Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 717
May 28, 2021
The Amazon Warehouse as Disneyland
The Amazon Warehouse as Disneyland
By Jason Myles
Film Review
This short video is a review of Nomadland, the film that won best picture, director and female lead at this year’s Academy Awards.. According to Myles, this film is a pro-corporate propaganda flick totally at odds with the Jessica Bruder’s 2017 book. The purpose of her book was to expose the scandalous exploitation by Amazon, Walmart, Uber and other ruthless corporate retailers of itinerant American seniors who lost their homes and life savings in the 2008 financial crash. Homeless and unable to provide for basic needs on Social Security, they live in cars, campervans and tent cities while earning $11.50 an hour (without benefits) as contract workers in temporary warehouse jobs.
The film captures none of this real-life human misery. The main character comes from Empire, a former Nevada gypsum mining town that closed up when the 2008 recession produced so many vacant homes the construction industry (and demand for gypsum-based wallboard) collapsed. She ends up living in her van (which is totally unsuited to the region’s sub-zero weather) in Fernley Nevada working on a temporary contract in an Amazon “fulfillment center.”
Rather than accurately depicting the cruel exploitation of her situation (as the book does), the film portrays Fern’s exploitation as a modern day hobo adventure story based on poor lifestyle choices.
The Amazon warehouse she works in is totally unlike any I’ve previously read about or seen in documentaries. Rather than being stressed to the max with exhausting efficiency demands (see https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5004230/amazon-warehouse-working-conditions/), Fern is portrayed as casually laughing and joking with other employees as she works.
May 27, 2021
Biden Orders Investigation Into COVID Lab-Leak Theory as New Evidence Raises Doubt Virus Could Have Evolved Naturally
By Children’s Health Defense Team
President Biden Wednesday ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate the origins of the SARS-CoV-2, including whether the virus may have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China.
The announcement followed on the heels of a number of recent developments, including a Wall Street Journal report earlier this week revealing that three researchers at the WIV became sick enough in November 2019 to seek hospital care.
Citing a previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report, the WSJ said the researchers became sick “with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illness.”
The report isn’t the only recent news to raise new questions about the lab-leak theory.
Earlier this month, in an open letter published in the Journal Science, 18 prominent scientists called for a deeper investigation into the origins of the virus. The scientists, who criticized an investigation led by the World Health Organization that in March concluded it was “extremely unlikely” the virus escaped from a lab, wrote:
“We must take hypotheses about both natural and laboratory spillovers seriously until we have sufficient data. A proper investigation should be transparent, objective, data-driven, inclusive of broad expertise, subject to independent oversight, and responsibly managed to minimize the impact of conflicts of interest.”
Earlier this week, the Washington Post published a timeline explaining how the lab-leak theory suddenly became “credible.” One reason, the article said, was that efforts to find a natural source had failed.
Last week, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee issued a new report obtained by Fox News claiming “significant circumstantial evidence” that the COVID outbreak stemmed from a leak at the WIV.
In the report, Republicans pointed to China’s “history of research lab leaks resulting in infections,” and warnings from U.S. diplomats in China as early as 2017 that the Wuhan lab was conducting “dangerous research” on coronaviruses without following “necessary safety protocols, risking the accidental outbreak of a pandemic.”
In the 20-page report committee members wrote:
“To protect American citizens from future pandemics, the U.S. Government must place more pressure on China to allow full, credible investigations of the source of the COVID-19 pandemic and to allow probes of the likelihood that it resulted from a lab leak.”
Facebook Wednesday told Politico it will no longer take down posts claiming the virus was man-made or manufactured, a move Politico said “acknowledges the renewed debate about the virus’ origins.”
According to Politico:
“Facebook announced in February it had expanded the list of misleading health claims that it would remove from its platforms to include those asserting that ‘COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured.’ The tech giant has updated its policies against false and misleading coronavirus information, including its running list of debunked claims, over the course of the pandemic in consultation with global health officials.”
For the most part, mainstream media reports on Biden’s move have so far focused on China’s potential role in creating the virus through controversial gain-of-function experiments, a type of research that involves engineering viruses to make them more lethal and more transmissible.
