moodalicious creative hand

Robert Gollery
October, 21, 2006

Ignorance results in several negative influences directly or indirectly. However, has it ever led to death? Most readers will answer yes, but the question is how? "Ignorance leads to unemployment, resulting in poverty, that gets us to hunger, and, eventually, death." says Dr. Olivia, a 36 year old German economics professor. She said that "not knowing" may not kill someone instantly, it's a deadly illness that takes time to kill rather than a murdering gunshot.

As much as what Dr. Olivia said makes sense, events has proved her partially wrong. In Goubatto, a city in Djibouti, ignorance killed its citizens directly. In 1999, the people of Goubatto started suffering from HIV/Aids. They were suffering from disease, and because of their ignorance, the disease kept spreading around the city. In January 2002, the United Nations provided a cure to alleviate the effects of aids. The UN even taught them how and when to use the medicine. Being ignorant, they did not really give a damn to the instructions, thinking that the more medicine they swallow, the better they will feel. They couldn't even read what's written about the dosages. By 2003, 3509 of them died, about 67% of the city's population.

That year, ignorance murdered 67% of Goubatto. It had immediate effects rather than seeking death as a long term effect. Who are those 3509? What could've they been? What difference does their death makes? What would Dr. Olivia say about this? Here you go, an example where ignorance had a gunshot effect. "We live in a time when reading and writing can affect your survival, back in the ancient times, when there weren't any languages, you could have survived without being literate." - (Olivia, 2004)