601
General Discussion / NE-MAR-KA-RAM
« on: August 12, 2007, 08:43:53 AM »
Anybody know what this word mean NE-MAR-KA-RAM ? this is a word PANDAY uses to discribe people .
April 26, 2024, 04:55:23 AM
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602
General Discussion / Pfizer Facing 4 Court Cases in Nigeria
« on: August 11, 2007, 07:29:05 AM »
KANO, Nigeria, Sat Aug 11, 07:58 AM
A security guard in this dusty Nigerian city is living with tragedy — a 14-year-old son whose dazed eyes, slow speech and uneven gait signal brain damage. Mustapha Mohammed says he knows who to blame — Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drug maker.
New York-based Pfizer is facing four court cases — two filed by the Nigerian government and two by officials in the northern Nigerian state where Mohammed lives — over a decade-old drug study that included Mohammed's son.
The company, which denies any wrongdoing, is accused of using a 1996 meningitis epidemic to push through a sloppily managed drug study that contributed to death in some and infirmities in others.
The fallout provides a case study of the ethical dilemmas that arise when Western medical priorities run into Third World poverty and ignorance. The communication gap between those handing out medical alms and those receiving has bred mistrust and anger in Kano — with damaging, far-reaching effect.
The Pfizer case was cited as one reason residents of Kano and the state of the same name boycotted a polio vaccine in 2003, fearing it was a plot to make Africans infertile. Polio exploded in Nigeria and eventually spread to 25 previously polio-free countries.
Though the meningitis epidemic is long over and the polio vaccination program is back on track, misinformation and suspicion persist.
Mohammed is sure no one asked his permission to test a drug on his child. But he also wasn't asking many questions when he rushed his son to the hospital in 1996.
"We were desperate for drugs. We just took it in good faith," said Mohammed, who lives in a tiny house off a dirt road in one of Kano's poorer neighborhoods. Mohammed — who can't read or write — only later found out that the pink paper he kept with Pfizer's name and treatment dates meant his son had been in the study.
Pfizer says it explained the study to families using practices in line with U.S. and international guidelines, even employing Nigerian nurses and doctors who spoke Hausa, a main Nigerian language. Written permission was obtained when possible, or oral consent if parents were illiterate.
Across town, Abu Abdullahi Madaki can't be sure if her daughter Firdausi took part in the Pfizer study. Citing privacy concerns, Pfizer has declined to release the names of the 200 children it treated.
All Madaki knows is she took a feverish 8-month-old infant to the hospital in 1996, and now her daughter suffers severe brain damage that left her unable to sit up or talk.
Meningitis — a brain infection — leaves 10 percent to 20 percent of survivors with mental damage, hearing loss, or learning disabilities, according to the World Health Organization.
But Madaki said: "My younger sister had meningitis, but it was nothing like this. My younger sister is now a mother with children."
Madaki, who is illiterate, said she'd always felt that the hospital did something wrong. She decided when she heard about the charges against Pfizer on the radio that her daughter must have been in the study.
Pfizer says it brought the drug — an antibiotic called Trovan — to Nigeria as a humanitarian effort. Trovan had already been tested on humans in the U.S. It was a tablet, which could be easier to use with children than the standard meningitis treatment — a painful injection.
More than 11,000 children died in Nigeria during the epidemic.
"When this epidemic occurred, the government asked people to come and help them," said Ngozi Edozien, regional director of the Pfizer branch that covers Nigeria. She said Pfizer wanted to help, but could only offer Trovan through a clinical study because the drug was not yet approved.
Edozien argued that approval to use Trovan to treat epidemic meningitis would not have been a windfall for the company, but for the poor countries that face the disease. She also noted that Pfizer donated medical supplies and equipment to the government to help in the epidemic.
Trovan was approved in the U.S. in 1997 to treat a number of infections, though not for meningitis. It was later pulled from the market because it was shown to cause serious liver damage.
Death rates were similar among the 100 children taking Trovan and the 100 Pfizer gave the standard meningitis treatment. Five of the Trovan subjects died, compared with six in the control group — rates comparable to those of Western hospitals, according to Pfizer.
Still, families and the government argue that Pfizer kept some children on Trovan even though their condition was worsening, that the doses of the standard treatment should have been higher and that dubious procedures used in pushing the experiment through mean Pfizer should be held accountable for any future health problems in those it treated.
It's hard to know if truly "informed consent" is possible during a health care crisis among a widely uneducated, isolated population.
"If you're sick and trying to get health care and somebody says to you, 'Do you want to be in a research study?' If somebody is not familiar with the idea of a research study, it becomes more difficult for them to evaluate," says Benjamin Wilfond, head of Seattle's Treuman Katz Center For Pediatric Bioethics.
But if the people of Kano were uninformed, it's not just a U.S. drug company that's to blame. Lawyers for the study families say the government failed to guard its citizens.
Ali Ahmad, who brought a class action suit on behalf of Kano subjects against Pfizer in the U.S., said he also wanted to sue the Nigerian government, but no government workers would testify.
The U.S. suit was turned down in New York for lack of jurisdiction, though Ahmad said lawyers are in the process of appealing and refiling the case.
He argues that the Nigerian government is now taking advantage of the families' plight to enrich itself. A victory in the Nigerian cases will not mean money for families, but for government coffers in a country that watchdog groups routinely call one of the most corrupt in the world. The federal government is seeking $7 billion in damages and the state government $2 billion; they each have filed one criminal case and one civil suit.
Government lawyers say they were slow to file charges because the details of the 1996 trial have been hard to get from Pfizer. They claim that the administration was duped along with the study subjects.
"What the government did was to give Pfizer the benefit of the doubt, and obviously naively trusted Pfizer," said government prosecutor Babatunde Irukera.
Six years after the meningitis outbreak, a Kano doctor printed out a series of diatribes he found on the Internet calling the polio vaccine a Western plot to reduce the world's Muslim population. Many of the area's influential Muslim clerics took up the cause and led a 16-month boycott.
Local officials say Kano was primed to believe the rumors. Residents already found it strange that they were given free polio doses but nothing for bigger killers like malaria and measles. And the Pfizer controversy was still simmering.
"When people heard about (the Pfizer charges), they started really hiding their children," said Alhahi Ibrahim Jibrin Mai-Anguwa, head of a 3,000-person neighborhood ward in Kano.
The state governor stopped the vaccination program while doses were sent abroad for testing, a move that shocked the West but may actually be the bright spot in Kano's story — an official listening to the concerns of his constituency. When test results confirmed the vaccine was safe, people began to embrace it again.
But some damage can't be erased.
Twice a week, mothers arrive in the physical therapy ward of a Kano hospital carrying children with the jerking legs and lifeless arms of polio for massages and sessions under heat lamps.
Four-year-old Fatima Yau, whose mother refused to have her immunized in 2003, lies on the examination table with legs splayed out flat and unresponsive.
Her mother says she's hopeful for Fatima's future. Her daughter just started school. She's carried to classes each morning on an older sibling's back.
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A security guard in this dusty Nigerian city is living with tragedy — a 14-year-old son whose dazed eyes, slow speech and uneven gait signal brain damage. Mustapha Mohammed says he knows who to blame — Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drug maker.
New York-based Pfizer is facing four court cases — two filed by the Nigerian government and two by officials in the northern Nigerian state where Mohammed lives — over a decade-old drug study that included Mohammed's son.
The company, which denies any wrongdoing, is accused of using a 1996 meningitis epidemic to push through a sloppily managed drug study that contributed to death in some and infirmities in others.
The fallout provides a case study of the ethical dilemmas that arise when Western medical priorities run into Third World poverty and ignorance. The communication gap between those handing out medical alms and those receiving has bred mistrust and anger in Kano — with damaging, far-reaching effect.
The Pfizer case was cited as one reason residents of Kano and the state of the same name boycotted a polio vaccine in 2003, fearing it was a plot to make Africans infertile. Polio exploded in Nigeria and eventually spread to 25 previously polio-free countries.
Though the meningitis epidemic is long over and the polio vaccination program is back on track, misinformation and suspicion persist.
Mohammed is sure no one asked his permission to test a drug on his child. But he also wasn't asking many questions when he rushed his son to the hospital in 1996.
"We were desperate for drugs. We just took it in good faith," said Mohammed, who lives in a tiny house off a dirt road in one of Kano's poorer neighborhoods. Mohammed — who can't read or write — only later found out that the pink paper he kept with Pfizer's name and treatment dates meant his son had been in the study.
Pfizer says it explained the study to families using practices in line with U.S. and international guidelines, even employing Nigerian nurses and doctors who spoke Hausa, a main Nigerian language. Written permission was obtained when possible, or oral consent if parents were illiterate.
Across town, Abu Abdullahi Madaki can't be sure if her daughter Firdausi took part in the Pfizer study. Citing privacy concerns, Pfizer has declined to release the names of the 200 children it treated.
All Madaki knows is she took a feverish 8-month-old infant to the hospital in 1996, and now her daughter suffers severe brain damage that left her unable to sit up or talk.
Meningitis — a brain infection — leaves 10 percent to 20 percent of survivors with mental damage, hearing loss, or learning disabilities, according to the World Health Organization.
But Madaki said: "My younger sister had meningitis, but it was nothing like this. My younger sister is now a mother with children."
Madaki, who is illiterate, said she'd always felt that the hospital did something wrong. She decided when she heard about the charges against Pfizer on the radio that her daughter must have been in the study.
Pfizer says it brought the drug — an antibiotic called Trovan — to Nigeria as a humanitarian effort. Trovan had already been tested on humans in the U.S. It was a tablet, which could be easier to use with children than the standard meningitis treatment — a painful injection.
More than 11,000 children died in Nigeria during the epidemic.
