Day 4: June 15, 2006
Today we are in the commercial capital of this bustling city meeting with government officials. We meet the Food and Agricultural Number 2 man (who comes from this country) and watch his body language: “I need to entertain these useless people because my boss is too busy to do it. Let’s get it over with!” We listen to his take on Codex (“Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful”) and wonder whether he really does not think about the policies he participates in implementing or if he is masking his reality with balsamic platitudes. It is hard to tell since he is closed emotionally and verbally.
None the less, we plunge ahead and tell him what we believe Codex has in store for the land that he loves. We tell him about the results of an adulterated food supply and the impact of chronic under nutrition on the already nutritionally vulnerable people of his country. He is shocked and argues with us saying that is not what HIS Codex will bring. Citing specific examples we note that his body language and verbal language as well have changed: he is now leaning forward in his chair seeking more information and asking probing questions. His forehead is deeply furrowed now where before it was smooth. His expression is deeply concerned, too, where before it was smug.
By the time we leave, Mr. FAO is asking how he can help us to protect his country. We give him a hard copy of the Codex eBook (http://drrimatruthreports.com/resources/books.shtml) and a copy of Nutricide: the DVD (http://drrimatruthreports.com/aboutcodex/dvd.shtml) and leave with his fervent handshake and promise to spread the word in the government and FAO circles he works in.
Next, the head of the Codex Committee of this country. He is also the head of the Bureau of Standards. He is going to Codex but he does not care about it. He listens to our presentation while looking at his watch, accepts our materials (still looking at his watch) and makes it clear that he is not really interested in much of what we have to say. He will be the Codex Delegate from his country at the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) meeting coming up in Geneva next month (July 3-7, 2006). We leave. He is relieved. So are we.
That afternoon we visit the head of a major humanitarian Foundation in-country who is also a significant cattle rancher and farmer. Codex, food purity, domestic and international standards are of great significance to her. We discuss options and receive her enthusiastic support for our program. She suggests high ranking people whom she will contact on our behalf.
Our guide and networking support person (a beautiful, talented young woman who is working on transforming both women and her country in an inspiring way), tells us that a scientist whom we met at Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (November, 2005, Bonn, Germany) and whom we admired for his intelligence and determination to make his points despite the hostility and intimidation of the Chair) has agreed to meet with us over dinner.
This gentleman had previously not replied to any of our emails and we had given up hope on having him as an ally. When we meet with him that evening he tells us that he was watching to see what we could accomplish without his help. Now that we have made major strides in our goals, he is willing to work with us.
In fact, not only is he willing to work with us, he is willing to bring together a team of countries to support our positions at CAC! And he is in the process of doing just that! Day 4 was a breakthrough day.
Day 5: June 16, 2006
We fly to South Africa to visit with a dear friend and catch up. Dinner, loving conversation, a home cooked meal. Life is good tonight!
Day 6: June 17, 2007
More catch up and dinner with a South African doctor and his lovely wife who believe that Natural Medicine is the answer to his country’s major health problems. He has formulated a spectacular meal in a pouch for HIV positive patients with outstanding results. However, the unscrupulous activities of a German MD in South Africa have made any natural health option highly suspect and his effort is meeting with knee-jerk opposition to its deployment. We discuss possible strategies for developing his advance in clinical nutrition and the significant threat to the needy that harmonization with Codex (for example, the Vitamin and Mineral Guideline) would mean to his people.
Also at dinner: a microbiologist and her husband. Her work is on the benefits and importance of probiotics and we discuss her struggle to get recognition for their central role in health and recovery from illness. She, too, has developed a remarkable set of products and we talk about how important these two advances are for all immunocompromised patients, HIV/AIDS and other and, as usual, the impact of Codex on them internationally and, through harmonization, within South Africa unless both are modified.
Our materials leave after dinner in their hands and it is clear that we have new allies in the health and health freedom struggles! And they are people you really want to have dinner with!
