What a day! You already know that the Natural Solutions Foundation is purusing an international strategy since Codex is an international problem and a legal strategy since Codex uses law-like proceedures to force its pro-illness views on the nations of the world. Well, there are nations still able to refuse to be controlled by external forces like Codex. India may well be one of them.g
I promised you that today’s events would knock your socks off so get ready: today Bert and I met with the President of India, Mr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam and briefed him on Codex! In a
meeting with Bert and me Mr. Kalam, who is known and revered by everyone we spoke with as “The People’s President”, listened carefully and took in everything we said. He promised to study our information carefully (contained in the Codex eBook) and it is clear that we have a listening ear and a potential ally in Mr. Kalam. This leader is known far and wide as a strong advocate of natural health methods and, indeed, it was by congratulating us on our focus on natural health and urging us to include the mind, not just the body, in our healing (which we do), that Mr. Kalam began our supposedly 20 minute meeting. After the 30 minute mark had passed, we were still in the room talking although the staff was in a furor. Mr. Kalam was unperturbed by their sense of urgency and we were able to continue talking.
It was, in short, an amazing opeing which we are profoundly grateful to Prof. Dr. B. M. Hegde, Director, Natural Solutions Foundation — India, that this highly significant meeting came about.
Thank you, Prof. Dr. Hegde, for your support and help. And thank you, Mr. Kalam, for your listening, learning mind.
Yours in health and freedom,
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
I am much to tired to write more but I promise that you will have the details tomorrow along with the story of an outing to see the maker of astonishing new technology about which I will tell you.
The President of India, a country with more than 1.2 Billion people was listening very, very carefully. He is known as an incorruptable man of the highest integrety who speaks for what he believes, not for what is convenient.
Day 40: July 21, 2006
This morning we were picked up by Dr. Vira from the Sir Ganaga Ram Hospital (about 5 minutes by car from our hotel, the Hotel Swadi Deluxe) where we met with the some of the senior staff, and other doctors as well, from that institution. A fully allopathic hospital with all the latest equipment and skills necessary to run a modern Western hospital, none the less, the doctors here understand (or at least some of them do) that the Ayurveda precept of food as medicine and medicine as food is the basis for health (or its violation, the basis for disease). So the twin dangers of adulterating the food supply and taking away nutrients and other natural health options, was very, very concerning to them.
The doctors listened intently and asked probing questions at the end of the presentation. The most senior doctor present appeared to be slumped in his chair and sleeping through most of my lecture. At the end of my talk, he waited for all the questions to finish and then said that he would make some comments and end the meeting. Bert and I looked at each other: a negative word from this revered and very senior doctor, and there would be nothing more that would happen here at this influential center. Imagine, then, our delight and surprise when he stated that he had heard much that he did not know but that what he heard made sense and seemed right. He went on to say that his hospital had to be mindful of the fact that drugs are poisons and that there is much that must be done without them. Further, he went on to detail a family member’s search for anything — anything — that would help his autistic child and, along with other doctors in the room, asked where they could learn how to use natural methods like the ones I had talked about and where they or relatives with conditions “incurable” to allopathic medicine could get meaningful help.
I had the pleasure of referring those seeking training to the excellent educational programs of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine and discussed individual referrals with them since I am not able to take on new patients because of our heavy travel schedule. Codex: oh, yes! These doctors, although they had never heard of it, got it, and got it big time. Although Dr. Faul, the “Director Medical” of the hospital noted before my lecture that “We have lost faith in food”, still, here in India, the tradition of medicine/food/medicine is alive, if not well, and these doctors knew what that meant. Also, many of them come from villages where health was assured by this technique, along with herbs if needed. They have seen and experienced first hand what the loss of “faith in food” (CLEAN food) has meant to their health and that of their families so they are uniquely enabled to lock onto this concept and see the threat.
