During the recent winter transfer window in European football (North American = soccer), the German football club, Hannover 96, signed a young midfielder from Brazil called Franca.
More a prospect than an instant star, it was still surprising that he was nowhere to be seen in Hannover's line-up immediately after his arrival. Apparently he wasn't well, so obviously he could not play.
Yesterday we found out what his illness was - he has tuberculosis (TB).
Skip for the moment that he must have passed the medical, TB and all (it does not suddenly hit you two days after you have arrived here) in order to sign the contract, and come to the more significant question - when was the last time you heard of anyone in a major European country who had TB?
As a child growing up in England, I was obliged to have all sorts of injections against all sorts of nasty illnesses that affect people - diphtheria, polio, TB, you name it. You would line up to have a needle put in your arm and had to be careful for days afterwards that you didn't bang your arm where you had been immunised.
Growing up in a working-class community in the North of England though, legends still abounded on how whole communities had been affected on the 20s and 30s by the ravages of the diseases that broke out and ran riot through the areas for days. The often insanitary conditions which existed in these communities helped (apparently) to spread the disease, but even more affluent areas were still impacted. Walk round graveyards in certain towns some time - you will see whole families buried together - all with the dates or deaths falling together in a very short period of time.
Thanks to the immunisation programmes that have become almost a state-imposed obligation (anyone seriously want to object?), these ravages are, here at least, a thing of the past.
Apparently not so in Brazil, unfortunately, and probably in many other countries of the world.
The hope would be that we would wish to end the spread of these diseases everywhere in the world. Surely people in the poorer, less developed countries of the world would not want to see their children dying in immense pain in wretched conditions from an awful illness. Would they?
Allow militant Islam to raise its ugly head.
See the following stories from Nigeria:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/08/polio-workers-nigeria-shot-dead
and Pakistan:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/18/polio-vaccination-workers-shot-pakistan
for starters.
These are not the only instances, but they are the most prominent examples.
Most Muslims do not agree with the murderers in these cases? I would expect that to be the case (and some of my critics in the Muslim world can stop shouting at me "Tony, we are not all that bad, now let us pray").
That anyone though would subscribe to a belief system (and I know that there are fundamentalist Christian sects that oppose immunisation) which would let their children die in terrible suffering from summat that can be stopped strikes me as amazing. And absurd! It is not simply the idiocy of the fanatical version of the belief system and the brainwashing involved that is open to criticism here - it is the sheer stupidity and inhumanity of the individuals concerned that is fully worth the strongest condemnation from the rest of us.
One could almost go as far as saying that the children are being murdered by the parents' ignorance and stupidity!
The rest of us meanwhile can go on being thankful that we have made such progress in continuing to combat such diseases in the past 70 years. Progress is still possible to improve things still further though, and letting down our guard and not maintaining the high standards that we have set must simply never be allowed to happen - however bad the economic situation gets.
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