วันอาทิตย์ที่ 30 ธันวาคม พ.ศ. 2555

[rael-science] A clear policy in stem cell therapy will foster innovative healthcare‏

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The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org
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http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-12-27/news/36022204_1_cell-therapy-cell-biology-and-regenerative-regenerative-medicine

A clear policy in stem cell therapy will foster innovative healthcare

Dec 27, 2012, 05.26AM IST

The rising cost of healthcare has been a cause of concern around the globe. The global economic crisis has seen governments such as the US and Japan attempting to minimise the cost of state-funded healthcare.

The increased prevalence of cardiovascular disorders, metabolic diseases, cancer, etc coupled with the emergence of more virulent forms of existing diseases poses a challenge for current medical therapies.

India is already seen as the world's low-cost pharmacy as far as conventional therapies are concerned. And the recent economic and epidemiological changes present a lucrative opportunity for the Indian biotech industry to replicate this success in the field of innovative healthcare therapies that include biopharmaceuticals, vaccines, regenerative medicine, etc.

The Indian biotech industry registered a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20% in the past decade. While biosimilars â€” generic versions of biologic drugs â€” currently make the most significant contribution to the top-line, another promising field is regenerative medicine. This is a novel multi-disciplinary field that relies on cell therapeutics and bio-engineering techniques to enhance the functionality of organs and tissues.

Among various types of medical therapies that can be classified under regenerative medicine, stem cell therapy is, perhaps, the most well-known. Stem cell therapy began with bone marrow transplants.

Since then, the field has expanded to using adult stem cells, human embryonic stem cells and found uses in in-vitro-fertilization (IVF), biomaterial engineering, etc.

With stem cell products being rolled out in various parts of the world, the global stem cell market is poised to grow at a rate of 30% from 2010 to 2012 and projected to be around $1.2 billion by 2012 and expected to reach around $16 billion in 2017.

However, the stem cell market in India is still underdeveloped. In the next few years, the field of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine is likely to move towards translational research and eventually to clinical practice in India.

According to the GBI Research report, the stem cell market in India is estimated to touch $600 million by 2017. The Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR), the apex body for the regulation of medical research in India and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) have until now only approved indications for stem cell therapies in bone marrow transplantation, labelling all other procedures as experimental and it needs to be conducted only in the form of clinical trials.

However, stem cells have been used to restore vision in patients who have suffered corneal damage due to chemical injuries or burns. Therapies involving stem cells are also being offered as treatments for spinal cord injuries, heart ailments and Parkinson's disease. Worldwide, scientists have even used stem cells to generate cartilage and insulin producing cells in the pancreas.

Stem cell technology seems to have huge health benefits and business potential; but it is essential to develop a framework to tap into this immense potential in a planned manner.

The government has drafted guidelines for stem cell R&D, but a definitive law is yet to be formulated. This has led to expensive procedural delays of 12-18 months that effectively drive investors away to destinations such as Malaysia that have a clear policy and decision within 90 days.

Another problem arising from the lack of regulation is that some companies have been advertising fraudulent claims and selling unapproved treatment options at exorbitant prices.

India represents a growing market for regenerative medicines and stem cell therapies. This further highlights the need to take immediate steps to develop strong regulatory policies so that the country does not miss out on this opportunity to provide cheap and innovative healthcare solutions.

India has the potential to become a leading global player for stem cell products and services. So, the government must act fast in implementing a clear policy for cell therapy.

While the stem cell market is emerging in India, recent approval of clinical trials of stem cell-based products by DCGI has created immense interest among global players and Big Pharmas to collaborate and co-develop stem cell products in India.

The initiative taken by DBT in creating a world-class stem cell research centre in Bangalore is a positive step in nurturing valueadded stem cell research in India. We can leverage availability of rich talent pool in stem cells field.

CMC Vellore, IISc Bangalore, AIIMS Delhi, LV Prasad Eye Institute Hyderabad, Stempeutics Bangalore, NCBS Bangalore and other institutes / companies are doing pioneering work in this field. Another area where India can take a lead in stem cells is in Stem Cells Production Technology i.e. large-scale upscaling of stem cells.

