Society's ChildS


Health

UK's top public doctor shames western society: Drug firms not trying to find Ebola vaccine 'because virus is only killing Africans'

Ebola docs 2007
© IndependentDoctors from Médecins Sans Frontières treat a patient suspected to have the Ebola virus in 2007 in Congo
Britain's leading public health doctor today blames the failure to find a vaccine against the Ebola virus on the "moral bankruptcy" of the pharmaceutical industry to invest in a disease because it has so far only affected people in Africa - despite hundreds of deaths.

Professor John Ashton, the president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, says the West needs to treat the deadly virus as if it were taking hold in the wealthiest parts of London rather than just Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. Writing in The Independent on Sunday, Professor Ashton compares the international response to Ebola to that of Aids, which was killing people in Africa for years before treatments were developed once it had spread to the US and UK in the 1980s.

He writes: "In both cases [Aids and Ebola], it seems that the involvement of powerless minority groups has contributed to a tardiness of response and a failure to mobilise an adequately resourced international medical response.

"In the case of Aids, it took years for proper research funding to be put in place and it was only when so-called 'innocent' groups were involved (women and children, haemophiliac patients and straight men) that the media, politicians, scientific community and funding bodies stood up and took notice."

Comment: See also:
Ebola - What you're not being told
New Light on the Black Death: The Cosmic Connection
Ebola epidemic: Now taking toll on doctors


People

In Rafah, hospital morgues cannot hold all the bodies

 Palestinians look for their belongings
© APPalestinians look for their belongings in the rubble of houses destroyed in an Israeli strike, Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, August 2, 2014
In the 24 hours after the collapse of the cease-fire, 123 civilians were killed in Rafah alone, including 30 children and 14 women, Palestinians say.


After more than 24 hours of Israeli aerial bombardments, at an average of five an hour, and heavy artillery fire on Rafah, the city's medical facilities have had to place the bodies of the dead in cold storage designed for fruits and vegetables. This step had to be taken not only because of the high number of casualties, but because Rafah's Yusuf al-Najar Hospital had to be evacuated after bombardments and artillery fire that endangered the lives of patients and staff. Because cemeteries and funeral processions are also being bombarded, people are afraid to bury their dead.

After the collapse of the cease-fire Friday, about two hours after it began, Rafah residents said the Israel Defense Forces bombarded and fired on houses indiscriminately, with the inhabitants still inside. They reported that when they tried to flee they were bombarded in the street. "All the houses shook like in an earthquake, "residents told Haaretz.

A few thousand people living in neighborhoods on the edge of Rafah fled to the Shabura refugee camp, considered "protected" from ground invasion. But at 3 A.M. Saturday a bomb dropped by an Israeli fighter jet on a number of asbestos dwellings in the camp killed eight people from three families, including three girls and three boys, a woman and a man of about 50. Fighter jets and gun boats also bombarded civilian neighborhoods in the west of the city, killing at least 20 civilians, most of them mainly children.

Between 10 A.M. Friday and 10 A.M. Saturday about 100 air strikes and a few hundred artillery strikes were counted. In Rafah alone 123 civilians were killed, including 30 children and 14 women, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. Altogether throughout the Gaza Strip in that 24-hour period, 143 Palestinians were killed - including 39 children and 16 women, according to the center.

Palestinian Health Ministry figures on Saturday afternoon put the number of Palestinians killed throughout the Gaza Strip Friday and Saturday at 256, and 813 wounded. Since the operation began, some 1,680 Palestinians have been killed and more than 9,000 have been injured.

Arrow Down

Government tears down New Jersey man's makeshift tent in the woods, leaves him homeless

Sam
© YouTube“Sam” watches as his home is demolished in Tent City of Lakewood, NJ.
Lakewood - An impoverished man learned the true nature of government as he watched tearfully as bureaucrats demolished his ramshackle home in the woods. He was bothering no one except the government.

Sam_1
© YouTubeSam.

This was the reality that was presented to "Sam," a 70-year-old homeless man living in the forest in Lakewood Township, New Jersey. Sam was a part of "Tent City," a homeless encampment where between 80-120 individuals have stayed at any given time over the past decade, on so-called public land in Lakewood.

These individuals were making the best of their situation by erecting tents and shelters in the woods instead of sleeping on park benches and relying on welfare housing and government subsidies.