"When this epidemic occurred, the government asked people to come and help them," said Ngozi Edozien, regional director of the Pfizer branch that covers Nigeria. She said Pfizer wanted to help, but could only offer Trovan through a clinical study because the drug was not yet approved.
Edozien argued that approval to use Trovan to treat epidemic meningitis would not have been a windfall for the company, but for the poor countries that face the disease. She also noted that Pfizer donated medical supplies and equipment to the government to help in the epidemic.
Trovan was approved in the U.S. in 1997 to treat a number of infections, though not for meningitis. It was later pulled from the market because it was shown to cause serious liver damage.
Death rates were similar among the 100 children taking Trovan and the 100 Pfizer gave the standard meningitis treatment. Five of the Trovan subjects died, compared with six in the control group — rates comparable to those of Western hospitals, according to Pfizer.
Still, families and the government argue that Pfizer kept some children on Trovan even though their condition was worsening, that the doses of the standard treatment should have been higher and that dubious procedures used in pushing the experiment through mean Pfizer should be held accountable for any future health problems in those it treated.
It's hard to know if truly "informed consent" is possible during a health care crisis among a widely uneducated, isolated population.
"If you're sick and trying to get health care and somebody says to you, 'Do you want to be in a research study?' If somebody is not familiar with the idea of a research study, it becomes more difficult for them to evaluate," says Benjamin Wilfond, head of Seattle's Treuman Katz Center For Pediatric Bioethics.
But if the people of Kano were uninformed, it's not just a U.S. drug company that's to blame. Lawyers for the study families say the government failed to guard its citizens.
Ali Ahmad, who brought a class action suit on behalf of Kano subjects against Pfizer in the U.S., said he also wanted to sue the Nigerian government, but no government workers would testify.
The U.S. suit was turned down in New York for lack of jurisdiction, though Ahmad said lawyers are in the process of appealing and refiling the case.
He argues that the Nigerian government is now taking advantage of the families' plight to enrich itself. A victory in the Nigerian cases will not mean money for families, but for government coffers in a country that watchdog groups routinely call one of the most corrupt in the world. The federal government is seeking $7 billion in damages and the state government $2 billion; they each have filed one criminal case and one civil suit.
Government lawyers say they were slow to file charges because the details of the 1996 trial have been hard to get from Pfizer. They claim that the administration was duped along with the study subjects.
"What the government did was to give Pfizer the benefit of the doubt, and obviously naively trusted Pfizer," said government prosecutor Babatunde Irukera.
Six years after the meningitis outbreak, a Kano doctor printed out a series of diatribes he found on the Internet calling the polio vaccine a Western plot to reduce the world's Muslim population. Many of the area's influential Muslim clerics took up the cause and led a 16-month boycott.
Local officials say Kano was primed to believe the rumors. Residents already found it strange that they were given free polio doses but nothing for bigger killers like malaria and measles. And the Pfizer controversy was still simmering.
"When people heard about (the Pfizer charges), they started really hiding their children," said Alhahi Ibrahim Jibrin Mai-Anguwa, head of a 3,000-person neighborhood ward in Kano.
The state governor stopped the vaccination program while doses were sent abroad for testing, a move that shocked the West but may actually be the bright spot in Kano's story — an official listening to the concerns of his constituency. When test results confirmed the vaccine was safe, people began to embrace it again.
But some damage can't be erased.
Twice a week, mothers arrive in the physical therapy ward of a Kano hospital carrying children with the jerking legs and lifeless arms of polio for massages and sessions under heat lamps.
Four-year-old Fatima Yau, whose mother refused to have her immunized in 2003, lies on the examination table with legs splayed out flat and unresponsive.
Her mother says she's hopeful for Fatima's future. Her daughter just started school. She's carried to classes each morning on an older sibling's back.
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603
General Discussion / Execution-Style Killings Spark Outrage
« on: August 07, 2007, 05:11:02 PM »NEWARK, N.J., Tue Aug 07, 11:08 AM
They were on the cusp of adulthood: four friends who made music together and were preparing to return to the college where their friendship had blossomed.
An apparent robbery attempt by several assailants left three of them dead, the latest victims in this city where the murder rate has risen 50 percent since 1998.
Police said the three were forced to kneel against a wall and shot at close range; a fourth was wounded.
The killings bring Newark's murder total for the year to 60, and put pressure on Mayor Cory A. Booker, who campaigned last year on a promise of reducing crime.
"He doesn't deserve another day, another second, while our children are at stake," Donna Jackson, president of the community-based Take Back Our Streets organization, said Monday at a news conference in front of City Hall. "Anyone who has children in the city is in panic mode. It takes something like this for people to open up their eyes and understand that not every person killed in Newark is a drug dealer."
At a news conference, Booker said it was a time for unity and "not a time to play politics and divide our city."
Killed were Terrance Aeriel, 18, Iofemi Hightower, 20, and Dashon Harvey, 20. Aeriel's 19-year-old sister, Natasha, was in fair condition Monday at Newark's University Hospital after being shot in the head, police said; the hospital declined to release her condition after that, citing patient privacy laws. She was found about 30 feet from her friends, slumped near some bleachers.
Authorities were assembling details of the crime from witnesses including Natasha Aeriel, but had not made any arrests by late Monday night.
The four lived in Newark and were to attend Delaware State University this fall. None had criminal records, according to authorities, and relatives and neighbors said they were not involved in drinking, drugs or gangs.
"They were good kids," Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow said.
Several law enforcement groups offered a reward of more than $50,000 for information leading to the arrest of those involved, Booker said.
"I'm very angry because they were good kids with bright futures," Hightower's mother, Shalga, said Monday. "They didn't deserve it. My daughter was a very sweet, loving young lady who would help anybody in need."
Hightower and the Aeriels had been friends since elementary school and played in the marching band at West Side High School. Terrance Aeriel, known as T.J., took Hightower to the school prom in 2006, chauffeured by his sister. He also worked with kids at a teen center in Newark's Vailsburg section.
At Delaware State they met Harvey, also a musician, and struck up a friendship. When in Newark, they liked to go to the elementary school, which sits in a middle-class neighborhood less than a mile from the campus of Seton Hall University, to hang out and listen to music.
Harvey's page on MySpace.com was filled with messages from friends on Monday. He described himself as a sometime runway model whose heroes were Superman and Dr. Martin Luther King "and last but not least, My DAD." He planned to graduate from Delaware State in 2009 with a degree in psychology.
His peers elected him the school's Mr. Junior, part of DSU's homecoming court.
Harvey's father, James, a former city water department employee, focused blame Monday on the parents of the assailants.
"If you raised your kids better, this would not happen," he said.
Natasha Aeriel was a junior majoring in biology who played alto saxophone in the school's marching band, according to university spokesman Carlos Holmes.
Terrence Aeriel was studying business management and wasn't enrolled last spring, but had re-enrolled for the fall. He played baritone sax and attended Delaware State's band camp last summer.
Hightower worked two jobs and enrolled at the school recently. One of her jobs was at Brighton Gardens, an assisted living center in nearby West Orange, where her mother also worked.
On the afternoon of the killings, Iofemi told her mother she planned to spend the night at Natasha Aeriel's house near the school.
"The last time I heard her voice was Saturday night," Hightower said between sobs. "She called me from work to let me know Natasha was going to pick her up and she was going to spend the night. She told me she loved me."
The Aeriels' mother, Renee Tucker, said the last time she saw them was around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, when they told her they were going around the corner to get something to eat.
"They said they were going to come right back to the house," Tucker said.
———
Associated Press Writers Janet Frankston Lorin and Jeffrey Gold in Newark, and Daniela Flores in Trenton contributed to this story.
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Black on black crime when will it ever end .lord if you kah come send somebody .
604
Entertainment & Culture Discussion / SESAME FLYERS
« on: August 03, 2007, 06:20:16 PM »
Yow fellerz if yuh cummin from out of the city or yuh liv iv the city of Brooklyn SESAME FLYERS 3510 Church Ave have calypsonian every Friday from 11.00 pm ,Sundays from 6 pm and wed after wurk if alyuh in town ahready come true clean fun mature crowd .
605
General Discussion / Children in Color
« on: August 03, 2007, 05:44:54 PM »
Today wifey and my 4 yr old daughter went to the park ,my daughter iz very dark ,while playin in the park with the other kids a little boy came up to her and said you are so black , you are black and i am white ,he iz fair, iam asking my self if he is taught dat at home or if he heard it from other kids.ah mean it did not bother me if the child did not know he is black but i always let our daughter know that she is blackand beautiful and that we love her .the kids are older than she is for her age she iz tall so they might fell that she iz as old as they are.
606
General Discussion / Museveni empower black people
« on: August 02, 2007, 05:05:37 PM »Kristy Ramnarine kramnarine@trinidadexpress.com
Thursday, August 2nd 2007
Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has said that people cannot be empowered unless the factors of disempowerment are known.
He was delivering the feature address, which dealt with the empowerment of black people, during the National Association for the Empowerment of African People (NAEAP) dinner and awards ceremony on Tuesday night.
"When you talk of black people you are talking originally of Africans. You cannot talk about black people and not talk about Africa. The African continent is the cradle of mankind," he said.
"What do we need to do to empower black people?" he asked. "In my opinion the answer is dealing with a number of factors."
Museveni went on to name a few factors, one of which was dealing with the under-development of African countries.
"Countries in Africa have been democratic for very long but are still under-developed," he added.
"We need to deal with the problem of Independence and decision making."
He then used an example of coffee exports in Uganda, which brings in less money to the country than it should.
"Uganda is the fourth largest exporter of coffee in the world," he said.
"We sell coffee for $1 per pound while the United Kingdom sellS it for $15 a pound. The United Kingdom makes a $14-dollar profit on coffee, which is imported from Uganda. We need to export raw materials instead of unfinished products."
