Bill Shore’s Letters
Letter Regarding Norwegian Poets and Insecticide Treated Nets
Originally published: April 2004
Dear Friend,
"Noble is man. Rich is the earth. Where there is hunger or need, there is betrayal." So said Nordahl Grieg, one of Norway's most prominent poets and dramatists who was born in 1902 and died in 1943 when his plane was shot down over Germany.
I consider myself somewhat literary, but I must confess I had never heard of Nordahl Grieg until seeing him quoted in a speech by Jens Stoltenberg, Norway's former prime minister who is now head of the Labour Party there.
I also consider myself somewhat political but I must confess I'd never heard of Jens Stoltenberg until I read his speech on the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization website, which I was visiting this afternoon because today is Africa Malaria Day.
Africa Malaria Day was created to commemorate the African Summit to Roll Back Malaria held four years ago in Nigeria, when 44 African leaders and donor organizations committed to a massive scaling up of funds.
Malaria is preventable, treatable and curable. Yet 1 million children a year die from it, as did our sweet friend Alima Dari, one of the star students at Project Mercy in Ethiopia. Because the disease is passed to humans by the bite of an infected female mosquito, it is estimated that one-third of the deaths could be eliminated by children sleeping under Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) which cost about $4 per net, less than the cost of a People magazine or one of Starbucks' more exotic drinks.
The disease also has profound implications for economic growth and development. It costs Africa about $12 billion a year and is considered one of the major challenges eroding development efforts. Stoltenberg also cites the work of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, chaired by Jeffrey Sachs who will be keynoting out Conference of Leaders in October. The Commission's report showed that providing everyone with a bare minimum of health services could not only save millions of lives, but also reduce poverty, boost economic development and reduce social division and conflict.
The Roll Back Malaria campaign was founded by the World Health Organization, the United Nations Development Program, UNICEF, and the World Bank. It receives funding from the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization, which the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supports, and whose board includes Norway's Jens Stoltenberg, and is chaired by Nelson Mandela.
In making his plea to eradicate the world of this disease, Stoltenberg urged, "If all of the earth's children are to be immunized, Norway must persuade other countries and private organizations to increase their support for vaccine programmes. Norway must also dig deeper into its own pockets. But my country's responsibility must not end there. When the pledges from around the world are all tallied, Norway should step forward again and provide whatever amount is still lacking."
It's an impressive ambition for a relatively small country. Each of us will have to decide for ourselves how it compares and contrasts with out own nation's current effort to leave its mark on the world.
For myself, I know only that Alima Dari's death last year still feels like a betrayal, as does any death that is preventable but for the world's complacency, as will the many more deaths to come from poverty and disease until we build and fully fund the kind of partnerships that The Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization represents.
Africa Malaria Day will surely pass unnoticed in much of the world. I'm glad that it somehow caught my eye, and that I was able to hear the poet's words of more than half a century ago: "Noble is man. Rich is the earth. Where there is hunger or need, there is betrayal."
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Bill Shore is the founder and executive director of Share Our Strength. 