By Dr Kwame Nantambu
September 01, 2021
Within recent times, massive chupidness has overtly erupted in T&T in regard to Trinbagonians taking their jabs. Indeed, the clarion call has been publicly bandied about to the extent that Trinbagonians are “skeptical” and “hesitant” toward agreeing to take their jabs. No problema.
The salient fact of the matter is that it is a well-known and accepted fact that Trinbagonians just have a magnetic love for “foreign.” In other words, this writer is of the totally firm conviction that Trinbagonians are “skeptical” solely because they have noticed albeit totally brainwashed that Americans feel that way also. Totally false and stupid.
And this is despite the fact that Trinbagonians just do not have the slightest notion/clue as to why Americans are “skeptical.”
In reality, Trinbagonians are just swallowing all of the medical misinformation they hear on US Fox News Cable TV and perpetuated by right-wring conspiratorial commentators including former president Donald John Trump. Indeed, let the record reveal that while he was in office, then president Donald John Trump suggested that Americans should drink disinfectant to cure COVID.
Truth Be Told; What Trinbagonians do not realize and/or know is that although these right-wing Republicans are urging Americans not to take the vaccines, however, they themselves have indeed taken the same vaccines. In fact, Donald Trump has already taken the vaccines secretly and it must be assumed that the rest of his family also did.
In other words, these right-wingers are selling these utterly false medical misinformation solely based on politics. These individuals just do not want President joe Biden to succeed politically as a result of this pandemic.
Furthermore, their obdurate sub-conscious mind-set is that Joe Biden “stole” the election from Donald Trump. They do not recognize Joe Biden as a legitimate president., period. Trinbagonians need to clearly understand this pivotal political fact. This entire issue is all about politics not medical science.
Truth Be Told: Trinbagonians need to listen to the medical scientists of the World Health Organization (WHO) and not political scientists at home or abroad.
Hard-core facts about the vaccines:
- These vaccines were manufactured and tested in independent/private labs by medical scientists in the United States. They were not manufactured and tested by any medical scientists in any department of the US government. In addition, these vaccines were not manufactured and tested by medical scientists in a lab in Balisier House or Rienzi Complex.
- These vaccines were approved by the Food and Drug Administration of the US government and seconded by the medical scientists of the WHO.
The bottom-line is that these vaccines were not approved per a Cabinet Note submitted by the Minister of Health . And most importantly, they were neither approved by the CARICOM Health Organization nor the Medical Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT).
- The Ministry of Health takes its instructions from the WHO and not from the PNM’s government National Security Council. Furthermore, the WHO instructs the ministry as to what vaccines to combine as a second dose; it is not instructed by MATT.
- It is vital for adult Trinbagonians to remember and to recall that the only reason why they are alive today is the salient medical truism that luckily /fortunately their parents were not “skeptical” or “hesitant” to give them vaccines to deal with yellow fever, small pox and polio. That’s why you are alive today. Your parents saved you as children.
So, if adults today choose to be “skeptical” and “hesitant”, then, their children will die and unlike your parents of yesterday, you all will never be grandparents today, period.
- Trinbagonians must understand that these vaccines were ordered and produced during the presidency of Donald John Trump under his policy titled “Operation Warp Speed”; however, because of the Big Lie that Joe Biden “stole” the election from Donald Trump, it need occasion no great surprise that all 27 states with Republican governors, particularly Ron De Santos of Florida , are vehemently now pushing back on mandating the wearing of masks. In fact, 59 per cent of Republicans refuse to get vaccinated.
As President Joe Biden insists “Freedom comes with responsibility”. So, while it is your right not to vaccinate, you also bear the responsibility not to put other people’s lives at extreme dangerous risk. In other words, if you exercise your freedom not to vaccinate, then, you automatically transform yourself into a Weapon of Mass Human Destruction + Death viis-a-vis your community and the nation at large. You thus become a bone fide/certified medical criminal. Ipso facto, there is no real difference between you and a gang member—-both of you all are criminals.
In the United States there exists the “pandemic of the unvaccinated”; in T&T there exists the pandemic of the “skeptical”, “hesitant” stupid/chupid unvaccinated, period.
In the final analysis, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Christopher Rowley must decree that there will be absolutely no carnival celebration until the Minister of Health officially informs him that 95.5% of the eligible population has been fully vaccinated as in having received their two jabs In other words:
Vaccinate to wine and congregate
Vaccinate to pelvic gyrate
And if you meet somebody who could wine better than you
Dat’s de sign to go quick, quick, quick and get jab two
But if you choose not to vaccinate and deny
Then go in a quiet corner by your “skeptical”, “hesitant’, stupid/chupid lonesome and die
Sans Humanite….
