(Subjects: Religion/Worship, Lightworkers, Food, Health, Prescription Drugs, Homeopathy, Innate (Body intelligence), New Age movement, Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text version)

“…… Should I use Doctors and Drugs to Heal Me or Spiritual Methods?

"Dear Kryon, I have heard that you should stay natural and not use the science on the planet for healing. It does not honor God to go to a doctor. After all, don't you say that we can heal with our minds? So why should we ever go to a doctor if we can do it ourselves? Not only that, my doctor isn't enlightened, so he has no idea about my innate or my spiritual body needs. What should I do?"

First, Human Being, why do you wish to put so many things in boxes? You continue to want a yes and no answer for complex situations due to your 3D, linear outlook on almost everything. Learn to think out of the 3D box! Look at the heading of this section [above]. It asks which one should you do. It already assumes you can't do both because they seem dichotomous.

Let's use some spiritual logic: Here is a hypothetical answer, "Don't go to a doctor, for you can heal everything with your mind." So now I will ask: How many of you can do that in this room right now? How many readers can do that with efficiency right now? All of you are old souls, but are you really ready to do that? Do you know how? Do you have really good results with it? Can you rid disease and chemical imbalance with your mind right now?

I'm going to give you a truth, whether you choose to see it or not. You're not ready for that! You are not yet prepared to take on the task of full healing using your spiritual tools. Lemurians could do that, because Pleiadians taught them how! It's one of the promises of God, that there'll come a day when your DNA works that efficiently and you will be able to walk away from drug chemistry and the medical industry forever, for you'll have the creator's energy working at 100 percent, something you saw within the great masters who walked the earth.

This will be possible within the ascended earth that you are looking forward to, dear one. Have you seen the news lately? Look out the window. Is that where you are now? We are telling you that the energy is going in that direction, but you are not there yet.

Let those who feel that they can heal themselves begin the process of learning how. Many will be appreciative of the fact that you have some of the gifts for this now. Let the process begin, but don't think for a moment that you have arrived at a place where every health issue can be healed with your own power. You are students of a grand process that eventually will be yours if you wish to begin the quantum process of talking to your cells. Some will be good at this, and some will just be planting the seeds of it.

Now, I would like to tell you how Spirit works and the potentials of what's going to happen in the next few years. We're going to give the doctors of the planet new inventions and new science. These will be major discoveries about the Human body and of the quantum attributes therein.

Look at what has already happened, for some of this science has already been given to you and you are actually using it. Imagine a science that would allow the heart to be transplanted because the one you have is failing. Of course! It's an operation done many times a month on this planet. That information came from the creator, did you realize that? It didn't drop off the shelf of some dark energy library to be used in evil ways.

So, if you need a new heart, Lightworker, should you go to the doctor or create one with your mind? Until you feel comfortable that you can replace your heart with a new one by yourself, then you might consider using the God-given information that is in the hands of the surgeon. For it will save your life, and create a situation where you stay and continue to send your light to the earth! Do you see what we're saying?

You can also alter that which is medicine [drugs] and begin a process that is spectacular in its design, but not very 3D. I challenge you to begin to use what I would call the homeopathic principle with major drugs. If some of you are taking major drugs in order to alter your chemistry so that you can live better and longer, you might feel you have no choice. "Well, this is keeping me alive," you might say. "I don't yet have the ability to do this with my consciousness, so I take the drugs."

In this new energy, there is something else that you can try if you are in this category. Do the following with safety, intelligence, common sense and logic. Here is the challenge: The principle of homeopathy is that an almost invisible tincture of a substance is ingested and is seen by your innate. Innate "sees" what you are trying to do and then adjusts the body's chemistry in response. Therefore, you might say that you are sending the body a "signal for balance." The actual tincture is not large enough to affect anything chemically - yet it works!

The body [innate] sees what you're trying to do and then cooperates. In a sense, you might say the body is healing itself because you were able to give it instructions through the homeopathic substance of what to do. So, why not do it with a major drug? Start reducing the dosage and start talking to your cells, and see what happens. If you're not successful, then stop the reduction. However, to your own amazement, you may often be successful over time.

You might be able to take the dosage that you're used to and cut it to at least a quarter of what it was. It is the homeopathy principle and it allows you to keep the purpose of the drug, but reduce it to a fraction of a common 3D dosage. You're still taking it internally, but now it's also signaling in addition to working chemically. The signal is sent, the body cooperates, and you reduce the chance of side effects.

