THE WEST, AIDS AND AFRICA

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THE WEST, AIDS AND AFRICA - Remi Oyeyemi - Monday, July 15, 2002 . Culled from Nigeriaworld.com

"You are entitled to your own opinions. But you are not entitled to your own facts."
- U.S. Senator Patrick Moniyan

The Barcelona AIDS conference just came to a close in Spain last week. While it lasted, one has been paying some attention to the headlines coming out of the conference and how the American "mainstream" media have gleefully reported them. One tried to dissect these headlines, ruminated over the emerging "facts and figures," contextualised them in history and attempted an analysis from the purview of the world's dominant (or if you like, imperialistic) socio-political milieu.

Upfront, it would be pertinent to state that this writer is not contesting the reality of AIDS in the world. What is troubling is that there is something terribly wrong with a disease that broke out in the West, specifically in the United States and previously unknown in Africa, and is now on the rampage in Africa, leaving the rest of the world almost untouched?! It is either the figures are being cooked to further demonise and destroy the self esteem of Africans, or there is a group of persons, or a particular country or group of countries ruled by some "skin heads" (or if you like, racists) who are determined to ruin mother Africa and her children. Definitely, either way, some people are engaged in crimes against humanity!

Before you dismiss this as another propagation of "conspiracy theory," or misguided Pan-Africanism, let us look at some facts together. In 1981, AIDS was "discovered" in the United States among gay men. Then, it was still an "unknown" disease because it was not until a year later that it was defined as AIDS. Just a year after that, in 1983, it was identified that HIV caused AIDS. The same year the world was made to believe that it has become an epidemic in Africa! Yet in 1985, by which time every region in the world has reportedly "reported" at least one case of AIDS, it is only in the US that records of deaths from the disease exist NOT in Africa, where there was supposedly an "epidemic."

	If there is no ulterior motive to stigmatise Africa or a grand plan to wipe out Africans, why is it that we do not have the same reports on Europe and North America? How come the reports of ''facts and figures'' did not cover the entire planet? ... how come Africa has faired so badly compared to others in the outbreak of a disease that was imported from the United States?

The whole world is a witness to the kind of moral depravity that has plagued America since the early fifties and exploded in the sixties such as men sleeping with men. The whole world is also a witness that such is foreign to Africa. For one, this writer has never read any anthropological history of any part of Africa where this has been the practice before 1980 (if anyone does, this writer would appreciate his attention being called to this). For some of us who trained as students of history, we know that some of the earliest written records about cultures of Africa were written by condescending and largely biased white men. We also found out that more often than not they paid more attention to the negatives than to the positives. So, if they had any proof that men slept with men in Africa, they would not only have exposed it, but they would have attempted to "study" such practice.

That being the case, how could a disease that broke out in the United States become an epidemic two years later in Africa, when the practices that caused such disease were previously unknown in Africa? How could a disease that started in the US and claimed its first several victims in the US, where practices that cause such disease is more prevalent, and for which there is no known medication be more devastating in Africa than in the US or Europe?

There is only one answer - the United States and its collaborators have been using Africans as guinea pigs in the laboratory of AIDS! Anyone who knows a little about the workings of the American system would agree that if AIDS was actually discovered among the gays, it would not be too preposterous to say that efforts would have been made to manufacture it in the laboratory. The American government is one of the most criminal ones in the whole world because it is driven by something other than what is driving the rest of humanity - money. If you doubt this, go and read Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got To Be So Hated by Gore Vidal.

The system encourages research, which is a good thing. They use their own people (who have been made to believe that ignorance is bliss) as guinea pigs, which is a bad thing. Most of these are minority populations and other non-Caucasian Americans, which makes it heinous. Decades after such crimes have been committed and most of the victims are dead they would come out to reveal the crime and apologise to their descendants. There was a case of a government funded research where innocent citizens were diabolically diagnosed of things not existing in their body and admitted only to be used as guinea pigs for a research on how to prevent, treat and cure strokes. Some of the victims did not know this and believed they were actually suffering from a disease until it was blown open.

During the second European war (which they curiously termed the World War two) a lot of crimes were committed against innocent Americans some of which are just becoming known. If they could use their people, what makes anyone think that Africans could be immune from such? And especially with poverty ravaging the continent, no thanks to the indigenous collaborators, what chance does Africa and her children stand?

Just last week, it was reported on the CNN that the dangerous disease polio has just been manufactured in the laboratory. It was claimed that it could be used for terrorism and insinuated that it could be put on warheads for military purposes. Readers should not forget the anthrax terrorism that was home brew in America too. It also came from the laboratory.

Readers should also remember the outbreak of Ebola disease. It was first discovered in the United States and before anyone could say "Uncle Sam," it was all over the East of Africa killing women and children. These are some of the few that we were informed about. What about several other diseases they have been manufacturing in the laboratories known only in the high places? How are we sure that there are not a number of diseases yet undisclosed, but transmitted from the US now eating out the heart of our mother continent?

