Another well-done study is showing that medical researchers have now firmly established the relationship between Brain Inflammation and Depression. Brain inflammation rarely occurs by itself; much more commonly, the brain is inflamed because the whole body is inflamed. Put another way, if you are inflamed, your brain is probably inflamed too. While whole body inflammation has a number of possible origins, none are more common than (1) autoimmune disease and (2) inflammatory diets. (Which are quite likely themselves closely linked)
A wide range of diseases from heart disease to obesity, and from ME/CFS to Depression are now clearly associated with, if not caused by whole body inflammation. Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent “treating” these diseases, but the suffering and dying have not slowed down. If anything, human life on planet Earth is approaching, or at least edging up on some kind of terminal disease that we don’t even have a name for yet. But you can bet that it will work its deadly toll through some kind of inflammation.
Given the enormous range of sources of inflammation in today’s societies worldwide, and given that there are no good, simple ways for people in the grip of whole body inflammation to get it under control, you would think that some group of responsible scientists somewhere, would run even a small, well-controlled study on whether or not Coca leaf Tea could treat even some of the common inflammatory conditions.
Medical researchers are portrayed in the media as risk-takers, and some may be. There may even be some innovative thinkers working today. But so far none appear to be able to learn, or even take a hint from history.
You would think, wouldn’t you, that if a responsible medical researcher who was interested in inflammatory processes read the following few paragraphs they might suggest a worthwhile direction for some inexpensive, potentially breakthrough research.
I’m still waiting for those first clinical trials of Coca Leaf, aren’t you? There are lots of Pig Pharma studies on “treatments” costing six-figures per treatment, but not one peep on that little cup of tea.
Dr. William Tibbles
” Although our materia medica includes many valuable remedies for human affliction, it is a matter of certainty that in all cases where the animal vitality is failing, or where exhaustion or disease exist, Erythroxylon Coca is decidedly superior to every other remedy at present known. It will work effects such as no other single drug will produce, and it possesses the great advantage of not causing, when its use is relinquished or discontinued, the slightest reaction or depression.
So valuable are the properties, and so extensive the field in which this new remedy may be employed in the amelioration of human suffering, that the author now brings it before the public, in the hope that a great amount of present affliction may be removed, and, in the future, prevented.“
Dr. William Searles
“… increased arterial tension throws a greater strain upon the heart, which becomes overtaxed, dilated, and there are produced breathlessness, a sensation of lightness in the head, etc. Coca, by its toning action on the nervous system, increases the amount of nervous influence over the whole organism, diminishes the waste of tissue, regulates the various functional actions – as circulation, excretion, etc., and prevents such results as above given.
Thus its efficacy as a therapeutic agent in all forms of disease cannot be doubted. In consumption, in inflammation, in fevers, in which states of the system there is an increase in temperature, disorder of nutrition, abnormal disintegration of the tissues of the body’s nervous and muscular fibres, increased production and excretion of urates, carbonic acid, etc.; in the brain exhaustion consequent upon mental labour, and in the fatigue produced by physical exercise.
In all states and conditions of men coca is invaluable both as a preventive of exhaustion and a repairer of wasted tissue. In all the years through which I have used these leaves, I have administered them in large and small doses, to man and animals, without inducing, in any one case, injurious effects, but always, on the contrary, the beneficial results required.”
Wm. TIBBLES,MD, Syston, Leicester. N 2
“The discovery of the Western Continent, whether due to the forethought or ignorance of Columbus, or to the hardihood of the Norsemen several centuries before his time, brought a multitude of bounties to humanity. Among these none is greater than the countless plants which have been gradually unfolded to usefulness by the processes of science. Particularly is this true of the economic and medicinal plants of South America, which on the eastern declivity of the Andes and towards the valley of the Amazon, spring forth in all the luxuriance of the tropical jungle, over a vast portion of which it is supposed the foot of man has never trodden.
In this locality – and among this wild profusion, grows a beautiful shrub, the leaves of which in shape somewhat resemble those of the orange tree, but in color are of a very much paler green, having that exquisite translucence of the most delicate fern. The properties of this plant more nearly approach that ideal source of endurance than is known to exist in any other one sub stance.
Its leaves have been used by the natives of the surrounding country from the earliest recollection, as a masticatory, as a medicine, and as a force sustaining food. Its use is not confined to emergency, nor to luxury, but as an essential factor to the daily life work of these people.
As a potent necessity it has been tenderly cared for and carefully cultivated through the struggles, trials and vituperation it has been the occasion of during so many hundreds of years, until to-day its cultivation forms the chief industry of a large portion of the natives and a prominent source of revenue to the governments controlling the localities where it is grown.
It will be shown by ample testimony that Coca is not only a substance innocent as is tea or coffee – which are commonly accepted popular necessities – but that Coca is vastly superior to these substances, and more worthy of general use because of its depurative action on the blood, as well as through its property of provoking a chemico-physiological change in the tissues whereby the nerves and muscles are rendered more capable for their work.
Strong as may appear this assertion, I believe that the facts here presented will amply indicate that sufficient has not been said upon the benefits to accrue from the liberal use of Coca, Indeed, our knowledge of it is yet in its infancy, and if this present writing will but excite others to continue these investigations and experiments. Coca will achieve the position it should maintain as an aid and support to humanity worthy the greatest popularity and the highest possible respect.
OK, so North Korea has a Hydrogen bomb and a small arsenal of ICMB missiles but, we are assured by all the experts, they don’t yet have the capability of fitting that H-Bomb into a re-entry vehicle that could survive the warhead’s downward plunge from space onto a US city. No re-entry technology – no threat.
That would be somewhat reassuring if we could also be assured that nobody could fit an H-Bomb (see Photo 1) behind the pilot’s seat in a small aircraft, say a Cessna (see Photo 2).
Photo #2
Seems pretty simple. Get a warhead the size of the one in Photo 2 by ship to oh, I don’t know, maybe Mexico, and then load it into a small aircraft and file a legitimate flight plan for, say, Los Angeles.
Then the volunteer pilot, beginning his approach into LA, would simply radio “Allahu Akbar” just before triggering the switch and vaporizing himself and all of LA.
So, who would get blamed for the deed? How could anyone be sure who did it? Especially with that last radio transmission ringing in our ears. I doubt that even Jesus could decide who to nuke in retaliation, much less The Donald (invidious comparison definitely intended).
And, for anyone who might think that North Korea wouldn’t risk being found to be behind a plan like this, I’m quite sure the NK military is familiar with the concept of “plausible deniability”.
A brief radio squirt of “Allahu Akbar” would provide pretty good plausible deniability, don’t you think?
I don’t intend my comments here as Fear Porn – I am simply very afraid that everybody seems to be focusing on only one scenario for how North Korea might decide to attack the US with nukes. I’ve already speculated on the use of rusty old freighters in another blog.
So, if the US were really seriously considering as possible the kind of an attack I am describing, we could have people at all the airports and airstrips in Mexico within range of the US, using fairly simple equipment to check every plane before it was given takeoff clearance. And of course we would have to have an automatic interception policy for any airplane that didn’t have a flight plan and an automatic shoot-down policy if any such aircraft didn’t follow directions taking it away from major cities to land in the desert under fighter aircraft supervision.
Hard to see any of that happening though. ICBM’s are so much more dramatic and newsworthy, and high-tech anti-missile missiles are so much more profitable for the US war industry to build, whether they work or not. Who cares about some little puddle-jumper aircraft coming in from Mexico? Probably just another load of Heroin.
Coca Tea – all benefit, no risk. Also no FDA approval.
Well, here we go again. The “New England Journal of Medicine” has just published a new study that shows – prepare to be amazed – that with an amazing new drug called Canakinumab you can reduce the risk of heart attacks by reducing inflammatory processes in the heart. Will wonders never cease? Apparently not, because this article announces a new drug that was tested using the most rigorous scientific methodology (double-blind placebo-controlled) and has been proven to reduce the occurrence of second heart attacks in the cohort receiving the drug and not the placebo by 15%.
Of course the drug Canakinumab is horrendously expensive and oh, by the way, 12% of the people who took it suffered complications having nothing to do with heart attack or stroke, many of them life-threatening infections like Sepsis, but at least they were lowering their risk of having a second heart attack. Damn near miraculous – unless you do the math and discover that the drug decreases your risk of a heart attack by 15% but taking it means that you have an approximately 12% chance of developing Sepsis, or worse.
So basically this new miracle treatment offers you a choice of how you would prefer to die – heart attack or infection. Hmmmm. Choices. Choices. What to do?
Readers of this blog will have already seen my numerous posts on the role of pure, natural Coca Leaf Tea in reducing whole body inflammation. If you don’t recall that info, just use the “search” window in the right-hand column to search for “inflammation” and “inflammatory”. What you’ll find is that there are reams of good, solid evidence from the 1800’s that a cup or two of Coca Leaf Tea per day will do wonders for almost any illness or disease where inflammation is a factor including, without any doubt, inflammatory heart disease. And that relief comes with ZERO negative side-effects, but with some extra fine positive side-effects like anxiety-reduction, appetite control, better sleep, higher energy levels, and a more efficient metabolism.
Of course, the problem is that the FDA is falling all over itself to approve Canakinumab but, especially under the watchful beady little eyes of rat-face Jeff Sessions, will never allow Americans to use whole, pure, natural Coca Leaf Tea. But hey – where’s the profit for Pig Pharma company Novartis in a (non-patentable) cup of tea? God bless the American way. Ain’t it great – again?