You can't put things in boxes of yes or no when it comes to the grand system of Spirit. You can instead use spiritual logic and see the things that God has given you on the planet within the inventions and processes. Have an operation, save your life, and stand and say, "Thank you, God, for this and for my being born where these things are possible." It's a complicated subject, is it not? Each of you is so different! You'll know what to do, dear one. Never stress over that decision, because your innate will tell you what is appropriate for you if you're willing to listen. ….”

Monsanto / GMO - Global Health


(Subjects: Big pharma [the drug companies of America] are going to have to change very soon or collapse. When you have an industry that keeps people sick for money, it cannot survive in the new consciousness., Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text version)
"Recalibration of Free Choice"– Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Lose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth, 4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Pedal wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical) 8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)
"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)
"THE BRIDGE OF SWORDS" – Sep 29, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: ... I'm in Canada and I know it, but I will tell those listening and reading in the American audience the following: Get ready! Because there are some institutions that are yet to fall, ones that don't have integrity and that could never be helped with a bail out. Again, we tell you the biggest one is big pharma, and we told you that before. It's inevitable. If not now, then in a decade. It's inevitable and they will fight to stay alive and they will not be crossing the bridge. For on the other side of the bridge is a new way, not just for medicine but for care. ....) - (Text Version)

Pharmaceutical Fraud / Corruption cases

Health Care

Health Care
Happy birthday to Percy Julian, a pioneer in plant-drug synthesis. His research produced steroids like cortisone. (11 April 2014)
Showing posts with label Apology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apology. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Monsanto ordered to pay $2 bn in latest Roundup blow

Yahoo – AFP, Glenn CHAPMAN, May 14, 2019
Monsanto has suffered the latest in a series of court defeats for its glyphosate-based
weedkiller Roundup, which the company insists is not linked to cancer (AFP Photo/
JOSH EDELSON)

 San Francisco (AFP) - In a third major legal blow to Bayer-owned Monsanto and its weedkiller Roundup, a jury in California has ordered the chemicals giant to pay more than $2 billion in damages to a couple that sued on grounds the product caused their cancer, lawyers said.

The ruling on Monday was the latest in a series of court defeats for Monsanto over the glyphosate-based product, but the company insists the weedkiller is not linked to cancer.

The couple's legal team described the damages award as "historic," saying it totalled $2.055 billion (1.8 billion euros) after adding in slightly more than $55 million in compensatory damages.

"The jury saw for themselves internal company documents demonstrating that, from day one, Monsanto has never had any interest in finding out whether Roundup is safe," said plaintiff's counsel Brent Wisner.

"Instead of investing in sound science, they invested millions in attacking science that threatened their business agenda."

The setback sent Bayer's shares tumbling 2.55 percent to 55 euros in Frankfurt in mid-morning trading on Tuesday.

The German chemicals giant has seen close to 45 percent of its market capitalisation evaporate since it bought Monsanto in June 2018 for $63 billion.
Bayer finalised its massive acquisition of Monsanto last year, but the blockbuster
purchase has turned out to be plagued with other massive costs (AFP Photo/
Odd ANDERSEN)

 In a statement, Bayer said it was disappointed with the jury's decision and would appeal the verdict, which it argues was at odds with a recent US Environmental Protection Agency review of glyphosate-based weedkillers.

"The consensus among leading health regulators worldwide is that glyphosate-based products can be used safely and that glyphosate is not carcinogenic," Bayer said.

Bayer apologises

Glyphosate developer Monsanto was convicted in the United States in 2018 and 2019 of not taking necessary steps to warn of the potential risks of Roundup -- their weedkiller containing the chemical, which two California juries found caused cancer in two users.

Bayer announced last month that more than 13,000 lawsuits related to the weedkiller had been launched in the US.

Monday's stunning verdict came as Bayer admitted that its subsidiary Monsanto kept lists of high-profile people -- for or against pesticides -- in France and likely other European countries.

Bayer apologised on Sunday after it emerged that Monsanto had a PR agency collate lists of French politicians, scientists and journalists, with their views on pesticides and GM crops.

French authorities have opened a preliminary inquiry into the claims.

"It is clear that we apologise for what has come to light in France," Matthias Berninger, Bayer's head of public affairs, told journalists in a conference call.
Bayer has said that more than 13,000 lawsuits related to its 
glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup have been launched in the 
US (AFP Photo/Alain BOMMENEL, Laurence SAUBADU, Kun TIAN)

 But he admitted that "it's very likely that such lists also exist in other European countries."

"We consider what we have seen so far to be completely inappropriate," he said.

