THE REASONABLE NEED TO CHANGE DISTORTED PSYCHOLOGICAL ATTITUDES ON TRADITIONAL PRACTICES
By Gwandumi Atufwene Mwakatobe
DARC-Research Coordinator
DUNAMIS APPLIED RESEARCH AND CONSULT [DARC]
P.O Box 13917, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Fax: 255 051 130693
Tel: 255 0811 406611
E-mail: gwandumi@hotmail.com
1. SUMMARY
The change of culture of people is something quite difficult to achieve. This is because culture is the way of life that is characteristic of a people, which identifies and distinguishes them from other people at different locality, medium and race. It is sometimes the same as trying to change a whiteman to an African or attempting to change monkeys to humans. How then did westerners, to a great extent (during colonial times) succeeded to change our traditions? Even today, an inferior whiteman is regarded superior to a real superior African, simply due to psychological distortion. This is quite evident to most of us who have studied or worked with westerners. Our prestigious cultural practices were viewed, since then, as uncivilized way of life, evil, illegal, primitive and unfashionable. Our cultural relationship to plant resources were also changed, especially on their curative role. Plants as we know are desperately needed for our lives. Even this very education could be unthinkable without plant materials. More important is that, plants, especially from the tropical forests, may have as yet unknown roles to play in meeting human needs in medicine; a cure for AIDS and Ebola for instance can just be in the forest jungle of Gabon or Amazon and not in the laboratories.
However as we see today there is a noticeable disregard of plant riches that we have inherited from prehistorical times. A packed meat from Europe looks better than edible herbs! For a example eating kisamvu (cassava leaves) in Tanzania, indicates that one is poor. Yet the kisamvu leaves are nutritiously afar richer than packed and expiring imported food! Worse enough is the negative psychological attitude on medicinal plants. For a literate person, it is an insult and primitive to take him or her to a traditional healer! Most of us would prefer, at any cost, to go for modern drugs. Why has it been difficult for us to wisely use the potential academic career that we have attained from overseas to our resources , is a question no one dares to approach. To the other side the North has to afar extent managed to exploit African values unmercifully, since the periods of their invasion. To some people traditional remedies are a pure witchcraft to be avoided! How can we address these issues and reverse the negative attitudes that has been inherent in the today's imported culture? How can we harmonize, put in dialogue, promote and marry together these antagonistic psychological attitudes and views, between modern practices and traditional ones? Although the way of changing might seem easy, but I guess the task takes a religion!
2. INTRODUCTION
2:1 CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
European culture has negatively eroded our prestigious medicinal plants. The youths of today have a tendency to consider traditional medicinal practice, as primitive and unfashionable. Lucky enough we still have traditional experienced healers today! The practice is also regarded as an evil act, witchcraft, magical rituals and uncivilized sinful life, especially in respect to religious faiths disseminated from the North. Some of traditional healers today are baptized as satanic agents, devil worshippers and wicked people. This causes the medicine men and women to die with their knowledge unrecorded. However, in times of difficulties, a human being has a characteristic to look for a solution in any way whatsoever, including resorting to mystic and supernatural powers for help. From here then traditional medicine has been treated with contempt and even branded "primitive and witchcraft to medical approach", being amplified by the colonialists in the African continent. Many of us today are still believing that deceptive concept. This is a great psychological damage, for which, unless we change the attitudes, we will not move to any further step forward. We will be just collecting volumes of void paper works.
2:2 PLANTS ARE HISTORICAL PHARMACEUTICAL STOREHOUSES
European spheres of influence, looked down upon, the rich heritage of traditional medicinal plants. However, drugs and medicinal syrups used to patients today are all of plant origin. The majority of the medicinal plants are derived from vascular plants occurring in the rain forests. Very unfortunate that these forests are drastically disappearing. As yet, there are many medicinal values of plants either undiscovered or its discovery has not been documented or never told by mouth. In most cases, the information on what plant and what part of the plant cures what diseases, in which precise locality it grows, when its curative potency is maximal, how it is prepared, and what dosage should be administered..., was passed on from father-to-son, and mother-to-daughter, by word of mouth and by practical field experience, from generation to generation.