(The author is the chairperson, ABLE Committee on Regenerative Medicine)

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WARNING FROM RAEL: For those who don't use their intelligence at its
full capacity, the label "selected by RAEL" on some articles does not
mean that I agree with their content or support it. "Selected by RAEL"
means that I believe it is important for the people of this planet to
know about what people think or do, even when what they think or do is
completely stupid and against our philosophy. When I selected articles
in the past about stupid Christian fundamentalists in America praying
for rain, I am sure no Rael-Science reader was stupid enough to believe
that I was supporting praying to change the weather. So, when I select
articles which are in favor of drugs, anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish, racist,
revisionist, or inciting hatred against any group or religion, or any
other stupid article, it does not mean that I support them. It just
means that it is important for all human beings to know about them.
Common sense, which is usually very good among our readers, is good
enough to understand that. When, like in the recent articles on drug
decriminalization, it is necessary to make it clearer, I add a comment,
which in this case was very clear: I support decriminalizing all drugs,
as it is stupid to throw depressed and sad people (as only depressed and
sad people use drugs) in prison and ruin their life with a criminal
record. That does not mean that there is any change to the Message which
says clearly that we must not use any drug except for medical purposes.
The same applies to the freedom of expression which must be absolute.
That does not mean again of course that I agree with anti-Jews,
anti-Semites, racists of any kind or anti-Raelians. But by knowing your
enemies or the enemies of your values, you are better equipped to fight
them. With love and respect of course, and with the wonderful sentence
of the French philosopher Voltaire in mind: "I disapprove of what you
say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".

--
--
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"Ethics" is simply a last-gasp attempt by deist conservatives and
orthodox dogmatics to keep humanity in ignorance and obscurantism,
through the well tried fermentation of fear, the fear of science and
new technologies.

There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history,
it is simply a succession of mistakes, intolerances and violations.

On the contrary, let us embrace Science and the new technologies
unfettered, for it is these which will liberate mankind from the
myth of god, and free us from our age old fears, from disease,
death and the sweat of labour.

Rael
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[rael-science] How to Stop Hospitals From Killing Us‏

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444620104578008263334441352.html

How to Stop Hospitals From Killing Us

Medical errors kill enough people to fill four jumbo jets a week. A surgeon with five simple ways to make health care safer.

When there is a plane crash in the U.S., even a minor one, it makes headlines. There is a thorough federal investigation, and the tragedy often yields important lessons for the aviation industry. Pilots and airlines thus learn how to do their jobs more safely.

The world of American medicine is far deadlier: Medical mistakes kill enough people each week to fill four jumbo jets. But these mistakes go largely unnoticed by the world at large, and the medical community rarely learns from them. The same preventable mistakes are made over and over again, and patients are left in the dark about which hospitals have significantly better (or worse) safety records than their peers.

WSJ's Gary Rosen talks to author and surgeon Marty Makary about his ideas for making American hospitals more transparent about their safety records and more accountable for the quality of their care.

As doctors, we swear to do no harm. But on the job we soon absorb another unspoken rule: to overlook the mistakes of our colleagues. The problem is vast. U.S. surgeons operate on the wrong body part as often as 40 times a week. Roughly a quarter of all hospitalized patients will be harmed by a medical error of some kind. If medical errors were a disease, they would be the sixth leading cause of death in America—just behind accidents and ahead of Alzheimer's. The human toll aside, medical errors cost the U.S. health-care system tens of billions a year. Some 20% to 30% of all medications, tests and procedures are unnecessary, according to research done by medical specialists, surveying their own fields. What other industry misses the mark this often?

It does not have to be this way. A new generation of doctors and patients is trying to achieve greater transparency in the health-care system, and new technology makes it more achievable than ever before.

I encountered the disturbing closed-door culture of American medicine on my very first day as a student at one of Harvard Medical School's prestigious affiliated teaching hospitals. Wearing a new white medical coat that was still creased from its packaging, I walked the halls marveling at the portraits of doctors past and present. On rounds that day, members of my resident team repeatedly referred to one well-known surgeon as "Dr. Hodad." I hadn't heard of a surgeon by that name. Finally, I inquired. "Hodad," it turned out, was a nickname. A fellow student whispered: "It stands for Hands of Death and Destruction."

