Do not get the idea from this short article, that I have no sympathy for those that have caught the latest flu virus or those that have died from it, I do notice the lack of direct comparisons to other virus's and how many people die annually from the commun flu virus. I for one have suffered the similar symptoms that occur when you contract Dengue, it is not comfortable and for some ( far more than the swine virus) it is fatal. In the UK it is always thought to be prudent to cover your mouth when coughing or sneezing, not something that is common world wide, and certainly not common in Brazil. I do not know any Brazilians who carry a handkerchief or try to acquire a paper napkin to use when about to sneeze or cough, yet they are prepared to now demand a surgical mask.The cases of Dengue sufferers as actually increased with the advent of more public propaganda to help deminish the annual out breaks, it does seem as though the more information you give the less respect it receives, or the more the world seems to want to give up on personal responsibility for their deeds.
Graca has twice mentioned a friend of hers in relation to the idea of perpetual existence, life without eating food or drink, for me an impossible conception and defies the reality of how we are constructed by evolution, and evolutions dependence on our need to eat and drink. There are those that relate stories of people living without taking any food or water, or those that do not eat but also drink almost no liquid. In much the same vain is the idea that you can lose the forests and still allow the Earth to continue to sustain human life.
Perhaps the idea that the Brazilian government have, for not taking far more seriously the threat that is being continued in the forests of Brazil, by not intervening in a way that would clearly end any intrusive and threatening deforrestation, is that if you allow natural selection you will get equilibrium, or they may feel that the rich are immune to swine virus and climate change, who knows what moves people to take up politics and then decide to concentrate on how much you can increase your annual earnings rather than resolve the deforestation of the rain forest.
Here is a snippet from the BBC site, and although I have difficulty in believing the facts that are given here, it is worth realising how important the forrests are to the world health, and how easily a flu virus can attract attention whilst this more serious threat is always given scepticism.
"The fact that tropical forests continue to go up in flames, contributing seven billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually (more than all the world's cars, ships and planes), suggests that my Amazonian "Z" may not exist". The Z in question refers to "the El Dorado that (I) and many others have been searching for: an economic argument to convince governments that the standing rainforest could be worth more alive than dead".
