In “Red, Blue and Broke” Ms. Collins has a question: Your elected officials work hard to create as many disasters as possible, and where’s the credit? Mr. Kristof is in Dor, Sudan. In “Winning the Worm War” he says former President Jimmy Carter’s plan to eradicate Guinea worm worldwide is succeeding because local villagers are involved in the effort. Here’s Ms. Collins:
Good news! The giant Palouse earthworm of the American plains is not extinct.
Nobody had seen a Palouse worm since the 1980s, but it appears they were around all the time, going about their business underground. As Jim Robbins reported in The Times, spunky scientists from the University of Idaho recently located two by burying electrodes that sent shock waves through the ground and encouraged the worms to shoot up to the surface.
Good work, University of Idaho scientists! We’re all happy to hear the giant Palouse earthworms are still with us. Even though it turns out that they’re actually not all that big.
I am telling you this because my actual topic today is state legislatures. We all know how hard it is to keep anyone’s attention when discussion veers off in this direction, so, yeah, I was going for a cheap thrill.
State legislatures are frequently the subject of derision, but lately they have been freaking out with such alarming intensity that you’d think a mad scientist had surrounded state capitols with electrodes just to see what would come popping out.
This month, the most dreadful laws have been coming from Oklahoma and Arizona. The Oklahoma Legislature just overrode Gov. Brad Henry’s veto on two anti-abortion bills, one of which gives doctors immunity from being sued if they conceal information about a fetus’s possible birth defects from a pregnant patient.
Both Arizona and Oklahoma passed bills exempting state residents from gun registration rules and background checks. Governor Henry vetoed his state’s version. Jan Brewer, the governor of Arizona, seems to sign everything that’s put in front of her. But she was overheard calling the State Capitol “that hell hole,” so we might presume she doesn’t always enjoy it.
Arizona, of course, recently passed an immigration bill so draconian that even Jeb Bush hates it. The State House approved a bill requiring presidential candidates to prove that they were born in the United States. However, the Senate may not follow suit, since the Legislature is scheduled to go home this week.
The Arizona Legislature going home is good news right up there with the big earthworm discovery.
Here in New York, the legislators have not been passing outrageous new laws lately. In fact, they seem determined not to pass anything at all, including the budget which was due on April 1. The state is literally running out of money, construction projects are at a standstill and school districts are in chaos.
Meanwhile, a group of lawmakers have announced plans to go to Arizona and protest the new immigration law by chaining themselves to the border. Given the extremely small chance that they will be needed for anything constructive in Albany, this seems like a good plan. Maybe some state senators from Arizona would like to come to New York and throw themselves over Niagara Falls to protest our lack of a budget.
On the surface, it might seem as if we have a pattern here: red states pass crazy laws, while blue states can’t handle money. But financial failure is color blind. A few months ago, Oklahoma won the Largest Revenue Shortfall in the Nation title, edging out — yes! — Arizona.
It is a little ironic that states that spend so much time complaining about federal meddling have been so dependant on the about-to-vanish federal stimulus funds to keep functioning. The Oklahoma health commissioner recently warned lawmakers that additional budget cuts could send the state sliding from 49th to 50th in the ranking for overall health of its citizens. Which is, I guess, good news if you happen to be Mississippi.
Arizona has been raising quick cash by selling state buildings — including the Capitol — and leasing them back from the new owners.
You can see where the pressure might lead elected officials to do something crazy, like pass a gun control law so unconstitutional it makes the National Rifle Association nervous.
South Carolina is a very red state, but it’s in one of the worst messes, budgetwise. Nevada, which is sort of purple, is facing a huge shortfall in 2011. “People always write about California and New York, but I don’t think any state is in worse shape than Nevada,” said the Las Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston. This is the sort of thing that happens to smaller states, and it is totally unfair. Your elected officials work hard to create as many disasters as possible, and where’s the credit?
