FEATURE

Do we really want cancer to be defeated?

(Does it make sense in this medical business?)

Prof. B. M. Hegde,

hegdebm@gmail.com

“Cancer affects all of us, whether you’re a daughter, mother, sister, friend, co-worker, doctor, or patient.”

Jennifer Aniston

What is cancer? I really do not know! Is it a disease? I don’t know! Albert Szent Gyorgii, a Nobel Laureate biologist, says that he does not know what cancer is as he knows that a cancer cell works like a normal cell. He also feels that no one can kill cancer cells without killing normal cells at the same time. Cancer might be an effort by the body cells to survive a hostile environment by mutating. How can you then kill those normal body cells? Linus Pauling, a double Nobel Laureate, feels with strong reasons, that cancer research and cancer charities are both fraud! Nobel Laureate President of the American Cancer Association, Harold Varmus, comes almost to the same conclusion but stops calling it fraud. He has set up a special committee to go into the reasons why well over 85% of cancer research published cannot be replicated? Almost 50% of the diagnosed cancers are not true cancers! They are only incidentalomas, thanks to the scanning industry which tries hard to medicalize normal human life!

Preventable risk factors like smoking and alcohol are closely associated with 11 of the 15 cancers in the US, finds a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Disability adjusted life years (DALYs) lost to canceris a new measure. This measure combines mortality, incidence, survival, and quality of life into a single summary indicator. DALYs lost to cancer were mostly related to premature death due to the disease (91 per cent), and only 9 per cent related to impaired quality of life because of cancer or its treatment, or other disease-related issues. Have we made an effort to really ban tobacco and alcohol in society? Certainly not as it would make 11 out of 15 cancers to vanish from the planet, a big blow to the cancer drug industry which runs into trillions of dollars. Banning them might adversely affect the world economy. Your daily bread loaf might cost double the present price if cancer disappears from this world! In short, the cancer industry has an interest to keep cancer going as it is, if not in bigger numbers to keep the world economy thriving.

I have an appeal to all aspiring medical students and the aspirants for cancereology postgraduate studies to read the following books that might appeal to their conscience if they have one. The present aspirants for cancerology are those that are dying to make big money fast as doctors! The first book is Nature of cancer by Manu Kothari and his associate Lopa Mehta. Second one is Introduction to sub-molecular biology by Albert Szent Gyorgii. What takes the cake of all books is the latest one by a cancer victim, Paul Kalanidhi, an ethnic Indian, a brilliant writer with MA in English literature from Yale, MD from Stanford and training in some of the top US hospitals and became a brilliant neurosurgeon at Stanford to be struck down by a horrible brain cancer. Kalanidhi’s all- time classic When breath becomes air is a master piece of literary genius, in addition. My good friend, almost as close to me as my own son, Dr. Narasimha Bhat, a PhD from Berkeley himself and a personification of all that is humanly good, recommended this book to me and has ordered a copy for me. I couldn’t wait for a few days for the book to arrive. So I could fast read it in Google eBook section but the review section took my breath away.

New York Times writes: "A great, indelible book ... as intimate and illuminating as Atul Gawande’s “Being Mortal,” to cite only one recent example of a doctor’s book that has had exceptionally wide appeal ... I guarantee that finishing this book and then forgetting about it is simply not an option ... gripping from the start ... None of it is maudlin. Nothing is exaggerated. As he wrote to a friend: “It’s just tragic enough and just imaginable enough.” And just important enough to be unmissable." Kalanidhi’s sordid drama of his individual struggle through this hostile cancer treatment and the inhuman cancer specialists’ attitude towards a fellow human being in misery in the western pseudo-science should be an eye opener for the most money minded corporate hospital honchos

! It is a must read for any aspiring doctor and a cancer specialist. The subtle sarcasm and indictment of the inhuman medical world of today, brought out in such lucid mastery of the English language is for the Gods to enjoy. “A vital book about dying. Awe-inspiring and exquisite. Obligatory reading for the living," wrote Nigella Lawson. "Rattling. Heartbreaking. Beautiful." (Atul Gawande, author of BEING MORTAL).