My friend and long-time collaborator Peter and I spent many years working together developing multiple clean water project proposals, as well as several innovative biogas proposals, that for one reason or another were never funded. This was a labor of love and even though these projects never saw the light of day we still believe that they incorporate both technologies and implementation models that offer a viable alternative to the kind of high-dollar mega-projects that international “aid” organizations love, and that almost always fail and leave the people worse off than before they were “aided”.
(As a frame of reference, Peter and I are the principals of “AF&T” referred to in the text below, which stands for “Alternative Fuels & Technologies”.)
What follows is the technical description of such a project, which we developed in 2012 in response to a request from friends and former colleagues in Serbia. Although this project was never funded, it is still a highly viable model for rural development of clean water resources, and could be implemented at any time. Each of our projects was accompanied by detailed financial analysis – if the project didn’t show a positive bottom line after making highly conservative revenue projections and deliberately high cost/expense projections, we didn’t consider it viable.
Our guiding principle was and is: a good project not only has to be innovative; it has to work technically and financially.
My purpose in publishing this Serbia water resource project narrative on panaceachronicles.com is because, although the core topic of this blog is the celebration of the great natural medicine Coca, and its companion healing plant Cannabis, I believe that readers who care about Coca and Cannabis may also care about making the world a better place and be interested in examining alternative, potentially viable ways of doing so.
If this includes you, I hope that you enjoy reading through our little plan for rural Serbia. In the following weeks I will be posting several other, each quite unique water resource development plans for the Dominican Republic and for Sri Lanka.
Background
Serbia is a country rich in natural resources and its agricultural sector is an important contributor to the overall economy. Alternative Fuels & Technologies (AF&T) is prepared to deliver a unique set of local solutions that help solve among the greatest of Serbia’s environmental challenges, the pollution of ground and surface waters by both natural and man-made contaminants that have, in many places, rendered the water unfit and dangerous for human consumption.
In addition, AF&T offers these solutions based on an integrated system of proprietary, proven technologies and methods that are designed to be manufactured in Serbia, by Serbians, for the benefit of Serbia. As a result business model addresses water quality issues utilizing an innovative approach by not imposing mega-engineering solutions that have a long history of failure in Serbia, but by implementing a micro-solution at the level where it matters most – the individual drawing a fresh glass of water to drink, or making a pot of tea with clean, uncontaminated water.
The proposal is introduce and gain acceptance for a scalable, low-cost, low technology modular water purification system in Serbia. Unlike many previous attempts to assist Serbian towns and villages in dealing with this multi-faceted problem by designing and installing large, expensive engineering solutions that have a long history of repeated, costly failures, we propose to approach the issue by taking small, incremental steps using an appropriate technology that can be scaled up as its performance and cost-effectiveness have been completely demonstrated to everyone’s satisfaction. As we discuss in Appendix One, perhaps the greatest obstacle to any new development project is the legacy of failed projects that have preceded it, and the way to overcome that challenge, we believe, is to identify why the previous projects failed and why the proposed project is not vulnerable to this source of failure.
We believe that we have identified the principal cause of previous failures of water projects in not just in one town but country-wide, and we further believe that our approach addresses this issue. Rather than beginning with a focus just on municipalities and their large scale, complex needs, we propose to begin by also placing a number of these systems five distinct types of environments.
Small villages of between 100-300 people on the outskirts of towns that have severe water quality issues and where water is sourced principally from wells.
A single 500 litre/day unit provides drinking water for 50 adults. So one unit will be installed per 50 adults in the village
Households with children or individuals at risk in towns that have severe municipal water quality issues, concentrating on apartment-dwelling households.
An apartment building with 10-12 families of 4 people each could be served by one 500 litre/day unit, so we will identify buildings that meet that criterion
Small food-related businesses such as cafes and restaurants in towns where municipal water quality is a severe restraint on preparing quality foods and beverages
Depending upon the customer count, one or two 500 litre/day units could serve the needs of many small establishments; we will give preference to establishments that can be served by a single unit
Institutions in towns that serve populations at risk from polluted municipal water such as schools and clinics
Approximately one 500 litre/day unit per 50-75 children, depending on the age of the school population and the number of adult teachers etc. We will identify schools/clinics that can be served by a maximum of two units
Animal/poultry producing farms already practicing organic agriculture or transitioning to organic agriculture who will most readily recognize the importance of pure water for producing quality product.
We will select small operations that will require no more than two or three 500 litres/day units although, if desirable for demonstration purposes, we can scale up the technology to produce up to 5000 litres/day per unit to serve larger ( but still modest-sized) animal/poultry production farms..
We propose to place demonstration systems in each of these five kinds of locations, and to track the impact of the systems on the health and quality of life of the people using appropriate measuring procedures. We will engage the appropriate human resources to track and document these impacts, including health and environmental personnel. This effort will be coordinated by XXXX which has set up dozens of similar tracking and documenting systems in many countries using local public service, NGO and government personnel.
For residents of small villages whose well water is currently heavily contaminated with both natural and chemical/industrial/faecal pollutants, being able to remove these pollutants at the household level represents a winning strategy for individual families. The small village environment is an excellent platform for demonstrating the benefits of a simple technology that will be seen in improved health, improved environmental quality, and improved quality of life. For residents of urban apartment buildings, having easy access to clean water for drinking and cooking without having to go to a store to buy bottled water will not only be a convenience, it will be a cost-savings. For restaurants and cafes, many of whom probably already have some kind of means of purifying their water, the system that we will offer will have superior performance and customer service advantages. Likewise for schools and clinics – whatever their current system for treating their water, the chemical-free technology that we will install as part of the demonstration project will be experienced as superior. And finally, for small farms, especially those that are currently organic or that are trying to convert to the higher value organic sector, having an on-farm system that is minimal maintenance and that does not require chemicals to purify their water will be a welcome option.
When coupled with our strategy for placing demonstration units in key areas in the municipalities, including apartment buildings, small food producing businesses like cafes, as well as institutions like schools or clinics, we believe that we will have excellent coverage for a comprehensive, believable demonstration for a sustainable, affordable solution for both individual households and for communities as well
Service Delivery Strategies
Each type of placement of the demonstration units will call for a unique service delivery strategy. Ultimately each strategy will be determined by the circumstances prevailing at the sites that are selected. However, it is possible to speculate on what strategies are most likely to be effective for each type of site.
Small Village Placement
This placement is potentially the most vulnerable to abuse if the water tank is in a public area, with some people taking more than their daily allotment. One approach might be to provide each household with a distinctive water bottle that holds an easily manageable amount of water, and then count on social pressure to note when someone is making more than their share of trips to obtain water. An alternative would be to place an attendant at the site and to pay for the attendant by imposing a small charge per fill-up that falls well within the “Winningness To Pay” guidelines established by EU research. This would have the additional virtue of paying for a person to perform the minimal daily maintenance functions needed to keep the system operating at peak efficiency ( no more than a few minutes a day.)
Urban Apartment Building placement
If we select apartment buildings with resident managers it could easily be the managers responsibility to ensure both compliance with the per-person daily limit and to perform the minimal maintenance required. This could be paid for by a small rent surcharge that falls well within the “Willingness To Pay” parameters established by EU research, which would be monitored to ensure that residents we not being over-charged.
Urban Food Business placement
Since the maintenance of the system requires no more than a few minutes a day, this task could easily be assigned to an employee or performed by management
Urban Institutional placement
Since the maintenance of the system requires no more than a few minutes a day, this task could easily be assigned to an employee or performed by management
Rural Small Organic Farm placement
Since the maintenance of the system requires no more than a few minutes a day, this task could easily be assigned to an employee or performed by management
Phase One
We have identified six towns in Vojvodina where there are well-documented, severe water quality problems, both within the municipality and in the community of villages surrounding the municipality. These six towns, identified in a 2007 research publication as towns where “it is illegal for residents to drink water from the municipal system”. (“Pollution Of Water Resources In Vojvodina”, Geographica Timisiensis, vol. 20, No. 2, 2011 (pp. 5-12 ). Our initial six target communities, identified in this research publication, and Zrenjanin, Melene, Elemic, Taras, Aradac and Klek. It is from the cluster of villages around each of these six municipalities that we will select one or two villages as our beginning targets. We have developed a simple list of criteria for selecting our target villages, including evidence of a community will to improve water quality, typicality of the community’s demographics, characteristics of the water quality problem the community faces, and effective community-level leadership.
We will also work with the health authorities and community leadership in each of the towns where we have placement in surrounding villages to identify a set of at-risk families (young children, elderly living alone, household with serious illness, etc), as well as critical locations such as schools, hospitals, and cafes/restaurants where a number of demonstration units can be placed and monitored for results. Our going-in assumption is that we will be placing only our 500 Litre/Day capacity units. In instances where larger units make more sense, they will be provided since the system can be easily scaled up or down. In either case, the appropriate units will be placed, the recipients familiarized with their operation and maintenance, and the progress of the demonstration followed by XXXX and AF&T. When appropriate, testimonials will be solicited and individual results documented.
We will manufacture these units in Serbia by contracting for the basic structure of the system and by importing some of the other components including the filters, the ozonation system, and other components. Final assembly will be performed by contracted skilled labor.
