A Thank You Letter to Infrastructure

Dear US National and State governments of years past and present:

Thank you.  Sure, you screwed up some stuff over the years.  But, hey, we all do.  I am writing to thank you for investing in the future success of our country by establishing quality infrastructure.  Living here in Madagascar makes me realize all the things the government does that I take for granted.

Over the years, you have built roads, railways, and dams, brought electricity to every household, maintained a clean, safe, running water supply, protected the public health, and disposed of our waste.  And sure, we all complain about paying taxes, but thanks for that too.  

Here, in Madagascar, the government just doesn't invest in its people or its country.  There is no established tax system (most funds are generated through tariffs or foreign aid).  As a result, the roads here are awful.  To give you an idea, I live on a highway.  There are only about 10 of these in the country, so the logic follows that these are the best roads.  Yet, my 115 mile ride from Siranana to Diego takes 6 hours…on a highway!  My 30 mile ride to Ambanja takes an hour and a half (not including waiting time).  The road is essentially single-lane with parts paved, parts with potholes, and parts where I swear there was an earthquake.  Non-highways are worse.  Without good roads, food and other goods can't be transported quickly for commerce and tourists can't shell out money to visit all the cool stuff here because they can't access everything.

Unfortunately, most people also live without electricity (including me).  This doesn't affect their daily life so much because most people do not have things that require electricity, but think about the opportunities that electricity provides.  With electricity, I was able to stay up until midnight every night in college studying instead of going to bed after dark or attempting to work by candlelight (which is difficult).  With electricity, you can use a refrigerator to keep food fresh everyday, which means less trips to the market and less food poisoning caused by improper preservation, which means more time for work and play.  In short, we use electricity everyday in the United States and it does more than charge our iPods.  It allows us, in so many ways, to be more productive and advance our country.

Most people also live without clean water.  It is amazing to me that I can turn on a faucet in the US and just drink the water.  I mean, that is wild stuff.  We have a system in the US where we flush our waste down the toilet, rain drains into sewers, and the water I shower with is all gathered, treated, and put back into households as clean, potable water.  Here, there are periods of drought and periods of plenty.  But, regardless, I still have to filter my water and bleach it so I don't get sick.  We are extremely lucky to have access to clean water in the US, which will hopefully continue (there have been some recent articles in Newsweek and National Geographic on water security that I recommend to anyone interested).

Finally, thank you FDA, NIH, etc.  We had cholera epidemics and children with polio in the early 20th century, but now children in the US don't even have to get a polio vaccine.  Not to mention, you're constantly preparing for next year's flu virus.  All in all, it's pretty remarkable.  Here, there is widespread malaria, which could potentially be eradicated with nationwide treatment for 2 years (because the virus is spread through mosquitoes but can only continue when there are human carriers, life cycle chart).  There is also still polio and the Plague (50km north of where I live actually).  

So, thank you for investing in the American citizens to keep us traveling quickly, awake past 7pm, and healthy.  Keep it up and you are more than welcome to one-third of my paycheck.