Habari zenu Wanazuoni!
Samahanini kwa kuendelea kwa kiingereza; nitakitumia kwa uwazi.
I commented on the post about the HIV conspiracy by calling it 'nonsense'. It is true that I didn't justify my point, but in my view that article did not deserve the time and attention. The internet is full of text that is entirely spurious. Among the interesting and valid, mainstream and marginal views, are many rantings of deranged people. Just like we have all learned to recognise the 'Nigeria letters' in our email and we delete them, we should learn to recognise random, unfounded texts and ignore them.
The HIV conspiracy article is one such text. Even with my superficial knowledge of medical research, the idea that all the hundreds of thousands of HIV researchers around the world - of all ethnicities, in many countries, over decades- would be colluding in a conspiracy to target black people with HIV is beyond preposterous. If more justification is needed, some hints as to why the HIV conspiracy text was not a serious information source are, for example, that the writer didn't refer to any research or documentation; didn't include any links to other sources, and used capital letters and emotive language. The entire text was only based on the writer's own perceptions.
The HIV conspiracy post had been posted in this group (copied from somewhere else - to my knowledge the author is not in the group) without an introductory comment or any questions from the poster, and then it had been re-posted four times, still without comment. I felt it was time to put a stop to circulating it. I would be happy to hear someone with an HIV/AIDS background comment on the article, but I suspect that they felt, like me, that it was not worth the time and effort. If someone wanted to check the truth of the assertions in the article it would be good to ask in the initial post.
As for other marginal topics, I will be more than happy to (continue to) see respectful debates here about topics where the group members have some expertise, and are able to give a meaningful contribution (mainstream or marginal). But it is not worth reopening topics that have already been conclusively settled (e.g. "The earth: Flat or Round?") or topics where no group member has expertise. No matter how much we debate some obscure topic such as, hmmm, the suitable amount of titanuim in the alloy coating the inside of the Large Hadron Collider, if none of us has knowledge about titanium alloys, we will never reach a conclusion of any value. (unless Wanazuoni particle physics equipment metallurgists want to raise the question!) Superstition and conspiracy theories are usually topics where it's impossible to give reliable comment, since they can't be measured.
I suggest that we continue following the good practice of introducing topics with a comment or question for the group. Generally, I am also interested in hearing more about the original research of Wanazuoni contributors.
I hope I haven't offended anyone, as I'm only trying to de-clutter our inboxes and save a bit of time by suggesting a focus on interesting and valid discussions.
Linda
PS If anyone is interested in checking the most reliable information on health issues, I recommend the Cochrane Collaboration. They go through all the scientific research done on a given topic, check that research for bias and relevance, and calculate the results to find the definitive answer. Sometimes the answer is that we can't be sure. The Guardian UK's 'Bad Science' column is also a good source of fact-checking rumours.
Ms Linda Lönnqvist
Development Policy Officer
Kepa, the Finnish NGO platform
Dar es Salaam
Tanzania
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