train d'accélérer."

Les conséquences de ce phénomène sur la distribution des précipitations sont discutées au sein de la communauté scientifique, mais un consensus se dégage sur la probabilité de subir plus fréquemment des pluies intenses, et donc des inondations. Parler de crue décennale ou centennale n'a plus de sens, proclament les hydrologues.

D'autres évolutions augmentent les risques. Le bétonnage des sols lié à l'urbanisation et la déforestation accentuent le ruissellement des eaux. Les pratiques agricoles intensives peuvent entraîner une imperméabilisation des sols. "La capacité du milieu naturel à stocker l'eau a diminué", résume Jakob Granit, de l'Institut international de l'eau de Stockholm. Et sous l'effet de la croissance démographique, les zones inondables sont de plus en plus peuplées, ce qui augmente l'impact des catastrophes.

"La protection contre les inondations doit être renforcée", affirme M. Szöllösi-Nagy. Comment faire face ? "Il faut mieux contrôler l'affectation des terres : planifier l'extension des villes et la localisation des industries en fonction des risques", répond Avinash Tyagi, directeur du climat et de l'eau à l'Organisation météorologique mondiale (OMM). Les infrastructures peuvent également être adaptées : habitations et routes peuvent être surélevées, par exemple.

La création de réservoirs souterrains et de barrages est également souhaitable. "Il y a eu un grand mouvement d'opposition aux barrages, poursuit M. Tyagi. C'est dommage. Ils ne constituent qu'une partie de la solution, mais ne doivent pas être écartés." Leur bénéfice est double : ils permettent de contrôler les crues et de stocker l'eau qui fera défaut pendant les périodes sèches. "L'Europe exploite son potentiel de stockage des eaux à hauteur de 70 à 80 %. En Afrique, ce chiffre n'atteint que 5 ou 10 %", remarque M. Granit.

Le reboisement de sols nus, la végétalisation des toits, la généralisation de revêtements perméables dans les villes permettraient en outre de limiter le ruissellement. Enfin, la planification des procédures à suivre en cas d'inondation est essentielle. "Les gens doivent être prévenus le plus vite possible et savoir à l'avance ce qu'ils doivent faire, affirme Avinash Tyagi. Cuba a mis en place une procédure efficace, contrairement à Haïti, ce qui explique l'écart dans les pertes subies."

Le principal obstacle à la prévention est le manque d'argent. "Tout dépend du niveau de développement, remarque Salif Diop, du Programme des Nations unies pour l'environnement (PNUE). Pour se préparer, il faut des moyens et de l'espace."

L'intérêt pour le sujet fait trop souvent défaut. "Il y a un manque de volonté politique, confirme M. Tyagi. Les gouvernements ont des priorités plus immédiates à gérer. Et les populations vulnérables, pauvres et peu éduquées, n'ont pas un poids politique suffisant pour se faire entendre."

I september 2007 var det òg eit utbrot av kolera i Irak som skapte uro i Jordan. Jordan har det største talet på irakiske flyktningar etter Syria og det er difor med god grunn det jordanske helsedepartementet reagerar. Kor mange flyktningar det er i Jordan varierar frå kjelde til kjelde, men den meste grundige undersøkinga slår fast at det er mellom 450.000-500.000 irakarar i Jordan*. Tidlegare tal har vore so høge som 750.000, men dette kan skuldast at Jordan har vore flinkare til å registrere irakarar som kjem inn i landet enn irakarar som reiser ut at, og at irakarar som har reist inn i landet fleire gongar har vorte registrert meir enn ein gong. Det siste året har dessutan Jordan innført strengare reglar for irakarar for å få kontroll over flyktningestraumen.

Dei irakiske flyktningane i nabolanda, og då spesielt i Syria, er i stor del oversett av media til tross for at dei legg stort press både på dei landa dei er, både på staten og den øvrige folkesetnaden. Mange av problema i Jordan, og sannsynlegvis i Syria, blir skulda på det store talet på irakiske flyktningar. Det at det er mange irakarar i Jordan, som er eit realtivt lite land med rundt fem millionar innbyggarar, er det ikkje tvil. Eit flott døme her er når Irak vann Asiacupen i fotball i fjor og Amman eksploderte i irakisk sigersrus.