'Doctors absorb an unspoken rule: to overlook the mistakes of our colleagues.'

Stunned, I soon saw just how scary the works of his hands were. His operating skills were hasty and slipshod, and his patients frequently suffered complications. This was a man who simply should not have been allowed to touch patients. But his bedside manner was impeccable (in fact, I try to emulate it to this day). He was charming. Celebrities requested him for operations. His patients worshiped him. When faced with excessive surgery time and extended hospitalizations, they just chalked up their misfortunes to fate.

Dr. Hodad's popularity was no aberration. As I rotated through other hospitals during my training, I learned that many hospitals have a "Dr. Hodad" somewhere on staff (sometimes more than one). In a business where reputation is everything, doctors who call out other doctors can be targeted. I've seen whistleblowing doctors suddenly assigned to more emergency calls, given fewer resources or simply badmouthed and discredited in retaliation. For me, I knew the ramifications if I sounded the alarm over Dr. Hodad: I'd be called into the hospital chairman's office, a dread scenario if I ever wanted a job. So, as a rookie, I kept my mouth shut. Like the other trainees, I just told myself that my 120-hour weeks were about surviving to become a surgeon one day, not about fixing medicine's culture.

25%

Hospitalized patients who are harmed by medical errors

Source: New England Journal of Medicine

Hospitals as a whole also tend to escape accountability, with excessive complication rates even at institutions that the public trusts as top-notch. Very few hospitals publish statistics on their performance, so how do patients pick one? As an informal exercise throughout my career, I've asked patients how they decided to come to the hospital where I was working (Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, D.C. General Hospital, Harvard and others). Among their answers: "Because you're close to home"; "You guys treated my dad when he died"; "I figured it must be good because you have a helicopter." You wouldn't believe the number of patients who have told me that the deciding factor for them was parking.

There is no reason for patients to remain in the dark like this. Change can start with five relatively simple—but crucial—reforms.

Online Dashboards

Every hospital should have an online informational "dashboard" that includes its rates for infection, readmission (what we call "bounce back"), surgical complications and "never event" errors (mistakes that should never occur, like leaving a surgical sponge inside a patient). The dashboard should also list the hospital's annual volume for each type of surgery that it performs (including the percentage done in a minimally invasive way) and patient satisfaction scores.

A survey of New Yorkers found that approximately 60% look up a restaurant's "performance ratings" before going there. If you won't sit down for a meal before checking Zagat's or Yelp, why shouldn't you be able to do the same thing when your life is at stake?

Nothing makes hospitals shape up more quickly than this kind of public reporting. In 1989, the first year that New York's hospitals were required to report heart-surgery death rates, the death rate by hospital ranged from 1% to 18%—a huge gap. Consumers were finally armed with useful data. They could ask: "Why have a coronary artery bypass graft operation at a place where you have a 1-in-6 chance of dying compared with a hospital with a 1-in-100 chance of dying?"

Instantly, New York heart hospitals with high mortality rates scrambled to improve; death rates declined by 83% in six years. Management at these hospitals finally asked staff what they had to do to make care safer. At some hospitals, the surgeons said they needed anesthesiologists who specialized in heart surgery; at others, nurse practitioners were brought in. At one hospital, the staff reported that a particular surgeon simply wasn't fit to be operating. His mortality rate was so high that it was skewing the hospital's average. Administrators ordered him to stop doing heart surgery. Goodbye, Dr. Hodad.

Safety Culture Scores

Imagine that a surgeon is about to make an incision to remove fluid from a patient's right lung. Suddenly, a nurse breaks the silence. "Wait. Are we doing the right or the left chest? Because it says here left, but that looks like the right side." The surgery was, indeed, supposed to be on the left lung, but an intern had prepped the wrong side. I was that doctor, and that nurse saved us all from making a terrible error. It isn't every hospital where that nurse would have felt confident speaking up—but it's this sort of cultural factor that is so important to safety.

