UNICEF provides nearly a billion US dollars' worth of vaccines each year for more than half of the world's children. Worth supporting? Certainly.
And that's why two of its pharmaceutical suppliers, NOVARTIS AG in Switzerland and MERCK & CO in the United States refuse to allow UNICEF to release the prices they pay to these two giant money-makers.
They don't want competition. They want as much profit as they can get their greedy hands on. Health care? Saving children? Those are foreign words in the offices of JOSEPH JIMINEZ and JURGEN BROKATSKY-GEIGER at NOVARTIS and KENNETH C. FRAZIER and RICHARD T. CLARK at MERCK & CO.
Why not write to them to tell them what you think about them and their companies.
JOSEPH JIMINEZ, Chief Executive Officer
Novartis International AG
CH 4002 Basel
Switzerland
JUERGEN BROTAKOWSKY-GEIGER, Head of Human Resources
Novartis International AG
CH 4002 Basel
Switzerland
KENNETH C. FRAZIER, President and Chief Executive Officer
Merck & Co.
One Merck Drive
P. O. Box 100
Whitehouse Station, New Jersey 08889-0100
USA
RICHARD T. CLARK, Chairman of the Board
Merck & Co.
One Merck Drive
P. O. Box 100
Whitehouse Station, New Jersey 08889-0100
USA
To read more about their shame and about UNICEF's work, go to
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/29/ap/health/main20067144.shtml
Thank you for joining this decent act of protest on behalf of the world's children. And in the meantime, make certain that your doctors don't try to prescribe medicines from NOVARTIS or MERCK for you or anyone else.
Bert Hornback
maandag 30 mei 2011
vrijdag 27 mei 2011
What's In A Name?
For the last fifty years I have named things: given them personal names to replace their corporate names. It started with cars. My first Volkswagen, in 1961, was named "Dilsey." She is one of William Faulkner's characters, of whom Faulkner says, generalising, "They will endure."
Then I named refrigerators, stoves, vacuum cleaners, furnaces, typewriters. I named them as you would pet dogs and cats and gerbils, and then they were significantly--by that signifying name--my property, and I was responsible for them.
(I had a television set once, briefly. I wasn't hooked up to get any stations, and it went to its grave nameless the afternoon that I buried it in the back yard.)
Two years ago I named my current car "Fitz." He's a little Honda Fit--or Jazz, as he would be identified, corporately, in Europe. But I've now changed his name.
On a small label, I copied the name of a young American soldier who has been killed so we can have cheap oil. And I glued it onto the car. Every time I buy a tank of gas now I add the name of another young soldier or marine who died so we can have cheap oil. I put the names on the back fender, around the gas cap.
But I can't keep up. Since 2003, two American soldiers have been killed a day, on average, in Iraq and Afghanistan. I can't keep up, let alone catch up. 6,036 young Americans have died fighting for cheap oil as of 26 May, 2011. How many more from other countries? And how many tens of thousands of Iraqi and Afghanistan civilians--who (to us) don't even have names?
Maybe I should start calling my little car by its names. Maybe I should make myself think of it by its many names. And maybe if a number of us could find some way to remind ourselves of what we are doing when we buy our gasoline, we would learn, together, in a moment of outraged awareness and sympathy, to say somehow an effective, absolute NO to our war for cheap oil.
Then I named refrigerators, stoves, vacuum cleaners, furnaces, typewriters. I named them as you would pet dogs and cats and gerbils, and then they were significantly--by that signifying name--my property, and I was responsible for them.
(I had a television set once, briefly. I wasn't hooked up to get any stations, and it went to its grave nameless the afternoon that I buried it in the back yard.)
Two years ago I named my current car "Fitz." He's a little Honda Fit--or Jazz, as he would be identified, corporately, in Europe. But I've now changed his name.
On a small label, I copied the name of a young American soldier who has been killed so we can have cheap oil. And I glued it onto the car. Every time I buy a tank of gas now I add the name of another young soldier or marine who died so we can have cheap oil. I put the names on the back fender, around the gas cap.
But I can't keep up. Since 2003, two American soldiers have been killed a day, on average, in Iraq and Afghanistan. I can't keep up, let alone catch up. 6,036 young Americans have died fighting for cheap oil as of 26 May, 2011. How many more from other countries? And how many tens of thousands of Iraqi and Afghanistan civilians--who (to us) don't even have names?
