Richard Higgins, Haiti Food for Life coordinator, in Dominican Republic

Richard and his small team are making good contacts with [...]]]> Just had a Skype call from my friend Richard Higgins in the Dominican Republic. He’s leading the Food For Life relief effort in Haiti, and is currently based in the Dominican Republic’s capital, Santo Domingo.

Richard Higgins, Haiti Food for Life coordinator, in Dominican Republic

Richard and his small team are making good contacts with food relief, security and government agencies, preparing the ground work for short- and long-term reconstruction. Just getting into Haiti is fraught with problems, which is one reason why it is so necessary to build up good working relationships with the other agencies.

International Red Cross HQ, Dominican Republic

They have identified a site by a lake 15 miles east of Port-au-Prince, Fond Parisien,  where there is land already growing vegetables and a plentiful supply of water.

Richard is also a consultant with New Directions Foundation, and will be implementing dry sanitation systems to hygienically process human excrement into compost for growing crops. Sewage is one of many major problems in Haiti, and if it’s not dealt with ASAP, may cause major disease outbreaks.

Hospital, Dominican republic

Food for Life will soon be cooking hot vegetarian meals and distributing them to Haitians rather than simply giving out raw ingredients such as rice. Distributing raw food staples is all very well, but with the destruction of many homes and other buildings, people have difficulty cooking and thus actually getting food into people’s mouths is not straightforward. There are even reports of large-scale diversion of food relief supplies, so it is vital to provide meals as directly as possible.

His immediate needs are for cash, extremely large cooking pots/woks, gas burners, gas bottles and huge quantities of paper plates.

Please donate whatever you can at Food for Life Haiti.

]]> http://krishna-das.com/arjuna/blog/2010/02/haiti-vegetarian-food-relief-and-sanitation/feed/ 0 http://krishna-das.com/arjuna/blog/2010/01/cancer-research/ http://krishna-das.com/arjuna/blog/2010/01/cancer-research/#comments Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:12:41 +0000 Arjuna Krishna-Das http://krishna-das.com/arjuna/blog/?p=57 Today, in my capacity as Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for Hertsmere, England, I received several e-mails from the Breast Cancer Campaign’s Chief Executive, Pamela Goldberg, and various supporters. The campaign is asking supporters to write to their local parliamentary candidates, asking them to support breast cancer research.

Well first of all, I’ve had personal experience, through family and friends, [...]]]> Today, in my capacity as Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for Hertsmere, England, I received several e-mails from the Breast Cancer Campaign’s Chief Executive, Pamela Goldberg, and various supporters. The campaign is asking supporters to write to their local parliamentary candidates, asking them to support breast cancer research.

Well first of all, I’ve had personal experience, through family and friends, of the devastating impact of breast cancer and early death. My heartfelt sympathy goes out to anyone who is suffering, directly or indirectly from any form of cancer.

However, I don’t support cancer research in general, whether for breasts, or any other part of the anatomy. Why? Isn’t cancer research something everyone can agree is a good thing? Wouldn’t all ‘right-thinking’ people support it?

No. There’s definitely a place, or a need, for research into all sorts of illnesses, especially the worse ones, which cancer is, but a lot of cancer research is either pointless, cruel and/or a waste of money. Why do I say that? Because:

• to a large extent, we already know what causes cancer: an unhealthy lifestyle (lack of exercise, stress, drugs and/or bad diet), toxins in our diet or environment, and, to a small extent, genetics,
• cancer researchers use animals to experiment on. The Breast Cancer Campaign even try to justify their use. Since different species have different physiologies, you can’t extrapolate a result from one to another. Researchers try to get round this by using animals closest to humans, in other words, chimps, baboons and monkeys. But these species, being closest to humans, also have a high consciousness, and with it, a greater capacity for pain and suffering. Artificially giving cancer, poisons and experimental drugs to animals isn’t going to do much, if anything for human cancer sufferers; it certainly isn’t going to reduce the aggregate amount of suffering in the world. In fact, according to the law of karma, net suffering will increase.
• much cancer research is aimed at finding a ‘magic-bullet cure’. While orthodox medicine is excellent at treating some conditions, particularly injuries, its over-reliance on finding cures (“to beat breast cancer” … “researching the cure for breast cancer”) rather than models for prevention is literally fatally flawed. There is no ‘magic bullet’ and there never will be. Good health is not a matter of  ’defeating’ an army of illnesses. It comes complete with a healthy lifestyle and an unpolluted environment.

So, with best wishes to you Pamela and all cancer sufferers everywhere, I cannot support the Breast Cancer Campaign in its work. I was going to say that I support its ideals, but as of today, 25 January 2010, its About page does not even mention the word health, and when you get past the fluffy pink ribbons, it’s basically a fund-raiser for scientific medical orthodoxy and animal experimentation.

So, after all that negativity, what is my answer to health problems? Not so much a definitive answer, but I’ve written about what I believe we should be doing here.

Here’s to a long and healthy life for all!