Straumen av irakiske flyktningar har likevel sine meir positive sider som ein kan lese litt om her.

Siste utbrot av kolera i Jordan skal forresten ha vore i 1981.

International Crisis Group publiserte i juli ein rapport om irakiske flyktingar i Syria, Jordan og Libanon, les den her.

*Denne undersøking vart gjennomført av norske FAFO og vart etter ein del utsetjingar publisert hausten 2007. Du kan lese heile rapporten deira her. Du kan sjølv lese i rapporten at 450-500.000 er omdiskutert med tanke på kva datagrunnlag som er nytta. Sjølv fann FAFO ikkje meir enn 161.000 irakarar (rapport side 11), men etter at nokre tal frå dei jordanske immigrasjonsstyresmaktene i tillegg til tal frå teleselskap var lagt til var talet oppjustert.

I have news that is pretty darn exciting to me. I decided to go on a yoga retreat in October. There's an "ashram" in central Virginia, Yogaville, that is only about four hours away from me, and they're ranked (at least on one website) as one of the top ten yoga centers in the US. Their bag is Integral yoga, which is apparently a relatively gentle asana practice intertwined with all the other limbs of yoga, intended to create an actual lifestyle rather than just a physical practice. More on that shortly.

Yogaville offers a Welcome Weekend, which can take place on any weekend you like, and which includes housing and meals and a very basic schedule of programs - meditation, asana, chanting, etc. I was shocked to discover how inexpensive it was, because similar weekends at Kripalu, for instance, are four times as much. My birthday falls on Columbus Day this year (I love it when that happens) so I'm going to take Friday the 10th off and drive down there and spend the weekend. I am REALLY excited about this. My first retreat!

(Sidebar: the reason I referred to it as an "ashram" is that I have a hard time thinking of anything not actually in India as an ashram. I could be unfair or wrong about that, but it just seems silly. America is America, and we don't have any ancient holy places that haven't been rubbed out by the colonialists.)

As to the lifestyle aspect, while my immediate reaction is to say "hooray!" to being immersed in an all-yoga lifestyle, encompassing the eight limbs and living them completely and so on, I just have to wonder if it's actually a good idea to get disconnected from 2008 life that way. Mom told me that the stance of Buddhism is that living in the regular world while practicing, rather than becoming an ascetic, is actually a higher, nobler form of worship, because you have to have the strength to shut the world out yourself rather than having it shut out for you by living in isolation. I see this and appreciate it. I also get uncomfortable when I think about the idea of living without being connected to the world, without knowing enough of TV and popular culture to disdain them, without going to work every day like a regular citizen (even if that work is partially teaching yoga), without shopping at Target or driving a car. So I think I'd have a hard time with committing completely to Integral yoga.

I did have an interesting experience yesterday during my short practice. I did some physical practice, but not a lot. (This is the second Thursday in a row that my body's been resistant to physical practice, particularly warriors, and I wonder what that's about.) I sat in meditation for a while and decided to try chanting. I rarely chant on my own, because all I can think about is the waverings in my own voice, rather than focusing on the sound itself, which does not exactly help. Yesterday I did a few oms to warm up, and then decided to om for each chakra, focusing on each one from bottom to top as I chanted it. It was interesting how my voice was different for each one; the solar plexus chakra was noisy and blaring, while the heart chakra was gentler, quieter. When I was finished I tried to move some energy up and down the nadis with my hands a few times, resulting in some shivers. Then I reached up to the sky, pulled everything I could into my hands, and yanked down my hands through the central channel of my body to the ground in the middle of my legs and plugged in. A strong spasm went all through my body, and then another, and then a third. I felt like there was a stopper in some kind of metaphysical bottle inside of me, causing me discomfort, and I didn't know what to do to pull it out. I began to feel a funny lump in my throat, almost as if I had to throw up, and I pushed the feeling away briefly, until it occurred to me that sound might help, and I inhaled and sang a long, loud note. Immediately there was relief. I sat there, and felt energy in a long column all the way up and down, before it began to dissipate and I was able to open my eyes. The world looked normal. I still felt as if my fingers were glued to the carpet behind my heels, but gradually I relaxed my hands and was able to put them on my knees. I closed out my practice as usual, saying an additional prayer for anyone suffering on that terrible anniversary, and got up to go make dinner.

