They Want to Believe
The Illuminati are at it again, according to a U. S. conspiracy theorist and the government of South Africa. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, South Africa's health minister, distributed a chapter from a book written by William Cooper to the country's provincial legislators. In his book Cooper claims that a secret group bent on global domination—the Illuminati, whose purported objective is to enslave the human race by creating a satanic one-world government—desires a reduction in the African population. To accomplish this, they introduced AIDS via the smallpox vaccine, Cooper wrote. Linked to the conspiracy are extraterrestrial aliens, also tools of the Illuminati. Harper's Magazine recently published a transcript of the conversation between Tshabalala-Msimang and South Africa's Radio 702 commentator John Robbie, in which the health minister refused to answer direct questions about the epidemic and her distribution of the Cooper excerpt, one of which was: "Do you accept that HIV causes AIDS?"

Tshabalala-Msimang's evasion is in keeping with official policy. President Thabo Mbeki, who drew a firestorm of criticism last year with his refusal to provide the drug AZT to infected pregnant women, apparently does not believe that HIV causes AIDS. In the summer of 2000, he assembled an advisory panel to examine the true nature of AIDS, reports the Africa Policy Information Center. The panel included mainstream scientists and "dissidents," scientists who believe that immune deficiency is caused by a variety of factors including poverty, malnutrition, poor hygiene, and local diseases. Critics charge that by giving HIV deniers a platform, Mbeki is contributing to genocide.

The results of the panel's deliberations were hardly unexpected: the two sides remained at odds, and no agreement on the cause of AIDS was reached. This lack of consensus will likely serve to justify the government's continued inaction.

While there is little evidence supporting the existence of the Illuminati, there is a conspiracy afoot—one best described by Nelson Mandela as "a conspiracy of silence." The current face of this conspiracy is the intentioned blindness that allows the epidemic to rage virtually unchecked. It's true what they say about denial, it's not just a river in Egypt; it is a flood that will devastate an entire nation.

"God Loves Ephedra"
The 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act essentially freed "natural" remedies from federal regulation. Since then vitamins, minerals, herbs, and sports nutrients have become a $15.7 billion industry, reports the Washington Post. The industry uses the usual combination of methods to protect and enhance its interests—lobbyists, political contributions, advertising, and letter-writing campaigns to pressure government agencies—plus a few new techniques that are proving to be quite successful.

The main beneficiary of these efforts is the industry's biggest moneymaker, ephedra. A powerful herbal stimulant, it is primarily taken as a weight loss aid. It is also linked to insomnia, arrhythmia, hypertension, heart attacks, seizures, and strokes. Federal health officials have labeled the substance "legal speed."

Prompted by reports of more than 1,200 cases of illness and eight deaths linked to the herb, the Texas Department of Health tried and failed three times since 1994 to impose restrictions on the sale of ephedra. The supplements industry induced a stream of mail to lawmakers, and arranged testimonials at every public hearing on the department's proposals. At one such hearing during the state's 1996 attempt, a woman led a revival-style call and response with the audience: "God loves ephedra because it is a wonderful herb."

While not quite a divine intervention, this is nevertheless an interesting and obviously successful tactic. Take note, those of you who would like to see the legalization of other "wonderful herbs."