FEATURE
Social justice: Will it ever come!
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out - Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for Me – and there was no one left to speak for Me.
(Martin Niemöller, a German anti-Nazi theologian and Lutheran pastor)
The state inaction in response to the brutal murders of SatishShetyy (five years ago), Dr Narendra Dabholkar (nearly two years ago) and Govind Pansare (over three months ago) has generated a lot of discontent among democratic-minded citizens of Maharashtra. Hum Azaadiyon Ke Haq Mein, a collective of NGOs and individuals in Mumbai, has started a campaign titled ‘Who is shielding the Guilty?’ in response to the antipathy shown by the criminal justice system. The NGO amplifies the voices of resistance and supports the legal battle and protests led by the victims’ families.
The late Satish had used the Right to Information Act to expose massive land scams by the construction lobby in Pune from 2005 to 2010. Due to his efforts, multi-crore projects of IRB Infrastructure had to be shelved. Infuriated persons started threatening Satish and he asked for police protection. However, this was not granted. On the morning of January 13, 2010, he was attacked in Talegaon.
The whistle-blower social activist was posthumously given the Sajag Nagrik Award. It was received by his brother Sandeep at a function held in Pune. The National Right to Information Forum has initiated the Satish Shetty RTI Gallantry Award. Another recognition, also posthumous, was the 2011 Unsung Hero of the Year Award by the NDTV (LIC) Indian of the year.
After four years of investigation, CBI recommended that the Satish Shetty murder case file be closed due to ‘lack of evidence’. For the past five years, Sandeep Shetty has been fighting a lone battle with police, courts and the CBI. Sandeep has exhausted trying to burst the corrupt system that is coming in the way of genuine investigation.
For more than four decades, the late Dr Narendra Dabholkar had been at the forefront of the anti-superstition movement and had exposed several ‘god-men’ who fleeced poor people in the name of witchcraft and inflicted barbaric violence on innocent victims. He was campaigning to get the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifices and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Bill passed in the state assembly. He was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne assailants while he was out for a morning walk in Pune on August 20, 2013. His daughter, Mukta Dabholkar, has been running from pillar to post to bring his murderers to book.
Massive protest demonstrations, rallies and sit-ins have been organized by democratic-minded citizens’ organisations throughout the state, expressing solidarity with the Dabholkar family. Except for enacting a much watered-down and toothless version of the bill Dr Dabholkar had been fighting for, the state has not done anything. The government has not put details of the investigation of the case in public domain.
Govind Pansare was active in the working class movement for more than 50 years. He supported riot victims in Kolhapur. Pansare had campaigned against a temple being built for the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi. He was threatened several times. Pansare (82) and his wife Uma (67) were gunned down at point-blank range. He lost his life and she was seriously injured. “We repeatedly told the police to investigate this angle, and yet they chose instead to inquire whether he was involved in property disputes or industrial disputes,” says Prof Megha Pansare, his daughter-in-law.
Social activist Ketan Tirodkar has filed a public interest litigation, seeking transfer of the probe to CBI. Pansare’s daughter Smita and daughter-in-law Megha have filed an application seeking permission to intervene in the PIL. They have asked for a SIT probe monitored by the high court. Prof Megha accused the state government of lacking the political will to nab the killers since there has not been much progress in the case.
Consistent coverage by the media and the integrity of purpose shown by relatives has kept the issues of these three whistleblowers alive. There are innumerable more who are being silenced by an unjust system. This is indeed a trying time for people’s movements, as a deadly combination of draconian laws, corporate greed, an active land mafia and market fundamentalism has trampled upon the dignity and survival prospects of the toiling poor. What happened to Satish Shetty, Dr Dabholkar and Pansare can happen to any of us who believe in secular humanism and distributive justice. It is time to build solidarity with individuals and organisatons fighting for social justice. Inaction will only strengthen the evil forces.
The writer is director, Centre for Study of Social Exclusion & Inclusive Policy, and heads the Department of Economics, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai.
Secret of healthy living in a hostile world
“The greatest truths are the simplest, and so are the greatest men.”
JC & AW Hare.
When one ponders over the multitude of risk factors in and around us in this hostile world, one wonders as to how we are alive at all. Medical claptrap informs us day in and day out about the multitude of potions-chemical drugs, surgeries, special foods, tonics etc to keep us alive. The truth is that most, if not all, of those heavily advertised items damage the system further than helping us. The truth is that there is a very complicated, yet simple system inside each of the one hundred thousand billion cells inside the human body which function better than a super computer to compute all the internal and external inputs through multiple sources to transduce them into coherent methods to eventually put in place two fascinating energy systems, a low energy and high energy systems, to keep us going.
