Post by Moses on Jul 19, 2005 0:09:39 GMT -5
Gagging Africa Through Phantom Development Aid
Vanguard (Lagos)
OPINION
July 17, 2005
Posted to the web July 18, 2005
Abada
Cape Town, South Africa
IN the international aid fraternity, it is ritual time again. The G8, comprising industrialized countries of USA, Canada, Italy, Japan, UK, Spain, France, and Russia converged in Scotland to plot the future socio-economic developmental directions of the world. And, as usual, political leaders of the developing countries, particularly the very vulnerable from the African continent, are hoping that Tony Blair's Africa Commission gains currency amongst the G8 leaders.
Of course, they had reasons to be optimistic that the Gleneagles meeting would herald a new era in international cooperation and assistance between the North and South. NEPAD, which the Blair administration has effectively hijacked, is running, democratisation is taking place, large scale commercialisation and privatisation of publicly owned assets have since become the economic policy imperatives, and good governance in the image and likeness of George Bush is now the promissory note. $40 billion in aid is in the coffers.
Statistically, the US is the biggest donor of aid to the developing world, including Africa. In truth, this assistance is fake and dubious. This is because a huge portion of aid by the G8 countries to the developing world is phantom. In a recent report authored by Action Aid, it found that "61 per cent of aid flows were phantom, rising to almost 90 per cent in the case of France and the US".
This is largely surprising given the facts that powerful private interests spearheaded by pharmaceutical and petrochemical cartels continue to hold western governments' hostage, and implicitly the peoples of the world through their mischievous conducts.
The business of the G8 leaders in Scotland was to ensure Africa is gagged through whatever aid is made available. According to David Earnshaw, former director of SmithKline Beecham, "the market capitalisation of the four largest (pharmaceutical) companies is more than the economy of India". Forbes Magazine states that "since 1982, the drug industry has been the most profitable in the United States" and yet new diseases are on the increase, and old ones have become unsolvable by pharmaceutical drugs. What makes it highly lucrative? Action Aid states categorically in its report that "86 cents in 1 US dollar aid is phantom. The US 15 billion dollars Lids program is largely "tied to the purchase of drugs from American pharmaceutical companies, but treating fewer patients". This is at the expense of independent and home grown programs which donor countries such as the US and the UK continue to frustrate.
Drug companies
In one of its desperate moves to control the freedom of persons to choose how they should be treated, the. drug companies sought to restrict access to natural therapies including vitamin supplements.
Though1, it failed in the US when citizens marched against the racketeering of the drug companies, the yciarma-carteis continue to abuse the United Nations Codex Alimentarius (Food Standards) Commission hoping that its activities would lead to a worldwide ban on natural health. The threat posed to the survival of mankind by these pharma-cartels cannot be allowed to take root. Worldwide1 it is desperately using local regulatory bodies to impose its interests on the people. In South Africa, certain elements within tax payers funded Medicine Control Council failed woefully to smuggle the ban on natural health through the back door.
The safety and affordability of natural health approaches remains a constant threat to pharmaceutical cartel. This is premised on the ground that they are not patentable and therefore of low margins. With the breakthroughs in the areas of vitamin research and cellular health, it is now possible to deal with age long health problems such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, aids etc.
African leaders must remind themselves of what happened to the Washington designed economic package of the 1980s. Our people must remain constantly vigilant against the onslaught of the big pharmaceutical cartels bent on assaulting our health freedom.
Abada is the Head of Programms (Africa) Dr. Rath Health Foundation
Vanguard (Lagos)
OPINION
July 17, 2005
Posted to the web July 18, 2005
Abada
Cape Town, South Africa
IN the international aid fraternity, it is ritual time again. The G8, comprising industrialized countries of USA, Canada, Italy, Japan, UK, Spain, France, and Russia converged in Scotland to plot the future socio-economic developmental directions of the world. And, as usual, political leaders of the developing countries, particularly the very vulnerable from the African continent, are hoping that Tony Blair's Africa Commission gains currency amongst the G8 leaders.
Of course, they had reasons to be optimistic that the Gleneagles meeting would herald a new era in international cooperation and assistance between the North and South. NEPAD, which the Blair administration has effectively hijacked, is running, democratisation is taking place, large scale commercialisation and privatisation of publicly owned assets have since become the economic policy imperatives, and good governance in the image and likeness of George Bush is now the promissory note. $40 billion in aid is in the coffers.
Statistically, the US is the biggest donor of aid to the developing world, including Africa. In truth, this assistance is fake and dubious. This is because a huge portion of aid by the G8 countries to the developing world is phantom. In a recent report authored by Action Aid, it found that "61 per cent of aid flows were phantom, rising to almost 90 per cent in the case of France and the US".
This is largely surprising given the facts that powerful private interests spearheaded by pharmaceutical and petrochemical cartels continue to hold western governments' hostage, and implicitly the peoples of the world through their mischievous conducts.
The business of the G8 leaders in Scotland was to ensure Africa is gagged through whatever aid is made available. According to David Earnshaw, former director of SmithKline Beecham, "the market capitalisation of the four largest (pharmaceutical) companies is more than the economy of India". Forbes Magazine states that "since 1982, the drug industry has been the most profitable in the United States" and yet new diseases are on the increase, and old ones have become unsolvable by pharmaceutical drugs. What makes it highly lucrative? Action Aid states categorically in its report that "86 cents in 1 US dollar aid is phantom. The US 15 billion dollars Lids program is largely "tied to the purchase of drugs from American pharmaceutical companies, but treating fewer patients". This is at the expense of independent and home grown programs which donor countries such as the US and the UK continue to frustrate.
Drug companies
In one of its desperate moves to control the freedom of persons to choose how they should be treated, the. drug companies sought to restrict access to natural therapies including vitamin supplements.
Though1, it failed in the US when citizens marched against the racketeering of the drug companies, the yciarma-carteis continue to abuse the United Nations Codex Alimentarius (Food Standards) Commission hoping that its activities would lead to a worldwide ban on natural health. The threat posed to the survival of mankind by these pharma-cartels cannot be allowed to take root. Worldwide1 it is desperately using local regulatory bodies to impose its interests on the people. In South Africa, certain elements within tax payers funded Medicine Control Council failed woefully to smuggle the ban on natural health through the back door.
The safety and affordability of natural health approaches remains a constant threat to pharmaceutical cartel. This is premised on the ground that they are not patentable and therefore of low margins. With the breakthroughs in the areas of vitamin research and cellular health, it is now possible to deal with age long health problems such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, aids etc.
African leaders must remind themselves of what happened to the Washington designed economic package of the 1980s. Our people must remain constantly vigilant against the onslaught of the big pharmaceutical cartels bent on assaulting our health freedom.
Abada is the Head of Programms (Africa) Dr. Rath Health Foundation