Phase Two
After the introduction and demonstration of these systems in Phase One, we propose to set up one or more Serbian-owned licensed manufacturers of these systems to perform the full manufacturing operation and to work with these manufacturers to promote widespread adoption of the systems in increasingly larger communities. Since the technology we will introduce is scalable from the household to the small community level, this will be a seamless transition, designed to gain acceptance and endorsement at each step before the next step is taken. Ultimately we propose to transition to a second technology designed to stop a major source of water pollution, the under-treatment or lack of treatment of municipal sewage wastes, which will be described in a second briefing paper; one better adapted to function at the level of larger communities, but founded on the success of these smaller systems.
We believe that this entry strategy, beginning with a low-cost, low-maintenance, individually-operated technology represents a long term, if ultimately only an interim solution to the problem of supplying clean drinking and cooking water to the hundreds of small villages and larger towns in Northern Serbia currently suffering severe health and quality of life issues due to the failures of past decades of environmental management, that will take additional decades to remediate.
Both the surface and ground water in the Vojvodina region of Serbia are so heavily contaminated with human and animal faecal matter, naturally-occurring mineralization including a range of toxic compounds, and petrochemical/industrial waste that in many of the major towns and most of the surrounding villages (with shallow wells) the water is literally unsafe for drinking and cooking purposes, and is a particular hazard when used to prepare formula for infants or food for children. In many locations public water supplies as well as private wells are also a health hazard for bathing and for use on crops. (See Appendix 1 for details)
The systems that we will begin with are sized to process sufficient contaminated water to produce 500 Litres of pure high quality drinking water/day. They require no operator attention, and owner-maintenance is minimal. The same is true of any scaled-up larger systems that we may elect to supply to selected in-town locations.
This water purification system, designed and manufactured by XXXX is specifically designed to operate without external power, in conditions of very poor water quality, with a long working life, and the system has low maintenance requirements. Manufacturers of the filtration and oxidation components of the system certify the ability of the system, designed to operate entirely “off the grid”*, to remove 100% of particulate matter and to eliminate 100% of bacteria, protozoa and viruses that are the primary concern of Serbian health authorities water, along with a wide range of common organic toxins like arsenic and lead, which are ubiquitous in the groundwater of Northern Serbia, as well as a wide range of industrial chemicals that are present as a result of decades of mismanagement in the chemical and petroleum industries both in Northern Serbia and up-aquifer from Northern Serbia in Romania. (See Appendix 2 for details)
*The “Off-Grid DC power is supplied by a small solar array; however, an AC power connection wired for the specific needs of local power users can also be integrated into any system.
These initial villages and in-town locations will be selected in order to provide as wide a cross-section as possible of potential system users in multiple locations and under multiple sets of operating conditions. Because the systems will be provided to this initial group at no cost, the quid pro quo will be their participation in a detailed study of the impact of the availability of pure water on their business.
Phase Three
Once these initial users experience the improvement in the quality and heath benefits of clean, filtered water, AF&T, APF and FLAG International will leverage that initial acceptance to make these systems more broadly available by partnering with one or more micro-lending organizations to provide a wide range residents, businesses, institutions and farms with affordable access to pure water.
Once initial acceptance of the system is established, AF&T, XXXX will identify an in-country organization such as a cooperative or non-profit organization that includes women in its leadership and membership and empower that organization to become the licensed manufacturer of this system for Serbia. AF&T, XXXX will provide business start-up and development services for the selected organization(s) as well as ongoing mentoring services. This business will generate revenues from both sales and leasing, and will generate recurring revenues from providing regular annual system maintenance and providing parts for system owners to do their own maintenance. All parties to the program will work to ensure that there is a smooth flow of the needed parts to the in-country manufacturer, distributor, and maintenance provider for the network of larger water purification systems.
We believe that because residents of many if not most towns and villages in the Vojvodina region and elsewhere in Serbia must currently purchase potable water that cash flow can, if we and our Serbian partners approach our demonstration and marketing jobs properly, be diverted to the lease/purchase of in-home and in-business water filtration systems at no net additional expense for most people. Further, with its ability to generate 500 litres/day of pure, potable water that would in a few days make the monthly payment on a household system, many people will understand that ownership of a system will mean a net gain in their access to clean, multi-use water and not simply a one-for-one exchange from purchased drinking water.
AF&T and XXXX will enter into the appropriate agreements with XXXX to provide a continuing supply of all parts for the system, as well as all required technical and management training to enable the selected organization to become a sustainable business. Since multiple systems are part of the available technology, from small household systems to institutional and community-sized systems, this will be a significant business opportunity for the selected group.
In addition to establishing a micro-lending relationship to enable consumer and business purchase of these systems, we will also begin a CrowdSourcing funding effort to raise funds to underwrite the purchase of these systems by individual families who cannot afford even a micro-loan purchase. A second important focus of the CrowdSourcing initiative will be to provide funds to underwrite the acquisition of larger community-sized systems in those situations where purchase of such a system would be an impediment.
Three organizations are entering into this proposal. The developer and owner of world rights to the system is XXXX with headquarters in XXXX and manufacturing facilities in China PRC. XXXX will manufacture and provide the initial systems for this program, with funding for the initial acquisition provided by UNDP. This will enable the program to place a number of these systems in the hands of selected Phase One Demonstration Villages and towns without the need for financial commitment on their part.
XXXX the manufacturer and system integrator, will utilize the internet to work with AF&T and XXXX, both on the ground in Serbia, to provide technical consulting services to trainers and adopters throughout the program as needed. XXXX may decide take on additional roles in the project, which will be determined by discussions between all principals involved.
XXXX will provide Alternative Fuels & Technologies of Rollingsford, New Hampshire (AF&T), with an exclusive license to represent their products in Serbia. AF&T and XXXX will coordinate with in-country NGO’s that may want to utilize these water filtration systems in their own programs. AF&T and XXXX will also have primary responsibility for initiating replication of the program in other developing countries that UNDP designates as market targets, coordinating at every step with XXXX and as well as UNDP.
As mentioned above, as a condition of receiving the systems and training in their use at no cost village and town residents and operators of small businesses such as cafes in the villages and towns, will have to agree to participate in detailed follow-up studies designed to document the value of these systems to the end-users both in terms of increased household health, improved taste of the water, improved cooking results when using the water, improved taste of brewed beverages such as tea and coffee, and other benefits that they may enjoy, such as healthier animals and better results in household gardens. By documenting this information, coming from people who have been selected because their problems and their environment are representative of hundreds of similar communities, support for the roll-out of the system on both commercial and philanthropic levels will be enhanced.
After this initial stage, the roll-out of additional systems will be market driven through purchases and, to the extent possible, through CrowdSourced funding rather than through UNDP underwriting. Once the value of these systems has been demonstrated by the reactions of the initial users and their customers, we believe that others will want to have these systems, both for commercial and household purposes, and we will be prepared to facilitate that demand through our arrangements with micro-lending NGOs as well as through our CrowdSourcing program.
The initial selection and training of Serbian manufacturing partners on the ground in Serbia will be conducted by AF&T and XXXXwho will also be the leads in providing technical and management training for the selected in-country manufacturing organization. XXXX will provide AF&T with the necessary licensing agreements for in-country manufacturing, and will maintain the component supply chain to service the manufacturing organization. XXXX will have primary responsibility for follow-up and evaluation of the initial “demonstration village & town” stage of the program, as well as the roll-out to other end-users. This will include surveying system users to determine their level of satisfaction with the benefits to their families, as well as providing reports on the performance of the systems under the range of conditions in which the systems will be functioning.
AF&T, XXXX and XXXXwill also coordinate with in-country NGO’s that may want to utilize these water purification systems in their own programs. AF&T will also have primary responsibility for initiating replication of the program in other developing countries that UNDP designates as market targets, coordinating at every step with XXXXand XXXX as well as UNDP.
How XXXX Will Support In-Country Manufacturing
The XXXX System has been engineered to allow a progressive manufacturing/assembly ramp using a mix of in-country and imported components. Simple manufacturing processes and techniques can be employed to produce the in-country components within the allowable specifications which ensures proper operation of the overall system once assembled. Not only will this promote direct involvement by the local manufacturing base thereby stimulating the economy in a sustainable way through a recurring revenue model, it provides the region with a sense of ownership within the products they are using.
XXXX will support this initial introduction of key component manufacturing into the local economy by providing AF&T with the necessary engineering drawings and specifications, and by working with XXXX trainers to ensure full technology transfer. XXXX will also work with AF&T and UNDP to qualify the manufacturing company personnel in the production of the appropriate components and the integration of outside-sourced components. Additional training in the areas of assembly technique, quality control, and materials management can conducted in association with XXXX’s trainers.
The initial manufacturing will task will be to produce the plastic collection and holding tanks along with their supporting structure. The holding tanks are typically a plastic molded component and require the services of at least a single molding factory as well as several supporting factories associated with the construction of the necessary mold and the molds maintenance. These tanks are simple molds, well within the capability of a small plastics container manufacturer in a developing country. In addition to sourcing the tanks, the in-country manufacturer will coordinate with AF&T and XXXX to set up a JIT system of shipping the critical parts for the system to the assembly/manufacturing facility. In addition to manufacturing/assembly of systems this facility can serve as a distribution center as well as a parts and maintenance warehouse.
