The Zambian government locked away the corn, banned its distribution, and stopped another shipment on its way to the country. "Simply because my people are hungry," President Levy Mwanawasa later said, "is no justification to give them poison."
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Zambia is not Africa, it is one of 56 countries or so that is in Africa (if you include the island nations in the area). Chances are that President Mwanasana either does not know that GM foods are largely safe (being as the Europeans do not seem to want to eat them) or he expected a bribe in order to comply with the request. It also could be that he was appraoched in a way in which he felt insulted.
It seems unfair to blame all of Africa on one incident with in one country.
It could be like saying "Americans are rude and eat poi with dirty fingers", based on someone seeing one Hawaiian eating poi with dirty fingers, or perhaps just clean, yet tattooed fingers.
I suspect that the people in charge of the Gates Foundation know a lot about DDT and other insecticides. I know one of their main goals is to distribute sleep netting impregnated with an insecticide to as many people in Africa as possible.
If the world says you can't use DDT, then use something else. Bitching about how you can't use it, while people are dying is just plain stupid. I oberve that the Gates Foundation has not said anything about DDT, whicjh suggest that they either agree that it should not be used, or that it is not worth thr trouble to bitch about it, and have chsen other alternatives The latter seems to be the case.
The bitching I hear about DDT and GM crops always come from the rightwingers. You can almost hear Rush crumpling paper and banging on his desk in the background. Once they have learned the lyrics to the fight song, they feel obliged to sing it until everyone is either converted or annoyed. The latter seems to be happening, so far as I can tell.