My larger point was that schools so bent on “self-esteem” and the concept of handing out grades for effort rather than achievement is a bad idea when you try to apply it to the real world. I just need a better example.

Laura, doctors with the least number of malpractice claims may have that record because they never do anything or they always play exactly by the book. And some doctors with the highest malpractice suits and claims have them because they are the best, they take the hardest, most difficult and impossible cases that no one else will deal with, so although they have the greatest, most amazing victories, they also have the most failures and quite a few malpractice cases for it.

As the old saying goes, you can always tell the pioneer. He (or she) is the one who’s always out front and who is full of arrows.

Heh – “Who said not spraying DDT is scientifically unsound?”

Exactly. WHO says not spraying DDT is scientifically unsound.

Read it again. WHO lists 10 other insecticides that can be used in place of DDT, which WHO commonly uses instead. See page 5.

And see page 7. DDT should be used ONLY in an integrated pest management program.

DDT is no panacea. It can play a role, but it cannot play the only role. It can supplement other actions, but it cannot wipe out malaria. It is effective, but so are another 10 or 11 insecticides. It’s effective, but more expensive than bednets.

Exactly. WHO says not spraying DDT is scientifically unsound.

In the 1950s and 60s, DDT spraying eradicated malaria across Southern Europe, and it was used commonly in Africa until the late 1970s.

At the same time, DDT was being used across the world as a farming pesticide. But widespread spraying was eventually shown to kill fish and threaten birds.

DDT became a “pariah” chemical. No studies ever proved that it also damaged human health, but it was widely believed to do so and was banned.

Still, since you’re especially interested in Africa, I’m sure that as a fair-minded person you’re eager to join Bob Geldof in giving former President Bush the credit he deserves for all this -

It was, for example, Bush who initiated the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) with cross-party support led by Senators John Kerry and Bill Frist. In 2003, only 50,000 Africans were on HIV antiretroviral drugs — and they had to pay for their own medicine. Today, 1.3 million are receiving medicines free of charge. The U.S. also contributes one-third of the money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria — which treats another 1.5 million. It contributes 50% of all food aid (though some critics find the mechanism of contribution controversial). On a seven-day trip through Africa, Bush announced a fantastic new $350 million fund for other neglected tropical diseases that can be easily eradicated; a program to distribute 5.2 million mosquito nets to Tanzanian kids; and contracts worth around $1.2 billion in Tanzania and Ghana from the Millennium Challenge Account, another initiative of the Bush Administration.

Not to mention repeatedly expanding the African Growth and Opportunity Act which has done so much to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of Africans. You might also be interested in this fascinating documentary on the business climate in Africa.

Malaria is a problem in Africa again largely because the pharmaceuticals used to treat the disease ceased being effective against the parasites. Had DDT not been overused by AEI friends, it might still be effective against the mosquitoes that carry the parasites, but because of DDT overuse, it doesn’t work well against the mosquitoes any more.

Environmental Defense, the leading environmental organization against the broadcast spraying of DDT, endorsed the extremely limited use of DDT in indoor residual spraying (IRS), several years ago.

Unfortunately, the Bush administration refused to allow U.S. money to buy DDT, or bednets, which are very effective in preventing malaria. And now, businessmen are suing to stop the limited spraying in Uganda.

So, environmental organizations endorse DDT use, but Bush refuses to fund it, and businesses sue to stop it.

And you blame environmentalists for what?