This week: • Video games • Madagascar • Zimbabwe •
• Chad • US Food aid • London • Stuff •

 

The tabloid press devotes volumes of text to the demonisation of video games on a regular basis, writes Dr Jim, the little red email’s medical correspondent. They are frequently responsible for anything from obesity and teenage rebellion to the downfall of modern society! Conversation killers they might well be, but scientists are starting to discover that the latest edition of Grand Theft Auto may have other uses (and not relating to those hidden scenes — get your minds out of the gutter!)

New research has looked at their role in pain management. The psychology of pain is complex and poorly understood, but we have learnt over the years that distraction from the stimulus of pain allows people to tolerate much more than they would normally be able to do. This is often demonstrated in accounts from conflicts around the world.

Soldiers are frequently able to sustain serious injuries on the battlefield and either not notice, or feel only minor pain until the particular engagement is over. This is thought to be a combination of the body’s fight or flight mechanism, adrenaline and also the role of endorphins forcing the body to cope to increase chances of survival.

This is not confined to the battlefield, and is also seen in people who have been involved in terrorist attacks or serious accidents. Pain is experienced subjectively and almost as an after thought in some survivors. Unfortunately this protection is not guaranteed, and is rarely long lasting. The effects of post traumatic stress disorder are far reaching and frequently catastrophic.

This subjectiveness of pain allows patients to be distracted, and recent studies have looked at the use of video games in hospital. The degree of attention required to play most games provides the required distraction and has been shown to dramatically reduce pain scores during these experiments.

Games are also used as part of physical therapy, especially in those with arm injuries, and to increase hand strength. They have a role in helping to develop social and spatial skills in children with learning difficulties, and also help those with impulsive and attention deficit disorders.

There are of course negative reports regarding these games, and it is these that the press tend to focus on. Childhood obesity, video game addiction, and increased aggressiveness are well known. Others include epilepsy, hallucinations, bed wetting, and repetitive strain injury.

When we know that the thought of pain is sufficient psychological motivation to keep many patients out of the dentist’s chair for example, it is no surprise that fear of pain may be more disabling that the actual pain itself. Any form of therapy that can reduce the use of toxic and addictive painkillers is a step forward. Perhaps video game therapy will help us towards tackling these serious issues, but in the meantime we will have to continue kicking Covenant ass in cyberspace!

• Dr Jim should be heartened by the Economist’s special report on gaming, which sees it as having very little to do with any of the harms espoused by their opponents. So all that Halo probably won’t turn him into a violent psychopath.

 

 

A once beautiful island home to one of the world’s most diverse ecosystems is now in a desperate state, and it is all set to get worse as more mining gets the green light. Madagascar, off Africa’s southeastern coast, has been the scene of a sustained ecological nightmare. Madagascar is unique for its wildlife — of its estimated 200,000 plant and animal species, three-quarters exist nowhere else in the world.

Deforestation through slash-and-burn agriculture, logging for timber and using forests for fuel wood and charcoal production has ruined much of the land. This loss has been compounded by massive fires for land-clearing purposes.

With its rivers running blood red and staining the surrounding Indian Ocean, astronauts have remarked that it looks like Madagascar is bleeding to death. This insightful observation highlights one of Madagascar’s greatest environmental problems — soil erosion. Deforestation of Madagascar’s central highlands has resulted in widespread soil erosion. For Madagascar, a country that relies on agricultural production for the foundation of its economy, the loss of this soil is especially costly.

Now though the erosion is set to get a whole lot worse with Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto getting the go ahead (with World Bank support) to build a massive mining complex in one of the last remaining unique Malagasy forests.

Up to 1,000 hectares of land and coastal rainforest bordering the Indian Ocean will be dug up in different phases of the £430 million project to extract ilmenite, a mineral which can be used to produce titanium dioxide pigment. Around 750,000 tonnes of the ore will be extracted each year at the start of the operation, which could last for 40 years. The pigment is used in things like paper to make things white.

