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Congolese doctor discovered Ebola, but didn't get credit until now

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Re: Congolese doctor discovered Ebola, but didn't get credit until now

#81
post #32

Altohugh I am not particularly upset about it, South African scientists have often not gotten recognition and even the white males ones! [1] [2] I think the discrimination is worse in a way than described in the article. But maybe that touches even on the philosophy of individual recognition itself. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiaan_Barnard#First_human... . I've been told that in particular, the USA was no…

* although

Re: Congolese doctor discovered Ebola, but didn't get credit until now

#82
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please defend these claims: > Peter Piot who admits he wrote out the African researcher. > Peter Piot who admits to racism.

" When asked if he feels responsible for writing Muyembe out of history, Piot pauses. "I think that's a fair comment," he says what was your comprehension of those sentences?

> responsible for writing Muyembe out of history

> my book was not an attempt to write the history of Ebola

Calling an accusation "fair" is not the same as admitting the accusation is correct.

It may be fair for the police to suspect you of a crime if you were in the area and match the description. But if you didn't commit the crime then the accusation is not correct.

Re: Congolese doctor discovered Ebola, but didn't get credit until now

#83
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your argument is valid, but I would like to point out that without context it reads as if the article and the Congolese doctor in question do not acknowledge this. However, they do: > The discovery, says Muyembe, was thanks to a "consortium of research." But Google "Who discovered Ebola?" and you get a bunch of names — all of them white Western males. Dr. Jean Jacques Muyembe has been written out of history. "Yes, bu…

I read the article, I thought it was a point worth addressing in more depth and HN has a rule specifically against this type of comment.

I didn't mean to imply that you did not read the article - it was clear to me that you did. To clarify: your point is valid and nuanced.

I have just noticed both here and elsewhere that it is very common for people to read the comments first and react there without reading the article. So I was picturing the scenario where one would open this discussion, see your top comment, and go off on speculative discussions that are already addressed by the article in question.

Re: Congolese doctor discovered Ebola, but didn't get credit until now

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most non-integrating gap countries have a very different background, values etc. None of them are very compatible with a modern industrial society. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon%27s_New_Map In most of these countries, often but not always with tribal backgrounds, it is "grab what you can". Why is Africa corrupt? Why are they so far behind? Why don't they have good infrastructure, good education etc.? Sou…

> Trust me in one thing. The answers are unpleasant and especially unwelcome on Hackernews. It's true, none of us like the role that we and our often similarly-privileged ancestors have played in the systemic rape and plunder of entire continents, or the massive wealth that we still enjoy today as a result. Good callout :)

So why did South Korea rise but Ghana did not? Ghana was richer in 1957 than South Korea.

Re: Congolese doctor discovered Ebola, but didn't get credit until now

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Trust me in one thing. The answers are unpleasant and especially unwelcome on Hackernews. It's true, none of us like the role that we and our often similarly-privileged ancestors have played in the systemic rape and plunder of entire continents, or the massive wealth that we still enjoy today as a result. Good callout :)

I can assure you there are those of that not only don't have the white guilt mentally damaged mental disease you claim everyone on the site shares with you, but I completely enjoy the fact that my ancestors were intelligent enough to actually think ahead enough to set up their later generations to be more successful and wealthier than them. I pity you and those that think this is somehow a bad thing. You seem so smug…

Would you please stop creating accounts to break the site guidelines with? Doing so eventually gets your main account banned as well.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Congolese doctor discovered Ebola, but didn't get credit until now

#86
post #14
post #12

What's new here? As an African myself I am not surprised at all. History favors its author. Explorer David Livingstone is credited with discovering the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Despite the multitude of accounts and documentation of the locals' Mosi-oa-Tunya (the smoke that thunders) prior to his arrival. But hey, according to history it seems the locals had never encountered a waterfall a mile wide and hundreds of…

Last week I discovered a wonderful sushi restaurant near my work. I told my work friends about it and now we all love it. It doesn't mean nobody in the world knew about that sushi restaurant before me. It means nobody in my group knew about it, nobody told me, and I found it by personal experience, and shared the information among my community. So yes, David Livingstone discovered the falls. We don't constantly have…

That's not a good comparison, unless you're calling yourself the discoverer, i.e. the original discoverer, of the restaurant.

Re: Congolese doctor discovered Ebola, but didn't get credit until now

#87
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turing is the easiest because he's the only one that makes any sense. You have to get incredibly philosophical to have Hopper or Lovelace on the list as they very obviously did not invented the computer.

I implore you to read about the origins of the word computer and who those people were and what they did. Also just in general about the Analytical Engine, Babbage, and Lovelace. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_(job_description) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer#First_computing_devic... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_program#Analytical_En...

I'm quite familiar with them. But the colloquial term "computer" isn't the same as the historical term, and that's the point here. We aren't talking about the job, or a design that wasn't implemented, or a mechanical computer because nobody means that when they say "computer".

Re: Congolese doctor discovered Ebola, but didn't get credit until now

#88
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" When asked if he feels responsible for writing Muyembe out of history, Piot pauses. "I think that's a fair comment," he says what was your comprehension of those sentences?

> responsible for writing Muyembe out of history > my book was not an attempt to write the history of Ebola Calling an accusation "fair" is not the same as admitting the accusation is correct. It may be fair for the police to suspect you of a crime if you were in the area and match the description. But if you didn't commit the crime then the accusation is not correct.

> Calling an accusation "fair" is not the same as admitting the accusation is correct.

Disagreed. Context is key in this.

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