Day 7: June 18, 2006
Another dinner, this time with a husband and wife who are representatives of a very large, very influential Chinese nutrient company. We discuss in some detail how their company and our Foundation see our challenges and opportunities with Codex and realize that we have very close alignment. The Chairman of this company will now receive our materials and will be informed of how close our visions and issues are so that we can talk together about developing a common communication strategy either by our going to China or by our coming back to South Africa if his visit and our schedule coincide. Another set of materials walks out the door and we have new comrades in arms (and dinner companions for the future, too).
Day 8: June 19, 2006
We wake up at 4:30 AM to leave the house so that we can catch a very early flight to Capetown, South Africa. We make the plane but the plane doesn’t make the landing. Hours later, we have circled long enough to use up our gas and landed to refuel because Capetown sits in a bowl surrounded by steep mountains on all sides but the sea and, although the surrounding area is totally clear, Capetown is socked in by thick fog. I fell asleep during this circling in a holding pattern and woke up when we landed. I asked where we were and the lady across from me said, “East London”. I was terribly confused: How could I have been asleep long enough to fly to the UK and not know it? No, no! East London, South Africa, only halfway back to where we had taken off!
More fuel, more circling and then we are in Capetown, only half a day late along with 12 other plane loads of people who could not land until then, too. Bags? Luggage carts? Not easily had.
Finally we emerge with our luggage and meet the people who have come to collect us: a farmer with a passion to feed his country with supplemented, healthy, clean food and a highly influential traditional healer who is also an MD (or perhaps an MD who is also a traditional healer).
We detail exactly what Codex is and what it means to them and their people. They are appropriately concerned and, material in their hands, the day ends with new friends and new allies. These are influential decision shapers and are important in our efforts to spread the word about health and health freedom into new communities. Both understand that Codex is a threat to nutrient based health strategies and are willing to work hard to protect their people and their families. And they are a delight to have dinner with, too!
Day 9: June 20, 2006
We are still in Capetown and we are picked up from the in-town home of the farmer by a brilliant analytic chemist who is also an MD (or is it the other way around?). He is an expert on the precise evaluation of food components which are related to allergies like genetically modified DNA from GMO foods and we have a tour of his lab and meet his staff. Over lunch we discuss Codex and its allegedly “Science Based” standards and guidelines. We agree that under nutrition and an adulterated food supply are major health threats presided over by Codex although we also agree that there are aspects of Codex which can be utilized to help humanity (which as the appropriate upgrading of lab standards and facilities).
The proprietor of the lab drives us to the airport and agrees that he, too, needs to spread the word of what is happening to health freedom. This time the air portion of the day is uneventful.
We are met by the representatives of the Chinese company from two days before and returned to our host’s home bone weary, but enlivened from the excellent conversations and commitments we have participated in.
Day 10: June 21, 2006
We fly to a huge, populous and highly influential African country where we are met by a physician whom we came to know only 1 month ago at a seminar in New York! He said that he would bring us to members of the Government of this country who would take our cause up in Codex and make a difference. In this case, we are deeply concerned about the importance of implementing the WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health in a manner consistent with South Africa’s 11 principles for doing just that.
We hope for the best and get nearly no sleep because we have to leave the hotel long before dawn to fly to the capital city to meet with ministers and other high ranking officials tomorrow.
Day 11: June 22, 2006
BINGO!!!!! Ministers, Senators and Members of the House of Representatives meet us. Codex representatives who work for the Food and Drugs Board but who believe in natural medicine as essential to national health meet us. The Chairmen of the House and Senate Committees on Health and Public Health meet us. The most powerful politician in the government meets with us. Virtually all of these men are physicians who, surprisingly to those of us from the US, really understand the crucial role of nutrition and are duly horrified by what Codex can mean to their people.
The Consumer Protection Agency Director General (who reports directly to the highest authority in the country) meets with us along with her legal advisor and really, really get it! They are members of the National Codex Committee and promise to bring our material and our information to that body.
We give them each of them our materials and they all willingly promise that they will take the Global Strategy very carefully at the Codex Committee Meeting prior to the CAC next month. They were unaware of how important the Global Strategy was to them and promised to examine that very carefully.