Tony Juniper, head of Friends of the Earth, is aghast that the project has got the go-ahead. He said: “This is a very sad day and very bad news for the people of Madagascar. Rio Tinto is exploiting natural resources in the developing world and, once again, it is the local people who will pay the price.

“This mine will not solve the terrible problems of poverty on the island, but it will damage its precious biodiversity.”

He said that it was time international laws were introduced to protect the interests of people and the environment. “It is becoming increasingly clear that companies cannot be trusted to do so.”

 

 

What do you do when you are an internationally reviled administration in search of cash, and armed with plenty of raw materials? Why, head to China of course for a warm embrace with the Chinese Communist Party. Whereas the G8 gives financial aid to African states on the condition of improvements in human rights (and easy multinational access to domestic markets), the CCP offers its support to dictators without moral stipulations.

This is where Robert Mugabe has just returned from, desperate for cash as Zimbababwe, the nation he has ruined for the past 25 years, lies in ruin.

For sheer comedy value the highlight of the 81-year-old African’s six day mainland visit was being conferred an honorary professorship from a Chinese university for his ‘diplomatic’ skills!

Mugabe, banned in the EU, the US, Australia among other places, has sought a ‘look East’ policy in an effort to find aid and trading partners.

“You have made major contributions to the friendly relations between our two countries,” Hu Jintao, China’s president, said at the start of the meeting last Tuesday.

Bilateral trade hit $100-million in the first three months of this year and Beijing has started to replace the West as a source of capital to such an extent that Mugabe says China will soon be the country’s leading foreign investor.

Some of the biggest deals have seen China supply hydroelectric generators for the national power authority, training jets for the air force, planes for the national airline and thousands of commuter buses.

According to The New York Times, China also won a contract last year to farm 1 003,6km2 of land seized from white farmers in 2000.

The roof of Mugabe’s new £7.4 million palace is covered with Chinese tiles donated by Beijing; in return, the president has been exhorting his population to study Mandarin and try Chinese food.

Several economic and technical agreements have been signed during his six-day visit that analysts say could help to prop up the Zimbabwean economy, saddled with triple digit inflation, unemployment of over 70 percent and 4.5 billion dollars in foreign debt which is looking like it might lead to Zimbabwe’s expulsion from the International Monetary Fund. In five years, the Zim dollar has gone from 55 to the US, to 45,000!

In return China gets a free hand in the African state’s raw materials, just like in Sudan, another questionable regime human rights wise, and one where China sources 5% of its oil needs. Other oil rich, dodgy African nations targeted by China include Angola and Nigeria.

In a Channel 4 special report on China’s involvement in Africa, Sierra Leone Human Rights politician Zainab Bangura expressed a fear that the Chinese ‘no strings attached’ aid policy will be a more appealing prospect to African dictatorships than the development model promulgated by the World Bank; leading the West to lower their high human rights benchmark.

“If anyone starts trying to change the constitution or imprisoning journalists or breaching procurement rules and regulations, they’ll (the US and UK) pretend not to understand because they’re afraid they’ll go over to China.”

In the Darfur region of Sudan, where civil war led to a humanitarian catastrophe, the CCP’s arms sale and foreign investment ran counter to the international attempt to restore peace.

“Business is business. There’s no business but the business.” Channel 4 reported the Sudanese energy minister, Awad Al Jaz, as saying in relation to deals with the CCP.

Human Rights Watch claim that the CCP has supplied the Sudanese government with ammunition, helicopters, tanks, fighter aircraft, and anti-tank mines to participate in the country’s civil war, which many claim was an act of genocide.

Exiled Zimbabweans staged a demonstration outside the Chinese Embassy on July 30, to protest the People’s Republic of China ‘propping up’ Mugabe’s regime with financial aid.

“The money won’t be used for the benefit of the people, it will be used for the benefit of the ruling elite.” said Dennis Benton of the Zimbabwe Vigil Coalition, speaking of the recently arranged aid package Mugabe will receive from China.

Many coalition members believe that the money would be used to bolster Mugabe’s military capacity to suppress his own people.

