April 21, 2008 by Mirjam Hirch.

It is a rich ghetto. Block-type, closed- shaped buildings form a concrete jungle of cold steel and glass constructions: Living in a Bock’s in newly developed little SoHo, Deutschherrnviertel, in Mainhatten, Bankfurt, alias Frankfurt on Main, Germany. The incarnation of a trendy locale, modern lifestyle- the urban principle of the global city.
Functions are mixed: living and working in the upper areas, below are studios and offices, restaurants and shops, swimming pools, a health club. The quarter, Deutschherrnviertel, is named after the Teutonic Knights (in German Deutschherrn), an old germanic crusading military order during the Middle Ages and much of the modern era. In former times the imagery of the Teutonic Knights was used to promote German nationalism, the symbol of the German Empire’s policy used by the Nazis to spread their propaganda and ideology.

The image of the Deutschherrnviertel residents is not one of the traditional local families but one of the dynamic, cosmopolitan, young and happy ladies and gentlemen.
The comfortable neighborhood draws the most affluent residents. The Capital Aristocracy, a class of gentry whose wealth is the dictate by which they rule, seperate from other people and the land. It is an atmosphere of self- ghettoization or “monetary apartheid.”
Most residents base their actions on external pressures - the pressure to appear to be a certain kind of person, the pressure to adopt a particular mode of living, the pressure to ignore one’s own moral and aesthetic objections in order to have a more comfortable existence.
This insularization of the wealthy on the side of the Main river tells tales of similar recent developments within European societies and of the global mentality that affects peoples the world over.

Walking down the streets of the quarter instills one with a feeling of sterile monotony, alienation, loneliness, even threat. The sidewalks in this area- empty. Where are the kids the elderly, the people. Where are laughter, love, life?
Here and there are plants. They look like parts of a scenery, not allowed to grow and develop naturally, but arranged in line or planted in big plant pots.
Where in this is the room for existential experiences of a deeper reality, the feeling for the mysteriousness of life? The marvel and wonder at fantastic constructions, their inspiring forms and shapes that stirs our curiosity, makes us want to explore and fills us with respect for all of creation? Where is this essential quality of life there?
What types of mentality must places like this shape? What is a child’s experience of reality growing up in such modern lifestyle surroundings?

The children sure grow to understand that public housing is sold to international investors. And that a landlord is not a living being you can see, hear, and talk to. The landlord is some sort of property group based somewhere in this world where taxes are low, created to develop, invest and manage funds in real estate. The administration of the buildings is completely disconnected and anonymous, without anyone feeling responsible. The residents simply appear as a number in a computer system.

Certainly digital numbers on screens of their bank accounts, the newest technology, fancy cars, fashionable (and expensive) clothing, personal comfort and concentrating wealth are the dominant preoccupations on these residents’ minds. Only occasionally a neighbor might quietly disappear due to insolvency. But there is no time in the busy day to give this a second thought. Nor is there room to think about justice and life, humanity, the loss of cultural and biological diversity. Whatever that is, it must affect someone else, happen somewhere else, at another time, in another world maybe?

Technorati Tags: lifestyle, housing, culture

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April 14, 2008 by Mirjam Hirch.

It is a quiet war. In the face of brutality against peoples in numerous countries around the world European governments are banging their doors. People seeking asylum are made to “leave of their own free will.” Private organizations, hired to do the governments’ dirty work take care of this voluntary deportation- in many cases even through wrong legal advice. The organization bearing the euphemistic name Human Rights Austria is one such “private governmental organization.“ Officially a Non Government Organization (NGO) Human Rights Austria is completly financially dependant on the Austrian government.

Simultaneously medical doctors, so called “fit-to-fly experts,” are paid by governments to immediately provide the medical opinion needed to send the refugees back to their home countries to avoid delay and additional costs.

Traumatized and full of fear those refugees have to return to places of utter insecurity. Oftentimes life threatening circumstances are awaiting them upon their return.
These days European countries are thinking of allowing in some of the 4.5 million Iraqis seeking refuge, fearing murder, persecution and brutality. About 20 thousand of them might find temporary refuge in Germany.

The situation of the Assyro-Chaldeans, Mandaeans, Yazidi and many other minorities in Iraq are recognized to be especially precarious as they are brutally persecuted. Their security situation is worse than ever before with neighboring countries having no more capacity to accept more refugees.

During a two day conference on ethnic and religious minorities in the current Iraq this past weekend in Frankfurt am Main, Germany Iraqi minorities voiced their concerns. They reported first hand about the ongoing persecution and systematic terror which threatens whole peoples in south- central Iraq and which might mean the end of their almost two thousand year old history.

