# 4356
Since bird flu news has been a bit slow of late, and the pandemic of 2009 is taking a breather, I’ve been indulging in a little R&R. First, I’m reading and greatly appreciating Alan Sipress’s terrific The Fatal Strain.
A book that Crof reviewed on The Tyee and Crofsblog, and called `the best pandemic book yet’. And I quite agree.
And second, I’ve just finished watching the 12-part BBC production of I, Claudius which was first broadcast in 1976.
I saw a few snippets of it when it first was shown on American TV, but at the time I was working 24-48 as a paramedic, and wasn’t able to see all of the episodes. Thirty five years later, I’m finally catching up.
Although some of the historical depictions of the Caesars may be disputed, if you ever get a chance to see this mini-series, it is absolutely riveting.
Since I don’t often wander too far astray in this blog (I have another blog for such indulgences), you’d be correct in assuming that I’m about to tie up Alan Sipress’s book, I, Claudius, and pandemic influenza.
In The Fatal Strain we learn, in much greater detail than I’ve seen before, the background story behind Jones Ginting; the lone survivor of the 2006 Karo (Indonesia) H5N1 cluster that claimed the lives of seven of his relatives.
To the villagers, this wasn’t a disease. That was nonsense. Chickens couldn’t make you sick.
This was black magic.
A curse, placed on the family for the sins of their father (who had gangster connections) who had conjured the spirit of Begu Ganjang to do his bidding many years before.
Ginting, after watching modern medicine fail to save his relatives, fled the hospital and sought the help of a traditional healer in a remote village – a witch doctor.
Although he returned to the hospital in Medan (where he would stay for 10 weeks) three days later, his family fetched a medicine man to his bedside who chewed leaves and betel nuts at night and spat on him in a ceremony to drive out the evil spirits.
To most of us, this seems primitive, I’m sure.
Not so very different from the Roman Gods of old, feared and honored by the citizens of Rome two thousand years ago. If illness strikes, or the rains fail to come, or the mountain rumbles you make a sacrifice at the temple, recite an incantation, and pray.
A result of the all-too-human trait of creating a deity or supernatural explanation for that which we don’t understand.
But of course, we are talking about primitive cultures. Or are we?
Each day I traverse the Internet looking for suitable news stories, scientific studies, or other tidbits of information that I believe would enhance this blog. My RSS feed reader brings to my desktop hundreds of blog posts and news stories each day, fetched based on keywords like influenza, bird flu, H5N1, pandemic, and vaccine.
And most days, the pickin’s are mighty slim.
Most of the links that I dutifully click on each day return nonsense, superstition, and drivel. And those are the kindest words I can muster to describe it.
Despite our advanced technology, it seems a lot of people are still creating `god's’ to explain that which they do not understand.
Instead of Jove on Mount Olympus, or Begu Ganjang in the highlands of North Sumatra, we’ve created a whole new panoply of gods and demons.
And the Internet is becoming their online temple.
We’ve entered the age of skepticism and distrust of science, replacing reason with superstition and fear. In this new-age religion Big Pharma is an evil spirit, and world governments (and agencies like WHO and the CDC) are their dutiful minions.
This according to one of the new messiahs, Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg:
Faked pandemic
Here my Interview for the danish "Information" on the swine-flu pandemic:
By Louise Voller, Kristian Villesen
December 27. 2009
”We have had a mild flu - and a false pandemic,” says Wolfgang Wodarg, the chair of the Health Committee in The European Council. The German parliamentarian is also an epidemiologist and former health director in Flensburg. For that reason he has followed the H1N1-pandemic closely since June 11 and up to the present. He calls the pandemic "one of the greatest medical scandals of the century”, and for that reason he has decided to take the case to the European Council:
Of course, for many Big Pharma is just a lesser god. The supreme being is apparently The Illuminati.
A couple of examples from the devout (follow these links at your own risk).
Is Swine Flu The Final Step In The Illuminati Plan To Drastically Reduce The Earth Population?
February 17th, 2010
It’s a proven fact that the Illuminati plans to reduce the earths population to under 500,000,000. There bird flu didn’t work as well as they intended, is the swine flu the ext and possibly final generation of the virus they inted to use to cull the heard so to speak? Is there anything we can do about it?
Is the New Swine Flu Pandemic Just More of the Illuminati Power Elite's Hype?
When most American's think of the swine flu H1N1, they don't tend to think of Barack Obama or the Illuminati. However there is evidence that this flu pandemic is just another form of government control. The reason for this is very simple. The government, and the Illuminati wants to take away your rights so that they can implement their plans for a New World Order.
Lunatic fringe stuff? Perhaps.
But then what are we to make of this commentary from Thepigsite.com today – which bills itself as `the website for the global pig industry’.
“H1N1 seems to have fallen off the media radar. Thank Goodness!! The big scare turned into a sad joke. 40 times more people died of regular flu. The billions of dollars spend domestically and globally on vaccine was a big waste. Millions of doses of H1N1 vaccine sit begging for victims. Big Pharma, Their bottom line bloated by stupid media and politicians. The good news is the H1N1 (swine flu) debacle seems to have had little lasting effect on pork demand.”
Well, thank the gods. At least pork prices are up!
Ample solace, no doubt, to those who lost loved ones to this pandemic over the past year. They, and the CDC, and anyone with 3rd grade math skills might take exception to the `40 times more people died of regular flu’ pronouncement, though.
We also have our own modern version of the Indonesian witch doctors, as well; Purveyors of pandemic prophylaxis and other `natural and alternative’ cures.
Proponents of alternative cures, like colloidal silver shampoo, elderberry elixirs instead of vaccines, and numerous herbal remedies that are – I’m certain -every bit as `natural’ (and effective!) as chewing leaves and betel nuts and spitting on the patient.
The FDA (an evil god, or demon if you will) keeps a list of holy cures they don’t want you to have access to. It’s part of the deal they signed with Big Pharma (in their own blood, naturally).
They call it their Fraudulent 2009 H1N1 Influenza Products List, but savvy Internet readers know it for what it really is.
And so it goes. Conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory.
And when one falls (remember the plot to release bird flu at the Beijing Olympics? or `pneumonic plague’ in Ukraine?), another quickly takes its place.
We’ve created new High-tech gods and demons to replace the tired old ones. A religion that places the blame for all of our collective woes squarely on the shoulders of secretive, powerful, and invisible gods and demons.
Which goes a long ways towards explaining its popularity.
A more sophisticated religion, that best of all, doesn’t require getting up early on Sunday mornings.
An opiate for the asses.
And from the looks of things, it’s spreading rapidly.
Some days, I tell you. It’s hardly worth chewing through the leather straps.
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