“If the US imperialists threaten our sovereignty and survival, our troops will fire our nuclear-armed rockets at the White House and the Pentagon—the sources of all evil.”

Ironically, and sadly, the war-invoking threat came on the 27 July 2014, the anniversary of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. In a speech broadcast statewide, the threat to unleash nuclear strikes on the US came from Hwang Pyong-So, vice marshal of the North Korean army.

Weapons experts who label these threats nothing more than hot air say North Korea are far from mastering the miniaturization techniques necessary for mounting a nuclear device on a a full intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), able to reach the US.

But international concerns have heightened with each of North Korea’s three nuclear tests: in 2006, 2009, and 2013. And likely more to come; International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) detected operational activity at North Korea’s main nuclear facility in Yongbyon. The site was previously shut down in 2007 after an aid-for-disarmament agreement, but renovations have since begun. Using satellite imagery, the IAEA detected steam discharges and the outflow of cooling water—signs consistent with the reactor’s operation.

In early September this year, North Korea fired three ballistic missiles that flew 130 miles before falling into the Sea of Japan. South Korean military has reported more than 110 short range missiles fired since January. The frequency of testing and refinement toward ICBM’s is certainly alarming; and completely defiant of UN resolutions.

US President Obama labelled the test a “highly provocative act,” and that, “The danger posed by North Korea’s threatening activities warrants further swift and credible action by the international community. The United States will also continue to take steps necessary to defend ourselves and our allies,”

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the test was a “grave threat” that could not be tolerated. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon adding that it was a “clear and grave violation” of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

As North Korea aggressively strengthens it’s nuclear program, the nation’s food situation continues to weaken. Chronic malnutrition and stunting is widespread among children; over two-thirds of the entire population are reliant on food aid, which has dwindled to 410 grams of food per day. The average american eats about 2,000 grams.

In July 2013, the World Food Program began a $200 million two-year plan to feed the millions of malnourished in North Korea. Meanwhile, the dictatorship poured billions of dollars into missile tests, nuclear weapons, and developing ballistic carriers to potentially attack the very nations feeding its people.

It gives completely new meaning to the phrase, “biting the hand that feeds you.” Forget merely biting, how about sending a weapon of mass destruction at the hand that feeds you.

Indeed the international community sees the Catch-22 of the situation. As foreign aid came, the North Korean government began cutting commercial grain imports to free up resources for military nuclear advancements.

In response, aid from the US, South Korea, and Japan has dried up. Washington agreed to send 240,000 tons of direct food aid in February last year, but stopped when North Korea launched a missile two months later. As a result, five of the seven WFP factories supplying high-nutrient biscuits were closed in March, with over 500,000 schoolchildren left in need.

The situation exacerbated; with the ‘dependancy’ upon foreign aid and millions starving, beyond military investments, the North Korean leadership is also spending millions on themes parks and sports facilities including a new ski resort.

Strong words have come from Washington D.C. lawyer Joshua Stanton, “Hunger in North Korea is not a function of the state’s resources, but of the state’s policies. Instead of criticizing those policies and pressuring Pyongyang to change them, the WFP has, despite the best of intentions, become Pyongyang’s tacit enabler.”

North Korean exiles are also critical and calling for international aid to cease. Jang Jin-sung, one of Kim Jong-il’s favourite state poets until he defected in 2004 explains, “We say this not out of spite with regard to a nation whose leadership invests in luxuries, nuclear tests and missile launches while the welfare of its subjects remains low among its priorities. We say this for pragmatic and humanitarian reasons, because the assumptions that lie behind funding food aid have hindered economic reform in our homeland, not helped it.”

Those calling for continued assistance pose the rhetorical question: Should starving people be penalized for the policies of their government? With an increasing percentage of stunting among children (one out of four under the age of five), high maternal mortality rates, and tuberculosis, aid advocates are calling for the UN and WFP to look beyond traditional donors.

The conundrum is complex for both sides. Those supporting a strategy of starving-out the country and force them into political change must keep in mind the type of leadership they are dealing with. The highly public execution of Kim Jong-Un’s uncle merely a drop on a hot stove of regular executions. Along with the estimated and growing 200,000 prisoners enduring daily atrocities, the plight of its people obviously not a high priority. As such, it is questionable whether forcing North Korea into economic reform will draw their focus away from nuclear developments.

A historic look at food as a political weapon and embargo-like strategies indeed highlights the power therein. But the uniqueness of this current situation makes for no easy answers. Reports of the WFP having aid diverted by the government to military families and those crucial to the regime, rather than those in need, does serve a clear message to foreign policy leaders that a reform in aid is necessary.