Traditional medicinal practice has been also regarded as unhygienical. Nevertheless, its natural and capability of keeping human nature back to his/her original fitness is a challenge to be admired if we want to go back to our nature. In fact, every thing human uses has its origin from the plants; housing, food and clothing are still up to now of plant origin and, so does the health care.
One thing colonialists failed to distinguish was the difference between medicine and its practices, culture and witchcraft. We are all aware that health is an integral part of all communities and that the healthier the people in a given community, the greater is their contribution in the social and economic development of their community. It is therefore important that essential health care services be made universally accessible to every individual, at a cost that can be afforded. In this case the cheapest and most abundant medicinal services are derived from traditional medicinal plants.
The need for establishing a close working relationship with the experienced traditional healers, and documenting their medicinal practices before it is too late, is thus one of most urgent, top priority and crucial step we should embark on. Update still, there are a number of village communities using plants for their immediate remedies.
2:3 TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT
The industrial, technological and social developments in the world have significantly contributed to a situation whereby man has neglected the development of expanded uses of traditional medicines. Our current knowledge on the adverse side effects of some of the modern medicines, and adverse economic conditions particularly in the third world countries have re-activated interest on the medicinal plants. The use of some drugs in fact, is more dangerous than roots and other parts of the plants we know. Increasingly expensive and unaffordable prices, failure to reach people in rural areas, unknown long-term side effects of modern drugs, bacterial resistance and expiring properties are just few things that have been nowadays left the modern drugs undesirable.
Today there are many traditional medicine vendors along the streets of many towns and cities. Very unfortunate that vendees do not want to be seen as they shy-away avoiding to be noticed by someone. One vendor in Dar es Salaam (Yakobo Ole Saito, a maasai) said: "Our traditional viagra called Mkuyati is a safer and healthier impotent relief medicine than the strong modern viagra in form of tablets which has been reported to be fatal. Traditional healers have better technology to be admired than the western one which has caused the world wide genocidal weaponry and armament". He was a man to be admired that day. Traditional healing is the only experienced practice of all ages giving us confidence to trust as they have been used overyears. Modern drugs, although they seem to be immediately positive, but their long effects are as yet not known. They might in later years impair our bodies and food chains. It is time that the experience of so many generations be placed at the service of modern human without loosing time. Technological advancements should therefore be encompassing dynamic ancestral values of plants from generation to generation
3. A SUGGESTED WAY FORWARD
3:1 ACCEPTTABLE EFFECTIVE DIALOGUE
(i) The governments should review the witchcraft act and all outdated laws that suppress the development of traditional medicine.
(ii) Adequate finance for traditional medicine research should be assured under governments' regular budgets, and external finance should be supplementary to the governments' main efforts.
(iii) The African society should be, through educational and media ways, in different social groups, taught to reverse wrong attitudes on medicinal plants and revitalize plant resources use to the present and other generations to come.
(iv) There is a need for the promotion of dialogue to destroy suspicion, secrecy and hostilities existing between traditional healers and adapted western medical doctors.
(v) We need to strengthen training and research on traditional medicine, and start with the most readily feasible herbal remedies. This can also be deliberately, included in educational programmes in schools and other institutional centres.
(vi) Avoiding donor-driven, employment -sacrificed motives that tend to denigrate our natural riches, such as medicinal plants in this case.
(vii) African researchers, academicians and practitioners should as from now, openly advertise the traditional knowledge, power and integrity at a global level, without waiting for the foreigners to come and say "these are diamonds please conserve them". We are in a better position of knowing our environment and the riches within.
3:2 RESEARCH AREAS THAT NEED OUR ATTENTION
(i) Inventory of botanical identification of plants used in traditional medicine.
(ii) Literature survey, collection and documentation on the plant physiology.
(iii) Safety and toxicity assessment.
(iv) Combined effective traditional and modern ways of collecting, documenting and disseminating information.
(v) Propagation of extinction threatened potential medicinal plants.