I didn't feel the same weird static that I felt with the (probable) Kundalini that struck me during the Judith workshop (fourth paragraph from the bottom). I also don't feel particularly different today. In Eastern Body, Western Mind I read about a woman going through an intense Kundalini experience who appeared to have all the signs of a psychotic break. I sort of wonder why I'm having such mild occurrences, disconnected from one another, in comparison, but I admit that I'm not exactly focusing on that aspect of my practice. Kundalini's dangerous, and I don't really desire a full awakening. Perhaps that's why it's not so bad.

I also wonder why sound has such an intense effect on me. I consider myself fairly musically inclined, although not terribly talented or committed, but the four times so far when I've had an inexplicable energetic experience have all been connected to sound: the chanting triggering Kundalini during the Judith workshop; the sudden insight and out-of-body-ness I had during "Good Enough", which I wrote about in June; a period of interesting instinctual movement that occurred during a practice several weeks ago, when the music I was playing (Dead Can Dance) moved me to react physically in ways I wasn't really in charge of; and yesterday. My sound chakra is definitely tied up in knots, but I didn't think that would lead me to have experiences of openness and freedom in relation to sound; rather the opposite is what I thought. I figured that second, fourth, and sixth chakra stuff would have a stronger impact on me, since those are particularly open for me.

--

On an entirely different note, I watched The Painted Veil this week. I adore both of the lead actors, and the girly part of me really loves Merchant Ivory movies (and I know Merchant Ivory has shut down, but COME ON, how can you not call this a Merchant Ivory movie in every other sense of the phrase?). I also was astonished when I listened to The Razor's Edge on audiobook and utterly loved it, so I wanted to see what else Maugham has to say. I watched the movie over three nights, because of time constraints, and I really enjoyed it; I can't specifically think of any flaws to it, aside from the obvious one that 3/4 of the English-speaking population will be bored to tears by it. The relationship between Walter and Kitty in all its change and complexity, and their individual character arcs, were acted so well by Norton and Watts. I wanted to see more character development for Walter, but the movie is obviously centered around Kitty, so leaving him a little more shadowed is probably appropriate. The music was so good that I think I'll buy the soundtrack, even if it did blatantly rip off Philip Glass at moments. And I was particularly impressed by how, when one character died, they made him look REALLY DEAD. His face was gray. So rarely do actors really look so dead (usually they just look like they have pale pancake makeup on), and I take my hat off to this instance of it.

The movie also spurred me to learn about cholera! Cholera FTW! If you are as inclined to be interested in disgusting deadly diseases as I am, check out the Wikipedia page. It's a terrible disease. The good, and surprising, thing about cholera is that it's rarely passed directly from person to person. It appears to be hard for it to become an epidemic without really poor sanitation.

I guess I should have broken this post into three separate posts, but if I did that every time I had more than one main topic, I'd have thousands of posts and no one would be able to keep up. Anyone who came here through a tag, that's why you had to read about kundalini before you got to cholera.

In a statement released on Thursday, WHO officials said "Experience has shown that long-term prevention of cholera depends on access to safe water and adequate sanitation to prevent exposure and interrupt transmission.

"Improving water and sanitation infrastructures is therefore a long-term goal of WHO and its partners in Iraq and, in times of outbreaks, it is essential that immediate measures, such as water treatment at household level, health education and proper case management, are implemented rapidly," the statement said. (...)

Read all AlJazeera.net

According the figures from Valley-based hospitals, 4,000 people suffered from diarrhoea [in 2007]. Among them, 250 people suffered from cholera and five of them died. Most of the victims were children. In the current year, according to records of Teku Hospital, 200 people were found to have caught cholera.

[...]