“They are going to give him the arms that he needs and in return he is giving them the land and the right to go and mine minerals — which is really the wealth of the country, and of future generations

China is the only country which is saying that it doesn’t care about human rights, it doesn’t care about democracy, it doesn’t care if people are starving in Zimbabwe,” he said.

The event comes at a time when the UN is condemning the Mugabe regime’s recent acts of violence against its own citizens, most notably “Operation Murambatsvina” (Shona for “Operation Drive Out Trash”), which has made homeless an estimated 700,000 people.

“What was going on when I left was that he [Mugabe] was going into the cities and destroying peoples homes — even tiny businesses. He even took bulldozers and went into the Churches where people were being sheltered,” said Rev. Dr. Martine Stemerick, who is conducting a Human Rights investigations in Zimbabwe.

The protest was held next to the 24/7 ‘Stop the genocide against Falun Gong’ vigil, which has been maintained for over two years outside the Chinese Embassy.

“The Falun Gong can speak at first hand of the Chinese Communists’ contempt for human rights. Do Zimbabweans really want to be beholden to these people [the CCP]?” says a statement on the Zimbabwean Vigil website.

 

 

History, as the old adage goes, repeats itself: and so once again another exiled African dictator stays safe from prosecution. Nearly fifteen years after the fall of Chad’s brutal Cold War dictator, Hissène Habré, dozens of his henchmen still hold positions of power in the West African country. The dictator himself is smoking his cigars in Senegal awaiting the international community’s next move.

The exact number of Habré’s victims is unknown. The nation’s own Truth Commission (TC) of the Chadian Justice Minister from 1992, which was established by Habré’s successor, accused Habré’s regime of 40,000 political assassinations as well as systematic torture. The atrocities were carried out by Habré’s dreaded political police, the Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS), whose leaders all came from Habré’s Gorane ethnic group reporting directly to Habré.

The TC report identifies many leading figures in today’s Chad’s as one of the country’s “most brutal torturers” under Habré regime. One self-proclaimed torturer is now a district police commander. The former deputy director of national security currently serves as the powerful director of the Judicial Police. An ex-DDS branch chief, against whom many cases of torture have been filed, is now chief of security at the nation’s only international airport. The former director of national security now occupies the post of national co-coordinator of the country’s petroleum zone, while the former warden of one of the DDS’s torture centres, is now warden of the main jail in the capital, N’Djaména.

Habré’s one-party regime was marked by widespread atrocities and campaigns against his own people. He divided the country in two: the Christian camp in the fertile south against the Muslim population and other ethnic minorities in arid northern Chad. During his eight years as head of state, Habré attempted to destroy all forms of opposition to his regime.

Habré could count on solid US support throughout his rule as he was seen as an ally in the fight against Qaddafi. US policymakers in the Reagan era called Habré their friend and helped maintain him in power with generous provisions of military aid, training, intelligence and political support. The US aid that poured into Chad “eventually totaled hundreds of millions of dollars,” said one White House official.

The “no safe haven” provisions of the U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment requires Senegal to either prosecute or extradite alleged torturers who enter its territory Under the Senegalese constitution, such international treaties automatically apply. Nevertheless in 2000, an appeals court ruled that Senegalese courts had no jurisdiction to pursue crimes that were not committed in Senegal and dropped the case against Habré.

Under pressure from the US government, the Belgian parliament repealed that country’s universal jurisdiction law, and replaced it with a law of more limited scope. However the case against Habre could continue due to Belgian citizens had pressed charges against the dictator.

The investigation continues and it is hoped that the international court will indict Hissène Habré and issue an international warrant for his arrest. The Belgian government would then ask Senegal to extradite Hissène Habré, which President Wade has said it would be willing to do.

 

 

A new report out questions exactly who are the main beneficiaries of US Food Aid and calls for a major overhaul of this system. The Minnesota-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) slams US food aid as ineffieicnt, wasteful and worse of all designed in most cases to benefit domestic constituencies, particularly US-based agribusiness firms, shipping companies and some non-governmental organisations (NGOs), more than needy people in developing countries

Improvement suggestions include “untying” the assistance from US-origin and shipping requirements, as well as the practice of monetisation — that is, providing food to NGOs or local governments for sale so that the proceeds can be used for aid work or other purposes.

