Monday, September 26, 2005

Monday, Bloody, Monday

Steady Gardenin'



DJ Trident - "Topknot Whisper"

Constant Gardener, part social conscience fyah stahta, part romance-redemption drama. Cidade de Deus Meirelles managed to walk the line without giving into the didactic divisiveness of the former, nor the melodramatic sap of the latter. In fact, the transition from criticizing pharm testing on civilians to the protagonist's journey for absolution and closure felt subtle, considering the maker once put guns in the hands of pre-tweens to make a point. Dude also throws in Hitch suspense and Bergman omphaloskepsis for the cinematic smackdown.

Nevertheless, the parallel between a group of pale-faced antagonists (contrast to Fiennes' dirty tan-face??) and the Anglo neo-colonial corporate presence in Africa remains an explicit image. Was this the 'big idea?' Meirelles seconds Le Carré's dedication by giving it up to the volunteers, but his Riowood ending gives an explicit gasface to pharma-cartels.

So, going back to yesterday's avian mention, let's ask the US to open up and say, 'Ahhh...' Frist's diagnosis was that stakes is high, so he called for a Manhattan Project-scaled defense effort against -- not just avian but -- any epidemic or act of bioterrorism. However, companies are concerned about the bottom line, so "Frist and Lieberman are backing rival bills that offer tax, liability and other incentives to now-reluctant biotech companies to begin producing vaccines, diagnostics and therapies and to guarantee a market if they produce them." To paraphrase Rachel Weisz' Tessa Quayle, "There is no such thing as a free ride with pharmas."

Unfortunately, the NY Times assesses that we're late in the game. And reading Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy Michael T. Osterholm's how-to-prepare proposal makes clear that coordination and communication remain key areas of improvement for the DHS.

Which brings us back to Slate's upending of the CDC sex survey (via Oli at Poplicks). A million and one bad hip hop quotables come to mind ("Yeah baby I like it raw..."; "Ain't no way to put it subtle when I want the butthole!"; "d**k in the a*s"), along with a darker context for David Banner's "Play" ("make a n***a wanna f**k your a*s on the couch"). With the backdoor becoming as commonplace as the front, is health ed keeping step?

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