Recalling Camus in Context of Turkish Bird Flu Outbreak

David Judson recalls sitting on a Minnesota train and reading Albert Camus' novel, The Plague. He recalls that work's message after reading reports from the Turkish press on the Avian Flu outbreak in that country.

Judson writes [NOTE: You will need to register to access this article}:

Much of the news this week rekindles that memory of his [Camus'] message. Which essentially is about choice, perhaps the essential point of all the existentialists. We can choose opportunism and retreat into selfishness. We can choose service, preparation and accept the challenge to move faster than a ravaging virus. Such challenges as avian flu put us to a terrible test, of course. And the toll already taken is not to be lightly regarded. But that test itself holds its own separate promise.

Which I think was the point of our weekend columnist Doğan Satmış, who is a senior editor at mass daily Hürriyet. He asked the question in print over the weekend, �What peasant will participate in a culling program with compensation of YTL 3 per chicken?� The answer is very few.

Two days later, our columnist Güven Sak likened wrestling with avian flu to a choice between the board games of backgammon or chess. A game of strategy or a game of random chance? We must pick, he said. He sought to tell us something very close to the message of Camus. We can retreat into fatalism or put our own shoulder to the wheel. �The events of avian flu have brought a certain momentum to certain sectors of animal husbandry, where there is a need in any event for modernization and reform.� His point is in part that much of what we are doing in response to this virus involves steps we should have taken before. This is an observation we must keep in mind.

In his novel, Camus warned us of opportunists. If memory serves, it was the character of a prisoner who played this in �The Plague.� Our news editor here at Referans, Sefer Levent, warned us the very same in an analysis this week: That speculators are already moving to corner the market on eggs that will leap in price for industrial users.