Following the lecture, we talked with the very senior doctor and learned that he is suffering from a serious and, for allopathic medicine, untreatable disorder which saps him of his strength more each day. I was able to make some suggestions which made sense to him and he immediately dictated a letter to Prof. Dr. B. M. Hegde, the Director of Natural Solutions Foundation — India, and a world-renowned physician to boot, to ask for assistance in securing the treatments I recommended.
Then we went on to vast briefly with Dr. Faul before we left for our next meeting. Imagine our pleasure when she invited us to speak at her January meeting on the importance of the Ayurveda integration of consciousness, mind and body in healing. Deepak Chopra will be there, too. Of course we accepted.
Along the way, we got to talking about what she calls “Cosmic Healing” and listened attentively when she said that a man she knows has created technology which does the same thing effectively. We asked if we could visit him and she said we could go (6 hours away by car each way) on Tuesday and come back Wednesday. We leaped at the opportunity, you can well imagine, since we are very interested in such technologies. We will let you know what we see!
Then back to the hotel for an afternoon meeting (which did not occur) with an exceptional pulmonologist who is very sympathetic to our work.
We waited until we had to leave for an encounter with an Indian agent for social change who is the brother of a highly respected Indian Scientist in the US who has been very helpful to us at the Indian International Center Annex. This senior gentleman arranged for us to meet at this venerable club with the Director of the Delhi Center of an Ayurveda Hospital and Treatment Center. We explained the Codex threat to both of them and, as we have always found, they listened attentively and asked profound questions.
Along the way, the Ayurveda doctor said that we could come the next day for a Panchakarma (hot oil) Ayurveda massage. I was thrilled because in the car on the way over I had said to Bert, “You know, tomorrow is Saturday and I would love to find an Ayurveda center and have a hot oil massage.” Honest!
Back to a restaurant for dinner and back to our hotel for a 10 PM appointment with the doctor who could not come earlier. We were together until 1:30AM while we talked Codex, energy medicine, nutritional medicine and public information techniques. By the end, we had a new ally and a new friend.
Day 41: July 22, 2006
I woke up today with a high blood pressure episode, the first I have ever had, at least as far as I know. My feet and ankles were swollen with “pitting edema” up my legs and, when I took it, my blood pressure was 165/135. I called the Ayurveda doctor and told him that I needed not only to have the Panchakarma treatment, but I needed a consultation with a doctor as well. He told me how to set it up and I did, indeed, have a consultation with a doctor at the facility. He prescribed herbal tablets and a special type of Panchakarma treatment. Following a very unique (to me) hot oil massage administered by two pleasant, but silent, trained Ayurveda masseuses my BP was 122/82 — totally within normal limits. Would it have come down by itself? Perhaps. But I will tell you that I believe that Ayurveda medicine belongs in our armamentarium for health care, not illness care. I was very appreciative of the opportunity.
Oh, by the way, Bert had a very sore point on his knee which has been getting steadily more painful ever since we began spending hours and hours in cramped cars where he cannot stretch his leg out and planes which are the same. He, too, had both a consultation and a Panchakarma treatment. His knee is vastly improved: there is no pain unless he presses really hard on the spot. My therapeutic intervention: “Don’t press the spot!”
We came home, showered and showered and showered (very oily oil!) and went out to dinner, then home and bed for Bert, computer for me.
Day42: July 23, 2006
We were invited today to lunch with a friend of the amazingly well-connected Dr. B. M. Hegde who is the former head of India’s equivalent of the FBI and currently a top advisor to the government on legal and human rights!
He and his grown son entertained us at their lovely, gracious home (guarded by a man with a rifle) and we talked about Codex, of course, but we also talked about the unity of goodness in all religions and sincere paths to God. We saw photos of this man with gurus, divines like the Dali Lama and other world spiritual leaders. He is a complexly simple (or simply complex) man of insight and great penetration of intellect who immediately saw the impact of Codex and invited us to present at a meeting on July 29th where the program is already set, of course, but where he will make about 20 minutes available to allow us to introduce the Codex issue to the audience. He, too, wants us to speak at a much larger meeting when we come back in January. We said we would.