South Carolina is allegedly led by Mark Sanford of Appalachian Trail fame, and the governor of Nevada, Jim Gibbons, has had so many scandals that keeping them straight is like trying to explain credit default swaps. So I’m working on a theory that the states with terrible government are the ones that are A) Red, B) Blue, C) Run by someone with a sex scandal.
Otherwise, it’s all good. We’re happy as a Palouse earthworm.
Here’s Mr. Kristof:
Since ancient times, one of the world’s most terrifying ailments has been caused by what the Bible calls “the fiery serpent,” now known as Guinea worm.
Guinea worms grow up to a yard long inside the body and finally poke out through the skin. They cause excruciating pain and must be pulled out slowly, an inch or two a day. In endemic areas like this district in Lakes State of southern Sudan, people can have a dozen Guinea worms dangling from their bodies.
Yet this is a good news column.
This district is, in fact, one of the last places on earth with Guinea worms. If all goes well, Guinea worms will be eradicated worldwide in the next couple of years — only the second disease ever to be eliminated, after smallpox.
For the last 24 years, former President Jimmy Carter has led the global struggle against the disease. When he started, there were 3.5 million cases annually in 20 countries. Last year, there were fewer than 3,200 cases in four countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali and Sudan. The great majority of the remaining cases are here in southern Sudan.
Mr. Carter, 85, told me a few years ago that he was determined to outlive Guinea worm. I called him by satellite phone from here and asked if he still thought he would win the race. He laughed and said he was increasingly optimistic that he would outlast the worm. “If I can survive two more years, I’ll meet my goal,” he said.
Among the sufferers of Guinea worm in its last chapter is Anyak Gol Marial, a boy living near the collection of huts known as Dor. Anyak said he thought he was about 8 years old. He had a painful blister on his thigh — a sign that a worm was underneath and might soon poke through.
Guinea worms spread because sufferers try to escape the burning pain by entering water. The worm then dumps its larvae into the water — which other people drink. Without humans to sustain their life cycle, guinea worms disappear forever.
Carter Center health workers are the only outside presence here. There is no school, no clinic, no store, not even a government road — just a path that villagers themselves carved through the bush. On my drive in, I came across several barefoot, barely clad hunters who had just killed a wart hog with nothing but spears. I have rarely felt so inadequate.
To detect cases of the disease, the Carter Center has set up a network of Guinea worm volunteers. Serving as a volunteer is prestigious and brings a reward of a T-shirt — the only real article of clothing some people own. One volunteer had reported Anyak’s blister, and a Carter Center field officer persuaded the boy to move into a compound here for treatment. This ensures that a victim doesn’t enter a pond.
Anyak leapt at the opportunity to move into the compound, partly because of the promise of a bed mat, a mosquito net and three good meals a day (at home he eats only once or twice a day). A moment later, he was riding in our vehicle to the compound — the first time he had ever been inside a car.
The campaign against Guinea worm is succeeding because — unlike many foreign aid projects — it puts villagers themselves in charge. Now that they understand that it is contaminated water rather than witchcraft that causes the disease, village elders have barred anyone with a dangling worm from entering a water source. Violators are fined, typically one goat.
Elders also encourage families to use a well drilled by Unicef, or if it is too far away to use filters handed out by the Carter Center. But it’s an uphill struggle. The well broke down while I was visiting, and I came across a family drinking filthy, unfiltered water collected from a mudhole.
When Anyak was in the compound, a nurse dripped water on his blister to fool the worm into emerging. In the morning, it did, looking like spaghetti. Anyak grimaced as the nurse carefully pulled the worm out a bit, spooled it around gauze, and bandaged it to prevent infection.
In recent decades, the world has learned that fighting poverty is harder than it looks. But the Guinea worm campaign underscores that a determined effort, with local people playing a central role, can overcome a scourge that has plagued humanity for thousands of years.
My favorite moment came when we were bouncing along with Anyak toward the Carter Center compound. I asked him what he wants to be when he grows up, and he answered with the most prestigious and altruistic position he could imagine: “I’d like to be a Guinea worm volunteer.”