There’s no doubt food is providing an unprecedented window into the world’s most isolated and oppressive nation. And with that window is the potential to bring about change. How this window is dealt with will have major implications. One thing is clear, there can be no leverage without resources; there can be no table discussion if no food is presented.

Unless a surge of aid is received in the next couple of months, the Regional Director Kenro Oshidari, said the WFP could be forced to shut down in January 2015. The coming months will be more than telling. On what the future will look like, North Korea defector Mina Yoon says, “The future really depends on the efforts of international community.”

Liberians are facing an Ebola Epidemic that is devastating their country. As the world watches from a distance Circus Bazaar spoke to locals of Nimba county. One of the regions severely affected by the outbreak. Here is their perspective.

This article could not have been possible without the assistance of Sanniquellie Youth Association (Sya), Inc. Circus Bazaar has made a monetary donation to support them in their fight against the Ebola epidemic in Liberia. Please give generously to support them in their struggle. Full Constitution of the Sanniquellie Youth Association. Click here – (PDF)

Bank Account Information: Liberia Bank for Development and Investment (LBDI)
Account NAME: Sanniquellie Youth Association
Account Number: 010USD40530231701

Male Church Leader from Sanniuellie

Ebola is real and it kills but it is a spiritual problem and very demonic. It is from the book of Psalm 7:15-16. If you read it you will know that it is spiritual.

Youth Leader from Sanniquellie

I believe that Ebola is real and is in Liberia because I have read about it from newspaper, internet, on radio and from other counties in Africa. But due to the lack proper awareness and misinformation many of our people do not believe the existence of the virus in our country. Many people believe that people are poisoning the food and water and are calling it Ebola. Many of our citizens do not trust the Government whatsoever. They say people do not believe in them.

We have had a very weak and poor health system with limited health workers and limited resources to work with. Today most of our health workers have refused to go to work in fear that they will get the virus. As a result most of our hospitals are closed and are not providing services to the country. People or family members who contact the virus are discriminated and are not even allowed to buy from others and also people who do the burial are also rejected by community members. At all of our quarantine centers people refuse to go there in fear that they will get the virus which is one of the contributing factor to the death of so many people. Some of the people die from lack of food.

Many of our citizens who have the means have left the country with their family while the others are buying buckets with Clora/Super bleach and put it before their house and business places for people to wash their hands before entering their house or business area. Government in an effort to control the further spared of the virus has taken some measures like the introduction of curfew from 11:00 pm to 6:00 am, distributed buckets and Clora/Super bleach,  the quarantine of some communities, the building of holding centers for people who have been suspected and many other but all of these are not really helping.

The sending of the 3000 US soldiers to help the government in the fight against Ebola by President Obama of America has given hope to many of our citizens who do not have the means.

Business man

Our prayers are for Ebola to finish from our country and we want to thank all of the people who are helping to fight the virus from our country and county. My hope is for our people will listen to the advice of our health workers and take all preventive measures to stop the further spread. One good thing is our people living in Sanniquellie has not come down with the virus only people from other places bring it to Sanniquellie therefore we are calling on our people to prevent their self from getting the virus. Another problem we are facing is our business is going down due to the outbreak of this virus in our country which has make life very hard for us. We are not able to feel at home. We are not getting money from our business like before.

Business Man (Rice Dealer) from Ganta

We will want the collective effort of all citizens to join in the fight to get rid of Ebola in our country. We blame the President of Liberia for the spread of the virus. The reason is that during the outbreak in Guinea she did not take any measures to stop the spread of the virus. She needed to close the border when the virus entered Liberia by means of Lofa. No actions were taken. The refusal to feed people who are quarantined is another problem. The President said one of the major problem is all government hospitals are closed and are not providing services to people.  Because of the already weak health system in our country people are scared to contract the virus.

Ebola Task force Member from Sanniquellie

Ebola is real and it kills and as we speak more than 135 person has die in Nimba from the virus and its related sickness. Ebola is generally transferred by contact with effected people and Ebola has very strange characteristics. As a result it survives outside of it host, unlike other virus like HIV/AIDS. One of our major challenges of preventing this virus from our county is our cultures practices that has to do with caring for our dead family members and relatives.

Some of the things we have done to stop the further spared of the Ebola Virus is the distribution of buckets and disinfectant like Clora/Super bleach and Soap to major crowded places in our county. There is also restrictions on market areas schools, video clubs and other places.

We are in the process of creating awareness to our citizens on radio and thru our local officials therefore we have decentralized our approaches and we are now working with the administrative district, chiefdom, townships and the cities. In all of these places we have establish Task Forces and empower them.