Then off to the airport to fly back to the commercial capital of this country from its political capital. Well, that’s the theory, anyway. Hours and hours later, we get on the plane (dinner? lunch? breakfast? Don’t be ridiculous! I was packing a few power bars and we shared them as we dashed from one fabulous meeting to another. )
We wait and we wait and we wait. And we sweat. It is unbelievably hot and humid. I hate heat. I hate humidity. It does not really matter. We need to be here doing this and I can get cool next January, if I am lucky, I suppose.
General Stubblebine is wilting, too, in business attire. Hot, sticky, no air conditioning, no food, but a day of nearly unbelievable success.
We get on the plane at last and there is no air-conditioning. In fact, there is no air moving at all. We sit there dripping and wondering what is going on when the pilot cranks the engine. RRRRRR, RRRRR, RRRR, RR, R, no power and the engine dies. More brutal heat and humidity, another series of unsuccessful cranks and, wonder of wonders, it catches. Let me tell you, flying on a plane under those conditions made us all sweat even when the temperature cooled down.
We land, stagger off to our hotel for a few hours’ sleep and begin again: we are up very, very early because we have an interview with the first of the two leading newspapers in the country. We do an interview and the editor and reporter are mesmerized and promise to run the story right away.
(Breakfast? Did I mention breakfast? No? Guess why!)
Then off to interviews with highly significant people (including the Codex Point of Contact of this nation). Her body language (like that of the FAO man in another country) was closed when we began but, by the end of our several hours together, we were laughing, considering, and working together on a profound redefinition of the problems posed by Codex which had never presented themselves clearly at this level because the problem areas are so beautifully wrapped up in shiny gift wrapping with “Science Based, Science Based” printed on it. They are tied up with a bow tied by the PR skills of the multinational interests but, pulling on the strings, we show what is inside and neutrals and enemies reorient to become friendlies and allies.
Tomorrow we fly off again. Stay tuned. Codex will, this year, be attended by national representatives who just might act as a coalition and make a difference that can benefit every man, woman and child on the planet!
Stay tuned! There’s a lot more to come!
Yours in health and freedom,
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Day 2
June 13, 2006
In this hot, dusty Africa country, the seat of government is not the same city as the seat of commerce. One lands at the city where business is conducted for the whole region. But Parliament meets in the other city. And they are 500 km (415 miles) apart.
That’s 415 miles on an unfinished road, by the way, with unpaved detours, no roadside amenities or service stations during most of the run and huge oil and cargo lorries barreling down upon you in the other of the two lanes (which you are in to pass the barely moving car in front of you).
So there is a good deal of adrenal workout on an ordinary drive.
ital just before that time and walked into a dark, empty set of corridors with heavy padlocks on white painted wrought iron gates over every office door and one open door: the Minister’s.
I won’t tell you about the unbelievable conditions we passed, nor the fact that when we ran out of gas along the way and pulled into a dilapidated and disserted gas station (whose two goats were the only living creatures we could find), nor about stopping by the desolate side of the road and having 4 or 5 men magically appear with a large jerry can and hose and begin to fill up the tank with illegal gas using an illegal and dangerous method: pouring leaking gas into the gas tank while all of them smoked and the engine was running. I won’t tell you how they gathered around us in a frightening demand for money (and more) when suddenly they recognized the NGO Facilitator as the National Beauty Queen and simple smiled to be seen with her. We got back in the car and whizzed off toward the Capital. I also won’t even begin to tell you about the toilets. You really, really do not want to know.
But when we got to the Minister’s office we found a direct, sincere, humble and decent human being, an American trained Gastroenterologist, who had never heard of Codex but listened with deep attention and growing distress as we explained both the past and present, and then added the future of Codex to the discussion. He took our materials (Nutricide, the DVD, which you can have, too, by going to (http://drrimatruthreports.com/aboutcodex/dvd.shtml) and the hard copy version of the Codex eBook, available at http://drrimatruthreports.com/aboutcodex/dvd.shtml). We explained that the eBook demonstrated the application of our International Strategy for correcting every problem raised by Codex and for protecting the health of his people. We explained, too, that we are facing a great opportunity: South Africa’s “Ottawa Beachhead” in which the 11 point guidelines for the implementation of the pro-health “Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health” gave Codex for the first time a potential focus on Optimal Health needs to be supported and adopted at the upcoming Codex Alimentarius Commission meeting, July 3-7, 2006 (Geneva). We asked the Minister of Health to help make sure that his country’s voice was raised loud, clear and firmly in favor of these principles at this meeting.
