Joining the dots
I, like many others, was bemused by our government’s tardy response to the Ebola crisis. I know they were advised that infected health workers might not survive a 30 hour plane trip back to here but they seemed to do little to find a solution.
Australian Medical Assistance Teams (AUSMAT) are multi-disciplinary health teams incorporating doctors, nurses, and allied health staff. They are designed to be self-sufficient, experienced teams that can rapidly respond to a disaster zone to provide life saving treatment to casualties, in support of the local health response.
Instead of deploying these teams, we sat back as the infection rate grew exponentially, and brave volunteers who recognised the necessity of rapid response chose to go and help without government support.
Belatedly, Abbott announces a deal has been made (more than a fortnight after it was offered), but outsources our response effort to Aspen Medical without going through any form of tender process.
Call me cynical, but whenever this government begins outsourcing, I start wondering who will make money out of the deal.
Canberra-based Aspen, with a workforce of 2200, has become a regular recipient of government contracts, particularly from Defence.
In 2009, it signed three contracts worth $130 million to provide assistance to the regional mission in the Solomon Islands. This year it received another $26.5 million for regional assistance.
The company was officially opened in 2004 by the then Howard Government Health Minister Tony Abbott.
Electoral records show it donated $11,000 to the Queensland LNP last year.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation has asked Australia and Canada to justify their decisions last week to suspend migration from Ebola-hit countries.
“These are measures that go beyond the recommendations of the WHO’s emergency committee,” said Isabelle Nuttall, who heads WHO’s alert and response department.
Australia on October 27 became the first Western nation to suspend migration from Ebola-hit West African nations, and Canada followed suit four days later.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade awarded the $20 million contract to Aspen, bypassing Australian medical assistance teams or AusMats who are specifically trained to deal with this kind of crisis.
EMMA ALBERICI: So was this an open and competitive tender process?
GLENN KEYS: I can’t really talk to that because I’m not inside government, but I can say that because of our background in previous experience in deployments, as well as our experience in Liberia, I think we’re really well suited for the provision of these services to the Australian Government.
EMMA ALBERICI: Is there any level of Australian Government logistical support for your efforts?
GLENN KEYS: No, they’ve contracted us to provide all of the services.
EMMA ALBERICI: What I’m asking you, I guess is that you’re the people who are recruiting and providing the supports and the Government of Britain is giving you that logistical backup. What I’m asking you is beyond the money, the Australian Federal Government isn’t really providing anything else, is that correct?
GLENN KEYS: Well, they’re providing us, and I think that’s the thing that is important because we will be and have been already canvassing Australian health worker whose will help, as well as logistics officers and environmental health officers, and we will be putting that team together as part of that delivery of service.
And I think that’s going to be great, that there will be Australians helping deliver care to the people of Sierra Leone.
EMMA ALBERICI: So what proportion of Australians compared to overseas people will you be employing to man this treatment centre?
GLENN KEYS: It will be 10 to 20 per cent
A visit to the Aspen Medical site provides the following information:
“Founded in 2003 by Glenn Keys and Dr. Andrew Walker, Aspen Medical is an Australian-owned, multi award-winning, global provider of guaranteed and innovative healthcare solutions across a diverse range of sectors and clients including Defense, Mining & Resources, Oil & Gas, Government and Humanitarian.
Our competitive advantage lies in superior project management and the quality of our team. We pride ourselves on a customer-centric approach and a ‘can do’ attitude.”
So I decided to look into “the team”.
Aspen Medical co-founder and Managing Director, Glenn Keys, has been appointed to the board of the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), formerly known as DisabilityCare Australia.
Glenn is the only appointment from the ACT. The NDIA is an independent statutory agency, whose role is to implement the national disability insurance scheme (NDIS), which will support a better life for hundreds of thousands of Australians with a significant and permanent disability and their families and carers.