After years of threats, the local authorities of Lakewood Township finally had Tent City closed down, and all residents evicted from the forest. The homes that existed there - some for years - were ripped to the ground using heavy machinery.

"Can I watch?" asked Sam, when his home - a wood-framed shelter covered with tarps - was destroyed. Sam's lip trembled as he stood next to the public servants overseeing the demolition. It was an emotional sight.

Mars

California: Extreme drought will cause massive migration and real estate collapse

us drought monitor
A shocking 58 percent of the state of California is now in a state of "exceptional drought," according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. (1)

"The drought's incredible three-year duration has nearly depleted both the state's topsoil moisture and subsoil moisture reserves, according to Brad Rippey of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who wrote the Drought Monitor report," reports the Washington Post. (2)

All the usual measures are being taken to try to soften the impact of the drought: The Governor has declared a state of emergency, strict water conservation efforts are already in force, neighborhood "water cops" hand out stiff fines for excessive water usage, and people are scrambling to cut water consumption in every way possible.

Megaphone

Brian Eno: Takes aim in passionate letter

Why?
Brian Eno has shared his feelings about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a passionate letter that has been published on David Byrne's website.

"I received this email last Friday morning from my friend, Brian Eno," Byrne wrote on his site. "I shared it with my office and we all felt a great responsibility to publish Brian's heavy, worthy note."

The artists have collaborated on such albums as My Life in the Bush of Ghosts in 1981 and Everything That Happens Will Happen Today in 2008.

In the note, which can be read in full below, Eno questions the United States' response to the violence, asking, "Why does America continue its blind support of this one-sided exercise in ethnic cleansing?"

Eno also shares details about his 2013 visit to Israel where he witnessed brutal violence against Palestinians. "I kept thinking, 'Do Americans really condone this? Do they really think this is OK? Or do they just not know about it?'"

Numerous musicians have spoken out against the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict in recent weeks, including One Direction's Zayn Malik, Rihanna, Selena Gomez and Eddie Vedder. Artists like Neil Young, Backstreet Boys and Paul Anka have canceled performances in Israel as well.

Attention

Massive surprise bio-terror drill conducted in New York City

NYPD
© André Gustavo Stumpf/Flickr
Friday, officials throughout the city conducted the largest unannounced bio-terror drill in U.S. history.

The Rapid Activation for Mass Prophylaxis Exercise (RAMPEx), which had over 1500 participants between 30 locations, was conducted with 13 city agencies as reported by CBS New York.

Supposedly, the drill was for airborne bio-weapons such as Anthrax, however, one must question if the true nature of the drill was based on the recent Ebola outbreak which has already killed over 750 people in West Africa and prompted door-to-door sweeps.

The drill cost about $1.4 million.

Water

State of emergency declared in Ohio after toxins were found in water

Toxins in Water
© Associated Press/John SeewerAundrea Simmons stands next to her minivan with cases of bottled water she bought after Toledo warned residents not to use its water, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014 in Toledo, Ohio. About 400,000 people in and around Ohio's fourth-largest city were warned not to drink or use its water after tests revealed the presence of a toxin possibly from algae on Lake Erie.

Toledo -- Toxins possibly from algae on Lake Erie fouled the water supply of the state's fourth-largest city Saturday, forcing officials to issue warnings not to drink the water and the governor to declare a state of emergency as worried residents descended on stores, quickly clearing shelves of bottled water.

"It looked like Black Friday," said Aundrea Simmons, who stood in a line of about 50 people at a pharmacy before buying four cases of water. "I have children and elderly parents. They take their medication with water."

The city advised about 400,000 residents in Toledo, most of its suburbs and a few areas in southeastern Michigan not to brush their teeth with or boil the water because that would only increase the toxin's concentration. The mayor also warned that children should not shower or bathe in the water and that it shouldn't be given to pets.

Toledo issued the warning just after midnight after tests at one treatment plant showed two sample readings for microsystin above the standard for consumption.

Algae blooms during the summer have become more frequent and troublesome around the western end of Lake Erie, the shallowest of the five Great Lakes.

The algae growth is fed by phosphorous mainly from farm fertilizer runoff and sewage treatment plants, leaving behind toxins that have contributed to oxygen-deprived dead zones where fish can't survive. The toxins can kill animals and sicken humans.

Scientists had predicted a significant bloom of the blue-green algae this year, but they didn't expect it to peak until early September.