98,000

Annual deaths from medical errors in the U.S.

Source: Institute of Medicine

If anyone knows whether a hospital is safe, it's the people who work there. So my colleagues and I at Johns Hopkins, led by J. Bryan Sexton, administered an anonymous survey of doctors, nurses, technicians and other employees at 60 U.S. hospitals. We found that at one-third of them, most employees believed the teamwork was bad. These aren't hospitals where you or I want to receive care or see our family members receive care. At other hospitals, by contrast, an impressive 99% of the staff reported good teamwork.

These results correlated strongly with infection rates and patient outcomes. Good teamwork meant safer care. The public needs to have access to such information for every hospital in America.

Cameras

It may come as a surprise to patients, but doctors aren't very good at complying with well-established best practices in their fields. One New England Journal of Medicine study found that only half of all care follows evidence-based guidelines when applicable. Fortunately, there is a technology that could work wonders to improve compliance: cameras.

Corbis

You wouldn't believe the number of patients who have told me their deciding factor in choosing a hospital was parking.

Cameras are already being used in health care, but usually no video is made. Reviewing tapes of cardiac catheterizations, arthroscopic surgery and other procedures could be used for peer-based quality improvement. Video would also serve as a more substantive record for future doctors. The notes in a patient's chart are often short, and they can't capture a procedure the way a video can.

Doug Rex of Indiana University—one of the most respected gastroenterologists in the world—decided to use video recording to check the thoroughness of colonoscopies being performed by doctors in his practice. A thorough colonoscopy requires meticulous scrutiny of every nook and cranny of the colon. Doctors tend to rush through them; as a result, many cancers and precancerous polyps are missed and manifest years later—at later stages.

Without telling his partners, Dr. Rex began reviewing videotapes of their procedures, measuring the time and assigning a quality score. After assessing 100 procedures, he announced to his partners that he would be timing and scoring the videos of their future procedures (even though he had already been doing this). Overnight, things changed radically. The average length of the procedures increased by 50%, and the quality scores by 30%. The doctors performed better when they knew someone was checking their work.

The same sort of intervention has been used for hand washing. A few years ago, Long Island's North Shore University Hospital had a dismal compliance rate with hand washing—under 10%. After installing cameras at hand-washing stations, compliance rose to over 90% and stayed there.

Following Dr. Rex's camera study, he did a follow-up, asking patients if they would like a copy of their procedure video. An overwhelming 81% said yes, and 64% were willing to pay for it. Patients are hungry for transparency.

Open Notes

Sue, a young accountant, came to my office complaining of abdominal pain. She wasn't sure what was causing it. She offered various theories: "Could this be from my Bikram yoga?" "Did my late-night ice cream cause the pain?" "Does having unprotected sex have anything to do with it?" Throughout her visit, I took notes. When we were done, she looked down at them suspiciously.

"What did you write about me?" she asked.

She was concerned that I thought she was either nuts or an ice-cream addict. In the course of our conversation, I also learned that she wasn't quite sure why I was recommending an ultrasound, though I thought I had told her.

I decided to start dictating my notes with the patient listening in at the end of his or her visit. "I also have high blood pressure," was a correction one older patient blurted out. Another said, "My prior surgery was actually on the right, not the left side." Another patient interrupted me and said, "No, I said I take 20 milligrams, not 25 milligrams, of Lipitor." Being able to review your doctor's notes in writing might be even better than my method, particularly if you could add your own comments, perhaps via the Web.

Harvard doctor-researchers Jan Walker and Tom Delbanco are using "open notes" at Harvard and Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, and my hometown hospital, Geisinger Medical Center in Pennsylvania, has begun giving patients online access to their doctors' notes. So far, both patients and doctors love it.

No More Gagging

Though there are many signs that health care is moving toward increased transparency, there is also some movement backward. Increasingly, patients checking in to see doctors are being asked to sign a gag order, promising never to say anything negative about their physician online or elsewhere. In addition, if you are the victim of a medical mistake, hospital lawyers will make never speaking publicly about your injury a condition of any settlement.