However, Republican House Committee members, in their report, said this:
“The U.S. Government must also provide a full accounting of any American cooperation with the Wuhan lab’s coronavirus research, including the support of these projects through U.S. Government funds.”
As science writer and former New York Times reporter Nicholas Wade detailed earlier this month, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which operates under the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is headed up by Dr. Anthony Fauci, provided funding for gain-of-function research at the WIV, from June 2014 to May 2019. The research was conducted jointly by Chinese and U.S. scientists.
In 2014, under the Obama administration, at the urging of more than 200 scientists, Obama placed a moratorium on any new gain-of-function research. The ban was lifted in 2017 by the NIH under Trump. But as Wade explained, Fauci was able to use a loophole to fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab, even during the moratorium.
On May 11, after more than a year of standing by the theory that COVID evolved naturally, Fauci told the Poynter Institute he’s no longer “convinced” that’s the case, CNN reported.
Wednesday, the U.S. Senate passed an amendment, sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky), permanently banning all funding for gain-of-function research in China.
The new ban doesn’t apply to gain-of-function research conducted elsewhere, including at the more than 200 labs throughout the U.S. that are registered as BSL-3 and BSL-4, qualifying them to conduct gain-of-function experiments.
On Feb. 23, 28 members of Congress wrote to the principal deputy inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requesting a prompt and thorough investigation into the NIH’s response to biosafety concerns raised about taxpayer-funded coronavirus research at the WIV.
[…]
Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/biden-orders-investigation-covid-lab-leak-theory/
RFK, Jr. Interviews Investigative Journalist Whitney Webb on the ‘Deliberate Coverup’ of Bill Gates and Jeffrey Epstein’s Relationship
By Children’s Health Defense Team Investigative journalist and researcher Whitney Webb dives deep into the murky relationship between now-deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, billionaire Bill Gates and other Silicon Valley elite, in an interview with Children’s Health Defense Chairman Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., on the “RFK Jr The Defender Podcast.”
Webb, author of “One Nation Under Blackmail,” writes for her website, Unlimited Hangout, as well as The Last American Vagabond and The Defender, covering topics on intelligence, tech, surveillance and civil liberties.
There is a “deliberate coverup,” said Webb, of the true ties between Gates and Epstein. Many of the Silicon Valley elites “are part of something called the Edge Foundation,” which is how “Epstein was able to connect so intimately with a lot of the individuals who would later become the Silicon Valley elite,” Web told Kennedy.
Many of today’s big Silicon Valley companies have origins tied to the intelligence community, said Webb. The Central Intelligence Agency’s venture capital arm, In-Q-Tel, invested in technologies deemed useful to intelligence forces, and when they did, they had a hand in the company’s product development, Webb explained.
Webb also told Kennedy about her opinions on vaccine passports, which, she says, aren’t just about tracking vaccines, but are a part of a global plan to move towards a cashless, digital-banking based society where vaccine status, economic activity and biometric identity are all tied into one.
Webb said:
“So for people that think the vaccine passports will just be for the COVID-19 vaccine, that’s not true either. This framework also is for literally any vaccination that the state determines is required.”
[…]
Listen to interview at https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/rfk-jr-the-defender-podcast-whitney-webb-coverup-bill-gates-jeffrey-epstein-relationship/
May 26, 2021
18 Connecticut Teens Hospitalized for Heart Problems After COVID Vaccines, White House Says Young People Should Still Get the Shots
The mother of 17-year-old Gregory Hatton, diagnosed with pericarditis within days of his second dose of the vaccine, said her son “basically has a heart condition now and it’s terrifying.”
One week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced it was investigating heart inflammation in recently vaccinated young adults, Connecticut reported 18 new cases of heart problems among teens who had received a COVID vaccine.
All 18 cases resulted in hospitalization — the vast majority for a couple of days, reported NBC Connecticut. The cases were reported to the Connecticut Department of Public Health by vaccine providers, said Deirdre Gifford, acting health commissioner.
