Érase Una Vez ....

.... when I was a child and through my teenage years, during the 50s and 60s, making New Year's resolutions was a really big deal. Everyone always asked, “What resolutions have you made for the new year?”

In those days, folks usually said something like they were going to try to quit smoking, not drink so much (very seldom did they say stop drinking altogether!), losing weight wasn't such a big deal back then but, that one came up as well.

Most resolutions related to a form of physical self improvement. I can't say I remember very many proclamations having to do with more spiritually emotional things like saying a kind word when it was sensed someone needed one, helping someone who didn't ask for help, in general, trying to generate positive 'vibes', as we used to say back in the 60s.

Many view the beginning of the new year with a sense of renewed hope, that all that went bad in the past year can and will be reversed or the damage blunted by equally good or positive happenings.

In order for this balance to occur, spiritual work must be done to help attain the desired outcome, evidenced by actions in harmony with the stated word.

We must all do our best to live our lives as examples for future generations to follow, most importantly those of us that count ourselves among the elders, striving to provide a beacon of light for those who seem to have lost their moral compass, succumbing to misguided and hedonistic value systems, caring for no one other than themselves.

I'll always remember the childlike simplicity of the lines uttered by a minor character in the film Forrest Gump, about a mentally challenged man who manages to live his life to the fullest while respecting all with whom he came in contact.

The woman, a person of questionable character, standing in a bar full of New Year's revelers as they watched the New Year festivities unfold on television, appears to address no one in particular, musing, “ Don't you just love New Years? You can start all over. Everyone deserves a second chance”, lines written that embody the stuff of which fairy tales are made.

We all could use a second chance but, it's been my life's experience, most often that you only get one chance to get things right, so you have to strive to get it right that first time. If one is granted a second chance, do not be heedless of the magnitude of the gift and squander such a precious event.

Always pursue wisdom as you live your life seeking the Creator's countenance, engaging only in noble efforts of pursuit in which the achievement of the sought for goals will bring honor to you and all those who have also learned to travel this plane of existence striving to attain excellence.

There is a time, before life teaches it's lesson, that it seems possible for innumerable second chances, limitless 'do overs'. When the lesson is learned and reality looms large that as life's opportunities evade one's grasp, that time that seemed so fluid and boundless in youth, reveals it's finite construct, the life student is often left with a twinge of regret and a lament, preceded by the language of the fairy tale, érase una vez, once upon a time.

My best wishes to all for a New Year full of the bounty of reward for good works.

Kwanzaa

Dr. Ron Maulana Karenga, of the US Organization, termed United Slaves by the Black Panthers, was targeted along with the Black Panthers and many other organizations during the operation known as COINTELPRO, the Counterintelligence Program.

This specific phase of attack, instituted and directed by the FBI from 1956 through 1972, it has been characterized by some as the most disruptive and violent period of activity directed against United States citizens by their own government.

Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) have revealed that under J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, within the Black community, COINTELPRO was meant to “....prevent the rise of a Black messiah.” To this end, the FBI waged a campaign meant to crush any Black organization or leadership it decided represented an internal threat.

Among the forms of attack used against US Organization and many others was disinformation meant to disrupt cohesion and the ability of Black organizations to unite in true solidarity among themselves.

The FBI exploited the apparent animosity between the Panthers and US, forging letters and sending them to each group, with the FBI signing all the letters in the name of the opposing targeted group, provoking an escalation of violent actions, resulting in a shootout in 1969.

In 1971, Dr. Karenga and others were convicted of charges resulting from torture, to which two female members of the US Organization testified. He was sentenced to 1 to 10 years in prison for felonious assault and false imprisonment.

In 1966, Dr. Karenga established an African American holiday, which he named Kwanzaa, taken from the Swahili word, kwanza, meaning first fruits.

The holiday embraces seven principles, in Kiswahili, the Nguzo Saba. The seven principles are:

Unity
Self determination
Collective work and responsibility
Collective economics
Purpose
Creativity
Faith

Dr.Karenga, at the official Kwanzaa website states, regarding the Values of Kwanzaa:

There is no way to understand and appreciate the meaning and message of Kwanzaa without understanding and appreciating its profound and pervasive concern with values.

In fact, Kwanzaa's reason for existence, its length of seven days, its core focus and its foundation are all rooted in its concern with values. Kwanzaa inherits this value concern and focus from Kawaida, the African philosophical framework in which it was created.

Kawaida philosophy is a communitarian African philosophy which is an ongoing synthesis of the best of African thought and practice in constant exchange with the world.Kawaida theory is explained in a book, Kawaida Theory: An African Communitarian Philosophy, written by Dr. Karenga.

Kwanzaa was established as a cultural not religious holiday. In the past, celebration of the holiday has emphasized an affinity with the need for African Americans to reach back and claim our African roots and heritage through the celebration of the seven African principles. It has been embraced by untold numbers within the so called African American community.

However, in 1997, during the unveiling of the Kwanzaa postage stamp, commissioned by the United States Postal Service that acknowledged the holiday, Dr. Karenga stated that all should:

".... respect, celebrate, and build on the rich resources of its diversity of peoples and cultures, to see [themselves] as an ongoing multicultural project to create a truly just and good society ; and to embrace an ethics of sharing—shared space, shared wealth, shared power, and shared responsibility of all peoples—African, Native American, Latino, Asian, and European—to conceive and build the world they want to live in."

As of ten years ago, the founder and creator of Kwanzaa appears to have rethought the celebration of Kwanzaa, in what many have characterized as a reversal of the major reason and call for and to Black people in American for the celebration of the holiday, that being its unique appeal to those seeking a new African cultural expression of African identity.