(vi) Promotion of ways to reconcile and cooperate traditional healers and modern medcal experts, in an attempt to win harmonized and shared field of experience.
3:3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
(i) To foster the accomplishment of better use of medicinal plants lending to the necessary scientific support.
(ii) To examine the credits of traditional use of medicinal plants in the light of modern science so as to encourage the use of therapeutically effective plants and discourage harmful ones.
(iii) To promote the integration of proven valuable knowledge in herbal and modern medicine.
(iv) To stimulate and cooperate in the realization of traditional pharmacopoeia.
(v) To reduce the expensive importation of drugs.
(vi) To promote the therapeutic economic and commercial exploitation of medicinal, culture and exportation. Strengthening institutional coordination with traditional practice should be a crucial priority.
4. CONCLUSION
Traditional medicine in Tanzania, like in other developing countries, where medical facilities cannot satisfy national demands, plays a big role in combating both human and animal diseases. It is estimated that 80% of the people who live in rural areas rely on traditional healers for their treatments using medicinal herbs. Until the beginning of the 19th century, all medicine was traditional. However, these medicinal plants have not been well studied, tested or documented. There has been little knowledge of our natural resources. Even the knowledge documented is a compiled work of foreigners. Most of the information is still in the hands of traditional healers. Due to current threat brought by diseases like malaria, cancer, AIDS and other unknown epidemics, it is now high time we carried an international, regional, national and local combined effort from both scientists and traditional healers to do some more research on medicinal plants which might give us some positive results.
Obviously, for a variety of reasons, plants are indispensable to man for his livelihood. Traditional medicine is a priceless heritage which was created in the historical prevention and treatment of diseases over a long period. In this, tropical forests are complex chemical storehouses that contain many undiscovered biomedical compounds with unrealized potential for use in modern medicine. We can gain access to these materials only if we study and conserve the plant species that contain them. Loss of species means loss of chemicals of possible use, chemical potentially unique in nature, not likely to be invented independently in the laboratory.
Knowing these in our minds and imparting to our children and children's children, no one can be deceived, neither can the western influence fool us on the role of plants to our livelihoods. It is high time we knew these indispensable concepts!
I remember a white friend of mine researcher in pharmacology telling me that
the curative effect of a certain plant where just psychological and that the
science could find more precisely how to target the problem. He was treating
his wife with western drugs for the same disease, but had also to pay for
her Psycho analyses for her to feel allright ...
I remember a researcher of Perdue University USA working to Geneticaly
modify rice to have it to contain B vitamine recognizing that the cost of
his research would have pay for B vitamines pills for the kids of the
déveloping world for 20 years, ... but he told me was paid to develop this
rice.
I remember a canadian farmer been charged to pay a seed producing company
because some seeds from his neighbour transported by the wind grew in his
field...
I remember giving a placebo to my daughter who felt pains in the stomac and
taking the time to cuddle her and to feel happy to see that she felt better
without having to give her drug ...
I remember a black camerounian friend of mine who studied in France who had
the great idea to do a great packaging for Cassava leaves to sell it in
supermarket which had the effect of rehabilitating its use for everybody...
I am happy to treat my cold in 7 days instead of 5 with vitamines instead of
antibiotics, but I am happy to give antibiotics to y baby when it is needed.
I believe the dragging force is unfortunatly the money of the large
companies (therefore a western dragging force).
I believe we have to be clever and imaginative for the well being of people.
We should not reject the research and western drugs but keep in mind that we
are not sick to make companies more profitable.
Sorry to have spoken so much about what "I" believe but the solution might
just be individual anderstanding.
Lets be clever and imaginative and promote information.
regards
Olivier Behra
Man And The Environment
http://www.MATE.mg
-
Greetings to the Group,
and in particular to Gwandumi Atufwene Mwakatobe and Oliver Behra
also to Pankaj Oudhia for sharing the little gems of Chhattisgarh.
My personal reaction to postings #1456 and #1457 was 'Yes' I
understand perfectly and was able to identify immediately.