“Medical entrepreneur Andrew Walker has been accused of defrauding creditors by hiding $15 million worth of shares in tax haven the British Virgin Islands.
The liquidator of Dr Walker’s investment company, Apsara Capital, on Friday launched legal action against Dr Walker and Singapore-based businessman Georges Daniel Mercadal over the transaction.
He alleges Dr Walker ”improperly used his position to gain an advantage for himself or someone else, or cause detriment to Apsara”.
Mr Mercadal either ”wilfully shut his eyes to the obvious” or, together with Dr Walker, was part of ”a dishonest and fraudulent design” to divert the shares, he said.
The liquidator asked the court to order Dr Walker and Mr Mercadal to pay damages and return the proceeds of the alleged diversion.”
The article goes on to say
“Since founding healthcare group Aspen Medical in 2003, Dr Walker and school friend Glenn Keys have built the company into a profitable enterprise that employs 2200 people and boasts former health minister Michael Wooldridge on its board.”
A Federal Court has found the directors behind failed nursing home empire Prime Trust, including former federal health minister Michael Wooldridge, breached their corporate duties by overseeing a $33 million fee to the trust’s founder.
Justice Bernard Murphy ruled on Thursday that Dr Wooldridge and four other directors, including former Places Victoria chairman Peter Clarke, failed to act in members’ best interest by approving the fee to founder and director Bill Lewski.
Prime Trust collapsed in 2010 owing $550 million to investors. The managed investment scheme owned retirement villages in Queensland, NSW and Victoria.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has asked the court to disqualify the five men from being company directors and order them to pay a penalty.
Dr Wooldridge is a director on a number of company boards, including Aspen Medical, Oral Health Australia and Australian Pharmaceutical Industries, owner of Priceline.
Penalty hearings for the directors will begin early next year.They face fines of up to $200,000 and bans from company boards.
ASIC Commissioner Greg Tanzer said the Federal Court’s decision was a significant outcome for investors. ”The conduct of the APCHL board was unacceptable and today’s judgment reflects that,” he said.
The tax office is deciding whether an anti-wind farm group linked to former Liberal MPs should retain its favourable tax treatment.
The Waubra Foundation has been classified a ”health promotion charity” by the tax office, meaning its ”principal activity is promoting the prevention and control of disease in humans”.
It has also been granted deductible gift recipient status by the Australian Taxation Office, and donations of more than $2 to it are tax-deductible.
Donations to Waubra have helped fund legal challenges against wind farm developments.
Former health minister Michael Wooldridge is a director of Waubra, and former MP Alby Schultz is its patron.
The foundation says its main aim is to ”educate others about the known science relating to the adverse health impacts of infrasound and low-frequency noise.”
A lack of timely access to doctors is a common complaint these days as waiting times blow out and people must go further afield or to bulk-billing clinics in search of medical help. This shortage of doctors can partly be traced to a 1996 decision by the Howard government, under then health minister Michael Wooldridge, to reduce funding for medical education places and to cut Medicare rebates for some doctors. The government relied on figures that forecast an oversupply of doctors by 2015.
Dr Brian Morton, a Sydney GP and chairman of the Australian Medical Association’s Council of General Practice, says: ”The information that the [Howard] government had was grossly inaccurate and shortsighted. Despite the [contrasting] figures that the AMA had at the time, the government wasn’t listening. The community is paying for that now.”
One consequence of the cuts in the ’90s has been that overseas-trained doctors have been brought in to fill the gap. A quarter of doctors practising here were qualified overseas. In 2009-10, 4700 visas were granted to medical practitioners – double the number of medical students who graduated from Australian universities. Health Workforce Australia found that by 2025 there will be about 2700 fewer doctors than Australia needs. (The shortage of nurses will be even more dramatic, with a gap of 110,000 in the same period.)
