An Ostrich Policy relate to the inability of governments or people to acknowledge that a real problem or danger exist. Many African governments have been accused of an Ostrich Policy concerning the AIDS pandemic, of which Thabo Mbeki's speech at the Opening Session of the 13th International AIDS Conference on July 9, 2000 in Durban, South Africa's president is probably the most notable.
According to African folklore, an ostrich prefer to close its eyes and hide its head in a bush or hole in the ground when facing danger. Since the ostrich can no longer see the danger, it believes that the danger no longer exists and that it is safe from the consequences of the danger, whilst the bulk of its body remains in the open and thus vulnerable to the original danger. An Ostrich Policy is therefore the inability to act appropriately to avert danger or the inevitable consequences thereof.
Famous quotes containing the word policy:
“While I am in favor of the Government promptly enforcing the laws for the present, defending the forts and collecting the revenue, I am not in favor of a war policy with a view to the conquest of any of the slave States; except such as are needed to give us a good boundary. If Maryland attempts to go off, suppress her in order to save the Potomac and the District of Columbia. Cut a piece off of western Virginia and keep Missouri and all the Territories.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)