Showing posts with label Shocking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shocking. Show all posts

Monday, July 18, 2011

The Great Swine Flu Hoax

Article written by Mike Adams

"The great swine flu hoax of 2009 is now falling apart at the seams as one country after another unloads hundreds of millions of doses of unused swine flu vaccines. No informed person wants the injection anymore, and the entire fear-based campaign to promote the vaccines has now been exposed as outright quackery and propaganda."
Even doctors are now calling the pandemic a complete hoax. As reported on Fox News, Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, a leading health authority in Europe, says that drug companies "organized a 'campaign of panic' to put pressure on the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a pandemic. He believes it is 'one of the greatest medicine scandals of the century,' and he has called for an inquiry."

H1N1 swine flu was never dangerous, and it never should have been escalated to a level-six pandemic in the first place. It was all a big marketing scam whose purpose was to simply sell vaccines. (And the CDC and WHO were in on it...)

And it worked! Big Pharma made out with billions of dollars in profits for a useless vaccine that's now being dumped by the truck load. These vaccines were, of course, paid for with taxpayer dollars, making the Great Swine Flu Hoax of 2009 nothing more than an elaborate financial scam whose goal was to transfer wealth from the People to the shareholders of Big Pharma.
In just the fourth quarter of 2009, GlaxoSmithKline shipped $1.4 billion worth of vaccines.

That's $1.4 billion worth of taxpayer dollars, by the way. Dollars that could have been spent on nutrition or real health education. $1.4 billion worth of free vitamin D supplements would have done far more to protect public health than vaccines could ever hope to accomplish.

Wall Street hucksters have nothing on Big Pharma, the CDC and the WHO, all of which conspired to mislead the public and generate irrational fear in order to make money selling people vaccine shots they never needed in the first place.
The drug companies raked in billions of dollars in revenues while providing a product that offered absolutely no net reduction in mortality. In fact, as the long-term side effects of the vaccines remain unknown, it could turn out that the vaccines actually result in a net increase in mortality.

Meanwhile, countless people were harmed by the swine flu vaccine frenzy (it's "countless" because nobody's counting). In addition to those who were nearly paralyzed after receiving the vaccine shots, grade school staffers in Massachusetts who lined up to receive swine flu vaccine shots were instead injected with insulin.
Total swine flu deaths for 2009 were far lower than the number of deaths from regular seasonal flu. And yet it turns out that thousands of Americans who died from the swine flu had been previously injected with the vaccines  In fact, according to calculations derived from official CDC estimates, thousands of vaccinated Americans died from swine flu anyway. The vaccines, it seems, don't really work after all. You're just as safe doing nothing. Here in Saudi Arabia three deaths were reported supposedly from swine flu which naturally created panic and sent hundreds of patients to various hospitals throughout the Kingdom  to be vaccinated. But what the media did not tell the public was that the three patients who died were immuno-compromised in the first place.Two of them were in ICU connected to various artificial breathing devices and the the third patient was old with various other health complications.It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that there was something drastically fishy about the whole H1N1 debacle. Usually prior to any medication being released on the market it undergoes years of clinical trials. First it is tested on animals and then it is tested on human beings in various different parts of the world. The H1N1 vaccine came into the market over a short space of time.When questioned about the ingredients of the vaccine, the manufacturing company refused to divulge this information. Health care workers at various hospitals were asked to be vaccinated with the new H1N1 vaccine. As a health care professional myself I refused to be vaccinated with a product that has no clear clinical data. Many of my doctor colleagues refused to be vaccinated as well. A good doctor friend of mine told me that some of his patients who took the vaccine reported various degrees of adverse side effects that ranged from rash, skin irritabiliy, blurred vision, pain in the hands and feet, sluggish movement.

The bottom line is, getting the vaccine may harm your health. Outspoken Dr. Wodarg says that the full extent of the damage from the insufficiently-tested vaccines may not be known for years. "The vaccine developed by Novartis was produced in a bioreactor from cancerous cells, a technique that had never been used until now," he says.
Just what we need, huh? Cancer cells being injected into the population as part of a vaccine campaign.

The Swine Flu hoax has fizzled out, and countries like Greece, France and the UK have cancelled orders for vaccines that they now realize won't be needed  But even the fizzling of this hoax doesn't mean it was a failure from the point of view of Big Pharma.

