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Lifeblood: How to Change the World One Dead Mosquito at a Time
In 2006, the Wall Street pioneer and philanthropist Ray Chambers flicked through some holiday snapshots taken by his friend, development economist Jeff Sachs, and remarked on the placid beauty of a group of sleeping Malawian children. “They’re not sleeping,” Sachs told him. “They’re in malarial comas. A few days later, they were all dead.” Chambers had long avoided the public eye, but this moment sparked his determination to coordinate an unprecedented, worldwide effort to eradicate a disease that has haunted humanity since before the advent of medicine. Award-winning journalist Alex Perry obtained unique access to Chambers, now the UN Special Envoy for Malaria. In this book, Perry weaves together science and history with on-the-ground reporting and a riveting exposé of the workings of humanitarian aid to document Chambers’ campaign. By replacing traditional ideas of assistance with business acumen and hustle, Chambers saved millions of lives, and upturned current notions of aid, forging a new path not just for the developing world but for global business and philanthropy.
- GenresNonfictionAfrica
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
2 people are currently reading
74 people want to read
About the author
Alex Perry
43 books71 followersAlex Perry is a nonfiction writer. He is the author of The Good Mothers, The Rift, Falling Off The Edge, and Lifeblood, as well as several ebooks. His journalism has won numerous awards, and he is a contributing editor at Outside magazine, while his work has also appeared in The New Yorker, The Guardian, Harper's, TIME, Newsweek, and others. Born in Philadelphia and raised in England, Perry lived and worked for 15 years in Asia and Africa. He now lives in Hampshire, England.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 28, 2011
This is a puff piece glorifying one rich guy and his "business" approach to fighting malaria. The book hops all over the place without a real story or a logical thesis.
No proof is given of what the rich guy has actually accomplished, just some wishful accounting of potential results in terms of making countries malaria-free. No investigation of what has worked in countries that did recently go malaria-free.
The title suggests that malaria is all about killing mosquitoes, but that is misleading. After all, we have plenty of mosquitoes in the U.S. but have not had malaria for a long time.
It's not clear what the lauded "business approach" means because what they describe doing is giving away millions of malaria nets, and that's fine, but that's pure charity, not business.
A much better book for understanding malaria is The Making of a Tropical Disease: A Short History of Malaria
by Randall M. Packard. For recent developments in malaria, a better book is The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years
by Sonia Shah.
No proof is given of what the rich guy has actually accomplished, just some wishful accounting of potential results in terms of making countries malaria-free. No investigation of what has worked in countries that did recently go malaria-free.
The title suggests that malaria is all about killing mosquitoes, but that is misleading. After all, we have plenty of mosquitoes in the U.S. but have not had malaria for a long time.
It's not clear what the lauded "business approach" means because what they describe doing is giving away millions of malaria nets, and that's fine, but that's pure charity, not business.
A much better book for understanding malaria is The Making of a Tropical Disease: A Short History of Malaria
by Randall M. Packard. For recent developments in malaria, a better book is The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years
by Sonia Shah.
March 13, 2019
One of the worst books ever written. It has the same language, flow, and characteristics of a high school junior cramming in words to meet the minimum acceptable word count. I mean, why else would you spend ~30 pages listing the CEO, CFO, CIO, President, Chairman, sponsors, co-sponsors, donors, heads of state, etc of EVERY malaria-related NGO?
Two examples of this kind of writing:
Perry mentioned that the following companies attended a 2007 meeting: "Bayer, BHP Billiton, Chevron, De Beers, DHL, GlaxoSmithKline, Heineken, Marathon Oil, the consultants McKinsey, Newmont Mining, Novartis, Pfizer, Royal Dutch Shell, Standard Chartered Banking, and Sumitomo" (P94).
And just a few pages later, he tactfully let us know that an American Idol charity event included: "Kevin Bacon, Antonio Banderas, Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Cruise, Matt Damon, Hugh Grant, Goldie Hawn, Keira Knightley, Hugh Laurie, Rob Lowe, Ewan McGregor, Hellen Mirren, Gwyneth Paltrow, Miss Piggy, The Simpsons, Black Eyed Peas, Bono, Michael Buble, Annie Lennox, and Madonna" (P98).
This isn't a book on malaria, net distribution, or aid financing; it's a high school english project where the student needed to write 209 pages to pass the class.
Two examples of this kind of writing:
Perry mentioned that the following companies attended a 2007 meeting: "Bayer, BHP Billiton, Chevron, De Beers, DHL, GlaxoSmithKline, Heineken, Marathon Oil, the consultants McKinsey, Newmont Mining, Novartis, Pfizer, Royal Dutch Shell, Standard Chartered Banking, and Sumitomo" (P94).