“One individual that we’re aware of is still hospitalized,” Guifford said Monday. “The other 17 have been sent home and they’re doing fine.”
The first case at Connecticut Children’s was Rachel Hatton’s 17-year-old son, Gregory.
“It’s terrifying,” said Hatton. Her son started complaining of severe chest pain three days after his second vaccine dose. It worsened on the fourth day, causing back pain.
After blood work and an x-ray, doctors diagnosed Gregory with pericarditis, an inflammation of the tissue surrounding the heart that can cause sharp chest pain and other symptoms.
“They hooked him up to a heart monitor, did more EKGs, echocardiograms. Infectious disease actually came and ran their own set of blood work to try to figure out if it could have been caused by something else, some sort of infection, something else, like Lyme disease. They tested him for all sorts of things and one by one those tests came back negative,” said Hatton.
Doctors couldn’t confirm Gregory’s condition was caused by the COVID vaccine, but two more recently vaccinated patients presented to the hospital with similar symptoms. A spokesperson from Connecticut Children’s said patients have presented with both pericarditis and myocarditis.
[…]
Blowback: How Israel Went From Helping Create Hamas to Bombing It
Video by Mehdi Hasan, Dina Sayedahmed
The Intercept
What do you know about Hamas?
That it’s sworn to destroy Israel? That it’s a terrorist group, proscribed both by the United States and the European Union? That it rules Gaza with an iron fist? That it’s killed hundreds of innocent Israelis with rocket, mortar, and suicide attacks?
But did you also know that Hamas — which is an Arabic acronym for “Islamic Resistance Movement” — would probably not exist today were it not for the Jewish state? That the Israelis helped turn a bunch of fringe Palestinian Islamists in the late 1970s into one of the world’s most notorious militant groups? That Hamas is blowback?
This isn’t a conspiracy theory. Listen to former Israeli officials such as Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev, who was the Israeli military governor in Gaza in the early 1980s. Segev later told a New York Times reporter that he had helped finance the Palestinian Islamist movement as a “counterweight” to the secularists and leftists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah party, led by Yasser Arafat (who himself referred to Hamas as “a creature of Israel.”)
“The Israeli government gave me a budget,” the retired brigadier general confessed, “and the military government gives to the mosques.”
“Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation,” Avner Cohen, a former Israeli religious affairs official who worked in Gaza for more than two decades, told the Wall Street Journal in 2009. Back in the mid-1980s, Cohen even wrote an official report to his superiors warning them not to play divide-and-rule in the Occupied Territories, by backing Palestinian Islamists against Palestinian secularists. “I … suggest focusing our efforts on finding ways to break up this monster before this reality jumps in our face,” he wrote.
[…]
Via https://theintercept.com/2018/02/19/hamas-israel-palestine-conflict/
12,184 DEAD 1,196,190 Injuries: European Database of Adverse Drug Reactions for COVID-19 “Vaccines”
by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News
The European database of suspected drug reaction reports is EudraVigilance, which also tracks reports of injuries and deaths following the experimental COVID-19 “vaccines.”
Here is what EudraVigilance states about their database:
This website was launched by the European Medicines Agency in 2012 to provide public access to reports of suspected side effects (also known as suspected adverse drug reactions). These reports are submitted electronically to EudraVigilance by national medicines regulatory authorities and by pharmaceutical companies that hold marketing authorisations (licences) for the medicines.
EudraVigilance is a system designed for collecting reports of suspected side effects. These reports are used for evaluating the benefits and risks of medicines during their development and monitoring their safety following their authorisation in the European Economic Area (EEA). EudraVigilance has been in use since December 2001.
This website was launched to comply with the EudraVigilance Access Policy, which was developed to improve public health by supporting the monitoring of the safety of medicines and to increase transparency for stakeholders, including the general public.
The Management Board of the European Medicines Agency first approved the EudraVigilance Access Policy in December 2010. A revision was adopted by the Board in December 2015 based on the 2010 pharmacovigilance legislation. The policy aims to provide stakeholders such as national medicines regulatory authorities in the EEA, the European Commission, healthcare professionals, patients and consumers, as well as the pharmaceutical industry and research organisations, with access to reports on suspected side effects.