His answer? “You have caught my attention. I will certainly read your materials but you understand that I am not able to make policy on my own. I will consult with the appropriate people and contact you!” It was a highly successful and positive meeting with a thoughtful and careful policy maker who did not brush us off and took us very seriously. Tomorrow we meet with the Codex Committee of the country to further this effort here.
But wait! There’s more to this adventure! By now it was late and there was no way that it was safe to drive the road back to the commercial center both because of the brigands we did not meet, but were much more likely to meet after dark and because of the sheer physical danger of the road at night. (Shoulders? Don’t be absurd! Road accidents, by the way, are a hugely significant cause of death here.)
But when we started out we were told that there was a very important ceremony in the Political Capital that day and that the one decent hotel in town would be filled with both the Members of Parliament and with the dignitaries gathered for the ceremony. We had clearly seen on the way to the Capital that there was nothing even vaguely resembling a hotel, let alone one that we would consider staying in.
So we left the Minister’s office very pleased for the intermediate term but very concerned for the immediate one. Nonetheless, we drove to the hotel and made inquiries. Yes, there was a double room for the General and the Doctor. Yes, there was a double room for the lovely young lady and yes, the driver and our contact could share a single bed in the last room. “NO!” was the reply from our contact so, magically, although it was unavailable just moments before, the 4th room materialized and we checked in.
During and after dinner, our lovely, capable and well-known NGO facilitator greeted Member of Parliament after Member of Parliament. She introduced us to them and we told them about the reason for our visit. In an hour or so we met a dozen Members of the Parliament of this dynamic nation and introduced them to the Codex issue. Several of them wanted to talk about it more deeply and so we did, leaving our materials with them as well. We lobbied the MP’s to think about Codex and how they could protect their people while preventing trade sanctions from the World Trade Organization while doing so. To say that they were interested is a woeful understatement.
Then, on to our room where we found a triangular frame hanging from the ceiling over the bed with a circle of steel suspended over the bed from which hung a very large mosquito netting which was wound up into a series of knots hanging over the center of the bed and a large table fan attached to the ceiling. Spread the netting out (which did not have fist size holes in it like the netting we encountered in Adama, Ethiopia earlier this year which we stuffed with underwear), turn on the fan because the netting blocks all movement of air which is not very forceful (making sleeping unbearable if the air does not move inside the net) and dropped off to sleep.
And then the phone (which does not work in this country) rang at 4 AM local time. It was a US product manufacturer who wanted me to be a spokesperson for his products. They are not organic. I declined and asked him not to call at 4AM again. After I hung up I realized that he must have been pretty puzzled since where he was calling from (the East Coast), it was 2 in the afternoon!)
Day 3
June 14, 2006
Good news! The Minister of Energy and Mining wants to meet with us about Codex! Be ready at 8 AM because he has a meeting just after that and he can give us only 5 minutes. Right! Ready! Prepared! And frustrated: No car, no driver, nobody but the NGO facilitator and us. About 45 minutes later, a government truck drives up and we are told to get in at once! Off we go to the Minister’s office for a quick cup of coffee and a very quick discussion. Again, the kind and straightforward Minister told us that he had never heard of Codex and it was clearly not his responsibility but he would read our material carefully because when it came to a Cabinet discussion he wanted to be informed to help guide his country to health.
And then back to the hotel, gather our bags up and prepare for the drive back to the seat of commerce for a crucial meeting with the Codex Committee of this country. YES!
No! You have forgotten about the car and the driver, haven’t you? Well, we certainly did. Where were they? Who knows? Certainly not in front of the hotel waiting to drive we back to the commercial city at a reasonable pace (or at any pace, for that matter). MIA: Missing in Action.
So we waited, watching the precious minutes tick away while our crucial meeting began to evaporate. And that is exactly what happened. The bad news is that they could no longer wait for us because we started off so late that no amount of insane speed could make up for the delay (whose cause is still not known to me).