A Shamanist viewpoint:
The type of attitudes which are laid bare, stand as a rebuke to those
that hold to medieval class structures. Attitudes that are born in
ignorance and small minds. Colonialism of the British variety is not
confined solely to Africa. Here in New Zealand we may witness
Cultural Imperialism v Cultural Imperialism. Both racist to the core.
Oliver Behra's observation on the 'B' vitamin is a classic. However
I do feel that there are mitigating circumstances, for he is also a
victim of the system. My diagnosis of the pressures to which 'Patient
#1 Academia' is ... Lackof$$itus. In short .... they could always use
what Clint Eastwood termed 'One more Dollar.
The answer is simple. Give the people the type of education that they
want. Teach the roots of their culture. After all education is the
name of the game. Some Universities have very long and proud
traditions and they celebrate those traditions to maintain the
connection to their roots. Which determined the type of tree that
they are, and in what kind of intellectual compost they will grow.
This conservative attitude lurking behind a modern website or a
glossy brochure is a pain in the butt.
The attitude is personified in Lord Bad Egg KC, VD and Scar as
lampooned on my web site. It is an attitude ingrained in medieval
patterns of Squires, Barons Lords and Princelings. In other words it
is class structure, that is why in the days of the British Raj in
India these attitudes found a place to roost in the Indian Caste
system.
The British system is based on a Colonisation of the mind of the
peasantry, whereby they may be incorporated into the natural order of
things as perceived by their self appointed masters. Reluctant
peasants are coerced by force if necessary to make them toe the line.
That is the tyranny to which the British Peasants were subjected.
That very same attitude was exported to or was compatible with the
prevailing system of many countries.
The religious missionaries are the Colonial Vanguard. Historically we
may see that the modus operandi was the subversion of whole cultures
by infiltration and substitution of their Cosmology with that of the
Judean/Christian or Muslim Cosmology. Like a bacillus plague it
overwhelms its host. The child of that spiritual and mental rape was
a deformed little bugger. For those little deformities, 'Yea verily'
have multiplied so that we have veritable tribes known as the 'Ape
the Bwana'. That has been the historical way of it. The 'Bwana' are
despots, they are the saboteurs of, the emerging Soul of Africa. But
remember well, that Cultural Imperialsim is a Janus faced and dirty
brute.
The Bwana are to be found in great numbers in the echlons of
Governments throughout Africa. How could this be, one wonders ? The
original bacillus plague is pleomorphic and extremely adapatable and
it has emerged in the guise of a far greater tyranny called Science
and Academia. This variety belongs to the tribe of the Glassium
Beadium, who are famed far and wide for their voracious predatory
plundering of the soul of nations.
The matrix from which the Glassium Beadium 'var'emerged, is a Stalin
Mark VI Gulag, thinly disguised in venerable stone and ivy. A brain
washing machine of great power.
Its willing victims are subjected to constant pressure to meet
tutorial and academic time tables. The objective of course is the
instillation of the Scientific World View or the Neo Global Religion.
The current paradigm is rammed home with great force. Many of the
victims never recover and fail to understand that the paradigm that
has been implanted in their willing minds is already obsolete. For
roots of Academia are shallow and only rooted in the mind. One should
always be aware of those ideas that seek root in the mind.
The only part of the body of Science that can make any valid claim to
be alive is in those philosophers of science who have taken the time
to take their findings and present it to the people in their own
language. These great men in every culture are known by the people. I
say this, because it is the people! that are the victims of failed
experiments and now the wholesale failing biosystems. It is they that
must pay the price of 'Academic Freedom'. Pay master Lord Bad Egg KC.
They are the stain on the cloak of science. When Science and commerce
merge it tends to become malignant.
It is to them, those great men of science, must go the honour of
nuturing the tiny and flickering fire, which represents science as a
system of thought. That is the last bastion of the tattered remmnants
of the soul of science.
Many victims never recover from this process, and learn how to be
objective about science. They go to their graves as Glassium Beadium
not understanding that their particular world view is no more than a
single thread in a vast tapestry of human experience. This Academic
mind set is snobbery of the worst kind. I would like to say how
grotesque and what strange rituals the Glassium Beadium perform at
the altar of the Mammon. Lord Bad Egg KC Rulze, OK ! He is the man
that commands your mind.