Transparency is a key guiding principle of the Agency, and is pivotal to building trust and confidence in the regulatory process. By increasing transparency, the Agency is better able to address the growing need among stakeholders, including the general public, for access to information. (Source.)
Their report through May 22, 2021 lists 12,184 deaths and 1,196,190 injuries following injections of four experimental COVID-19 shots:
COVID-19 MRNA VACCINE MODERNA (CX-024414)COVID-19 MRNA VACCINE PFIZER-BIONTECHCOVID-19 VACCINE ASTRAZENECA (CHADOX1 NCOV-19)COVID-19 VACCINE JANSSEN (AD26.COV2.S)From the total of injuries recorded, there are 604,744 serious injuries which equals over 50%.
“Seriousness provides information on the suspected undesirable effect; it can be classified as ‘serious’ if it corresponds to a medical occurrence that results in death, is life-threatening, requires inpatient hospitalisation, results in another medically important condition, or prolongation of existing hospitalisation, results in persistent or significant disability or incapacity, or is a congenital anomaly/birth defect.”
A Health Impact News subscriber in Europe ran the reports for each of the four COVID-19 shots we are including here. This subscriber has volunteered to do this, and it is a lot of work to tabulate each reaction with injuries and fatalities, since there is no place on the EudraVigilance system we have found that tabulates all the results.
Since we have started publishing this, others from Europe have also calculated the numbers and confirmed the totals.*
Here is the summary data through May 22, 2021.
Total reactions for the experimental mRNA vaccineTozinameran (code BNT162b2,Comirnaty) from BioNTech/ Pfizer: 5,961 deaths and 452,779 injuries to 22/05/2021
13,531 Blood and lymphatic system disorders incl. 59 deaths9,828 Cardiac disorders incl. 735 deaths71 Congenital, familial and genetic disorders incl. 4 deaths5,468 Ear and labyrinth disorders incl. 3 deaths183 Endocrine disorders6,266 Eye disorders incl. 14 deaths41,214 Gastrointestinal disorders incl. 216 deaths128,031 General disorders and administration site conditions incl. 1,909 deaths327 Hepatobiliary disorders incl. 27 deaths4,802 Immune system disorders incl. 31 deaths13,948 Infections and infestations incl. 648 deaths4,821 Injury, poisoning and procedural complications incl. 81 deaths10,374 Investigations incl. 221 deaths3,354 Metabolism and nutrition disorders incl. 120 deaths65,326 Musculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders incl. 71 deaths250 Neoplasms benign, malignant and unspecified (incl cysts and polyps) incl. 15 deaths81,748 Nervous system disorders incl. 616 deaths279 Pregnancy, puerperium and perinatal conditions incl. 7 deaths88 Product issues7,978 Psychiatric disorders incl. 94 deaths1,342 Renal and urinary disorders incl. 93 deaths1,570 Reproductive system and breast disorders incl. 3 deaths18,597 Respiratory, thoracic and mediastinal disorders incl. 697 deaths21,101 Skin and subcutaneous tissue disorders incl. 53 deaths663 Social circumstances incl. 9 deaths160 Surgical and medical procedures incl. 10 deaths11,459 Vascular disorders incl. 225 deathsTotal reactions for the experimental mRNA vaccine mRNA-1273(CX-024414) from Moderna: 3,365 deaths and 72,596 injuries to 22/05/2021
1,335 Blood and lymphatic system disorders incl. 22 deaths2,045 Cardiac disorders incl. 370 deaths12 Congenital, familial and genetic disorders incl. 2 deaths718 Ear and labyrinth disorders37 Endocrine disorders incl. 1 death997 Eye disorders incl. 4 deaths6,305 Gastrointestinal disorders incl. 108 deaths20,774 General disorders and administration site conditions incl. 1,480 deaths129 Hepatobiliary disorders incl. 8 deaths691 Immune system disorders incl. 4 deaths2,392 Infections and infestations incl. 183 deaths1,292 Injury, poisoning and procedural complications incl. 63 deaths1,743 Investigations incl. 