Isu Blog Post #3

Article: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32016394

Why did I choose this article?

I chose this article due to the similarities it poses to my novel. In my book a quarantine zone is set up for the island, allowing no one to enter or leave, expect the authorized personnel. In the article It describes how actions were being taken to make sure any country known to have  a case of Ebola it would be essential to cut ties with it from the outside world. This was done to ensure that a possible outbreak would not occur due to the extremely high level of contamination and the ability to catch Ebola. In both the novel and the article it explains how people were confused as to why such actions had to be taken by the government, and was it really necessary that people who were perfectly safe from the virus had to be contained in the same area as the infected. In the article the severe outbreak illness is Ebola, and in the novel its a mystery illness but both have their similarities. Ebola and the mystery illness kill humans within a certain time period, the symptoms are almost identical and the chaos caused is very similar. This article helps connect back to my novel with many similarities.

How it connects to the social issue of my novel?

       It connects to the social issue in my novel by explaining how one outbreak can cause so much chaos and turn a discreet island into a quarantined mayhem causing isolation. Since both article and novel seem to be talking about how creating quarantine would be a great solution to isolate them from the illness, the only problem of that is being isolated from the rest of the world. In the novel it’s a fight for survival, and food because the government has left the small island all by itself without any support and created total chaos. Africa being a continent with a vast amount of land but very little development it is hard for them to ensure that they can resolve the issue, just like in the novel the Island at which the story takes place is a very old, classic island where everything is either under developed or very limited resources. In both cases it creates more of a issue because being isolated it is harder to keep resources abundant, and ensure that there is enough support to resolve the issue because everyone is left on their own. In Africa many doctors had to be sent from around the world to help cope with the vast expansion of the illness in hopes of creating a cure, but in the novel Kaelyns dad is the only one who has any education on medical and being one of the only three people on the island who even have a chance at recovering a cure it is increasing difficult because they do not receive support from the mainland(Government).Easy tasks such as communicating to other places outside of the area and having connection to the internet and TV are all seized from the quarantined island in hopes of cutting ties with them, and in Africa many countries already have very limited communication considering the countries mainly decide what the citizens are allowed to view. When Kaelyn and her friend Tessa are attempting to find a way to solve this issue before everyone on the island dies, she goes beyond her way to communicate with the governments in hope of a resolution, also what the citizens of Africa did when they found out they were being even more isolated than they already were. Surely in the countries of Africa being quarantined, the same situation must have occurred due to the panic of people and being isolated from the outside world leading people to believe they would have to protect and survive by themselves.

Quote relating to my novel:

“No one can live entirely on their own, nor can any country or society exist in isolation.”
Daisaku Ikeda
( http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/isolation.html )

This quote is an amazing way to summarize that isolation does not provide neither parties a successful resolution to any issue. Isolating only means that the country is left to survive on its own, which in today’s present world would me mere impossible considering just how dependant every country is amongst themselves. People would  panic, considering they have heard of how governments can just leave a whole country to survive on its own, by not providing any more necessities such as food or healthcare. Connecting to the book in both cases we can see that isolating both the island from the novel and countries in general would only lead to chaos, and the destruction of a developed society.  

Picture relating to Novel:

This picture shows a well developed island, which I will be representing as a fully developed country, if an isolation as shown above was to occur it would mean that this island has now cut off all ties with any other country, which means that they must do everything on their own. As time progresses even the most of developed countries will eventually fall due to isolation, such as the island that was quarantined by the government in the novel, leading it to eventually destroy itself. As shown below, this would be the likeliness of the isolated country into becoming ruins.