We need more open dialogue about medical mistakes, not less. It wouldn't be going too far to suggest that these types of gag orders should be banned by law. They are utterly contrary to a patient's right to know and to the concept of learning from our errors.

Political partisans can debate the role of government in fixing health care, but for either public or private approaches to work, transparency is the crucial prerequisite. To make transparency effective, government must play a role in making fair and accurate reports available to the public. In doing so, it will unleash the power of the free market as patients are better able to take charge of their own care. When hospitals have to compete on measures of safety, all of them will improve how they serve their patients.

Transparency can also help to restore the public's trust. Many Americans feel that medicine has become an increasingly secretive, even arrogant, industry. With more transparency—and the accountability that it brings—we can address the cost crisis, deliver safer care and improve how we are seen by the communities we serve. To do no harm going forward, we must be able to learn from the harm we have already done.

—Dr. Makary, a surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a developer of the surgical checklists adopted by the World Health Organization, is the author of "Unaccountable: What Hospitals Won't Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care," published this month by Bloomsbury Press.

[rael-science] Advanced Humanoid Roboy to be ‘Born’ in Nine Months‏

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The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future :

http://www.rael.org
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http://consciouslifenews.com/advanced-humanoid-roboy-be-born-nine-months/1146423/

Advanced Humanoid Roboy to be ‘Born’ in Nine Months

friday, December 28th, 2012

(KurzweilAI.net) Meet Roboy, “one of the most advanced humanoid robots,” say researchers at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the University of Zurich.

Their 15 project partners and over 40 engineers and scientists are constructing Roboy as a tendon-driven robot modeled on human beings (robots usually have their motors in their joints, giving them that “robot” break-dance look), so it will move almost as elegantly as a human.

Roboy will be a “service robot,” meaning it will execute services independently for the convenience of human beings, as in the movie Robot & Frank.

And since service robots share their “living space” with people, user-friendliness and safety, above all, are of great importance, roboticists point out.

Which is why “soft robotics” — soft to the touch, soft in their interaction, soft and natural in their movements — will be important, and Roboy will be covered with “soft skin,” making interacting with him safer and more pleasant.

Humanoid service robot from I, Robot movie (credit: 20th Century Fox)

Service robots are already used in a wide variety of areas today, including for household chores, surveillance work and cleaning, and in hospitals and care homes. Our aging population is making it necessary to keep older people as autonomous as possible for as long as possible, which means caring for aged people is likely to be an important area for the deployment of service robots, roboticists say.

To speed up the process, the AI Lab researchers set a goal to build Roboy in just 9 months (the project began five months ago). Roboy will be unveiled at the Robots on Tour March 8 and 9, 2013 in Zurich.

To make this ambitious schedule possible, they decided to finance the first grassroots robotics project via crowdfunding. To participate, see Make Roboy your friend.

You can also friend Roboy on Facebook.

By announcing the birth of a humanoid baby robot, we are not implying any relationship to a current holiday and certain Futurama episodes — get that idea out of your head! BTW, Roboy just accepted my friend request. That’s not something you see every day. —- Ed.

[rael-science] USDA Certified Organic’s Dirty Little Secret: Neotame‏

USDA Certified Organic’s Dirty Little Secret: Neotame

Just when we thought that buying “Organic” was safe, we run headlong into the deliberate poisoning of our organic food supply by the FDA in collusion with none other than the folks who brought us Aspartame. NutraSweet, a former Monsanto asset, has developed a new and improved version of this neurotoxin called Neotame.

Neotame has similar structure to aspartame — except that, from it’s structure, appears to be even more toxic than aspartame. This potential increase in toxicity will make up for the fact that less will be used in diet drinks. Like aspartame, some of the concerns include gradual neurotoxic and immunotoxic damage from the combination of the formaldehyde metabolite (which is toxic at extremely low doses) and the excitotoxic amino acid.