The [campaign] organizers said they were going to set up mitigation camps at 75 places of Kathmandu Valley mobilizing their volunteers to distribute chlorine and raise awareness among the people about use of purified water at hotels, restaurants, schools and houses. At the programme, the organizers had exhibited the techniques of water purification, sanitation and management of household garbage.

Director of Guthi Anil Sthapit said, "We will go from door to door to make people aware about cholera and water purification technology."

Source: NGO Forum, 05 Sep 2008

Chlorine solution has been distributed free of cost to around 1,000 families to control cholera that has been raging in the Kathmandu Valley. The solution for water disinfection is being distributed at 75 different locations from temporary booths of the Kathmandu Valley.

[...]

"We have already educated more than 2,000 people about personal hygiene and the process of making drinking water safe," said Dipesh Raj Sharma, coordinator of the campaign, adding.

[...]

More than 100 volunteers of the campaign are visiting door-to-door, grocery stores and small and big restaurants to make them aware of safe drinking water and sanitation. Additional 100 volunteers will be mobilized in the month-long campaign.

Source: Annapurna Post / NGO Forum, 15 Sep 2008

According the figures from Valley-based hospitals, 4,000 people suffered from diarrhoea [in 2007]. Among them, 250 people suffered from cholera and five of them died. Most of the victims were children. In the current year, according to records of Teku Hospital, 200 people were found to have caught cholera.

[...]

The [campaign] organizers said they were going to set up mitigation camps at 75 places of Kathmandu Valley mobilizing their volunteers to distribute chlorine and raise awareness among the people about use of purified water at hotels, restaurants, schools and houses. At the programme, the organizers had exhibited the techniques of water purification, sanitation and management of household garbage.

Director of Guthi Anil Sthapit said, "We will go from door to door to make people aware about cholera and water purification technology."

Source: NGO Forum, 05 Sep 2008

Spatial Analysis of Risk Factor of Cholera Outbreak for 2003–2004 in a Peri-urban Area of Lusaka, Zambia

Satoshi Sasaki*, Hiroshi Suzuki, Kumiko Igarashi, Bushimbwa Tambatamba, AND Philip Mulenga
Department of Infectious Disease Control and International Medicine, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata University, Niigata, Japan; Lusaka District Health Management Team, Ministry of Health, Lusaka, Zambia

A cholera outbreak occurred in Lusaka city between November 28, 2003 and June 8, 2004, and 6,542 cases with 187 deaths (case fatality rata: 2.86) were reported. We analyzed the distribution of cholera cases, the mode of cholera transmission, and the risk factors affecting cholera infection in a peri-urban area of Lusaka by using a Geographic Information System (GIS) and a matched case-control method. Chloropleth mapping of the incidences of cholera showed variation of the incidences in the study area. Our analysis indicated a significant association between the lack of latrine and drainage systems surrounding houses and high incidence of cholera. The matched case-control study showed the protective role of chlorination of drinking water and of hand washing with soap for cholera prevention. We concluded that cholera occurred because of personal behavior and the environment conditions of daily life.

[...]

The prosecutor, Patrick Tigawalana, told court that lack of latrines was likely to lead to an outbreak of cholera in the district. Francis Kyakulaga, the district health inspector, ordered the swoop in which 30 people, 23 of whom are yet to appear in court, were arrested.

[...]

However, many residents attributed the low latrine coverage to sandy soils. Aggrey Basooma said the it required one to construct latrines with bricks over 30 feet below the ground, a very expensive venture that many could not afford.

See also: Florence Nakaayi, Uganda: Man Arrested Over Lack of Latrine, New Vision (Kampala) / allAfrica.com, 10 Aug 2008

Source: George Bita, New Vision (Kampala) / allAfrica.com, 22 July 2008

[...]

The prosecutor, Patrick Tigawalana, told court that lack of latrines was likely to lead to an outbreak of cholera in the district. Francis Kyakulaga, the district health inspector, ordered the swoop in which 30 people, 23 of whom are yet to appear in court, were arrested.

[...]

However, many residents attributed the low latrine coverage to sandy soils. Aggrey Basooma said the it required one to construct latrines with bricks over 30 feet below the ground, a very expensive venture that many could not afford.