What needs to be ensured is the survival of Iraqi minorities. This is not merely about offering first aid to the people threatened by death, searching refuge in other countries, the indigenous groups maintain. This is about finding political solutions in the region- through an extensive constitutional amendment including an expansion of the federal system which grants safety and equal rights to self-determined indigenous peoples of Iraq.

Technorati Tags: Iraq, refugees, political solutions

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April 3, 2008 by Mirjam Hirch.

Would you be willing to be a test subject in clinical trials for new pharmaceutical products? When I recently asked this question teaching a group of workers at a German company which offers clinical trial services the response was a quick and clear: “Never ever”.
Who should be used as test subjects in clinical trials, was my ensuing question.
Radical Muslims- they should be castrated too, was the fervent answer.
This is the message of young people having grown up in a country where some 60 years ago the Nuremberg code was established, the first international code of research ethics. After the horrendous history of Nazi experiments conducted during WWII had led to the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial (1946) during which were found guilty the accused doctors of “crimes against humanity”.

Certainly it is criminal when large pharmaceutical companies are using the poor, illiterate and uninformed people as guinea pigs. There is a long list of example cases where new pharmaceuticals or pharmaceutical tests had devastating effects, killing innocents.

Pfizer’s experiment, testing an unapproved drug, the oral form of Trovan, on children with brain infections during a 1996 epidemic at a field hospital in the city of Kano, Nigeria was “an illegal trial of an unregistered drug,” and a “clear case of exploitation of the ignorant,” the investigators concluded.

Merck & Co.’s arthritis drug Vioxx, the pain drug, recalled in 2004, is linked to more than 27,000 heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths.

Healthy volunteers recruited to study by the company, TeGenero Immuno Therapeutics, in March 2006 suffered multiple organ dysfunction. The men may never fully recover, and may suffer long-term disruption to their immune systems.

An international consortium including German pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche was licenced the genes of Iceland’s population, valuable in the hunt for drugs to treat modern diseases worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Autogen Limited, an Australian biotech company had secured exclusive rights to the entire gene pool of the isolated people of Tonga without the peoples consent.

The United Nations World Health Organization spread a Tetanus vaccine amongst millions of women of child-bearing age (not men) in Nicaragua, Mexico and the Philippines. The lay organization Pro Vida de Mexico’s initiated vaccine sample tests revealed that the Tetanus vaccine was a concealed abortion vaccine with a tetanus carrier which incapacitates a woman to maintain a pregnancy. The women vaccinated were not told.

There are many more examples of outrageously unethical research and tests that could be listed here. No matter how long the list though what is essential beyond the abstract facts and numbers are the people. On the one hand there are the ones treated unjustly, suffering, families severely traumatised. And on the other there are those who let this happen, are more or less knowingly part of the machinery.
Now when I think of the people I talked to putting their energy into supporting the clinical trial services company. They do not approve of the manner many of the clinical trials are conducted and even are suspicious of new pharmaceutical products to a point that they would not even buy and take the pills when first available in the pharmacies after the tests.
The focus here evidently is the personal security of people living within a fearful society which does not provide a lot of stability. It is about being able to satisfy one’s own ideas of comfort and life quality and not to ask too many questions.

The employees of that company clearly did not want to know too much about the overall work of their company. They barely have full insight into what their own department does exactly. They have to enter data into computer data bases. This is clear and clean enough. There is no passion in the work. It is routine that simply helps to pay the bills.

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March 22, 2008 by Mirjam Hirch.

The fight for survival demands such an incredible amount of time and energy that fewer and fewer people have enough strength left for problem solving, let alone creative endeavours. Instability and the lack of natural or monetary resources is omnipresent in many regions of the world. To experience the peace of mind which is so necessary for being productive becomes a luxury enjoyed by only a handful of people. For the rest there is the experience of stress.
Injustice, discrimination, forced displacement, and other sorts of physical or psychological brutality take away the ability to think practically. It paralyses families, communities, whole nations.

Collective apathy seemed to be the word of the day on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the launch of the Iraq war in the United States.
Where are we all fighting for human rights and justice? Why this apparent failure to undertake proper self-care, allowing some to manipulate millions to do exactly what a consumer society demands them to do? Is the human collective globally suffering from learned helplessness, depression and cultural demoralization?

Sure some of the greatest gains in global justice come from the political arena- establishing full democracy and universal access to health care and education. However in an era where the idea of renewed and expanded social programs seems subject of an ideological barrier every one of us needs to take action, take control, get informed and stand up to any injustice experienced.
Self-empowerment is possible on all levels and starts with becoming more aware changing little things in our surroundings so that we discover our own strenght and ability to effect change.