Oh, did I mention that we had air conditioning for about 12 minutes on the trip and then a ball bearing in the air conditioning unit (?) went out on us (don’t you just hate it when good bearings go bad?) and we were back to open windows with no possibility of breathing because of the dust or no possibility of surviving with the windows closed because of the heat. We vacillated back and forth between the two options for that whole long, terrifying drive. Neither option was satisfactory.
So we missed the appointment. Not to worry, though, we will meet with them tomorrow, we are told. We have asked to leave at 9:30 SHARP, SHARP, SHARP. But this is Africa. We will see what time is like tomorrow.
At any rate, we had time (AAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHH!) because of the missed appointment so we went into the only store here that is believed to sell organic food. The company is South African so a good deal is imported from there. But the produce is primarily gown in this country. It is not labeled as either organic or not and when we asked the manager, she told us that pesticide and other chemicals are virtually unknown in this country. Farmers use traditional means of growing their crops and, in the main, cannot afford the chemicals. This is a country, after all, where less than 10% of the population has access to electricity, let alone spare cash to buy chemicals.
I also took a look around beyond the produce area. The meat counter had locally gown and produced meats in the same kind of packaging we are used to. It also had meat for which a premium was charged: South African meat. It was grey. It had been irradiated. The local meat was, of course, satisfyingly red.
When I explained to our companions the fact that irradiation of food creates huge free radical concentrations which are, in the absence of sufficient anti oxidants, significantly toxic to human beings and the animals which are also fed these toxic meats. Without adequate anti-oxidants (made inaccessible by the Vitamin and Mineral Guideline and the extention of it by World Health Organization to all nutrients) there is no way to neutralize these dangerous metabolic fires which will damages pancreases, brains, eyes, lungs and the immune system. I also found myself explaining that the fats in meats can be transformed by the irradiation process itself into cancer-causing compounds like benzene.
Together we asked ourselves how many “excess cancer deaths” do we need to calculate before we look at the biochemical information on the dangers of free radical excess whether or not Codex wants it?
Then back to the hotel for an outstanding, and inexpensive, seafood buffet dinner.
Tomorrow, the missed appointments! I hope!
In the meantime, the General is already asleep and I will finish my report to you and join him.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Laibow
Medical Director
General Stubblebine and I landed today in Africa. Because I do not want to stimulate counter pressure, I will call this African country merely “Country #1”. We have been traveling for about 30 hours and finally got here. We are in a major regional trading center but it is not the capital of the country. In order to meet with the Minister of Health we will get in a car tomorrow and drive about 500 km (415 miles, to be exact) to meet with him . Then we turn around and drive back to the first city to meet with the First Lady and the Heads of the Codex Committee process and other decision makers. This is a country firmly committed to health and development and we hope for real committment to a pro-health alliance at Codex.
This is a great place to start: we already have some friends in this country who are part of the system. This is very hopeful. We will be discussing the “Codex Two Step”, the procedure by which any country in the world has the ability to protect themselves from the damage done by Codex in any area but, of course, they have to know what their options are.
We have brought with us many copies of the Codex eBook, (http://drrimatruthreports.com/resources/books.shtml) to give to these decision makers. We have made this important book available for you to download. If you want to understand Codex, this is a great resourced. We also have copies of “Nutricide” the DVD” to educate the communities of the history and reality of Codex. (You can watch it by going to http://drrimatruthreports.com/aboutcodex/dvd.shtml to purchase it!).
I do not expect to have internet every day and know that this trip will be grueling. However, if you can stick with me, I’ll keep you directly posted on what’s happening for Health and Freedom in Africa, the Codex ALIMENTARIUS Commission, India and [we expect], China. Bookmark this page and check back regularly!
Yours in health and freedom,
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Because there was no way for me to post our daily log of our adventures in Africa during this past month, I was not able to share these days and nights with you. So I will be posting the day’s events one day at a time for the next month. That way, you can share the feeling of the unfolding progress and context of our African trip. For a recap of the successes and progress we made, go to http://drrimatruthreports.com/resources/newsletter.shtm and check out the entry for February 26, 2006, “Shall We Dance?“.
In the meantime, here is day one of the Natural Solutions Foundation’s first trip to Africa.