The detailed history of Monsanto’s toxic sweetener, aspartame, is available to anyone who is interested in the abuse of the scientific method by a company without any apparent concern for public health. The history of neotame, however, is not yet known by independent researchers. Based on past actions by Monsanto and their scientists, here is fictionalized, but not too far-fetched history of neotame. Enjoy!In 1993, a former Monsanto scientist was working at a secret army chemical weapons plant when there was accidental realease of a newly-developed chemical weapon, neotox-II. After the alarm sounded, other workers ran to the decontamination room. But this man, having learned at Monsanto that chemicals are not something to be afraid of, stood his ground. On the middle finger of his left hand, there had accummulated a tiny amount of neotox-II.

He put his finger up to his nose to thoroughly investigate this new chemical. It made him intensely nauseous, but there was also a very strong sweet smell. Believing that sweet means safe, no matter how toxic, he licked his finger. Neotox-II was incredibly sweet! The nausea became intense and his body began to convulse. He didn’t seem to care, belting out, “I have found it! I have found it!” at the top of his lungs.

When he was released from the army hospital three weeks later, he knew what he had to do. He placed a call to several Monsanto/ NutraSweet executives telling them about the discovery. He had no concern about divulging military secrets as he knew that these Monsanto executives would have no trouble convincing government officials to give the patent and use of neotox-II to Monsanto. “After all,” he reminded himself, “Monsanto executives have had so many official government positions, we essentially run the government!”

Putting together safety data for the FDA was not a serious challenge. The mixture of neotox-II with standard Monsanto fairy dust, led to the production of volumes of safety data. The fairy dust did not change the chemical structure of neotox-II, but did cause a name change to “neotame”.

All links between neotame and neotox-II were destroyed…except two. Instead of presenting the aspartame-blinded Mr. Magoo as the sweetener symbol, the symbol of neotame is a picture of the back of the left hand of the former Monsanto scientist — holding up the finger where neotox-II was found and offering it to the world.

But surely, this product would be labeled! NOT SO!!! For this little gem, no labeling required. And it is even included in USDA Certified Organic food.

The food labeling requirements required for aspartame have now been dropped for Neotame, and no one is clear why this was allowed to happen. Neotame has been ruled acceptable, and without being included on the list of ingredients, for:

USDA Certified Organic food items.

Certified Kosher products with the official letter k inside the circle on labels.

Let me make this perfectly clear. Neotame does not have to be included in ANY list of ingredients! So, if you buy processed food, whether USDA Certified Organic or not, that food most likely will contain Neotame because it is cost-effective, and since no one knows it is there, there is no public backlash similar to what is happening with Aspartame. A win/win situation!
But that’s not all. Just love chowing down on that delicious steak? Well, that cow most likely will have been fed with feed containing…..you guessed it…..Neotame! A product called “Sweetos,” which is actually composed of Neotame, is being substituted for molasses in animal feed.

“Sweetos is an economical substitute for molasses. Sweetos guarantees the masking of unpleasant tastes and odor and improves the palatability of feed. This product will be economical for farmers and manufacturers of cattle feed. It can also be used in mineral mixture,” said Craig Petray, CEO, The NutraSweet Company, a division of Searle, which is a part of Monsanto.

Why would we feed animals food that is so distasteful that we would have to mask the unpleasantness with an artificial sweetener? Most animals will not eat spoiled, rancid feed. They know by the smell that it is not good. Enter Sweetos (Neotame). Just cover up the unpleasant tastes and odors, and you can feed them anything you want to, courtesy of the oh, so considerate folks at Monsanto and company.

But of course, Monsanto is no longer associated with NutraSweet. In the time-honored tradition of covering its assets, Monsanto has a proven track record of spinning off controversial portions of its company that generate too much scrutiny, such as it did with the Solutia solution.

Says the Farm Industry News, “Monsanto, which has long resided in the crosshairs of public scorn and scrutiny, appears to have dodged at least one bullet by spinning off its industrial chemical business into a separate entity called Solutia a couple of years ago. Solutia has since been hammered by lawsuits regarding PCB contamination from what were once called Monsanto chemical plants in Alabama and other states” (Source Watch)

So what is the solution to this problem? Buy local organic food, know your local farmer, and don’t buy processed foods whether they are labeled “Organic” or not. This requires a drastic change in lifestyle that most will not want to make. For those who choose to ride the wheel of chance by succumbing to this genocidal adulteration of our food supply by those who stand to profit from our sickness and early demise, my only comment is….it is your choice.