He said that efforts were now underway to process coffee in Uganda where they will compete with international food company Nestle.
Prime Minister Patrick Manning said Emancipation Day has been celebrated many times but would only have meaning if citizens viewed it as an opportunity to free themselves from whatever shackles that had stunned their growth as a nation.
Manning said the issue of diversity in Trinidad and Tobago must be utmost in the minds of citizens all the time.
"All of us have an ancestry that come from outside of Trinidad and Tobago, except for the Carib community in Arima," he said.
"In societies that are as diverse, in fact in any society where differences exist amongst the people those differences conspire to divide rather than to unite.
"We ought to take a personal decision that whatever differences exist amongst us that we will not use as a form of discord. Instead we would look for the strength in us and seek to build out society and build out nation."
Comments: ...Museveni: Empower black people
Empowering black people Posted: 2007-08-02 00:01:00
607
General Discussion / Fisher Price Recall
« on: August 02, 2007, 06:59:12 AM »
Plastic Products made in China , DORA & Elmo may contain lead base paint , check through your children toy box .
608
General Discussion / Israel Kahn to Ugandan president Apologise to Indians
« on: August 01, 2007, 06:42:53 PM »
BY FAINE RICHARDS
SENIOR COUNSEL Israel Khan is hoping that visiting Ugandan President Youweri Museveni would apologise for past atrocities committed against Indians in Uganda.
In a telephone interview yesterday following a news release Khan “politely” called on Museveni to deliver a public apology for “brutality” against Indians in Uganda under former president Idi Amin Dada.
Museveni arrived in T&T yesterday for a three-day visit. He was scheduled to deliver the keynote address at a dinner hosted by the National Association for the Empowerment of African People at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya, last night.
Khan was hoping Museveni would devote a portion of his address to reiterating similar apologies he made to the Indian Diaspora in Canada and England.
Khan believes the apology is fitting in light of efforts to develop diplomatic ties between T&T and Uganda.
Referring to the request from Uganda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Jutesa for T&T’s oil and gas expertise, Khan said: “I observe that the present president of Uganda is coming to our country seeking assistance as to how to manage his oil and gas.”
“When he (Museveni) arrives here, he will see how East Indians and Africans live side by side in a peaceful manner. This is a model country for him,” Khan said.
Recalling former president Amin’s statement that Indians were “bloodsuckers,” Khan said Amin expelled Indians from Uganda, and confiscated their properties.
Khan said Museveni previously invited the descendants of those expelled to return to Uganda and resettle their family’s property.
“He (Museveni) wants to have ties with our country and he is not to be blamed for what Idi Amin did,” Khan said.
Idi Amin’s legacy
In 1971, Idi Amin, a major general in the Ugandan army, seized power from incumbent president Milton Obote in a military coup d’etat.
On August 5, 1972, Amin mandated that some 40,000 Ugandans of Asian descent leave the country.
The majority of them were descendants of indentured Indian labourers brought to Uganda when it was still a British colony.
Uganda declared its independence from Great Britain in 1962.
The properties of all those expelled from the country were confiscated by Amin’s government.
During his eight-year presidency, Amin reportedly killed an estimated 300,000 people.
Amin died in 2003.
SENIOR COUNSEL Israel Khan is hoping that visiting Ugandan President Youweri Museveni would apologise for past atrocities committed against Indians in Uganda.
In a telephone interview yesterday following a news release Khan “politely” called on Museveni to deliver a public apology for “brutality” against Indians in Uganda under former president Idi Amin Dada.
Museveni arrived in T&T yesterday for a three-day visit. He was scheduled to deliver the keynote address at a dinner hosted by the National Association for the Empowerment of African People at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya, last night.
Khan was hoping Museveni would devote a portion of his address to reiterating similar apologies he made to the Indian Diaspora in Canada and England.
Khan believes the apology is fitting in light of efforts to develop diplomatic ties between T&T and Uganda.
Referring to the request from Uganda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Jutesa for T&T’s oil and gas expertise, Khan said: “I observe that the present president of Uganda is coming to our country seeking assistance as to how to manage his oil and gas.”
“When he (Museveni) arrives here, he will see how East Indians and Africans live side by side in a peaceful manner. This is a model country for him,” Khan said.
Recalling former president Amin’s statement that Indians were “bloodsuckers,” Khan said Amin expelled Indians from Uganda, and confiscated their properties.
Khan said Museveni previously invited the descendants of those expelled to return to Uganda and resettle their family’s property.
“He (Museveni) wants to have ties with our country and he is not to be blamed for what Idi Amin did,” Khan said.
Idi Amin’s legacy
In 1971, Idi Amin, a major general in the Ugandan army, seized power from incumbent president Milton Obote in a military coup d’etat.
On August 5, 1972, Amin mandated that some 40,000 Ugandans of Asian descent leave the country.
The majority of them were descendants of indentured Indian labourers brought to Uganda when it was still a British colony.
Uganda declared its independence from Great Britain in 1962.
The properties of all those expelled from the country were confiscated by Amin’s government.
During his eight-year presidency, Amin reportedly killed an estimated 300,000 people.
Amin died in 2003.
609
General Discussion / Time to revise the national anthem
« on: July 30, 2007, 08:05:03 PM »
I dont know if this was posted on the forum if it was please let me know and i would remove it .
By Dr. Winford James
September 25, 2005
Posted: September 27, 2005
Sorry, but our national anthem is a mess of errors, and nobody has pointed out and analysed those errors more than Denis Solomon, newspaper columnist and former UWI lecturer in French and Linguistics. Solomon identifies three grammatical errors in the anthem and even regards the whole of it as 'literary nonsense'. As we celebrate Republic Day, it might be useful to reflect on its deficiencies and agitate for a revision, if not a complete change. (To facilitate your reflection, I have reproduced the anthem below:
Forged from the love of liberty
In the fires of hope and prayer
With boundless faith in our destiny
We solemnly declare
Side by side we stand
Islands of the blue Caribbean Sea
THIS OUR NATIVE LAND
WE PLEDGE OUR LIVES TO THEE
HERE EVERY CREED AND RACE FIND AN EQUAL PLACE
AND MAY GOD BLESS OUR NATION
HERE EVERY CREED AND RACE FIND AN EQUAL PLACE
AND MAY GOD BLESS OUR NATION
The errors identified by Solomon are to be found in the last six lines, which I have capitalized. One error is the use of the demonstrative word 'this' in addressing the native land. We know that the latter is being addressed because of the presence of the addressee pronoun 'thee' in the next line. 'Thee' can only refer to native land in the context (though, incredibly, two mature students of mine recently told me that they thought it referred to God!).
To get a better sense of the wrongness of 'this' in relation to 'thee', consider the oddness of the following statement which has the same structure:
This, my lovely wife
I pledge my love to you
Another error is the use of 'and' to join what is obviously intended to be a statement of fact (HERE EVERY CREED AND RACE FIND AN EQUAL PLACE) and what is a 'may'-introduced wish (MAY GOD BLESS OUR NATION). English disallows the co-ordination of statements and wishes introduced by 'may'.
The third error is that 'find' is an error of subject-verb agreement if the statement it comes in is a statement and not a 'may'-introduced wish. You might think that 'find' agrees with the co-ordinated subject 'every creed and race', but what you don't know is that the key word in the subject is 'every', which singles out creeds and races and therefore treats them as (third person) singular. Which means that the verb must be 'finds'.
It makes sense to interpret the line with 'find' ('finds') as a statement if only because it seems to be part of a declaration. Among the things that we solemnly declare is that every creed and race finds an equal place. Another is that the two islands stand side by side geographically (which is a trivial declaration) and politically (which would be really something to shout about if it were true!). But can we declare that God may bless our nation? It seems that we can't. Which would mean that the clause 'may God bless our nation' is wrong and out of place a fourth error.
In a meagre 12 lines, two of which are repeated, there are, depending on the type of analysis, three or four structural errors. Imagine that! And we have been blissfully singing those errors since 1962 forty-three years now! Isn't it time we stopped the disgrace?
To compound matters, the thing hardly seems to have any inspiring ideas. Yes, the statement that every creed and race finds an equal place can be taken as an ideal that we should strive towards. And the phrase 'forged from the love of liberty' speaks to the importance of freedom, which we could latch on to. But what else is there? Not 'boundless faith in our destiny' because we are not told, not even given the slightest hint, what that destiny might be. Yes, there are lines that reflect a certain religiosity ('in the fires of... prayer' and 'may God bless our nation') but they cannot be said to be inspiring in any personal or nation-building sense. There is no call to action. There are no noble or high principles to embrace. There is nothing to stir our passions. It's mostly trivia we are called upon to sing, and badly constructed trivia at that.
We should revise the whole thing or, better yet, throw it away lock, stock and barrel. But it is so much a part of our soul and psyche (and has such great music!) that I suspect that, emotionally, we wouldn't be easily able to bring ourselves to do it.
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Time to revise the national anthem
By Dr. Winford James
September 25, 2005
Posted: September 27, 2005
Sorry, but our national anthem is a mess of errors, and nobody has pointed out and analysed those errors more than Denis Solomon, newspaper columnist and former UWI lecturer in French and Linguistics. Solomon identifies three grammatical errors in the anthem and even regards the whole of it as 'literary nonsense'. As we celebrate Republic Day, it might be useful to reflect on its deficiencies and agitate for a revision, if not a complete change. (To facilitate your reflection, I have reproduced the anthem below:
Forged from the love of liberty
In the fires of hope and prayer
With boundless faith in our destiny
We solemnly declare
Side by side we stand
Islands of the blue Caribbean Sea
THIS OUR NATIVE LAND
WE PLEDGE OUR LIVES TO THEE
HERE EVERY CREED AND RACE FIND AN EQUAL PLACE
AND MAY GOD BLESS OUR NATION
HERE EVERY CREED AND RACE FIND AN EQUAL PLACE
AND MAY GOD BLESS OUR NATION
The errors identified by Solomon are to be found in the last six lines, which I have capitalized. One error is the use of the demonstrative word 'this' in addressing the native land. We know that the latter is being addressed because of the presence of the addressee pronoun 'thee' in the next line. 'Thee' can only refer to native land in the context (though, incredibly, two mature students of mine recently told me that they thought it referred to God!).