So, in summary, our Government is still doing nothing about the Ebola crisis except paying $20 million to a private company (who is a party donor and who was officially opened by Tony Abbott) who will give local Africans a ten day training course. The company’s co-founder stands accused of “improperly using his position to gain an advantage for himself” and of “defrauding creditors” by using tax havens to hide shares. Their company director, a former Liberal Minister who is largely responsible for the acute shortage of doctors in Australia and who is the director of a charitable organisation devoted to campaigning against wind farms, is now facing a ban from being on company boards for breaching his corporate duties and failing to act in members’ best interests by overseeing huge kickbacks to mates.
And they wonder why I am cynical.
41 comments
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Florence nee Fedup
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diannaart
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Truth Seeker
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Nick
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keerti
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Kaye Lee
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Kaye Lee
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Florence nee Fedup
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Kaye Lee
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Lee
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bobrafto
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Loz
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Kaye Lee
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Lee
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Annie Byam
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Roswell
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Jason
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donwreford
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Jennifer Meyer-Smith
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diannaart
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Jennifer Meyer-Smith
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Kaye Lee
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diannaart
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mark delmege
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mark delmege
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diannaart
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mark delmege
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mark delmege
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Lee
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Kaye Lee
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Lee
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diannaart
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mark delmege
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Annie Byam
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mark delmege
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Annie Byam
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diannaart
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Kaye Lee
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mark delmege
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TechinBris
Return to home pageThe 30 hour trip was nothing more than a straw man argument to do nothing. Have not heard of any patient once they have signs of Obela flown anywhere. The government themselves admitted that the NGO with workers in the field had back up arrangements in place. They asked for arrangements that were impossible and unreasonable
Nepotism. When the Abbott ‘team’ found they were looking bad in relation to their response to the evolving Ebola crisis in Africa, they needed to give time to their ‘mates’ to arrange aid. Which begs the question, what did we do in the past (pre-cronyism)? Did we not have government agencies in place to organise a relief crew in such emergencies?
Has everything to do with human well-being been privatised?
Great work again Kaye 🙂 Thanks 😎
Cheers 🙂
Just another example why the Abbott led government does not want to see a federal ICAC….
Ebola!!!!???? 4000 cases in 8 months is not an epidemic, nor anything remotely resembling one! Please don’t give yourself the title of cynic without accurate observational abilities. It’s insulting to the real ones!
One class of reform that sounds fine in theory but often performs badly in practice is the outsourcing of government services. The theory says that just because some service has public-goods characteristics – it can’t be provided profitably by the private sector in adequate quantity – and so must be provided at taxpayer expense, that doesn’t mean it has to be delivered by public servants.
It’s not hard to call to mind a lot of examples where outsourcing to the profit sector has come scandalously unstuck.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/rationalists-should-stop-burying-their-mistakes-20141109-11j35f.html
keerti,
Speaking of accuracy….
The death toll from the Ebola epidemic has now risen to 4,950 out of 13,241 cases in the three worst-hit countries of West Africa, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
From October 8…
What happens next in the epidemic will be determined in part by mathematics. As of Friday, the WHO had reported 7,470 confirmed or likely cases, and 3,431 deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. Currently, each infected person is infecting about two more. To slow the spread of the disease and eventually stop it, officials must somehow reverse the math. Only when each Ebola patient infects, on average, fewer than one person will the outbreak begin to fade. [Washington Post]
The World Health Organization (WHO) says that at the current trajectory, there will be 20,000 Ebola cases by November; the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that in a worst-case scenario, Ebola could infect 1.4 million people by late January 2015.
keerti, up to this outbreak they have manage to contain it. No not a epidemic yet, but in great danger of becoming one. It is evident it was getting out of control.
As for this government, mu suspicion is, that they do not believe in having obligations, especially those that come under the banner of the Unitised Nations. They are not interested in giving aid to any country, In fact, they are not interested in helping the needy within this country,.
They just do not see this as their responsibility. They just don’t care.
It is the pressure of Cameron that forced Abbott to act. Do not believe he would have taken much notice of Obama. as he sees him as a lame duck President. Has said so.