77 deaths816 Metabolism and nutrition disorders incl. 64 deaths9,149 Musculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders incl. 62 deaths77 Neoplasms benign, malignant and unspecified (incl cysts and polyps) incl. 11 deaths12,314 Nervous system disorders incl. 339 deaths83 Pregnancy, puerperium and perinatal conditions11 Product issues1,375 Psychiatric disorders incl. 51 deaths468 Renal and urinary disorders incl. 40 deaths175 Reproductive system and breast disorders incl. 1 death3,513 Respiratory, thoracic and mediastinal disorders incl. 306 deaths3,726 Skin and subcutaneous tissue disorders incl. 23 deaths259 Social circumstances incl. 9 deaths235 Surgical and medical procedures incl. 26 deaths1,925 Vascular disordersTotal reactions for the experimental vaccine AZD1222/VAXZEVRIA (CHADOX1 NCOV-19) from Oxford/ AstraZeneca: 2,489 deaths and 655,534 injuries to 22/05/2021
7,200 Blood and lymphatic system disorders incl. 100 deaths9,748 Cardiac disorders incl. 311 deaths103 Congenital, familial and genetic disorders incl. 2 deaths6,740 Ear and labyrinth disorders217 Endocrine disorders incl. 2 deaths10,591 Eye disorders incl. 8 deaths69,826 Gastrointestinal disorders incl. 116 deaths 178,037 General disorders and administration site conditions incl. 685 deaths396 Hepatobiliary disorders incl. 20 deaths2,409 Immune system disorders incl. 9 deaths13,832 Infections and infestations incl. 163 deaths5,870 Injury, poisoning and procedural complications incl. 46 deaths13,474 Investigations incl. 50 deaths8,405 Metabolism and nutrition disorders incl. 35 deaths104,075 Musculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders incl. 25 deaths222 Neoplasms benign, malignant and unspecified (incl cysts and polyps) incl. 6 deaths 141,437 Nervous system disorders incl. 388 deaths156 Pregnancy, puerperium and perinatal conditions incl. 3 deaths76 Product issues12,272 Psychiatric disorders incl. 21 deaths2,264 Renal and urinary disorders incl. 20 deaths3,327 Reproductive system and breast disorders21,237 Respiratory, thoracic and mediastinal disorders incl. 278 deaths 29,750 Skin and subcutaneous tissue disorders incl. 14 deaths582 Social circumstances incl. 4 deaths498 Surgical and medical procedures incl. 15 deaths12,790 Vascular disorders incl. 168 deathsTotal reactions for the experimental COVID-19 vaccine JANSSEN (AD26.COV2.S) from Johnson & Johnson: 369 deaths and 15,281 injuries to 22/05/2021
145 Blood and lymphatic system disorders incl. 10 deaths264 Cardiac disorders incl. 34 deaths 8 Congenital, familial and genetic disorders77 Ear and labyrinth disorders5 Endocrine disorders incl. 1 death191 Eye disorders incl. 2 deaths1,302 Gastrointestinal disorders incl. 11 deaths3,619 General disorders and administration site conditions incl. 97 deaths38 Hepatobiliary disorders incl. 2 deaths51 Immune system disorders245 Infections and infestations incl. 8 deaths209 Injury, poisoning and procedural complications incl. 6 deaths1,134 Investigations incl. 23 deaths104 Metabolism and nutrition disorders incl. 10 deaths2,368 Musculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders incl. 12 deaths12 Neoplasms benign, malignant and unspecified (incl cysts and polyps)3,051 Nervous system disorders incl. 48 death7 Pregnancy, puerperium and perinatal conditions8 Product issues181 Psychiatric disorders incl. 3 deaths69 Renal and urinary disorders incl. 4 deaths62 Reproductive system and breast disorders637 Respiratory, thoracic and mediastinal disorders incl. 29 deaths324 Skin and subcutaneous tissue disorders incl. 1 death39 Social circumstances incl. 2 deaths214 Surgical and medical procedures incl. 20 deaths917 Vascular disorders incl. 46 deathsGiant Killers Tackle Google
By Israel Shamir
Greenville Post
The uprising began in rebellious Moscow, where the city arbitration tribunal demanded that Google restore a deleted YouTube account or pay billions of dollars in fines.
