If you’re American and you’re reading this, don’t forget to vote, especially if you’re in your twenties, Latino (especially in Nevada), LGBT, African-American, or studying or working in the sciences.
Right now there is a disturbing trend of irrational hatred and anti-intellectualism that you until the polls close today to beat back.
“What if I voted Republican?”
“Oh, no, no, we’ll be fine, just take the day off, have a ‘cerveza,’ and forget about the whole thing. I mean, you can trust us. We’re white. When have we ever steered anyone wrong?”
So it’s Blog Action Day and I’m going to take a break from posting random kaiju to talk about something that bugs me and is tangentially related to clean drinking water (the topic of this particular Action Day).
Basically, for a variety of reasons, The Democratic Republic of the Congo is the rape capitol of the world. The limited availability of nearby clean drinking water makes it that much more dangerous to women, children, and the elderly. See, if you half to walk with a jerrycan half-a-mile to get your water in a war zone crawling with underpaid, underfed, and hopped up rebel soldiers looking to get off, you might get raped or killed (or both, not necessarily in that order).
Contaminated water tastes bad, wrecks your insides, and prolonged exposure might cause sickness or death. However, as this article from the International Committee of the Red Cross points out, it doesn’t just end there, especially in a country ravaged by violence like the DR Congo.
As far as what you can do, well, I don’t know. I mean, I’m just some jerk that draws monsters who’s never even been to Africa and outside of the little research I did for this post, most of what I know about The Congo I learned from the esteemed Dr. Michael Crichton. The only thing I know is that over 300 people I don’t know might see and read this and at least one of them is probably smarter than me (but definitely not cuter!) and maybe she can figure something out. Yeah, that’s right, she.