Shamanisim is beyond the reach of time. It is a universal
brotherhood. A great inverted tree, of which, its roots penetrate the
skies and into the cosmic heart. The Shaman is a master of fire. A
master of placebo and who, with practiced ease will move easily
amongst the different levels of being, and with unassuming
simplicity, command the world of plants.
And with their aid minister to the spiritual and physical needs of
the community of which they are the servant. This by Cosmic Degree
for they have been commanded by Mother Nature herself. This degree
bestowed by Mother Nature, allows the adept to communicate with, and
enlist, the aid of the world of plants.
The whole of the plant kingdom is aware, that a great slice of
humanity, is unaware, and they are trapped within a box like pattern
of energies that sits and commands the lion share of resources
allocated to the mind by the solar plexus. They can know this
because, plants understand their place and function in Nature. So to
my brothers and sisters, in every nation, I greet you, for you are
the masters of fire who tend to the spiritual root of the nation.
Each rich in the traditions of a culture.
Many of the products of academia, as noted, do tend to suffer with an
inverted snobbery. This is totally outmoded, and not in keeping with
the zeit geist. I personally rejoice, because I see the body of
Science undergoing metamorphic changes. The Young Scientists are here
already. With them feel the grateful warmth of spring. For they too
are 21st century shamans for their science is tempered with vitalism
which is only constrained by cultural expression. Hermetic Science is
the next if we are to have a viable Future of our kind. Some of the
foremost exponents of that emergent paradigm are listed under visions
on the Research Resource page of my website.
As an example of inverted snobbery, let me share a personal anecdote
with you. Almost two decades ago I was priveliged to accept as a
guest on a regular basis a great New Zealand Academic Scientist, a
physicist who had cut his teeth in Industry serving his adopted
countries war efforts. Solving some of the problems encountered with
turbo fans of Whittles jet engine. This by virtue of the fact that I
was married to his daughter. Within the class structure such mingling
was very rare.
He was a very displined man which played havoc with the emotion lines
upon his face. Very mobile, he could convey a mood in a moment. When
he laughed it was full throated and genuine. But he was such an
academic snob. He was a vegetarian by choice. He would have been
around 77 when diagnosed with cancer of the prostate. So he virtually
gave his body to science and volunteered to be the recipent of a drug
that only carried a number. In other words a guinea pig, a real
scientist.
He died within 6 months. He called the capsules the 'Red Devils' 3
months before he died, on one of his visits, and with intimations of
his mortality he said "I apologise I have been such a snob" A real
New Zealand Knight Gentleman, more Britsh than the British. A man of
Integrity.
Ivor Hughes
Auckland NZ
www.herbdatanz.com
--
Hi,
I grow Stevia rebaudiana. It's very hard to start from seeds but once established
it's quite easy. It should be native of Paraguay area, so it needs good
drained soil and good water supply, but it's quite temperature tolerant
so I can say it's quite easy to grow. It's also easy to propagate via cuttings
and a mature plant put out many branches at base that can be cutted and
put on rooting. The leaves' taste is really sweet, although it's a vegetal
sweetness, I mean we're used to industrial sugar which is so elaborated
that save very little of its origin. When you use to Stevia taste it will
works well, I mean this taste is good but you have to make abitude to it.
Other plants that can be used as natural sweetener are liquorice (Glychyrriza
glabra, G.echinata and other species) and aztec sweet herb (Lippia dulcis).
I'm going to start cultivation of both of them (I've already seeds ready).
Regards,
Luca "Jama"
Il Giardino Etnobotanico - The Ethnobotanic Garden
http://members.xoom.virgilio.it/etnobotanica
Greeting to the Group,
I invite you all to read this article on Major Ocimum species
(Tulsi) of Chhattisgarh, India : Natural Occurrence, Traditional
Medicinal Knowledge and Trade.
Research Note - P.Oudhia
I have evaluated the allelopathic potential of all the major Ocimum
species viz. Ocimum canum (Memri), Ocimum sanctum (Tulsi), Ocimum
kilimandscharicum ( Kapuri tulsi) and Ocimum basilicum (Van tulsa) of
Chhattisgarh, India. I have tested allelopathic potential of these
species on germination and seedling vigour of common crops like rice,
wheat, linseed, chickpea, Pigeonpea, mustard etc. And observed
stimulatory (negative) allelopathic effects of different plant parts
particularly the leaves and roots. The aqueous extract and leachate
of all species possess valuable allelochemicals that can be utilized
as Green growth promoters. I have also tried these extracts and
leachate on medicinal crops of Chhattisgarh viz. Kasturibhendi
(Abelmoschus moschatus), Safed Musli (Chlorophyum borivilianum),
Sarphgandha (Rauvolfia serpentina), Dhikuar (Aloe vera), Bach (Acorus
calamus), Chandrashoor (Lepidium sativum), Ashwagandha (Withania
somnifera) etc. Many herb growers of Chhattisgarh are utilizing these
extracts and leachate in order to treat the seeds and planting
material. For farmer's use, we have developed a very simple method
and with the help of this farmer's friendly method, farmers are
preparing the desired extracts and leachate at their own farms
without sophisticated instruments. For seed treatment, these are used
in place of fungicide. Out of all these species, Ocimum sanctum is
used most frequently to treat the seeds. These growers spray the
aqueous extracts and leachate of different parts on standing crops in
order to repel away the harmful insects. We have not observed any
harmful effects of this spray on standing crops. The growers use
Ocimum basilicum (Van tulsa) most frequently for spray.
For complete article ,please visit at
http://www.botanical.com/site/column_poudhia/80_tulsi.html
regards
P.OUDHIA
http://www.celestine-india.com/pankajoudhia
--
- I resonate with much of what you say Ivor, about the selfproclaimed
institutions that feel they have the right to 'colonize' our minds and
cultures. Yet, my initial response to your post is that while the historic
facts are undeniable, the effects thereof still reverberate, not just among
the cultures of the colonies, but also in those of the colonizers, I belief
we have to go way beyond the safe boundaries of rhetoric and address the
roots of the issue, and more importantly find ways to move forward.
It is easy lay blame at the feet of the guilty. But how do we move forward?
Apologies are nice gestures, but do they change a thing, in terms of what
happened or will happen. Once upon a time black and white were all the
colour perceptions people had to categorize and differentiate, but today we
live in a world where there are many shades of grey (as well as some hopeful
splashes of green). Some of the cultural imperialism that has taken place,
and not just across the frontier between the 'civilized' to the
'uncivilized' world of the 15th century explorers and their victims in
far-flung places, but throughout human history, even among neighboring
tribes, -some of these cultural rapes have also been fertilizing in the long
run.
Cultural traditions can be a fine thing, they can also be empty forms and
gestures, stemming from outmoded patterns of thought or behaviour. What
keeps a tradition alive are the people who live them. Adhering to
traditional forms and dogma that has no relevance to today, is a dead
practice that stagnates a culture - as for example is evident among the
traditions of academia that are more concerned with formality than with the
actuall essence of science, the investigation of life and all its phenomena.
(by culture I mean any grouping of people that identify with a common
value.) A living tradition must adjust to the changing world in which we
live. Change is the only constant, and while in the past change was perhaps
slower, it was often also more dramatic. At any rate, what makes any
species successful is its ability to adapt to changing circumstances.
Of course we can curse the the selfperpetuating chauvinism of academia,
designed to create confines of intellectual snobbery. In the end, I think,
that those subscribed to its values are its real victims, though, caught in
the self-imposed structures of their rigid and dogmatic scientific
belief-systems, unable to see beyond. But in my humble opinion in this day
and age, where we are faced with so many problems (many of them caused by
the very academia we are talking about), we must not waste our energy on
perpetuating these conflicting worldviews, but must find ways to overcome,
to build bridges between these different attitudes in our cultures, and
together find ways in which we can move forward and heal the earth, which we
all share, as well as our transpersonal and transcultural relationships.
As a species we have been gifted with the power of intellect, the capability
of compassion and the ability to reflect. We have the intellect to
understand and make choices based on ethics, and the wisdom to take into
consideration the values which we share as a human family, as children of
the earth. Instead of battling out our differences we should find ways to
unify in serving her, on which all our lives depend.
How can we overcome the solidified boundaries of all those -isms that define
our worlds? There may be no clear cut, hard and fast answers to this
question. I personally believe in a fungal strategy, subversive networking,
breaking down of rotting structures, exposing them for what they are, and
composting them in such a way that they might yield what nutrients they
contain for the future on which we can build a better, greener world that
does not define itself in terms of black and white but in terms of the green
spirit, which is the source of all life.
green blessings
Kat
Sacred Earth
Educational Forum and Networking Resource for Ethnobotany and Ecotravel
http://www.sacredearth.com
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- Hi Kat,
My road has been a path of many wanderings, across the land, the sea
and through the air, many experiences. But nothing that can match
those of inner experience.
The ' Seer ' was often pictured with a crystal ball, made of sand =
silica = silicon chip..... millions of computers around the
world ..... a window into space and time.
Packets of electrons carying words that are the coded instructions
for the human mind to pull up a certain type of picture. In the same
way that our html computer code works. Obviously the kind of picture
that is displayed upon the mental screen it tinged with the colours
of its own emotional reaction to what has been displayed.
Moreover this at 186,000 miles per second. Anywhere on the globe. So
we may understand what a powerful tool it is.
The Tibetian Buddhists would never destroy the written word they
would roll the words up and pop them in a rock crevice. Words are
power, they are vibration. Things of a like kind vibrate together.
Emotions are also a vibration, and each human being a veritable
symphony orchestra of emotions. Words can play the emotions like a
tune.
When I look, I see our global brain rather like a giant ball of
tangled string. You know, pull the wrong string and a knot forms.
The strands that weave and flow, over and under each other, All the
emotional primary colours, and from them all of the trillions of
possibilities.
One may clearly see where the colours clash, or are joined by knots
that shine with gangerene tints. Words can be like a warm healing
oil, or they can be used as a sword. Generally I find tangled knots
are best tackled with a sword. Because the energy expended in
untangling stupidity could be better used else where.
With regard to my postings to Phytomedica. I am on the side of the
lowly, and I am not interested in the academic nicities. It seems to
me, that those two Gentlemen, voiced what everyone knows and feels.
In that context it cannot be seen as racist. I feel they asked for
justice. I felt it to be my duty to plant my flag in the ground next
to them. Justice is not about apology, justice is about reparation.
Neither you or I can accept the burden of guilt for what has been
done historically. But it is still going on. It needs to be voiced
and it needs to be stopped.
The only weapons I have are my words, and I try on occassions to
prick a balloon to release the afflatus. Within the hour of my post,
I know how it has been received by the group. The site is visited by
every prestigeous university in the world as well as a host of the
lesser one,s ... they come to fish ... they ignore my opinions as
algae on the surface of the information but some of them have been
hooked on return. I really hope it is the young students because we
are getting teaching hospitals as well as universities with
prestigeous medical faculties. Music is the universal language, those
young people recognise rap. So I rap. Hopefully they read and
say "Yeah Man"
What is really nice for me is that I post to a health news group, so
in response to request for information I wrote three articles called
Kitchen Kemistry and Kosmetics. which are posted on my site. Many of
these ladies do not know what is going on in terms of health, so I
make it my duty, to keep them upto date in their own language.
Apparently they also enjoy my satire of Lord Bad Egg, because it
rings a bell with them.
So each of us is playing our part in the cosmic scheme of things we
are all guided through our heart. After all it is a poor master that
cannot find a use for any material.
I have had extensive contact with the Maori peoples. I have lived
amongst them, both rural coastal, and Auckland which is the largest
Polynesian City in the world. I have great admiration for them. There
is one type of maori who when placed in a position of power and
especially a position that could help make a difference. Promptly dip
their hand in the taxpayers cash register. Or they exercise their
power like little despots...... Well I have no compelling reason to
believe that kind behaviour is indigenous to NZ. Africa must be
crawling with the little buggers, like lice on a mangy dogs back. I
do not feel those words to be too harsh. Trampling on the face of
your own people takes a lot of chutzpah.
Cultural entities that are static are in the process of dying.
Namaste.
Ivor
www.herbdatanz.com
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- Greetings to the Group,
I invite you to read the article on
Traditional Medicinal Knowledge about common Trees in Bagbahera
region, Chhattisgarh, India
Research Note - P.Oudhia
Yesterday when I was searching the field diaries having very first
information about herbs, suddenly I got one missing diary with
information on traditional medicinal knowledge about common trees in
Bagbahera region. This diary was completed in year 2000 by my sincere
and honest field workers Mr. Panchu Ram and Mr. Dore Lal of Bihajhar
Village. At that time I was associated with National Watershed
Development Project in Rainfed Areas and my work is to document the
medicinal flora (and also fauna) of Chamra nallah watershed area. The
survey was focused on traditional healers also but you will be
surprised to know that in different parts of Chhattisgarh, the
natives also have rich traditional medicinal knowledge about common
herbs. Last month when I was interacting with Dr. Pati, senior
anthropologist from Bhubneshwar (Orissa), I told him that the most of
the ethnobotanical surveys are based on random samples. In order to
know the common problem of any community the random sample survey is
useful but in case of documentation of traditional knowledge it is
essential to interact and discuss with every native in detail. This
is very important particularly in case like Chhattisgarh. I am agree
that this is very long process and require more effort and time but
it is promising one. During my ethnobotanical surveys to different
parts of Chhattisgarh, I have observed that every native have
different level of knowledge about same herbs. In case of many herbs,
the natives have more knowledge than the traditional healers. The
natives are practising traditional medicinal knowledge in their day
today life and also disseminating this valuable knowledge to new
generations. It is really hard to deny the fact that we can not put
these natives in the category of traditional healers. According to
Dr. Pati, even the sample surveys are not enough to document the
actual knowledge in short time then how the detailed surveys are
possible ? He is right but I personally feel that the documentation
of traditional knowledge must be given more importance as compared to
one's academic career. For academic career more numbers of research
papers are must and we all know in order to increase the number, we
have to go for sample surveys. Through this article, I would like to
request the researchers, particularly the researchers working in
field of traditional knowledge, to change the methodology of sample
surveys and go for detailed surveys. In my previous studies published
in form of research papers in reputed journals, the sample survey
method was adopted, but I am not satisfied with these incomplete
surveys. It is common observation that the referee's of these
journals are not ready to publish the research papers based on
detailed survey. When I conducted a survey based on problems
perceived by the rural youths of Chhattisgarh, working in nearby
cities', I have selected 500 respondents, but honourable refree of
reputed journal sent the paper back with comments "Rewrite the paper
having the opinion of 200 respondents as the interview of 500
respondents in useless". He was ready to accept the opinions of even
50 respondents. I personally feel that this type of attitude is
benefiting the researchers in respect of more numbers of research
papers in very short time but this is also a bitter fact that our
papers are not helping the common people in their hard life. I am
observing this wrong trend in all over the world particularly in my
country.
For complete article,please visit at
http://www.botanical.com/site/column_poudhia/82_trees.html
regards
P.OUDHIA
http://www.celestine-india.com/pankajoudhia
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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
I have a great pleasure to let you know my deep concerns about this complicated matter especially for indigenous practitioner in Africa where most of us find he/she had to digest this intellectual property rights that suits western needs that does not address our African needs.
One important reason why I fail to find more understanding and clarity on this subject is that, one always works with a university that claims they are looking for a partnership with traditional practitioners in the field of working with plants to exploit for any new cure for some disease that are of menace to mankind.
But once the discovery has been done, or a lead for that matter, Traditional Practitioners never gets credit for that and the information becomes a public domain and ownership belongs to the university.
Traditional Dr. Seth Seroka
P.O. Box 7957
Johannesburg
South Africa
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