The swine flu hoax was a huge success not only for drug company profits, but also for certain influential individuals including Dr Julie Gerberding, former head of the CDC who has now accepted a high-paying job
as the president of Merck's global vaccine operations.
One minute you're running the CDC, warning the country about a pandemic while urging everybody to get vaccinated, and the next minute you're running the for-profit vaccine division of the world's largest drug company. Amazing how that works, huh?





Thursday, July 14, 2011

Saudi Arabia faces hidden Aids problem

Article written by Hassan.M.Fattah
Being gay in Saudi Arabia is hard enough. But for a growing number of Saudis like Feisal, middle-aged, gay and H.I.V.positive, life is a tangle of regret and fear.“You live in constant fear of being found out and attacked,” said Feisal, who spoke on condition that only his middle name be used, for fear of discrimination. “I’m sure a lot of people would think I deserve what I have if they knew about it.”If not for a mixture of Saudi doctors, social workers and advocates for AIDS patients who have pushed the government to tackle the disease more openly and encouraged patients to fight for their rights, Feisal’s situation would be even more dire. But change is slowly taking place.For years Saudi Arabia kept its growing AIDS problem hidden. Statistics on the disease were sealed in envelopes and guarded like national secrets. In mosques, imams spoke of AIDS as the “wrath of God” brought upon people who committed “sexual deviancy.”Now, the government is opening up. In June, the Ministry of Health announced that more than 10,000 people in Saudi Arabia were H.I.V.-positive or had AIDS, including nearly 600 children. The numbers appear to show a significant increase in infection over 2004, when 7,800 cases were reported, and 2003, when 6,700 cases were reported.Officials say that better reporting is the reason for the growing numbers. But many doctors say even the latest figures are off, with the real numbers likely to be far higher in this nation of 27 million people. One physician who has treated many patients who have been hiding their condition or were unaware of it estimated that the real number could be as high as 150 000.Some years back, the government passed legislation protecting the privacy of people who were ill and guaranteeing their right to work, which provided some protection to AIDS patients. Saudi citizens with AIDS have also long had the right to free medical care, and today receive expensive anti-retroviral drugs without charge.But the rights and protections are only for Saudi citizens. More than three-quarters of the reported H.I.V. cases are of foreign residents. Foreigners living here found to be H.I.V.-positive are typically imprisoned and then deported.Fortunately for Feisal, he is a Saudi citizen. “I have to praise the government,” he said. “We get the drugs for free, the medical care for free, and the treatment is confidential.”But Feisal said that nothing is being done to build acceptance of people with AIDS, much less homosexuality.Indeed, the lingering challenge for most AIDS patients is their acceptance by society. Ever since the first case was diagnosed here in 1984, the disease has challenged social and religious taboos. Women began to be infected by their husbands, who contracted the disease on trips abroad and, increasingly, inside the country. Children, too, were born infected, and soon the numbers became hard to ignore.In this highly conservative Muslim nation, where women are forbidden to drive and talk of sex is taboo, even traditional efforts at AIDS prevention face challenges. There is little talk of condom use and safe sex; outreach is focused on abstinence and fear of God.A growing movement of AIDS patients, doctors and social workers is putting emphasis on teaching Saudis about the disease, though, to help AIDS patients live more normal lives.


The King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center here in the capital now holds regular public discussions on AIDS and how to live with it. Doctors like Abdullah al-Hokail, who has worked on AIDS at the hospital since the 1980’s, appears regularly on Saudi television to explain the effects of the disease and to preach safe sex.“The main problem here is not the disease itself,” said Muneera al-Dahhan, a clinical counselor at King Faisal Hospital, the top AIDS treatment center in the country. “It is the tough view of society. People see this as the result of sexual behavior that is unacceptable in our society and are unable to accept it.”Many other Muslim countries have begun similar programs after decades of underreporting incidence rates. Religious leaders long credited Islam and the region’s conservative culture, which forbids premarital sex, for the low incidence of AIDS. But most clinicians inside and outside the region long suspected that local health agencies were reporting incomplete numbers.When Rami al-Harithi stood before television cameras at a commemoration of World Aids Day in the Saudi capital last year, he became one of the first AIDS patients to come out in the open.“I wanted to change people’s view of H.I.V.,” said Mr. Harithi, whose story has attracted sympathy throughout the country. A hemophiliac, Mr. Harithi contracted H.I.V. when he was 8 years old. “Just as I’d expected, people were surprised to see me as just a normal guy inflicted with this disease.”

