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Priority option for a war: Iraq or pneumonia bug?

Common mass of Iraq has an irony of fate to have poverty in the midst of plenty. They also have their priorities. Wants are many but choices are few, and then comes the mockery of a war. The world has the misfortune of seeing helplessly the well-anticipated twist and turn to carry forward the cause of a war... in the name of saving the nations from 'weapons of mass destruction'. And then comes the WHO alert, alert for an untreatable pneumonia. A real raillery to suffering humanity!

DR. SYED KAMALUDDIN AHMED
IT happened at last, Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair, a recently developed war cousins, are locked in a war, the reason only best known to them. Gossipmongers and jealous followers of the events say that it's a war for dominance over oil supremacy of unworthy Saddam compatriots, a war for ensuring ever-increasing security needs of Israel and essentially a war for accomplishing the need to establish a guardianship over Middle-Eastern riches. The last one definitely needs semi-permanent military bases in the vicinity to save the rest of the oil rich countries from 'Saddam monsters'. The ongoing war is therefore a priority of today's world and a noble gesture indeed!
There are protests world over, no matter the country's government supports the cause of the war or not, and the streets of UK and US are not an exempt. It appears as if the people in masses have gone 'crazy' and sent their 'conscience' to an exile. 'Imbecility' and 'moronic' psyche overpowered 'logical' thinking putting them in a trance, it appears. Only hope is that their frenzied act of 'nonsense' would soon disappear and they will come back to 'senses'. Two very powerful governments, their 'magnanimous' and 'charismatic' leaders and their younger and weaker cousins like Spain, Australia and Denmark, and also Asian 'good friend' Japan all showed an unmalleable solidarity and voiced in a high pitched singular tympani for an universal unity to fight against an 'inadvertently created' Frankenstein. They came as a 'savior' of moribund humanity where the world body (the United Nations) failed to perform, and is proved impotent. The UN, however, showed an 'admirable' gesture by sending inspection teams to Iraq and thereby allowing sufficient time for an efficient battle preparation. Leaders of today's 'free world' think and anticipate well ahead of rest of the world. The rest of the world even fails to conceive what they are heading for and are unable to visualize their immediate and long-term good, and eventually misinterpret things. Leaders however always feel pity for these unworthy creatures and never hesitate to ignore their cheap and often irrational sentiments. Bravo the war leaders! Cheers for you!
Ever since Republicans came into power in US we often hear 'howling' from their leader about democracy, social justice and a world free of exploitation, poverty and human rights violation. Labour party Prime Minister
of UK somehow echoes 'his master's voice' in the guise of a circus clown. No wonder he was called a 'annoying entertainer' without any 'charm or sense of humour'. Osama-bin-Laden, a business magnet of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in exile, was made a hero overnight after the 11th September Twin Tower disaster, and he hopefully enjoyed it in fullest extent. Poor and already war trodden innocent Afghan people became the victim of another war with very little known harm done to that US-made hero, Mr. Bin Laden. Only God knows how many men, women and children died in that war and how many are still in the row as its consequences. People of United States must have forgotten how miserably the multiple high-profile security agencies of their country failed to protect their country, its property and dignity. Security agencies indeed survive on taxpayers' money. This is how social justice is done and human right is protected!
Mr. Bush, a trusted friend of 'sanctioned' people of Iraq, is always misun- derstood and the half-fed Iraqi population always stands behind their monstrous leader when an invasion by US forces comes as a matter. They are always living in a 'fool's paradise', it seems. Media reports suggest that thousands of children even in the suburb of Baghdad died of poor nutrition and infection since the 'sanction' was imposed on the country. Mr. Bush finds establishment of democracy and people's rights are the only two wayouts to rescue the people of Iraq from this wretched condition and that
is what Coalition Forces are going to achieve after a 'confident' victory in this current onslaught. People of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and even Pakistan for that reason should feel jealous of Iraq in that case. Democracy is really a far cry for those countries, but yet they do not have a monster ruler like Saddam Hossain! They are indeed good friends of US government. Therefore, they may wait for some more time, at least till their good friend lose confidence on them.
A relevant argument erupted world over, why such a big protest everywhere when the purpose of the war is to 'free the world' from 'weapons of mass destruction' and make a regimented country member of the free world? History and global data shows that wars at different times and in different forms have clearly been taking an immensely growing human toll. It is catastrophic for the millions who become direct victims or its consequences. It is also a tragedy for surviving generations because of impoverishment, orphanhood, poor nutrition and diseases. War is a personal tragedy too and nothing can measure the sufferings caused by war. In developing countries, particularly those with very low human development index, many pressing problems compete for overtly scarce resources. In this year, nutritional and childhood diseases are expected to kill more than two million children in developing countries. Tuberculosis is expected to cost more than another two million lives and malaria about 750,000. Annual deaths from smoking worldwide are expected
to increase from three million in 1990 to 8.4 million in 2020, and all of these annual increases are expected to occur in developing countries.
However, health problems mentioned above are only a few of many problems governments of these countries are facing to improve the welfare of their citizens. About a billion lack access to clean water, and about 40 per cent women and more than one-quarter of men in the developing countries are illiterate. Inadequate transportation and communications hinder the effort of billions of people to improve their lives throughout the world. Given these and many other vital problems, how much time, effort and resources should governments devote to prepare themselves for an unnecessary war and its consequences? Views in this regard differ widely, but the bottom line is that, in most of the situations, governments of developing world are found powerless in decision making but to comply with the wits and wills of the 'most powerful'. Recently, there is a World Health Organization alert against a deadly organism that causes pneumonia not responding to any conventional treatment. There are reports of death and panic all over. In all our optimism we may hope something would be done so that it won't take the shape of an epidemic. If such an epidemic ever breaks out, who does not know that the developing world would be its worst victim. The most obvious impact of similar epidemic would obviously on life expectancy and health. Measuring and predicting the actual impacts are difficult because of lack of quality data and because of dependence of this impact on many cross cutting issues. However, it may be safely mentioned that any irreversible epidemic accounts for an increased share of infectious disease burden and reverses the overall development by years. For example, AIDS has slowed and, in some places, reversed the trend of increase in life expectancy pushing it back by around ten years in hard-hit countries. The disease accounted for about 1 per cent of all deaths worldwide in 1990 and this proportion is likely to rise to 2 per cent in 2020. No body wants another addition to the already overburdened mortality threat.
Everybody knows and so do I that we have our priorities. Common mass of Iraq has an irony of fate to have poverty in the midst of plenty. They also have their priorities. Wants are many but choices are few, and then comes the mockery of a war. The world has the misfortune of seeing helplessly the well-anticipated twist and turn to carry forward the cause of a war, an epidemic of 'mass destruction' in the name of saving the nations from 'weapons of mass destruction'. And then comes the WHO alert, alert for an untreatable pneumonia. A real raillery to suffering humanity! You have to choose between the two priorities, all for a war, against an epidemic or against Iraq! It is indeed choosing between the options of living for a purpose or dying for a whim.
Dr. Syed Kamaluddin Ahmed is a mental health professional.