"We were of the opinion that the reports of these dealings with journalists, politicians and activists are not in order and not in agreement with what Bayer stands for."

Hidden costs

The German agro-chemicals and drugs giant finalised its massive acquisition of Monsanto last year, but the blockbuster purchase has turned out to be plagued with other massive costs.

Just two months after the acquisition was completed, Monsanto lost a case to a school groundskeeper suffering from terminal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He had sued the company over the glyphosate weedkillers Roundup and Ranger Pro.

Monsanto was initially ordered to pay $289 million to the groundskeeper, before the damages were reduced to $78.5 million.

In March, the company lost another case to an American retiree who blames his cancer on the weedkiller, and was ordered by a court to pay $80 million to the plaintiff.

Bayer is appealing both cases.

Posted by Cempaka at Wednesday, May 15, 2019 0 comments
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Thursday, April 25, 2019

Japan's sterilised 'eugenics' victims to get payout

Yahoo – AFP, April 24, 2019

Victims of Japan's 'eugenics' programme complain the compensation offered
is not enough (AFP Photo/Toshifumi KITAMURA)

 Thousands of Japanese people -- some as young as nine -- forcibly sterilised under now-defunct eugenics laws, will receive government compensation after lawmakers passed historic legislation on Wednesday.

Following the unanimous vote, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe voiced "sincere regret" and said the government "apologised wholeheartedly" over the notorious policy.

Some 16,500 mentally disabled people were sterilised without their consent under the law that remained in force until 1996, according to health ministry data.

Each victim will receive 3.2 million yen ($29,000) under the measures passed on Wednesday -- an amount derided by campaigners as "failing to meet the seriousness" of the damage suffered.

The issue hit the headlines last year after a Japanese woman, now in her 60s, sued the government over a sterilisation operation carried out in 1972 after she was diagnosed with a mental disability.

Lawyers and campaigners have long criticised the government and parliament for failing to compensate victims long after the eugenics law was abandoned in 1996.

About 20 victims have so far filed lawsuits across the country seeking compensation of up to 38 million yen.

The first verdict over the issue will be announced on May 28, and plaintiffs' lawyers have vowed to seek compensation they say matches the gravity of the harm suffered.

"It is understandable that lawmakers have been hurrying to enact the law to pay one-off compensation to ageing victims," lawyers said in a statement before the legislation was passed.

But without sufficient compensation, it is not a "true solution to the issue," they charged.

Tokyo has pledged to pay the compensation "swiftly" but the government will likely continue to battle in court against victims claiming more.

Germany and Sweden had similar eugenics laws and governments there have also apologised and paid compensation to the victims.

Under Japan's law, some leprosy patients were also forced into abortions under policies that forbade them from having children.

In 2005, a Japanese court for the first time ordered the state to pay damages to a former leprosy sufferer affected by this law.
Posted by Cempaka at Thursday, April 25, 2019 0 comments
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Sunday, January 6, 2019

Bristol-Myers to face suit over US syphilis experiment in Guatemala

Yahoo – AFP, January 5, 2019
Bristol-Myers Squibb is among those ordered by a US judge to face a $1 billion
lawsuit launched in 2015 by 774 Guatemalan victims and relatives over an expriment
in 1940s which aimed to find out if penicillin could be used to prevent STDs (AFP
Photo/GEORGES GOBET)

 Washington (AFP) - A US federal judge has ruled pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johns Hopkins University and the Rockefeller Foundation must face a $1 billion lawsuit over their roles in a 1940s medical experiment that saw hundreds of Guatemalans infected with syphilis.

774 Guatemalan victims and relatives in 2015 launched a civil suit over the US-led experiment, which aimed to find out if penicillin could be used to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.

They claimed the experiment "subjected them or their family members to medical experiments in Guatemala without their knowledge or consent during the 1940s and 1950s."

US District Judge Theodore Chuang rejected arguments from the defense that a recent Supreme Court decision protecting foreign companies from US lawsuits over human rights abuses abroad also applied to domestic firms.

The judge said allowing the case to move forward would "promote harmony" by giving the foreign plaintiffs the opportunity to seek justice in US courts.

The unethical experiment was revealed by Doctor Susan Reverby, a professor at Wellesley College in the US.

She came across the work while researching notes left by John Charles Cutler, a public health services sexual disease specialist who headed up the experiment, following his death in 2003.

Cutler and his fellow researchers enrolled soldiers, mental patients, prostitutes, convicts and others in Guatemala for the study.