See also: Florence Nakaayi, Uganda: Man Arrested Over Lack of Latrine, New Vision (Kampala) / allAfrica.com, 10 Aug 2008

Source: George Bita, New Vision (Kampala) / allAfrica.com, 22 July 2008

Her:  OK.  So when you see episode 207 of "Mad Men"?  Toward the end, there's a vomiting scene.  I don't want to tell you too much, but just beware, when you see two people in the car, and one of them is a woman in a blue dress.

Me: Why are you telling me this?

Her:  What do you mean?  I know how you're freaked out by vomit. 

Me:  But I won't see that episode until it comes out on DVD.  That will be what, next year?  Do you think I'll actually remember?

Her:  Yeah, I think you will.

Me: OK, maybe I will.  But geez. 

Her: Well, I'm just trying to be a good mother.

Me: Oh yeah?  And yet, you recommended that I watch "The Painted Veil".

Her: So?

Me:  Did it escape your notice that the film takes place in a fucking cholera epidemic???

Her: Not really.

Me:  Uh, yeah.  That was like the pivotal point of the entire film.

Her:  But there wasn't any throwing up.

Me:  Yes, there was!  There was plenty of vomiting, and dead people, and people's whole bodies like spilling out of their assholes.

Her:  I don't remember that.

Me:  I don't know how you could possibly have missed it.  Luckily, I saw it coming, since the phrase CHOLERA EPIDEMIC was used freely in the dialogue.  I can usually see the bad parts coming, and avert my eyes and plug my ears so I don't have to witness anything. 

Her: You wouldn't have seen the "Mad Men" thing coming.

Me: I bet I would.

Her: No, you wouldn't.

Me:  I think I would.

Her: (to another woman in the office) Kathy, was that thing at the end of "Mad Men" last night a surprise?

Kathy (from far away): Yes!  I didn't see it coming.

Her:  See? 

Me:  OK.  Whatever.  I'm just saying.  A cholera epidemic.  And you don't warn me about that.

Her:  It wasn't that big a part of the film.

Me:  I have to hang up now.

The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 577

“Phnom Penh: According to a royal family member who used to be a politician, the some royal family members plan to form a new party after the creation of the new term Royal Government.

“Prince Sisowath Thomico, an advisor to the Great Heroic King Norodom Sihanouk, informed Rasmei Kampuchea in the evening of 8 September 2008 whether it is true or not that some members of the royal family plan to form a new party - but he has already discussed it, seeing that in the next term government, the monarchy will loose its voice completely, because he is not sure who are real monarchists at present – whether, in Funcinpec, Mr. Nhek Bun Chhay [the Funcinpec secretary general] or Mr. You Hockry [the secretary general of the Norodom Ranariddh Party] are real monarchist; therefore he is concerned about the loss of the monarchists’ voice.

“Prince Sisowath Thomico added, ‘I have emphasized that the creation of a new party should wait until a new Royal Government is formed, because the Cambodian People’s Party had declared to follow the Sangkum Reastr Niyum regime as a general direction; this is theerefore the time that the monarchists who love the King, and the Great Heroic King, and the monarchy, unite to help the Royal Government to follow the track [of the Sangkum Reastr Niyum tradition]. But we cannot assume that they will follow that track. Therefore, if they do not follow that track, we should find ways so that the monarchists express their voice, to remind the Cambodian People’s Party of their promise, and to remember the track that the Sangkum Reastr Niyum walked; the creation of a new political parity may be a measure that might lead to other related measures.’

“Prince Sisowath Thomico said that the present considerations about the creation of a party are just to serve as a brief discussion, and there is not yet any clear policy. Asked who would be the leader if the members of the royal family would create another party, Prince Thomico responded that that was a difficult question, because if the National Assembly adopts a new law to prohibit members of the royal family to enter politics, they themselves would not be able to enter politics. However, if the National Assembly does not adopt such a law, many members of the royal family want him - Prince Thomico - to be the president.

“Mr. Kol Panha, the executive director of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections – COMFREL – renarked to Rasmei Kampuchea that the creation of a party by members of the royal family is their right, but the royal family should not create too many different parties, because unity among parties will make them strong, and if too many parities are formed, the royal family parties will not be strong.