Production of the supporting structure for the tanks requires common low-technology manufacturing practices for metal structural fabrication. XXXX will supply AF&T with engineering drawings to support the local effort to fabricate a ridged structure capable of supporting the holding tanks in their operating condition. Additional support for sustainability includes assistance in materials and components development, and assistance with shipping and installation, both available as needed for the development of the local manufacturing and service capability.
SYSTEM COSTS AND BENEFITS
A core purpose of our proposed demonstration is to document that given the nature of the contaminants in both surface a ground water, and the hazardous nature of many public water supply systems in Vojvodina, an approach that focuses on providing small-scale distributed technology for removing almost all known contaminants (See Appendix 1) at an initial cost of @ $125/person for a system with a 10-20 year working life and annual maintenance/replacement parts cost of @ $25/person is far cheaper than a high technology, single system to provide safe water for an entire community at a cost of millions. In addition, with a single system, failure of the system puts the whole community at risk; whereas with a highly decentralized system of units each providing pure water for 50 people/day, failures (if they did occur) would affect only small clusters of people and could be addressed effectively within 24 hours by simply replacing the failed part or the whole system.
As it turns out we do have a way to estimate the value of the benefits of access to safe, clean, good-tasting drinking, brewing and cooking water in Vojvodina. In an 80 page, highly detailed 2004 study by Radmilo Pešic and Jochem Jantzen of TME, The Institute for Applied Environmental Economics, University of Belgrade, College of Agriculture, Dept. of Agricultural Economics entitled “Assessment Of The Economic Value Of Environmental Degradation In Serbia”, we find in-depth documentation of the costs of many different kinds of environmental pollution, including several chapters on the costs of the economic damage of water pollution.
The analysis is sophisticated and complex, and we will not attempt to present all the findings here. However, a few selected quotes are relevant to the issue of the potential acceptance of the benefits of the approach that we are proposing.
“ 4.4.1 Introduction
Especially in Vojvodina groundwater resources are depleted due to overexploitation and pollution.
Therefore, in many cases groundwater cannot anymore be withdrawn from the first aquifer, but
need to be withdrawn from deeper aquifers.
This is not only a loss of resources, but also poses a (drinking)water quality problem, as the
concentrations of Arsenic are elevated (in 22% of samples). Also Mercury (47% of samples) and
Cadmium (25% of samples) show concentrations above standards. So the second aquifer is not
always well suited to produce drinking water (but also using it for irrigation will lead in the long
term to accumulation of heavy metals in soils and the food chain).
“ 4.4.2 Methodology
To value this damage to the groundwater resources an estimate has been made of the amount of
water that cannot anymore be withdrawn from the first aquifer, and the price of production of
drinking water has been applied to this.
“ 4.4.3 Estimated damage to groundwater resources in Vojvodina
The total amount of groundwater that is affected is estimated as follows:
– the total annual groundwater extraction in Vojvodina (6 m3/second), which results in an
annual production of 189 million cubic meters;
– 57% of groundwater needs to withdrawn from the second aquifer;
– this results in a total annual loss of groundwater resources from the first aquifer of 107 million
cubic meter water annually.
The cost of production of (high quality) drinking water is not precisely known. Therefore, we have
taken the price of water in Belgrade for consumers7 as an indication of the minimum damage
value, being € 0.30 per cubic meter (20 dinars). The high estimate is estimated to be 2 times
higher, € 0.60 per cubic meter (which is still less than 50% of the unit costs as estimated by TME
for the Netherlands (see annex 2))
This results in an annual estimated damage due to the depletion of groundwater resources in
Vojvodina of at least € 32.4 million annually, and a maximal damage of € 64.7 million.
As we were only able to assess damages in Vojvodina, it can be anticipated that the total damage
to groundwater resources in Serbia will be larger
“ 4.6 Alternative approach to assess the damages of water pollution in Serbia
As we have applied a different methodology than in the study on the “Benefits of the
environmental acquis for Accession countries” (Ecotec, 2000), it is interesting to see how our
estimate would compare to an estimate using the Ëcotec” methodology (see for detailed
description of the Ecotec methodology, Ecotec, 2000, p. 173 – 193). This method tries to link
results of Willingness to Pay studies in various countries to the Central and Eastern European
Countries. As it assesses the Willingness to Pay for improvements (but no total abolishment of
pollution) results do not necessarily reflect the total damage of depleted water quality.
In the Ecotec approach three types of benefits of water management have to be assessed:
– to drinking water;
– to recreational use of water;
– to non user value of rivers and lakes.
The Willingness to Pay for improved (high quality) water supply is estimated by taking average
UK and US WTP-figures (per household € 25 – € 650 per year), apply a PPP correction (resulting
in € 3,38 – € 60 per household per year for Serbia), and estimate the share of the affected
households (25% in Serbia, 623,000). This results in total annual benefits of € 2.1 million to € 71.4
million.”
NOTE: This analysis concerns the “Willingness To Pay” for environmental initiatives to improve the water supply, not the amount that residents of Vojvodina might be willing to pay for personal access to clean, unpolluted drinking water. However the entire study, only a small portion of which is cited above, makes it clear that there is a virtually universal awareness of the poor and even hazardous quality of water in Vojvodina, which bodes well for the acceptance of our approach and our technology once it has been effectively demonstrated and understood.
APPENDIX ONE: THE TALE OF ONE TOWN & SURROUNDING VILLAGES
Zrenjanin, Serbia, is located in the eastern Vojvodina region of Northern Serbia. It is a pretty town of @ 73,000 people in the town proper, with a population of @ 123,000 when considering the surrounding dozens of small villages. It is the 3rd largest town in Vojvodina, and the 6th largest ton in Serbia.
The number of households according to the (most recent available) census in 2002, is 46,375, while in the town alone there are about 35,000 of them. Average number of household members, according to the same census, in the municipality as a whole, is 2.99 and in the town itself 2.78. Most numerous are those households which have 4 members – 11,568. Total number of apartments in Zrenjanin Municipality is about 33,000. According to these numbers, which may be outdated but which appear from other indicators not to have changed very much, a large majority of the households in Zrenjanin are apartment-dwellers. Of 35,000 households there are 33,000 apartments, and of 35,000 households there are 11,568 with 4 (or more) residents. A total of 4 or more residents in a household implies families with children.
In 2007 health authorities declared it illegal for residents to drink the water from the Zrenjanin municipal system. Zrenjanin is only one of a number of Serbian towns whose water has been declared illegal for humans to consume – others include Melene, Elemic, Taras, Aradac and Klek. (NOTE: Our plan is to address this broad issue by identifying one or two villages in the municipal area surrounding each of these towns and then to work from the periphery toward the center once the household technology has proven itself affordable and effective.)
In the introduction to a 213 page planning document “Municipality Of Zrenjanin: Sustainable Development Strategy With Action Plan Of Realization For 2006-2008”, the major had this to say to the citizens:
“This document is a long- term projection of the development of our Municipality, with a vision of Zrenjanin Municipality as it should be in 2013.”
“Our wish is that, starting from what we are, our values and advantages, we ourselves create conditions for a sustainable development of Zrenjanin, our villages and local government according to our needs.”
“Our common need is to live a nicer, better and safer life. To have, as many carefree children, as possible. To create conditions for elderly people to live decently out of their pensions, because they had deserved that .To give jobs to all unemployed people. To make factory workshops full again and to produce more and more. To give good earnings to the employed, so that they can satisfy their own needs and the needs of their families. To supply our citizens with healthy drinking water. To preserve nature at Carska Bara and to make good use of it in sustainable way. To attract more and more tourists, because we have things to offer. To improve life in the country. To reconstruct old and build new roads and residential buildings. To finish a detour and to displace transit traffic out of the town center. To make our Municipality the most beautiful and the cleanest in Vojvodina. To turn problems with waste materials into a serious project. To bring back life into the Begej and to filter all waste water.”
There is a long history of attempts by both domestic and foreign engineering firms to develop solutions for the delivery of quality water to the town of Zrenjanin ( see pp. 50-52 of planning document). All have failed, each for its own reasons. Sometimes the technology was inadequate to deal with the challenging chemistry of the water, and sometimes the solution worked but was too expansive and unsustainable.
There are 17 villages within the boundaries of Zrenjanin municipality, and every one has longstanding unsolved water quality issues. (NOTE: Our proposal is to begin by addressing the water problem in one or two of these villages rather than beginning with the municipality itself.)
A few excerpts from the 2005 planning document illustrate the nature and depth of the water quality problem facing Zrenjanin and the surrounding villages.
“ Dominant types of polluting matters that endanger the quality of ground waters correspond to the dominant economic activities (grouped and scattered polluters) performed on the territory of our Municipality, therefore it could be concluded that in the ground waters the traces of both present and past economic activities may be found, through cooling, sanitary and technological waters, i.e. various kinds of organic an inorganic matters, suspended and mechanical particles, hard metals, detergents, colours, solvents, pesticides etc.The pollution of ground waters due to the fecal sewage system waters is not to be neglected since Aleksandrovo canal shows the large concentrations of pollution and total inability of self-cleaning.” (page 99)
“When it comes to the issue of the quality of drinking water which is used for the supplying of Zrenjanin, it should be said that this water has exceptionally complex physical-chemical composition. The consequence of this is that the quality of deep waters of the North and Middle Banat has never met many of the criteria of the Regulations of Hygienic standards of drinking water.
