Claremont Conservative Videos: The David and Kyle Story

Sam and I produced this video for a contest sponsored by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). Regrettably, we didn't win the money, but that was really only a secondary concern anyways. Fortunately or unfortunately, I'm sure that the Claremont Colleges will give us plenty of opportunities to cover some other story related to violations of freedom of speech, conscience, or the like so that we might be contenders in next year's competition.

In any event, far more important to us than money was that David and Kyle's story and the disgusting practices of Pomona College be exposed on film. Please see the video and do let us know what you think. I know that the sound is off, but I would like to know what you think.

Pitzer College and Partnering Up With Botswana to Treat Unsexy Diseases

It appears that Pitzer College is teaming up with the University of Botswana to develop and distribute Botswana-produced vaccines for common diseases afflicting Botswana's people.

I must say that I applaud the efforts of Pitzer College's Larry Grill, even if I confess that I don't exactly see how it furthers the educational mission of Pitzer. Here are the essential paragraphs from the story, with relevant bolding supplied by me.

Professor Larry Grill of Pitzer College said in a media briefing on June 17, 2009 that Botswana’s beef and tourist industries may be under threat due to animal diseases, particularly foot and mouth disease, lumpy skin disease, and rabies. Therefore, the project will assist in controlling infectious animal diseases and human diseases such as malaria, and tuberculosis (TB) at a later stage throughout the country once the vaccines are manufactured.

The goal of this project is to demonstrate that vaccines can be simply and effectively produced in Botswana. As a pilot project, the team is developing a system for the production of a vaccine against lumpy skin disease (LSD), which causes a chronic debility in cattle comparable to foot-and-mouth disease and leads to serious nutritional and economic losses because of the high morbidity rate following outbreaks. Currently, there is no specific antiviral treatment available for LSD-infected cattle. This disease is decimating cattle in large numbers in Botswana and other countries in southern Africa. Once this is done, diseases of economic importance for both humans and animals will be targeted for production such as foot and mouth, rabies and malaria.

I find it unfortunate that they want to produce the vaccines locally, as there probably is no comparative advantage to produce the vaccines. But it is refreshing that people are dealing with the diseases that actually afflict poor people rather than the sexy and oversold ones of AIDS. James Shikwati, a Kenyan economist, explains why the overfocus on AIDS by those like Bono, who was brought to CMC uncritically by Pamela Gann, has distorted focusing on the real diseases that afflict Africans. Here is what he told Der Spiegel.

Shikwati: AIDS is big business, maybe Africa's biggest business. There's nothing else that can generate as much aid money as shocking figures on AIDS. AIDS is a political disease here, and we should be very skeptical.