Former US president Barack Obama apologized for the experiments in 2010, while his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the experiments as "clearly unethical."
Posted by Cempaka at Sunday, January 06, 2019 0 comments
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Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Walmart in Beijing apologizes for relabeling old meat

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-03-24

A closed Walmart store in Hangzhou, April 22, 2014. (Photo/Xinhua)

 A Walmart store in Beijing will fully refund customers who bought raw meat products within 14 days if the product was not fresh, reports the Chinese-language Beijing Times, which had discovered the store had been putting new labels on unsold meat each morning. Some of the meat had clearly gone bad as it was discolored and had a bad odor.

Walmart said following the revelations that it will cooperate with a local government investigations and also activate its internal investigation mechanism. It also said it will also take measures against employees found responsible.

A Beijing Times reported who visited a Walmart in the city's Qinghe area discovered earlier this month that store employees would stick a new label with a later expiry date on packs of unsold raw meat from the day before at around 6 am each day and put them back on the shelf.

Questioned by the reporter, the employee said customers want fresh meat and that if the label is changed, the meat is considered fresh and from that day. It will only be "recycled" when the meat turns black or when it starts to smell bad, the report said.

The reporter also found that cuts of expired raw meat were rearranged into new packs, while raw meat that had started to smell strange would be ground into dumpling stuffing for sale.

The Beijing Times also reported that sanitary conditions did not meet required standards, as the meat was not properly washed and the fridges were merely sprayed with hot water during cleaning.

Walmart issued a statement of apology and promised to look into the claims.
Related Article:

Dutch meat trader at centre of horse scandal faces five years in jail

Posted by Cempaka at Wednesday, March 25, 2015 0 comments
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Friday, September 19, 2014

Drugmaker GSK fined $490 mn in China graft probe

Yahoo – AFP, Felicia Sonmez, 19 Sep 2014

A GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) employee enters their office headquarters
in Shanghai on July 1, 2013

 Beijing (AFP) - A Chinese court on Friday fined British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline 3.0 billion yuan ($490 million) following a nearly year-long bribery probe, the company said.

The firm's former head of China operations, Mark Reilly who would be deported, and four other ex-officials were given suspended sentences of between two and four years in prison, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The fine levied by the Changsha Intermediate People's Court after a closed hearing in central Hunan province was the largest ever handed down by a Chinese court, according to Xinhua.

GlaxoSmithKline global headquarters in
 west London on July 29, 2013 (AFP Photo/
Ben Stansall)
It equals the precise amount that China's ministry of public security said last year had been funnelled between GSK and travel agencies since 2007.

Police allege that GSK took kickbacks from travel agencies to organise conferences that never took place.

The company also "resorted to bribery to boost sales of its medical products and sought benefits in an unfair manner," the court said in a statement, according to Xinhua.

"GSK bribed, in various forms, people working in medical institutions across the country, and the amount of money involved was huge. Five senior executives actively organized, pushed forward and implemented sales with bribery," the court statement added.

The firm said in a statement that the court had found it guilty of "bribing non-government personnel".

'Clear breach' of governance

In an apology posted on its website, GSK said that the illegal activities of the firm's China arm "are a clear breach of GSK plc's governance and compliance procedures; and are wholly contrary to the values and standards we expect from our employees".

The firm "must work hard to regain the trust of the Chinese people", it added.

According to Xinhua, Reilly was given three years in prison but will receive a four-year reprieve and be "expelled" from China. It did not provide further details.

Three other GSK officials -- former human resources director Zhang Guowei, former vice president Liang Hong and former legal affairs director Zhao Hongyan -- received sentences and reprieves of two to three years, Xinhua said.

The firm's former general manager for business development, Huang Hong, was found guilty of "bribing and receiving bribes" and received a sentence of three years, which will be suspended for four years, according to Xinhua.

The court decided to reduce the jail sentences for the five "since they confessed the facts truthfully and were considered to have given themselves up," Xinhua reported.

After being detained by Chinese authorities last year, Huang was quoted in state media as saying that GSK had set up a special team to handle important clients which had an annual "relations" budget of nearly 10 million yuan ($1.6 million).

Sales growth targets set by the firm as high as 25 percent put pressure on employees, Xinhua quoted Huang as saying.

Neither the statement nor the apology mentioned the sentencing of Reilly or other officials.

Peter Humphrey (2nd left) at the Number One People's Intermediate Court
in Shanghai on August 8, 2014 (AFP Photo/People's Intermediate Court)

The verdict comes more than a year after Chinese police first accused Reilly of ordering employees to bribe hospitals, doctors and health institutions to gain billions of dollars in revenue.