Let us first examine this nature’s computer inside every cell which existed for nearly a billion and half years before the first nerves ever appeared in Jellyfish. It took another half a billion years for cranial nerves and brain to appear in organisms including man. The myth that the brain and the nervous systems alone keep us going has to give place to a more holistic view that there are many other important systems that help keep man alive. Then we will progress further in our understanding of human physiology and pathology. Life is a complicated system of individual cell function in the body in an interdependent manner to keep us alive and healthy. If the ten thousand odd proteins that are present inside each one of the trillions of cells in our bodies do not work well we will have disease states. For recovery from any illness, body cells will have to function normally again.
Our approach in the “so-called” evidence based modern medicine is to try and correct those changes (not knowing what they are) in disease states using chemicals or surgery. As a quick –fix, apparently, they help some people some times but all of them damage some part of the human system almost always, some times as late as five years after the event. One good example is a pain killer trasylol which is now known to kill the recipient as late as five years after he/she had it! What happened to another pain killer wyoxx is now common knowledge. These measures have now resulted in considerable misery for mankind. To quote the most authentic scientific body of the USA : “The National Academy's data attributes 100,000 deaths per year to physicians' errors, added to well over 100,000 deaths due to severe drug interactions and another 100,000 fatalities from hospital-based-infections. (For a detailed analysis, see Death By Medicine, by Gary S. Null, et a)”. This is from a country with less than one third the population of India. Thank God, we do not have statistics like this for India.
What is the remedy? We must get to know the true physiology of cell function and try and see how we could restore that in the unlikely event of disease in a more natural way rather than inflicting chemical and surgical damage to the cells where possible. The fruitless research of modern medicine is based on statistical science and not true hard science. The “failure of millions of dollars spent on AIDS vaccine, failure of interferon as a wonder drug for cancer management with the latter still eluding a cure despite billions being wasted on cancer research and cancer screening (the latter has been shown to be useless and dangerous), and the ravages caused by drugs like Thalidomide and Thorazine,” are there for all of us to see. Reports are pouring in now to show that Thalidomide was used in pregnant women in New Zealand those days as guinea pigs for testing the drug, resulting in many monsters being born there.
We need to arrange an urgent marriage between the beneficial remedies in modern medicine “like the excellent emergency care methods, brilliant surgical successes, time tested and harmless pharmaceuticals as also the newer life style changes” with the best and scientifically authenticated multitude of methods in many other systems of medicine into a judicious integrated system of medical care that is inexpensive, safe, and effective under all circumstances. Unfortunately, the vested interests in modern medicine are scuttling every effort in this field by hitting those efforts with an old but, effective whip “there is no evidence base” in other systems of medical care. This is the biggest lie in the world.
Let us examine how we can use natural methods to get the damaged cells back to normalcy. The ten thousand odd proteins in each cell are functionally better than our supercomputers. They have two energy systems-the Low energy system and the High energy system. Initially, the proteins process all the information they collect from the body as also the outside world into a low energy information system which primes the other proteins to a high energy functional system that could power the body as a whole. In this milieu there are certain specific proteins that do the directing or chaperoning job very effectively. One such chaperone protein is the Heat Shock Protein, HSP 70. It is otherwise called Stress Responsive Protein (SRP 70) as it responds to every kind of stress in the cells.
The HSP 70 protein is supervised by the HSP 70 gene. HSP 70 protein could be re-primed by heating the cell to 47 degree centigrade but, that can never be done in the human body. The other method is to use some kind of natural energy to do the job. In health the cell uses the energy coming from the main source, sunlight, as also the magnetic energy generated by lightening throwing a halo of Schuman energy field around the earth. (Schumann effect) Since all proteins are but carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen as in the DNA along with amino-acids that come from food. The electromagnetic energy used by the cell proteins which is then transduced to fire the mitochondria inside every cell to produce energy needed for life.
Glen Gordon was one of NIH’s brilliant young scientists, 4th in hierarchy at one stage. He was a pioneer in this field of trying to regenerate the damaged (ischaemic) cells back to normal. This made the American Medical Association to file a law suit against him, which did not materialize at the end. He lost his entire grant support, though. He would not relent. He has come up with a small Pulsed Electro-Magnetic Field (PEMF) generator powered by a battery to stimulate and up-regulate the depressed HSP 70 protein and thereby regenerate the cells again. My own initial enthusiasm with this toy of his is exciting. This is not the right forum to disclose such serious research data as it has to be done through a recognized scientific publication. None the less, the results are an opening for us to look more deeply into many such natural methods of making the sick cells (individuals) to regain their strength and health without any long term detriment to the owner in the bargain.
The marriage between the best in both the worlds, as suggested above, is our only solution in this dangerous state in which modern medical claptrap and statistical science have landed us. We need a holistic approach to human, nay, all problems of this world.
“And all the loveliest things there be Come simply, so it seems to me.”