“Mr. Kol Panha continued that at the present time, there are many people with the right to vote, and the youth of the new generation does not know much about the line of the royal family. Therefore a party created by royal family members might be weaker than other parties which were created earlier. Mr. Kol Panha said also that if a party, that is planed by the royal family, is really formed, the monarchy and politics would be strengthened.

“Regarding the creation of a new party by the royal family, a credible source hinted that the logo of that party would be the ‘Throne’ and its motto ‘The King and the tenfold qualifications of the King [charity, morality, sacrifice, honesty, softness, austerity, calmness, peacefulness, patience, respect for the law] and sovereignty.’

“This source went on to say that a party to be created by members of the royal family does not yet have a name, but a small number of people from the Cambodian People’s Party, some activists from Funcinpec, from the Norodom Ranariddh Party, and from the Sam Rainsy Party who were former Funcinpec activists, will join.

“It should be remembered that previously, Funcinpec was considered to be the royalist party, a party led by members of the royal family and created by the [former King, the] Great Heroic King Norodom Sihanouk, and then the Great Heroic King had handed it to his beloved son, Prince Norodom Ranariddh. Funcinpec, a product of the former Great Heroic King, was strongly supported during the first term elections in 1993. Nevertheless, later on, under the rule by Prince Norodom Ranariddh, Funcinpec had become weaker and weaker until now, when it finally split and almost disappeareds. How much success will the plan to create a new party by members of the royal family achieve, while the Cambodian People’s Party is ruling the country and gained a landslide victory in the previous elections?” Kampuchea Thmey, Vol.7, #1741, 9.9.2008

Newspapers Appearing on the Newsstand:
Tuesday, 9 September 2008

Kampuchea Thmey, Vol.7, #1741, 9.9.2008

• Royal Family Members Will Form a New Party after the Creation of the Government
• 100 People in the Samraong Saen Commune Got Diarrhea; It Is Assumed that They Got Cholera [6-7 September – Kompong Leaeng, Kompong Chhnang]

Khmer Sthapana, Vol.1, #94, 9.9.2008

• Samdech Krom Preah [Prince Norodom Ranariddh] Pushes Cambodian People’s Party to Create a Government Soon; [Minister] Khieu Kanharith: the Cambodian People’s Party Has Not Considered the Norodom Ranariddh Party as a Partner
• Teachers in the Provinces Rush to Be Transfered to Phnom Penh; Officials of the Departments and of the Ministry [of Education] Are Well Off [and teaches in the provinces have to spend from US$700 to over US$1,000 to get their papers processed to be transferred to Phnom Penh]

Moneaksekar Khmer, Vol.15, #3560, 9.9.2008

• Cambodia Owes More and More Debt to Foreign Countries; Poor People Are Increasingly in Misery
• A Member of a Working Group of the Cambodian People’s Party Exposes Irregularities in the Election [threats and vote buying in some districts in Kompong Cham]
• Yuon [Vietnamese] Rush to Enter Cambodia Illegally, and Secretly Do Gold Mining in Ratanakiri after the Cambodian People’s Party Has Won the Election

Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol.16, #4689, 9.9.2008

• Poverty Alleviation and Social Economic Development Are Also Main Factors for Actively Participating to Fight Terrorism
• World Bank Puts High Value on Cambodian Economic Growth
• Customs Collected Taxes of Riel 256,000,000,000 [approx. US$63 million] in August
• Phsar Leu Market Committee of Sihanoukville May Earn Nearly US$200,000 from Clean Water and Power Supplies

Click here to have a look at the last editorial - how to evaluate them: which realities do they really represent?


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It comes after one person died and almost 30 more people have been hospitalised [...] following an outbreak of cholera in the crowded Harare township, Chitungwiza. It's understood the outbreak occurred on Monday [01 September 2008] after weeks that saw an increasing number of chronic diarrhoea reports, as a result of a failing clean water system and numerous sewage spills that have contaminated the city's water reservoirs.