Mr. Harithi has become something of a celebrity here, appearing on almost every Saudi television and satellite channel, profiled in newspapers and invited to speak at medical symposiums. As an advocate he has sought to deliver one consistent message: AIDS patients are nothing to be afraid of and deserve their rights.“I’m not trying to get hugs and kisses by going public,’’ he said. “I just want to ensure that my rights at work and in life are guaranteed and that I will continue to get the care I need.” Other AIDS patients jealously note that the specifics of Mr. Harithi’s case have allowed him to lead a more normal life than they can. For those who contracted the disease sexually, especially those in Saudi Arabia’s homosexual underworld, life often proves far lonelier.“He’s excusably positive,” said one patient who has kept in touch with Mr. Harithi, speaking on condition of anonymity to preserve his privacy. “Public sympathy is with him because of the way he contracted the disease; it wasn’t through sex. They wouldn’t have been as nice otherwise.”For men like Feisal, who tested H.I.V.-positive five years ago, the options are markedly different. He attended college in the United States, where he enjoyed an avowedly raucous gay sex life, but returned to Saudi Arabia where homosexuality was a crime and became closeted. He was trying out for a job when a friend warned him that it would entail a blood and urine test. He decided to test independently first, and found that he was infected with H.I.V.Even other gay men have rejected him, he said. He used to frequent a gay Arab Internet chat room. But when he admitted that he was H.I.V. positive to one user, he said, he was banned from one of the sessions.“I did this to myself and take responsibility for what happened,” he said. “If I was a citizen of the U.S. or of Europe, I would want to live. But here there’s no gay life, much less an H.I.V.-positive life.”The latest efforts have made a difference but only a small one, many AIDS patients say.“There is a war against the disease,” said one man, who contracted the disease after an encounter with a prostitute in the United States years ago and who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of embarrassment. “They accept the sick, but don’t want to deal with them as people.”

Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/08/world/middleeast/08saudi.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all




Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Drug addicts playing havoc with family life

By Maha Sami Aboulola
JEDDAH – When looking for a bride for their son, one of the most important considerations for Saudi families is the reputation of the bride’s family, which is based on centuries-old Saudi tradition. Reema Abdulhadi, 31, a private sector employee, has been forced to join the ranks of the Kingdom’s spinsters despite her beautiful face. A large number of suitors come to ask for her hand, but they never come back after the first visit. “I am a well educated girl from a good family but, unfortunately, my father is a drug addict who steals and is in and out of jail because of his addiction,” she said.Abdulhadi and many other girls have been suffering in silence because of the addiction of a member of their family, being unable to start a normal family of their own. “It is really very frustrating. The behavior of your father or mother is affecting your life negatively, but there is nothing you can do about it,” added Abdulhadi.Sari Arafat, 12, has also been affected by his father’s drug addiction, which led to his parents’ divorce following which both of them rejected him. “Being the son of a non-Saudi father who has a criminal record as a result of his addiction ruins any chance I had of getting the Saudi nationality from my mother,” said Arafat. Studies show that addicted parents often lack the ability to provide structure or discipline in family life, but at the same time they expect their children to be competent at a wide variety of tasks earlier than do non-substance-abusing parents.“Children of addicted parents are faced with emotional difficulties caused by their parents situation and the rejection of society,” said Azza Abubakur, a sociologist at King Abdulaziz University. “It is well known that drug addiction is not accepted in Saudi society. And this is especially true when it comes to marriage. Parents refuse to allow their children to marry the children of drug addicts so as to prevent any future problems,” she added.Esra Abdullah, 23, the daughter of a man addicted to alcohol, said that in her neighborhood no one wants to communicate with her or her family.“Everyone can see that my drunk father sleeps all day, has no job or money, and forces my mother to ask for money from her relatives,” she said. “We lost our lives, our reputation and our ability to have a normal family just because of drink,” she added. The statistics for drug and alcohol abuse in the Kingdom is as much as 40-50% amongst young saudi men. Islamic scholars think that despite all the difficulties that children of addicted parents face, they should still try to treat and help their parents.“Drugs and alcohol can negatively affect all members of the family, but parents have the right to help and treatment instead of being hated. Muslims should keep in mind that in at least four places, the Qur’an puts kindness to parents immediately after worship of Allah, which is why Muslims should be gentle and kind to their parents and treat them with respect,” said Sheikh Taha Hassan. –

Source:
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=2009041935508

Watch the rest of the videos on YouTube....This is the first video out of a three part series....

