Posted on 08/10/2007 11:44:58 AM PDT by Contentions
Last week, the New York Times published a curious op-ed entitled “Why Africa Fears Western Medicine,” by Harriet A. Washington. The piece was published days after the Libyan government’s release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who had been falsely accused of injecting hundreds of children with H.I.V., and then sentenced to death (the release was arranged, with much fanfare, via a $426 million ransom paid by European governments). Washington writes that “to dismiss the Libyan accusations of medical malfeasance out of hand means losing an opportunity to understand why a dangerous suspicion of medicine is so widespread in Africa.”
Washington has little to say about the wisdom of Africans’ rejection of advanced Western medicine in favor of “traditional” African remedies. Instead of an explanation, she cites a list of “high-profile Western medical miscreants who have intentionally administered deadly agents under the guise of providing health care or conducting research.” And it’s true that the quacks she lists—like Wouter Basson, the former head of the apartheid South African regime’s chemical weapons program (though he is a white South African, not “Western”)—have sowed distrust among Africans about the intentions of Western doctors.
(Excerpt) Read more at commentarymagazine.com ...
“$426 million ransom”
Legalized extortion.
But post-colonial Africa is quietly returning to it's native ways from 300 years ago. I'm not sure that the citizens really want a full return to pre-civilization.
I'm not sure what the author thinks the difference is. Every white South African I've known was as "Western" in culture an any American or European.
Are Australians and South Americans "Western" by her definition? If they are, why aren't white South Africans?
Admittedly, the more extremist white South African proponents of apartheid had a lot more in common with the Nazis than with Americans, but the Nazis, unfortunately, were quite thoroughly "Western."
Africa needs the Roman Empire to come back in and take care of them. It’s obvious they can’t take care of themselves.
Africa does seem headed by to a tribal culture.
Africans have never been given much reason to trust capricious local medical, religious, scientific, or political authorities. In Rwanda and Burundi, for instance, the sword has recently proven to be much mightier than the pen, the rule of strong men much stronger than the rule of law. If Africans can rarely trust their own, would they trust a snake-oil-selling foreigner? I mean, knowing what he knows, would a Chinese cannery manager buy and even eat Chinese-made canned food?
“high-profile Western medical miscreants who have intentionally administered deadly agents under the guise of providing health care or conducting research.”
Western medicine has earned this distrust. Disease names are given to symptoms. Diseases are “created” to sell prescription drugs. Nearly all drug company drugs have side effects, many of which we only learn about if we read all of the fine print.
Just in this country, the US, the leading cause of death is modern western medicine as practiced under the aspices of the FDA, AMA and the Drug Cartels - over 750,000 deaths per year.
Cancer Research is a 100 billion dollar a year industry, yet Cancer Research has not found cures for cancer. Yet there are cures for cancer - natural medicine is successful. When the oncologist sends his patient home or to hospice with a prescription for morphine and tells the patient to get his affairs in order, the oncologist has admitted failure. Alternative protocols offer a 50% success rate on ridding the person of cancer. Modern western medicine in this country tries to shut down anyone teaching these protocols. MD’s and DO’s who venture into alternative protocols are often disciplined and may even loose their licence to practice medicine.
We should be as wary of modern western medicine as they are in Africa.
Does this mean that medical doctors are bad for us? No, of course not. Medical doctors are, however, taught what the drug companies want them to know. Medical doctors are often the victims, just as the citizenry here is. The FDA, however, has demonstrated many times that their purpose is to protect the drug companies, not to protect the people.
“(though he is a white South African, not “Western”)”
Anyone remember Christian Barnhard? A white South African doctor. A heart surgeon. Anyone remember the first heart transplant? Anyone remember the name of the surgeon, or where he was from, where the transplant was performed? Was this an example of modern Western medicine? It is in my book.
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