“According to the findings of the Department of Health Care, during a continual one year monitoring 2002/2003 and also later up to now, it was concluded that drinking water used in Zrenjanin does not satisfy hygienic standards due to its physical-chemical characteristics, i.e.
Inappropriate organoleptic features (colour, smell, taste),
A high content of resolved salts,
A high content of organic materia,
The increased levels of ammoniac, manganese, iron and arsine.
“Microbiological indicators correspond to the analyses performed so far because the percentage of the analyses with unsatisfying findings is between 15-25%. The most frequent causes of this low quality are saprophytes bacteria. The characteristics of water supply pipes, the way of disinfection, together with specific water supplying all result in the above mentioned microbiologically unsatisfying results.” (page 97)
As mentioned above, there have been decades of failed attempts to solve these problems on a grand scale, but never before – to the best of our knowledge – has the “micro-approach” that we propose been tried, nor have any of the past projects incorporated an in-country manufacturing, distribution and sales component that benefits the economy of the region and the country as a whole. For these reasons we believe that, in spite of a long and disappointing history of outside firms coming into their community with proposed solutions, the leadership and people of the communities where we propose to begin may be willing to give this approach a try. Our guess is that they really have no other effective options before them.
It may be useful to review what the planners and authorities in one Serbian town, Zrenjanin, see as the history of failure of “big water” projects in their community, on the assumption that many if not most Serbian communities will have a similar story to tell, and a similar legacy for us to overcome. The following passages come from pages 50-52 of the planning document “Municipality Of Zrenjanin: Sustainable Development Strategy With Action Plan Of Realization For 2006-2008”
“The first research projects at discovering suitable technology for acquiring drinking water of good quality, were started in 1975 by the Slovenian firm “SOP KRŠKO“ together with the Austrian firm “Owerhof“ from Vienna.
“Research activities at the “pilot “ continued for almost three years, but suggested solution required a very large consumption of chemicals, so that it did not get the consent from the Revision Board from the School of Civil Engineering in Belgrade, and this technology was given up.
“The second “pilot research” was done by the French firm “DEGREMON” from Paris in 1981. According to suggested technology, the following phases of water treatment were anticipated: aeration, pre-ozoning, flocculation at pulsators, sand filtration, ozoning, filtration at active carbon, reservoir of clean water.
“This technological solution got the consent from Revision Board from the School of Civil Engineering in Belgrade and they got down to work on the conceptional project and on the main project titled Plants for drinking water processing. This job was done by the Institute for waterpower engineering “Jaroslav Černi “ from Belgrade. During the drawing up of the main project and acquiring all approvals from Zrenjanin Municipal Assembly, the decision was made on forming «a water factory in construction» and the Assembly got down to work on the realization of this project: a lot was bought up, a fence was put up around the construction site, a choice concerning the equipment suppliers was made,etc..
“Due to current political turmoils in the state in 1989, Zrenjanin Municipal Assembly made a decision on terminating “ water factory in construction “ and all activities concerning this project were stopped.
“In September of 2002, the first pilot research was started after 13 years in order to check out what could be acquired by application of new technologies in drinking water refining (membrane technologies are). “UNIVERSAL AQUA TECHNOLOGY “ through Belgrade firm “AQUA INTERMA “, put up its “pilot“ plant and on the basis on the plant’s work, during the period of about a month, and on testing filtration on membranes for reverse osmosis and nanofiltration, with primary chemically treated ground and river water ( at “ Jezera “ ), they submitted their work report. It was obvious out of this report that by using membrane technology we could get water of expected quality, but the quantity of waste water was very large, about 30%, so that such a solution would be, for sure, very expensive for us at the present moment ( although economic proposal had not been written) because, besides the technological solution, works should be also done on an increase of water source capacity by 50%.
“In January of 2003, a German-Hungarian firm “Waterlink “installed its “pilot plant “( Dunasend filter – san filter in constant motion). The plant, which at several places in Hungary gave good solutions in removing iron, arsenic and organic substances out from water, used FeCl3 – Ferro III chloride, KMnO4 – potassium permanganate and compressed air in the refining process. By the application of this technology, arsenic was successfully removed from water, but the concentration of iron and organic substances was still high, and water turbidity was increased compared to raw water. All of that could be read in the results from acquired chemical analysis. Final report on functioning of this system was not received, so that further research by the use of this technology was canceled.
“In May and June of 2003, an Italian firm “CULLIGAN “, through Belgrade firm “Landcompany“, installed its “pilot plant” with three fast sand filters which worked under pressure using FeCl3 and Al2(SO4)3 as flocculants and correction of water pH- value. In a month of work they did not succeed in getting appropriate quality of water. Given explanation was that they needed additional equipment which they would bring during summer break, but instead of that, they took away their dosage pumps. The research was not continued, three sand filters remained behind and the final report on the work of this plant was never submitted.
“By the end of January 2004, Hungarian-Canadian «ZENON» installed its container type pilot – plant (with chemical pretreatment and membrane vacuum filtration). Researches were conducted till the end of April 2004, but as they did not get expected results regarding removal of organic substances and ammonia, this «pilot» was replaced by another «pilot» which consisted of two units connected in a line. In the first part, water pH value was corrected by HCl to pH 5.5 – 6.5 together with addition of «BOPAC» (polyaluminiumchloride) as the flocculation substance. After the floccule sedimentation, water was filtered by ZeeWeed membranes (vacuum nanofiltration). Then, the air was blown into water obtained in such a way and water was sent into the next unit where the second flocculation took place with the help of 1% solution of KMnO4 and 10% solution of FeCl3. After the flocks were settled, for the second time water was filtered through ZeeWeed membranes, so that in the end we get water with very small contents of organic substances (KMnO4 expense 2 – 3 mg/l), water is without arsenic As and iron Fe, which are below the allowed limit, but chlorides are extremely increased – over 400 mg/l although in raw water there is only 30 mg/l of them. At the same time there is an increase in electrical conductivity so that at that moment it was about 1800 μS/cm, although in unprocessed water it was 1200 μS/cm. By this procedure the quantity of ammonia in water was still unchanged, as well as the quantity of sodium Na, although these elements were also found in unprocessed water in the quantity that was over maximum allowed quantity.
“A Slovakian firm «ENERGO CONTROLS» s.r.o, Žilina, brought its pilot – plant which was in function from July till the end of November 2004. Very specific technology, only recently introduced into the process of water refining in Germany and Slovakia (it is applied mostly in a few built systems for waste waters refining ). Process was marked as «electrical – flocculation» during which unprocessed water was led into the line formed by iron and aluminum electrodes, fed with direct current of 12 V, but of very high amperage (about 250 A). After water and electrodes were in contact from 5 to 20 minutes, water with formed floccules was sent to lamellar settling device where flocs in the form of mud went out and supernatant was driven over Kaligen’s filter with active carbon. After that, NaOCl (Javel water 2%)was added to water by dosage pump, and then it flew through quick sand filter, and as clean water flew out of the system. It was very hard to do optimization of this procedure, regarding inexperience in the work with such technology, because it happened that while adjusting work on one parameter, the other one immediately «sprang » out of balance.
“ATN – SLAP, patent by Branko Stančević, worked in the period from August till November 2004. The system was made of 3 vertical columns filled with patented filler (most probably the combination of zeolites, tuff, active carbon, quartz sand, etc.). Water flew through them, then it passed over three cascades and went out.
This plant did not give results that patent proposer expected. This system did only partial removal of Fe, Mn, NH3, As for about 30%. After a month of work, about 10 filtering units with same fillers were added, but results remained on the same level. Although water went through these filters, it still had almost all components above MAQ, as well as unprocessed water (organic substance was completely unchanged), so that they had almost no effect on the refining of our water.
“HIDROFIL KFT – NAĐ KANJIŽA, worked in the period from the month of May till November 2004. In the process of water refining this firm used nanofiltration or reversible osmosis, together with application of different columns with very specific fillers for prefiltration or additional filtration (columns were manufactured by «PENTAIR» – USA). Several different variants were tested, but in the end, with mutual consent, it was agreed that the best results were achieved when the following procedure was applied: deferrization – nanofiltration –ion-exchanging column – clear water. System worked all the time in a way that about 600 l/h of unprocessed water entered, and about 500 l/h of clean water exited it. Water was of very standardized and equalized quality. Waste water made 20% of total quantity of water that entered the system and there were attempts to refine it on reversible osmosis, so that total quantity of waste water came to less then 2 – 3 %. Entry waste water was under big chemical encumbrance and its direct application to RO had series of defects (necessary high pressure, inadequate membrane washing, unequalized water inflow), and the consequence was cracking of one of RO membranes, so that further research of waste water processing in that way, was given up.
“HP INSTITUTE FOR GENERAL AND PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY – BELGRADE, started its operations in the month of May 2004. At the beginning of May this Institute organized a pilot research in the residential place of Elemir, where they brought a pilot – plant, constructed especially for this research. System consisted of flocculation procedure with FeCl3 and polyelectrolyte, where, when water was settled, released floc went through the filter filled with «specially activated anthracite». With lots of difficulties concerning establishing full automatization in the work of this system, it was not before September that first results were received, but a continous work of 24 hours a day was not established until today.
