Burkina Faso says no to Bill Gates’ plan of creating modified species of mosquitoes

[u/lurker_bee]

https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/lifestyle/burkina-faso-says-no-to-bill-gates-plan-of-creating-modified-species-of-mosquitoes/xyk7xm8

[u/Sankofa416]

Nicely summarized. In my opinion, the only program BF should accept is one with equal domestic staff and scientists. That is the only way to make it accountable to the local government and not the (wildly shifting) US political climate.

The US gov has been putting very public pressure on corporations to act politically, so the Gates foundation is not enough insulation for a decades-long project.

[u/belizeanheat → u/Sankofa416]

I think point number one is decently summarized. The other two are not being suggested by anyone remotely serious

[u/puffz0r → u/belizeanheat]

that seems like a good summary of how reddit generally operates, one comment is a decent summary followed by 2 that aren't remotely serious

[u/Expensive-Swan-9553 → u/Sankofa416]

I’d agree, I’m also sort of shocked to see Americans being upset or surprised at US-skepticism when their current admin’s line seems to be “fuck yall” directed at the world and also occasionally other Americans.

I’m not sure how that could engender trust or good will from other governments.

[u/Moifaso → u/Sankofa416]

Nicely summarized. In my opinion, the only program BF should accept is one with equal domestic staff and scientists. That is the only way to make it accountable to the local government and not the (wildly shifting) US political climate.

The program was already partnered with a local health institute and with a university in nearby Ghana, had an insectiary in BK, and obviously involved tons of locals, both at the ground level and in the healthcare sector.

It was already accountable to the local government. This thread's article mentions how several government agencies approved their program and new mosquito releases as recently as a month ago.

Is your demand that like, the genetically modified mosquitoes themselves need to be 50% created by locals? Do you not see how that obviously limits the program?

[u/Sankofa416 → u/Moifaso]

Your final statements are not on track, but I appreciate creating an argument. I would agree that BF personnel need to be present at every level of operations, even if BF has to pay for them. I don't think 50% is reasonable for outside the country. The national security implications at this point in history make that extremely necessary.

I have no idea how this can be done. Are there a population of scientists willing and able to work on this project from outside BF? How can trust be regained? The UN liaison put out a political landmine of a report (on BF 'violations against children') and got kicked out after a year on the job. I haven't read the report and don't know the author's credibility, yet.

The article paints this as a continuation of a trend the administration has been on with some civil society support (only one group cited as head of a coalition). Sounds like the standard behavior we demand here, but I don't know their politics enough to judge how informed the decision is. This doesn't seem to be a case of corruption. The program existed before this, but was a victim of the current political climate.

[u/Moifaso → u/Sankofa416]

I would agree that BF personnel need to be present at every level of operations, even if BF has to pay for them.

This defeats the point entirely. BK has neither the expertise nor the money to do this. Their public services can't properly support their current population, and half the country is occupied by Islamists. The country has already lost tens of millions in malaria prevention $ after USAID was killed.

The national security implications at this point in history make that extremely necessary.

It's interesting how you're taking the junta's reasoning here as just self-evidently true/inevitable. The mechanics of how or why this program would even threaten "national security" just aren't important, I guess. It's connected to the "west" so we'll just assume it magically undermines the local order.

I guess I'd just ask you to consider that a significant part of the government's recent "anti imperialist" actions and claims aren't so much based on real, material concerns, as they are plays for support and a convenient way to distract and blame government failures on outsiders.

Most of it, in fact, is state-sponsored propaganda that is based on nothing substantial. I ask you to compare this AI video with 1M+ views of Traore lambasting the IMF, and many of the real speeches he's given where he attacks the org and says he's independent from western interests, to the reality of the BK government continually asking the IMF for more loans and adhering to their conditions.

I have no idea how this can be done. Are there a population of scientists willing and able to work on this project from outside BF? How can trust be regained? The UN liaison put out a political landmine of a report (on BF 'violations against children') and got kicked out after a year on the job.

Look up why she was only a year into the job. A critical UN report isn't the outlier here, a military government that exiles, jails, and forcibly conscripts all dissenters is.

And I mean, I haven't read the report, but anyone even remotely familiar with the war in the country knows that both sides are implicated in just about every war crime you can imagine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_Burkina_Faso (non-exhaustive list)

The article paints this as a continuation of a trend the administration has been on with some civil society support (only one group cited as head of a coalition). Sounds like the standard behavior we demand here, but I don't know their politics enough to judge how informed the decision is. This doesn't seem to be a case of corruption. 

My concern with the decision is that it's a bad decision that will kill people and make the country even more unstable. Whether this particular decision is "corrupt" or not (whatever that means in the context of a military dictatorship) doesn't really matter.

[u/Sankofa416 → u/Moifaso]

I think a local response team is essential for such a program. Malaria is a scourge on humanity, but to perform such a program where you don't have safe access to many of the affected areas seems ill advised. Maybe the whole thing was small scale and sensible, but I don't have those details. A stable local government

It's interesting how you're taking the junta's reasoning here as just self-evidently true/inevitable. The mechanics of how or why this program would even threaten "national security" just aren't important, I guess. It's connected to the "west" so we'll just assume it magically undermines the local order.

I don't know what the states reasoning is beyond this article. Relatively recent history itself is the source of my statement. I'm not exercising much imagination to predict possible interference. Relatively high or low chance I can't say without much more.

I guess I'd just ask you to consider that a significant part of the government's recent "anti imperialist" actions and claims aren't so much based on real, material concerns, as they are plays for support and a convenient way to distract and blame government failures on outsiders.

It might be to shore up local legitimacy, true. I'm not judging based on their intentions, I'd expect a self serving intention a lot of the time. The condition of science funding and cuts to aid have me worried the resources to recover from an error won't be there, but maybe I'm US centric or have too low a tolerance for risk. I know the gene drive tech may already be available for home biohackers.

[u/rewind2482 → u/Sankofa416]

When dealing with many African governments the question then becomes how much corruption is acceptable…the multimillionaires giving to the Gates Foundation don’t want to hear about their money going to bribery. But without it, nothing gets done.

[u/Sankofa416 → u/rewind2482]

No one who is high up at a multi-national corporation level is naive about corruption. We have the same problem in the US and that problem is political instability - will the project be finished at any cost at all?

I think BF has more cause to worry about that at the present.

[u/rewind2482 → u/Sankofa416]

However uncertain the political stability is of the US, it is exponentially more certain than the political stability of Burkina Faso, so that line doesn’t seem to work.

This is politics at its finest: score quick easy points with “US bad” while people die.