To get a better sense of the wrongness of 'this' in relation to 'thee', consider the oddness of the following statement which has the same structure:
This, my lovely wife
I pledge my love to you
Another error is the use of 'and' to join what is obviously intended to be a statement of fact (HERE EVERY CREED AND RACE FIND AN EQUAL PLACE) and what is a 'may'-introduced wish (MAY GOD BLESS OUR NATION). English disallows the co-ordination of statements and wishes introduced by 'may'.
The third error is that 'find' is an error of subject-verb agreement if the statement it comes in is a statement and not a 'may'-introduced wish. You might think that 'find' agrees with the co-ordinated subject 'every creed and race', but what you don't know is that the key word in the subject is 'every', which singles out creeds and races and therefore treats them as (third person) singular. Which means that the verb must be 'finds'.
It makes sense to interpret the line with 'find' ('finds') as a statement if only because it seems to be part of a declaration. Among the things that we solemnly declare is that every creed and race finds an equal place. Another is that the two islands stand side by side geographically (which is a trivial declaration) and politically (which would be really something to shout about if it were true!). But can we declare that God may bless our nation? It seems that we can't. Which would mean that the clause 'may God bless our nation' is wrong and out of place a fourth error.
In a meagre 12 lines, two of which are repeated, there are, depending on the type of analysis, three or four structural errors. Imagine that! And we have been blissfully singing those errors since 1962 forty-three years now! Isn't it time we stopped the disgrace?
To compound matters, the thing hardly seems to have any inspiring ideas. Yes, the statement that every creed and race finds an equal place can be taken as an ideal that we should strive towards. And the phrase 'forged from the love of liberty' speaks to the importance of freedom, which we could latch on to. But what else is there? Not 'boundless faith in our destiny' because we are not told, not even given the slightest hint, what that destiny might be. Yes, there are lines that reflect a certain religiosity ('in the fires of... prayer' and 'may God bless our nation') but they cannot be said to be inspiring in any personal or nation-building sense. There is no call to action. There are no noble or high principles to embrace. There is nothing to stir our passions. It's mostly trivia we are called upon to sing, and badly constructed trivia at that.
We should revise the whole thing or, better yet, throw it away lock, stock and barrel. But it is so much a part of our soul and psyche (and has such great music!) that I suspect that, emotionally, we wouldn't be easily able to bring ourselves to do it.
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By Dr. Winford James
September 25, 2005
Posted: September 27, 2005
Sorry, but our national anthem is a mess of errors, and nobody has pointed out and analysed those errors more than Denis Solomon, newspaper columnist and former UWI lecturer in French and Linguistics. Solomon identifies three grammatical errors in the anthem and even regards the whole of it as 'literary nonsense'. As we celebrate Republic Day, it might be useful to reflect on its deficiencies and agitate for a revision, if not a complete change. (To facilitate your reflection, I have reproduced the anthem below:
Forged from the love of liberty
In the fires of hope and prayer
With boundless faith in our destiny
We solemnly declare
Side by side we stand
Islands of the blue Caribbean Sea
THIS OUR NATIVE LAND
WE PLEDGE OUR LIVES TO THEE
HERE EVERY CREED AND RACE FIND AN EQUAL PLACE
AND MAY GOD BLESS OUR NATION
HERE EVERY CREED AND RACE FIND AN EQUAL PLACE
AND MAY GOD BLESS OUR NATION
The errors identified by Solomon are to be found in the last six lines, which I have capitalized. One error is the use of the demonstrative word 'this' in addressing the native land. We know that the latter is being addressed because of the presence of the addressee pronoun 'thee' in the next line. 'Thee' can only refer to native land in the context (though, incredibly, two mature students of mine recently told me that they thought it referred to God!).
To get a better sense of the wrongness of 'this' in relation to 'thee', consider the oddness of the following statement which has the same structure:
This, my lovely wife
I pledge my love to you
Another error is the use of 'and' to join what is obviously intended to be a statement of fact (HERE EVERY CREED AND RACE FIND AN EQUAL PLACE) and what is a 'may'-introduced wish (MAY GOD BLESS OUR NATION). English disallows the co-ordination of statements and wishes introduced by 'may'.
The third error is that 'find' is an error of subject-verb agreement if the statement it comes in is a statement and not a 'may'-introduced wish. You might think that 'find' agrees with the co-ordinated subject 'every creed and race', but what you don't know is that the key word in the subject is 'every', which singles out creeds and races and therefore treats them as (third person) singular. Which means that the verb must be 'finds'.
It makes sense to interpret the line with 'find' ('finds') as a statement if only because it seems to be part of a declaration. Among the things that we solemnly declare is that every creed and race finds an equal place. Another is that the two islands stand side by side geographically (which is a trivial declaration) and politically (which would be really something to shout about if it were true!). But can we declare that God may bless our nation? It seems that we can't. Which would mean that the clause 'may God bless our nation' is wrong and out of place a fourth error.
In a meagre 12 lines, two of which are repeated, there are, depending on the type of analysis, three or four structural errors. Imagine that! And we have been blissfully singing those errors since 1962 forty-three years now! Isn't it time we stopped the disgrace?
To compound matters, the thing hardly seems to have any inspiring ideas. Yes, the statement that every creed and race finds an equal place can be taken as an ideal that we should strive towards. And the phrase 'forged from the love of liberty' speaks to the importance of freedom, which we could latch on to. But what else is there? Not 'boundless faith in our destiny' because we are not told, not even given the slightest hint, what that destiny might be. Yes, there are lines that reflect a certain religiosity ('in the fires of... prayer' and 'may God bless our nation') but they cannot be said to be inspiring in any personal or nation-building sense. There is no call to action. There are no noble or high principles to embrace. There is nothing to stir our passions. It's mostly trivia we are called upon to sing, and badly constructed trivia at that.
We should revise the whole thing or, better yet, throw it away lock, stock and barrel. But it is so much a part of our soul and psyche (and has such great music!) that I suspect that, emotionally, we wouldn't be easily able to bring ourselves to do it.
Archives / Winford James Homepage
^ Back to top
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Copyright © 2000-2007 Trinicenter.com
Time to revise the national anthem
By Dr. Winford James
September 25, 2005
Posted: September 27, 2005
Sorry, but our national anthem is a mess of errors, and nobody has pointed out and analysed those errors more than Denis Solomon, newspaper columnist and former UWI lecturer in French and Linguistics. Solomon identifies three grammatical errors in the anthem and even regards the whole of it as 'literary nonsense'. As we celebrate Republic Day, it might be useful to reflect on its deficiencies and agitate for a revision, if not a complete change. (To facilitate your reflection, I have reproduced the anthem below:
Forged from the love of liberty
In the fires of hope and prayer
With boundless faith in our destiny
We solemnly declare
Side by side we stand
Islands of the blue Caribbean Sea
THIS OUR NATIVE LAND
WE PLEDGE OUR LIVES TO THEE
HERE EVERY CREED AND RACE FIND AN EQUAL PLACE
AND MAY GOD BLESS OUR NATION
HERE EVERY CREED AND RACE FIND AN EQUAL PLACE
AND MAY GOD BLESS OUR NATION
The errors identified by Solomon are to be found in the last six lines, which I have capitalized. One error is the use of the demonstrative word 'this' in addressing the native land. We know that the latter is being addressed because of the presence of the addressee pronoun 'thee' in the next line. 'Thee' can only refer to native land in the context (though, incredibly, two mature students of mine recently told me that they thought it referred to God!).
To get a better sense of the wrongness of 'this' in relation to 'thee', consider the oddness of the following statement which has the same structure:
This, my lovely wife
I pledge my love to you
Another error is the use of 'and' to join what is obviously intended to be a statement of fact (HERE EVERY CREED AND RACE FIND AN EQUAL PLACE) and what is a 'may'-introduced wish (MAY GOD BLESS OUR NATION). English disallows the co-ordination of statements and wishes introduced by 'may'.
The third error is that 'find' is an error of subject-verb agreement if the statement it comes in is a statement and not a 'may'-introduced wish. You might think that 'find' agrees with the co-ordinated subject 'every creed and race', but what you don't know is that the key word in the subject is 'every', which singles out creeds and races and therefore treats them as (third person) singular. Which means that the verb must be 'finds'.
It makes sense to interpret the line with 'find' ('finds') as a statement if only because it seems to be part of a declaration. Among the things that we solemnly declare is that every creed and race finds an equal place. Another is that the two islands stand side by side geographically (which is a trivial declaration) and politically (which would be really something to shout about if it were true!). But can we declare that God may bless our nation? It seems that we can't. Which would mean that the clause 'may God bless our nation' is wrong and out of place a fourth error.
In a meagre 12 lines, two of which are repeated, there are, depending on the type of analysis, three or four structural errors. Imagine that! And we have been blissfully singing those errors since 1962 forty-three years now! Isn't it time we stopped the disgrace?
