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The Ebola Virus

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“No variation in the health of … states… is the result of chance; it is the direct result of physical and political conditions in which nations live” enumerated epidemiologist and founder of medical statistics William Farr, in 1866 (Walraven 2013). The current Ebola outbreak is a good case study highlighting disparity of healthcare between core and peripheral nations.
Ebola virus strikes fear into the hearts of many. Incidentally, this fear seems to be most prominent in certain subsets of the population, mainly manifesting in those living in the periphery or who are impoverished. Often the hardest hit areas are peripheral nations hampered by political turmoil, weak health systems, and who are lacking in human and infrastructural resources. …show more content…

Since March 2014, the CDC and WHO have tallied over 15,000 cases, and 5,400 deaths, rendering the current epidemic larger and more serious than all prior outbreaks combined (CDC 2014). The localization of the Ebola virus in Africa highlight the existence of a core-periphery divide between Western powers like Canada and their underdeveloped counterparts like Guinea. To examine the issue of inequality between healthcare systems of the core vs periphery, we must first examine the foundations of healthcare. To look at healthcare we need to discuss the economic and political development of both Canada and Guinea. To look at infrastructure we need to start with the colonization of these two …show more content…

Current State of Affairs The modern development of Canada is due in large to her abundance of natural resources and the associated foreign direct investments from the US and Europe. This is reflected in Canada’s trade policy priorities: 67% of imports are from the US, and more significantly, 87% of Canadian exports are sold in the US (The North-South Institute 2002).
Harold Innis argued that Canada’s early developmental trajectory of focusing on natural resources actually weakened her ability to establish herself as a powerful core nation (Innis 1993). According to Innis, the realities of the dominant coalitions in command of resources in the early stages of development meant large US and British influences. Under their guidance, capital and energy were focused on developing an export base tied to the leading commercial and financial interests of those nations. Canada’s “export mentality, result[ed] in an over-concentration of resources in the export sector and a reluctance to promote domestic development” (Watkins 1977.). Canada had fallen into a “Staples Trap,” where she was dependent on the US to buy Canadian exports and sell US imports (Innis

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