Friday, July 1, 2011

The Doomed Youth of Saudi Arabia

Prior to my trip to Malawi, my colleague and I encountered a 14 year old patient waiting for his dads medication. You would have expected him to wait patiently in the queue, however, he jumped the queue and started screaming at us at the top of his voice in arabic. "Yallah Bisur3a" make quick he said. He then went on to say that he had better things to do rather than waiting at the pharmacy. My colleague, a soft spoken Pakistani man who is fluent in arabic didn't say a word. I on the other hand was quite miffed at the fact that a 14 year old is speaking to a man who could be his fathers age with such disrepect.I went up to him, refused to give him the medication and asked him to call his parents. When his mom arrived I first told her about her sons attitude and lack of respect for other people. But it was pretty obvious that the childs attitude was like this as his parents have the same kind of disrespectful mentality.

Islam is a very beautiful religion that is portrayed nowadays in a very negative way due to media influence and propaganda sparked by various western countries especially America.Islam teaches us to respect Gods creation irrespective of their nationality, race, religious or political beliefs. However, the mentality that exists in Saudi Arabia is quite the contrary. Most people here especially the rich and affluent think that the common man earning a decent living is like a slave to them. Cleaners and taxi drivers are considered low class and not respected at all. I have noticed kids shouting at their nannies. There was an incident where a teenager of 15 years old slapped his Bangladeshi driver for arriving 10 minutes late due to traffic.In another incident a 17 year old beat his driver for scratching the car door by mistake.

Part of the problem I think lies with the bad parenting system within the Kingdom. Women here are not taught about their responsibilities after marriage. Usually they are brought up in homes where there are maids, cooks and drivers and so after marriage this is automatically what is expected in their husbands home. On arrival of the first child, there is much happiness and excitement but after a few weeks usually a nanny is brought into the picture and the child is handed over to the nanny. In most Saudi homes kids land up growing up with their nannies. The nannies feed them , bath them, put them to sleep, take them to school carrying out all the duties of a mother.In many cases you would find Saudi kids speaking fluent Tagalog, the official language of the Philippines. So what is the mother doing you may ask yourself. Well, for most Saudi women life revolves around shopping, beauty parlours, hair salons, and partying with their girlfriends at their homes or at restaurants.If the mother is not carrying out her responsibility towards her kids then how can society produce noble, respectable children. Yes it is the fathers role as well to be a good role model to his kids but usually a child has a stronger bond and affiliation towards its mother rather than father.

A friend of mine was relating a story of how his ex-wife leaves the kids with the nanny for weeks on end at her moms home whilst she is travelling abroad for conferences and vacation.This kind of irresponsible behaviour is prevalent across the Kingdom.There is no family unit as such. In many of the wealthy households you would find that the father is always away on business trips, the mom is enjoying herself at a spa or beauty parlour or travelling abroad with her friends and the poor kids are left to be attended to by the nanny. This poor nanny has to take on the responsibility of a mom, cook and sometimes cleaner as well.After carrying out so many tasks to satisfy her employers needs she is in most cases shouted at and abused by the very kids she looks after.

When these kids become teenagers they become rebellious as they have not received the love and bond of their parents.They land up seeking other avenues of filling a void or an emptiness in their lives. Every day we find teenagers admitted to hospital for drug over doses either street drugs or prescription drugs. Many a times these teenagers are brought to the hospital whilst their parents are abroad vacationing. Drug and alcohol abuse in Saudi Arabia believe it or not is a huge problem. It is a problem that this society is failing to address. The penalty for drug trafficking is death as written in red on the immigration forms when entering the country. But once again if you are wealthy and from affluent roots anything is possible. 
The upbringing of a child is very important and perhaps that is why God Almighty has given many bounties and blessings to a mother. A mother who nurtures a child, brings up a child in a good way, teaches the child about morality, values and respect will only naturally produce a child that is a role model in society. Unfortunately, we find that in most cases this is quite the contrary here in the Kingdom. Kids are spoilt rotten. Small kids are walking around with the latest high tech mobile phones and other sophisticated gadgets that cost more than their nannies or drivers salary.
A month ago girl friends and I encountered a group of teenagers parked outside the Kingdom Mall. The driver of the black Pajero could not have been more than 16 or 17 years old. As we waited on the side bench outside the Mall waiting for our driver to arrive we suddenly see the windows of the Pajero roll down. The boys at the back had a paintball gun and started shooting at the women waiting for their drivers. When the security approached the car they then sped off shouting obscene words in arabic.
If this is the type of mentality instilled into the youth of a country, it makes you wonder what the future leaders of the country will be like.
A friend of mine who teaches at one of the local schools told me that the level of disrespect portrayed by students was appalling. She went on to say that the way the child behaves at school is a true reflection of the type of home the child comes from. She recalled an incident where a saudi child was making fun at a Christian child simply because the child was not muslim and because the child was of a darker skin colour. For some odd reason its quite a common fact that Saudis love people who are fair. Most Saudi men would prefer marrying women who are blue eyed, fair skinned.After sitting the child down it was established that in the childs home, the kids were taught that arab muslims are superior than all other people. Also the fact that the child's nanny was a dark skinned Christian woman from Sri Lanka, the impression embedded in the childs mind was that dark skinned people are of a lower class in society. The parents of the child had no respect for the child's nanny.They consistently spoke to the nanny in a harsh impolite manner and so this same type of inhumane mentality was now being transferred to the child.