Edna St. Vincent Millay.
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out - Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for Me – and there was no one left to speak for Me.
(Martin Niemöller, a German anti-Nazi theologian and Lutheran pastor)
The state inaction in response to the brutal murders of SatishShetyy (five years ago), Dr Narendra Dabholkar (nearly two years ago) and Govind Pansare (over three months ago) has generated a lot of discontent among democratic-minded citizens of Maharashtra. Hum Azaadiyon Ke Haq Mein, a collective of NGOs and individuals in Mumbai, has started a campaign titled ‘Who is shielding the Guilty?’ in response to the antipathy shown by the criminal justice system. The NGO amplifies the voices of resistance and supports the legal battle and protests led by the victims’ families.
The late Satish had used the Right to Information Act to expose massive land scams by the construction lobby in Pune from 2005 to 2010. Due to his efforts, multi-crore projects of IRB Infrastructure had to be shelved. Infuriated persons started threatening Satish and he asked for police protection. However, this was not granted. On the morning of January 13, 2010, he was attacked in Talegaon.
The whistle-blower social activist was posthumously given the Sajag Nagrik Award. It was received by his brother Sandeep at a function held in Pune. The National Right to Information Forum has initiated the Satish Shetty RTI Gallantry Award. Another recognition, also posthumous, was the 2011 Unsung Hero of the Year Award by the NDTV (LIC) Indian of the year.
After four years of investigation, CBI recommended that the Satish Shetty murder case file be closed due to ‘lack of evidence’. For the past five years, Sandeep Shetty has been fighting a lone battle with police, courts and the CBI. Sandeep has exhausted trying to burst the corrupt system that is coming in the way of genuine investigation.
For more than four decades, the late Dr Narendra Dabholkar had been at the forefront of the anti-superstition movement and had exposed several ‘god-men’ who fleeced poor people in the name of witchcraft and inflicted barbaric violence on innocent victims. He was campaigning to get the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifices and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Bill passed in the state assembly. He was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne assailants while he was out for a morning walk in Pune on August 20, 2013. His daughter, Mukta Dabholkar, has been running from pillar to post to bring his murderers to book.
Massive protest demonstrations, rallies and sit-ins have been organized by democratic-minded citizens’ organisations throughout the state, expressing solidarity with the Dabholkar family. Except for enacting a much watered-down and toothless version of the bill Dr Dabholkar had been fighting for, the state has not done anything. The government has not put details of the investigation of the case in public domain.
Govind Pansare was active in the working class movement for more than 50 years. He supported riot victims in Kolhapur. Pansare had campaigned against a temple being built for the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi. He was threatened several times. Pansare (82) and his wife Uma (67) were gunned down at point-blank range. He lost his life and she was seriously injured. “We repeatedly told the police to investigate this angle, and yet they chose instead to inquire whether he was involved in property disputes or industrial disputes,” says Prof Megha Pansare, his daughter-in-law.
Social activist Ketan Tirodkar has filed a public interest litigation, seeking transfer of the probe to CBI. Pansare’s daughter Smita and daughter-in-law Megha have filed an application seeking permission to intervene in the PIL. They have asked for a SIT probe monitored by the high court. Prof Megha accused the state government of lacking the political will to nab the killers since there has not been much progress in the case.
Consistent coverage by the media and the integrity of purpose shown by relatives has kept the issues of these three whistleblowers alive. There are innumerable more who are being silenced by an unjust system. This is indeed a trying time for people’s movements, as a deadly combination of draconian laws, corporate greed, an active land mafia and market fundamentalism has trampled upon the dignity and survival prospects of the toiling poor. What happened to Satish Shetty, Dr Dabholkar and Pansare can happen to any of us who believe in secular humanism and distributive justice. It is time to build solidarity with individuals and organisatons fighting for social justice. Inaction will only strengthen the evil forces.
The writer is director, Centre for Study of Social Exclusion & Inclusive Policy, and heads the Department of Economics, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai.
Secret of healthy living in a hostile world
“The greatest truths are the simplest, and so are the greatest men.”
JC & AW Hare.
When one ponders over the multitude of risk factors in and around us in this hostile world, one wonders as to how we are alive at all. Medical claptrap informs us day in and day out about the multitude of potions-chemical drugs, surgeries, special foods, tonics etc to keep us alive. The truth is that most, if not all, of those heavily advertised items damage the system further than helping us. The truth is that there is a very complicated, yet simple system inside each of the one hundred thousand billion cells inside the human body which function better than a super computer to compute all the internal and external inputs through multiple sources to transduce them into coherent methods to eventually put in place two fascinating energy systems, a low energy and high energy systems, to keep us going.
