As a native westerner whose heart and soul belongs to Africa, I wholeheartedly agree with the author. The pharmaceutical industry has encouraged the health professions to sell the public on the "illusion" of these Western "remedies with side effects" for profits only--not with the intentions to cure.

Have we not learned as African and people of the Diaspora from the lessons of the Tuskegee Project in America? In this project, black men were infected and used as human experiments to see the acute stages of the veneral disease syphyllis. If Westerns can be so morally inhumane, cruel and act with such disregard to a human life, why shouldn't Africans circumspect Western medicines coming into African countries where the regulations for imported medicine is virtually nonexistent?

Africans need to stop believing the hype of Westerners having the "best or better" in ALL things in life. The truth be told, Western medicine didn't cure my acute hyperemesis which is a condition where I had massive weight loss and couldn't stay hydrated and threatened my life. An African home healthaide gave me the African medicine used for cooking oil--Red Palm Oil in an African cuisine which cured my condition and had my Western doctor dumbfounded. Ever since 1993, I've been on a holistic diet and use herbal remedies to cure any ailment where modern medicine has failed!

Additionally, according to United Nations reports, Cuba has the best medical society on effectively combating diseases NOT America, United Kingdom or Europe.

All black national governments need to be vigilantly on high alert on ALL western medicines imported into their countries as Western countries have slated Africa as the experimental ground for diseases!

There is absolutely no evidence for any of this. Silly, badly written and dangerous stuff. Obviously counterfeit medicines should be removed by consistent government action. There is no 'Western' medicine, just as there is no 'alternative'; there is medicine that works and medicine that does not.

Why, if medicine does not work, has Ghanian life expectasncy risen consistently over the past 50 years?

http://globalis.gvu.unu.edu/indicator_detail.cfm?IndicatorID=18&Country=GH

I found this article to be very interesting and a lot of valid points were made. A couple of things I wish to add-when these drug companies make these drugs they do 'drug trials' before they release these drugs to the public. These drugs are always used on individuals of the white race. So any side effects noted would only be the side effects that white people develop. These companies do not know what result these medicines will have on individuals of African descent which is very dangerous. Something that could be taken by people of European descent with no problem could seriously hurt or kill one of African descent.

Secondly, in the Western world the white man rules. On the whole, whites have more money and therefore these drug companies cater to the white man and his money. There are many diseases in the Western world afflicting us of African descent that should be addressed (such as sickle cell) that are not addressed or 'cures' sought because these companies know that we don't have as much money as whites to buy these drugs-so they don't bother with creating drugs for us. Even though we should stay away from these drugs anyway, it is a terrible fact that these companies do not care about the black man enough to try and help us.

I live in Bermuda (in the Caribbean) and when I was growing up in the 80's-even though we had plenty of drugstores here-my grandmother relied solely on natural remedies. She grew her own herbs which she boiled into tea that we drank or she made a liniment that we would rub on our skin for cuts or if we had a fever, etc. These remedies always worked and we were very healthy. Nowadays she would be mocked for these remedies even though they were far superior to any medicine sold in a shop today.

We have to realize that yes, these drugs can be dangerous and I agree with the author on that. As he said, we need to go back to the way our ancestors did things and eat healthy, etc. These drug companies are pushing these things on us knowing they can be harmful and we have to ask-is it being done intentionally to diminish the African race? It makes you wonder if that is so.