The first black African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize gets attacked by AIDS Establishment !

Dennis Levy

The March 2005 POZ magazine, the gay lifestyle magazine that claims to be the premiere HIV magazine in America, carried an article by Lucile Scott accusing the first black African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize of preaching AIDS conspiracy. Professor Maathai found herself in a controversy after a Nairobi newspaper quoted from a talk she made to a group of constituents, in which she appeared to say that AIDS had been intentionally created by "evil scientists" to kill black Africans. The AIDS establishment and other supporters of the 'green monkey' theory of the origin of HIV went ballistic. Apparently, Ms. Scott was angry with Peter Piot of UNIAIDS for enlisting Sister Maathai to help reduce African HIV rates. Before I respond to this obvious attempt to discredit Professor Maathai, let me introduce her to some of us who don't know this exceptional black woman. She was born in 1940 and has three children. Her former husband, whom she divorced in the 1980s, was said to have remarked that she was "too educated, too strong, too successful, too stubborn and too hard to control." In the late 1980s, she became a prominent opponent of a skyscraper planned for the middle of the Kenya capitals main park, Uhuru Park. She was vilified by President Daniel arap Moi's government but succeeded in thwarting the plans. Wangari Maathai rose to prominence fighting for those most easily marginalized in Africa, poor women. A pioneering academic, her role as an environment campaigner began after she planted some trees in her back garden. This inspired her in 1977 to form an organization, primarily of women, known as the Green Belt Movement. It aimed to curtail the devastating effects of deforestation and desertification. Her campaign to mobilize poor women to plant some 30 million trees has been copies by other countries. More recently, she evolved into a leading campaigner on social matters. Fast forward to March 2005. It didn't take a second for the powerful AIDS establishment to jump on this black woman. Let me respond to the accusation first and then the AIDS establishment’s opposition to any difference of opinion or theory about AIDS. In a Jan. 25, 2005 interview with Jeffrey Brown on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Professor Maathai was asked about her alleged remark. She said, "I want to clearly say that I was completely misrepresented, that I didn’t say that and I don’t believe it. There are people who are experts. I would, I should really leave the discussions of the nature of the virus, where it came from, how it behaves, to the experts. I’m not an expert. I do not claim any knowledge whatsoever. But I was completely quoted out of context, trying to respond to questions that people ask as you try to tell them how they should protect themselves." So, there you go. She didn't say it although I wish she had said it. I would be the first black man to come to her defense if she did. The AIDS establishment has a history of beating up on African people who disagree with the HIV=AIDS=DEATH dogma. Remember when South African's President Thabo Mbeki dared to question the AIDS dogma at the International AIDS conference in Durban? The South African president said that AIDS was a disease caused by poverty, not by HIV. There seemed to be a worldwide outcry at the time. Lately, President Mbeki stepped up the emotional controversy over his country's response to AIDS, saying Africans should chart their own course on the disease with help from, among others, scientists who dispute the prevailing views in the West on the causes and treatments of the disease. Avowing skepticism about the relevance of Western medical models to the "uniquely African catastrophe" of AIDS, Mbeki wrote in hand-addressed letters that it "would constitute a criminal betrayal of our responsibility to our own people" to mimic foreign approaches to treating the disease. He insisted on South Africa's right to consult dissident scientists who deny that the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, causes AIDS. And he accused unnamed foreign critics of launching a "campaign of intellectual intimidation and terrorism" akin to medieval book burnings and 'the racist apartheid tyranny we opposed." I wholeheartingly agree. I can't add anything to what Mbeki said except to say that the powerful AIDS establishment is based here in the U.S. and contrary to what we might be told by them, there is growing opposition to their AIDS dogma by scientists, experts, and activists. Let us be open minded in the black community and not inflexible to different theories and beliefs despite the threats from those who are bought by AIDS money. Professor Wangari Maathia said, "No one can underestimate the challenge that the tragedy of HIV/AIDS puts before all countries. Nowhere is the devastation been greater than in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods to alleviate the suffering and, hopefully, find a cure require our full commitment. For too long, discussing HIV/AIDS in our communities has been taboo. This must end." Right on sister.