An anonymised comment on the posting 19 March http://www.hivinfo4mm.org/blog/_archives/2007/3/19/2816317.html comparing the response to the tsunami and HIV.

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… this is interesting as you say.. but on the grounds they are arguing on, which is at its base economic or financial/ethical worthiness, then the issue of occupational health should be getting more funding than all, as occupational accidents and disease are up there killing more in the developing world than infectious diseases..HIV is the only equivalent. And they are dying so others can make a profit, whereas HIV and tsunamis are opportunistic to a great degree.

Occupational illness and accidents are the unacknowledged collateral damage from development, growth economics and appropriation of land to build mines, dams, export processing zones and industrial complexes... all eagerly supported by aid agencies to alleviate poverty.

In Laos as far as I know, there are no active occupational health and safety programs...yet we have dams (Nam Theuen 2 has killed 6 and injured 468 so far).. asbestos roof tiles production facilities, saw mills (one alone in Bolikhaxay prodyuces five operable cases of hand injuries per month).. mercury poisoning in medium scale mining in rivers, and God knows what else is happening as there is no data as no one is looking..Its wall paper to development and its not sexy …