The home cooked South Indian food was delicious, eaten with the right hand and not at all spicy. But the subtle blending of taste was fantastic.
We said goodbye to this gentleman and his son, nodded goodbye to the man with the rifle and drove off. As we went, we saw a beautiful complex labeled “Indian Handicrafts Exposition” which looked exceptionally nice. We asked the taxi driver to stop thinking we would spend an hour there. Four hours later we left having seen handicrafts and treasures old and new of a quality rarely seen outside of a museum. We could not afford anything, but we did make a new friend: the Senior Manager with whom we had an almost identical discussion about the same things we talked about over lunch. He, like India’s former “Top Cop” looks at life from a deeply holistic and spiritual perspective. His religion guides him to devotion in every act and an understanding of the unity through which good comes into the world without demanding that any one religion be followed while being deeply devout in his own religion. These two men provided us with pretty profound discussions on the depth of man’s good in the face of the world’s evil. And they are, by the way, members of different religions. Is this a shared personal reality or a typically Indian view? We do not know enough Indians to say, but all of the people we have talked to here have said pretty much the same thing on the topic and, unlike the US, they bring the topic up early and often, but with gentle interest, not fanaticism.
Then a quick dinner, many phone conferences and preparation for tomorrow’s extraordinary event. Stay tuned!
Yours in health and freedom,
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Today is a particularly auspicious day since teachers are honored today all over India.
Whether they are spiritual teachers or technical ones today belongs to them. I was not only honored by being introduced by Dr. Hegde at the college of which he is the Emeritus Dean, but also honored by being asked to deliver the 2006 Keshava Pai Memorial Oration on the “Future of Medicine” which I did with great pleasure. This annual oration keeps the memory of the beloved founder of the institution alive. Dr. Hegde’s leadership of Natural Solutions Foundation – India was announced to his institution.
Then I told the audience of medical students, faculty and very senior faculty that the future of medicine was at a point of bifurcation: In one future, untold numbers of people, in rank according to their underlying nutritional vulnerability, would die with or without medications of the chronic degenerative diseases identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the “non communicable diseases of under nutrition”, cancers, diabetes, stroke, heart attack, etc. In the other future, safe, clean, natural and unadulterated food was available to the people of India and the world and dietary supplements and herbs were valuable tools with which to gain, regain and maintain optimal health.
I urged each of them to become a source of light and information, guidance and force for natural choices in spite of the fact that they had been taught that there was a pill for every ill and, increasingly, an ill for every pill.
The first future track, I believe, is the one we will face if Codex Alimentarius is not reigned in and corrected, error by error, country by country. It is a future in which countless people will suffer untold disease and death which is totally preventable and therefore unnecessary if their food and health options are not protected and if Optimum Health is not the goal of Codex and of their country. I explained the globalization of the food supply and the degradation of the environment and the nutrient load of food through common, but deadly agricultural practices. And I explained the magnitude of starvation and illness without nutrients at effective doses, herbs and other supplements at those same effective doses and the safety and quality of food assured.
The second future is the one that we will live in if every country takes stock of her people’s health needs (whatever the multinational corporate needs might be) and corrects the dangerous and disastrous food-related illness and deaths the negative standards and guidelines of Codex will foist upon nations if they let it.
I also explained that within the threat and danger posed by Codex Alimentarius lies the seed of the new medical paradigm (which contains within it the old one: that health and well being reside in clean, unadulterated food, healthy living and exercise and nutrients and herbs given to people based on their individual needs) all focused on preventing illness and, when it does occur, finding and curing the underlying cause of that illness. In other words, the second path is toward Whole Person Healing.
At the conclusion of the lecture, several things happened. First, the grandson of the Founder of the College, Dr. Pai, graciously presented me with a gold medal commemorating the oration. That was really cool!