THE AUTHOR is professor emeritus Kent State University, USA.
“In reality, Trinbagonians are just swallowing all of the medical misinformation they hear on US Fox News Cable TV and perpetuated by right-wring conspiratorial commentators including former president Donald John Trump.”
This is an insightful article on the response to vaccination by many in T&T. Many of those in the US who are anti vaccine see their position as a political position. It is their way of bringing down the Biden/Democratic administration that gained a great deal of popularity with its Covid 19 policies; it’s their way of resisting those policies. In some ways it is similar to the suicide bombers who are not reluctant to kill themselves for a cause. The difference with many of the anti vaccine responders in T&T is that while they are copying the misinformation on right-wing cable news, they seem to be unaware of the politics behind those conspiracies, or are they? They are taking these extreme positions without even knowing why, or do they? One of the rationalizations for the anti vaccine position as articulated by Express commentator Andy Johnson, in his article “Covid 19: Why facts don’t matter”, is that the response you have to vaccine is determined by the competence of your public relations effort, it is a matter of the competency of your communications, so it places the responsibility of your vaccine response, not on you but on the adequacy of the communication, a perfect rationalization for allowing the respondent to put the blame back on the communication rather than his/her responsibility to the community. It is the perfect rationalization for politicizing the vaccine response. “If only they had better communication skills, I would take the vaccine – what we need is a political party that can convince me, i.e. my political party.” But we have to ask the question – if a train is bearing down on you and you are on the train line, wouldn’t you jump out the way, or do facts not matter? If the doctor tells you that your sugar is over the top high and you need to take medication immediately or you will go into a coma, would you listen to him or do facts not matter? It’s your decision, suicide bomber or patriot.
I have not taken the “vaccine,” and will not take the “vaccine.” I am in no double mind. I am not “vaccine-hesitant”.
I have in previous contributions given the science and the religion of my position. It is ultimately a religious position, but religious positions must be predicated on findings of fact where applicable. Here, the findings of fact in question are to be found in the Science claimed for the “vaccine”.
Let me explain. As to religion, where there is a conflict between the “law of the LORD”, and the “law of the land”, religion is clear that it is the law of the LORD that in wisdom we ought to choose; see the parable of the book of Susanna for an excellent example.
That choice is often a difficult one, as the law of the land — as in that story — often carries a sanction of death. So it becomes a literal test of faith to hold fast to the implicit promise (of salvation) in the law of the LORD.
In the present case, the law of the LORD that applies is the law against the eating of blood, because, “the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11). The science of these “vaccines”, unlike for smallpox, polio, and the like, is literally in the DNA — the “life” in the blood. For the blood in a sense is but a transport mechanism for the DNA therein. The Covid “vaccines” use DNA manipulation, interfering with the “life” itself, to obtain the result sought. This is different from the smallpox and other vaccines, which use samples of the dead or attenuated virus to trigger the body’s own immune response. With the Covid “vaccines”, man is playing with the life in the blood, itself. It is tantamount to the engineering of chimeric creatures. It is forbidden, under the law of the LORD. (A giveaway in that regard is that aborted-fetus tissue is part of the development process for these vaccines, and/or chimpanzee DNA — look it up.)
Therefore, those of claimed faith have a clear choice.
I know that those of no or little faith will opt for the vaccine. But as for me and my house, we will put our faith in the LORD. So did Susanna in the parable, whose faith in the end was well rewarded, although the matter looked bleak at first,
I know that the debate is clouded by all sorts of other issues, including American party politics, various sorts of secular ideologies and conspiracy theories, and the like. But do not ignore nor discount the real choice the LORD has maneuvered all of us into making: it is a test of faith.
Shalom.
Psalms 91:1-10.
“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall
abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2} I will say of the LORD, [He is] my refuge and my fortress: my
God; in him will I trust.
3} Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, [and]
from the noisome pestilence.
4} He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth [shall be thy] shield and buckler.
5} Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; [nor] for the
arrow [that] flieth by day;
6} [Nor] for the pestilence [that] walketh in darkness; [nor] for
the destruction [that] wasteth at noonday.
7} A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; [but] it shall not come nigh thee.
8} Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
9} Because thou hast made the LORD, [which is] my refuge, [even] the most High, thy habitation;
10} There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.”