At this point in time, it is best that the spirit and focus of Kwanzaa, exemplified by the Nguzo Saba, the seven principles of Kwanzaa: Unity, Self determination, Collective work and responsibility, Collective economics, Purpose, Creativity and Faith, as Queen Mother Imakhu has said for quite some time, that these principles be embraced and incorporated into our every day lives as life principles.

As has always been, the celebration of the holiday of Kwanzaa remains a choice to made by individuals and their families.

Health and Safety Versus Profit

Throughout modern history, world governments and private industry have aligned themselves as partners. Governments and private industry never approach any endeavor for altruistic reasons.

Governmental actions may be predicated by a variety of statements citing various concerns but, power and control are the outcome desired from any alliance. For private industry, profit is the main motivation. For both of these entities, financial capital or money enables wielding of influence and power.

The Office of Legislative Policy and Analysis (OLPA), as identified at its website, is an organization that:

.... facilitates and enhances the relationship between (the) National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Congress; advances NIH legislative priorities; and ensures that the NIH community receives essential information, advice, and guidance regarding developments in the Congress that affect NIH.

At the OLPA web site, Senate bill S. 1873 was listed as a bill of interest to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This bill has been replaced by Senate bill S. 2563, submitted with minor revisions. Senate bill S. 1873, known as the Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005 and was introduced on October 17, 2005.

An excerpt from the Alliance for Human Research Protection (AHRP), provides an analysis of S. 1873:

Any vaccine or drug used during a public health emergency, the declaration of which is solely determined and defined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), and even if contaminated during manufacturing or distribution, as is often the case,[6] [7] is exempt from a liability trial by jury.
[Sec. 6(b)(1)(A)(i)] of S 1873 reads:

IN GENERAL- No cause of action shall exist against a person described in subsection (a) for claims for loss of property, personal injury, or death arising out of, reasonably relating to, or resulting from the design, development, clinical testing and investigation, manufacture, labeling, distribution, sale, purchase, donation, dispensing, prescribing, administration, or use of a security countermeasure or qualified pandemic or epidemic product distributed, sold, purchased, donated, dispensed, prescribed, administered, or used in anticipation of and preparation for, in defense against, or in response to, or recovery from an actual or potential public health emergency that is a designated security countermeasure or a qualified pandemic or epidemic product by the Secretary in a declaration described in paragraph (2).

Senate bill S. 2563, replacing Senate bill S. 1873, is now known as the Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2006, introduced in April 2006. As was the case under the previous bill, there will be an agency created called Biomedical Advanced Research Development Agency (BARDA).

Biomedical Advanced Research Development Agency (BARDA) will be the first-ever government agency granted total immunity from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), as one form of incentive to assist and encourage private industry in developing products to be used as countermeasures to a possible pandemic or terrorist act.

BARDA, created as a result of the Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act, initially slated to have an expenditure of $1 billion set aside, will exist with accounting for the use of its funding shielded from disclosure.

In addition, the bill allows: a fast-track approach to release of vaccines and medicines for use on the public, protection of the pharmaceutical companies from prosecution due to any possible harm or fatal results of vaccines or medicines distributed and provides anonymity for members of the advisory board that approves the use of any drugs dispensed to the public.

On November 1-3, 2005, the Time Global Health Summit was held in New York City, N.Y. This conference brought together leaders from business, medicine, government, public policy and others, to discuss health crises affecting the world.

A new funding strategy, that partners pharmaceutical companies with private industry, has emerged with foundations and organizations being funded by private individuals and in turn incorporating hospitals and universities, with all entities becoming linked through liaison or direct organizational ties to the drug companies.

All of the above mentioned entities exist with ties to numerous agencies under the auspices of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), with both of these agencies under the control of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

The CDC is a collaborator and partner with the World Health Organization (WHO), whose stated goal is, “...the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health.”

On May 22 through 27, 2006 in Geneva, Switzerland, the WHO opened its 59th session of the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body for WHO. Delegates from the 192 Member States of WHO were scheduled to be in attendance.

The major function of the World Health Assembly is to determine the policies of the organization. A significant item of focus on the 2006 agenda was strengthening pandemic-influenza preparedness and response.

At the WHO web site, from Media Release Centre, dated May 19, 2006:

The World Health Organization (WHO) is urging research institutions and companies to register all medical studies that test treatments on human beings, including the earliest studies, whether they involve patients or healthy volunteers.

As part of the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, a major initiative aimed at standardizing the way information on medical studies is made available to the public through a process called registration, WHO is also recommending that 20 key details be disclosed at the time studies are begun.

This release, at the WHO web site, also states that groups such as the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations and Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America, in a joint statement with fellow members of the industry, have raised concerns that these proposed requirements could, in their view, “ .... jeopardize academic or commercial competitive advantage if they apply to preliminary trials of new interventions.”

We, the people of the world, must demand regulations and practices that ensure our safety as the calculated introduction of rapidly developed drugs increases, with ongoing medical and genetic research in progress and future projects poised on the horizon. These series of events are aided by legislation and policies being introduced and enacted that will govern these processes, with a heightened concern for encouraging private industry's participation through promised cost saving methodologies and profit.

We, as patients in need of medical expertise and as consumers, should not be lulled into a false sense of security, deciding that we should leave these matters to others to act on our behalf. We must act against any and all proposed scenarios where those who may be responsible for causing harm and fatalities, are allowed to step off the path of accountability and become cloaked in a bureaucratic web of invisibility.