The second thing that happened was a lively exchange with questions that were dynamic and forward moving. Professor Dr. S. Viswanathan, MB, BS, MD, DGO, PG Dip Yoga, Professor and Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Deputy Medical Superintendant, Rajah Muthiah Medical College Hospital and Director of the Center for Yoga Studies, Annamalai University, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu asked what we must do to bring about the pro health changes in India. I answered that enacting what I call the “Codex two step” regarding the Vitamin and Mineral Guideline (which is laid out in the Codex was the best place to start and he agreed that he would begin there. I was surprised, delighted and nearly breathless when Dr. Hegde, a man who lets no grass grow beneath his feed, announced to me that he had asked Dr. Viswanathan to accept the position of Chairman of Natural Solutions Foundation –Tamil Nadu.
I had to be reminded that Tamil Nadu is one of India’s Sates so Dr. Viswanathan is the first of the State level units for the Natural Solutions Foundation which Dr. Hegde is building for health and health freedom’s sake in India.
We are in the land of ancient medical wisdom here in India. The best known in the West is Ayurveda, a system in which food is specifically used as an individualized medicine every bit as important as herbs, prayer, and other influences. We were delighted to be driven to several really exciting places: Alva’s Ayurveda facilities: a magnificent herbarium containing a vast array of traditional healing plants, an Ayurveda pharmaceutical company (Alva) whose products are made in the traditional ways and are certified Organic, Alva’s treatment facilities and their Hospital. We were also able to meet their gifted and inspired chairman at their new Ayurvedic Medical School and were invited back to present to the school next January. We will be there!
Although herbs were “given” to the WTO, you will remember that our lawyers tell us that the active compounds and complexes in herbs actually still fall under the dominion of Codex where a nutrient related adverse event is “any change in a bio marker”. If India does not protect her natural system of health, Codex threatens it in a major way. Thus, the importance of enlisting this community of interest is obvious. And enlist it we are doing.
In the evening, after a much needed shower (hot, humid, sticky, gooey weather does not make for good party wear) we attended a gathering given by Dr. Hegde on the occasion of his physician-daughter’s visit from the US to her family home here in Mangalore. Dozens of men and women gathered to mix and mingle. They uniformly impressed me with their open mindedness, their intelligence and their interest in the Codex problem. We talked, ate and mingled with supportive, creative and positive professionals who all wanted to know what they could do to help. It’s hard not to love that kind of gathering! AND the food was spectacular in the buffet we all selected from: vegetarian on one long table and non-veg on another. I ate some of each. It was all fantastic.
One of the problems in this trip is that I will no longer be able to go to the Indian restaurants in the US and Europe which I used to enjoy now that I have eaten real Indian food!
Dr. Hegde sent an email notifying us that we had been on 5 Indian TV stations with the Natural Solutions Foundation message. Not only that, The Hindu ran an article 3 days before we arrived. Things are definitely heating up here. Now we will go to at least 2, possibly 3, more cities in India to lecture on the issues at hand.
Stay tuned!
Yours in health and freedom,
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
July 10, 2006
We were picked up and taken to the Mangalore Press Club where photographers, journalists and TV crews were waiting for us. Dr. Hegde gave an oration which held everyone in the room rapt except us: we did not understand the Indian language in which he delivered it. So we were introduced by an enthusiastic colleague who set the stage for us … but we could not see the stage setting since it was in a language we do not speak. General Stubblebine introduced our topic, health and health freedom, and our mission here in India and then I spoke. The first thing I told the press was that we deeply honored by Dr. Hegde’s decision to accept the Chairmanship of Natural Solutions Foundation – India and that by having such a distinguished health freedom fighter head our foundation in India we were strengthened and guided by a brilliant and wise man.
I then discussed both the problem (multinational anti-health decisions at Codex and country levels) and the solution (the International Strategy supported by legal opinion and our new Codex White Paper on what Codex really requires of nations (soon to be available on www.HealthFreedomUSA.org). The cameras were grinding and flashing and the reporters were writing madly. Afterwards we took questions for quite a while and departed. By the way, NOT air conditioned. The Hindu, a national paper, had already run a major article on the Natural Solutions Foundation mission in the context of the international food quality and choice problems and the International Strategy which we bring to interested countries. Following the press conference, footage appeared on at least 5 TV stations in support of our information and mission. We were thrilled.