Maybe I should start calling my little car by its names. Maybe I should make myself think of it by its many names. And maybe if a number of us could find some way to remind ourselves of what we are doing when we buy our gasoline, we would learn, together, in a moment of outraged awareness and sympathy, to say somehow an effective, absolute NO to our war for cheap oil.
vrijdag 20 mei 2011
I AM BRADLEY MANNING--REALLY!
We are all Bradley Manning: sure. If the government can ignore his constitutional rights by imprisoning him for a full year without charging him with a crime, and can torture him every day for a year in violation of international law, none of us is safe.
So why don't we all change our names--to Bradley Manning. We can do so, legally, in our local communities and with our employers. And of course, we will all have to apply for new Social Security cards, because of our new names. And we will have to notify the Internal Revenue Service.
And we will need new passports, and new driving licenses. And new voter registrations.
And new names on our bank accounts and credit cards.
And then, when this sleazy, law-dodging, two-faced government tries to charge Bradley Manning with disclosing their crimes, they will have thousands of us, all claiming to be Bradley Manning, to arraign.
And we will all insist on being arraigned. And we will all plead not guilty. And we will all demand trial by jury. And we will accept the government's dismissing of all charges ONLY if the dismissal applies to ALL Bradley Mannings.
And all of us will reserve the right to file charges against the United States government and Barack Obama for felony crimes against the United States Constitution.
And then? If we want to, we can reclaim our old names easily enough. But many of us, surely, will want to retain our new names, and in honor of our hero continue to be known as Bradley Manning.
Bert Hornback, a.k.a. Bradley Manning
So why don't we all change our names--to Bradley Manning. We can do so, legally, in our local communities and with our employers. And of course, we will all have to apply for new Social Security cards, because of our new names. And we will have to notify the Internal Revenue Service.
And we will need new passports, and new driving licenses. And new voter registrations.
And new names on our bank accounts and credit cards.
And then, when this sleazy, law-dodging, two-faced government tries to charge Bradley Manning with disclosing their crimes, they will have thousands of us, all claiming to be Bradley Manning, to arraign.
And we will all insist on being arraigned. And we will all plead not guilty. And we will all demand trial by jury. And we will accept the government's dismissing of all charges ONLY if the dismissal applies to ALL Bradley Mannings.
And all of us will reserve the right to file charges against the United States government and Barack Obama for felony crimes against the United States Constitution.
And then? If we want to, we can reclaim our old names easily enough. But many of us, surely, will want to retain our new names, and in honor of our hero continue to be known as Bradley Manning.
Bert Hornback, a.k.a. Bradley Manning
donderdag 19 mei 2011
I AM BRADLEY MANNING
"I Am Bradley Manning." You can say that, too. Just click http://iam.bradleymanning.org.
Until President Obama apologises, publicly, for having said "Bradeley Manning broke the law," we all all--like it or not--Bradley Manning.
With no "Habeas Corpus"--thanks to the Bush Obama denial of our constitutional right to such protection--and Obama determining guilt before and instead of trial, ALL AMERICANS are in danger. And our government is the source of that danger.
As things stand right now, Obama--who has declared that "Bradley Manning broke the law"--can declare any of us guilty of anything. And since he has suspended the U. S. constitution and imprisoned Bradley Manning for ONE FULL YEAR without charging him with a crime, he can do that to any of us. And he can keep us there indefinitely.
For one full year Bradley Manning has been illegally confined--and until two weeks ago, tortured every day by President Obama. The United States has illegally confined two hundred prisoners at Guantanamo Bay--most of them for ten years now, and most of them presumably tortured: including one prisoner arrested (for throwing a rock at a U. S. Marine) when he was fourteen years old, who is now twenty-four years old.
I don't understand how we can be so quiet about this. Is it that we don't care--or that we are cowards?
I AM BRADLEY MANNING. SO ARE YOU. INDEED: EVERYBODY IN THE UNITED STATES IS BRADLEY MANNING--EXCEPT FOR THE MAN WHO HAS IMPRISONED HIM: THE MAN WHO HAS DECLARED THAT "BRADLEY MANNING BROKE THE LAW."
Our president's daughters are Bradley Manning. And so is his wife. We are all Bradley Manning. We should all acknowledge--and claim--our identity, publicly. We should answer to no name except "Bradley Manning."
Does your driving license identify you as "Bradley Manning? Your passport? Will you vote, next time, as "Bradley Manning"? Is the name on your mailbox "Bradley Manning"? Do you sign your checks, your letters, "Bradley Manning"? You should.
