“What does medicine owe to Africa?” and other links…

Jane Elliott: “The Greeks are thought by many to be forerunners of modern medicine—they studied the progression of disease, they knew something of the inner workings of the body, and their language gave medicine many of its terms. …But the Greeks probably learnt much from the Ancient Egyptians who understood the workings of the body from practising mummification.” Is this a “new” article from the 1980s? What is actually news in this article is asking the other question about why Indian and Chinese herbal remedies are socially acceptable to many Negroes while African ones still aren’t—even the ones from the Ante Bellum South.

I very much value the notion that the relationship between the ancient Greeks and Egyptians should be mentioned in popular media every day. This apparently “dead” and “irrelevant” relationship must be brought to a productive, just, steady-state condition such that young people of African descent can truly “change” and progress beyond “hope.”

“Developing world set to overtake the west”

Larry Elliott: “China is on course to overtake the euro area as the world’s second biggest economy, while India would be challenging Japan for fourth place. On current trends Britain would see its slice of world output drop from 3.3% to 2.9% and be overtaken in the international league table by Russia. Between them the four so-called Brics—Brazil, Russia, India and China—would account for 26.5% of global GDP.” This news item comes from Dr. Gerald Horne. Listen to his streaming audio presentation, “From Cuba to Kosovo,” here in the kinté space.

“Army deploys combat unit in US for possible civil unrest”

Bill Van Auken: “The Pentagon’s official pronouncements have stressed the role of specialized units in a potential response to terrorist attack within the US. Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, attended a training exercise last week for about 250 members of the unit at Fort Stewart, Georgia. The focus of the exercise, according to the Army’s public affairs office, was how troops ‘might fly search and rescue missions, extract casualties and decontaminate people following a catastrophic nuclear attack in the nation’s heartland.’” Here in Los Angeles, when the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza was first built over a decade ago, our Afro-centric community leaders let us know that the reason why a police station was being installed directly in this mall was because it could be ‘repurposed’ as a massive holding pen in case of civil unrest (some lower level of the parking structure could double as a massive jail cell). Back then we thought all these countermeasures were just for us Black people. Now we know that whatever evil plans laid for Blacks will eventually be ‘repurposed’ for all Americans. This news item comes from Darryl Allan Smith, the photographer featured in the kinté space documentary, “Freeman Manifestation: Ramona Africa: 1992 (YouTube.com)” and the classic animation, “Bryan Wilhite: Sweet Honey in the Rock Woman.”

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