Lunch was at a lovely restaurant which has a delightful and varied buffet. While enjoying a lovely salad, I looked down and saw that an uninvited guest, and a pretty large one at that, had come to join us on, not at, our table: a shiny sub-continent sized cockroach!
After we changed tables (did that really help or was it primarily psychological?) the Buffet Chef came out to meet us. He is a graduate of a technical college with a BA in Catering Technology and Hotel Management. We told him about Codex and pointed out that every chef in India should care about the loss of nutrients in food, contamination of the food supply and the degradation of health which it will lead to. He immediately “grocked” it and said that he would share the information on our website with his class, with his schoolmates, etc.
This committed young man pointed out, as everyone does here in India whom we have spoken to, that healthy food is a foundation stone of the Ayurveda way of health and life. Food IS medicine and medicine includes food. Contaminated food will degrade Ayurveda’s power to treat and cure all maladies and diseases and therefore it is a matter of Indian national pride and patriotism to maintain her food supply, and traditional medicines, for her posterity. When we pointed out that according to our reading of Codex, although herbs were “given” to WHO at the suggestion of Dr. Beth Yettley, the US Codex Delegate when too many countries were objecting to treating all herbs as untested drugs, the active molecules and complexes still fall under Codex and, because of that, they are subject to the WHO-supplied definition of a nutrient-related adverse event: “any change in a bio marker” he was appropriately horrified. Herbs are the birth right of his countrymen and the great Indian traditions must be protected, he said.
Then we did a little [very wet] wandering and went back to the club for dinner and hours and hours of email. By the time I got my computer plugged in I was falling asleep there in that hot, cramped mosquito “breedery”!
Yours in health and freedom,
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
July 8, 2006 We left early in the day for the Geneva airport so that we could catch a Lufthansa flight to Frankfort and change planes to Bombay, now called Mumbai, India, overnight and then catch a morning plane for Mangalore where we would meet Dr. B. M. Hegde, a great friend of Natural Medicine and, we were told, someone who would vigorously champion the cause.
The day before, I had prudently checked in by phone for the reservation and been told that the reservation had been cancelled and there was no such number in the computer, anyway. Well, since the tickets had already been paid for and we really wanted to get to Mangalore to be met by Dr. Hegde’s person, this was not happy news. I called the US, spoke with our travel agent and was told that the reservation (and flight) had a United number, not a Lufthansa one although the flight was operated by the German airline. Huh? Anyway, after a transatlantic call, we got a new reservation number and set off to the airport with trepidation. As it turned out, the new number did the trick and off we flew.
While we were waiting for our flight to Bombay, a lady from the Nigerian delegation approached us and said that our presentation and information had intrigued her greatly and that, since she is close to retirement from government service, she would like to work with us full time when she makes that changes! Sounds like a winner to us and we will work on it as the time approaches.
Then on to the plane and off for India. But, about 4 hours into the flight, lo and behold, the very same thing that happened the week before on the Lufthansa flight out of Lagos, Nigeria happened again: I was (this time for the second time in my life) violently ill. I have no clue. It passed (literally) and I was a bit wobbly but fine.
When we got to Bombay at 1:10 AM we had to collect our bags (1:50 AM) and drag them to customs (2:15 AM) where they were cleared (2:25 AM) and then we got to drag them to JetAir, the connecting airline, stand in line and finally speak to an agent (2:45 AM) who took them. We found the driver from the hotel we were spending a few hours in (2:55 AM) and reached the hotel which we were to leave at 7:30 AM to get back on a plane (3:10 AM). No reservation was waiting for us. So we finally (3:45 AM) said that we would leave a credit card impression for the charge (already paid by the airline since the room was included in our ticket, we were told) and get to bed (4:15 AM). I guess it was a nice hotel: who can remember?
Yours in health and freedom,
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director