If the G20 and APEC was not on the agenda this week, Abbott would have done nothing, Yes, and the deal with Palmer for the DA scheme falls into the same box.
Another worry in the China trade deal. Abbott wanted that signed before last Christmas.
Abbott seems to be clearing the deck. All that matter is completing deals. Matters not what he has to do, to achieve his aim.
An epidemic is the rapid spread of infectious disease to a large number of persons in a given population within a short period of time, usually two years or less.
This is most definitely an epidemic and SOME people are working feverishly to stop it from becoming a pandemic.
Clearly Kaye, your cynicism (and mine) is justified! Great work.
What is sick is that company directors can be involved in fraud and stealing and they are not subject to criminal prosecution.
What’s a $200k fine compared to fleecing $30 odd mil? Not much more than a mossie bite.
This government has greed as their number one priority. Why arn’t the MSM looking into these dodgy business people?
Loz,
To be fair, the articles I linked to are, in the main, from the MSM. The problem is that they don’t take the time to go back and link everything together, I spose because they are always wanting breaking news. They need to draw breath sometimes and join the dots.
Having said that, they certainly displayed dogged determination to link Julia Gillard to the AWU slush fund and to persecute Craig Thomson and Peter Slipper. Pity they don’t do the same with James Ashby and Kathy Jackson.
The findings from ICAC also seem to not be generating the outrage they should. Joe Hockey’s North Sydney Forum could occupy an investigative journalist for years.
Murdoch is hardly likely to criticise the government for making decisions that benefit their mates in big business. Gina Rinehart is Fairfax’ biggest shareholder so don’t expect them to do it either.
This vile Government were shamed by other countries, into taking action to assist in the Ebola crisis in West Africa.
Left to their own devices – they would have done NOTHING.
And for doing nothing, they’d have looked up their ( now huge ) tome of ‘excuses for every day use ‘.
Ah – but now, the Abbott will pat himself ( firstly ) …. and the LNP on the back, giving great spruike about ‘our’ wonderful response.
Miserably – a whole heap of shysters at the helm.
Kaye, you’ve joined the dots. 😉
@kaye lee – Thanks for the info. This is a truly excellent article.
I thought, Abbott’s plan for private enterprise with Aspen, would be a remuneration for the politicians family to buy shares before announcing the project with the taxpayers money to Aspen, one must remember today most if not all, are not working from conscience, but for the money, I notice people like Tony Blair, making big money with his company on oil deals, what labor? politicians, and virtually all of this lot not only have a good salary, but the perks, are all part of the job.
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Thanks Kaye,
insightful and worthy of George Bernard Shaw’s approval.
If I had a magic wand, I would tap it in the direction of Aspen Medical and say, “Bad luck fellas, but the deal is off. We don’t want you any more. Abbott got it wrong like usual. We’re using Australian Medical Assistance Teams (AUSMAT), after all. Beside the crooked backroom dealings that got you the contract, you won’t be providing significant employment for Australians anyway.”
I’m sure shonky Dr Walker, Dr Wooldridge and their corrupt mates would be happy with that decision.
Then, looking into my crystal ball, I would be seeing Abbott and his LNP Neanderthals walking like lambs to the gallows. It would be a solemn procession with silent observers, who know that this is the punishment for people, who abuse their positions of power to fill their own pockets, even when it means people are dying of ebola, or the environment is being threatened by short-sighted opposition (with ATO deductible gift recipient status) to those pesky windfarms that Smokin’ Joe says are uglier than dirty coal chimneys, and not to mention the ever increasing rising unemployment numbers of Australians, who are being denied the opportunities that this reprehensible LNP Government under Abbott, ignores.
