Monthly Archives: March 2013

How to reverse climate change- The best argument I have seen so far.

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New_ClimateChange

Hey Geeks,

This past week in London has been crazy weather wise, we have experienced snow, rain and sunshine all in one day and within moments of each other. This has been the coldest March in over 70 years. Those that know me, know I am not a fan of the cold, I much prefer temperatures close to and above the 30 degrees Celsius mark, I am from what they term sub-saharan Africa after-all.

Naturally, I kept blaming it all on climate change and that got me to researching the topic yet again. The battle against climate change has always been a complicated one leading to heated discussions mainly because the world we live in is controlled by many factors such as politics, economics, health and population dynamics. As you can imagine, these factors do not go well together especially when they are pitched up against science and carbon cutting necessities such as reducing our dependency on fossil fuels. But let us not get too political here. That is not what this post is about, I want to introduce you to a new exciting theory I came across during my research. I love TED for things like this.

Deserts_ClimateChange

Whilst researching I came across Allan Savory’s TED talk titled- How to green the desert and reverse climate change. It blew me away. I learned so much and his theory actually makes more sense than anything else I have ever read on the topic. I don’t want to give too much away but the man made a mistake in his early career and spent the rest of his life figuring out a way to make up for it. The story and science is compelling to say the least and I urge you to press play and hear him out (he is a slow talker but he talks with passion and heart).

He said “We once thought the earth was flat. We were wrong. We are wrong again. I was wrong”. It takes a brave man to admit his mistake and dedicate his life to fixing that mistake.

This is one of my favourite songs as it is one of the few early songs that uses Sudan within the lyrics and I thought it was very fitting for this post.

Press play and enjoy the journey.

Have a great weekend.

Eyman

Fire In The Blood

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FireInTheBlood

Hello,

I have been waiting to see this documentary ever since I read about it over 6 months ago. It was finally release here on the 23rd of February to my excitement. Unfortunately, viewing it turned out to be much more difficult than I anticipated. Several frustrating searches revealed that it was only showing at a hand full of cinemas in London and even at these cinemas it was only showing at those “difficult to make” times.

I actually do not know why I expected it to be, maybe because it was given great reviews at Sundance and by most major critics and I some how lost track that it is actually reporting one of the worlds largest humanitarian disgraces; the failure of western pharmaceutical companies to provide affordable drugs to patients in the developing world. So of course it would not be “main-streamed”.

This campaigning documentary basically indicts the pharmaceutical giants that could have saved millions from AIDS in the developing world. This is what the the Guardian said about it:

“As presented, the corporate defence sounds horribly racist: that poorer Africans’ inability to read packaging or tell the time leaves them ill-suited to following any medication program. For some time, director Dylan Mohan Gray is limited to restating the same depressing story, using input from doctors and campaigners to punctuate footage of families grieving around child-sized coffins. But hope emerges in the form of the Indian physicist Yusuf Hamied, whose company Cipla undertook in the noughties to produce cheap, generic drugs in defiance of the Pfizer patent lawyers. As the indignation rises, the outcome of this battle cannot entirely be guessed, although one closing credit appears to address Big Pharma directly: “Help prevent a sequel.”

Please, if it is showing anywhere near you, go and watch this documentary. Conspiracy theory aside, it is important that you know that HIV/AIDs should not be around now (we know all we need to know about it as scientists/researchers) and medically we know how to put a stop to it. Why is it still around and increasing, polio isn’t and neither is small pox!?!?!?!?

Click on the trailer below.

I am going to see it tomorrow at Ritzy, Brixton, London. I hope it gives us all food for thought and further understanding to the type of world we live. Maybe in the future, we can figure out a way to support those who do not follow the “rules” and get rid of medical patents. I hope.

E