The week that shook the world

For the first time since I became editor of Manufacturing Chemist almost three years ago, I am finding it hard to know what to say in this column.

I had originally planned to write about the 'global village' in the context of the G8 Summit. I was going to commend the organisers of the Live8 concerts in bringing the developed world together through music. I was going to applaud their persistence in raising global awareness of the plight of the poorest nations in Africa and putting pressure on politicians to face up to the issues.

In the week in which London was given the honour of hosting the 2012 Olympics, I was going to draw analogies with the Games, citing them as a shining example of an event that brings together rich and poor, able-bodied and disabled, and even nations at war with each other in a spirit of friendly rivalry and sporting achievement.

But all the positive aspects of that week were, if not destroyed, then at least overshadowed by some of the most appalling examples of man's inhumanity to man. Not just the terrorist attack in London, but the bombing of children in Iraq and the discovery of more mass graves in Kosovo in the same month as the 10th anniversary of the Srenbrenica massacre.

But traumatic as these events were, and for all that they highlight the seemingly insurmountable differences between races and religions, they assume a less dramatic proportion when seen against the tragic background of African poverty.

Disease kills 3.5 million African children under the age of five every year. HIV/AIDS affects more than 25 million African people. Tuberculosis kills 1,500 each day. Malaria is rife, and polio - long since eradicated in the developed world - still kills and cripples.

There is now general acknowledgement that it is not enough simply to throw money and/or drugs at the problem. At best this is only a short-term fix, and at worst it may ultimately fuel the situation by feeding the autocracy that lies at the heart of the problem.

As the attacks in London demonstrated so graphically, there are some things we are powerless to prevent or change. But there are other evils that can - given the political will and adequate resources - be eradicated.

Given the current global resolve not to bow to the extremists, will there ever be a better time to make a start?