Children of the African Continent to Santa Claus: “All we want for Christmas is some DDT”

Africa- All across the mother continent this month there has been a hush. A deep reverence. And finally a heartfelt, but quite plea. From the mouths of babes and this land’s most diminutive inhabitants have come the whispers, the pronouncement, the improbable imploring pleas. They have lifted up with one voice. Given utterance with one hope. And laid their request with one intention. That for Christmas this year – when the jolly old man in red is bringing new Wii’s and bicycles and easy bake ovens to good little children the world over- they would as well be remembered. That when Santa Claus was crossing the globe in his lightening quick, dream powered sled he would remember these poor ones and bring with him the Christmas gift of DDT.

As Abina Akiiki explained it: “When I told my children that there was once a time when one million people did not die every year from malaria they did not believe me. They wanted to know; how was this possible? I told them there was once a miracle cure called the DDT. It killed all the mosquitoes. It stopped malaria from spreading and killing their aunts and uncles, cousins and brothers and sisters. They wanted to know why there was no longer DDT. I didn’t know what to tell them. How could I say that because some rich white liberal woman thought her birds were more important than our lives so many of our friends have to die? I just turned my head and cried.”

In the following days Akiiki meditated on the problem for long hours. From the periphery of his old childhood memories he seemed to recall a very small something. He couldn’t quite place the memory, but he knew it carried the possibly of saving his family, village, country and continent.

“And then suddenly I remembered the stories my grandmother would tell me in my childhood. Stories of a kind old man who lived in the North Pole and brought presents to all of the good little boys and girls all across the world. And I believed in him so much and when i was eight years old he brought me a new Stretch Odinga . . . that is how I knew he was real.”

So Akiiki started his campaign. He walked all across the continent. He told everybody that would listen about Santa Claus and DDT. Within a few months a movement had been born and it grew. Now that network is millions of people strong. And at least a million letters have been sent to the North Pole. Today we lend our voices to that cause.

Santa (and it is likely that he has seen this article as a careful study of our analytics has shown that the jolly fat man is a regular reader of The Vitamin Press) please bring these