Wifi in the time of cholera (and malaria) - notes from modernity in the last Indian jungle

Location: Vythiri, Wayanad, Kerala, South India

The world is much smaller than it used to be and that obviously comes with a million shades of gray (or in the case of the Indian jungle...green). As I sit here, listening to cicadas in the Indian jungle and typing on my mac, I am reminded that development can be deceiving. As much as it seems like just being here and having modern technology makes this a modern place, I have to remember that the presence of some modern conveniences doesn't necessarily mean that the benefits and safety that come with a fully developed infrastructure are available.

I made it to the last real Indian jungle. This is in Vythiri Nature Preserve in Wayanad, Kerala, India. The rope bridge is part of the Vythiri Resort - everyone has to cross it to get to the restaurant (so it's slightly less adventurous than it looks). Still, while crossing it I observed a family of monkeys and an endangered malabar "flying" squirrel (about 4-5 times the size of an American squirrel with buggy eyes that look like a lemur).

Case in point, as I sit outside listening to the jungle night sounds (and a giant drill that's doing construction next door), I am slathered in pesticides (DEET) in order to avoid contracting one of the many remaining mosquito-spread diseases (including malaria, dengue fever and encephalitis) that continue to plague people here, while they are eradicated in other parts of the world. In addition to mosquito-borne illnesses, I am also at risk of other diseases including cholera, dysentery, and plague, previously believed by me and many others to only plague unfortunate wagon trains in Oregon Trail, the classic early-90's computer game of american pioneer struggle. The fact that I got myself here in less than 24 hours and have wifi doesn't mean that I can't contract one of many diseases that have killed millions of people over the last 500 years….and my question is…Why?

I am still fighting with my senses as I ask myself the question of how I can sit here with this smooth little mac next to a swimming pool and still be in danger from diseases feared in victorian romance novels. Of course, the answer is that it is much easier for me to get on an airplane and fly across the world and for anyone globally, even in the jungles of India, to purchase and activate a wifi router, than it is to coordinate disease control across millions of people. But what if we put the same ingenuity that goes into the supply chain of this shiny apple device into eradicating malaria - would that be enough? 

 Deep jungle and a swimming pool. The pool is a good reminder about different levels of modernity in this world - the water is green not because the bottom of the pool is green. Many kids had fun splashing around in it - my ex-pat sensibilities kept me away. 

We don't know, because malaria and these other diseases are a "third world problem" now and therefore there is not enough profit in it to initiate the full investment it would take to really eradicate it. Yet, there are many reasons why that is a shortsighted and dangerous viewpoint that needs to be addressed, and here are two off the top of my head as I compulsively check my arms and legs for mosquitos between typing sentences.

#1: Imagine what would happen to the Indian and Brazilian economies if magically millions of people weren't dying or becoming sick each year from a disease that has been eradicated in most other countries? Would that stability produce enough benefit to one particular corporate entity to be worth their time and money? Possibly, if they thought big. The challenge is that even if they think super long term, with the way capitalism works they need to clearly benefit enough in the short term to prove their investment will pay back reasonably, which will be hard to do because the primary value is avoiding cost in loss of life and other more subtle factors that don't so clearly show on balance sheets without some serious (and highly assumption-based) analytical measurement techniques.

Perhaps a drug company will gain short term benefit, but once everyone is cured they'll lose their market. Perhaps an energy or communications company that will benefit from more people buying from them over time would be a candidate- but that's not short term, and they can't guarantee that they will be the company that benefits from all those healthy cell-phone and internet-using customers in 10 or 20 years. Which leaves us with the only primary candidate I can think of that would tangibly benefit in the short and long term…that contentious and flawed entity that we all depend on for more of our comfort and security than we'd like to admit…the government. It would save them money in health care, make the people happy because they don't have diseases, and improve the overall economy, improving GDP and productivity and providing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness along the way. 

This, of course, assumes that solving this problem doesn't cause even worse problems such as a population boom that causes more competition for resources like precious water, which is already contentious and hard to get in rural India. Just yesterday I watched a crowd of villagers collecting what was left from a muddy puddle for their daily water.  Suffice it to say, this is not a good situation for them, and they are more precariously situated than ever before. Water resources are already a global problem that impacts the most vulnerable people in their most basic need on a DAILY basis. But in addition to rural villagers, who some can write off as the unlucky others, this is a more tangible problem than most people think and it has strong impact across all economic statuses that goes far beyond not being able to water your lawn every day. 

Water trucks are all over major Indian cities, I saw at least 20-30 of them in my few days in Hyderabad and Bangalore delivering water to upper and middle class houses - there isn't enough water for everyone already, and we're just at the beginning of this climate crisis. It's probably going to get ugly. So, we are left with a complex, long term problem with no clear quick win from a profit perspective and a huge initial investment…hmmm…sounds like a topic destined for failure in today's world. Capitalism has never fanned the flame of long term development over short term profits, and here what we are talking about is more of a public good - no individual company or industry will directly benefit enough to invest in something that is of genuine need and interest to the public good (listen to this interesting podcast about the complexities around the public good from NPR's Planet Money).

Yet, in today's world, democracy is driven by elections that fixate on convincing people to care about the media topics of the day, many of which have little or no impact on them directly. In that environment, whether it is the US or India, electing a government who actually drives forward real long term agendas is virtually impossible, and unfortunately, disease eradication is very long term. Maybe someday there will be a leader who can lead with such conviction that the people will allow the indulgence of long term planning, but I don't see that happening any time soon in India or in the US. 

#2 If "third world" diseases remain, there will come a time, sooner than we think, when one or more of them will re-emerge. Malaria is already resistant to some of the major drugs that used to work, such as what's been happening in Thailand. West Nile virus, which couldn't possibly sound more like a third world disease, now strikes panic in the heart of many an american summer BBQ crowd. It doesn't take very much to spread these diseases, and the more the climate changes and the more people move around, the faster and more aggressively this problem will spread.

We are living in a time of relative health, but as flying around Asia during the avian and swine flu panics and watching season 2 of Downton Abbey reminded me - we are not very far from these epidemics that we think of as only existing in the past. My DEET usage paranoia in the Indian jungle is probably only a foreshadow of the future that we will all live in, in every country, as globalization enables all sorts of creatures to transport themselves around the globe in hours, including many of those pesky diseases.

For now, I'll keep slathering myself in DEET and keep my fingers crossed, hoping that the day doesn't come when the choice of toxic chemical versus terrible disease isn't a daily reality for me. For many unlucky others, that day is today as it has always been; but it doesn't have to be.

Top: This is what a water crisis looks like. It is everyone's problem. People carry small jugs for personal use and when the source is dry, they have to walk or ride farther. This is in a different league than rationed lawn watering, and it is likely the new reality not just in India and not just for the poorest people. Bottom: One of the many water trucks in Bangalore delivering water to a range of economic statuses. In Hyderabad even the modern fancy apartments where Google and other tech company employees live have problems with consistent access to water.