We keep reading occasionally some bites on cancer vaccines. None of the recent hi-tech vaccines have eradicated any disease; rather they have added more iatrogenic diseases like autism. Vaccines are another industry. No vaccine industry can kill the biggest industry in medicine, which is cancer. If cancer vanishes from this world, the world economy will collapse. So far only small pox was eradicated by low-tech ancient Ayurvedic vaccination method taken to the west after 20 years of prospective controlled studies here in The Bengall, in 1767 by an English physician- scientist, T. Z. Holwell MD, FRCP, FRS. That was authenticated by the King to be made universal vaccination method. Holwell’s original paper could be read even to this day at the library of the Royal College of Physicians of London of which he was a Fellow. The west projecting Edward Jenner as the father of vaccination has been a myth like many others in western medicine. Jenner used cow pox virus which we know to be distinctly different from the small pox virus. I can only sum this up in a beautiful Kannada couplet by the famous writer D. V. Gundappa:

“Athivaidyadim hosarujina edeyaadeetu’

Mithiyim Naveekarana, Mankuthimma.”

(Too much medicine gives rise to new disease; limited medicines might do well.)

Was he not talking of iatrogenesis and adverse drug reactions-the two leading killers in the world today, way back in 1943?

“Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul.” -- Jim Valvano

In support of poor girl child

Kalyan Singh Kothari

Even as the success of P.V. Sindhu and Sakshi Mallik in the recently concluded Rio Olympics has underlined the fact that girls are fully capable of bringing laurels home to India. Rajasthan is one of the states grappling with the twin issues of a skewed gender ratio in school enrolment and a high school dropout rate for girls. In an effort to find a solution, the state government has announced a scheme to provide cash benefits to girls who enrol in schools and continue their education.

While the Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme (CCT) is expected to boost the education of girls and bridge the gender gap in the state, the challenge for the government will be to provide meaningful and gainful education to all and ensure that the scheme is not discontinued.

Under the scheme, a girl who enrols in Class I at a government school in 2016-17 will receive Rs 51000 by the time she clears Class XII. While every girl joining Class I will receive Rs 4000, those enrolling in Class VI will get Rs 5000. Girl students who clear Classes X and XII will receive Rs 11000 and Rs 25000, respectively. The scheme, which is being rolled out by the Education Department, will transfer money directly into the accounts of beneficiaries, categorised at four levels.

The financial reward is expected to encourage girls, especially those hailing from poor rural families, to continue their studies till Class XII. It has been decided that to increase enrolment, other ongoing schemes such as distribution of bicycles and scholarships would continue along with the new scheme. It is estimated that about 60000 girls have been enrolled in Class I this year.

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) has pointed out the decline in the enrolment of girl students in government schools, and that Rajasthan leads the country in the dropout of girls. There is also a distressing gender divide, which has been a challenge for consecutive governments in the state. According to data, out of 10.33 million enrolments reported in 2015-16, girls accounted for only 61 lakh, compared with 72 lakh for boys. This means that for every 100 boys, 84 girls enrolled. This is much below the national average of 94 girls for 100 boys. The state is trying to narrow the gap to at least 90 girls per 100 boys in a few years.

With persisting gender inequalities, the girl child is at a disadvantage and faces discrimination at every stage of her life – sex selection, infanticide, little or no access to education, lack of healthcare and nutrition, and child marriage. The conditions-linked cash transfer scheme attempts to correct such discriminations.

Various states have their own schemes to promote education of the girl child, such as the Ladli Scheme of Delhi, the Bhagyalakshmi Scheme of Karnataka, Balri Rakshak Yojana in Punjab, Girl Child Protection Scheme in Andhra Pradesh, Kunwarbainu Mameru Scheme in Gujarat, Beti Hai Anmol Scheme in Himachal Pradesh and Mukhya Mantri Kanya Suraksha Yojana of Bihar. Though most of the schemes are steps in the right direction, very little is known about their implementation and effectiveness. Introduction of the CCT mechanism is a marked departure from the traditional approaches in social programming. Through provision of financial incentives to poor families, CCTs seek to provide short-term income support and at the same time promote longterm behavioural change. CCTs therefore have the potential to become an effective means of channelising resources to the poor and socially disadvantaged sections, specifically, girls and women.

This is not Rajasthan’s first attempt at CCT. Indeed, it may have been the first state in India to conceptualise and implement a CCT scheme. Launched in 1992, the earlier plan was known as the Rajalakshmi Scheme for Enhancing the Status of the Girl Child. Any couple who had only one or two children and was ready to undergo sterilisation was eligible for the benefits of the scheme. Under it, a sum of Rs 1500 was deposited by the state government in the name of the daughters of such couples. After a 21-year-lock-in period, the amount would grow to Rs 21000. However, the scheme was discontinued in 2000. The failure of the scheme has been attributed to the fact that the government and collaborating financial agencies failed to work out realistic financial commitments. The premature closure caused people to lose faith in the system.

