Dehumanization in "Boarder Story"

American journalist Dorothy Thompson asks, “Can one preach at home inequality of races and nations and advocate abroad good-will towards all men?” Although technology keeps us up to date with stories of people around the world being animalized by others, we still give the impression of blindness to these hardships. By knowing about these atrocious actions and failing to relieve the amount of abuse, fear and violence these human beings face, we are subsequently adding to their dehumanization. The authors Preston, Hedges, and Urrea give clear depictions of just how some people are being dehumanized on a daily basis in their communities. In Ebola River, the amount of dehumanizing factors the Sudanese people face greatly surpasses anything we have ever encountered. First, unsanitary conditions play a part in the native people's misfortune. Preston explains how the hospital aided in spreading the virus by reusing contaminated needles. Further, Preston adds that the virus could have been contracted from insects imbedded in threads or from rats that called the factory home. (Preston 20-21) The patients were being infected without any knowledge to them which to most is dehumanizing. The pain of being disease stricken in one of the few places you are supposed to be safe demoralizes the ill. Next, the medical staff's ignorance is responsible in aiding the dehumanization of the native people. Preston narrates how the virus “hit the hospital like a bomb”, causing it to be contracted by the medical staff. Soon the virus devastated the hospital, rapidly killing the infected. The remaining medical staff soon after, deserted the hospital. (Preston 21) Thoughtlessly, the medical staff infected the very same patients who come to them for safeguard against killers like the Ebola Virus. One could even argue that some people’s lives could have been spared if the medical staff would have been more conscientious about the care they were providing. Last, fear contributed to the