Bradley Manning
Bradley Manning
Until President Obama apologises, publicly, for having said "Bradeley Manning broke the law," we all all--like it or not--Bradley Manning.
With no "Habeas Corpus"--thanks to the Bush Obama denial of our constitutional right to such protection--and Obama determining guilt before and instead of trial, ALL AMERICANS are in danger. And our government is the source of that danger.
As things stand right now, Obama--who has declared that "Bradley Manning broke the law"--can declare any of us guilty of anything. And since he has suspended the U. S. constitution and imprisoned Bradley Manning for ONE FULL YEAR without charging him with a crime, he can do that to any of us. And he can keep us there indefinitely.
For one full year Bradley Manning has been illegally confined--and until two weeks ago, tortured every day by President Obama. The United States has illegally confined two hundred prisoners at Guantanamo Bay--most of them for ten years now, and most of them presumably tortured: including one prisoner arrested (for throwing a rock at a U. S. Marine) when he was fourteen years old, who is now twenty-four years old.
I don't understand how we can be so quiet about this. Is it that we don't care--or that we are cowards?
I AM BRADLEY MANNING. SO ARE YOU. INDEED: EVERYBODY IN THE UNITED STATES IS BRADLEY MANNING--EXCEPT FOR THE MAN WHO HAS IMPRISONED HIM: THE MAN WHO HAS DECLARED THAT "BRADLEY MANNING BROKE THE LAW."
Our president's daughters are Bradley Manning. And so is his wife. We are all Bradley Manning. We should all acknowledge--and claim--our identity, publicly. We should answer to no name except "Bradley Manning."
Does your driving license identify you as "Bradley Manning? Your passport? Will you vote, next time, as "Bradley Manning"? Is the name on your mailbox "Bradley Manning"? Do you sign your checks, your letters, "Bradley Manning"? You should.
Bradley Manning
Bradley Manning
zondag 15 mei 2011
priorities
A nation that spends three trillion dollars trying to kill one man, but has no money to pay school librarians, is an idiocracy.
How utterly stupid can the United States be? A president who is supposedly intelligent continues for more than two years to spend a billion dollars a day on his wars--just like his stupid predecessor did. But just like Bush's United States, Obama's America can't pay for health care for its citizens, or police its streets, or feed and house its poor. And now, in California, it can't afford librarians in its schools.
But the president has at least one, maybe two new wars against Muslims. Remember how he wanted to stop our wars?
Why is the United States at war against Muslims?
Well, we can no longer lynch Black people legally in the United States.
And we have already murdered most of the Native Americans: there aren't enough of them left to make a war any fun.
And we can't openly hate the Chinese because China owns most of America's debt.
We could maybe hate people from India--but they don't hate back very well.
So we hate Muslims. They aren't as easy to spot as Blacks, or Orientals, or people from India. But they can be identified--by their names, and their beards, and the way they dress.
We now have five wars going on against Muslims: in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, in Yemen, in Syria. What about Libya? Or Palestine--a proxy war, being fought by our allies (or our masters) the Israelis? Seven wars? And more?
Of course, us white, peace-loving, Onward-Christian-Soldiers crusaders have been busy trying to murder all the Muslims, ever since the twelfth century in the era named after (blessed are the peacemakers) the World's Greatest Warrior, Jesus Christ.
But let's be serious. It will better if schools don't have librarians: better still if the schools don't have books. Children need to be protected from both information and knowledge.
How utterly stupid can the United States be? A president who is supposedly intelligent continues for more than two years to spend a billion dollars a day on his wars--just like his stupid predecessor did. But just like Bush's United States, Obama's America can't pay for health care for its citizens, or police its streets, or feed and house its poor. And now, in California, it can't afford librarians in its schools.
But the president has at least one, maybe two new wars against Muslims. Remember how he wanted to stop our wars?
Why is the United States at war against Muslims?
Well, we can no longer lynch Black people legally in the United States.
And we have already murdered most of the Native Americans: there aren't enough of them left to make a war any fun.
And we can't openly hate the Chinese because China owns most of America's debt.
We could maybe hate people from India--but they don't hate back very well.
So we hate Muslims. They aren't as easy to spot as Blacks, or Orientals, or people from India. But they can be identified--by their names, and their beards, and the way they dress.
