On Safari

Given the choice of holiday destinations in 1989, would you have accepted an all-expenses paid trip to apartheid South Africa? Mandela still in prison, the international community (except for the British Tory Party) united in their condemnation of a violent, racist regime? Thatcher repeatedly referred to Mandela as a 'terrorist' and Tory Party students wore t-shirts reading 'Hang Nelson Mandela'.

Probably not. But you aren't David Cameron, who at this point was a bright young Tory Party employee. He took a free trip (described by his boss as 'a jolly… just a little treat') by Strategy Network International, a front group for the South African government, which was keen to impress future leaders with the delightful success of racial segregation.

Wow. There's a man who doesn't let massive violence and oppression get in the way of having a good time. He'll go far.

Don't mention the war

While the England-South Africa cricket is rained off, enjoy this piece of political satire from Spitting Image, 'I've never met a nice South African', which was their contribution to the anti-Apartheid struggle in the early 1980s.



It certainly wasn't the official line: Margaret Thatcher repeatedly called Nelson Mandela a terrorist (see David Cameron's apology and Tory former minister Tebbit's rejection of that apology here) and supported the South African regime mostly because it was militantly anti-communist. Oh, and she didn't like black people either. Young Conservatives used to wear t-shirts reading 'Hang Nelson Mandela'.

They'll be back in government in May. Just saying.

Au revoir

That's it for today - I'm enjoying England's abject collapse against South Africa, but I'm hungry and there's ironing to do. See you all tomorrow.

Helpful hints for students

1. Suggesting that the McDonaldization of education is good because fewer lecturers are needed will not gain you high marks or indeed warm feelings of regard from the person marking your essay.

2. The US Government does not own 'Skype, Microsoft etc.'.

3. Africa is not a small country. It's a massive continent of 47 countries.

Also: this gem from Zoot Horn:

If you get an email from the NHS warning you that you can catch swine flu from canned pork products ignore it. It's just spam.

I get readers - accidentally

I've had an astonishingly lazy day - got up disgracefully late and read the newspapers until now. I'm not even awake enough to be angry about anything (except for the Gillette advert which uses the word 'refuel' to make using moisturizer 'macho' - which merely reinforces sexual stereotypes). Almost got me there  - but an ad for Star Trek has calmed the bile. 

I know the web is meant to reforge social networks - but how does someone in South Africa searching for 'West Midlands Limo Hire' get to my thoughts on Jade Goody?

Garlic cures AIDS - yeah, right.

I've banged on about Ben Goldacre and Badscience.net relentlessly. Fearless exposing the small dishonesties and major frauds of pharmaceutical companies, media outlets, universities for hire, 'alternative therapists' and 'Dr' Gillian McKeith alike, he performs a public service.

Ben's book, Bad Science is a must-read because it gives all the tools required to challenge any of the 'wonder-drug' / X causes or cures cancer / scientific shampoo bollocks shovelled at us.

Now, he's making available the chapter on Mathias Rath which was dropped from the book because the dangerous charlatan was suing Ben and The Guardian. Now the case is over (Rath lost), you can read how a man claimed that cancer sufferers should drop their medication in favour of vitamin pills, because the pharmaceutical companies were deliberately poisoning them for profit.

However, this was just the start. South Africa has 6.3 million AIDS sufferers, and 25% of the population has HIV. Along comes Rath, with adverts reading 'Multivitamin treatment is more effective than any toxic AIDS drug' and 'Multivitamins cut the risk of developing AIDS', with clinics dispensing these 'vitamins'.

Needless to say, these are lies from start to finish. Yes, major pharmaceutical companies are capitalist whores, but there is a serious legal framework which demands drug testing before a product is licensed. Rath's rubbish isn't licensed or tested, and he lied and lied and lied about his 'research'. In tandem with Thabo Mbeki's conspiracy-theorist approach to AIDS, the death toll in South Africa rose by 330,000. Millions of South Africans believed Rath and his denialist friends, leading to mass deaths.

So when you whinge on about not trusting doctors or pharmaceutical companies, remember this: that your sophisticated scepticism round dinner tables might sound terribly clever, but it's killing people on a huge scale. Pharmaceutical companies are deceitful, capitalist liars, but they have to operate within a strong regulatory and legal system which makes them behave… in the West, at least. Your doctor IS on your side. S/he's trained and the drugs are the end-product of years of experimentation. Kneejerk rejection of rationalist science kills people - kooks here and poor, uneducated, oppressed people 'there'. Read the chapter: the extent of the lies, shenanigans and plain stupidity will horrify you.