Technorati Tags: human rights, justice, self-empowerment

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March 15, 2008 by Mirjam Hirch.

When did you laugh for the first time in your life? Probably you were too small to even remember. Can you imagine what it must feel like to have to learn how to laugh when almost thirty years of age?
What to babies is a very natural instinct and one of our basic necessities of life to others is part of a long and strenous learning process. Having grown up in South Africa’s townships it takes him more than ten years now Yazir Henri (Direct Action Center for Peace and Memory, Cape Town, South Africa) explained during a presentation on his current tour to Europe. Still he says oftentimes it does not come easily to simply smile. He has to teach himself but knows he is getting better.
Humour helps him overcome his frustration with the apartheid system which led him to join Umkontho We Sizwe (spear of the nation), the military wing of the ANC (African National Congress) and to later imprisonment.
Being able to laugh stands for a lot to the former combatants and other survivors of apartheid violence. It is against depression and death- the symbol of hope. A great sign of victory in which lies all the courage and strength and dignity of the men who went through the most cruel experiences of violence. Despite all their traumas and the lack of education during their child- and early adulthood they have incredible courage, are picking up their pens and send out their voices as warriors for peace.

Technorati Tags: South Africa, reconciliation, peace,

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March 12, 2008 by Mirjam Hirch.

Alternative approaches to healing obesity and diabetes are gaining more and more interest and understanding in Europe. The principle of enacting self determination to regain control over one’s health is emphasized within the western medical system to achieve a better state of well being.
Recently one of the biggest studies ever conducted in the USA, involving 10,000 diabetics, planned for more than 10 years was discontinued after only four years. There were more deaths among the patients whose blood glucose was lowered than among the control group. Studies found that lowering the blood sugar with the help of insulin pushes the blood glucose into the adipose tissue and the muscles. The sugar transport to the brain in contrast is slowed down. The undernourished and for its high energy needs “selfish brain” starts demanding more supplies. The stress system gets activated: The heart starts pounding faster to transport more blood sugar to the brain. Heightening the risk of heart attack. Due to the lack of available energy from the body the brain commands to eat more. The patient gains weight. Diabetes gets worse. Eating becomes a strategy and turns into the sole reaction to stress and conflicts.

Based on this scientific research the method of “train the brain” is being developped at the University of Lübeck, Germany. In contrast to conventional ideas this method recognizes obesity and type 2 diabetes as central diseases of the brain on the basis of neuroendocrine defects. Changing behaviour is the focus of the “train the brain” therapy. Not only eating habits. Emotions are of prior importance. Anger, sadness, solitude all tell the person about his/her personal needs. However many patients are no longer aware of the causes of their emotions. They simply feel stressed and start to eat in order to feel better. The scientific researchers of the selfish brain project maintain that to overcome these habits and heighten the patients’ awareness for their own needs should be an important part of treatment, besides medication. 

People need to be supported to efficiently cope with the stress underlying and contributing to metabolic dysfunctions to have sufficient strenght to undertake self-care and properly oversee the diseases which are so devastating the world over and severely threaten the survival of indigenous communities.

Technorati Tags: healing, diabetes, obesity, self-determined health, science, western medicine

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March 3, 2008 by Mirjam Hirch.

The art of financing is a highly complex product of human creativity. Undoubtedly those of us who are masters of this art can be extremely influential. Especially so in the area of so called “development” aid. Unfortunately, where art and politics meet the potential “beauty” of possible positive results to behold in that area remains more and more invisible to the eyes of the outside observer.

In many countries the policy for disbursement of funds more and more shifts from project aid to budget aid, as has just been reported in Süddeutsche Zeitung about the German federal audit court. The German Government is going to spent 400 million euros on budget aid this year.
It is hard to control whether this aid which disappears in the total budget of the recipient country is used efficiently. No single entity can be held acccountable and responsible for the proper handling of the funds as is possible in the case of concrete and evaluable projects.
Budget aid is obviously being used strategically in select states. It allows to influence more than just one specific project, it exerts power over the overall politics of a country.

What is certain is that with budget aid indigenous groups are increasingly dependant on the goodwill of the states in whose territories they find themselves in and on the states’ relations to donor countries to access and benefit from any of the funds provided. How will indigenous groups be able to play an active role in the discussions with the states and decide for themselves what is best for them in terms of using the funds for indigenous education health and other matters of vital interest?

Technorati Tags: funding, development aid, self-determination

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February 7, 2008 by Mirjam Hirch.

Shocking figures. There are over one billion people who are dangerously obese in the world. At the same time there are people who simply do not have anything to eat. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 850 million people worldwide are undernourished which is about every seventh person, mainly children. Every second four people are dying because of hunger.

