ISIS AND EBOLA: THE TWIN THREATS THAT REVEAL OUR IMPOTENCE (STA BREAKING NEWS and ARCHIVES)

by STANews , Friday, October 17, 2014, 18:29

Smoke rises after an airstrike by US-led coalition aircraft in Kobani during fighting between Syrian Kurds and Isis fighters. Photograph: Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images

They are dark, unseen enemies, come from far away – and they are scaring us witless. Isis is not a disease, and Ebola is not a terror organisation. But fear is their common currency: intentional for one, inevitable for the other. Today they can seem to be working in tandem, a pincer movement paralysing the world’s governments as it terrifies the world’s people. Each time one advances, the space for the other expands.

From the vantage point of the west, the similarities are obvious. It starts with a menace that was once obscure and understood by few, with a name that keeps shifting (is it Isis, Isil or IS?) or a pronunciation that is uncertain (is it ee-boh-la or ebb-ola?), and which suddenly becomes all-pervasive, threatening catastrophe.

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http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/17/isis-ebola-twin-threats-islamic-state