Miscellaneous Uganda: Dealing With Big
Pharma & Beads In Kampala
29 July 2012
By Jane Stillwater
In early July, I left for Uganda on a fact-finding
tour sponsored by Global Exchange -- and have learned
a lot of really amazing stuff since.
First, I learned that taking anti-malaria medication
sucks eggs. Your stomach begins to feel nauseous, then
you break out in hives and then get the runs. And yet
despite having to endure all this miserable
uncomfortableness, there's apparently still a fair
chance that the freaking pills might not even work.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10522909.
Next, I learned about a mysterious "nodding disease"
that is currently killing children in northern Uganda
-- where Big Pharma is routinely conducting various
human drug trials on the locals.
According to Ugandan journalist Angelo Izamaa, "One of
the undesirable facts about Northern Uganda, beyond
the [LRA] conflict itself, was the attractiveness of
its conditions for disease research." Further, "Last
year the BBC reported that Pandemrix, one of the
vaccines [involved in drug trials in northern Uganda],
was being investigated by several countries including
Finland for the link to 'nodding disease' like
conditions." http://angeloizama.com/2012/03/01/invisible-children-response-to-nodding-disease-echoes-the-northern-uganda-war-and-more/
And then I developed a really bad cough. Really,
really bad. Bronchitis. "Can you PLEEZE take me to
visit a witch doctor!" I begged. But then I found out
that, in Uganda witch doctors demand a human sacrifice
as part of the cure -- preferably a small child with
no scars. Good grief. I don't think even the FDA would
approve of that kind of cure. So I took massive
amounts of vitamin C instead and that worked.
Next I read an article in Kampala's leading newspaper
which touted the fabulous effectiveness of a new
cervical cancer vaccine for female minors -- and how
every young girl in Uganda should get this wonderful
vaccine ASAP.
Hey, isn't that the very same vaccine that many
Americans now refuse to give to their daughters due to
the drug's horrendous side-effects which are way out
of proportion to its possible ability to prevent a STD
that may give you a form of cancer forty years in the
future that is already easily detectable by a Pap
smear and thus relatively preventable anyway and may
leave you dead at age 15 instead? Yeah. It is.
According to the Washington Post, "A new report (at
http:/ / www.cdc.gov/ vaccinesafety/ vaccines/ hpv/
gardasil.html) by the FDA and the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention found that serious
complications had occurred [from use of the vaccine,
including 20 deaths], although the rate and severity
of most side effects appear to be consistent with
those of other vaccines." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/08/AR2010030802331.html
Now that a lot of Americans have stopped allowing
Gardasil to be administered to their daughters, are
its manufacturers now foisting off their excess
inventory onto Uganda's daughters instead? Anything
for a profit, guys.
And speaking of vaccines, in Kampala I once again
jumped head-first into that old argument over the
costs vs. the benefits of giving babies and young
children a whole bunch of doses of vaccines before
they even reach kindergarten.
"If a vaccine can prevent horrible debilitating
diseases like polio, then go for it," is my point of
view. "But as for the rest of the 38 different
vaccination encounters recommended for children under
the age of six by the American Academy of Pediatrics
and being foisted off on our unsuspecting kids these
days? 38 different doses administered to our babies in
their first very vulnerable years of life? Really?"
"But without vaccines," the other person responded,
"we will run the risk of having measles epidemics and
coming down with the mumps and hepatitis and...."
"But even whooping cough can be cured," I then
replied. "And even diphtheria. However, the occurrence
of autism in American children has increased
approximately 800% since the amount of vaccines given
to them has proportionately increased. And now
approximately one in every 88 American children
suffers from some form of autism. Sure, autism has not
been officially linked to vaccines -- but what if
getting 38 doses of vaccine in a very short time even
MIGHT be the cause of it? Why take the chance?
Whooping cough can be cured. Autism is forever."
Still don't think that autism is linked to vaccines?
You are probably right. However, "All About Autism"
magazine just featured an article stating that,
"Approximately 50,000 adolescents with ASD will turn
18 years old this year in the United States. This is
the first wave of children who were identified with
autism in the early 90s." Early nineties? First wave?
There WAS a first wave? Right around the time that
vaccines were becoming a fetish with Big Pharma? Huh?
Other miscellaneous stuff that I've learned here in
Uganda? That women in the slums of Kampala cut up old
magazines and calendars, turn them magically into
beads and sell the beads to support their families. So
I bought more bracelets than you can imagine from them
-- and they in turn gave me a tour of their homes,
which were the size of many Americans' closets.
"The more money that I make from the bead business,
the more that the landlord raises my rent," said one
woman who lived with two sons and a daughter in a
10x12 shack under a sweltering tin roof. "And he
charges me 20 cents every time we use the latrine."
And there is no drainage system, no water pipes, no
washing machines, no showers or nothing like that in
this slum. And yet these women all emerge from their
houses each day immaculately clean. How do they DO
that!
After seeing this slum, I was totally amazed that
everyone living there hadn't already come down with
cholera. But for them, this life is normal. And life
goes on.
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