To compound matters, the thing hardly seems to have any inspiring ideas. Yes, the statement that every creed and race finds an equal place can be taken as an ideal that we should strive towards. And the phrase 'forged from the love of liberty' speaks to the importance of freedom, which we could latch on to. But what else is there? Not 'boundless faith in our destiny' because we are not told, not even given the slightest hint, what that destiny might be. Yes, there are lines that reflect a certain religiosity ('in the fires of... prayer' and 'may God bless our nation') but they cannot be said to be inspiring in any personal or nation-building sense. There is no call to action. There are no noble or high principles to embrace. There is nothing to stir our passions. It's mostly trivia we are called upon to sing, and badly constructed trivia at that.
We should revise the whole thing or, better yet, throw it away lock, stock and barrel. But it is so much a part of our soul and psyche (and has such great music!) that I suspect that, emotionally, we wouldn't be easily able to bring ourselves to do it.
Archives / Winford James Homepage
^ Back to top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trinbago Pan | Trinicenter | Trinidad and Tobago News | Trini View | Trini Soca
Race and History | U.S.Crusade | Amon Hotep | RootsWomen | Africa Speaks
Rasta Times | Rootsie Roots | HowComYouCom
.
610
General Discussion / EMANCIPATION DAY AUGUST D 1ST
« on: July 30, 2007, 03:12:41 PM »
Emancipate your self from mental slavery and free your mind , ON August 1st iz Emancipation day in T&T .i zulu identify myself as a citizen of t&t of African decent, ah have on my dash e ki armed wid my drums and i going to celebrate wid the ancestors and ah go beat the skin of the drums till it geh soft .
611
Entertainment & Culture Discussion / CARNIVAL IN BROOKLYN
« on: July 27, 2007, 02:31:55 PM »
For Labor Day in brooklyn any fete matches are bein organize yet ? ah not hearin alyuh sayin nutten bout that , We can get together have ah few drinks ,to make a long story short have a day of fun . cmon on warriors leh we do sumthing .
612
Entertainment & Culture Discussion / IWER GEORGE
« on: July 23, 2007, 01:03:02 PM »
The man formally known as IWER GEORGE recently change his name anybody know what he new name iz ? ah hope iz not ah sign .
613
General Discussion / DOG ATTACK CHILD
« on: July 18, 2007, 12:23:42 PM »
LOCKPORT: Pitbull attacks toddler
By April Amadon/amadona@gnnewspaper.com
The Tonawanda News
— Lockport police are investigating an apparent attack by a pit bull on a small boy.
The 2-year-old is recovering at Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo after police say he was attacked and sexually assaulted by his family’s pit bull.
Police said the toddler was in his home on Washburn Street about 2 p.m. Sunday when the pill bull attacked. According to police, the dog sodomized the boy.
“The dog sexually attacked the kid and caused some pretty significant injuries,” said Lockport Police Detective Capt. Larry Eggert.
Eggert said the boy’s family members, who were reportedly home at the time, and neighbors had to beat the dog to get him off the boy.
The dog has been impounded at the Niagara County SPCA in Wheatfield as the investigation continues. Eggert said a veterinarian will be brought in to take DNA samples from the dog.
“(The vet will) compare DNA taken from the boy to kind of verify it happened,” Eggert said.
Eggert said everyone involved in the case was shocked by the bizarre incident.
“I have never, ever heard of an assault quite like that,” Eggert said.
Niagara County SPCA Executive Director Al Chille said this case is an unusual one.
“I have had reports of adults having (sexual) relationships with animals, but not anything like that,” he said. “The majority of the calls we receive with regards to pit bulls are bite calls, not calls of this nature. We get a considerably large number of those (bite calls) from all over the county.”
The dog was a 2-year-old pit bull that had been with the family since it was a puppy, Eggert said. Sunday’s incident was the first time the family had any problems with the dog being aggressive or biting, he said.
The boy underwent surgery on Sunday night and may need more reconstructive surgery in the future, Eggert said.
Sunday saw two dog attacks
The attack was one of two that occurred Sunday involving pit bulls.
The owner of a pit bull on Willow Street was charged after her dog reportedly attacked another dog on Sunday.
Bobbie L. Mael, 51, 544 Willow St., was charged Sunday with having a dog at large. Witnesses said Mael’s 7-year-old pit bull, Lana, attacked 7-year-old Bailey, a Labrador mix, in a neighboring yard.
A neighbor told police he saw Lana coming toward his home, growling at him. The pit bull heard Bailey barking nearby and went after it, the report said.
The Labrador’s owner said he had to hit the pit bull with a hockey stick to break the hold it had on his dog’s neck.
Officers arrived on the scene and saw the pit bull standing near the curb with blood visible around its mouth. In the nearby yard, the Labrador was “visually upset,” the report said, with blood drops on its fur.
The pit bull was grabbed and placed in the back of the patrol car. Mael is due today in Lockport City Court.
Chille said pit bulls are notorious for being aggressive, though that may not be true of all pit bulls.
“The majority of calls we get either are aggressive pit bulls or people that perceive the pit bulls are aggressive,” he said. “There’s a natural fear of the breed.”
In his 27 years working with the SPCA, he said he’s seen many dog breeds become feared in society — including spaniels, German shepherds and rottweilers.
“Each one of the dogs had its day,” he said.
The problem is not with the breed itself, Chille said, but rather the manner in which the dog is raised. A pit bull raised in a loving atmosphere since puppyhood “could be a fine dog,” he said.
He recommends people be wary and avoid leaving small children alone with any breed of dog, not just those notorious for being aggressive, and to make sure dogs are spayed or neutered.
All animals that leave the SPCA for adoption are required to be spayed or neutered.
“If they would neuter them, I think it would take a lot of the fight out of them,” Chille said.
Contact reporter April Amadon at 439-9222, ext. 6251.
Rat the only reason ah change the name iz becauze you said so ,and i once ask you to change your avater and you did , if i offend you i am sorry not intended .
By April Amadon/amadona@gnnewspaper.com
The Tonawanda News
— Lockport police are investigating an apparent attack by a pit bull on a small boy.
The 2-year-old is recovering at Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo after police say he was attacked and sexually assaulted by his family’s pit bull.
Police said the toddler was in his home on Washburn Street about 2 p.m. Sunday when the pill bull attacked. According to police, the dog sodomized the boy.
“The dog sexually attacked the kid and caused some pretty significant injuries,” said Lockport Police Detective Capt. Larry Eggert.
Eggert said the boy’s family members, who were reportedly home at the time, and neighbors had to beat the dog to get him off the boy.
The dog has been impounded at the Niagara County SPCA in Wheatfield as the investigation continues. Eggert said a veterinarian will be brought in to take DNA samples from the dog.
“(The vet will) compare DNA taken from the boy to kind of verify it happened,” Eggert said.
Eggert said everyone involved in the case was shocked by the bizarre incident.
“I have never, ever heard of an assault quite like that,” Eggert said.
Niagara County SPCA Executive Director Al Chille said this case is an unusual one.
“I have had reports of adults having (sexual) relationships with animals, but not anything like that,” he said. “The majority of the calls we receive with regards to pit bulls are bite calls, not calls of this nature. We get a considerably large number of those (bite calls) from all over the county.”
The dog was a 2-year-old pit bull that had been with the family since it was a puppy, Eggert said. Sunday’s incident was the first time the family had any problems with the dog being aggressive or biting, he said.
The boy underwent surgery on Sunday night and may need more reconstructive surgery in the future, Eggert said.
Sunday saw two dog attacks
The attack was one of two that occurred Sunday involving pit bulls.
The owner of a pit bull on Willow Street was charged after her dog reportedly attacked another dog on Sunday.
Bobbie L. Mael, 51, 544 Willow St., was charged Sunday with having a dog at large. Witnesses said Mael’s 7-year-old pit bull, Lana, attacked 7-year-old Bailey, a Labrador mix, in a neighboring yard.
A neighbor told police he saw Lana coming toward his home, growling at him. The pit bull heard Bailey barking nearby and went after it, the report said.
The Labrador’s owner said he had to hit the pit bull with a hockey stick to break the hold it had on his dog’s neck.
Officers arrived on the scene and saw the pit bull standing near the curb with blood visible around its mouth. In the nearby yard, the Labrador was “visually upset,” the report said, with blood drops on its fur.
The pit bull was grabbed and placed in the back of the patrol car. Mael is due today in Lockport City Court.
Chille said pit bulls are notorious for being aggressive, though that may not be true of all pit bulls.
“The majority of calls we get either are aggressive pit bulls or people that perceive the pit bulls are aggressive,” he said. “There’s a natural fear of the breed.”
In his 27 years working with the SPCA, he said he’s seen many dog breeds become feared in society — including spaniels, German shepherds and rottweilers.
“Each one of the dogs had its day,” he said.
The problem is not with the breed itself, Chille said, but rather the manner in which the dog is raised. A pit bull raised in a loving atmosphere since puppyhood “could be a fine dog,” he said.
He recommends people be wary and avoid leaving small children alone with any breed of dog, not just those notorious for being aggressive, and to make sure dogs are spayed or neutered.
All animals that leave the SPCA for adoption are required to be spayed or neutered.
“If they would neuter them, I think it would take a lot of the fight out of them,” Chille said.
Contact reporter April Amadon at 439-9222, ext. 6251.
Rat the only reason ah change the name iz becauze you said so ,and i once ask you to change your avater and you did , if i offend you i am sorry not intended .
614
General Discussion / Minister say Bias in med school a no-no
« on: July 16, 2007, 10:14:12 AM »
BY COREY CONNELLY
A new policy is being devised to address alleged discrimination in the enrolment practices at UWI’s Faculty of Medical Sciences, Mt Hope, says Tertiary Education Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid.
The policy, which is expected to take effect by January, comes in the wake of claims of discriminatory practices in the entry level criteria of the institution.
Abdul-Hamid said he had several conversations with administrators of the university advising them that the situation that existed in Trinidad was inconsistent with the recommendations of the accredited body.
