Monday, April 19, 2010

Capitalism III

Please be warned what you are going to read could be disturbing. That is how Capitalism is - very disturbing. I am a very lazy blogger and only things with great seriousness behind them can move me to write. This is an attempt to let you know what Capitalism has done and can do to us. So beware!

What caused the AIDS epidemic?
If you wikipedia this you will find a lot of theories. Some are downright funny and some are unbelievably fantastic but what I am going to tell you is horrendous! So one of the theories is that trials of polio vaccines caused the AIDS epidemic ! Now let us talk a bit about polio vaccines. If you are not very young you probably were inoculated with Salk's vaccine. Salk's vaccine consisted of killed polio virus which alerted the body's immune system against the polio virus. This vaccine eradicated polio from the US and many other countries. Salk was so selfless he did not patent the process of preparing this vaccine! How could this be.. maybe because he was partly Russian.. ha ha that was just a joke! Now comes the horrendous part.. you and I who were innoculated by Salk's vaccine are doing fine and so are our friends but big drug companies in US saw a big opportunity - the capitalist giants of pharmaceutical industry. Just imagine what could be better than that sale of millions not billions of vaccines all over the world but they had to better Salk's vaccine! Three guys got onto producing 'better' polio vaccines these were Cox, Hilary Koprowski and Albert Sabin. Of these Mr. Koprowski backed by a very big US drugs firm was the guy in a tearing hurry. While Salk's vaccine trials were conducted in full public knowledge Mr. Koprowski conducted his vaccine trials in regions which roughly correspond to Burundi, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo some of the poorest countries not only in Africa but the world. This could be a co- incidence but those three countries mentioned before have the highest density of population infected with AIDS virus!!!!!!!!!! This theory has been analysed in very great detail by a British journalist Ed Hooper in his book The River . He has spent nearly 2 decades researching this theory and has been threatened and cajoled at every step to wrap up his work as it would show the whole of the west in a very bad light. So what really went wrong! It seems the great hurry with which Mr. Koprowski conducted his trials let to jumping of Simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIV) from Chimpanzees to humans which later caused AIDS .. you can read more about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPV_AIDS_hypothesis . Later Sabin's Oral Polio Vaccine which contained a live but greatly weakened virus largely replaced Salk's vaccine. Sabin's vaccine is safe according to WHO and Hooper agrees with it.
Now the point is why this sudden change ? Why the hurry? The point is not whether Ed Hooper's theory is right or wrong. It could be just sensationalism but is such a situation impossible? Is it absolutely impossible that events could indeed have happened as Ed Hooper thinks they did?
I do not need to tell the readers here about the reach and might of big pharmaceutical companies. Recently when I was in tremendous pain I got to know that my GP had been sent on a free holiday to Australia, Bangkok and Singapore by a pharmaceutical company. Are you confident that the drugs you are using are indeed safe and if they are why are certain drugs banned after very few years of their use. What the hell is going on ? Drugs which are banned in US are being administered in India like http://hubpages.com/hub/BANNEDDRUGSUSEDININDIA
This is capitalism for you - this is what happens when green backs are laid so thickly on eyes of decision makers that they become blind and sign on the dotted line. This is capitalism for you and let us pray it does not overwhelm our country.
By the way the above was published as a newspaper article about nine years ago in TIMES OF INDIA, Lucknow edition and was of course written by me.

Can a minor teenager be sentenced to months in a correctional facility by a judge for a prank on myspace - the answer is yes?
Now you may boo me as much as you like but this is something which is only possible in a capitalistic society.. it is unimaginable in India.. well that is my opinion coz if someone attempted that the public would tear that guy to shreds. But it happened in US. To cut a long story short two Your Honour type judges hearing cases of juvenile offenders who often did something as insignificant as stealing loose change from cars and creating a page on my space to mock an assistant principal, sent these 'offenders' to long 'sentences' in correctional facilities newly set up. It later emerged that these judges were paid per youth per day by the owner of the facility. Do you think this could have happened in India.. I don't think so.

You may read more about this at

and

Also I must give credit where it belongs - I first got wind of the above scandal by watching Michael Moore's movie Capitalism - A Love Story !

So well that was Capitalism III... I know it is full of errors but I could not afford to waste more time in polishing up this post coz I wanted to warn you as soon as possible.



19 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. gr8 research wrk, the hard facts r left untold, thnx fr intorducing us to them

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  3. Interesting thoughts. Now you are really collaring 'capitalism'. AIDS n polio vaccine trials...hmmm...everything's possible in this world. thanks for the links.

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  4. Accepted. Capitalism has its own flaws n these flaws r serious. Forget AIDS, forget USA, lets talk abt India. IPL is the proof that capitalism brings out the best while making everyone rich. Tharoor n Modi. Pure, top breed assholes. One has resigned, another might resign. Both of them
    turned IPL into a mess. Tharoor resigned bcoz he unduly used his ministerial position for private gains. Modi on the other hand created IPL and ensured that IPL’s biggest financial beneficiary will be Modi & his relatives.

    Capitalism gave birth to IPL and corruption to the mess. If u want merit to become the sole reason of success than embrace capitalism. If u wish that capitalism doesn’t give horrendous results then fight against corruption. After all it was corruption that got a teenager sentenced to months in a correctional facility for a prank on myspace.

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  5. Raza Bhai thanks for those words of encouragement! I needed those!

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  6. Cubicle blues thanks for your comment. I agree corruption was to blame but that was not just one prank - the judges sentenced dozens to correction facility. If I remember correctly together the judges received 2.1 million dollars and one of them bought a private yacht.

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  7. Nice research on AIDS. In fact, my argument was similar about Swine Flu. It isn't something totally incurable, you just had to diagnose early, and comparatively there are more no. of people dying of diarrhoea, tuberculosis and suchlike. It's media and drug companies which made the stupid swine flu vaccine (which incidentally didn't guarantee 100% prevention)are to blame for the unnecessary panic created around it.

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  8. This is a very well written and thought provoking piece. Thank you for writing this. Once again, I am very pleased to know a writer of your caliber and greatly appreciate the work you've produced.

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  9. Superb analysis , need more like u to bring out the underbelly of this system

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  10. Very well written.

    There are news about some pharma company doing such things for swine flu. May be the same capitalism will force some wine company to spread wine flu which would only be cured by drinking more wine...:-)

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  11. AnonymousMay 03, 2010

    ANTI-CAPITALISM in Facebook: @ Anurag
    We are very much related in your world view of Capitalism. Your narrative is fast paced and entertaining. Of course "learned" economists probably will cut you to shreds....but do not mind them, being that these guys are the very ones that contributed to the tragedy we are experiencing now and some even won a Nobel prize for it!! But then again you can win a "Peace" prize for waging a "just" war.

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  12. ANTI-CAPITALISM I am much indebted to you for your very kind comments!

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