Read what Dr Mercola has to say about Bill Gates

Read what Dr Mercola has to say today about Bill Gates. "Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, aims to end world hunger by growing more genetically engineered food crops—a philanthropic plan that may be gullible at best, and destructive at worst, both to the environment and humanity" "Monsanto and other biotech companies have collaborated with the Gates Foundation via the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to promote the use of genetically modified (GM) crops in Africa"
Do read the article! Its content and implications are mind-blowingly important.

The Gates Foundation prioritises GM development projects

The Gates Foundation prioritises GM development projects and promotes fertilisers, pesticides and hybrid seeds to small African farmers through bodies such as African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) and projects like Harvest Plus that benefit big business rather than promoting proven, low-cost solutions to tackling hunger by sustainable farming.

"As the world population reaches 7 billion GM Freeze says in a new report published today that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s policy on agricultural development to tackle hunger is “swimming against a tide of informed opinion”. The report reveals the Gates Foundation has allocated over 40% of its committed research expenditure from 2005 to 2011 on projects involving risky “silver bullet” GM technology."
Read news release at GM Freeze.

At last some payouts for the first few victims out of the hundreds of Pfizer's Nigeria drug-trial victims

Read about it here. Why would Pfizer have chosen Africa for its drug trials, do you think? - I think we can make an educated guess. The legalities are easier. Possible victims would find it harder to seek compensation, even if they have managed to stay alive...

You could read John le Carré's novel The Constant Gardener or watch the excellent film of it, to learn rather more of the dark facts of African drug-trials. You may also find this blogpost of mine interesting. Sobering facts like these need to be borne in mind when new drugs are eagerly sought or welcomed. They come at a heavy cost, and it is not our cost.

Mitochondrial damage caused by some anti-retroviral drugs commonly used to treat HIV, study shows

A class of anti-retroviral drugs commonly used to treat HIV, particularly in Africa and low income countries, can cause premature ageing, according to research published in the journal Nature Genetics. The study shows that the drugs damage DNA in the patient's mitochondria – the 'batteries' which power their cells. The findings may explain why HIV-infected people treated with antiretroviral drugs sometimes show advanced signs of frailty and age-associated diseases such as cardiovascular disease and dementia at an early age.
Read article at medicalxpress.com

South Africa is alleged to have dumped GM maize onto Kenya, Mozambique and Swaziland markets

Johannesburg - South Africa has dumped genetically modified (GM) maize on African markets, the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) has alleged. "In the last four months, South Africa has dumped almost 300 000 metric tons of GM maize on to Kenya, Mozambique and Swaziland," it said in a statement.
Read article at news24.com (South Africa)

Zambians contract HIV after volunteering for AIDS gel clinical trials

A Zambian traditional leader has fumed over reports that a number of his female subjects who underwent a microbicide gel clinical trials have contracted HIV, the virus that cause AIDS. Close to a quarter of volunteers that took part in a microbicide gel clinical trials in Southern Zambia contracted HIV, 12 months after the commencement of the trial. Zambian authorities have remained mute over the development while officials from the Microbicide Development Programme in Zambia and United Kingdom have pains to explain what went wrong during the clinical trials. Chief Mwanachingwala who presides over the affected site in Mazabuka of southern Zambia has expressed regret at the leaked results of the trials. The traditional leader has claimed that the Microbicide Development Programme enrolled illiterate and uneducated women who did not understand the nature of the clinical trials and its consequences.
Read article at africanews.com

Medical staff using dirty needles are infecting millions of Africans with HIV

The Telegraph reported that “One in five HIV sufferers in Africa was infected by medical staff using dirty needles and clinical equipment.” That is nearly five million new cases annually because of bad, crucially unhygienic practice. The research appears in a publication backed by the Royal Society of Medicine.

“Africans are subject to a much higher proportion of injections and blood tests than patients in the West, according to a 1999 study for the World Health Organisation.

That research found that a wide range of common symptoms such as colds, ear infections, fatigue and tonsillitis were treated with injections rather than oral medication.

The study concluded that at least 50 per cent of these were unsafe, with needles being used repeatedly on one patient after another, without sterilisation.“

I hope you are as horrified as I am. – It seems clear to me that Western medicine needs to get the hell out of Africa, where it is directly responsible for appalling suffering, disease and death on an unimaginable scale.

In my opinion, philanthropy as it is too often practised by Big Business – i.e. unloading a load of pharmaceutical drugs, sometimes drugs that contain live microbes – to be injected into Africa’s adults and children in less than hygienic circumstances, seems like the work of the devil incarnate!

The Constant Gardener, a book by John le Carré, has the harm done by Big Pharma to African citizens as its fictional theme, but although the detail in the book is fictitious, the reality of the harm done by pharmaceutical junk in Africa is actually worse. If you haven’t read the book or seen the film/DVD, I recommend you do so and have your eyes opened.

Organic farming 'could feed Africa'

Traditional practices increase yield by 128 per cent in east Africa, says UN
Organic farming offers Africa the best chance of breaking the cycle of poverty and malnutrition it has been locked in for decades, according to a major study from the United Nations to be presented today. New evidence suggests that organic practices – derided by some as a Western lifestyle fad – are delivering sharp increases in yields, improvements in the soil and a boost in the income of Africa's small farmers who remain among the poorest people on earth. The head of the UN's Environment Programme, Achim Steiner, said the report "indicates that the potential contribution of organic farming to feeding the world maybe far higher than many had supposed".
Read article in The Independent (UK)

Kofi Annan addresses MPs and peers about contemporary poverty in Africa and calls for G8 promises to be fulfilled.

Annan plea on Africa poverty - Guardian

Extract:

"In a rare address to MPs and peers the former UN secretary general Kofi Annan yesterday marked the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in Britain by arguing that an attack on contemporary poverty in Africa was the best way to heal the wounds of slavery.

Mr Annan rejected calls for reparations, saying: "Many Africans believe history has not yet repaired past wounds at all. The movement for reparations is fuelled by the desire for recognition. This is a battle better fought in the development domain."

Speaking in the Lords Gallery, Mr Annan was introduced by John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, who has overseen much of the British commemoration. Mr Prescott expressed the government's "deep regret and sorrow" over the trade.

Mr Annan said: "A bold investment in addressing poverty in Africa, as promised by the G8 in Gleneagles, would be the best way to heal the wounds of the past and turn the page.""

The West's foot-dragging over aid pledges to Africa was described last night as "grotesque" and a threat to the lives of the world's poor

In 2005, G8 pledged $50bn for Africa. Now the reality - Guardian

Extract:

"The west's foot-dragging over aid pledges to Africa was described last night as "grotesque" and a threat to the lives of the world's poor by the body set up by Tony Blair to monitor the results of Britain's Gleneagles summit.

Almost two years after the G8 group of leading industrial nations promised to boost development assistance by $50bn a year by 2010, the Africa Progress Panel headed by the former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan said rich countries were only 10% of the way to their target.
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"If the efforts to double aid by 2010 are not increased soon it will be too late," Mr Annan said as the APP presented its findings in Berlin to the prime minister and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who will host this year's G8 summit in early June.

Mr Annan said the commitment to doubling aid had fallen year on year since Gleneagles. "In 2005 we did well, by 2006 we were sliding, and unless we now make about $5bn available a year we will not make that target," he said.

Bob Geldof, the musician and lobbyist who also sits on the APP, said the promises of "economic justice" made at Gleneagles, on which Mr Blair had staked his legacy as prime minister, were in danger of collapsing. This amounted to a "grotesque abrogation of responsibility"."