“Since then, on a number of occasions, we have had a number of meetings, and so, as a result of the intervention, I suspect of the vice chancellor, that resistance which was taking place within the faculty was able to be defeated,” he said in an interview on Friday.
The minister’s stance came as university lecturer Dr Courtenay Bartholomew also complained about the faculty’s discriminatory enrolment policies.
In an article published yesterday, Bartholomew said the medical rot in T&T began with the selection of students and teaching staff at the Faculty of Medical Sciences.
Bartholomew criticised those who, he claimed, had presented false resumes, adding he had “long brought” the issue to the attention of deans and others in authority.
Abdul-Hamid said yesterday on a radio programme that, based on information he had received, Indo-Trinidadian students had an advantage when applying for entry at the faculty. He stressed, however, this practice would not be tolerated at any of the country’s higher learning institutions.
“My understanding of this is that on the basis of A-level performance, large numbers of students of East Indian descent were, in fact, gaining entry into the Faculty of Medical Sciences,” he said.
“This is my understanding…I do not have empirical evidence. It is on the basis of information that has come to me as line minister.
Abdul-Hamid said the issue of race was raised because there were some lecturers in the faculty who held the view that to adjust the admissions criteria would be discriminatory against Indians.
The minister regarded this view as “ridiculous,” saying emphasis should be placed on pursuing an admissions criteria that were consistent with international best practice “without consideration of what might be the implications on the basis of any other variable.”
Gopeesingh: Ethnicity not a factor
United National Congress senator Dr Tim Gopeesingh, a former clinical vice dean at the faculty, insisted ethnicity was not a factor in student admissions.
“The admission team comprises members of the medical faculty, the dean, together with somebody from the University of the West Indies in St Augustine, somebody from the campus in Barbados, (and) someone from the campus in Jamaica,” he said.
“There is no way that a dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Jamaica or who heads the medical school in Barbados—and now we have a branch in Bahamas—no way they will encourage or inculcate any form of divisive or ethnic polarisation in terms of admission into the medical school.
“So, I want to state categorically that there is no way that the Faculty of Medical Sciences deals with anything about ethnicity in terms of admission requirements…It goes purely by meritocracy.”
A new policy is being devised to address alleged discrimination in the enrolment practices at UWI’s Faculty of Medical Sciences, Mt Hope, says Tertiary Education Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid.
The policy, which is expected to take effect by January, comes in the wake of claims of discriminatory practices in the entry level criteria of the institution.
Abdul-Hamid said he had several conversations with administrators of the university advising them that the situation that existed in Trinidad was inconsistent with the recommendations of the accredited body.
“Since then, on a number of occasions, we have had a number of meetings, and so, as a result of the intervention, I suspect of the vice chancellor, that resistance which was taking place within the faculty was able to be defeated,” he said in an interview on Friday.
The minister’s stance came as university lecturer Dr Courtenay Bartholomew also complained about the faculty’s discriminatory enrolment policies.
In an article published yesterday, Bartholomew said the medical rot in T&T began with the selection of students and teaching staff at the Faculty of Medical Sciences.
Bartholomew criticised those who, he claimed, had presented false resumes, adding he had “long brought” the issue to the attention of deans and others in authority.
Abdul-Hamid said yesterday on a radio programme that, based on information he had received, Indo-Trinidadian students had an advantage when applying for entry at the faculty. He stressed, however, this practice would not be tolerated at any of the country’s higher learning institutions.
“My understanding of this is that on the basis of A-level performance, large numbers of students of East Indian descent were, in fact, gaining entry into the Faculty of Medical Sciences,” he said.
“This is my understanding…I do not have empirical evidence. It is on the basis of information that has come to me as line minister.
Abdul-Hamid said the issue of race was raised because there were some lecturers in the faculty who held the view that to adjust the admissions criteria would be discriminatory against Indians.
The minister regarded this view as “ridiculous,” saying emphasis should be placed on pursuing an admissions criteria that were consistent with international best practice “without consideration of what might be the implications on the basis of any other variable.”
Gopeesingh: Ethnicity not a factor
United National Congress senator Dr Tim Gopeesingh, a former clinical vice dean at the faculty, insisted ethnicity was not a factor in student admissions.
“The admission team comprises members of the medical faculty, the dean, together with somebody from the University of the West Indies in St Augustine, somebody from the campus in Barbados, (and) someone from the campus in Jamaica,” he said.
“There is no way that a dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Jamaica or who heads the medical school in Barbados—and now we have a branch in Bahamas—no way they will encourage or inculcate any form of divisive or ethnic polarisation in terms of admission into the medical school.
“So, I want to state categorically that there is no way that the Faculty of Medical Sciences deals with anything about ethnicity in terms of admission requirements…It goes purely by meritocracy.”
615
Football / WARRIORS ON HOLIDAZE
« on: July 06, 2007, 06:48:34 AM »
What have the warriors team been doing lately does anybody know ? it worriers me , we have ah young team and yuh not hearing nottin bout them, they not even playin ah friendly with nobody they not even touring , can somebody please tell me wats going on .
616
General Discussion / ONE GIRL AND NINE BOYZ
« on: June 05, 2007, 08:31:54 PM »
Alyuh ah was listening wack yesterday and d announcer said that a 15 yr old school girl in trini who had nine (9) school boyzesssss run ah train on she , ah hear video taped and thing teachers seen it and call she mother , hear thing now she mother want all the boyz parents to pay she for the services that the daughter provided. ah looking for it on the daly paperz buh ah not seeing nottin.
617
General Discussion / IRAQ GIRL STONED TO DEATH
« on: May 19, 2007, 12:53:34 PM »
He who without sin cast the first stone, that was the words jesus christ spoke when the multitude gather to stone the woman ,that they the people consider ah prostitute , and ah sure some of them men was in side she ah ready . But sh sh sh nobody dont know that .
jus recently a Kurdish girl in IRAQ was stoned becauz she was frendz with a Muslim boy , iz this a civilize society that we suppoze to be or are we really uncivillize . what was the MATRIX system ?
jus recently a Kurdish girl in IRAQ was stoned becauz she was frendz with a Muslim boy , iz this a civilize society that we suppoze to be or are we really uncivillize . what was the MATRIX system ?
618
General Discussion / WHO BLACK WHO NOT
« on: May 17, 2007, 05:57:09 PM »
Yesterday we had ah meeting on my job and my boss was saying that it doh have enough Black people in leadership position in none ah the agency in NY . So i say wah about Patel he black he and a nex black american woman said no he is asian ,soi said so wah he still black , any how the man watch ah BLACK AFRICAN and said to him we do not consider you black neither , either you zulu , so i said well if ah int black who is , so now ah believe we might be fighting ah new form ah racisim becauz it is not the white man .
619
General Discussion / heatinghelp
« on: May 10, 2007, 02:41:35 PM »
i believe that some of you might have your own house , just to let you know that this is the time you should check your boiler weather it be steam or hot water(hydronic) or furnace hotair system.
do be robed by any contractors any more , all your answers at your finger tips. i hope this might be of use to some of you.
http://www.heatinghelp.com
do be robed by any contractors any more , all your answers at your finger tips. i hope this might be of use to some of you.
http://www.heatinghelp.com
620
General Discussion / KANGENWATER
« on: May 08, 2007, 06:28:49 PM »
www.kangenwater.us you can feel healthy and yet your body can show signs of inbalance if left unresolved,unhealthy feelings will surley follow .enter the site watch the movies it iz very interesting.
621
Entertainment & Culture Discussion / trinitv
« on: May 05, 2007, 08:45:07 PM »
check point fortin borough day pan on the move http://trinitv.net
622
General Discussion / Students attack Principal
« on: April 25, 2007, 09:45:20 PM »
BY RADHICA SOOKRAJ
TEN Form Five students of Gasparillo Composite School are under police investigation after the school’s principal was assaulted during a reported fracas at the school yesterday.
The students were reportedly being questioned by the police in the presence of their parents up to late yesterday.
Police said the school’s principal Radica Ramsumair sought medical attention at a private institution after the attack by students.
They said Ramsumair suffered injuries after she was struck on her back and pushed down.
There were reports that a length of wire wrapped with electrical tape was seized.
Police, however, were uncertain yesterday evening whether this was the weapon used in the assault.
Sources said the students were handed their CXC timetables at around 1 pm, shortly before they were dismissed
from school.
A security guard who requested anonymity said soon after, they started misbehaving.
“They began running wild through the school, normal behaviour for this school,” he said.
“Soon enough they started pushing down and hitting each other and that was when the fight started.”
Sources said Ramsumair went to intervene in the fight at around 2.30 pm, but was assaulted.
A call was made to the Gasparillo police station and a team of officers from the Crime Suppression Unit responded.
The students suspected to have been involved in the incident were taken into custody.
While awaiting interrogation, one aged parent reportedly told the police the children did not commit any crime.
Police officers said they told the angry parent that if the students were dismissed at 1 pm, they had no right to remain on the compound until 3 pm.
Police said none of the students admitted to being involved in any form of violence.
Investigators said the matter was handed over to Community Police.
However, officers said the students may not face prosecution because Ramsumair did not want to press charges.
Detectives said, however, they had to detain the students to avoid further violence at the school yesterday.
Several years ago, students set fire to the Gasparillo Composite school and five students were suspended.
Corporate communications officer of the Ministry of Education Mervyn Crichlow said action would be taken pending investigations.
“This is now a police matter,” he said.
“The school’s supervisor has visited the school and an investigation will be launched... We will take corrective action where necessary.”
President of the T&T Unified Teachers Association Clyde Permelle could not be reached for comment.
weather alyuh like ti or not this is wat cable TV do to a country it destroy dey send it to trini in ah barell
TEN Form Five students of Gasparillo Composite School are under police investigation after the school’s principal was assaulted during a reported fracas at the school yesterday.
