Insult to injury
From Jeffrey D. Sachs Sir: Tim Congdon has now matched his illinformed review of my book with an even more preposterous and rude letter (21 May). Congdon persists in claiming that malaria was ‘coming under control’ in British-ruled Africa so as to argue that Africa’s high malaria burden is not related to Africa’s distinctive ecology. He utterly confuses a temporary dip in malaria death rates in Africa with ‘coming under control’. Africa’s malaria morbidity and mortality rates remained massively high throughout the 20th century, in absolute terms and in comparison with all other parts of the world. A body of research cited in my book explains the underlying ecological factors at play. Mr Congdon continues, wilfully it seems, to confuse a river being navigable in its interior and navigable to the sea. It is the latter that is crucial for international trade, as I now have to explain for a third time to Mr Congdon. He persists in claiming that I wrongly date the start of British rule in India. Once again, he lifts a sentence utterly out of context. The sentence is correct and the book is correct: there was a gradual expansion of the East India Company rule in India from the early 17th century until the transfer of control over India from the East India Company to the British government in 1858.
Jeffrey D. Sachs
New York
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