January 20, 2006
Bert and I took off a US airline, but clearly at the bargain basement level, based on what we experienced and what a stewardess told us: “We are “too cheap” to purchase paper containers instead of lower tech (and lower toxicity) Styrofoam” So, on the plastic and Styrofoam containers we ate plastic food (but did not drink the styrofoam-surrounded beverages” and shared the flight with West Africans and their children who, up to about 2 years of age were carried on the backs of their mothers and grand mothers held in place with cleverly wrapped rectangles of fabric over their chests. I have yet to figure out how those children did not fall off given that the rectangle was not tied, just tucked. The larger the child and the older the woman, the more the woman had to bend forward to walk. Since the access to and from the plane was stirs and steep ramps, this seemed to me to be extremely difficult.
At no time did I see a man attend to a child although fathers and grand fathers were traveling with the attentive women.
Once we arrived in West Africa the next phase of our journey began: no one was there to meet us and we did not know the name of the hotel that had been booked for us. We walked expectantly to the meet and greet area expecting our extremely efficient contact person to be there. We were not correct. Although there was a quiet, orderly mob of men and women is western and Middle Eastern garb (including some lovely Moslem women in magnificent silk robes and head scarves with embroidery and beading (which were beautiful, spotless and, to my thought, unbearably hot in that equatorial furnace), there was no one to greet us.
Eventually a police man asked if he could assist us and lent us his cell phone to call our contact person’s cell phone. That we reached her was the good news. That he then demanded a “tip” of $20 “to buy units for my cell phone” (which would buy a zillion units) was the bad news. We settled on $10 and he was disgruntled but quieted.
When our friend arrived (since the hotel had forgotten to pick us up), we wheeled our luggage carts to the car (which was forced into the pay lot so they could collect the parking fee although our friend’s husband had not parked, just waited) and about 8 men attached themselves to the luggage carts by touching them while we wheeled them over rutted, unpaved areas, across 12″ drops and stones. The did nothing in particular, just touched the carts. At the car, each of them demanded what we now knew was the usual: $20 as a “tip”. Bert had already tipped 2 of them $5 to make them go away. It was a learning experience: now we let our friend take care of the problem since she knows the culture: we do not.
Then we got into the car and got to the hotel, a simple, clean and pleasant hotel (which was, thank God, air-conditioned) with a bathroom large enough for a sizable party. That’s the good news: the bad news is that even in a hotel of this caliber, it is important not to let the water reach your lips, even when you shower.
Filtration? We prepared very well for it except for the fact that in the chaos of packing (when every schedule we created for ourselves was foreshortened by unforeseen events and requirements and, at the end, we had about 2.5 hours to pack for a month long trip), we forgot our electrostatic water purifiers, our Vitamin C, Olive Leaf Extract, Oil of Oregano, Homeopathic Travel Kit and other natural essentials. Thanks to Bob Mawson, one of our Board members, however, who was thoughtful enough to give us a filtration pump for water which did get into the suit case, we can double filter our water: the filtreation pump from Bob and our own travel filter. Between the two of them we figure we’ve got at least a chance.
Not to worry, though, we could find American Vitamin C 1 g tabs at about 3 times the price they cost in the US. Of course, after bying them we opened them to find that they were totally rotten.
Many foods and goods are available in restaurants and home inUS brands (e.g., Heinz ketchup and mustard, Knott’s Berry Farms jam, etc) but we did not see anything labled “organic”. Part of the reason is that preservation is a tremendous problem here and EU, Chinese and US goods are technologically superior in preservation techniques (of course, that includes not only packaging and sterility, but preservatives and all the other weaknesses of the conventional food supply, including GM constituents.
Our friend asked if we would like to come to her home for a home cooked meal. We were very glad to do so for several reasons including the pleasure of being invited to someone’s home and the pleasure of knowing that the food and water would be safe, not a “sure thing” otherwise. (She boils and filters the water, grows her own cattle, fruit and vegetables, etc, using organic techniques.
When she arrived to pick us up we showed her the book which we had prepared, the pens and the key chains as gifts for people. She was very pleasantly impressed and felt that they were perfect for the task.