[rael-science] Why Are We Doing This To The Children Of The World?‏

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why Are We Doing This To
The Children Of The World?
27,000 Starvation Deaths Daily?


By Frosty Wooldridge
12-28-12

http://rense.com/general95/whyarewe.html

In this modern era, we fly jet planes around the planet in a matter of
hours. We create Smart Phones that take pictures and post them on our
Facebook pages in a matter of seconds. We pay billions of dollars to
watch gridiron behemoths race toward the end zone. We buy high-powered
cars to hurl our obese bodies to the local grocery store to buy more
food to stuff into our mouths.

Meanwhile, our politicians speak with soaring oratory to make the
world better for all human beings. At the same time, our leaders
create wars all over the world that devour trillions of dollars in
bombs, soldiers, rockets, planes and armaments.

But through all our riches, our words, our human nobility in 180 plus
countries around the world, we cannot figure out how to stop the
starvation deaths of 27,000 children every 24 hours. How did we
advance this far as the human race only to watch that many children
die needlessly and endlessly around the world?

At the end of 2012, let’s encourage our church leaders and government
leaders, and people of the world to address the fundamental need to
feed the children of the planet instead of preparing for or making
wars around the world. While we in the United States mourn the mayhem
against the children of Newtown, Connecticut, we need to understand
and solve the fact that the world suffers 27,000 “Newtown’s” every
single day of the year.

With that in mind, let’s propose solutions to world hunger for 2013.
Let’s solve the great scourges of mankind: poverty, illiteracy,
ignorance, disease, unemployment, homelessness, inadequate sanitation,
low social mobility, and exclusion.

For example, in India, 1,000 children die every day of diarrhea,
dysentery and other water borne diseases. (Source:
www.populationmedia.org) Yet, India does absolutely nothing to solve
that problem while it adds another 11 million net gain to its already
bloviated population of 1.2 billion impoverished people. Not to
mention its destroyed environment!

27,000 children die each day from needless poverty

Dr. Webster Tarpley, author of man books, said, “The tragic condition
of humanity is perhaps most dramatically reflected in the fact that
between 22,000 and 27,000 children die each day due to poverty,
largely in the form of starvation, malnutrition, and diseases like
diarrhea which can be cured for a few pennies. The upper end of this
range corresponds to one needless childhood death caused by poverty
every three seconds. Total needless childhood deaths from poverty,
these data suggest, must be approaching at least 10 million per year -
a yearly total which by itself rivals any of the great genocides of
world history. Of the 2.2 billion children who live in today’s world,
one billion live in poverty. This is the estimate from the most recent
United Nations Human Development Report.”

Not only that, but Time Magazine reported that 8.1 million adults die
annually from starvation. Total humans dying of starvation: 18 million
annually.

While the United States spends trillions of dollars annually on war,
3.1 billion human beings live on less than $2.00 per day. That same
3.1 billion lack a toilet or sanitation facilities of any kind. It’s
beyond sickening that we see this kind of condition of humanity in
2012 with all our talents as a species.

“About 2.6 billion people or 40% of the world’s population are
struggling to subsist on less than two dollars a day,” said Tarpley.
“It is a world in which a total of 3 billion people or 50% of the
world total must try to get along on less than $2.50 per day. For all
the talk of a growing middle class made possible by globalization, 80%
of humanity receives less than $10 per day.”

Almost a billion malnourished worldwide

According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization in
Rome, “There are in 2012 some 925 million persons experiencing hunger
and malnutrition. Some 578 million of the hungry live in the Asian and
Pacific countries, followed by 239 million malnourished in sub-Saharan
Africa.”

At the same time, Americans spend $50 million per jet plane and
several billions of dollars to build aircraft carriers annually that
they don’t need to fight non-existent adversaries.