The digital giants have taken over the world. Nobody has ever amassed this much power. Hitler would die of envy if shown the greatness of Google. Huxley and Orwell’s protagonists could only dream of what Bezos and Gates do. The latter overthrew the US President and installed one they prefer, and for good reason. The combined net worth of the top 100 ultra-rich people in the US has skyrocketed by $195 billion since Biden took office, according to Bloomberg’s calculations. These giants control the minds of billions. Nations hock their lands and industries to purchase their patent medicines. These giants know our faces, our names, all about us, even the cells we are made of, down to the last protein. Gods have been defeated, gentle Christ and mighty Sabaoth, not to mention angry Allah. that a thing of which it said, ‘See, this new’? (Eccl 1:10) No, my jaundiced ancestor was right — it has already been done in the ages before us.
[…]
The uprising began in rebellious Moscow, where the city arbitration tribunal demanded that Google restore a deleted YouTube account or pay billions of dollars in fines. Impossible, you’d say — Google free to do whatever they want. They shadow-banned Unz.com; its brother giant Twitter banned Trump; there is no way to overturn their decisions, for such companies are private, and private property sacred — otherwise it’s Communism and Gulag; they can do whatever they want, and their smart lawyers have already included their right to unplug you in every one-click contract agreement.
Yet Russia isn’t all that different from any other Western nation. Until this happened, the Russian legal system had refused to consider claims against the tech giants. Russian law did not allow for it. It was enough for the giants to stipulate that all claims should go to London or to some other tame court of their preference for the Russians to meekly submit. However, the giants overreached themselves when they blocked this avenue to sue them in a Western jurisdiction for many Russians. The Russians responded by creating a new law that established the priority of their national law, and required the courts and tribunals to accept and judge the cases if there is no way to sue in the agreed Western jurisdiction.
This new law was applied by the Moscow Arbitration Tribunal after Google, in July 2020, deleted the account of Tsargrad, a Christian conservative TV channel and news agency belonging to Konstantin Malofeev, an unusual Russian digital media lord. Slate magazine made a profile of the man some years ago, while he was still planning to create Tsargrad. Slate grossly exaggerated Malofeev’s proximity and importance to Putin, for he is an outsider, but otherwise it gives you the general idea. Malofeev had been sanctioned by US and EU authorities in 2014, but the account of the media company he was the main owner of was blocked six years later, in the summer of 2020. Tsargrad had over one million subscribers when suddenly, and without warning, YouTube deleted its account. At first, they explained their action by asserting that Tsargrad was “breaking the community rules’, as always. Later on, Google claimed they blocked Tsargrad because its owner had been sanctioned.
The Moscow tribunal rejected both claims. (Read here the tribunal decision in full, English translation comes after Russian version) It stated that Google didn’t prove Tsargrad broke community rules; even had that been the case, Google would have had to give six months’ warning before breaking the contract. As for sanctions, the Tribunal ruled that US and EU sanctions are a part of public law of those particular countries, and cannot be applied in Russia; Google has to restore their account or suffer legal consequences.
The consequences are financial, and exponential. For the first week of non-compliance, Google would have to pay a little over one thousand dollars, nothing to speak about there. But afterwards, the fines double each week, and in half a year’s time Google would have to pay over $70 billion! Exponential fines can be very threatening. Can the Russians make Google pay? Yes! Google (google.ru) has a few billions on their accounts in Russia, all eminently liable to be seized. On the other hand, if Google restores the blocked account, they won’t have to pay a cent. Stories related to this historical decision are filed here (in Russian).
[…]
The Life of the Super Rich in Central Africa
The Life of the Super Rich in Central Africa: Between Luxury and Misery
DW (2021)
Film Review
This documentary concerns the 600 millionaires in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The majority of DRC residents on less than two euros a day. Even miners (including 40,000 children) who work in the lucrative coltan mines earn only 5 euros a day.
