Thabo Mbeki - Genocide charges for Aids denialism?

From the SA political period from 1999-2008 the President, Thabo Mbeki followed a policy of HIV/Aids denialism.
Due to this, he is now credited with the unecessary deaths of 350, 000 people.
Some in SA are calling for justice - a kind of HIV/Aids "Truth Commission".
Doctors and nurses who suffered under Mbeki's conspiracies now want answers for the way people died, and the heavy handed way they were treated.
www.scidev.net...
But, is it tuly right to blame Mbeki?

Wasn't Mbeki supported by roughly 2000 international Aids denialists?
If a leader falls for a conspiracy, who is to blame?
And what does one do?
If a leader tells you the symptoms of Aids can be cured with garlic, beetroot , lemon juice and African potato (hypoxis) - then what can one do?

reply to post by halfoldman

It appears the Communist Party was voicing criminal charges against Mbeki and his now deceaced Health Minister last year:
www.timeslive.co.za...

However, at least one doctor claims it's now too late for charges:
www.timeslive.co.za...

What I am especially interested in is how we can tell science form pseudoscience.
What do we do when mistaken conspiracies lead to harmful results?
What should we do with fraudulant "New Age" medicine?
What should we do with phony faith healers?
Is their industry really "freedom of speech"?
Or is big pharma to blame for everything after all?



[edit on 15-8-2010 by halfoldman]

What we should do with the people that caused someone with an illness / injury to not seek legitimate help and instead preach about this "alternative medicine" is a good question. I myself would reasonably restrict the use of any "alternative medicine" pseudoscience along with their ability to advertise and conduct business and preach about the magical effects of whatever stupidity they came up with, especially when they have no evidence.

For example, someone advertising their "expertise" and touting around some magical "natural" cure for anything as anything, say a nutritionist, (Not a legally protected term in my province, so there are no requirements, anyone can become one) should not be allowed to mislead, misinform, basically throw their propaganda everywhere while running something that is basically a scam. Of course there are people with degrees and such who actually have an education on the matter who still somehow manage to run scams such as these. My opinion on those people is that someone with that level of education actually knows what they're doing and purposely misleading the public for profit through all these "alternative medicine" creations.

About telling pseudoscience from actual science, aside from reading and learning about it yourself, if you have legitimate concerns for something, I would say consult several experts in the field and listen to what they have to say and you could ask them to talk about the arguments from the pseudoscience side of the matter.

Is their industry really "freedom of speech"?

They will throw that out to try to get support for their side, claiming that they're being suppressed or whatever nonsense, when in reality, they are being ignored because they simply have nothing to any of their arguments.

reply to post by Whyhi

Of course many policies and beliefs around the world are resting on half-truths or propaganda.
However, Mbeki seems to be the first global leader who was influenced while apparently surfing the Internet.

reply to post by Whyhi





>QUESTION FOR YOU<
ALTERNATIVE SCIENCE, MONEY, POPULATION CONTROL,RETROVIRUSES, H.I.V., ANTI-VIRAL DRUGS AND A.I.D.S., WHATS REALLY GOING ON ? WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ANY OF IT ?

"PLEASE TELL ME WHY YOU THINK THE WAY YOU DO."





[edit on 17-8-2010 by alpha68]