Read more: Alex Bell, SW Radio Africa / allAfrica.com, 04 Sep 2008

Introduction

The outbreak of cholera in Barletta is an example of the relationship between infectious disease and social unrest. What was particularly interesting in this case is the leaderlessness of the movement despite the strong hold the socialist movement had at that time of the Apulian workers. Barletta had already been severely stroke in the previous epidemics (1836, 1854, 1865, 1866, 1867, 1886) (68). By 1910, it was a typical Apulian agricultural center, a big one as well (43,000 inhabitants) and an economically more diverse one than its counterparts. Fisheries were present and oil and wine were cultivated along grain. There was no latifundia, but a number of medium owners and about 20% of the population were small owners (69).
Background

Barletta suffered from chaotic urban growth as its population had doubled in 50 years overwhelming the few services that existed. Housing was poor and shared with animals (71). The limestone the city was built on let the sewers interfere with the wells providing drinking water. The population drunk a mix of water and faecal matter. Human excrement was also sold as fertilizer and the carts used to carry it also brought food into town (72). As a result, diarrheal illnesses, TB, pneumonia killed Barletta in great numbers. Malaria and small pox were also present. Trachoma affected about 15% of the population. The many microbial circuits present in town due to the lack of hygiene made of Barletta the perfect pray for cholera (73).

The population was structural poor, underemployed, ill and malnourished. But drought and crop disease between 1908 and 1910 made the situation even worse. In 1910, the wine, almonds and olive productions hardly reached 10% of the previous year. By August of that year, the workers took the streets asking for bread. The quality of medical care (or the lack thereof) was another urban pathology (74). As a result the outbreak of cholera went unnoticed for a while. Cholera had been expected thanks to the progresses of epidemiology since it had started its journey in Bengal in 1899 and reached Russia in 1904 (75). Thanks to sufficient planning, the North of Italy was perfectly equipped to detect and contain a cholera outbreak (76). But in Barletta (and the South in general, admittedly not truly part of the modern Italian state) nothing was undertaken. The mayor was elected by a couple of thousands of landowner and had no incentive to care about the impoverished population (77). The hospital was incapable of treating the ill and seen rightly as a house of death for the destitute (78).

The doctors were similarly underfunded, poorly formed and dreaded by the inhabitants. No microscope was available to them in town (79). Apulia was also a gaping hole in the peninsula's anti-chlorella defense due to budgetary cuts. Finally, the bacillus moved to Italy carried by the months-long worth of filth of the fishermen apparels when they returned to Barletta in June, July and August (80). The first dead was a fisherman who died June 18 , but was not recognized as a victim of chlorela. The three physicians in charge of the poor did not remark the pattern of contagion. By August 11, the deputy prefect remarked the sheer volume of unrelated death in the city. By the 16, the army's doctors were in town and confirmed the diagnostic.

The disease physical and social

The disturbance to the communication (including trans-Atlantic emigration) and economic life cholera involved came at the worst moment as the country was on the brink of recession (81). Ultimately, the epidemic would turn to be the main cause of the fall of Luzzatti cabinet in 1911. Face with this clear danger, Luzzatti put in charge of containing the contagion the state's two most dependable administrations: the army and the police. Coercion more than medicine was to contain the epidemics (82). But the declaration of the state of emergency created immediately chaos and panic.

The wealthiest left town instantly, only the 20,000 poorest remained in town... with tens of doctors and 300 carabinieri to guard them. Some important tasks were quickly undertaken: provision of sterile water by railway, disinfection of the streets… But the most basic rules of hygiene (boiling water, washing) were still out of reach for the poor. All cholera victims were to be brought to an improvised pest-house (p.83). Their relatives were to be interned for quarantine. Their belongings were burned. The reaction of the authorities destroyed instantly the most-needed mutual trust between the public and the authorities, in a fashion reminiscent of the autocratic regimes rather than the liberal ones. This approach had been recognized as flawed as early as 1831 by the English authorities and never tried afterward (84).

