| Author |
Message |
    
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 715
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 11, 2004 - 05:36 pm: | 
|
Updated: 08:35 AM EDT
Africa laureate dismisses AIDS "bioweapon" flap
By Wangui Kanina, Reuters
NAIROBI, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Wangari Maathai made a typically combative start to her first full day as a Nobel laureate on Saturday, defending a recent suggestion that the HIV virus might have been made in a laboratory as a plot against Africans.
The outspoken Kenyan environmentalist became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for aiding the poor with a campaign to plant trees and slow deforestation.
Maathai, rarely reluctant to challenge the status quo or confront the powerful, said her comments in August were intended to promote an inquiring attitude to AIDS among Africans and combat the fatalistic notion that it was a curse from God.
"Would you solve the problem if it you believed it was a curse from God?" she told a news conference, adding that one theory was that AIDS was created by a scientist in a laboratory as an agent of war. "I was encouraging people to ask questions, which is what I always do."
Maathai caused a furore in Kenya when she was quoted in Kenya's East African Standard daily as calling AIDS a biological weapon devised to destroy black people.
"Do not be naive. AIDS is not a curse from God to Africans or the black people. It is a tool to control them designed by some evil-minded scientists, but we may not know who particularly did (it)," the August 31 article quoted her as saying at a seminar in her home town of Nyeri.
A U.S. State Department spokesman on Friday congratulated Maathai on the Peace Prize but said without elaborating that Washington did not agree with her on every issue.
A senior U.S. State Department official, who spoke to reporters on condition that he not be identified, said:
"She has made some statements about the source of HIV/AIDS that we have very much disagreed with. She said it was invented as a bioweapon in some laboratory in the West. We don't agree with that," a senior U.S. official told reporters.
WELL-WORN THEORY
The idea that AIDS began as a plot by Western scientists to control Africa's population is commonly heard across Africa.
Maathai, speaking at the office of her environmental lobby group, said she never suggested any particular region was responsible for creating AIDS but she was suspicious about what she called the secrecy surrounding the origin of the virus.
"Some people say it came from the monkeys and I doubt it...others say that it is a curse from God. But I say it cannot be that only black people are cursed, because we are dying more then any other people on this planet and that's a fact."
Maathai has campaigned for years to educate Kenyans that felling swathes of woodland wreaks irreparable damage on Kenya's ecosystem, destroying vital water catchment are that sustain the backbone farming and hydro electric sector.
She said Mount Kenya, the continent's second highest peak and the source of 13 of Kenya's rivers was endangered because several acres on the mountain had been cleared for firewood and charcoal while marijuana was being grown in the forests.
10/09/04 08:34 ET
Copyright 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
|
Sisg
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Sisg
Post Number: 116
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 11, 2004 - 08:07 pm: |
|
Wow Chris, thank you for this article. My novel is loosely based on the very same claim, not AIDs but a fictional virus. In the early 80's when AIDs was just barely sweeping the nation, I too, like many questioned the rumors of monkeys, or one gay man who traveled across the country and affected nations....please! I did research and learned more about the virus, and ran up on some stuff that suggested it being man made with a lot of back up credentials. I believe Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam also brought this up. Now no one wants to talk about it, and often discount this most viable theory. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 1660
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - 12:42 pm: |
|
I remember about 12 years ago actor Steven Seagal flatly saying on the Arsenio Hall Show that HIV/AIDS was a genocidal weapon being waged against Black people.
And I recall the audience being a bit taken aback by his candor. Because what you had here was an rich/famous (appearently) sound/sober WHITE man saying what many Blacks had already began whispering. And what I found expecially persuasive about Seagal's comments was they were coming from a man who is reputed to have done "Black ops" work (e.g., assassinations, governmental overthrows, etc.) for the US military/CIA. So if there's anyone who should be versant in the clandestine malevolent machinations of powerful White foks, it would be he.
But the problem I always have with these conspiratorial proclamations is (it appears) we have too few people who have the skill/interests in the science/reseach activity that is imperative to figuring out this HIV/AIDS puzzle. Consider: After about 25 years of HIV/AIDS, we STILL don't even know WHERE it came from, much less how to cure it. And if it is indeed a man-made evil , shouldn't after all these years some (Black?) microbiologist and/or genetists be able to prove such by now?
Because as Chris Rock appropriately said during one of his HBO specials (This quote may not be entirely accurate.) "They will never cure AIDS because there's not enough money in the cure...The money is in keeping people sick so they'd have to continue taking drugs." |
Sisg
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Sisg
Post Number: 117
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - 02:10 pm: |
|
That's it ABM, what the Chris Rock quote, there is more money to be made in the constant, and ever changing drug rituals, than to be made in an instant cure for AIDs. A man by the name of Boyd E. Graves wrote a paper titled "The History of the Development of AIDS." He had a website some time ago, that had all times of facts, timelines, etc...to prove his case, and it is very interesting...now abou the cure again, what if the virus has mutated so much that they no longer have a fix on it...if it was meant for just blacks, or maybe we were just the test subjects, how did it get out of hand???? |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 1664
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - 02:45 pm: |
|
Sisg,
I will look for the Graves' paper/info.
