Bird flu: are we doing enough?

While the West sits on its hands, and its antidote patents, civil society groups at home have only had anti-government rhetoric, not action, to offer, writes Ibrahim Nafie

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Bird flu has spread in Egypt like wildfire. The same thing happened across the world. Although the epidemic remained confined to Asia for almost two years, once it got out, the damage was instantly felt. From Europe to Africa, the scene is not a promising one.

The disaster has uncovered many inadequacies, on all levels, everywhere. Even in countries that have adequate means of addressing such a crisis, efforts were not up to the challenge. Rich nations acted lackadaisically, as if they were hoping the threat would disappear on its own. Instead of nipping the crisis in the bud, they let it get out of hand.

Several international organisations have criticised the way the crisis was addressed, especially in the rich countries of Europe. For all our talk of globalisation, we've failed to fend off the first disease to hit the global village.

Western selfishness is to blame. For all their eagerness to reap the benefits of globalisation, Western nations have failed to act when the world needed them to. We've seen selfishness in action before, but the current crisis makes one gasp in disbelief. The West should have led the fight against bird flu. Instead, it waited and waited more.

The West is capable of producing enough drugs to treat the disease. Why is it not doing so? The answer is as simple as it is sad. Large pharmaceutical companies have patents on the much-needed drugs, and they're waiting for the right time to make a killing, so to speak. At a time of major catastrophes, one would have imagined that human life would come before business considerations. Governments could have bought the patents and encouraged other countries to produce the drugs. Egypt, Jordan, and India all have excellent pharmaceutical industries and would have been glad to help if given the chance.

The regional scene was also deplorable. The epidemic appeared a few months ago in Turkey. Then it spilled across borders into Iraq. This should have given international organisations enough time to mobilise, yet little was done. Short-sightedness has once again put lives in danger. Countries have raced to ban the importation of poultry, forgetting that migratory birds can take the virus across borders without hindrance.

On the national level, it's a sad story. Everyone has been criticising the government for doing too little too late. Words are cheap. What we need is for parties and civil society organisations to pull their own weight, rather than offer advice.

This crisis is a golden opportunity for all parties, including the National Democratic Party, to prove they care. We can all criticise the government, but that will get us nowhere. Egyptian parties and civil society groups should start doing something to help the people they claim to represent. They should do more to inform the public of the aspects of this epidemic, instead of letting panic spread through the land. This is what parties and civil society groups do. They offer a link between the government and the people.

History shows that parties and civil society organisations gain in popularity when they assist the population in times of need, as in times of conflict and disease. So far, our parties and civil society groups seem to be solely interested in the big issues, such as political and constitutional reform. Were they to talk less and do more, we would all be better off.