12 October - Perceptions of Danger

From Tuskegee to Guatemala Via Nuremberg
News broke last week that the U.S. government purposefully exposed hundreds of men in Guatemala to syphilis in ghoulish medical experiments conducted during the late 1940s.The revelations came about through research conducted by Wellesley College medical historian Susan Reverby on the notorious Tuskegee syphilis study. The two former U.S. government research projects, in Tuskegee, Ala., and Guatemala—equally noxious—are mirror images of each other. Both point to the extremes to which ethics can be disregarded in the pursuit of medical knowledge, and serve as essential reminders that medical research needs constant supervision and regulation.

Reverby is the author of the recently published book “Examining Tuskegee,” a comprehensive history of the Tuskegee syphilis study.

Tuskegee, Ala., is in the heart of the Deep South. From 1932 until it was exposed by the press in 1972, the U.S. government conducted a long-term study on the effects of syphilis when left untreated. Four hundred men with syphilis were told that they would be given a “special treatment” for their “bad blood.” Unbeknownst to them, the men were given useless placebos, not the promised cure, and their debilitation caused by the untreated syphilis was tracked over decades.
In Tuskegee, infected men were left untreated. In Guatemala, the opposite happened.

How Democracy Dies: Lessons From a Master 
The ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes spent his life battling the assault on democracy by tyrants. It is disheartening to be reminded that he lost. But he understood that the hardest struggle for humankind is often stating and understanding the obvious.

Collapsing empire watch 
In 1999, the U.S. was ranked by the World Health Organization as 24th in life expectancy. It's now 49th. There are other similarly potent indicators. In 2009, the National Center for Health Statistics ranked the U.S. in 30th place in global infant mortality rates. Out of 20 "rich countries" measured by UNICEF, the U.S. ranks 19th in "child well-being." Out of 33 nations measured by the OECD, the U.S. ranks 27th for student math literacy and 22nd for student science literacy. In 2009, the World Economic Forum ranked 133 nations in terms of "soundness" of their banks, and the U.S. was ranked in 108th place, just behind Tanzania and just ahead of Venezuela.

rahyah
The Embodiment of Four Freedoms in Universal Principles.
The embodiment of Freedom & Self-determination in Universal Principles.
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969
International Law of Treaties

Find Elected Officials 

 Pictures From the Biggest Day of Climate Action in History 

1freeworld 

Network of Spiritual Progressives 

Some things just never go away…

We’ve obsoleted many things …But some scams avoid the hatchet.

 Nuclear Energy and the Iran Affair 
( It's interesting how fast the 'danger' of a country working to rid the Middle East of nuclear weaponry acquiring some while using tech incompatible with weapons production sponsored by a country with no interest in creating a threat in its backyard is decried ;  while the greatest holder of said WMD....who have bragged about it for years... is not an evident problem while they perpetually cite the danger posed by those without said weapons.  )


World Nuclear .org