“LINDE – DREZDEN, GERMANY, was working from 20.07.2004 till spring 2005. That was a pilot – system of container type that consisted of classical chemical water pretreatment with different flocculants and plyelectrolytes. Mixing with different chemical substances could be achieved in 4 smaller pools and in that way flocs, that should settle in a settling device, could be produced. After water had been «calmed» in two pools, it was filtered through sand filter, and then a part of it, with the help of high pressure pump, went through RO membranes, so that produced clear water was mixed with water acquired after the process of filtration through sand filter until «mixed water» was attained with electrical conductivity of about 900 μS/cm, that should represent water of the quality used by the consumers. One additional filtering column was introduced subsequently, with the filler of granulated active carbon (GAC) – of «NORIT» brand, and there, water was driven over GAC, after it had been through sand filter, in order to compare results got from these columns with the results from RO. “
Since the planning document is from 2005-2006 we have no current information regarding approaches that have been tried since, but our on-the-ground information is that the problems that Zrenjanin and its surrounding villages faced when this document was crafted remain pretty much unresolved. That is why we believe that an approach that is the opposite of all the failed projects before, including starting with the lowest denominator – the person at the household faucet drawing a glass of drinking water or a pot of water for tea – will prove to be the way forward to a sustainable solution on a larger scale, a solution for the whole community and for communities like Zrenjanin across Serbia.
APPENDIX TWO: Water Filtration Performance Metrics
Performance Data on Stage 1 Gravity-Fed Ceramic Filters In XXXX Systems
Stage 1 Ceramic Filter Performance
Stage 1 – Bacteria Eliminated
E. Coli – all strains
> 99.99
Type Of Treatment
Ceramic Filtration
Fecal Bacteria – all strains
> 99.99%
Filter Effective Life – Medium Serv.
12 Months
Salmonella
> 99.999 %
Working Temperatures
5-42oC
Cholera
> 99.99 %
Klebsiella
> 99.999 %
NSE Approved
Yes
Shigella
> 99.999 %
WRAS Approved
Yes
Cryptosporidium Cysts
100%
Giardia Cysts
100%
Particulate Reduction To NSF Standard 42
Yes
Lead Reduction To NSF Standard 53
Yes
Chlorine Reduction To NSF Standard 42
Yes
Turbidity Tolerance
<1.0 NTU
Absolute Filtration Level
0.9 Microns
Effective Ceramic Filter Rating >99.99%
0.5 – 0.8 Microns
Effective Ceramic Filter Rating >99.7%
0.3 – 0.5 Microns
Effective Ceramic Filter Rating >98.0%
0.2 – 0.3 Microns
Performance Data On Stage 2 stand-alone DC Solar-Cell (With AC option) Powered O3 Oxidation Treatment Used In AquaPureTechnologies Systems
Stage 2 – Oxidation Of Organics
Organics Oxidized & Eliminated
Rate Of Oxidation
Type of Treatment
O3 Oxidation
Algae – Blue & Green
Slow
Bacteria – All
Fast
Treatment Cycle
30 Minutes
E. coli – all
Fast
Diffuser Replacement
12 Months
Micrococcus – All
Rapid
O3 Oxidizer Replacement
12 Months
salmonella – All
Fast
Shingella – Dysentry
Rapid
Working Temperature
5-45 oC
Fungi, Molds, Yeasts
Slow
Operational pH Range
< 9.0
Nematodes
Slow
Protozoa
Slow
GMP_Approved By FDA For Bottled Water Sanitation
Yes
Giardia
Slow
IBWA Approval
Yes
Microsporidium
Rapid
Antimicrobial Food Additive Approval By USDA National Organic Program
I’ve been thinking, as I imagine many people have – how it is possible for so many breathtakingly stupid people to inhabit so many positions of power and influence worldwide?
I think I have the answer – maybe we all measure “smart” the wrong way.
Let’s say a group of scientists puts together a list of everything involved in being Smart. A Scale of Smart. And then let’s say (isn’t this fun?) that those scientists are somehow able to rank-order all 7 Billion humans on this planet using their Scale of Smart. Maybe NSA could help. They are probably already doing something like this anyway.
So once the data is crunched, somewhere on the planet there would be one person who was #1 on the Scale of Smart. The smartest person. Lots of people would assume that this was them, but of course there can be only one. So we would have a lot of pissing contests. And also of course, somewhere there would be one person with the crushing burden of 7 Billion+ smarter people sitting on top of them. Poor soul. It probably wouldn’t even occur to them. Carry on little friend.
Some other interesting ideas flow from this totally imaginary but eminently possible “Scale of Smart”.
At least half the people in the world are going to have average smarts, or less. One quarter are going to be profoundly stupid. At first glance, it might be natural to expect that people so low on the Scale of Smarts would be easy to identify. After all, they do seem to be on the road 24/7 – that should make it easy.
But, are we really talking about Billions of people walking (or driving) around actually looking stupid?
Perhaps in at least some cases, yes. Gently setting aside those in whom the human genetic code has simply failed, and who are obviously stupid, there are also those people who are unfortunate enough to be born or raised in circumstances that cause them to be stupid, regardless of what they may look like.
One way unfortunates on the lower 25% of the Scale of Smarts can NOT be identified is by observing them do the same stupid things over and over. That behavior is universally human, up and down the Scale of Smarts, and is not a good way to zero in, if you wish, on the poor souls in the lower regions behaving stupidly. Everybody does it.
However, there is a group on the lower end of the Scale of Smarts who we all know. We see many of them every day, both in person and on the media. I’m talking about truly stupid people who don’t obviously look stupid. They are effectively disguised, usually because they have a lot of money, and lots of hired help to keep them from looking stupid. It is common everyday observation that an amazing number of truly stupid but wealthy people inhabit the top echelons of society and control everything. Business. Corporate. Military. Banking. Religious. Philanthropic. Social Service. Education. Government.
And the rest of us shake our heads and wonder what the fuck is going on.
I think I have the answer. Maybe it’s this simple. Maybe whoever constructed the Scale of Smart forgot to include low cunning.
Because if low cunning were included in the Scale of Smart none of these people would ever have been classified in the lower 25%. No way. Yes, they are stupid in every other way, The Scale of Smarts isn’t wrong. It’s just that they’re really, really cunning, and it is the lowest form of cunning, so they don’t need to be smart in any other way. If they are excellent at being low cunning that’s all they need.
For these people, being stupid on the Scale of Smart actually helps. They don’t have any sort of higher self to get in the way, and it never occurs to them that what they are doing in life may be causing other people pain and suffering.
There are probably a few other omissions by the creators of the Scale of Smart, but they all relate to cunning. Certain mental pathologies, for example, allow extremely stupid people to rise to positions of power and wealth, but it is through psychotic cunning. Inherited wealth makes it easy for stupid people to automatically assume positions of power and influence or simply consume in grand style, all unrelated to their actual position on the Scale of Smart. With enough money, of course, you don’t even need cunning yourself. There are plenty of cunning people for hire.
The point I’m trying to make here? There seems to be an algae-like bloom of stupidity in our society these days. It’s everywhere. But let’s not underestimate the destructive power of truly stupid people just because they meet all the obvious criteria on the Scale of Stupid. No matter how wealthy or powerful they are, or how many idiotic things they do (or tweet).
Let’s not forget that they are cunning, and that’s all it really takes. Smarts are a dime a dozen, and so is wealth. But low cunning – that’s the key to real destructive power.
When the British decided to use Opium as a stealth weapon to coerce China into making obscene trade concessions, their simple strategy was to distribute free Indian Opium and addict a vulnerable Chinese population that was ripe and ready. The British knew that by addicting the population with virtually free opium they could manipulate the entire society and dictate one-sided trade terms to the country’s leaders and merchant classes.
This strategy worked beautifully because it targeted tens of millions of Chinese people who had no hope, no work, no health, no energy, no future, no home, and no reason to live. Opium made all that misery go away, and even though the misery only went away inside the Opium smoker’s mind, and the world outside was still as mean and harsh as before, with a bit of Opium smoke that painful world could still be banished at least for a few blessed hours.
It didn’t matter to the Opium smoker that he had to lay his body down in filth, that he had no food, that he had no family or community, and that he was surely dying. It didn’t matter that there was no hope. Opium replaced all that emptiness with a dream world that was pleasant and desirable. It was as good as having hope, at least while it lasted.
That was the fate of tens of millions of people subjected to the first “Opioid Epidemic” in history, which was actually not a disease but a strategic weapon wielded by one of the most evil empires the world has known. Today this same hopelessness is the fate of millions of Americans, and the forces that degraded the lives of generations of Chinese are daily reality for millions of Americans.
If this hopelessness were not a fact of life for tens of millions of Americans we would not have an “Opioid Epidemic.” Talking heads want to place the blame for the Opioid Epidemic on doctors who over-prescribe, on predatory drug manufacturers, on criminal drug cartels – everywhere but where the real cause lies. Americans are addicted to Opioids by the tens of millions because life in America is hopeless for so many.
The “Opioid Epidemic” is tragically simple – it is millions of Americans expressing in their behavior what is rapidly becoming a very widespread, perhaps a majority conviction that life is simply not worth living in this country anymore.
The reasons why life is so horrible that people no longer care are not hard to find; what is hard to find is any discussion of how to address the Opioid Epidemic by somehow giving people a reason to want to live. The reason that is so hard is because it is impossible to “give” people a reason to want to live – they have to find it themselves, and if it is nowhere to be found, then it is game over.
We can all see why life is hopeless for so many people in America today.
Millions are “homeless”. The banks have tossed literally millions of families under the highway bridges. Many millions more who technically have a home are trapped in living conditions that can scarcely be called home. Then, at the end of our lives, the “homes” that we are condemned to would fit right into a Charles Dickens novel. Quite simply, there are very few people who have anything that could be called a home in the so-called “American Homeland”.
Tens of millions have only toxic “choices” for food, water, and living conditions. Much of what we eat does not nourish us, but makes us gradually, chronically sick instead. From the beginning of their lives to the end, people are never adequately nourished. This is a deliberate, industry-wide conspiracy fully abetted by government agencies and politicians. Healthy, energetic people with their full mental faculties are dangerous if you are running a vast conspiracy to exploit those same people. When they are chronically sick for unidentifiable reasons they are easy to manipulate.
Education is no longer a path to a better life. Schools are a sham – they don’t even do a good job of indoctrinating kids, much less teaching them to think. Many young people’s ability to spend a day in school learning anything of value, even if it were available, is compromised by widespread malnourishment, psychologically trauma, low self-esteem, mental deficiencies, sexual exploitation, and inability to form and hold even simple thoughts in their deliberately scrambled brains. Those young people who somehow grow up relatively unscathed and who buy into the idea of progress through education are, at the end, cruelly victimized. Many young people see the scam early, and realize that school is leading nowhere for them, and they drop out. The streets are waiting for them. So are the “movements”.
There is no “care” in health care, nor any health either. Tens of millions of Americans are so chronically sick that they can barely make it through the day, and when they do get to see a doctor they are “treated” in ways that make them sicker, increases their dependence on “medicines”, and makes their life even more unbearable. “Health Care” is run almost like a Nazi concentration camp – squeeze the victims for everything they have, experiment on them, prevent them from escaping until you have “done everything you can”, then simply replace them with another from the endless line of already prepped victims.
Wealth can be acquired only by cheating, stealing, betraying, lying and murdering – there are virtually no good honorable people with wealth. The idea of saving for the future is a complete con. Governments at all levels run the lottery scam knowing that people will spend their money on tickets because “winning” is the only way they will ever be anything but poor. Selling a poor person a lottery ticket is morally equivalent to addicting them to opioids.
Technology is only inventing new versions of old ways of separating people from what little they have. Technology is not making life better – it is sucking up what little money people have by giving them gadgets that distract them from the realization that they are living a hopeless life. How many people living in absolute squalor have a big-screen TV that is used exclusively to sell them stories and products that sustain the illusion that they too can partake in a world of glamour and comfort?
Almost all of us have lost any spiritual faith we once had, and millions have sink into delusional thinking about omnipotent beings that watch over them and offer them the comfort that faith once gave them. As millions seek these delusional saviors, human vampires in thousand dollar suits with testosterone voices and coiffed white hair appear promising that they have special access to the powers of the gods and that they will share in return for money (it is always money) and that will convey that power to their suffering “flocks”.
People are blind, steaming angry, and they are taking it out on those nearest to them – their spouses and children, people who look different, people who they are propagandized into hating, but never on the evil ones who profit from their misery. The rise of the neo-Nazi movement stems directly from this pool of anger. Everybody in these “movements” is hating and attacking anyone less vulnerable than themselves, and to justify their behavior they see themselves as being constantly attacked by those more powerful.
People go passively to their graves every day, cursing impotently. The survivors mutter about the dead now being in a “better place”. I have heard many say that they would welcome an earth-destroying asteroid, or global nuclear war, and I believe them.
Professions that were once honorable are eviscerated and corrupted. Doctors, police, teachers – people instinctively know that these professions are no longer worthy of respect.
America the Beautiful is poisoned and dying. People actually joke about the “Rust Belt”. In fact, there is no such single, definable place. Everything, everywhere is rusting and falling apart. America is a rust belt.
It’s conventional to end a diatribe like this with a “But……” statement of how things might be changed, get better, become more hopeful. I can’t do that. I just don’t see it. I think we are at the end of the dream. The “cause” of the opioid epidemic, the hateful racism, the rampant corruption, the pathetic sexual grasping, and the routine, legalized criminal exploitation is that millions of people now, finally, realize that there is no longer any reason to dream of better days.
For tens of millions of Americans, without hope, the Opium cloud is the only place of comfort.
Dear Reader: I wrote the following words as the introduction to my book “Marijuana Foods” in 1982. For several years my life companion Lisle and I had been experimenting with Marijuana as a medicine and saw clearly that many sick people simply couldn’t stand the physical stress of inhaling smoke, even through a water pipe, which was the only smoking alternative back then. Not only that, but older people and non-smokers were almost completely cut off from the health benefits of Cannabis. Vaporizing technology was still decades away, and there was no such thing as the Internet for people to use to inform themselves.
So we did a lot of experimenting with extraction methods and food & beverage recipes – my wife is one of the world’s best cooks, especially when it comes to subtle things like balancing flavors and aromas – and I am gratified to see many of the ideas from this book showing up in the market today. I thought that I would share this “Marijuana Foods” introduction with you to show that the benefits of non-smoking alternative uses of Medical Marijuana have been a topic of conversation for a long time.
When I see all the great new ideas and new Cannabis products created to address every kind of health, happiness and quality of life issue in ways that Pig Pharma can’t touch, I love it that new generations of young people are finally making the Cannabis revolution so strong that it cannot be stopped. Rock On!
(from “Marijuana Foods”, Simon & Schuster, 1982: Chapter One)
Why Not?
Cannabis has been used for centuries as a medicine, and has held a central place as a natural healer and reliever in the pharmacy of societies around the world. America has yet to come to an appreciation of the medical usefulness of Marijuana large because of the successful maneuvers of the cigarette and alcohol industries to get a grip on both the political and the moral institutions of the country. It has been a classic maneuver, well executed and enormously successful, and it has taken over fifty years.
Frustrated in their attempt to impose a prohibition of alcohol on all of society, the forces of morality were quick to spot the far more productive target presented by Marijuana, used almost exclusively by the African-American people in the cities.
The powerful cigarette and alcohol industries saw this situation as an opportunity not to be missed. Knowing that it would be a mortal threat to their industries if Marijuana ever escaped into regular White society, because it would quickly supplant alcohol & cigarettes and couldn’t even become a profitable legal monopoly because it could be grown by anyone, they crafted a long-range strategy which after decades of work and the investment of billions of dollars has almost succeeded.
Moral outrage and self-righteous indignation at the distantly observed and perversely fantasized habits, behaviors and presumed moral degradation of poor people, especially minorities, has long been the habit of a certain breed of White people with withered souls. These people have historically tended to congregate in church-based prohibitionist movements. Recruiting and building this barely latent racism into a religiously sanctioned nationwide crusade against drugs was the strategy chosen by Marijuana’s adversaries.
In executing this simple strategy, the legal drug industries quietly aligned themselves with the forces of morality, feeding them with propaganda and funding, employing layers of sophisticated “foundations” to spare the moralists the pain of taking blood money, and together these evil sisters set out to rid America of (competitive) drugs.
Out of this strategy came the federal bureaucracy designed to “fight drugs” and deal criminally with the “drug problem” which the newspapers of the time defined in large headlines, displaying photographs of either Black people or Whites who were clearly low-life types, and stressing that even a moment’s lapse, a single puff, would lead to such as this.
That was scary stuff to the folks who had just suffered a decade of depression and now faced a worldwide threat of really dangerous aggressors… and it worked. The anti-drug laws of the late 1930’s marked the success of this tactic.
The cigarette and alcohol industries boomed during the War in every community of the world. It was cool to drink, cool to smoke, and everyone who wasn’t dead was alive so what the hell. After WWII there was no room for consciousness-expansion except via martinis in the U.S. because everybody was too busy pursuing the materialist dream of industrial expansion designed to keep the converted war production machinery humming.
The industrial empires left over from the last century, decimated by the crash and the depression, had recovered too well and made too much money producing machinery and other war materials for them to allow the factories to simply close down and people return to their peaceful way of life in the towns, villages and small cities.
Besides, farming and small town living was no longer very attractive to the millions of young men and women who had seen the world, survived a war, and come home as saviors and heroes.
In the late 40’s and throughout the 50’s, going to college and then out to work in rapidly growing companies making consumer goods for the exploding population of babies and families, these organization men and women never got high, couldn’t understand why anyone else would, and using the logic and “information” so carefully fed them by the prohibitionists through the increasingly pervasive media environment, judged those who used any drugs but alcohol and cigarettes as weak in character or racially inferior – probably both.
This is the environment we inherit today. Those at the top of our institutions, agencies and organizations are those who survived WWII, stayed straight, and either bought the anti-drug propaganda or cynically helped promote it, as part of a bargain with the devil in their rise to power.
They have inherited the mantles of power and influence created by the robber barons of the last century, along with the ethics and morality of those brutal humans, and are absolutely dedicated to reducing the people of this country to shackles. These people intuitively understand that the unrestricted use of psychoactive drugs would change society in ways which would make their feudal style of social and economic prerogatives and control too vulnerable to more desirable alternatives.
Marijuana And The Health Care System
All health care systems have a “delivery” component, a set of ways in which the benefits of the system are delivered to the people in need. When we look to the healing rituals of so-called primitive societies around the world we see that a consistent major difference from our own delivery system is the participation of family, friends and community in the “primitive” healing processes and their virtual exclusion from our own.
Scientists studying the effects of group participation on individual human physiology have long noted that whether through church, through kin-centered social activities, or just plain having fun with friends, the health benefits of socializing are indisputable. Such activity is known to speed healing, lower stress, and maintain good health.
Medical technical specialists have developed tremendous analytical and therapeutic tools, but until the institutions they have created for those tools allow the participation of those with whom the person is emotionally and spiritually bonded, the healing potential of much of this wonderful technology will continue to be limited and subverted by the physiological, psychological and spiritual effects of the stressors like isolation, confusion, fear, dread, pain, and despair which so many people feel while “being cared for”.
The Technodoc attitude generally downgrade this as a minor problem, to be dealt with by further medication, and indeed they do have medications which “de-stress” you – for as long as you take them. These substances interfere with the biochemical media in the brain which carry stress messages from mind to brain, and chemically sever the nerves which carry the stress messages from your brain to the rest of your body. They render your nervous system incapable of transmitting the signals which the major stressors produce; they do not change the conditions which generate the fear, the sense of isolation.
You’re still alone, still afraid, in a world full of things you never bargained for, but now you can’t feel the stress, or even register its existence on your conscious mind, so your problems are considered managed.
A New Marijuana-based Therapy
With the ever-present exposure we all get to the “modern health care system” it’s easy to forget that all this is relatively new. Until a few years ago almost all Americans dealt with disease, illness, injury, impairment and old age in the context of a family and a community of friends and neighbors.
This isn’t a good old days fantasy. Sure there were lots of people without friends or family who suffered and died alone – that’s one of the origins of the centralized health care delivery system, the urgent social need to care for the millions of people, many of them immigrants, who lay sick and dying alone in the city streets of the last century. Centralized health care institutions grew out of this core failure of the industrializing American system, when the very closeness of family and community which enfolded those in need was not available to outsiders and strangers, and when there was no alternative but the brutal poorhouse.
But there were also tens of thousands of smaller cities, towns, villages and rural communities where few lay alone, whether sick or injured, where aging people were passed from family member to family member if need be, but were kept, and where the medical profession was an enormously useful adjunct to the family-based health care delivery system but was not the primary caregiver. These days are recalled as quaint by some modern docs who chuckle about the days of house calls, though many wish that they could make a decent living doing just that. Marijuana therapies offer that option.
We live now in an age when care has become interpreted as skilled technical intervention alone. When a person becomes seriously sick or gets badly injured they are removed from their family in a manner that brooks no interference. Medical emergencies convey license upon lifesavers who rush you to the central facility where you are handed over to technical specialists, who then take charge as you are transformed into a “case” or “patient”.
Your family or friends, if you have any, are reduced to huddling in a waiting room where they are visited from time to time and provided reassurance that you are in good hands and everything possible is being done.
If and when the emergency subsides you are then passed on to other specialists who apply whatever medical technologies they are familiar with and choose to use in the name of standard medical practice. Their choice of technology and strategy is determined by many considerations, and their motives are usually the highest, but their methods are not to be questioned, and there is literally no room for family or friends to function in the role of caregivers. They can come visiting hours, and that’s it, because the institution is in total charge of care-taking, and their version of care-taking is how its going to be.
If the institution and the specialists can’t fix the problem you will be designated incurable and sent somewhere called a home, but probably not a home with your family in it, for “long-term care”. You generally won’t go with your family because they “aren’t able to take care of you”, meaning that there is no system to provide the resources which would enable them to “take care of you” at home. The systems that exist to provide and allocate society’s health care resources choose to allocate those resources to “taking care of you” in institutions which they administer and from which they profit, not to home-based alternatives which, while better and more cost effective for you, do not benefit them. They’re not evil, just doing what comes naturally which is surviving at all cost.
If you recover you are “released” which means you are free to go, after dealing with the bill of course. You walk out to rejoin your family, and maybe on the ride home in the car someone will ask you – ” So, how do you feel?” Well of course you feel “fine”, and that’s about it. Everybody goes home and goes on with their lives until the next time they crash or drop or break or pass out and then it all begins all over again.
But are you “healed” by all this? Your disease certainly seems to have passed, your bones mended, your new organ functions perfectly, your heart beats. But what about how vulnerable, how violated, how isolated you feel even behind the pills?
Given the institutional cultures of the current health care system, the isolation and emotional and spiritual deprivation of the severely ill or merely very old person becomes almost inevitable.
Family-Centered Marijuana Therapy
Family centered Marijuana therapy can be a powerful way for the family to re-assert its legitimate role in the process of caring for and healing the sick or hurt family member. Through the therapeutic use of the Marijuana experience families can draw closer, open up to the feelings and words so necessary for healing, reach out to each other and resolve issues, build upon the loving relationships which may have lain fallow for many years while all were healthy.
Those medical and therapeutic professionals who personally understand and value being high have an invaluable contribution to make to the healing of their own profession by working to bring back the quality of caring and life which is the hallmark of successful family-centered health care and which can never be provided institutionally. What is needed is a bridge between the institutions and the extended family in the process of caring for and healing those who are ill, injured, or aged.
The therapeutic use of Marijuana, guided and facilitated by medical and therapeutic professionals, can contribute to the building of this bridge, but not without a small revolution in which enlightened professionals and fed-up families and individuals come to some sort of simultaneous realization of how badly we are all suffering from an outmoded, crumbling and illogical system of health care delivery. Compassionate, creative, therapeutic use of Marijuana in a psychological and spiritual healing process opens new professional opportunities for many health care professionals who are personally experienced with the Marijuana high.
Why should personally enlightened professionals continue to submit to the whips of the cynics and moralists, those evil sisters, thus depriving their patients, clients, loved ones, friends and colleagues of the benefits of a holistic approach to Marijuana therapy which uses the powerful healing high, with themselves acting as compassionate Companion-Guides as well as medical professionals.
Considered, directed use of Marijuana is one of the most effective paths to healing for many people, and there is no question that it one of the gentlest, most illuminating natural agents put on this earth by the creator. To knowingly deny such a whole healing experience to the sick and dying is both sacrilegious and professionally corrupt.
Imagine the impact on the quality of the relationship and the healing potential if all parties to the process- physician, caretaker, family, spouse, and patient could use the Marijuana high to get past the kinds of barriers that typically isolate those in need from those giving care.
Wholistic therapies involving Marijuana would not seek to separate a biochemical “effect” useful in treating the disease or symptom involved. In place of trying and failing to control the psychoactive and CNS “side effects” pharmacologically or biologically in order to extract an elusive magic bullet, why not include the Marijuana high in a psychotherapeutically designed “happiness therapy”. Why not stop trying to manipulate people bio-chemically at these deeply invasive micro-levels and deal with the simple fact that whole Marijuana flowers whether smoked or eaten would, if freely available, be very useful for many of the medical needs of most people in a lot of serious situations.
There simply is no real need to make Marijuana into a pharmacological nightmare and charge people huge fees for institutionally controlled inferior variations of molecules found in every marijuana flower on earth. And even if scientists were to succeed in this absurd search for “the molecule” and “the pathway” which is the Marijuana high, the biochemical industry and the government would then be able to synthesize the chemicals and find the neurological pathways to biochemically manipulate other mysteries like love, happiness, patriotism and consumer behavior, and the arrival of 1984 will have been only slightly delayed.
I don’t expect this to be a problem , because the Marijuana high is not an effect produced by a chemical as much as it is an experience released by a chemical. The experience occurs within, with the impetus given by the chemical but moderated by the mind/body interaction, which is why it is so difficult for technicians to isolate individual Marijuana chemicals from the high and achieve clinically measurable “effectiveness”.
The experience which is partially mirrored in measurable effects like brainwaves and behaviors is embodied in the mind, not the brain, and the chemical acting on the body/brain does not produce the experience, it opens the doors of perception to the experience which occurs on a plane where complex activity leaves only slight physical or electrical tracings on even sophisticated detection machines.
As far as the machines are concerned the Marijuana experience has as much measurable substance as a ghost, and only those who have actually seen ghosts in the other realms would know when one showed up on their screens in this reality.
Archaeological evidence shows that non-western societies have known about the healing and therapeutic properties of Marijuana for thousands of years. Village and tribal societies throughout Asia and the Middle East have used preparations from the Marijuana flower for health, for relaxation, for stimulation, for worship, and for magic since ancient times.
Ritually potent high energy social interaction is a key to healing in these societies, contrasted with routine isolation and treatment exclusively by technical specialists in ours. Marijuana plays an important role in stimulating both interaction and receptivity in ritual participants, and therefore in the healing outcome. In addition, it is clear that these societies have long since discovered the pure medical properties of Marijuana in treating and curing both routine and serious diseases.
Through the use of the Marijuana plant in both ritual and medicinal context these more natural societies have found ways to put the sufferer in touch with those healing forces of the universe which are everywhere around us but which must be summoned and focussed before physical body problems can be relieved. This natural wisdom formed over thousands of years has a place in our approach to the severe health issues confronted today by millions of Americans.