Let us first examine this nature’s computer inside every cell which existed for nearly a billion and half years before the first nerves ever appeared in Jellyfish. It took another half a billion years for cranial nerves and brain to appear in organisms including man. The myth that the brain and the nervous systems alone keep us going has to give place to a more holistic view that there are many other important systems that help keep man alive. Then we will progress further in our understanding of human physiology and pathology. Life is a complicated system of individual cell function in the body in an interdependent manner to keep us alive and healthy. If the ten thousand odd proteins that are present inside each one of the trillions of cells in our bodies do not work well we will have disease states. For recovery from any illness, body cells will have to function normally again.
Our approach in the “so-called” evidence based modern medicine is to try and correct those changes (not knowing what they are) in disease states using chemicals or surgery. As a quick –fix, apparently, they help some people some times but all of them damage some part of the human system almost always, some times as late as five years after the event. One good example is a pain killer trasylol which is now known to kill the recipient as late as five years after he/she had it! What happened to another pain killer wyoxx is now common knowledge. These measures have now resulted in considerable misery for mankind. To quote the most authentic scientific body of the USA : “The National Academy's data attributes 100,000 deaths per year to physicians' errors, added to well over 100,000 deaths due to severe drug interactions and another 100,000 fatalities from hospital-based-infections. (For a detailed analysis, see Death By Medicine, by Gary S. Null, et a)”. This is from a country with less than one third the population of India. Thank God, we do not have statistics like this for India.
What is the remedy? We must get to know the true physiology of cell function and try and see how we could restore that in the unlikely event of disease in a more natural way rather than inflicting chemical and surgical damage to the cells where possible. The fruitless research of modern medicine is based on statistical science and not true hard science. The “failure of millions of dollars spent on AIDS vaccine, failure of interferon as a wonder drug for cancer management with the latter still eluding a cure despite billions being wasted on cancer research and cancer screening (the latter has been shown to be useless and dangerous), and the ravages caused by drugs like Thalidomide and Thorazine,” are there for all of us to see. Reports are pouring in now to show that Thalidomide was used in pregnant women in New Zealand those days as guinea pigs for testing the drug, resulting in many monsters being born there.
We need to arrange an urgent marriage between the beneficial remedies in modern medicine “like the excellent emergency care methods, brilliant surgical successes, time tested and harmless pharmaceuticals as also the newer life style changes” with the best and scientifically authenticated multitude of methods in many other systems of medicine into a judicious integrated system of medical care that is inexpensive, safe, and effective under all circumstances. Unfortunately, the vested interests in modern medicine are scuttling every effort in this field by hitting those efforts with an old but, effective whip “there is no evidence base” in other systems of medical care. This is the biggest lie in the world.
Let us examine how we can use natural methods to get the damaged cells back to normalcy. The ten thousand odd proteins in each cell are functionally better than our supercomputers. They have two energy systems-the Low energy system and the High energy system. Initially, the proteins process all the information they collect from the body as also the outside world into a low energy information system which primes the other proteins to a high energy functional system that could power the body as a whole. In this milieu there are certain specific proteins that do the directing or chaperoning job very effectively. One such chaperone protein is the Heat Shock Protein, HSP 70. It is otherwise called Stress Responsive Protein (SRP 70) as it responds to every kind of stress in the cells.
The HSP 70 protein is supervised by the HSP 70 gene. HSP 70 protein could be re-primed by heating the cell to 47 degree centigrade but, that can never be done in the human body. The other method is to use some kind of natural energy to do the job. In health the cell uses the energy coming from the main source, sunlight, as also the magnetic energy generated by lightening throwing a halo of Schuman energy field around the earth. (Schumann effect) Since all proteins are but carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen as in the DNA along with amino-acids that come from food. The electromagnetic energy used by the cell proteins which is then transduced to fire the mitochondria inside every cell to produce energy needed for life.
Glen Gordon was one of NIH’s brilliant young scientists, 4th in hierarchy at one stage. He was a pioneer in this field of trying to regenerate the damaged (ischaemic) cells back to normal. This made the American Medical Association to file a law suit against him, which did not materialize at the end. He lost his entire grant support, though. He would not relent. He has come up with a small Pulsed Electro-Magnetic Field (PEMF) generator powered by a battery to stimulate and up-regulate the depressed HSP 70 protein and thereby regenerate the cells again. My own initial enthusiasm with this toy of his is exciting. This is not the right forum to disclose such serious research data as it has to be done through a recognized scientific publication. None the less, the results are an opening for us to look more deeply into many such natural methods of making the sick cells (individuals) to regain their strength and health without any long term detriment to the owner in the bargain.
The marriage between the best in both the worlds, as suggested above, is our only solution in this dangerous state in which modern medical claptrap and statistical science have landed us. We need a holistic approach to human, nay, all problems of this world.
“And all the loveliest things there be Come simply, so it seems to me.”
Edna St. Vincent Millay.
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