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posted by janrinok on Monday December 30 2019, @09:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the need-not-greed dept.

Rwanda makes its own morphine while U.S. awash with opioids:

It was something, the silence. Nothing but the puff of her breath and the scuff of her slip-on shoes as Madeleine Mukantagara walked through the fields to her first patient of the day. Piercing cries once echoed down the hill to the road below. What she carried in her bag had calmed them.

For 15 years, her patient Vestine Uwizeyimana had been in unrelenting pain as disease wore away at her spine. She could no longer walk and could barely turn over in bed. Her life narrowed to a small, dark room with a dirt-floor in rural Rwanda, prayer beads hanging on the wall by her side.

A year ago, relief came in the form of liquid morphine, locally produced as part of Rwanda's groundbreaking effort to address one of the world's great inequities: As thousands die from addiction in rich countries awash with prescription painkillers, millions of people writhe in agony in the poorest nations with no access to opioids at all.

Companies don't make money selling cheap, generic morphine to the poor and dying, and most people in sub-Saharan Africa cannot afford the expensive formulations like oxycodone and fentanyl, prescribed so abundantly in richer nations that thousands became addicted to them.

Rwanda's answer: plastic bottles of morphine, produced for pennies and delivered to homes across the country by community health workers like Mukantagara. It is proof, advocates say, that the opioid trade doesn't have to be guided by how much money can be made.


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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Tuesday December 31 2019, @06:13AM (11 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 31 2019, @06:13AM (#937776) Journal

    Of course it is not.

    FTFY. Amazing how your post goes poof, when we correct this minor detail.

    Remember capitalism is just private ownership of capital and the rules necessary to make that happen. Magical leaps of logic to claiming that deliberate breaking of capitalism, such as via the said non-private choosing of winners and losers, do not change that in the least.

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  • (Score: 0, Troll) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 31 2019, @07:38AM (10 children)

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday December 31 2019, @07:38AM (#937791) Journal

    You, as a simple mouthpiece of your benefactors, just express denial.

    --
    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday December 31 2019, @02:19PM (9 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 31 2019, @02:19PM (#937828) Journal
      You remain wrong no matter who I'm allegedly a mouthpiece for. Words mean things.
      • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 31 2019, @03:17PM (8 children)

        by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday December 31 2019, @03:17PM (#937838) Journal

        You remain wrong

        Your simple repetition does not make it so.

        Words mean things.

        And you make it clear they mean different things to different people, but yeah, you should listen to them some time.

        --
        La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday December 31 2019, @04:10PM (7 children)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 31 2019, @04:10PM (#937869) Journal

          Your simple repetition does not make it so.

          Fortunately, I did more than merely repeat myself. Let's move on:

          And you make it clear they mean different things to different people

          If I can't find your meaning in a dictionary, then fuck off. Semantics woo where words mean whatever you currently feel like is a waste of time, particularly, when you can't even be bothered to state the meaning as you choose to feel it. Look at this thread, for example. It's not just you. Nobody states a definition of capitalism until I do. In case you're wondering if my definition matches the real world, here's a real world definition of capitalism [merriam-webster.com]:

          an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market

          Where does governments picking winners and losers fit into that? It doesn't.

          And I find it remarkable how you claim "mean different things to different people" while ignoring the explicit meaning of capitalism I stated. I made it quite clear what capitalism meant to me and you just blew it off with an idiotic conspiracy quip.

          You, as a simple mouthpiece of your benefactors, just express denial.

          Practice what you preach instead of practicing semantics fallacies.

          • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 31 2019, @04:25PM (6 children)

            by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday December 31 2019, @04:25PM (#937880) Journal

            Where does governments picking winners and losers fit into that?

            You pick the government. You are the government. You are the ones picking winners and losers. In both economics and politics your collective has all the power. It's why we can't get the sports package without all the ugly chrome trim and landau roof.

            Everything you ever say is nothing but an appeal to authority. It defines your world, hence the corruption of "meaning".

            --
            La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
            • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday December 31 2019, @05:06PM (5 children)

              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 31 2019, @05:06PM (#937909) Journal
              And Mr. Brain Noise continues:

              You pick the government. You are the government.

              Still quite irrelevant to capitalism even if those sentences were true.

              In both economics and politics your collective has all the power.

              Collectives aren't capitalism.

              Everything you ever say is nothing but an appeal to authority.

              No authority and no appeal to said authority makes that yet another false assertion.

              It defines your world, hence the corruption of "meaning".

              And now semantics nihilism. You're subject to your own logic. Stop wasting my time.

              • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 31 2019, @06:54PM (4 children)

                by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday December 31 2019, @06:54PM (#937959) Journal

                Collectives aren't capitalism.

                Again you prove yourself wrong. The market is a collective, on both sides, buying and selling. The collective decides what you see on the shelf and at what price. Your "capitalism" is communist!

                And nobody is "wasting" your time but you.

                --
                La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
                • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 01 2020, @02:58AM (3 children)

                  by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday January 01 2020, @02:58AM (#938112) Journal

                  The market is a collective, on both sides

                  "A collective" what? Words have meaning.

                  • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday January 01 2020, @05:30AM (2 children)

                    by fustakrakich (6150) on Wednesday January 01 2020, @05:30AM (#938132) Journal

                    A collective mass of capital.

                    You keep repeating your little meme there, and still fail to comprehend... There is one word to define you... obtuse.

                    --
                    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
                    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 01 2020, @07:13AM (1 child)

                      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday January 01 2020, @07:13AM (#938151) Journal
                      You're moving the semantics goalposts.

                      You keep repeating your little meme there, and still fail to comprehend... There is one word to define you... obtuse.

                      As opposed to "idiot" for you? You can't even explain the meaning you think words have much less say anything relevant and coherent. It's quite the remarkable dysfunction there.

                      • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday January 01 2020, @08:29AM

                        by fustakrakich (6150) on Wednesday January 01 2020, @08:29AM (#938163) Journal

                        You're moving the semantics goalposts.

                        Nonsense, there are no goalposts, you are simply blinded by your own bias.

                        --
                        La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..