Ebola, Science and Religion

The recent rise in the spread of the Ebola virus provides proof of the fact that the law of nature is totally unalterable. So much so that it cannot be changed by god himself. It raises doubts among sceptics of religion of god’s infinite power. It begs the question of god’s selective intervention into earthly catastrophes and presents him as a benefactor of scientific interventions. Therefore, the uneasy question has to be asked does he really exist or is his divine intervention manufactured by religious historians and reinforced by Pastors, Imams, Rabbis and other spiritual gurus?

Ebola is not the first pandemic to leave a frightening and devastating trail of death in the word. The Black Death disease arrived in Europe by sea in October 1347 when 12 Genoese trading ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina after a long journey through the Black Sea. The disease was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people and peaking in Europe in the years 1345–6. In other reports it is estimated to have killed 30–60% of Europe's total population. Overall, the plague reduced the world’s population from an estimated 450 million down to 350–375 million in the 14th century.

Some Christian theologians at the time of the black plague thought that the devastating plague had been sent by the almighty as a divine punishment for their sins. The only solution, some claimed, was to rid the world of the blasphemers, and to once again win the approval of the Almighty. Thousands of citizens were slain in the late 1340s in order to appease God and win back his approval. Once the majority of the plague outbreak had passed in Britain, many of the surviving peasants felt that they had been saved for some divine purpose. This had a dramatic impact on the mind- set of the peasants, which contributed to great changes for them later in the 1380s where religion became more entrenched.

Fast forward to the 21^st Century, cases of Ebola were first reported from forested areas in South-Eastern Guinea in March 2014. The outbreak has rapidly evolved and several districts and Conakry have reported cases and deaths that begun to spread rapidly. The Ebola virus came to light only in 1976, the first known outbreak. Forty years later, scientists are just starting to answer some of the most important questions about it. A small number of suspected cases and deaths have also been reported from neighbouring countries with all of them having crossed from Guinea. Confirmed cases have been reported from Guinea and Liberia where the virus is currently rife and the body bags are currently increasing and are drawing international attention. A number of Pseudo scientists and conspiracy theorists have taken to social media and the tabloid press to capitalise on the issue by exploding unhelpful myths as to the origin of the virus.

The most useful and credible scientific explanation from the WHO is that it originated in Africa. Fruit bats are believed to be the natural hosts of the Ebola virus. The virus is transmitted from wildlife to people through contact with infected fruit bats, or through intermediate hosts, such as monkeys, apes, or pigs that have become infected through contact with bat saliva or faeces. People may then become infected through contact with infected animals, either in the process of slaughtering or through consumption of blood, milk, or raw or undercooked meat.

Ebola then spreads through human-to-human transmission via direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and with surfaces and materials (e.g. bedding, clothing) contaminated with these fluids. Edward Holmes, a famous biologist at the University of Sydney in Australia recently opined. “I understand why people get nervous about this, but as scientists we need to be very careful we don’t scaremonger.”

The U.S. government now has more than $1 billion available to fight the spread of Ebola from three West African countries, where it has killed more than 4,500 people. David Cameron has laid down a challenge to European leaders to stump up 1 billion Euros to help tackle Ebola. Meanwhile British Prime Minister David Cameron posited this week that the spread of the deadly virus was the ‘biggest health problem for a generation’ - but some leaders were not doing their bit. He has written to Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, to say Ebola should be placed on the agenda of next week’s Brussels summit. Mr Cameron said the 1 billion Euros would pay for 2,000 health workers to fly out to the affected West African countries, to help stem the spread of the disease.

The late Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus was an English cleric and scholar in the seventeenth Century who was influential in the fields of political economy and demography. In his essay on the Principle of Population, he observed that sooner or later population will be checked by famine and disease, leading to what is known as a Malthusian catastrophe. Malthus believed that the power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race. Protagonists of a contemporary Malthusian philosophy on population check see diseases like the Black Plague and the Ebola virus as nature’s way of checking the population. This position is somewhat untenable as in developed countries a surplus of food is being dumped while the global south is starving. It is therefore prudent to critically assess whether or not diseases like the black plague and the Ebola virus are nature’s way of regulating the global population rather than seeing it as a backlash of a pious and vengeful god’s response to man’s perceived evil.