The students were reportedly being questioned by the police in the presence of their parents up to late yesterday.
Police said the school’s principal Radica Ramsumair sought medical attention at a private institution after the attack by students.
They said Ramsumair suffered injuries after she was struck on her back and pushed down.
There were reports that a length of wire wrapped with electrical tape was seized.
Police, however, were uncertain yesterday evening whether this was the weapon used in the assault.
Sources said the students were handed their CXC timetables at around 1 pm, shortly before they were dismissed
from school.
A security guard who requested anonymity said soon after, they started misbehaving.
“They began running wild through the school, normal behaviour for this school,” he said.
“Soon enough they started pushing down and hitting each other and that was when the fight started.”
Sources said Ramsumair went to intervene in the fight at around 2.30 pm, but was assaulted.
A call was made to the Gasparillo police station and a team of officers from the Crime Suppression Unit responded.
The students suspected to have been involved in the incident were taken into custody.
While awaiting interrogation, one aged parent reportedly told the police the children did not commit any crime.
Police officers said they told the angry parent that if the students were dismissed at 1 pm, they had no right to remain on the compound until 3 pm.
Police said none of the students admitted to being involved in any form of violence.
Investigators said the matter was handed over to Community Police.
However, officers said the students may not face prosecution because Ramsumair did not want to press charges.
Detectives said, however, they had to detain the students to avoid further violence at the school yesterday.
Several years ago, students set fire to the Gasparillo Composite school and five students were suspended.
Corporate communications officer of the Ministry of Education Mervyn Crichlow said action would be taken pending investigations.
“This is now a police matter,” he said.
“The school’s supervisor has visited the school and an investigation will be launched... We will take corrective action where necessary.”
President of the T&T Unified Teachers Association Clyde Permelle could not be reached for comment.
weather alyuh like ti or not this is wat cable TV do to a country it destroy dey send it to trini in ah barell
623
General Discussion / Law man failed to attend court 34 times
« on: April 25, 2007, 05:56:14 PM »BY ANIKA GUMBS-SANDIFORD
POLICE Constable Marcel Hamilton, the complainant in the Anita Annamunthodo matter, has failed to appear in court on a record-breaking 34 occasions.
A source at the office of the Attorney General yesterday told the Guardian that police officers investigating the case unearthed the information last week and a report was submitted to Senior Superintendent Samuel Jemmot.
The source further said “no reasonable explanation” was given for Hamilton’s absence.
“This is by far the highest number of times any police officer has been absent from a court matter without a fit reason,” the source said.
Hamilton, who has been employed in the Police Service for the last seven years, was asked by his senior to submit a report on why he he had failed to appear in court.
Annamunthodo had been charged on six counts of child neglect against her murdered four-year-old daughter Emily Amy Annamunthodo.
Deputy Chief Magistrate Mark Wellington dismissed the case last week on the grounds that Hamilton was never present whenever the matter was called. Wellington also noted that no prosecution witnesses were present and no state attorney had been appointed in the matter.
Contacted yesterday, Jemmot refused to confirm the number of occasions Hamilton was absent from the court.
Jemmot, however, said he received a report from Hamilton on Wednesday and the report was forwarded to the Asst Commissioner of Police (south) Phillip Carmona.
“I read the report and on Friday I sent the report to the ACP…It is now in his hands,” Jemmot said.
Under the T&T police regulations, Hamilton can face an internal disciplinary charge for his failure to appear in court. If he is charged, he will have to face a tribunal.
As police continue to build a case on the matter, the Guardian has also learnt that officers of the Anti-Corruption Investigation Bureau visited the Homicide (south office) and seized several documents.
The police have also interviewed Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard on the matter.
Annamunthodo was also questioned by the police.
©2005-2006 Trinidad Publishing Company Limited
Designed by: Randall Rajkumar-Maharaj · Updated daily by: Sheahan Farrell
Lawman sets record:
Failed to attend court 34 times
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BY ANIKA GUMBS-SANDIFORD
POLICE Constable Marcel Hamilton, the complainant in the Anita Annamunthodo matter, has failed to appear in court on a record-breaking 34 occasions.
A source at the office of the Attorney General yesterday told the Guardian that police officers investigating the case unearthed the information last week and a report was submitted to Senior Superintendent Samuel Jemmot.
The source further said “no reasonable explanation” was given for Hamilton’s absence.
“This is by far the highest number of times any police officer has been absent from a court matter without a fit reason,” the source said.
Hamilton, who has been employed in the Police Service for the last seven years, was asked by his senior to submit a report on why he he had failed to appear in court.
Annamunthodo had been charged on six counts of child neglect against her murdered four-year-old daughter Emily Amy Annamunthodo.
Deputy Chief Magistrate Mark Wellington dismissed the case last week on the grounds that Hamilton was never present whenever the matter was called. Wellington also noted that no prosecution witnesses were present and no state attorney had been appointed in the matter.
Contacted yesterday, Jemmot refused to confirm the number of occasions Hamilton was absent from the court.
Jemmot, however, said he received a report from Hamilton on Wednesday and the report was forwarded to the Asst Commissioner of Police (south) Phillip Carmona.
“I read the report and on Friday I sent the report to the ACP…It is now in his hands,” Jemmot said.
Under the T&T police regulations, Hamilton can face an internal disciplinary charge for his failure to appear in court. If he is charged, he will have to face a tribunal.
As police continue to build a case on the matter, the Guardian has also learnt that officers of the Anti-Corruption Investigation Bureau visited the Homicide (south office) and seized several documents.
The police have also interviewed Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard on the matter.
Annamunthodo was also questioned by the police.
©2005-2006 Trinidad Publishing Company Limited
Designed by: Randall Rajkumar-Maharaj · Updated daily by: Sheahan Farrell
624
General Discussion / Scientists unearth Superman Kryptonite
« on: April 24, 2007, 12:52:34 PM »
vScientists unearth Superman's 'kryptonite'
Substance is white, powdery, contains no fluorine and isn't radioactive
Free video
Kryptonite-like substance found
April 24: Superman, beware! A new mineral similar to Kryptonite is discovered in a Serbian mine. MSNBC.com's Dara Brown reports.
MSNBC.com
Updated: 2 hours, 23 minutes ago
LONDON - Kryptonite, which robbed Superman of his powers, is no longer the stuff of comic books and films.
A mineral found by geologists in Serbia shares virtually the same chemical composition as the fictional kryptonite from outer space, used by the superhero's nemesis Lex Luthor to weaken him in the film "Superman Returns."
"We will have to be careful with it — we wouldn't want to deprive Earth of its most famous superhero!," said Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum.
Stanley, who revealed the identity of the mysterious new mineral, discovered the match after searching the Internet for its chemical formula — sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide.
"I was amazed to discover that same scientific name written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luther from a museum in the film 'Superman Returns,'" he said.
The substance has been confirmed as a new mineral after tests by scientists at the Natural History Museum in London and the National Research Council in Canada.
But instead of the large green crystals in Superman comics, the real thing is a white, powdery substance which contains no fluorine and isn't radioactive.
The mineral, to be named Jadarite, will go on show at the London's Natural History Museum starting tomorrow.
More science news
The weirdest science stories of 2006
Humongous fungus was once among us
Fossilized rainforest found in coal mine
Jellyfish have human-like eyes
Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
Print this Email this Blog this IM this
MORE FROM SCIENCE
Cosmic Log: Solar-power sunrise
Mystery fossil turns out to be giant fungus Scientists unearth Superman's 'kryptonite' Cosmic Log: Solar-power sunrise Fossilized rainforest found in coal mine Flowers evolved to suit birds and bats Vanishing honeybees mystify scientists Search for dad leads down twisted path Next warming report cites tech fixes Vision implants show promise in monkeys Chemistry puts the color back in art Science Section Front
Add Science headlines to your news reader:
• More RSS feeds from MSNBC.com
Substance is white, powdery, contains no fluorine and isn't radioactive
Free video
Kryptonite-like substance found
April 24: Superman, beware! A new mineral similar to Kryptonite is discovered in a Serbian mine. MSNBC.com's Dara Brown reports.
MSNBC.com
Updated: 2 hours, 23 minutes ago
LONDON - Kryptonite, which robbed Superman of his powers, is no longer the stuff of comic books and films.
A mineral found by geologists in Serbia shares virtually the same chemical composition as the fictional kryptonite from outer space, used by the superhero's nemesis Lex Luthor to weaken him in the film "Superman Returns."
"We will have to be careful with it — we wouldn't want to deprive Earth of its most famous superhero!," said Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum.
Stanley, who revealed the identity of the mysterious new mineral, discovered the match after searching the Internet for its chemical formula — sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide.
"I was amazed to discover that same scientific name written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luther from a museum in the film 'Superman Returns,'" he said.
The substance has been confirmed as a new mineral after tests by scientists at the Natural History Museum in London and the National Research Council in Canada.
But instead of the large green crystals in Superman comics, the real thing is a white, powdery substance which contains no fluorine and isn't radioactive.
The mineral, to be named Jadarite, will go on show at the London's Natural History Museum starting tomorrow.
More science news
The weirdest science stories of 2006
Humongous fungus was once among us
Fossilized rainforest found in coal mine
Jellyfish have human-like eyes
Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
Print this Email this Blog this IM this
MORE FROM SCIENCE
Cosmic Log: Solar-power sunrise
Mystery fossil turns out to be giant fungus Scientists unearth Superman's 'kryptonite' Cosmic Log: Solar-power sunrise Fossilized rainforest found in coal mine Flowers evolved to suit birds and bats Vanishing honeybees mystify scientists Search for dad leads down twisted path Next warming report cites tech fixes Vision implants show promise in monkeys Chemistry puts the color back in art Science Section Front
Add Science headlines to your news reader:
• More RSS feeds from MSNBC.com
625
General Discussion / Racist Words in NYPD
« on: April 23, 2007, 08:00:30 AM »
Three white nypd officers is accused of calling three NYPD black women the famous IMUS words, three more heads going to roll.