Gov. John Kasich's emergency order issued Saturday allowed the state to begin bringing water into the Toledo area. Large containers were being filled with water at a prison near Columbus and trucked about 130 miles north to Toledo, said Joe Andrews, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Public Safety.

Family

Window into the soulless: French man beats baby, puts picture on Facebook for "a laugh"

Facebook
© AFP Photo / Leon NealThe father reportedly told a police officer that he published the photograph of the child's bruised face on his Facebook page 'pour s'amuser' (for a laugh).
French police have charged a father with child abuse after he allegedly shook and beat his month-old baby because he could not bear the infant's crying - and then posted a photo of the baby's bruised face on Facebook "for a laugh".


Comment: If there's one good thing to say about Facebook, it's that it makes identifying the scum of the earth a lot easier.


In a case that has shocked France, the man reportedly admitted being violent towards the infant, who was taken to hospital where doctors diagnosed possible brain damage.

Police in the town of Tergnier in the Aisne department in Picardy, northern France, were alerted on Monday by one of the couple's friends who saw the child's picture on the father's Facebook account and was concerned at the baby's "abnormal appearance" and bruised face.

Officers summoned the mother for questioning. When she arrived detectives noted the infant's injuries were even worse than in the photograph and alerted the emergency services. The mother allegedly told detectives she was afraid to contact police for fear that her partner would leave her.

The father was arrested on Monday evening. Both parents have been formally put under investigation, the equivalent of being charged, for "violence against a minor causing permanent incapacity".

Comment: From the heights of political power to the lowest petty criminal and abusive parent, psychopathy makes its influence known. It's the reason why things that should be obvious to everyone - basic values like the fact that beating women and children is wrong - are not. Humanity is lost.


Road Cone

Deadly gas-pipeline explosions killed 25 and injured 257 in Taiwan


Deadly explosions caused by a gas leak overnight killed at least 25 people and injured 257 in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung, according to government officials.

Underground explosions in Taiwan's second-largest city triggered fires that ripped off manhole covers on roads and cratered large boulevards, local television footage showed. Roads exploded with flames, overturning cars and collapsing houses. Many streets were still littered with rubble and impassible by ambulances.

"Around midnight, there was a very strong blast. From my balcony, I saw a huge fireball that was at least 10 floors high. All the furniture at my home rattled a little bit, and it was very, very loud. Then I heard people screaming. Two to three minutes later, another blast occurred," said Johnson Shen, whose apartment is about 200 feet away from the blast area.

Economic Minister Chang Chia-juch said Friday that officials are still unable to determine what caused the blast, though an initial investigation indicated the leak could have occurred in an underground pipeline that transports propane, a highly flammable, nearly odorless petrochemical used for polyesters. Kaohsiung is one of Taiwan's centers of petrochemical production

Magnify

Ebola Update: 729 Dead, over 1,300 infected

ebola
© Abbas Dulleh/APAn employee of the Monrovia City Corporation sprays disinfectant on a street.
This week, Awa Faye added a new feature to her restaurant on a crowded street in Sierra Leone's hilly capital of Freetown: a sign that instructs all patrons to wash their hands in the buckets of chlorinated water positioned outside. "I don't allow anybody inside if they don't wash your hands. We're all trying to protect ourselves from Ebola one way or another," said the 55-year old, who put the sign up after learning that the country's top Ebola doctor had died on Tuesday.

Over in neighbouring Liberia, residents in the capital Monrovia have also been placing "Ebola buckets" outside offices, restaurants and homes. In Guinea, the prices of hand sanitiser and rubber gloves have soared.

Initially focusing battling misinformation and mistrust, the effort to curb the world's biggest outbreak of Ebola, now spread across three nations, has shifted its emphasis to treating the number of cases coming forward, and finding those who have come into contact with victims of the highly contagious virus.

As Sierra Leone and Liberia declared states of emergency this week, a summit between the presidents of all three countries and the World Health Organisation underlined a renewed sense of urgency over the largest ever epidemic of the disease, which has so far claimed 729 lives.


Comment: Another 1,300 are infected and the rate of infection is going up. This outbreak is unlike any previous outbreak of Ebola, and there is evidence that's it's being transmitted via the air.


Comment: Eerily similar to the black death, and they're bringing two infected Americans back to the states.....