A Day To Remember

Tuesday 20 January 2009

The day that the Internet slowed to its slowest, the day that the Google Blog service was not available, the day that Twitter was so busy, it couldn’t cope …

I am guessing that all this is caused by an awful lot of people using the Internet an awful lot more because of the Inauguration of Barak Obama.

Oh well, I suppose Pres. Obama cannot be blamed.  However, I do think that, with his country in an economic mess, together with the rest of the world, he could have cut back a little on the celebrations.

I wonder how much this presidential election has cost in total?

I hope it proves to have been worth it.

Why drugs are so expensive

From Daily Nation 12/1/09

The majority of Kenyans cannot afford essential medicines mainly because of unreasonably high profit margins being enjoyed by manufacturers, according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report published last month in The Lancet.

In a study involving 36 developing and middle-income countries, including Kenya, WHO says manufacturers are making mark-ups of more than 380 per cent. Retailers are said to be making mark-ups of more than 550 per cent.

Drug manufacturers also try to suppress any cheaper or alternative drugs, as these will obviously cut into their profits.

Many drugs are produced by copying natural products (e.g. aspirin) which have been in use for centuries. But the developed world has forgotten how to use natural herbs and plants to cure their ills.

I have been introduced to a product that supposedly cures malaria. A sufferer can usually be on their feet and feeling fine within 24 hours.

But apparently, this product is being suppressed by the FDA. Why? Probably because the drug companies making the recognised cures would lose a lot of money if it were allowed to be introduced into the world market.

And yet, the economies of many African, South American and Asian countries are blighted by workers taking time off because they have contracted malaria.

In Kenya, the treatment costs 2000/-, about £17 UK. As many workers earn only £1 a day (115/-) or less, how do they get  treatment?

I am not saying that this product works. I don’t know. I have seen the written results of trials carried out in various countries, but these were not, on the whole, scientifically controlled, because they had to be carried out “under the radar”.

I would very much like the WHO or the Health Ministry of Kenya to invite me to carry out trials of this product. If it does not work, we have lost very little, but if it does?

A dose of this product would cost about 60/-, which is affordable, even to the poorest of people.

Anyone in the Health Service or WHO Malaria Control in Kenya want to help me to find out if this product works?

If not, I guess the drug cartels have won!

What next … ?

The British economy is on the verge of collapse, the pound is so weak it is in a oxygen tent, [ "A weak currency is the sign of a weak economy, which is the sign of a weak government." ~ Gordon Brown when he was in opposition, in 1995], Jack Straw’s new Justice Department spends £131m on an office re-fit, Transport has just wasted £81m on a worthless IT system, worthless not least because it spouts out information in German! It was supposed to save the taxpayer £54m – whoops!

What else could go wrong? Well the Chancellor of the Exchequer has just announced will emphasise new efficiency savings he intends to achieve in Whitehall budgets, worth at least £5 billion a year from 2010 onwards.

Officials are drawing up plans for a sale of government assets including the Met Office, the Ordnance Survey and thousands of acres of Forestry Commission land.

The chancellor will say that the public sector will have to take the strain of getting government borrowing back down by cutting spending growth below the 1.8% a year currently in the plans for the medium term.

Judging the Government on their present performance, how much is this going to cost us, the taxpayers?

They are still at it … again

Our local superstore, beginning with T, has had Christmas fare on sale for a couple or three weeks now. How sickening is that?

And now I see that Disney Paris is advertising that Father Christmas will be in residence from early November. Fine, but who is going to be at the North Pole making all the toys?

On another tack, another major supermarket, not beginning with T, is helping their customers, during this financial crisis by cutting prices and making special offers – on alcohol!

Now, I may be old-fashioned, but when money is short, I would have thought that alcohol is the last thing on the shopping list, beneath stuff like … food.
On top of this, the UK is going through a binge-drinking crisis, so cutting the price on booze at any time, let alone during a “credit crunch” is, to say the least, bizarre.

Or is it just me …?