A search for the cure for Ebola is currently on in earnest but what makes it complicated to come up with a cure is that there is more than one strand of the virus. There are currently virologists working hard in the scientific labs at the major centres of scientific research across the world for an urgent cure. Pious pastors, Imams and Rabbis have their hands clasped in prayer waiting for a scientific breakthrough so that they can claim it on behalf of god, Allah and Yahweh. 

David Hume was a Scottish philosopher. He was also historian, economist, and an essayist. He is known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He posited that no matter how scientific or rational a civilization became, the belief in miracles would never be eradicated. Human nature is such that we love the marvellous and the wondrous stories of religious, miraculous cures. The more wondrous the religious miracle sounds, the more merit we bequeath to the gods.  According to Hume, history is littered with stories of vanity; delusion and “zealotry” that have led to more than one pious fraud supporting a holy and meritorious cause with gross embellishments and outright lies about witnessing miraculous events.

There are other sets of unscrupulous benefactors waiting in the wings to profit from the misfortunes of victims of the Ebola virus. They are pseudo-scientists, Obeah men, crooked fraudsters and unprincipled spiritual healers. We can expect in the current or near future a number of persons to come out of the wood work purporting to have potions and backroom manufactured tablets that can cure the Ebola virus. Like religious hacks, the criminal underworld always sees disasters as a way to fleece victims of major catastrophes. As we continue to track the impact of this disaster and await a cure it is very useful to not to make ourselves vulnerable, as science has a way of eventually sorting things out even though religion will be the eventual benefactor.

This article was written jointly by Donovan Reynolds CEO and Kevton Foster Managing Editor of Kingston-Mouth .com.  Both are Independent Bloggers and Human Rights Activists who are of Jamaican descent and are legal academics that have an interest in Human Rights and International Development issues. Viewers wishing to give feedback on this article may do so in the space provided for commentary on this blog.

The Public Beheading of Alan Henning by IS -The Clash of Civilizations and The Making of a New World Order: A review of Samuel P Huntingdon’s Thesis and its Relevance to the New Wave of Global Terror By Donovan Reynolds and Kevton Foster Bloggers and Independent Writers

ISIS is the unauthorised creation, Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. It is an expansion of ISI (Islamic State in Iraq) and operates in both Iraq and Syria. Until last year it was an Al-Qaeda affiliate but it has now evolved into an Al-Qaeda rival. ISIS is a very radical Islamic organization whose stated objective is to use force and military conquest to recreate the caliphate and to impose their idea of strict Islamic rule in the Middle East. It uses an image of religious wholesomeness to raise large amounts of money from donors and to recruit many volunteers from around the world to engage in jihad or the 'fight for Islam'. According to US intelligence sources ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State, can "muster between 20,000 and 31,500 fighters across Iraq and Syria, “It is also a mafia-like organization which raises a great deal of money through extortion, and looting, selling what it has looted and kidnapping westerners and collecting  large ransoms for their release.

 Allan Henning, a Salford taxi driver From the United Kingdom was delivering aid to Syria in December 2012 when he was kidnapped and then held hostage by IS. IS threatened to kill him in footage released last month on the internet which showed the gruesome beheading of another British journalist David Haines, and in this video they also threatened to behead US aid worker Peter Kassig. Alan Henning a taxi driver and philanthropist had gone to Syria to help get aid to people of all faiths in their hour of need but was brutally beheaded by IS and his death was callously  paraded on video across the internet as revenge for British involvement in the American led war on IS. The gruesome beheading sent shockwaves across the western word evoking rage and deep sympathies internationally. Britain and the US maintain a policy of not negotiating ransoms with terrorists while the French and the German governments are more flexible on the matter. British Prime Minister David Cameron assured Mr Henning’s family that Britain would do all it could "to hunt down his murderers and bring them to justice". This act is especially despicable to Western societies as it is not only barbaric but archaic and more indicative of warring medieval civilisations.