China's healthcare sector is widely considered to be riddled with graft, partly the result of an opaque tendering system for drugs, and also due to doctors' low salaries.

GSK is the most high-profile target of wide-ranging Chinese inquiries into foreign pharmaceutical firms, as Beijing also mounts probes into overseas companies in sectors ranging from cars to baby milk.

The investigations come against the backdrop of an anti-graft campaign backed by President Xi Jinping to root out official corruption.

Reilly is not the only non-Chinese national to have been ensnared in the probe.

Last month, a Shanghai court sentenced British investigator Peter Humphrey and his American wife Yu Yingzeng to two-and-a-half years in jail for breaching privacy laws.

The investigators had been hired by GSK to investigate the source of a lurid sex tape of Reilly shortly before the probe went public.
Related Articles:



Posted by Cempaka at Friday, September 19, 2014 0 comments
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Sunday, September 14, 2014

Minister willing to take responsibility for scandal: Taiwan's premier

Want China Times, CNA 2014-09-14
Health and Welfare minister Chiu Wen-ta during a press conference, Sept. 5.
(File photo/CNA)

 Taiwan's premier Jiang Yi-huah said Saturday that Health and Welfare minister Chiu Wen-ta has expressed his willingness to take responsibility for a snowballing food safety scandal but that now was not the time to discuss personnel changes.

Jiang said during a visit to Pingtung county that Chiu told him he wanted to apologize to the public and was willing to take any responsibility he had to assume for the scandal, which involves cooking oil made from questionable ingredients getting into the food chain.

With food safety concerns yet to subside, Jiang said it was not the right time to talk about adjustments to personnel involved in food safety.

Jiang said the most important task at present was to pull products containing substandard oils made by oil supplier Chang Guann from store shelves.

Carrying out reforms on related systems and assessing who should be held responsible for the incident will be left to the next phase of the process, he said.

Chang Guann, the company at the heart of the oil scandal, was found to be producing lard-based cooking oils made with putrid kitchen waste and industrial waste by-products or lard for use in animal feed imported from Hong Kong.

Chang Guann chairman Yeh Wen-hsiang was detained by prosecutors early Saturday, while government agencies continue to track the companies that used the company's oils and the products made with them.

More than 1,000 food manufacturers and restaurants are said to have used the questionable oils from Chang Guann in their products.

Health minister Chiu, meanwhile, was quoted by his aide as saying on Saturday that he had no time to think about resigning for the time being because he was busy handling the aftermath of the substandard oil mess.

But Chiu said he would not shirk any responsibility that fell his way, his aide added.

Also Saturday, Executive Yuan spokesman Sun Lih-chyun said Chiu expressed his willingness to take responsibility for the food scare during the regular weekly cabinet meeting last week, but noted that the issue was not discussed during the meeting.

On Friday, several lawmakers urged Chiu to step down to take responsibility for what they see as his poor handling of the food safety scare.
Yeh Wen-hsiang apologizes for the oil scandal, Sept. 11. (Photo/CNA)

Kuo Lieh-cheng covers his face with a hat as 
he rushes into Pingtung District Court, Sept. 6.
(Photo/Lin Ho-sheng)



Posted by Cempaka at Sunday, September 14, 2014 0 comments
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Saturday, September 6, 2014

235 firms in Taiwan affected by recycled oil scandal

Want China Times, CNA 2014-09-06

Empty supermarket shelves from which affected products have
been removed. (Photo/Chi Chih-hsiang)

At least 235 Taiwanese food companies and restaurants have used the suspect lard-based oil brand made with recycled kitchen waste, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Friday.

An investigation found that Kaohsiung-based Chang Guann Company has supplied 51,981 18-liter cans of its "Chuan Tung" cooking oil to companies across Taiwan, according to FDA chief Yeh Ming-kung.

This has affected well-known companies such as Triko Foods Company, Ve Wong Corporation, Taiwan Sugar Corporation, the Mei & Mei restaurant chain, WHM Company, the Yu Jen Jai pastry shop, Chi Mei Frozen Food Company, Hawdii and Kong Yen Foods Company.

Wei Chuan Foods Corporation, another customer of Chang Guann and a major player in the industry, has already recalled 12 products including its popular canned pork fiber and meat paste immediately following the revelations on Thursday.

According to Chang Guann, the oil was sourced between February and August by an individual named Kuo Lieh-cheng, who allegedly worked with five others to use a phony waste processing company as a front to collect oils meant to be recycled for uses other than human consumption.