 

Local Business Woman (Hair dresser) from Sanniquellie

I know that Ebola is real and its kills when people do not protect them self and the reason why the Ebola virus is spreading and killing our people is that people are not willing to sit in their place because they are in search for food/living. Many are not taking the advice of our health workers. We need to advice our people to sit at their places to stop the spread of this virus but again this will cause problems due to the hardship our people are now facing. I also want to say that I do not know how the Ebola virus came into our country but want to tell people that they need to wash their hands and stop shaking hands and stop making love. We need to take care of our children so that they will not come in contact with the virus. Some of us fear that the use of Clora/Super bleach without it been diluted I feel that it may cause problem for them one day.

“This is likely the greatest peacetime challenge that the United Nations and its agencies have ever faced. None of us experienced in containing outbreaks has ever seen, in our lifetimes, an emergency on this scale, with this degree of suffering, and with this magnitude of cascading consequences.”

[dropcap size=big]T[/dropcap]his statement given by Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization on the 18th of September 2014 in her address to an emergency session of the UN Security Council should have sent shudders down the spine of every “two legs good” human making their way on this merry planet. These are grand words reflecting nothing less than a unprecedented situation on the ground in West Africa. One that is recognised by nearly every scientific authority in the world as one that could spiral further out of exponential control without immediate large scale intervention on behalf of technologically advanced and developed nations.

Amid the dire projections however is the some much needed hope. Many an opinion piece or news report will jump on a headline stating that without any further assistance the epidemic will continue to exponentially grow leaving numbers in worst a case scenario in the hundreds of thousands by years end. What they fail to effectively explore or even to mention is the other side of the mathematical coin which is the rate of growth is highly dependent on this potential assistance.

Basic Reproduction Number

This largely orbits around one metric named the Ro or “Basic reproduction number”. This number relates to the number of people “on average” one infected person will infect over the course of their infectious period. In the the language of epidemiology an Ro number greater than 1 ( Ro>1) means that an epidemic can continue to grow where as an Ro number less than 1 (Ro<1) will result in an unsustainable epidemic and will disappear over time. Some infectious diseases have a low Ro and some have very high R0. Ebola in this sense is low on the scale with almost all the common infectious diseases we are familiar with having an Ro number significantly higher. Whilst Ebola has averaged an Ro of between 1-4, HIV has averaged 2-5, Polio and Small Pox 5-7 and measles a massive 12-18.

Last week the journal Eurosurveillance, which is the peer-reviewed publication of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control published a mathematical assesment based on case reports on the speed in which the epidemic is growing. Their assessment gave a basic reproduction number (Ro) “broadly ranging from one to two”. This was “consistent with published estimates from prior outbreaks in Central Africa”. Their hyperthetical scenario based on continued and recent trends resulted in “an additional 77,181 to 277,124 cases by the end of 2014.” This figure along with others estimates (some higher and some lower) have formed the back bone of headlines around the word giving rise to a fear factor associated with an exponential growth that almost has no parallel. But this estimate presupposes that help will not come.

Ro numbers vary not only with the infectious potential of any given epidemic but also with the response. The conclusion of the Eurosurveillance estimates give the current Ebola outbreak an Ro number of less than two therefor “indicate that the outbreak could be brought under control if more than half of secondary transmissions per primary case are prevented.”

This has been achievable in the past with small scale outbreaks of the Ebola virus and with a significantly scaled up approach the hope is that it will work on the medium scale. The major risk is that this is not only larger than any previous outbreak but now largely within an urban and transnational setting. This combined with a potential dislocation of law and order exacerbates the problem significantly and renders previously relied on models broken.

Scaled International Response Begins

The unanimous adoption last week of a key resolution by the 193-Member UN General Assembly, that followed a historic meeting of the Security Council, which declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a threat to peace and security, shows that the international community is now taking the threat seriously.  Advanced teams  from UNMEER the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response arrive in early the coming week and the United States Military have already deployed C-17 aircraft carrying military handling equipment to Monrovia and have began establishing command headquarters.

West Africans according to all sources share customs and socio-political circumstances that result in all things from fear of aid workers to putting their faith in witch doctors in hope of survival. Yet the developed world has dragged its feet to an extent that only now have we brought to bear an assistance package that is too late for some and at risk being to little for the rest (an unknown quantity). It is worth mentioning that some 1-2% of the net worth of any one of the worlds richest 10 individuals would immediately double the monetary effort being pledged in what has the potential to be a global catastrophe.