Similarly, state schemes like Haryana’s Apni Beti Apna Dhan (our daughters, our wealth) and Karnataka’s Namma Magalu, Namma Shakti (our daughters, our strength), which generated a lot of interest within and outside their respective boundaries, were terminated due to lack of financial resources. Thousands of parents who pinned their hopes on such schemes were badly let down.

Since the new government took office in Rajasthan, it has been engaged in several educational reforms, including merger of schools, overhauling the staffing pattern, a teachers’ evaluation scheme and comprehensive and continuous evaluation and transfers of teachers. Many programmes sponsored by the Centre in partnership with the state government are being implemented in the education sector.

These include Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) from 2001 for universalisation of primary education, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGVB), residential primary schools for girls from Schedule Castes/ Schedule Tribes and Muslim communities, the National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level implemented in educationally backward blocks and the Mid-Day Meal Scheme to enhance enrolment, retention and attendance of children in schools apart from improving their nutrition levels.

The financial world’s rotten culture is still a threat- to all of us

Rana Foroohar

Sometimes it takes a group of economists to confirm reality. Last year, a team of German academics released a study on the effects of major financial crises on politics, examining 800 elections over 140 years in 20 advanced economies. They found that after such crises, right-wing populist parties and politicians typically increase their vote share by about 30%. (The same isn’t true in the wake of more mild recessions.) If that sounds familiar, it’s because we are living through a season of the very same: persistent economic malaise since the 2008 crisis–punctuated by scandal after scandal–has laid bare the ways in which elites collude to create a system that mostly benefit elites.

Since 2010, there have been major scandals at banks on nearly every continent for every reason: malfeasance, incompetence, complacency. Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf resigned on Oct. 12 after revelations that his bank faked 2 million accounts in order to charge customers more in fees. Meanwhile, the Panama Papers leak earlier this year confirmed what many already assumed: that world leaders, celebrities and billionaires are adept at shielding their wealth from fair taxation. In the U.S., Republican president elect Donald Trump has even tried to make a virtue of his tax avoidance. No wonder surveys show that the trust gap between the 1% and the 99% has never been greater.

In all of these cases, elites enabled by a fundamentally flawed global finance culture fly over the nation-state system. That voters in countries around the world want to punish leaders at the polls for all of this isn’t surprising. But the effects on civil society are more corrosive than one election return. If nothing changes, the building blocks of developed countries are at risk.

Take the trouble at Deutsche Bank, which recently saw its share price plunge after the threat of a $14 billion fine for dicey derivatives trades. The case is a reminder of how Europe managed its debt crisis in the interest of banks, rather than citizens. German banks were encouraged by the government, which is entangled with the financial system in a way that makes the Wall Street–Washington conniving look puritanical by comparison, to lend to weak governments and companies all over Europe before 2008. As in the U.S. when things went bad, banks got bailed out and taxpayers took the hit. “Sick banks, some still owned by governments, are all over Europe,” says Stanford professor Anat Admati, co-author of The Bankers’ New Clothes: What’s Wrong With Banking and What to Do About It. “They refuse to let them die but rather do backdoor bailouts [claiming they are in the interest of preserving E.U. unity, rather than bank solvency] that perpetuate the situation.”

Cases like this foster the message that institutions and rich individuals can float above the system–and that has serious ramifications. Italy, for example, has the largest “unofficial economy” (read: level of tax evasion) in Europe. Studies show that the black market in Italy makes up around 27% of the nation’s total economy. Greece, Spain and Portugal aren’t far behind. Citizens of countries like these tend to lose faith in the system and stop doing their civic duty, like paying taxes, filing for business permits, obeying the rule of law in general. This only widens the gap between haves and have-nots.

In this sense, Trump may be a canary in the coal mine for the U.S. This election cycle has brought the public-approval rating of government to new lows. The Republican nominee has gone from obscuring how little he pays in tax to arguing that it qualifies him to fix the system. (When you look at the way in which Trump avoided paying taxes, you see a business model similar to Deutsche’s: loads of tax-code-incentivized debt, which can be written off in ways that favor the investor while leaving others on the hook.) If his argument works, it is likely to make things worse, not better.

People will never love paying taxes. But when they stop trusting the system altogether, the foundations of a country begin to crumble.

Source: TIME