Chang Guann allegedly bought 242 tonnes of oils provided by Kuo and turned them into 782 tonnes of products sold as lard-based oils.

Kuo, now facing prosecution, is believed to have gone so far as to collect grease by-products from leather processing plants to market as edible oils.
Yeh Wen-hsiang apologizes for the oil scandal, Sept. 11. (Photo/CNA)

Kuo Lieh-cheng covers his face with a hat as 
he rushes into Pingtung District Court, Sept. 6.
(Photo/Lin Ho-sheng)


Posted by Cempaka at Saturday, September 06, 2014 0 comments
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Friday, August 22, 2014

Richard Dawkins apologises for causing storm with Down's syndrome tweet

Author told woman on Twitter it would be immoral not to abort pregnancy if she knew baby had Down's syndrome

The Guardian, Press Association, Thursday 21 August 2014

Richard Dawkins responded to a woman querying a possible Down's syndrome
 pregnancy: 'Abort it and try again. It would be immoral to bring it into the world
if you have the choice.' Photograph: Murdo Macleod

 Richard Dawkins has apologised for the "feeding frenzy" triggered by his tweet claiming it would be immoral to carry on with a pregnancy if the mother knew the foetus had Down's syndrome.

The geneticist's latest Twitter row broke out after he responded to another user who said she would be faced with "a real ethical dilemma" if she became pregnant with a baby with Down's syndrome.

Dawkins tweeted: "Abort it and try again. It would be immoral to bring it into the world if you have the choice."

In a fuller explanation on his website – entitled Abortion & Down Syndrome: Apology for Letting Slip the Dogs of Twitterwar – the author tried to set the record straight.

He wrote: "To conclude, what I was saying simply follows logically from the ordinary pro-choice stance that most of us, I presume, espouse. My phraseology may have been tactlessly vulnerable to misunderstanding, but I can't help feeling that at least half the problem lies in a wanton eagerness to misunderstand."

The backlash for his comment had included one mother, who has a child with the genetic condition, saying: "I would fight until my last breath for the life of my son. No dilemma" while Dawkins said accusations of "Nazism, vile, monstrous fascistic callousness" and "fireballs of hatred" had been hurled his way.

He wrote: "If your morality is based, as mine is, on a desire to increase the sum of happiness and reduce suffering, the decision to deliberately give birth to a Down's baby, when you have the choice to abort it early in the pregnancy, might actually be immoral from the point of view of the child's own welfare."

Dawkins claimed he had hoped that his million-plus followers would not see his comments, which would instead only be sent out to the people who follow both himself and the woman who posed the question. He also claimed there was not enough space in his Twitter reply to get his fuller argument across.

He added: "Those who thought I was bossily telling a woman what to do rather than let her choose, of course this was absolutely not my intention and I apologise if brevity made it look that way. My true intention was, as stated at length above, simply to say what I personally would do, based upon my own assessment of the pragmatics of the case, and my own moral philosophy which in turn is based on a desire to increase happiness and reduce suffering."

He also argued: "Those who took offence because they know and love a person with Down's syndrome, and who thought I was saying that their loved one had no right to exist, I have sympathy for this emotional point, but it is an emotional one not a logical one. It is one of a common family of errors, one that frequently arises in the abortion debate."

Some Twitter users had supported the God Delusion author, agreeing with his assertion that there is a difference in deciding on a termination before a child is born, and suggesting after the child is born that it should have been aborted.

The Down's Syndrome Association (DSA) issued a response to Dawkin's initial comment.

They said: "People with Down's syndrome can and do live full and rewarding lives, they also make a valuable contribution to our society.

"At the Down's Syndrome Association, we do not believe Down's syndrome in itself should be a reason for termination, however, we realise that families must make their own choice.

"The DSA strives to ensure that all prospective parents are given accurate and up-to-date information about the condition and what life might be like today for someone with Down's syndrome."

Previously Dawkins caused controversy on Twitter when he said the world's Muslims had won fewer Nobel Prizes than Trinity College Cambridge.
Posted by Cempaka at Friday, August 22, 2014 0 comments
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Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Heinz cereal products sealed for excessive lead in Zhejiang

Want China Times, Xinhua 2014-08-19
People shop for baby food at a mall in Yinchuan, Ningxia province. (File photo/Xinhua)

Food safety authorities in east China's Zhejiang province said they have sealed 614 boxes of baby cereal products made by US food giant HJ Heinz after they were found to contain excessive levels of lead.