Jennifer, I concur with nearly all of your post – except for the reference to Neanderthals – these people were highly intelligent and capable – neither attribute applies to the current federal government. Perhaps a more suitable word would be parasites – after all it is our money that provides them with the lifestyle to which they aspire.
diannaart,
I stand accused and admit my wrong. I am ashamed to denigrate Neanderthals by drawing the analogy between them and Abbott and his LNP cronies for the latter are devoid of intelligence, integrity and problem-solving skills.
‘Parasites’ would be a good word to describe Abbott, Dr Walker, Dr Wooldridge, and plenty others in or tied to the Liberal National Party.
I will consider this and other fitting names for Abbott and his Liberal National Party cronies.
They have a parasitic relationship with the common wealth and a symbiotic relationship with corporate wealth.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
🙂
this whole ebola thing is a scam – I’m not entirely sure how or why but it stinks. So much bullshit – I wouldn’t be surprised if it and aids came out of a lab and this recent event is more exercise that surprise.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying some people aren’t dying from the virus and that others aren’t dying from the effects of the panic…
Mark
While I do not doubt that there are some nasty things being brewed in laboratories – best to acquaint yourself with the facts about Ebola and Aids:
https://web.stanford.edu/group/virus/filo/history.html
http://www.theaidsinstitute.org/node/259
diannaart those links say nothing really except that hiv/aids and ebola might have only emerged (been created?) during my lifetime. I dont really want to sidetrack this topic with this sort of a discussion except to say so much of what is being reported is clearly rubbish.
anyway wasn’t one of the people who were on their way here for the hiv/aids conference going to announce some sort of a discovery about the weaponisation of ebola? But meanwhile with the US backed coup regime in Kiev intensively shelling (previously they even used cluster bombs) the eastern regions of Ukraine – debris and body parts recovery is impossible.
Perhaps the conspiracy theories about Ebola and HIV being developed in a laboratory for the purpose of population control are rubbish. 😉 Think for a few moments about the enormous number of people who would have to know about it and the miraculous situation of absolutely everyone keeping their mouth shut.
I have no problem with discussions evolving.
From the WHO website
“It is thought that fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are natural Ebola virus hosts. Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals such as chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines found ill or dead or in the rainforest. ”
I do, however, believe that had the crisis occurred anywhere other than Africa the international response would have been far swifter and on a far greater scale. ‘I’m alright Jack and I don’t really care about you’.
The crisis probably wouldn’t occur on the same scale in most other places. These people are incredibly poor and don’t have enough food to eat. They hunt and kill whatever animals they can in order to survive. A couple of years ago a medical scientist colleague of mine worked in one of the areas currently affected by the Ebola outbreak and still has contact with people working there. The standard of care delivered by the local hospitals wasn’t good before the outbreak. Since the outbreak, hospitals have just closed. The only way these people have to stop the virus from spreading is for infected people to remain at home. But these are people who need to scavenge food any way they can.
Mark
If you are not happy with the bona fides of the links I offered to you, nothing is preventing you from verifying the African origins of Ebola and AIDS from other sources such as WHO – as Kaye Lee kindly provided.
However, I have a suspicion searching for the truth is not your goal here. Therefore, I will not ask you for any opinions on anything nor try to engage a discussion with you. Now, I am just going to back away slowly, not making any sudden moves…. phew made it.
I was just making some observations dianaart – i didn’t make anything up and I do stand by my claim that a lot of info being peddled in the msm is crap – like the claim repeated for days that the epidemic could hit 1,000,000 within a year – or was that by the end of the year? Obviously there is a lot of fakery in the numbers – especially when so many of the symptoms are common to many low level diseases – even ones that kill poor and poorly people. SO 5,000 have died in some months but you can times that by 10 or 20 or more of other people who have died from other common even infectious diseases in Africa in the same time. Anyway if you think about it Africa is just the sort of place some sicko outfit would develop and spread diseases like ebola and hiv/aids – and I’m not saying its true but I dont discount it either. I’ll try and find a link to the weaponisation article from someone associated with the Dr type who went down with the Mh17.