Ironically, the Catholic Church spends all its money worldwide to stop
any form of birth control or family planning. In his brilliant book,
Underdevelopment is a State of Mind by Lawrence E. Harrison, he shows
where Catholic-dominated countries suffer massive child birth rates,
grinding poverty and hopelessness beyond imagination. The Catholic
Church dominates in Haiti, Mexico and most of Latin America. Result:
accelerating poverty to match accelerating birth rates.

Much the same holds true in Islamic countries like Pakistan, Egypt and
Bangladesh. Those ancient religions refuse to embrace birth control or
abortion—thus, women die and children starve into that 10 million
children death factor annually. Additionally, they suffer horrific
misery up to the point of death.

1.1 billion humans lack clean water

“Fully 1.1 billion people in developing countries today lack adequate
access to clean water,” said Tarpley. “One third of all children, or
640 million kids, exist without adequate shelter. One fifth of all
children, or a total of 400 million, do not have access to safe water.
One seventh of all children, or 270 million, are denied access to
adequate health services.”

Political instability in Egypt and much of Africa

Africa closes in on 1 billion human beings inhabiting that vast
continent. However, demographers state that the current rate of human
growth will create 3.1 billion Africans by the end of the century.

In Egypt at 82 million people and headed for 150 million within
decades, their form of birth control equals digging another canal off
the Nile River to create more shanty tents and human misery. No one
takes responsibility for reality.

At some point, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Mormonism, the Catholic
Church and all other religions must join minds or hands or whatever it
takes—to come to terms with human overpopulation that creates the 18
million starvation deaths annually. They must advocate and endorse
birth control and family planning. They must un-stick themselves from
the 1st century or 6th century and even B.C. eras in humanity’s march
into the 21st century.

Otherwise, all those civilizations will see horrific human die-off,
unspeakable misery and continued degradation of our planet home. We
cannot get around it with faith, hope or prayers. Mother Nature, aka,
God, Allah, the Great Spirit, or whatever you call the Creator will
unmercifully respond to our overwhelming numbers. It won’t be pretty.

We can change course by changing our actions for a plausible future
for all of humanity.

##

Jack Alpert PhD
Director: Stanford Knowledge Integration Laboratory



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WARNING FROM RAEL: For those who don't use their intelligence at its
full capacity, the label "selected by RAEL" on some articles does not
mean that I agree with their content or support it. "Selected by RAEL"
means that I believe it is important for the people of this planet to
know about what people think or do, even when what they think or do is
completely stupid and against our philosophy. When I selected articles
in the past about stupid Christian fundamentalists in America praying
for rain, I am sure no Rael-Science reader was stupid enough to believe
that I was supporting praying to change the weather. So, when I select
articles which are in favor of drugs, anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish, racist,
revisionist, or inciting hatred against any group or religion, or any
other stupid article, it does not mean that I support them. It just
means that it is important for all human beings to know about them.
Common sense, which is usually very good among our readers, is good
enough to understand that. When, like in the recent articles on drug
decriminalization, it is necessary to make it clearer, I add a comment,
which in this case was very clear: I support decriminalizing all drugs,
as it is stupid to throw depressed and sad people (as only depressed and
sad people use drugs) in prison and ruin their life with a criminal
record. That does not mean that there is any change to the Message which
says clearly that we must not use any drug except for medical purposes.
The same applies to the freedom of expression which must be absolute.
That does not mean again of course that I agree with anti-Jews,
anti-Semites, racists of any kind or anti-Raelians. But by knowing your
enemies or the enemies of your values, you are better equipped to fight
them. With love and respect of course, and with the wonderful sentence
of the French philosopher Voltaire in mind: "I disapprove of what you
say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".

-- 
-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ethics" is simply a last-gasp attempt by deist conservatives and
orthodox dogmatics to keep humanity in ignorance and obscurantism,
through the well tried fermentation of fear, the fear of science and
new technologies.

There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history, 
it is simply a succession of mistakes, intolerances and violations.

On the contrary, let us embrace Science and the new technologies
unfettered, for it is these which will liberate mankind from the
myth of god, and free us from our age old fears, from disease,
death and the sweat of labour.

Rael
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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