Infectious diseases give no thought to ethics, human rights or the political persuasions of mankind. Yes there may be close to 7 billion of us on the planet yet we are only one of 8.7 million species estimated to inhabit mother earth. But even this pales in “blue dot” comparison to the 1-4 billion species that have come and gone over the past 3.5 billion years. All but a few of which have gone extinct through disease, genetic obsolescence, over-predation or any number of other factors.

Ebola is real and like the signs popping up everywhere across West Africa reminding them of this fact the developed world is also only now coming to terms with this.

University of Bristol researchers have discovered how to stop cells from attacking healthy body tissue in debilitating autoimmune diseases (such as multiple sclerosis), where the body’s immune system destroys its own tissue by mistake.

[dropcap size=big]S[/dropcap]cientists were able to selectively target the specific cells that cause autoimmune disease by reducing their aggression against the body’s own tissues. They were also able to convert them into cells capable of protecting against disease itself. This type of conversion has been previously applied only to allergies (“allergic desensitisation”). It was also discovered that effective treatment is achieved by gradually increasing the dose of antigenic fragment injected. And just as importantly they found the explanatory process that helped explain how effective treatment leads to conversion of aggressor into protector cells found via discovered changes in gene expression. By specifically targeting the specific aggressor cells, this immunotherapeutic approach avoids the need for the immune suppressive drugs associated with infections, development of tumours, and disruption of natural regulatory mechanisms.

This amazing breakthrough in selectively switching off immune cells and reprogramming them as protectors may well be in the near future the literal breath of life for may autoimmune sufferers. Of which there are hundreds of millions around the world, making this not only a major medical issue but a potentially hugely valuable market for a successful treatment or even germ line cure of the autoimmune malfunctions leading to these diseases, like Psoriasis, Crohns Lupus and others that blight tens of millions of lives.

Autoimmune diseases have statistically been on a stark rise for the last 3 decades and with 23.5 million people with autoimmune disease in America alone and far more globally its become a major worry for government and the medical community. Striking the women more than men, autoimmune diseases are the eighth leading cause of death among females, shortening the average patient’s lifespan by fifteen years. Not surprisingly, the economic burden is staggering: autoimmune diseases represent a yearly health-care burden of more than $120 billion, compared to the yearly health-care burden of $70 billion for direct medical costs for cancer.

According to the National Institutes of Health, autoimmune disease affects far more patients than the 9 million Americans who have cancer and the 16 million with coronary disease. There are all kinds of explanations of this ranging from better reporting and the spread of medical facilities into third world nations, viral infections, chemical pollution and other environmental causes but as yet there is no definitive empirical explanation for the historically recent explosion of autoimmune disease.
Presented are some statistics on some of the heavier hitters in the auto immune disease ranks.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

The total estimated number of people diagnosed with MS, reported by the countries that responded, is 1, 315 579 (approximately 1.3 million) of whom approximately 630 000 are in Europe, 520 000 in the Americas, 66 000 in the Eastern Mediterranean, 56 000 in the Western Pacific, 31 500 in South-East Asia and 11 000 in Africa. What we must keep in mind is that there is no data for some of the mega countries such as Russian Federation, where the total number of people has been suggested to be quite high in anecdotal reports.

Lupus, SLE

1.4 million people in the United States have SLE or some other form of Lupus which amounts to 1 in 85. An estimated 5,000,000 people worldwide have lupus and Mayo Clinic researchers report that the incidence of lupus has nearly tripled in the United States over the past four decades

Type 1 Diabetes

T1 Diabetes accounts for $14.9 billion in healthcare costs in the U.S. each year, while all types of diabetes combine to account for $245 billion in annual costs. As many as three million Americans may have T1D. An estimated 41 million people world wide have T1D. Rheumatoid arthritis. The big gun of the autoimmune club RA occurs when the immune system attacks and destroys the tissues that line bone joints and cartilage. The disease occurs throughout the body, although some joints may be more affected than others. RA is a common chronic disease that affects about 1% of the world population.

Psoriasis

Estimates of the occurrence of psoriasis in different parts of the world vary from 0.1 to 3%. Thus it is estimated that around 125 million people worldwide have psoriasis. 10-30% of people with psoriasis go on to develop psoriatic arthritis, a debilitating type of inflammatory joint disease.

The University of Bristols discovery via molecular medicine has, it seems, come in the nick of time with rising rates of autoimmune disease bringing misery and suffering to hundreds of millions globally. We can only hope that its promise yields, if not a cure, at least a successful treatment that stops autoimmune disease in its tracks. And with well above 250 million sufferers world wide, it may well be a pharmaceutical El Dorado for the companies which can use this discovery to fashion a successful treatment or cure.

Source paper. https://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140903/ncomms5741/full/ncomms5741.html