A flu pandemic in Ukraine that has triggered a nationwide panic is worsening this weekend with up to 400 deaths already reported. The arrival of the virus, suspected by the World Health Organisation to be swine flu but possibly a combination of the H1N1 strain and a respiratory illness, has paralysed the country's fragile health system and could even lead to the postponement of the general election...
The Black Death in Renaissance France . According to the meticulous research of Renaissance scholar Julianne Douglas: Although the incidence of bubonic plague, the infamous "Black Death" of the fourteenth century, slowly decreased over the course of the Renaissance era, plague was still very much part of sixteenth century life. Outbreaks of plague occurred sporadically throughout Europe,...
by F. William Engdahl November 17, 2009 Latest reports of what is being called a deadly Swine Flu outbreak in Ukraine according to on sight reports appear to be a political concoction by a threatened government to avoid election defeat and possibly declare martial law. The details indicate how convenient the current WHO "Swine Flu" H1N1 "pandemic" scare is for regimes in trouble....
Ukraine WHO and the Geopolitics of Swine Flu Panic Politics / Global Pandemic Nov 13, 2009 - 03:30 AM By: F_William_Engdahl Politics Best Financial Markets Analysis ArticleLatest reports of what is being called a deadly Swine Flu outbreak in Ukraine according to on sight reports appear to be a political concoction by a threatened government to avoid election defeat and possibly declare martial law....
Connecting the Dots in the New World Order (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
Two people have died, a town of 10,000 is under quarantine, and the area within a 17-mile radius around it has been sealed to contain a pneumonic plague outbreak: Chinese authorities have put a whole town in quarantine after an outbreak of horrifying pneumonic plague. Two people have died from the highly contagious disease, an even more powerful brother of The Black Death – the bubonic plague...
Although the incidence of bubonic plague, the infamous "Black Death" of the fourteenth century, slowly decreased over the course of the Renaissance era, plague was still very much part of sixteenth century life. Outbreaks of plague occurred sporadically throughout Europe, following the movement of goods from port to port and of soldiers returning home from war. Edinburgh suffered a bout of...
News from 19 Jan 2009. It seems al-Queda may have been fooling around with the Plague. The Black Death has reportedly killed at least 40 al-Qaeda operatives in North Africa. The disease, which struck Europe in the Middle Ages killing more than 25 million people, has swept through a training camp for insurgents in Algeria. The arrival of the plague was discovered when security forces found the body...
As he prepares to move on, David Smith reflects on how his old neighbourhood made him fall in love with South Africa This is a love letter to my first home in Africa as I pack up, lock up and slam shut the steel gate for the last time. When I first moved into Newtown, Johannesburg, people either said I was brave or mad. The majority of middle-class expats congregate in the city's northern suburbs,...
Pandemic flu in particular, and public health in general, is a subject I hate to see politicized. Up until now, only Dick Armey has been foolish enough to do so. Armey's schtick was this: "In September or October there will be a hyped up outbreak of the swine flu which they’ll say is as bad as the bubonic plague to scare the bed-wetters to vote for healthcare reform," said Mr Armey....
It is only a matter of time before the entire planet becomes fearful, obsessed and fearfully obsessed with the H1N1 influenza virus. While I am not minimizing the danger and threat posed by this strain of flu – all flu viruses are extremely dangerous and contagious, the real peril is the pandemic the media will ultimately create as they “present the facts” to a public that thrives...
Ministry of Health has launched a plague control program in Nebbi and Arua districts as result of a renewed threat of the Bubonic plague outbreak from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
If you have just awakened from a long nap or have been hiding out in a cave, you are forgiven if you think the swine flu is the greatest threat to public health since the last U.S. bubonic plague epidemic in 1925. This is because the swine flu (known as H1N1 in epidemiological parlance) has been hyped beyond all perspective after a small number of cases and an even smaller number of deaths last year...
(Alas no 150 year old Hansards until next year. They had an awesome recess in 1859) A perhaps unexpected question heading: Madagascar (Lady Medical Missionaries) . Sir GILBERT PARKER asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether lady medical missionaries, fully qualified, and one of whom holds a gold medal given in 1895 by the French Government for her care of the wounded, have been forbidden...
It's seems like every virus produces a list of capitalistic charlatans. During the Bubonic plague, thousands spent their hard earned savings on worthless talisman in the hopes of avoiding the Black Death. The song "Ring Around the Rosy" even documents the myth that a "pocket full of posies" could ward off the disease. Today's modern day talisman comes in the form of a fake anti-virus...
Click on the map to enlarge it. Although historians in the Anglo-Saxon tradition are usually preoccupied with change, historians in the French tradition stress the longue durée - the unchanging lives of the vast majority of people. The Industrial Revolution was to change profoundly the face of Europe but few of these changes were apparent in 1700. Population Demographic studies are not an exact...
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