Day: January 21, 2004

Pay No Attention to the Dictator Behind the Curtain

Over the past year or so I’ve been occasionally posting pictures of protests by a local group called Kalamazoo Non-Violent Opponents to War (KNOW). On the one hand this group has done a lot of anti-Patriot Act and anti-Ashcroft stuff which I agree with. On the other hand, you’ll also find nonsense like this in its newsletters:

CUBAN FILM SERIES AT THE KALAMAZOO VALLEY MUSEUM

Our friend Kevin Fuchs has organized a new film series:

FIDEL: THE UNTOLD STORY, A Documentary Film by Estela Bravo

7pm, Monday, January 19 FIDEL offers a unique look at One of the most controversial figures of our time, through exclusive interviews with Castro himself, historians, public figures, and close friends, with footage from the Cuban State archives. Featuring Alice Walker, Harry Belafonte, Arthur Schlesinger, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nelson Mandela, and the members of the Buena Vista Social Club, FIDEL juxtaposes the personal anecdotal with the history of the Cuban Revolution.

Fidel is an excreable hagiography of the dictator. As The Globe and Mail put it in its excellent review of this film,

An exercise in old-fashioned socialist propaganda, this two-year-old documentary is a brazen declaration of praise for the Cuban dictator from a filmmaker friend. Shamelessly avoiding the deplorable features of his regime — long imprisonments, the denial of freedom of expression, association or movement, single-party elections — it casts Castro as a combination of Santa Claus and David resisting Goliath.

. . .

Even in its crude evasions, Fidel offers some insights into the view from the other side. Why must Cuba be run by this 75-year-old one-man band? The justification is the antagonism of the U.S. government, which maintains its blockade of food and medicine (condemned by the United Nations) and where politicians such as Senator Jesse Helms continue to insist that Castro will be deposed.

As long as Cuba is threatened by its big democracy-championing neighbor, ordinary, reasonable freedom for Cubans can still be denied.

It’s a shame Castro doesn’t appoint John Ashcroft as Attorney General in Cuba — maybe then the far Left would stop romanticizing and mythologizing Castro’s Cuba.

Source:

Castro hagiography preaches to the converted. Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail, January 31, 2003.

Most Pathetic Moment Blogging the State of the Union

The most pathetic moment blogging the State of the Union and the Democratic response has to go to Dave Winer who writes,

The most pathetic moment last night was not in Bush’s speech, although it was close, the prize goes to Nancy Pelosi, who misquoted JFK’s “Ask not what your country can do for you…”

Actually, no, Pelosi didn’t misquote Kennedy at all since she didn’t refer to that quote. Hint, Dave — you might actually want to read Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural address before handing out prizes for pathetic performances.

Postcript: By the way, when I heard Pelosi offer up that quote I thought it was a bit odd. After all what was Pelosi going to do for the freedom of man? Hold it hostage to the United Nations security council, apparently.

Combination Therapy with Artemisinin Effective at Fighting Malaria

A review of existing studies of anti-malarial compound artemisinin recently concluded that adding the Chinese folk remedy for malaria to existing anti-malarial drugs increased the effectiveness of those drugs in fighting malaria.

The International Artemisinin Study Group looked at 16 clinical trials involving 6,000 patients who were administered artemisinin along with other anti-malarial drugs. Artemisinin is an extract from sweet wormwood has been used for centuries in Asia to treat malaria.

Their review found that adding artemisinin to existing compounds doubled the rate of parasite clearance (the level of parasites removed from the blood) with no additional side effects. Additionally, patients taking artemisinin combination therapies were less likely to suffer a relapse of the disease after ending treatment.

In an article in Lancet describing the results of the survey, the International Artemisinin Study Group wrote,

If used widely, this inexpensive, fixed-dose artemisinin-based combination antimalarial could make important contributions to ‘rolling back malaria’.

Sources:

Drug cocktail ‘may beat malaria’. The BBC, January 2, 2004.

Drug combinations for malaria: time to ACT?. The Lancet, January 3, 2004.

Combination therapy, the best way to tackle malaria: Lancet. January 2, 2004.

Just How Accurate Are HIV Estimates?

In January, Kenya announced that its HIV rate had fell almost in half overnight. But this was not due to any new program adopted by Kenya. Rather the government released a more accurate estimate that only 6.7 percent of people in Kenya suffer from AIDS compared to the older estimate of 15 percent.

The 6.7 percent infection rate is based on the most extensive look at AIDS in Kenya yet, and even then the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey looked at a mere 8,561 households in a country of 32 million people.

On the heels of other studies in Mali, Zambia and elsewhere that found similar overestimates, one has to wonder about the quality of data on HIV prevalence throughout the developing world.

Meanwhile UNAIDS advisor Catherine Hankins took the bizarre view that there was, in fact, no overestimation of HIV rates,

We cannot say that we have overestimated HIV rates in Africa. All figures for HIV prevalence in Africa are estimates.

Yes, but I don’t remember UNAIDS ever warning publicity that HIV prevalence may be off by up to 100 percent. Such large discrepancies could potentially cause donor nations to question the reliability of UNAIDS assessments of the epidemic.

Source:

Study cuts Kenyan HIV estimates. The BBC, January 9, 2004.

Italy Pays Couples to Have Babies

Faced with one of the lowest birth rates in the world, Italy has decided to encourage population growth by paying 1,000 euro to couples who already have one child and have another child by the end of 2004.

This follows on the announcement by the mayor of Lavino who offered couples 10,000 for any infant born in his village. Unlike the state’s offer, there are no time limits attached to this offer.

Even so, there appears to be a great deal of skepticism about whether such offers will actually significantly increase fertility rates in Italy. The 1,000 euro offer was also criticized for only being offered to Italian or European citizens — non-European immigrants need not apply.

Italian demographer Giuseppe Gesano told Reuters,

Italians are not so poor that a one-off payment of €1000 is going to make them have children . . . It may convince a few hundred couples to have kids earlier than planned but it’s not going to radically change the birth rate.

Besides, even if Italian fertility should suddenly take off, Italy’s current disparity between births and deaths would still create serious imbalances for decades.

Sources:

Italy offers families baby-cash. Frances Kennedy, The BBC, December 1, 2003.

Italy tries to bribe its way to a baby boom. James Crawford, Reuters, December 6, 2003.