The American system encourages this kind of laboratory experiment, inflicts it on its population and asked for grants to research into its cure! Where it is as deadly as AIDS, they take it to Africa and Asia. This guarantees that some people would continue to make money from the misery of others via research grants, foundation and non-government organisations. They make us believe they actually love us and are trying to help us when the opposite is actually the truth. They are milking money from our misery!

It should also be pointed out that the reported AIDS epidemic in South Africa which, for example has only focused on the "dark skinned population," raises a lot of questions. Why is it that the AIDS disease has been "ravaging" only the "dark skinned population"? Is there no more white population in South Africa? Or is there a grand plan to wipe out the black population in South and East Africa? Why is the so-called AIDS disease so prevalent in the parts of Africa where the Caucasians have fervent interest in the land? Is this a case of "what we can not take via political and military means, we will appropriate with science and technology"? Why is it that even the reports within the US were only about African Americans and not Caucasian Americans?

Assuming that these bleak reports were true, does it mean that Africans and their brothers in America are more promiscuous than other races? Have we not seen how morally depraved the Caucasian descendants are? Have we not seen how they have been promoting life outside wedlock to give them the license to screw around? Have we not witnessed how their system encourages the breakdown of family values and taxed married couples more than single parents?

If there is no ulterior motive to stigmatise Africa or a grand plan to wipe out Africans, why is it that we do not have the same reports on Europe and North America? How come the reports of "facts and figures" did not cover the entire planet? If there was no sinister motive or secret plan against Africa how come Africa has faired so badly compared to others in the outbreak of a disease that was imported from the United States? How come this disease has not ravaged the United States? And if it did they would only talk how devastating it was to African Americans? How could this be so when the first known victims were Caucasians, most prominent of which is late film "star" Rock Hudson? How could the Caucasian Americans be so unaffected given the pedigree of this disease for which there is no cure yet? The point is that this disease was not and is still not a natural disease. It was manufactured in the laboratory in the United States!

The West has also deployed its propaganda machines to reinforce this heinous belief that Africans are AIDS carriers. Headlines like "AIDS dragging life expectancy down in Africa," were gleefully celebrated on the CNN, CNBC, BBC, MSNBC and on all other cable networks. Another headline, "HIV stable in U.S. but African Americans hit hard," got the same treatment. How could HIV be stable in America but single out African Americans only for devastation? Are they not treated in the same hospitals as their Caucasian counterparts? Could it be so difficult to see that a particular race of people is singled out for man-made extinction?

The obviously ignorant reporters who are themselves victims of indoctrination and trained to believe the worst about mother Africa and her children in Diaspora were celebrating the stories. You could read it in their glittering faces. Their body language was exuberant, the excitement in their voices highly palpable. From their searing enthusiasm, you could easily decode their thoughts, "African continent (and by implication its peoples) is good for nothing except war, hunger and disease." They abandoned the appropriate thing to do - find independent means to authenticate the so-called figures and prove the lies of their own leaders to be what exactly it is - lies, if not crimes!

Via these prejudiced networks, we were told that the AIDS virus, which was first identified in the United States "has caused most damage in sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 28 million people are now infected." We were informed that "the average life expectancy of people in 11 African countries will drop below 40 by 2010 as HIV/AIDS continues to shorten the lives of millions." They stated that "Sub-Saharan Africa has 28.5 million of the world's 40 million infected people, with infection rates rising over 30 percent in some countries." We are also expected to begin mourning in advance because the present 13.4 million orphans would become 25 million in eight years.

The sources of the facts could never have raised more troubling doubts in terms of credibility, integrity and motive. There is the U.S. Census Bureau and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. It would be pertinent if Karen Stanecki and Ronald Valdiserri representing the former and the latter respectively tell the World how many African countries, cities, towns and villages have they visited to be able to come up with those figures. Or rather they should come out with the names of their researchers, their qualifications, their locations on the African continent and the hospitals where they have been diagnosing and ascertaining the number of AIDS carriers.

Someone raised the fact that the USAIDS, United Nations Aids Agency (UNAIDS) and the UN Children Agency have also come out with some figures and that one should concede to the UN a modicum of integrity. Well, this writer is not unwilling to do that. But a lot of evils have been perpetrated against the people of Africa using the UN as a cover. Or who does not know the history of the UN treachery against the African people and the people of colour in Diaspora? Who does not know how African dreams have been repeatedly betrayed with the collaboration of the UN just like the League of Nations before it?

Or who could forget that when the Italian fascist, Benito Mussolini annexed Ethiopia, the only unconquered African nation on May 9, 1936, the League of Nations turned the other eye? Who could forget the conspiracy of the UN secretary, Dag Hammarskjold using the UN apparatus and "credibility" to deceive Patrice Lumumba and have him assassinated? Who has forgotten the attempts to install Rev. Abel Muzorewa over the people of Zimbabwe who wanted Robert Mugabe? The fact that the UN is involved in all these charades about AIDS does not mean that crimes and lies are not being perpetrated against the African people as you read this!