In Baretta, even previous outbreaks of Cholera had not triggered such violation of civil liberties. The cordon around the town was unprecedented in recent Italian history. This shock strategy was actually not used anywhere else and was only acceptable punctually in this part of the backward Apulia (85). As a result, the poor had no incentive to cooperate with the authorities and did everything to elude them. The sick were kept at home or abandoned in the streets, their belongings were smuggled out of their houses, etc. Protest and even violence against the authorities were common.

The city was divided in 6 military districts patrolled by soldiers and "vigilante" (bounty-hunting expurgatory paid piece-work rate). On top of that spies were in charge to provide information (86). Squads patrolled the streets and broke the doors behind which they heard moaning from August 18 to September 2. Tension and 'social hysteria' had become rampant.

Cholera for all the reason previously listed solely touched the working class (87). As a scourge of God, the epidemic was sometimes seen as a divine vengeance for the workers' socialism. Worst: cholera was shameful associated with filth unlike the somewhat serene and aristocratic TB (88). Cholera is a 'bestial degradation' sudden and traumatic (89). The disease totally caused massive blood (and other bodily fluids) losses, transformed a person's physical appearance and was associated with excruciating pain (90). Often the first symptom was a seizure causing apparently healthy people to drop in the streets. Cholera mainly killed adults creating tens of orphans. Finally, the victims of cholera, once dead, went on shaking, as a result rumours of premature burial were common (p.90). Understandably panic and terror were widespread.
Riot!

The military police also prevented the relative to attend to the funeral as the dead were thrown in a mass grave (a measure the population resented particularly as funeral had a enormous social importance in Beretta) (91). To make matters worse, the pest-house was a brutal place of which the patient had little chances to come out alive (92). Military nurses were untrained and the latest medical advances that could alleviate pain and even save lives were totally ignored (93). Rumours of cholera being actually a poisoning of the population by the doctors started to spread. The authorities worsen the hysteria by explaining (in Italian not dialect and often in written pamphlets to an illiterate population) that cholera was a poison (p.94). Finally, the government to avoid being blamed used the Gypsies as scapegoats (95). Romas were rounded up and put in camps. But such was the distrust for the authorities, that the Barattese did not believe this explanation (96).

September 2, as the police tried to enforce a new order on the market, a riot started. Soon a crowd several thousands strong gathered in front of the mayor house. They were violently dispersed (97). During the whole day and part of the night the riot went on, three were lynched by the crowd.

As the town was a stronghold of anti-clericalism, it is normal that the anguish of the epidemics did not create a catholic revival as it did in other places (98). On the other hand, the highly unionised grape-pickers had a long tradition of organised actions including strikes. But the fact that most of the labourers were already unemployed and that three years of crisis had decreased the powers of the leftist organisations prevented that option. Moreover, the middle-class socialist leadership always supported the authorities actions in the crisis (99).

Conclusion

The riot showed the government that its sharp shock strategy actually created a danger greater yet than cholera: social unrest. Moreover by September, it was clear that the sanitary cordon strategy was illusionary as several Apulian towns were by that time hit by the disease. The day after the riot, the 'sanitary dictatorship' was canceled. The government had learn a lesson, when Naples was hit later that month, it had a much more liberal approach. In Baretta, food was distributed and major works started some of them improving considerably the hygienic situation (100).

But the long-term result of this sudden influx of capital, also intended to solve the Southern Question by prompting regional development, was to worsen the neo-colonial status of the South and to feed clientele politics (101). Similarly, the sanitary policy of the Giolittian period (delegating health issues to local authorities) had merely enshrined hygienic dualism between North and poor and ill-administrated South (102). The state's deficiencies in the Mezziogiornio made the reproduction of the strategies designed in the rest of Western Europe impossible. The hopless of the resident medical staff and the insufficiencies of its material enabled the epidemics to spread (103).

Finally the state had designed its intervention as a military campaign that favoured a strategy based on coercion in an environment perceived from Rome as little more than a colony. "Because of the atmosphere of emergency it generated and the social tensions it created, cholera posed the nature of the Southern Question in its starkiest terms. It revealed the depth of the abyss that separated the Mezzogiornio from the rest of Itlay and it exposed the violent potential of the liberal state towards the dangerous classes of the South" (103).