In the civilized world food resources are most plentiful. However, more and more people are seen starving there too. Only a few of them exit this world because of a real lack of physical nourishment. Spiritual poverty is rife and causing extremely serious problems: It kills. Invisible bullets, machetes, arrows and sticks, like epidemics, attack people in the form of words and deeds. Injuring so much more deeply when the perpetrators are denying family who try to control their beloved kids with iron fists in silk gloves. Taking away the individual’s autonomy and self-determination and thus, in the end, their lives.

A former schoolfriend recently died from anorexia nervosa. She simply starved to death in her parental home surrounded by wealth and material security. Her mind having been imprisoned in its own concentration camp for many years, finally, was too debilitated to open the unlocked door into freedom….
She could not win her deathly fight to control the little she felt able to control of her life - her body. Leaving her surroundings to cope with the tragedy witnessed- needing to heal.

Technorati Tags: wealth, poverty, health

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December 21, 2007 by Mirjam Hirch.

The world is full of wonders. All we have to do is explore, see and feel with all our heart and senses wide open. Continously we will discover something “new.” This is a very exciting experience. It enriches our personal worlds with beautiful forms tastes and colours and makes us re-experience the amazing novelty of life a child is mesmerized by.
Children often invent sort of a game of discovery and turn into a competition what might involve questions like: Who is the first one to find out about mysteries such as how does that bird look like which brings the babies?
Children are very curious and very desirous to know. They are happy as well as proud when their parents praise them for finding out things that are new because unknown before to the child’s world. Sure the child is made to believe to have been the first one to find out….

Scientists like children are very much driven by their sense of curiosity and the need to explore. The scientists’ zest for action being sometimes simply to have their names immortalized. My biology teacher at school proudly used to tell his pupils about this bug in Venezuela who bears his name, proofing the truth of the story by a very small line printed in a sizeable book. This made us children smile.

This week newspapers reported on two “new” species which got “discovered” in Indonesia. One being a giant rat which is about five times the size of a typical city rat. The other a pygmy possum which could be one of the smallest marsupials in the world.
In June 2006 scientists discovered a chameleon snake able to change its colours in the rainforest on the island of Borneo. Probably the animal, one of nature’s best kept secrets, had been long known to local indigenous groups and was only hidden to western science.

Evidently there is a lot out there not everybody has found out about yet. However this precious knowledge and biodiversity is critically endangered the world over by illegal logging and pollution.
Dumbfounded by the immensity of creation it is up to us to get active and fight to protect the Garden of Eden which is our planet- not only a story in a book. Paradise can be all around us.

Technorati Tags: Biodiversity, indigenous knowledge

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December 9, 2007 by Mirjam Hirch.

When fighting for human rights and justice indigenous nations use the legal system imposed upon them by the settlers. After decades or centuries of dealing with these systems  indigenous nations are much better equipped to protect their interests. More and more indigenous scholars are very familiar with the western judicial system after running through western education programmes, holding Master’s degrees and PhDs.
However, the immense legal costs forced to pay make it impossible for some to properly protect their interests. The landmark ruling which backs native self-determination in the case of the Tsilhqot’in First Nations in British Columbia, Canada, within the BC Treaty Process took a decade to complete and cost close to 30 million dollars. There are a lot of nations not able to wait so long for a decision nor able to raise sufficient funds and get good lawyers.

Legal systems the world over can be very cumbersome, expensive and slow. Lawsuits might cause bankruptcy. Big companies are very much aware of this and with immense financial power behind them employ legal battles and strategies to gain more control. The sting of multinational companies long legal arms can be very irritating. Monsanto, the giant agro-chemical company which is at the forefront of developing genetically modified foods, accused North American farmers of patent infringements. Many of these farmers have reached out-of-court settlements with Monsanto. They cannot pay the legal fees of their savings, plus time, travel and compensation for labour when away from their farms. They simply give in when Monsanto offers to withdraw the legal challenge if the farmers sign a contract to buy their seeds from Monsanto in the future and to pay a technology use fee. To put it bluntly: This is blackmail.

While eye-popping to most, the sum big companies pay for legal fees does not hurt those  companies. Merck spent more than $1.2 billion on Vioxx-related legal fees after withdrawing its pain medication Vioxx from the market in September 2004. Patients taking the drug suffered injury or even died. The settlement payment of $ 4,85 billion to settle 27,000 lawsuits represents less than one year’s profits for the copmapny, the third-largest American drug maker.

Sure, in the end the lawyers always win. However it is up to each and everyone of us to assist and support courageous people fighting a cause we deeply believe in, defending biodiversity, challenging environmental and moral perversity of current practices. It does not take so much if we all share.

Technorati Tags: law, self-determination, multinational companies

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