Therefore, it seems wholly appropriate for us to assume that we are experiencing ‘a clash of civilisations. The Clash of Civilizations is a theory, proposed by political scientist Samuel P. Huntington. He posited that people's cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War era.  Huntington was a former White House Coordinator of Security Planning for the National Security Council for President Jimmy Carter. Huntington began his thinking by surveying the diverse theories about the nature of global politics in the post-Cold War period. Some theorists and writers argued that human rights, liberal democracy and capitalist free market economy had become the only remaining ideological alternative for nations in the post-Cold War world. Most notably among such scholars is Francis Fukuyama who has argued that the world has reached the 'end of history' in a Hegelian sense.

 Huntington believed that while the age of ideology had ended, the world had only reverted to a normal state of affairs characterised by cultural conflict. In his thesis, he argued that the primary axis of conflict in the future will be along cultural and religious lines. As an extension, he posits that the concept of different civilisations, as the highest rank of cultural identity, will become increasingly useful in analysing the potential for conflict.

In the 1993 Foreign Affairs article, Huntington wrote:

It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.

Huntington in his seminal thesis on the clash of civilizations explained that some of the factors contributing to this conflict are that both Christianity (which has influenced Western civilization) and Islam are missionary religions, which seek the conversion of others. Islam posits that there is no God but Allah while Christianity posits that there is no other name under heaven whereby salvation can be gained except through Jesus.  This constitutes universal, "all-or-nothing" religions, in the sense that it is believed by both sides that only their faith is the correct one. Both religions are teleological who dogmatically posit that their values and beliefs represent the goals of existence and purpose in human existence. Irreligious people who violate the base principles of those religions are perceived to be furthering their own pointless aim, which leads to violent interactions.

More recent factors contributing to a Western-Islamic clash, Huntington wrote, are the Islamic resurgence and demographic explosion in Islam, coupled with the values of Western universalism—that is, the view that all civilizations should adopt Western values. This has infuriated Islamic fundamentalists. The combination of these historical and modern factors, Huntington wrote briefly in his Foreign Affairs article and in much more detail in his 1996 book, would lead to a bloody clash between the Islamic and Western civilizations.

 The contemporary struggle against international terrorism is different from any other war in our history. In the case of IS the enemy is not a single political enemy but a group of Mujahedeen thugs. It is a criminal mafia network operating between Syria and Iraq but also having ties to Al-Qaeda and Boko Haram franchises. They have hijacked and corrupted the religious ideas of Islam and distorted it for extracting evil benefits and the exercise of conquests and power under the pretext of establishing an Islamic caliphate. These mafia thugs also hold the misguided belief that they should achieve their evil aim by slavery, kidnappings, robberies, geo-political conquest, beheadings, crucifixions and the forceful religious conversion of people who don’t share their seventh-century beliefs.

President Obama and the west were right on this occasion to launch air strikes on IS operations in Syria and Iraq as they pose a threat not only to the Middle East but to western countries and even those with Islamic immigrant communities. Their appeal is broad and their tentacles of recruitment have an extensive reach into the west where they recruit young vulnerable Muslims in the UK, USA, and Western Europe and as far afield place such as East Timor and Trinidad. The world must send a message to these evil morons who will stop at nothing to spread their evil brand of medieval mayhem upon us. In the same vein while we hunt them down we have to be wary of the unintended consequence of the accidental deaths of Iraqi and Syrian non-combatants so often insensitively fobbed off in the West as collateral damage. While the western governments go ahead to contain these hate mongers, it is imperative that they exercise caution and not flaunt humanitarian laws nor ignore the plight of the refugees that emerge from this conflict. It is of paramount importance that the Red Cross and other humanitarian organisations are allowed free and unfettered access to provide assistance and support to those in need as is befitting of their human dignity as stipulated in International Humanitarian Law.