It was written in one of the several news reports that emanated from the Barcelona conference that the "figures" being bandied about are "consensus" figures. How did they arrive at such consensus? What are the variations that they tried to "harmonise"? Why do they have to have "consensus figures"? How could they deny allegations of conspiracy if what they are doing was to build consensus rather than establish, collate and publish verifiable and "analyse-able" empirical and scientific facts?

Just last week, it was in the news that the Sesame Street producers would be introducing an HIV - positive Muppet on the South African version of the programme! Why introduce this on the South African version? Why not on the United States version, after all, the disease originated from there? Why not start in Europe or Canada? If this is not part of the grand plan, what could it be? What further evidence do we need to establish their true intention of stigmatising Africa, and make Africans believe that they are "destined" to be carriers of AIDS?

This writer believes that apart from a deliberate attempt to stigmatise Africans all over the world as AIDS carriers, there is no doubt that the mother continent is being used as a laboratory of the Western nations. As pointed out earlier, this disease was not and is still not a natural disease. It was manufactured in the laboratory in the United States! It could only affect the areas on which it is afflicted. The place they have chosen to inflict this one is Africa. And the people they have chosen as guinea pigs are Africans at home and in Diaspora.

It now behooves on African leaders to look for ways to protect the bodies and minds of their people from scientific and technological colonisation. It is their duty to devise means to clean up Africa metaphorically and physically. It is their responsibility to reject the stigma on their continent and their people. They have to rally round to prevent their people from being used as guinea pigs.

The United States and Europe have no iota of love for Africa and her children. They have exploited Africa's human and natural resources for centuries mercilessly. The only time they would ever give the continent a wry smile is if there is something to gain. If African leaders receive help from Western nations, they need to be more circumspective. And if the United Nations is in the forefront, they need to exercise caution. Nothing is more destructive than "Greek Gifts." By now, this should not be a secret. We have no choice but to be the captains of our own souls, holding our destinies in our hands. Africa's salvation could only come from within.

God bless Mama Africa!

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BIOS – Remi Oyeyemi:

Email: remyhoyes@aol.com

Recent Articles : http://nigeriaworld.com/columnist/oyeyemi/articles.html

In the last seventeen years, Remi Oyeyemi has been actively involved in journalism in many capacities. He was the founding Assistant Editor of the P.M. News, Lagos in which he maintained a column Politics Nigeriana, which was a thorn in the flesh of the Sani Abacha dictatorship.

He also wrote for TheNews and TEMPO magazines in Lagos; Nigerian Tribune and Daily Sketch, both in Ibadan; Triumph, Kano; Bencorps, Makurdi and has contributed OP-ED materials to The Guardian, The Punch, and the Daily Times. In the United States he has written for the Southeast Missourian, a politically influential newspaper in the State of Missouri as a Guest Columnist and a string of African publications in the American NorthEast. He was also the founding Editor of the New York based pro-democracy medium Democrat-In-Exile.

Oyeyemi was the Assistant National Secretary of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (1992-1993); Founding Secretary, League of Democratic Journalists (1995) and Chairman, Oyo State Sports Writers Association's Disciplinary Committee (1995). In 1990, the Nigerian Union of Journalists (Oyo State Council) named him the Best Investigative Journalist. He received the GSE award of the Rotary International in 1991 and in 1993 was listed in "Who is Who" of the Nigerian media world.

A member of the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), he was a media resource consultant to many advertising and public relation companies between 1990 and 1995. Between 1991 and 1993, Oyeyemi was the Director of Media Affairs (West) for the Shehu Musa Yar'Adua Presidential Campaign and later Personal Press Assistant to then Presidential Aspirant for the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who is now the Nigerian Vice President.

He was declared wanted by the Abacha regime that was desperate to host the World Cup Soccer competition in 1995 following his Exclusive Report on the outbreak of Typhoid in Ibadan in TEMPO magazine.

He fled Nigeria few days after the murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995 to the United States. He became the foreign correspondent to the Nigerian Tribune reporting from the NorthEast America and the United Nations. His exclusive political stories from New York made the Nigerian Tribune best selling newspaper in Nigeria between 1995 and 1998.

Oyeyemi testified against the Abacha dictatorship at the New York City Council hearing on human rights abuse in late in 1995 and in May 1996, at the Senator Kassenbaum inspired US Senate hearings on the same subject in Washington D.C. He later served as the Media Affairs Director of the New York based United Committee to Save Nigeria.

Oyeyemi who has been published in several anthologies including Amidst the Splendor, Tranquil Rains of Summer and America at the Millenium is also the author of Songs From Exile, a poetic commentary on the Nigerian political events of the 1990s. He is one of the "Outstanding Poets of 1998" selected and published by US National Library of Poetry. A member of International Society of Poets, he presently has a weekly column "Echoes of Freedom" that comes out in the Saturday Tribune in Nigeria.

He received a combined honours Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Political Science from the great University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife, and Masters of Education Counseling from Wilmington College, Wilmington, Delaware. He also has a Diploma in Journalism from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos.

Oyeyemi who is presently the Chief Consultant of Mount Zion Mental and Behavioral Health Services is a member of American Counseling Association. He is married with children.

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