The film profiles three specific multimillionaires: a rock star, the former rebel leader who currently owns the largest coltan* mine (and serves as a member of parliament) and a prophet who cures people with miracle juice made from gasoline and lemon juice.
The main reason so many DRC residents live in abject poverty is extreme corruption. Mobuto Sese Seko, brutal dictator between 1965 and 1997 (when DRC was called Zaire), embezzled four billion euros from the government prior to being ousted by rebel forces. Joseph Kabila, president of DRC between 2001 and 2019, embezzled three million euros. In 2021, DRC is number one on the list of the 20 most corrupt countries.
Tax evasion also continues to be a major problem, leaving the current government starved for funding to improve infrastructure. Most rural roads are unpaved, electrical outages are common and less than one-fifth of the population have access to electricity.
Owing to the fragile September 2020 ceasefire (enforced by 16,000 UN peacekeepers), many former DRC expatriates have returned to take the country’s limited middle class jobs. The filmmakers profile a couple who earn a total of $3,500 a month (100 times the country’s average salary) working as bankers. One third of their income goes to pay rent in a luxurious Western-style high security enclave.
*Coltan is refined to produce tantalum, a rare metal essential in cellphone technology.
May 25, 2021
39-Year-Old Model, Malaysian Olympic Archer Die Days After COVID Vaccines
British fashion model Stephanie Dubois suffered a blood clot days after vaccination with AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine, while a young two-time Olympian died 10 days after receiving Pfizer’s vaccine.
British fashion model Stephanie Dubois died from a blood clot days after receiving the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine in Cyprus, a health official said Monday.
Dubois, 39, suffered a “serious thrombotic episode” after receiving her first dose of the vaccine on May 6, Newsweek reported. She had no underlying health conditions according to health officials at the hospital in Nicosia, where she was hospitalized May 14, after experiencing breathing issues.
The fashion model later suffered a brain hemorrhage and was in a coma before she passed away May 21.
Dubois’ death will be investigated by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), said a Cypriot health service spokesperson, Charalambos Charilaou.
Dubois received her first dose on May 6 and posted on Facebook: “And now I feel horrendous … pizza and bed for me.”
In a Facebook post on the morning of May 14, Dubois wrote: “Woke up feeling fine and then within an hour I had full body shakes, all my joints seized and I was struggling to breathe and was cold to the bone with a persistent headache and dizziness.”
By May 19, Dubois was reported to have gone into a coma and “was not expected to come out of it,” according to a friend, Andrew Powers, The Times reported.
Three other thrombosis incidents were reported in Cyprus following vaccinations, two of whom also received the AstraZeneca vaccine. The cases were part of 40 serious side effects reported that may be linked to COVID vaccination, which were referred to the EMA.
CHD Calls on FDA to Take COVID Vaccines Off the Market – Submit a CommentIn its latest guidance released May 21, the EMA advised AstraZeneca should not be given to anyone who developed blood clots with low blood platelets after receiving one dose of the vaccine.
On April 7, European regulators confirmed a “possible link” between AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine and “very rare” blood clots, but concluded the benefits of the vaccine still outweigh the risks.
The EMA did not recommend restricting use of the vaccine based on age, gender or other risk factors, but did say cases of blood clotting after vaccination “should be” listed as a possible side effect, according to a statement issued by the agency’s safety committee.
27-year-old Olympian archer dies after Pfizer vaccine
Two-time Olympic archer Haziq Kamaruddin, died at the age of 27 on May 14, after collapsing at his home days after receiving Pfizer’s COVID vaccine. Kamaruddin died of a blocked coronary artery, the Health Ministry said Saturday, adding there was no evidence of a link to the vaccine.
There are multiple reasons a coronary artery can become blocked, including by a blood clot, according to Yale Medicine. As The Defender reported last month, all three vaccines authorized in the U.S., including Pfizer, can potentially cause blood clots.
[…]
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