This article was written jointly by Donovan Reynolds CEO and Kevton Foster  Managing Editor of Kingston-Mouth .com.  Both are Independent Bloggers and Human Rights Activists who are of Jamaican descent and are legal academics who have an interest in Human Rights and International Development issues. Viewers wishing to give feedback on this article may do so in the space provided for commentary on this blog.

Examining Political Apathy among Young People in Jamaica : By Donovan Reynolds& Kevton Foster Bloggers& Independent Writers

The phenomenon of voter apathy in Jamaica has long been an enigma to, politicians political commentators and academics in Jamaica. This discourse seeks to excavate some of the main causes and identify, with the aid of statistics, a number of contributory variables that need to be addressed if we are to begin to engage young people in the political process. The overall aim of this dialectic is that through this and other discussions, ideas can emerge that will broaden the scope and involvement of the apathetic Jamaican voters in nation building thereby paving the way for them to be involved in a more vibrant democratic process.  

Whilst dwindling voter turnout at elections in Jamaica has long been a subject of study by political commentators interested in more general issues of political participation, the reasons for the recent precipitous decline are not yet well understood. It is evident; however, that the decline is not connected solely with the “Dudus” saga, as turnout has declined in each of the last three general elections. In addition, it does not seem that the low voter decline is necessarily connected to political issues and events specific to Jamaica as other young democracies in the Caribbean and Latin America are facing the same phenomenon. Why then are young adults demonstrating such an entrenched apathy to the political process generally and voting in particular? This is the vexing question that political campaigns have been asking for decades and is a subject that deserves ongoing analysis. 

Socio-economic factors significantly affect whether or not individuals develop the habit of voting. The most important socio-economic factor affecting voter turnout is education. The more educated a person is, the more likely he or she will be to exercise their right to vote. There are factors that are closely associated with high voter turn-out apart from a good educational background, such as income and class. Income, for example, has some effect independently.  In developed countries wealthier people are more likely to vote, regardless of their educational attainment. However, even the wealthiest Jamaicans seem to be currently apathetic due to almost fifty years of economic decline. Furthermore this problem is further compounded given the fact that nearly two thirds of Jamaicans are functionally illiterate. There is an average of 20,000 students graduating from secondary schools every year without the necessary qualifications and skills to join the workforce   This naturally exacerbates the problem of unemployment. In addition, some estimates show as much as 66% of Jamaicans between the ages of 18 to 40 are unskilled, surely this is a fertile ground for voter apathy. In essence, considering the aforementioned prevailing conditions in Jamaica, it was not surprising that there was a record low voter turnout with only 52.2% of the registered electorate casting their votes in the last General Election held in Jamaica in 2011.  

Shalman Scott a former Mayor of Montego bay turned political commentator posited in 2013 that: “youths in Jamaica like everywhere else yearn for a good life. Young people want a life that is filled with opportunities, meaning, and a good standard of education, peace and security”. He further opined that if these needs are not met, they will become frustrated and alienated from the political process. He also made an important distinction at the time -that despite the fact that Andrew Holness was a young candidate at the time of the General election in 2011, he was unable to capture more than 6000 voters from the new electoral roll of 300,000. While his older opponent on the opposition bench, Mrs Portia Simpson-Miller, was able to attract 58,000 of these new voters. As a result she defeated her younger political challenger and former Prime Minister, Mr Holness, relegating him to the dispatch box on the opposition bench. The victory was an emphatic one for the PNP as it was the first time in the history of post-colonial Jamaica that a party was ousted from government in a single term of office. Statistics never tell the complete story as there were other variables that might have cost the JLP election but that discussion is best left for another extended debate at some other time. 

The mean average age of parliamentarians in Jamaica is about 60 years of age and the impression given is that they are lagging behind in the use of digital mode of communication technology when compared to young people who were born into the 90s fast paced technological revolution and the emergenc of internet generation. The young voters between the ages of 18 to 26 were born in an era of fast paced technological advancement and look to social media as their primary mode of communication. Therefore there is definitely a communication gap between themselves and an older breed of politicians, some of whom are still stuck in the analogue age and are lagging behind in the usage of these new technologies. In order to politically reach these techno-savvy young people, the mode of communication and new methods of voting have to be brought in line with their cultural thinking if they are to become politically accessible.  