And just a few pages later, he tactfully let us know that an American Idol charity event included: "Kevin Bacon, Antonio Banderas, Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Cruise, Matt Damon, Hugh Grant, Goldie Hawn, Keira Knightley, Hugh Laurie, Rob Lowe, Ewan McGregor, Hellen Mirren, Gwyneth Paltrow, Miss Piggy, The Simpsons, Black Eyed Peas, Bono, Michael Buble, Annie Lennox, and Madonna" (P98).
This isn't a book on malaria, net distribution, or aid financing; it's a high school english project where the student needed to write 209 pages to pass the class.
December 25, 2020
At the beginning of the book I exclaimed "wow!" several times as I learned so many interesting facts about mosquitoes carrying malaria and malaria's effects around the world. Unfortunately, that fascinating dive into public health didn't carry throughout the book, instead it described lots of malaria eradication programs in Africa, lots of details about various funds and dollar figures, lots of meetings and just a lot of statistics. The story is mostly about how philanthropist Ray Chambers used a business approach instead of an NGO nonprofit-type approach to fight malaria, which was interesting, but after awhile I was tired of hearing how great Chambers is. I applaud the work these people have done and are still doing to eradicate malaria from Africa and the world, but I wish it focused more on the public health aspect of the disease (how it spreads, how it kills, the fight for a vaccine) as well as the stories of the people it sickens, kills and otherwise affects, instead of the rich philanthropists trying to help.
January 18, 2012
Very disappointing. This is not a book about malaria. It is a book about how rich businessmen are much smarter, more charitable and all round more valuable human beings than the rest of us. Nations and their elected representatives should just get out of the way and let businessmen set up everything according to a "business model," (structure of which is never really elaborated, but it's a damn sight better than what those stupid African politicians could come up with) and then malaria can be eliminated because they will know how to kill all the mosquitoes in the world and still make a profit. Okay, I'm exaggerating. But I read this expecting to learn about cutting edge malaria research and didn't get what I was expecting. Too many descriptions of how oil company executives and rich philanthropists "got it right" when there really isn't as much evidence as is implied that their methods are better or more efficient.
October 25, 2012
On page 166 the author quotes somebody saying something like this..."Friend, you don't even know the life cycle of malaria." I commented to myself, "Neither do I, and I only have 30 some pages before this book is over!"
This was a book about the economics of eliminating malaria, and it left me wondering how we have mosquitoes in our country but not malaria. The author failed to explain the basics of this disease before roaring into how to "Change the World."
This was a book about the economics of eliminating malaria, and it left me wondering how we have mosquitoes in our country but not malaria. The author failed to explain the basics of this disease before roaring into how to "Change the World."
January 23, 2019
It was a quick, easy read for me. If you're looking for a book detailing the malaria illness, this isn't the one for you. However if you are looking for a book to learn about all the fundraising efforts that have went into fighting this disease and some of the key people involved in the fight, this is a great place to start. The book contains lots of dollar figures, illness totals and took a lot of background research to put together. Definitely worth the read.
April 25, 2012
Did not meet expectations. Something of a hagiography of Ray Chambers - missing the "what's next?" element. I fall into the Dambisa Moyo camp - quoting Jeffrey Sachs doesn't help my frame of mind when reading this book. Still - it's a nice idea.
December 11, 2015
This was a revealing tale of the attempt to eliminate child malaria deaths by the end of 2015. I found the book was wide-ranging and readable.
That date is days away, and that objective has not been achieved. However, child malaria deaths have been halved since 2000.
Ray Chambers and the Malaria No More movement can take credit for saving millions of lives so far.
I found this book informative, not a glory piece about Ray Chambers, and not taking the line that only business people have the ability to implement such a major project. Perry is, however, critical of the self-perpetuation of many aid projects, unintended consequences of well-meaning aid efforts and feather-bedding by both aid workers and government officials.
There are plenty of statistics in this book, but it is difficult to reconcile them with other published data, which focusses on how much money is needed for the next stage, and how hard everyone is working.
I would like to see a sequel that investigates why the target was not achieved, and why an unachievable target was set in the first place.
That date is days away, and that objective has not been achieved. However, child malaria deaths have been halved since 2000.
Ray Chambers and the Malaria No More movement can take credit for saving millions of lives so far.
I found this book informative, not a glory piece about Ray Chambers, and not taking the line that only business people have the ability to implement such a major project. Perry is, however, critical of the self-perpetuation of many aid projects, unintended consequences of well-meaning aid efforts and feather-bedding by both aid workers and government officials.
There are plenty of statistics in this book, but it is difficult to reconcile them with other published data, which focusses on how much money is needed for the next stage, and how hard everyone is working.
I would like to see a sequel that investigates why the target was not achieved, and why an unachievable target was set in the first place.
February 17, 2012
Good book about a recent attempt to eradicate malaria and what does and does not work in the world of international aid. Reads a bit more like a long newspaper article than a book, but I stayed interested.
December 14, 2011
Interesting look at the world of the anti-malaria fight. I learned a lot!
August 28, 2012
My take on Lifeblood:
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews