In the news, Ebola in US and the Umbrella Revolution

Rory Plewman | Online Editor

Hello and welcome to a new weekly column, The World This Week. This column is designed not only to help raise Menlo student’s awareness about current affairs but also to generate interest. Hopefully these bite-size chunks of news will encourage you to read on become an informed global citizen.

The World This Week

First Case of Ebola in the United States – September 30, 2014

The Ebola crisis has gone global! The first case of Ebola has reached the United States, more specifically Dallas, Texas. An unidentified middle-aged man flew from Liberia to Dallas early last week and began to experience tell-tale symptoms. He checked himself into a local hospital ten days after arrival.

So what is Ebola and why should we care about it? According to WebMD, Ebola is a, “rare but deadly virus that causes bleeding inside and outside the body. As the virus spreads through the body, it damages the immune system and organs. Ultimately, it causes levels of blood-clotting cells to drop. This leads to severe, uncontrollable bleeding.” As it is hyper-contagious anybody who comes in contact with an Ebola patients bodily fluids is likely infected, making it extremely difficult to both treat and prevent. Ebola has been in the news recently as a large outbreak in Western Africa has killed an estimated 3,000 people and left many more incapacitated. The UN has been called in to provide humanitarian aid but have been rendered useless as many of the local people believe the UN to be part of the problem and go to great lengths to avoid obeying the UN’s health suggestions.

This graph depicts the number of cases of Ebola across Africa since the start of the outbreak. Graph from gmggranger.com

Thankfully, the man is now in isolation and being treated with an experimental drug ZMAPP which has shown promising signs in treating the “incurable” disease, that has an estimated death rate of 90 percent. All precautions are being made to ensure that this disease does not spread and so an outbreak is supremely unlikely in the United States.

Protestors and Police Clash in Hong Kong Over Voting Rights – Developing Story

Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, has operated under a “one country, two systems” policy ever since the region was gifted to the Chinese Republic by the British in 1997. The British transferred sovereignty to China in the hopes that the Chinese would not renege on their promises to interfere with Hong Kong politics. Despite promises of fair and free elections made by the Chinese government in 2012, China recently announced only “Chinese approved candidates” could run in the 2017 elections, prompting a massive outcry. Without the backing of the US or the UK the Hong Kong natives have chosen to take justice into their own hands and have started a revolution. Clashes with police began on Sept. 22 when students, led by Joshua Wong began to assemble in a local park, chanting and marching peacefully. The march devolved into a full scale revolution when police fired tear gas into the crowd in an effort to disperse them. Thankfully no one has been hurt but their message has certainly been heeded, as #umbrellarevolution has been trending on twitter for several days now.