Her home, children and husband were lovely. Naoim, her 7 year old girl duaghter came up to us as we ate and asked if we would like her to share her packet of biscuits (i.e., cookies) with us. We accepted with pleasure. It was a sweet and gentle moment.
Our afternoon meeting vaporized in a way that we learned was best described by the universally useful (and helpless) phrase, “It’s Africa!” What that means is that the Western notion of a schedule has absolutely no meaning whatsoever. None. Nada. Zip. Airplanes leave hours early with no warning. Firm appointment are about as firm as a jello ring mold in the equatorial sun. “It’s [absolutely] Africa!”
Following our dinner (which we ate alone since our hosts had already dined and this gave them a chance to relax and watch some African football (i.e., soccer), we hot-footed it off to the shopping center (the largest in the country) to buy our forgotten Vitamin C. When we emerged from the shopping center, there was a lady leaning on our car making a phone call. I thought that she was just using the car as a leaning post. When we approached the car, however, our friend and she embraced warmly. It turned out that the lady had been waiting since just after we arrive(well over an hour) for us since the afternoon meeting with her that had been scheduled did not happen because her furniture or her new apartment had not been delivered for a very long time. This is Africa.
So she waited by our car for over an hour to have the meeting with us anyway.
When we greeted her she had just learned that a young man in his 20s who worked in her office and with whom she was close friends, had been killed on his motor bike that day. Motor accidents are tremendously common. All of the roads, with one or two exceptions, are deeply rutted, unpaved and dangerously uneven. Traffic is horrific during commute times and difficult the rest of the time. Traffic accidents are extremely common.
It is dry here now and I can only imagine what these red packed, rock filled dirt roads are like during the rainy season.
People fill the roads and rapid movement with a car on them is perilous. Part of the reason that they are in the street is that down most streets, on both sides, are small kiosks selling everything from food to clothing, shoes to hats to cell phone units to drugs (often counterfeit) and herbal remedies to anything else you might need if you do not have a car and it is hard to get anywhere. They fill any available space where people might otherwise walk so they use the streets instead.
These are often sheds in front of shanties. While we were in the shopping mall, a friend of our hostess cashed a traveler’s check for us. He cheated us badly, it turns out: he cashed our Euro travelers check as if they were $ ones. Thus, a 50 E check was treated like a $50 check. This was clearly not unintentional. We did not mention it to our friend since this fellow was warmly greeted and addressed by her and we did not want to embarrass either one of them. Face is a big deal and causing someone to loose it is disastrous for a relationship.
After we hooked up with the lady who wanted the late meeting when we came back to our hotel and Bert, who, like me, had been up for over 5 days with only the sleep on the airplane and an hour on the floor of the living room a few nights ago (aside from the times we fell asleep at meals or on the computers) collapsed into bed. I continued to the meeting and we explained to the lady (a nutritionist and the number two person in the government on nutrition, fortification and supplementation) what Codex has in mind for the world and she instantly saw what it would mean. She was appropriately and gratifyingly horrified and immediately saw that we must meet with her boss and with others. She is now making those arrangements for us. I believe she is completely on our team because of her professional expertise and her good heart. Of course she knew that Codex existed but was not aware of what it really means to her people. She often interjected responses like, “But that is crazy!”
To top off the success of the evening, when I got back to the room I discovered that my cell phone works here, at least for calls to the US as local numbers. Go figure that one out: no country code, no addtional numbers, just regular US calls.
It did not work at the airport or we would not have discovered the “tipping” system with the cop.
Our friend did not come to the airport initially herself since her 2 year old son, Joshua, had a fever and she took him to the hospital since the fear was that he had contracted malaria which is endemic here. He had been put on chlorquine prophylacticly some days ago. His symptoms sounded to me like they could be due to liver impairment from the drug but the physician did not check his liver enzymes.
Post meeting: bed and more of it. Thank God for the air conditioner. Did I mention that I really, really hate the heat?
More meetings tomorrow.
What do the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, the National Association of Nutrition Professionals, BioRenew and Freedom Club USA have in common?
Each organization has taken a bold step that you can take, too. Each one of them has endorsed
-the Revised Vitamin and Mineral Guideline which when ratified, will overturn the deadly impact of the Codex Vitamin and Mineral Guideline.