I've never quite bought the it's mutated too much to kill argument. Because it seem to me if still qualifies as the HIV, no matter it mutation, it still should retain enough of its original properties upon which science can wield a weapon to kill.
But, again, too few Black foks have Phd's in microbiology, genetics and other fields of study that might provide us with the skill-set that could be used to lead us to effective answer. I wish more of us with the intellectual capital would stop pursuing the dollars/esteem of a medical degree and instead join the less lucrative/popular position of scientific researcher.
Because until we take a more proactive roll in fighting this disease, we Blacks will remain subject to not-so-tender mercies of the very people we have every reason to suspect/fear.
BTW: Happy Belated Birthday! Sorry. I'd been intending to send a B-Day shout-out to you for days but my mind's been a bit foggy lately. I hope you had a great time.
And I hope your book is progressing nicely as well.  |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 1532
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - 04:12 pm: |
|
Any condition or situation in the public sector which generates capital eventually evolves into an industry. The disease of Cancer is an industry, as is the maintenance of Prisons. These are 2 diverse examples of instances which create enormous profits from the goods and services they require and many in the financial community have a vested interest in perpetuating their existence. BTW, I have always heard that rumor about AIDS. But it seems far-fetched to me. Does a deadly epidemic really benefit anyone in the long run? |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 1669
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - 04:47 pm: |
|
Cynique,
Yeah. In America, money is to be made on EVERYTHING...including crime/sickness/death.
I agree that a lot of these conspiracy theories like those involving AID appear to be a bunch of hooey. Because the biggest problem with them is how do you keep those involved silent for decades.
And your last sentence is, perhaps, most profound. But it presuppose that the hypothetical authors of this calamity even give a $#*+ about anyone else but the billions that they can earn in the hear-n-now. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 716
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 14, 2004 - 12:44 pm: |
|
Abm:
It hasn't been that long. How long were they silent about the Tuskeegee Experiment? How long did it take for the Gulf of Tonkin Incident to be exposed as a total hoax? The Kennedy, King, and Malcolm X assasinations are still shrouded in mystery.
How long before it was revealed that the Lusitania was actually carrying weapons? Do we know how the Maine was sunk?
Just recently it was revealed that the Serbian government was in fact involved with the Assasins of Archduke Ferdinand--what was that, almost 100 years ago?
People keep silent because they don't want to wind up dead or in prison at worst or at best as painted as conspiracy nuts, as is happening to Ms. Maathai. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 1693
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 14, 2004 - 04:05 pm: |
|
Chris,
That's a valid point. I guess I presume in this day/age the truth about an issue as enormous as AID/HIV would be made manifest. But, who knows, may be all of those who would have been most inclined to know and tell what really happend were killed a long time go. |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 138
Registered: 07-2004
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 14, 2004 - 04:19 pm: |
|
I am EXTRAORDINARILY proud of Wanari's achievements.
I absolutely cried when she was announced as a winner of this prize. She deserves it!!
I love EVERYTHING she does....and everything she says.
And she's TOTALLY RIGHT...about AIDS.
I believe it is created by men and was given to the poor unsuspecting African carryabouts...as they stood in line for shots. 25 years ago.
Notice how it sprang up FIRST among the rural clan people who get such FREE medical attention...and not the CITY SINNERS, who fuck like rabbits and had many more avenues to spread and pass such a virus--especially with all the Europeans who tour the cities and the sex clubs they run.
What was the VIRUS doing on "Fire Island" in N.Y. with Patient Zero and in gay men in San Francisco.....BEFORE BREAKING OUT in the African outback?
How does it affect gays in Jamaica and on "Fire Island", N.Y.....but not hit the thriving gay underworld club/rich scenes of Dakkar, Nairobi, Cairo and Lagos? This is impossible!
But no...it reached the sex clubs and City Sinners several YEARS later!!!
And if it's from a monkey...then why in 26,000 years did this monkey wait to have this NEW disease?
African outback people have been eating and sexing monkeys since the days when Europe was populated exlusively by Neanderthals.
"Beastiality" is a very common practice amongst animist Black Africans in Ethiopia, Somalia and S. Kenya. Many of their rituals REQUIRE sleeping with horses, sheep, monkeys and ostriches. They've done it since before biblical times.
WHY didn't they get the disease before the outback people of the southern African states???
Wangari is right.
God bless her for speaking out.
|
|
Email This Page