While researching this topic we have spoken to some young Jamaicans on social media who are turned off by politics. They believe the political class in Jamaica is not meeting their needs. They complained that these politicians seemingly cling on to power and widen the gap between their working lives and their pension packages. In the process narrowing the opportunity for young people to get involved in the political process at the leadership level. They see these old politically clingy politicians living it large by driving SUVs, their children are privately educated abroad and they do not use the local hospitals or take the public transportation system. They cite the fact that corruption and graft is widespread by politicians and the prisons and police cells are bulging at the seams with young men trying to shoot their way out of poverty. Surely, their claims are merited and as a consequence they have lost trust in government, are alienated from politics and have lost the belief in the efficacy of voting and good governance.  

Would it be unreasonable to demand that these 'over-stayers' go? Is the time not ripe and right for fresh young talent to bring a fresh new perspective to the political arena? One is not advocating that the elders have nothing to contribute.  However, one must seriously, impartially and conscientiously question the success, veracity and even commitment of these elder statesmen. Furthermore, the age difference between politicians and young voters alienates young people from the political process. Youths hold the perception that political parties do not reach out to them or are simply out of touch with them. In essence, youth do not believe that government represents them or cares about their views or address their needs and their issues.    

Governing politicians may argue vociferously to the contrary but the figures do support the claims of Jamaica's youth. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs & Communications, the youth Unemployment rate in Jamaica increased to 7 percent in June of 2014 from 6.60 percent in May of 2014. Youth Unemployment Rate in Jamaica averaged 5.65 Percent from 1968 until 2014, reaching an all-time high of 13.20 Percent in March of 2003 and a record low of 1.20 Percent in November of 1968.  

In critiquing the political apathy in Jamaica, the age of the country's democracy must be up for examination. One could almost say Jamaica is a youth among the nations and is still in an economic and political maturation process. Jamaica may be well established in the international community due to its cultural prowess and its reputation for world renowned athletes but it is still only 52 years old in terms of its political independence.  

Elections require considerable involvement by the population, and it takes some time to develop the cultural habit of voting, and the associated understanding of, and confidence in the electoral process. This factor may explain the lower turnouts in post-colonial democracies in the Caribbean and Latin America who are still shaping their cultural identity. We believe that the core curriculum of any developing country needs to connect young people with the political process from a very young age. A failure to do so may result in a feeling that politics does not affect them, perhaps because they do not receive the knowledge based resources to develop the responsibilities that are the subject of a meaningful political discourse. 

One of the main reasons for the alienation from politics in Jamaica is misplaced developmental policies. The country has gone down the road of heavily investing in cross-Island road infrastructural development funded by external debt. The hope is that this will spur growth and development but in the process they have ignored investment in Human Resource development at their absolute peril. This fact seems to be verified by recent statistics. According to the statistical Institute of Jamaica the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Jamaica contracted 0.50 percent in the first quarter of 2014 over the previous quarter. 

Having four first-world highways is not a bad idea but a massive development in meeting the skills needs of young people is absolutely necessary in order to stimulate growth. The government of Jamaica underestimates the ability of a young skilled work force to be innovative and create wealth. This will in turn decrease external borrowing, reduce crime and social deprivation and create confidence in politics and engender confidence in good governance. The need for capacity building around creating opportunities for young Jamaicans to participate in a stake holder society is urgent as young people are stretched with frustration to the margins. The questions politicians must ask themselves is, are they in power to serve or to swerve? 

This article was Written jointly by Donovan Reynolds CEO of Kingston- Mouth and Kevton Foster Managing Editor of Kingston-Mouth .com. Both Authors are Independent Bloggers and Human Rights Activists who are of Jamaican descent and are Legal Academics who have an interest in Human Rights and International Development issues.Viewers wishing to give feed back on this article may do so in the space provided for commentary on this blog. 

A measured Response to Damion Crawford’s Unwarranted Rant on Twitter

As the global south face the new challenge of a growing push towards human secularism and an emergent number societies that are embracing the post modernist mantra of religious scepticism.   Damion Crawford musings on twitter in which described Jamaica as a Christian country- whose core belief is under siege by atheists and agnostics. Is a very amusing but deeply offensive and misleading narrative .This statement is bound to offend secularist of Jamaican descent so his statement should not be let off the hook as a light hearted banter.

First, let me declare my hand. I am Jamaican and an avowed secularist and proud of it. Damion Crawford’s twitter feed would have gone unnoticed. If he had not been a government minister whose duty is to protect the fundamental rights and freedom of all Jamaican citizens. In addition, in his private capacity as a human being the expectation would be that his augments should have been characterised by respect for alternative beliefs or a lack of it. Having read the tweet it comes over as the musings of a controlling and desperate “religious housewife” and not that of a responsible Minister of Government.

 Let us extend the debate in order examine the flawed philosophical argument raised by Mr Crawford. Because it may create a collision course with politics and secularism for Jamaica that in future that may be fraught with insularity. Damion has taken us down the dark “Hobbesian ideological path “.In which religion is seen for its divisiveness and as a vanguard for protecting the motley political status quo. His argument is in line with Thomas Hobbs who argued   long-ago that the sovereign has the right to determine which opinions may be publicly espoused and disseminated. Mainly, because in the past religion was seen at that time as a vital instrument of power that was necessary for the maintenance of civil obedience. Or has he taken the feudal 17th century protestant position: those atheists cannot be trusted to take part in society peacefully because they do not see themselves bound by divine law and not beholden to a transcendental god.

Our position as atheist and agnostics Damion, is that we take exception to your religious exclusiveness the misguided idea that: all Jamaicans are Christians and that they are under attack from atheist and agnostics. It is at is conceptually “thick” and misleading metaphysical concept that you have dreamed up to ferment hatred against us. In Jamaica religion is a practical political idea used by politicians in for the purpose keeping the common people quiet. Christianity is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich and the political class in Jamaica who have historically plundered the economic coffers.

The burgeoning of the Secularist movement in Jamaica is indeed a challenge to the political class and rightly so.  We are seen a threat to the political class. Mainly, because we increase the rank of the undecided voters due to our scepticism and apathetic to a constitutional arrangement that abhors human rights of alternative lifestyles and no religious belief. Because we are sceptics who call for a deconstruction of this conservative arrangement it’s easy to single us out for culpability for the countries moral failings as the  the god and devil hypothesis is currently under assail.

 Politicians and religious leaders can no longer fob us off with bogus prayer breakfasts any more.  They normally do so unchallenged before we arrived on the scene. Those religious tenuous events are normally rolled- out whenever the government become bankrupt of ideas of how to fix the sliding Jamaican dollar. Or whenever the many youths in the garrisons that they create by geo-political gerrymandering – are hell bent on shooting their way out of poverty. When infrequently caught in the crossfire with the police these vulnerable “shotters” are often found clutching a gun with one hand and holding desperately to a bible in their back pockets with the other hand.

As   Atheist and agnostics we see religion and Politics as two utopian concepts that continue to placate the poor. There is an unhealthy co-relationship between, the Jamaican constitution, the education system, religion and the state that we hope to challenge through constructive engagement.  It is our belief that the state must neither advance nor inhibit religion.This collusive arrangement has resulted in excessive entanglement between government and religion and creates legitimacy for Ministers like Damien to insult us in parliament and on twitter.

Finally, Mr Crawford as you” grope” your locks in the dark and wrestle with a complex religious identity crisis- Kindly, be enlightened that we secular humanist- are small in number but not short on brain space- before you decide to spew religious vitriol on us.

Donovan Reynolds is a Blogger and Independent Writer. He is a British based Social Worker and Human rights Activist. He has an interest in Secularism Politics, Culture, and Human Rights. Readers may comment on this blog or email feedback at dannygerm63@hotmail.co.uk