These endorsements are extremely important and I urge you to read the Citizen Petition, the Revised Vitamin and Mineral Guideline (we’ve provided a marked up copy so you can easily see the difference between the Codex guideline, which mandates under-nutrition, and our Revised Vitamin and Mineral Guideline“>Revised Vitamin and Mineral Guideline, which pushes for optimal nutrition).
Here’s the strategy: If countries are not Codex compliant (that is, their domestic laws do not match Codex regulations), they will loose in the World Trade Organization Dispute Resolution process if another country accuses them of creating a barrier to trade by violating a Codex guideline, standard or regulation. If they loose, the penalties are enormous: trade sanctions can run several hundred million dollars per year or more until the country caves in. Not only that, the sanctions are imposed on any economic sector it pleases by the prevailing country. If the two countries are competitors in, say, electronics, although the dispute was about, for example, turkey breasts, the sanctions could be applied to that contested electronics industry to do the most economic harm to the loosing country.
Is it any wonder, then, that the nations of the world are racing to adopt the Codex standards as fast as possible, despite the terrible impact it will have on health and longevity?
Our Codex working group, was greatly assisted by two brilliant and dedicated lawyers, Jim Turner and Jim Fucetola examined just what makes a country compliant and came up with a unique and powerful approach: we have created the first of a series of Revised Codex documents which, when adopted by a country, keeps the country in Codex compliance but stands the destructive impact of the Codex version on its head. In other words, the Revised Vitamin and Mineral Guideline extends the principles of DSHEA world-wide and makes them the global strategy, rather than a localized American anomaly. The impact on world hunger and disease will be staggeringly positive.
I urge you to read and compare the Codex Vitamin and Mineral Guideline, which is based on the premise that nutrients are toxins, and our Revised Vitamin and Mineral Guideline, which states that biochemical individuality is crucial for optimal nutrition and that individual requirements vary widely and must be permitted. Countries which are not tied to the Pharmaceutical Death Apparatus (the real PH D A) are searching for a way to protect their people and avoid the enormous sums of penalty money the WTO keeps nations in line with. Adoption of the Revised VMG allows them to do just that.
Other Revised Codex standards, etc. will follow.
Public support gives this strategy “legs” as they say in Congress, in two ways
1. Every person who signs the join-in letter counts as 13,000 constituents in the mind of Congress. So although you may believe that your voice has no weight or meaning, it is not true. Hundreds of thousands of letters will send a clear message to Congress: these people are serious and their health freedom is a serious concern to them. I’d best listen up! Remember, this is not a simple grocery store petition. This is a serious legal challenge to the United States Government position and policy on Codex.
2. Endorsements by individuals though joining the legal challenge known as the Citizen Petition or by organizations which pass resolutions of support for the Revised Vitamin and Mineral Guideline tells Congress here at home and countries friendly to health freedom that there is a movement which has power and strategic thinking behind it with which they can safely align themselves.
Can Codex counter attack? Of course they can. Will they? Probably. But with a growing constituency of support both at home and abroad, the terrible damage done by mandating chronic under-nturition world-wide is averted. The Revised Vitamin and Mineral Guideline does that.
General Stubblebine and I are leaving later today to attend the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses in Bonn, Germany.
You can bet that we will be following up with the people we met in Rome who, when asked if they understood what using Risk Assessment would mean to their pregnant women, their elderly, their cancer rates, etc., did not. We explained that Risk Assessment is a discipline of toxicology designed to determine doses so low that they have no discernable impact on humans. We further pointed out that Codex has declared nutrients to be toxins and treats them as such. They quickly saw, when it was presented that way, that the Vitamin and Mineral Guideline has nothing to do with promoting health but everything to do with promoting widespread illness with its resultant dependence on expensive, dangerous and ineffective drugs to treat the chronic degenerative diseases of under-nutrition. And then, to a man or woman, they asked for help.
The Revised Vitamin and Mineral Guideline is the first part of that help. We need public support to generate Congressional support. We need Congressional Support to generate international support.
So please, get active, get your groups active (churches, coops, ladies clubs, student clubs, professional clubs, all are welcome!)
Yours in health and freedom,
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation