Defining Wealth

The Christmas before last my son got a case of the flu he couldn’t shake. He had been running a fever for 8 days when he suddenly turned a bright pink all over as if he had just stepped out of a sauna. Then he developed itchy welts on his skin. Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) applied topically took the welts down so I knew the welts resulted from some kind of allergic reaction, but I couldn’t guess as to what, so off to the doctor’s we went.

The doctor looked at him and diagnosed strep throat. A $15 antibiotic and an over-the-counter cream for the itch and in a couple of days he was right as rain.

The pink skin and welts came from an interesting side effect of infection from the streptococcal bacteria that cause strep throat. The bacteria shed a protein called an endotoxin that has two effects on the body. First, it causes a dilation of the capillaries which causes a body wide blush. Second, the protein sticks to tissues in the body, especially the skin, which causes the body’s immune system to attack its own tissues. You might know of these effects under their historical name.

Scarlet fever.

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Amnesty Travesty

Amnesty International’s 2004 report attracted an unusual amount of attention this week because of the stress that its Secretary General, Irene Kahn, laid on the United States’ failings. Her comparison of the Guantanamo detention facility to the Soviet-era gulag system was denounced by the US president, vice president, and defense secretary. There is little reason to discuss this comparison any further, except to note that it makes a change when the left compares Bush to Stalin instead of to Hitler.

However, the Secretary General’s remarks were just the preamble to a lengthy report on the state of human rights throughout the world. Surely an organization concerned with the relief of suffering and injustice would be most concerned with the worst cases, and in fact, the dismal situation in is Darfur the first case discussed and is dealt with at some length. It is a fair inference that the Secretary General wishes to call the world’s attention to the abuses AI regards as most egregious and urgent. While ceding pride of place to Sudan, the United States also receives lengthy attention. Without descending into utilitarianism, it must also be a fair inference that abuses not mentioned in the Secretary General’s statement are regarded as less offensive, capricious, or cruel than the ones mentioned, and less deserving of the world’s attention.

Here are ten other countries whose endeavors in the fields of human rights and jurisprudence were not thought worth mentioning in the Secretary General’s summary. Because of the special scrutiny of the United States by Amnesty, where there is some mention of the US in the context of the report on another country, AI’s remarks are noted.

Countries not mentioned in Irene Kahn’s message:

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Aberrations

Over at Asymmetric Information (via Instapundit) Jane Galt says:

“The appalling poverty of Sri Lanka or Mozambique is not some bizarre aberration that can be tracked to a cause we can cure. We are the aberration; Sri Lanka and Mozambique are the normal state of human history.”

Judging by the comments, many did not get her point at all.

Many people do not understand what is a “normal” state — i.e., one that requires no special explanation — and what is “abnormal.” We tend to look at our immediate environment, both in terms of space and time, and declare that environment the normal baseline for the rest of humanity. Many people in the developed world tend to think that the attributes of the developed world we take for granted, such as the rule of law, political equality, democracy, material abundance and long episodes of peace are the normal baseline for human existence. They look at the material poverty and political oppression in the developing world and ask, “What’s abnormal there that they lack the attributes that we have?”

The sad truth is that nothing is “abnormal” in the developing world. Rather, it is the developing world that is the normal baseline for humanity.

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