626
Cricket Anyone / Cricket World Cup Champion
« on: April 22, 2007, 08:12:43 PM »
Who alyuh think go be the cricket world cup champions i feel go be Sri Lanka
627
Entertainment & Culture Discussion / First Non National / Pan
« on: April 22, 2007, 07:29:01 PM »
Who was the first non national of T& T to arrange for ah national panorama wah all them so call pan jombie .
628
Entertainment & Culture Discussion / soca for summer
« on: April 22, 2007, 07:10:27 PM »
aye ah birdie jus tell may that dey havin soca for summer in trini for two nights ,shhhh doh tell nobody i say ,ah jus tellin you ok . the zulu jus passin through
629
General Discussion / ah looking 4 queen
« on: April 21, 2007, 06:47:29 PM »
eh alyuh way queen int see she hangin in the forum bar for quite ah long time , if alyuh see she tell she dat ah lookin fuh she ,queen , queen wah yuh gul queen ,queen darrm ah gehin horse, ah feel she hangin in nex bar .
630
General Discussion / pill that elminates monthly peroids
« on: April 20, 2007, 02:38:46 PM »
For many women, a birth control pill that eliminates monthly menstruation might seem a welcome milestone.
Would you consider taking this pill? Why or why not?
Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
Giovanna Chesler speaking before the showing of her documentary.
But others view their periods as fundamental symbols of fertility and health, researchers have found. Rather than loathing their periods, women evidently carry on complex love-hate relationships with them.
This ambivalence is one reason that a decision expected next month by the Food and Drug Administration has engendered controversy. The agency is expected to approve the first contraceptive pill that is designed to eliminate periods as long as a woman takes it. Doctors say they know of no extra risk to the new regimen, but some women are uneasy about the idea.
“My concern is that the menstrual cycle is an outward sign of something that’s going on hormonally in the body,” said Christine L. Hitchcock, a researcher at the University of British Columbia. Ms. Hitchcock said she worries about “the idea that you can turn your body on and off like a tap.”
That viewpoint is apparently one reason some already available birth control pills that can enable women to have only four periods a year have not captured a larger share of the oral contraceptive market.
“It’s not an easy decision for a woman to give up her monthly menses,” said Ronny Gal, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.
But if the new pill, called Lybrel, is approved, Mr. Gal predicts an onslaught of advertising meant to persuade women to do just that. The drug’s maker, Wyeth, said yesterday that it was expecting F.D.A. approval in May, but has declined to discuss its marketing plans.
The company’s research shows that nearly two-thirds of women it surveyed expressed an interest in giving up their periods. That dovetails with the findings of similar research conducted by Linda C. Andrist, a professor at MGH Institute of Health Professions in Boston.
“We don’t want to confront our bodily functions anymore,” Ms. Andrist said. “We’re too busy.” Doctors say they know of no medical reason women taking birth control pills need to have a period. The monthly bleeding that women on pills experience is not a real period, in fact.
And studies have found no extra health risks associated with pills that stop menstruation, although some doctors caution that little research has been conducted on long-term effects.
The topic has, however, inspired an hourlong documentary by Giovanna Chesler, “Period: The End of Menstruation?,” currently screening on college campuses and among feminist groups.
Ms. Chesler, who teaches documentary making at the University of California, San Diego, said she became concerned about efforts to eliminate menstruation when she first heard about the idea several years ago.
“Women are not sick,” she said. “They don’t need to control their periods for 30 or 40 years.”
The subject has also ignited a debate within the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research, a scientific organization that studies both the medical and social science of menses.
In 2003, the group issued a position statement saying that more research was needed before women could make an informed choice about using pills that suppress their periods. That statement could be revised at the group’s meeting scheduled for Vancouver, British Columbia, in June.
Ms. Hitchcock, a director of the organization, said that although some research has been comforting, she remained concerned that medical science did not fully understand the long-term implications of interrupting women’s periods. The same hormones that work on the menstrual cycles act in the brain, bones and the skin, she said.
“You need to think about whether there are consequences we don’t know about for the whole body,” said Ms. Hitchcock, who is with the Center for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research.
There has also been a backlash among groups that celebrate the period as a spiritual or natural process, like the California-based Red Web Foundation. “The focus of our group is to create positive attitudes toward the menstrual cycle; suppressing it wouldn’t be positive,” said Anna C. Yang, a holistic nurse and executive director of the organization.
Eliminating menstruation is not a completely new concept. Women who take any kind of oral contraceptive do not have real periods.
Because the hormones in pills stop the monthly release of an egg and the buildup of the uterine lining, there is no need for the lining to shed — as occurs during true menstruation.
VideoMore Video »
Still, since the advent of oral contraceptives in 1960, birth control pills typically have been designed to mimic the natural 28-day menstrual cycle to assure women using the pill that their bodies were functioning normally. The pills are usually packaged as regimens of 21 days of hormone pills and 7 inactive pills. The interruption of hormone therapy during the inactive part of the regimen induces bleeding that resembles a mild period but is, in fact, caused by unstable hormone levels.
In recent years, drug makers have come out with new pill regimens that tinker with the 28-day cycle by increasing the number of hormone pills, creating a shorter span of bleeding.
The drug maker Barr caused a sensation in 2003 by introducing Seasonale, a contraceptive regimen packed as 84 hormone pills and 7 placebo pills. Users have “periods” once every three months.
Would you consider taking this pill? Why or why not?
Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
Giovanna Chesler speaking before the showing of her documentary.
But others view their periods as fundamental symbols of fertility and health, researchers have found. Rather than loathing their periods, women evidently carry on complex love-hate relationships with them.
This ambivalence is one reason that a decision expected next month by the Food and Drug Administration has engendered controversy. The agency is expected to approve the first contraceptive pill that is designed to eliminate periods as long as a woman takes it. Doctors say they know of no extra risk to the new regimen, but some women are uneasy about the idea.
“My concern is that the menstrual cycle is an outward sign of something that’s going on hormonally in the body,” said Christine L. Hitchcock, a researcher at the University of British Columbia. Ms. Hitchcock said she worries about “the idea that you can turn your body on and off like a tap.”
That viewpoint is apparently one reason some already available birth control pills that can enable women to have only four periods a year have not captured a larger share of the oral contraceptive market.
“It’s not an easy decision for a woman to give up her monthly menses,” said Ronny Gal, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.
But if the new pill, called Lybrel, is approved, Mr. Gal predicts an onslaught of advertising meant to persuade women to do just that. The drug’s maker, Wyeth, said yesterday that it was expecting F.D.A. approval in May, but has declined to discuss its marketing plans.
The company’s research shows that nearly two-thirds of women it surveyed expressed an interest in giving up their periods. That dovetails with the findings of similar research conducted by Linda C. Andrist, a professor at MGH Institute of Health Professions in Boston.
“We don’t want to confront our bodily functions anymore,” Ms. Andrist said. “We’re too busy.” Doctors say they know of no medical reason women taking birth control pills need to have a period. The monthly bleeding that women on pills experience is not a real period, in fact.
And studies have found no extra health risks associated with pills that stop menstruation, although some doctors caution that little research has been conducted on long-term effects.
The topic has, however, inspired an hourlong documentary by Giovanna Chesler, “Period: The End of Menstruation?,” currently screening on college campuses and among feminist groups.
Ms. Chesler, who teaches documentary making at the University of California, San Diego, said she became concerned about efforts to eliminate menstruation when she first heard about the idea several years ago.
“Women are not sick,” she said. “They don’t need to control their periods for 30 or 40 years.”
The subject has also ignited a debate within the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research, a scientific organization that studies both the medical and social science of menses.
In 2003, the group issued a position statement saying that more research was needed before women could make an informed choice about using pills that suppress their periods. That statement could be revised at the group’s meeting scheduled for Vancouver, British Columbia, in June.
Ms. Hitchcock, a director of the organization, said that although some research has been comforting, she remained concerned that medical science did not fully understand the long-term implications of interrupting women’s periods. The same hormones that work on the menstrual cycles act in the brain, bones and the skin, she said.
“You need to think about whether there are consequences we don’t know about for the whole body,” said Ms. Hitchcock, who is with the Center for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research.
There has also been a backlash among groups that celebrate the period as a spiritual or natural process, like the California-based Red Web Foundation. “The focus of our group is to create positive attitudes toward the menstrual cycle; suppressing it wouldn’t be positive,” said Anna C. Yang, a holistic nurse and executive director of the organization.
Eliminating menstruation is not a completely new concept. Women who take any kind of oral contraceptive do not have real periods.
Because the hormones in pills stop the monthly release of an egg and the buildup of the uterine lining, there is no need for the lining to shed — as occurs during true menstruation.
VideoMore Video »
Still, since the advent of oral contraceptives in 1960, birth control pills typically have been designed to mimic the natural 28-day menstrual cycle to assure women using the pill that their bodies were functioning normally. The pills are usually packaged as regimens of 21 days of hormone pills and 7 inactive pills. The interruption of hormone therapy during the inactive part of the regimen induces bleeding that resembles a mild period but is, in fact, caused by unstable hormone levels.
In recent years, drug makers have come out with new pill regimens that tinker with the 28-day cycle by increasing the number of hormone pills, creating a shorter span of bleeding.
The drug maker Barr caused a sensation in 2003 by introducing Seasonale, a contraceptive regimen packed as 84 hormone pills and 7 placebo pills. Users have “periods” once every three months.