Early to bed-net

WORLDbytes has released this filmed report as a challenge to Western campaigners organising World Malaria Day commemorations. The report criticises campaigners' fixation with bed nets. As African volunteer Helder Da Costa says: "It's the west's ban on DDT that has killed people and is killing people. Telling the truth would be a start and boat loads of DDT not bed nets would make a huge impact." Ben Hoyte explains further: "When I was a kid in Barbados I had to go to bed early under a net until they started spraying, now I don't have to spend half my life in bed and I don't see why anyone else should have to either." Director Ceri Dingle says: "There is something quite nauseating about a campaign which treats Africa as a continent of little children that should go to bed early under a charity veil, otherwise known as a bed net. It is sadly consistent with Western low horizons, environmental prejudice and patronising, guilt inspired giving. If campaigners were serious about the eradication of malaria, pesticides would be number one on the agenda."

Recommended Links:

• The video entitled "The story of a Bed Net" on The Tony Blair Faith Foundation website made volunteers angry and want to respond - watch the video here
• Article by Ceri Dingle: The great malarial bed-net swindle