We now have five wars going on against Muslims: in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, in Yemen, in Syria. What about Libya? Or Palestine--a proxy war, being fought by our allies (or our masters) the Israelis? Seven wars? And more?
Of course, us white, peace-loving, Onward-Christian-Soldiers crusaders have been busy trying to murder all the Muslims, ever since the twelfth century in the era named after (blessed are the peacemakers) the World's Greatest Warrior, Jesus Christ.
But let's be serious. It will better if schools don't have librarians: better still if the schools don't have books. Children need to be protected from both information and knowledge.
vrijdag 6 mei 2011
With Liberty and Justice For All
I don't know where to start: there are so many shames to deplore and complain about. I will take the one which has at least a small element of good in its most recent news.
A small element. Bradley Manning is no longer being held in solitary confinement in Quantico, and no longer being tortured. A year of such was enough? Bush Obama has done away with the Constitutional right of "habeas corpus," so he could keep Mr. Manning for a year without bringing any charges against him. That, of course, is what Bush Obama is doing at Guantanamo Bay, and has been doing there for more than nine years: since he was just plain Bush.
But nobody cares. Most of my former friends condone such. I can't understand them. Or maybe I just pretended, for many years, that they were decent, thoughtful, honorable people, because I wanted us to be friends. No more. I can't do that any more.
Bradley Manning is now being held at Fort Leavenworth. He is actually allowed to wear clothes now. (Are all the U.S. Marines at Quantico sexual perverts? Not gay, but perverted?)
But Obama has announced that "Manning broke the law." Well, I guess I am glad lawyer Obama said that: because as he must know--being lawyer Obama--he has now fatally prejudiced any attempt to bring Mr. Manning to trial on any charges.
Lawyer Obama knows, of course, that Mr. Manning upheld the law. Both U.S. civil law and the Uniform Code of Military Justice make "misprision of a felony"--the hiding of a known felony offense--itself a felony offense.
The war crimes that Mr. Manning exposed, through Wikileaks, were felony offenses. He had a duty--a legal duty--to expose them.
The real criminals in this serious case are (a) George W. Bush; (b) his underlings who actually committed the war crimes--torture, illegal imprisonment; and (c) Obama who has continued the torture and illegal imprisonment at Guantanamo and the year's worth of illegal detention and torture of Mr. Manning.
The chambers at Nuremberg have been completely refurbished. It's time they be used again. This time, the prosecutors can't be Americans--because Americans must be the ones on trial.
And to those of you who might read this--who once were my friends--I hope you can find your way toward honor again. You are welcome to despise me, but please don't be either determinedly stupid or mean.
A small element. Bradley Manning is no longer being held in solitary confinement in Quantico, and no longer being tortured. A year of such was enough? Bush Obama has done away with the Constitutional right of "habeas corpus," so he could keep Mr. Manning for a year without bringing any charges against him. That, of course, is what Bush Obama is doing at Guantanamo Bay, and has been doing there for more than nine years: since he was just plain Bush.
But nobody cares. Most of my former friends condone such. I can't understand them. Or maybe I just pretended, for many years, that they were decent, thoughtful, honorable people, because I wanted us to be friends. No more. I can't do that any more.
Bradley Manning is now being held at Fort Leavenworth. He is actually allowed to wear clothes now. (Are all the U.S. Marines at Quantico sexual perverts? Not gay, but perverted?)
But Obama has announced that "Manning broke the law." Well, I guess I am glad lawyer Obama said that: because as he must know--being lawyer Obama--he has now fatally prejudiced any attempt to bring Mr. Manning to trial on any charges.
Lawyer Obama knows, of course, that Mr. Manning upheld the law. Both U.S. civil law and the Uniform Code of Military Justice make "misprision of a felony"--the hiding of a known felony offense--itself a felony offense.
The war crimes that Mr. Manning exposed, through Wikileaks, were felony offenses. He had a duty--a legal duty--to expose them.
The real criminals in this serious case are (a) George W. Bush; (b) his underlings who actually committed the war crimes--torture, illegal imprisonment; and (c) Obama who has continued the torture and illegal imprisonment at Guantanamo and the year's worth of illegal detention and torture of Mr. Manning.
The chambers at Nuremberg have been completely refurbished. It's time they be used again. This time, the prosecutors can't be Americans--because Americans must be the ones on trial.
And to those of you who might read this--who once were my friends--I hope you can find your way toward honor again. You are welcome to despise me, but please don't be either determinedly stupid or mean.
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