It also calls on Washington to do more to encourage local food production in poor countries, particularly in Africa, to ensure long-term food security by investing more in agriculture, establishing a system of emergency food reserves, and encouraging multilateral agencies, in consultation with recipient countries, to adopt uniform rules on food aid.

Food aid, which by definition must be either free or sold at “concessional rates,” currently constitutes less than two percent of all food trade internationally and a tiny 0.015 percent of world food production.

Apart from South Korea, the US is alone among donors in selling part of its food aid, instead of giving it away.

Washington ’s dominance of the global food aid picture (suppling 56% of the total last year) has made it the subject of two major complaints at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

First, while the monetisation of food aid generates money for NGOs to pursue other aid activities, according to the report, it also reduces prices for local producers and traders in poor countries, effectively rigging the market against them. All such programmes should be phased out, according to the report.

Second, export credits provided to US agribusiness result in food dumping — overseas sales of food for less than the costs of production. According to the report, the EU has now put forward a proposal at the WTO, which will be taken up at the next Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong in December, requiring all food aid to be cash-based and untied from requirements that it originate in the donor country.

What makes US food aid more objectionable, however, is the “iron triangle” of interest groups that are its greatest beneficiaries. These groups — agribusiness, shipping companies, and NGOs — enjoy a “stranglehold on food aid practice,” according to the report, perpetuating a dysfunctional system through their influence on Congress and the government.

Under US law, for example, a minimum of 75 percent of US food aid must be sourced, fortified, processed and bagged in the US, and only a handful of firms, notably Cargill and Archer-Daniels Midland (ADM) are qualified to bid on the procurement contracts. The result is that the government has paid on average about 11 percent more than open-market prices for food aid.

US law similarly requires that 75 percent of all food aid must be transported on US-flagged vessels, despite the fact that the shipping industry has been failing over the past few decades and currently handles only three percent of all US imports and exports (excluding food aid) and, according to recent study, cost nearly 80 percent more than foreign shipping lines using the same routes with similar cargo.

“African farmers are capable of producing a lot more food for their communities and nearby regions,” according to the report. “But policies of the U.S, the WTO, and the World Bank promote the use of African land and resources for export crops instead, and many African governments neglect agriculture for domestic food needs. This must change, or hunger will increase.”

 

 

We apologise for keeping on about this tale and acknowledge that many people have turned away from our rantings over this issue, but here we go again, like a broken record, on the London bombings and all that is remiss with the official line being spouted by Downing Street and the Metropolitan Police.

Rather than tell you what to think, we’ll simply link you to a cornucopia of conspiracy and let you decide. Here goes.

The alleged bombing mastermind, Haroon Rashid Aswat, was an MI6 asset, with the group involved being sent by British intelligence on a Kosovo mission back in the 1990s.

UK authorities received advance warning of a terrorist attack—from Israel. So did Benjamin Netanyahu. And the Saudis told them too.

Why did the ‘suspects’ take credit cards along on a suicide mission? The Boston Herald reported that one of the supposed culprits carried not only his own ID, but also documents of one of the others. How did such documents survive the blasts, which should have torn their bodies into small pieces? This is the same as the magic 9/11 passport that appeared in the rubble.

The CCTV images from Luton have many questionable parts to them, while on the 21/7 failed bombings, how come no one else is in the shots — the Tube is a busy place at all hours. How come there is no other CCTV images of the bombers boarding or onboard the three traisn that blew up?

How come the British pound fell 6% in value in the 10 days prior to the first set of bombs? What did Federal reserve chairman Alan Greenspan know in advance of the bombs?

Why was such a similar terror training exercise going on the same day in London as the actual bombs? Why was the damage from the bombs onboard the trains not concurrent with the type of bombs used?

Answer these and many more questions confidently before you dismiss our doubts as pure conspiracy.

A good resource for all the odd goings on over 7/7 and 21/7 can be found here.