Most kids residing within the Kingdom have not seen the true face of poverty. Wealth is usually handed down from generation to generation. Teenagers have the money to access drugs and other illegal substances. The government here needs to channel the energy of the youth into a different direction. Kids should be encouraged to do voluntary work at hospitals or spend a few weeks in a poor, poverty stricken country doing voluntary humanitarian work. Most kids here spend their time idle watching television or playing computer games and hence statistics have shown the high level of obesity amongst the Saudi population. Also in the majority of Saudi households food is not cooked at home but rather bought outside from a fast food restaurant that offers a delivery service.
But all is not bleak. I have met a few families who have inculcated good qualities in their children. One such family is the Al-Khanaani family who send their kids on a yearly basis to various parts of the world doing charity work and assisting the poor.Also during the month of Ramadhaan the family would go to Makkah or Medina and hand out food to the needy people outside the haram. Mr. Al Khanaani always says that spoiling a child is like poisoning a child.He never gives his kids any money unless they have earned it through working part time or passing an exam. His attitude needs to be adopted throughout society.
Kids should be encouraged to participate in sports. Youth camps should be initiated whereby kids can participate in various activities.I think more youth social activities need to be set up within the Kingdom to allow children of all colours and creed to interact with each other so that barriers based on colour or religious beliefs can fade. Youth leadership programs are an excellent way to encourage teenagers to learn about various aspects of life.These programs can assist in moulding kids into better human beings
  
I have noticed on many occasions that Arab families do not like their kids to interact with non Arab children or families. By doing this you create a society that has barriers, a society where one nation feels they are superior or above the rest, a society where kids do not respect their elders based on their job status or skin colour. It is sad that Saudi Arabia, being the birth place of Islam has a value system that is quite against Islamic principles or etiquette  and if this kind of menatlity continues then alas the doomed youth of today will be the corrupt leaders of tomorrow!!!!

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Homosexuality on the Rise in Saudi Arabia


Result of an Oppressive Regime or Are Saudis Coming Out of the Closet?

According to an article The Kingdom in the Closet in the May issue of the Atlantic Monthly, many in the Saudi population, both male and female, frequently engage in homosexual acts despite the fact that it is punishable by death under Islamic Sharia law. Homosexuality seems risky in a kingdom sometimes called "The Land of The Two Holy Mosques", a reference to Makka and Medina, Islam's two holiest places.  
According to Western Resistance, one of the reasons that a large segment of the Saudi population engages in homosexual acts is that it's frankly easier to mingle with members of the same sex in the highly restrictive and oppressive regime--
According to Islamic law homosexuality is punishable by death. This punishment, however, is a poor deterrent. According to the article, most Saudi men become gay because it's easier to pick up a man than to find a woman. The situation is the same for young women. The article claims that Saudi Arabia's inhumane laws and dread morality police, which forbid dating between young men and women, in fact are a major factor pushing them towards homosexuality in their youth.
In his article, Queer Shiek, Being openly gay in Saudi Arabia used to be a death sentence-but times are changing, John R. Bradley describes the scene at a western-type mall in the city of Jeddah-
Gay Saudi men now cruise certain malls and supermarkets, openly making passes at each other, and one street in Jeddah is said to have the most traffic accidents in the city because it is the most popular place for Saudi drivers to pick up gay Filipinos, who strut their stuff on the sidewalk in tight jeans and cut-off t-shirts. (Filipinos are one of the larger groups of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia.) Meanwhile, gay and lesbian discos, gay-friendly coffee shops, and even gay oriented Internet chat rooms are now flourishing in some Saudi cities; in the chat rooms, gay and lesbian Saudis discuss the best places to meet people for one-night stands. "We talk about places that aren't gay cruising areas, because they're now in the minority," says one young gay Saudi, only half-jokingly.