Excessive levels of lead were found in 400-gram boxes of AD Calcium Hi-Protein Cereal with batch number 20140413 during a regular food inspection in the second quarter, said the Zhejiang Provincial Food and Drug Administration on Monday.

Food safety staff launched a special inspection of 303 food vendors in the province. The sealed products include 483 boxes from two trade companies in the provincial capital of Hangzhou and 131 from retailers.

The provincial food watchdog has asked the company to cooperate with the investigation, provide the cause of the contamination, and handle compensation for consumers.

In a statement issued Friday, Heinz made an apology to consumers over the scandal and said its own investigation showed materials in one batch of degreased soybean cereal used in the product contained varying levels of the chemical.

The company has started recalling products with batch number 20140413, as well as three other batches with numbers 20140414, 20140508 and 20140509, which used the same degreased soybean cereal, as a preventative measure.

According to the company, the contaminated products totaled 1,472 boxes in Zhejiang. By Aug. 10, it had recalled 153 boxes from retailers and sealed them in the company's storehouse in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province.
Related Article:


Posted by Cempaka at Tuesday, August 19, 2014 0 comments
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Wednesday, July 30, 2014

McDonald's Japan unveils 'tofu nuggets' after China meat scandal

Yahoo – AFP, July 30, 2014
McDonald s Japan unveils tofu nuggets after China meat scandal (AFP)

Tokyo (AFP) - McDonald's restaurants in Japan are turning to time-honoured Asian soul food -- tofu -- as the chain scrambles to minimise the damage from an embarrassing tainted meat scandal in China.

The fast-food giant's more than 3,000 restaurants in Japan on Wednesday started selling "Tofu Shinjo" nuggets modelled on a traditional side dish that meshes tofu, vegetables and fish.

For 249 yen ($2.40), customers can sink their teeth into four pieces of the chicken-free creation.

The rollout comes days after the firm said that its Japanese restaurants had stopped sourcing poultry products from a nugget supplier in Shanghai, in response to a scandal that saw expired meat sold to fast food giants.

On Tuesday, McDonald's Japan President Sarah Casanova made a televised apology, as she warned the "appalling" incident -- and subsequent switch to chicken suppliers in Thailand to plug the gap -- would depress company profits.

The disgraced factory and other Chinese distributors had supplied nearly 40 percent of the chicken used for McDonald's Japanese restaurants.

A company spokeswoman said Wednesday that, despite its fortuitous timing, the tofu offering had been in the works before China's latest food safety scandal.

"It is a part of wider, limited-time-only offering for the summer featuring a Japanese-style menu," she said.

At the chain's restaurants in mainland China, notices posted at every cash register told customers in Chinese and English: "We regret to let you know that currently we will only be able to provide a limited menu at our restaurant.

"At McDonald's we strictly comply with the applicable laws, regulations and the related standards. Thank you for your understanding."

In Shanghai, where the factory at the heart of the scandal has been shut down by authorities, the chain?s trademark Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets were unavailable.

"It's the same situation, only fries and drinks -- that sort of food -- are available," an operator from the McDonald's delivery hotline said, adding: "It's the same nationwide."

In Hong Kong, the chain said it has disposed of 43 tonnes of food products produced by the closed factory since Monday.

"The food products were first sealed before they were sent to the city's landfills under the inspection of the authorities," said a company spokeswoman.
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Posted by Cempaka at Wednesday, July 30, 2014 0 comments
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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Health secretary on Obamacare website: 'You deserve better'

Google – AFP, Michael Mathes (AFP), 30 October 2013

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testifies before the 
House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing about the troubled launch of 
the Healthcare.gov website October 30, 2013 in Washington, DC (AFP, Karen Bleier)

Henry Waxman:Washington (United States) — President Barack Obama's health secretary publicly apologized Wednesday for the rocky rollout of the US health care law's new website, stressing that citizens "deserve better" from the system.

But while Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius regretted that navigating HealthCare.gov has been a "miserably frustrating experience" for many, she insisted that so-called "Obamacare" has been working well for millions of Americans.

For his part, Obama was to travel to Massachusetts later in the day to defend his signature reforms in the state where his former Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney adopted a similar system in 2006.

"Today, 97 percent of Massachusetts residents have health insurance coverage and the primary attacks against this law -? many of which we are hearing again today about the ACA ?- never proved true," a White House official said.

Health and Human Services Secretary
 Kathleen Sebelius is sworn-in at the
 beginning of the House Energy and 
Commerce Committee hearing about
 the troubled launch of the Healthcare.gov
 website October 30, 2013 in Washington,
DC (AFP, Karen Bleier)
The pointwoman for the new health care law, however, sounded chastened about the trouble-plagued online portal through which millions are expected to register for health insurance.