Mark ….. your comment ” a lot of info being peddled in the msm is crap “. …… So true.
It always has been, but is much worse now. ……… rather think the MSM is the worst fear mongering mob on earth – and that’s saying something considering I think Abbott leads the way in peddling fear and trepidation to his ‘flock’ ??????
Has anyone ever watched 3 or 4 newscasts on one night ? No doubt many of you have.
If you watch and listen closely, their reporting of ‘incidents’ – no matter what the incident is, ( mild or serious ) ……. is almost always different to one another. Each news channel puts its own spin on the story. …….. and depending on how much they want to ‘impact’ the audience, is how the spin goes. God help us – even to the damned weather reports – they are mostly all different to a substantial degree.
Ebola is very worrying, for the poor people who are suffering, and — through ignorance, and some form of ‘religious ‘ ritual, are increasing the numbers of the dying, from this travesty. I did hear somewhere ( one of the news channels ) that a ritual of ‘drinking’ the water poured over the dead in some of those countries, is mandatory. It is a religious rite. Mind you, that may have been just another ‘spin’ by the channel promoting that story. But …….. it wouldn’t surprise me, if it were true. — and of course that would be disastrous, spreading the virus far and wide.
West Africa ?? We don’t understand them – they don’t understand us. Simple as that. And the more educated of peoples, must try to find a way around ritualistic thinking – especially in largely primative peoples who are renowned for superstition. And that’s what a lot of West Africans still are. Not an easy thing to do, to persuade them give up a death ritual.
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As for laboratory developed viruses, bacteria and such like – nothing would surprise me in this world today. I fence sit on that theory however.
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‘primative peoples who are renowned for superstition’ … aaagh yes smoke and mirrors reminds me of …wait… lets see… most church services – some even speak in tongues. They have the most fantastic incredible stories about ‘creation’ and all sorts of stuff. Actually I have been to a couple of countries in Africa and know a couple of African (yes I know its not a country) people here quite well – most think pretty much like us – though I’m not sure about you. Our cultural baggage can be quite limiting – its the only way I can quite understand how otherwise seemingly intelligent people like Emma Alberici can be so blinkered in her work…. if you get my drift.
Mark …..
I have never been to Africa. …. so I must acknowledge your superior experience and knowledge of the continent, some of it’s people, and perhaps some of the enormous range of ‘rituals’ or rites of passage that various tribes had and still have to this day. You know some African people here, ‘who think like us’ …. and that’s great. A friend of mine years ago, who is African, also had very Western ideas – but she had been fortunate to have been well educated in Africa ( can’t remember now where ) ….. she now lives in Adelaide.
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From your remarks, you were answering me – in a way,,,, quoting something I said in my post.
Forget actual religion as the West understands it to be – it doesn’t exist for many people, but belief in spirits / ghosts, systems of folk belief and some extraordinary rites DO exist in primitive ( to us – but not primitive to tribes ) ritualistic behaviour. Like young women from many African tribes who bury or hang the umbilical cord / placenta after giving birth – under or on a tree. Some underneath the house or hut where the birth took place.
Much is ritual – and if not done properly ( say, in the case of death for some tribes ) superstition comes very quickly into the situation, and dire consequences is believed to be the inevitable outcome. WE see this is as ‘odd’ ……. but the tribes do NOT.
One of the problems I read of, was where terrified panicked people were fleeing ( in the beginning of this terrible Ebola situation ) ….. to the safety of their homes to be cared for by relatives. Of course this meant the relatives no doubt came in contact with blood, urine,sweat, spittle etc. from the stricken person, and thereby ( most likely ) succumbed to the virus themselves.
Another problem I heard of I mentioned in my previous post. …. The below link makes note of this.
Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Nigeria: A ritual by the name of “isiku” that a widow is subjected to upon the death of her husband, 4 May 2000, NGA34292.E, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6ad702c.html [accessed 12 November 2014]
So – the point I was making Mark, was simply that much more has to be done to overcome and stop the spread of Ebola –
Such as convincing tribal people not to do a), b) or c) …. in order that they and others be protected – which would not come at all easily to tribal folk who are even only in the initial stages of the disease. Their instinct – in many instances – would be to flee. …. or fight against restraint.
Security also, would therefore be most difficult, for people volunteering to help in this crisis.
There are many many facets to this fight against Ebola in West Africa, not just medical assistance. But you would have to know that.
Limiting cultural baggage is good ……….
Partly to that end, I read a lot – – – – – a helluva lot.
Anne
I, like you, sit on the fence with regard to nasty concoctions brewed in laboratories both legitimate and not so. Although, everything is a part of a conspiracy theory if one is to believe Mark.
Mark has not offered a shred of evidence for his opinions. I would like to know why the introduction of such outbreaks is Africa if these viruses are not a result of further intrusion into (late 20th century) relatively undisturbed ecosystems.
@Mark could you please explain why these viruses were released in a few of the poorer African nations (where the most recent disturbance to environment has taken place) and not into a more strategically located population? Say, cities or even under resourced country towns in China or the USA or Britain where far more havoc could be achieved. Or are our nefarious lab-techs ‘testing’ these diseases by starting with a few hapless African nations. If you have evidence for what you say, rather than claiming to know more ‘Africans’ (not any nation specific people?) and far more knowledge than anyone who has dared to question your ideas, please present such evidence. Until you do I see no further reason to engage in any discussion with you – I would rather discuss fairies with my little niece – she would be far more pleasant to spend time with.
“Ebola and terrorism are both serious problems. They both require serious solutions. But the only thing they have in common is that they are frightening to Americans.
And yet the idea that terrorist organizations such as ISIS might weaponize Ebola and use it to attack the US is now cropping up everywhere. GOP congressmen Mike Kelly and Joe Wilson are warning of Ebola-infected terrorists committing suicide bombings. Fox News says that a bag of Ebola-infected ISIS vomit could be the “equivalent of a dirty bomb.” And now Marc Thiessen, a former Bush administration speechwriter, has written 800 words in the Washington Post darkly imagining terrorists infecting themselves with Ebola and then blowing themselves up in shopping-mall suicide attacks throughout the United States.
These theories have no basis in fact, and the insistence that terrorists are going to weaponize Ebola is nothing more than naked exploitation of Americans’ fears.”
http://www.vox.com/2014/10/21/7024273/ebola-isis-terrorist-dialogue
Ebola’s exponential spread has rekindled fears that terrorists may seek to turn the virus into a powerful weapon of mass destruction. Such talk has occurred on Capitol Hill and in national security circles. But the financial and logistical challenges of transforming Ebola into a tool of bioterror makes the concern seem overblown—at least as far as widespread devastation is concerned.
Put simply, a large amount of Ebola in the hands of a rogue group would more likely end up killing the plotters than making it to the endgame of a bioterrorism mission.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/weaponized-ebola-is-it-really-a-bioterror-threat/
Actually I woke up this morning thinking I had made a false claim that the Ukie Govt had used cluster bombs against the Russian speakers in the East. I was planning to write an apology here and on my own page – but actually they did. I’m a little surprised at the response to my other comments. Anyway it looks like the Ebola scare is almost over… oh well it won’t be long before they come up with something else to scare the bejesus out of us. Expect at least a few more coups in Africa – whats the point of all those troops without taking a little territory?
Mark, the only thing that is frightening me is the Corporate Media and the Political Prostitutes that have been installed by the same Financiers that own the afore mentioned Main Stream Corporate Media.
Greed frightens me far more than any of their horrors they hype up in order to distract us from noticing how pervasive and rancid their greed has become against the Commons.
It really has become the old ancient warning from the past we forgot. “The love of Money (Wealth), is the root of all evil.”