Pesticide Information

Living in Europe, malaria and DDT are a distant worry. People often fail to realise how deadly the disease is and that pesticides are used as one of the most effective tools for destroying the carrier of malaria – the mosquito.

Everyone has heard of Malaria, a disease that is estimated to claim between one and three million lives every year. Young children account for 90% of the deaths, the majority of victims are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Just watched an interesting video of Bill Gates presenting at a TED conference in America this month. He is talking about two ongoing societal challenges that he is passionate about. The first is malaria; he talks through the facts and the solutions with some interesting statistics, and the second is on education and what makes a great teacher. Worth a watch.

The cool autumn air in Brussels means that the outdoor cafes are ideal places to sit, read and watch the world go by. This is a very pleasant, civilised and thoroughly European city. As with many European cities, there are little in the way of outward reminders of Belgium’s brutal colonial history. The behaviour of Belgians in the Congo is probably something that many would prefer to forget and to move on; and perhaps they are right. However it is increasingly clear that the many European parliamentarians and Commissioners would, instead of just forgetting Europe’s dalliances in Africa, perpetuate their legacy and inflict actual harm on African economies and people through their draconian rules and regulations.