"Let me say directly to these Americans: You deserve better. I apologize. I'm accountable to you for fixing these problems," Sebelius, the seniormost administration official to testify before Congress on the health care law, told a closely-watched House panel.

And when Republican congresswoman Marsha Blackburn grilled her and suggested the secretary was seeking to pawn off responsibility on contractors like Verizon, where a breakdown took the site offline last weekend, Sebelius interrupted to say she herself would take the heat.

"Hold me accountable for the debacle. I'm responsible," she said.

HealthCare.gov, which allows access to exchange marketplaces where Americans can purchase private insurance, debuted on October 1.

Committee chairman Fred Upton said he has seen little improvement in the website's performance since then, noting that his staff was "hit with an error message" even as they tried to use the page early Wednesday.

"Sadly here we are now five weeks into enrollment and the news seems to get worse by the day," Upton said.

"After more than three years to prepare, malfunctions have become the norm."

Sebelius's appearance marked the third congressional hearing in a week addressing the faulty start to Obamacare.

Critics like Blackburn have focused on how the health care law is booting millions of people off their plans, years after Obama told Americans that if they liked their health plan, they could keep it.

Sebelius countered that insurance companies routinely alter coverage in the individual market, and that people on these plans often hold them for less than a year.

And skeleton policies that do not measure up to Obamacare's rules, including not providing free mammograms or charging women 50 percent more than men, will need to be changed to conform to the law.

"If someone is buying a brand new policy... they will have consumer protections for the first time," Sebelius said.

With Republicans seizing on the policy cancellations letters, Sebelius pushed back, saying it was insurance companies altering their inadequate plans in order to conform with Obamacare.

"This market has always been the Wild West," she said of the individual marketplace.

Republican Joe Barton, a fervent opponent of the health care law, took a swipe at Sebelius, a former Kansas governor, by suggesting she might be in over her head.

"We're not in Kansas anymore," Barton told her.

Health and Human Services Secretary
 Kathleen Sebelius testifies before the
 House Energy and Commerce Committee
 hearing about the troubled launch of the
 Healthcare.gov website October 30, 
2013 in Washington, DC (AFP, Karen
Bleier)
"Some might say we are actually in 'Wizard of Oz' land given the parallel universes we appear to be habitating."

But Democrats like Henry Waxman rode to Sebelius's rescue.

"I would urge my colleagues to stop hyperventilating," he said.

"The early glitches in this rollout will soon be forgotten... and then every American will finally have access to affordable health insurance."

Last week the lead contractors, which collectively have been paid hundreds of millions of dollars to create and manage the website, said there was insufficient testing of the online portal.

Asked directly if the two weeks of end-to-end testing was enough, Sebelius replied "clearly not."

"We did not adequately do end-to-end testing," she added. "The products were not locked and loaded into the system until the third week of September."

As critics pounced on the website's shortcomings, Democrat Eliot Engel noted the irony of Republicans who abhor the premise of Obamacare yet were making a "big show" about how many Americans can not get access to the health care options fast enough.

"You're really on the wrong side of history here," Engel told his Republican colleagues.
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Opposition to President Obama and the Transition to Uncorrupted Governments

goldenageofgaia.com, Steve Beckow, An Hour with an Angel, September 30, 2013, with Archangel Michael

"... SB: Oh! Very good! Okay.  I think I recall you mentioning Medicare in Canada. Canada has a wonderful system of universal medicare. When will the United States enjoy the same quality of medicare? Or other nations, for that matter.

AAM: You see, this is one of the fundamental rights, and your United Nations has just begun to peek at this.  All of your — yes, all — of your medical systems have been based on false grids that you are eligible for disease. Many, many industries have grown up around this belief system.

Now, we would not dismantle this in a day, because the displacement would be very large, but you have already begun to see the shift to wellness, to healing centers, to alternative methods of energy healing. And with the arrival of your star brothers and sisters this will become even more so.

So not only universal medical care, but universal healthcare and the right to wellness is going to become the simple stand-alone fact over the next year to two years. Oh, and it will happen much more quickly in the United States.

SB: Oh, that’s good to hear. So many people are bankrupted by a sudden illness. And it never should be that way.

AAM: It is an atrocity that one may suffer and die because one does not have adequate money. That is absurd.  ..."

Posted by Cempaka at Wednesday, October 30, 2013 0 comments
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