“The just shall live by their faith”, this is a powerful statement and an important one, so I am not asserting the omniscience of science, but science and technology have been beneficial to humankind in many ways. Yes they can be misused and can cause much harm also, but it is up to our ethical and spiritual consciousness whether we use or misuse science. Medical science has brought innumerable benefits to human beings and surely we can reconcile faith and science. We should not view medical science as a continuous threat to our faith. (Incidentally the Sinopharm vaccine – killed viral particles, is different from the Pfizer vaccine -mRNA). Using antibiotics to cure a bacterial infection for example should not be a test of our faith It should not be either we believe that God can cure us from this infection or we apostately use the antibiotics. Maybe God provided us with medical discoveries to ease our lives. In any case when we arrive at this choice, either medical science or faith in God, I think we are knocking at the door of testing our faith which is nothing else than testing God. The Archbishop gave us the example of the temptation of Jesus in the desert when Satan took him up to the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: For it is written, ‘He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.” And Jesus replied “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God to the test.’” Every moment of our lives should not require us to test God or our faith. That the just shall live by their faith surely means that their faith has already saved them. Shalom.
Birdie:
Points of clarification:
One- I do not at all view medical science as a continual threat to our faith. I put the matter far more narrowly and pointedly than that. Where a choice must be made between law of the land (ll, say), and law of the LORD (LL, say), faith, and wisdom require that we choose LL. Where ll and LL are not in conflict, we ought certainly to adhere to ll. This includes a consideration and regard for what “science” may recommend.
Two – in the present matter, I am glad you point out that the Sinopharm “vaccine” is indeed a vaccine in the original sense, unlike the RNA/DNA “vaccines” that involve genetic engineering of the human genome, or “life” itself. It is the latter that are objectionable violations of LL.
Three – even the Sinopharm vaccine would involve a test of faith… but for reasons different from violation of LL per se.
What are those reasons? Essentially, we must recognize that Covid is a plague expressly brought upon the world at the hand of the Most High. Therefore, who is to be taken will be taken — whether by Covid or otherwise — and who will “endure to the end and be saved” will endure. That choice will in part be determined by a clear expression of faith.
Matthew 16:25. “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”
Under those circumstances, to take even the otherwise unobjectionable Sinopharm vaccine is to signal a lack of faith at a time when it is precisely faith that will save.
How do we know that the hand of the Most High is now stretched forth? It is a matter of prophecy and fulfillment. Those who are to see it will see it.
The key prophetic fulfillment is of:
Genesis 15:13-14. “And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.”
We the Negro are the fulfillment of verse 13. We have been afflicted 400 years as prophesied, 1611-2011. The cup of affliction has now been passed in judgment (verse 14) to those who afflicted us. That judgment began in 2019, a full seven years after our 400 years of affliction through servitude nominally ended. This is in accordance with:
Isaiah 51:22-23. “Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:
23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.”
The completed action (2011) of verse 22 has been followed after a seven-year delay (seven being the number of completion, the number of the Most High), by the promised future action of verse 23, and starting in the eighth year. Hence the judgment plagues are now upon all those who afflicted us, namely the tabernacles of:
Psalms 83:6-8. “… Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8 Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.”
In the Trinidad and Tobago context, these would be recognized as the “soft-hair alliance”, basically. Around the world, we see who are disproportionately affected, not only by Covid, but also by wild-fires, flood, tempests, earthquake, and the like, to a degree previously not seen.
The Most High’s hand of judgment is outstretched. The repentance needed for it to be stayed (Jeremiah 18:8) simply will not be forthcoming from the soft-hair alliance. They put their trust in Science, after all. Some of our people do the same. It will be to their destruction.
Shalom.
Revelation 18:4. “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”
This article also touches on a distinction between two types of rights with which there is a lot of confusion among letter writers to various newspapers in Trinidad and Tobago. Let us look at this distinction. JS Mill wrote his famous and influential book “On Liberty” outlining what he considered appropriate behavior of the state with regard to the individual rights of citizens. Here is what he says in his introduction to the book, “The object of this essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control, whether the means used be physical force in the form of legal penalties or the moral coercion of public opinion. That principle is the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” Let’s call this “negative rights” or negative freedom, as the equally influential Isaiah Berlin did in his “Two Concepts of Liberty”. Other Hegelian influenced philosophers talked about a different type of rights, the obligation of the state to enable the individual to empower and develop himself, the right to education, to a livelihood, to housing etc. Call these “positive rights”. Isaiah Berlin came along and claimed that these positive rights could create an authoritarian state which may conceive of all sorts of development goals for individuals, and that negative rights or freedoms were the appropriate guiding post for the state in its dealings with individuals. These aforementioned letter writers claim that vaccination for Covid 19 is a positive right; you are doing it so that the person vaccinated can remain and maintain his health. But this is not necessarily so, vaccination for Covid 19 can be seen as a negative right, the state is vaccinating because it wishes to prevent harm to others, not merely to keep you healthy. So this counters the arguments made on the basis of the state wanting to maintain an individual’s health and so he can refuse on the basis that he is in control of his own health. No. Vaccination also deals with the health of others; it deals with preventing harm to others. And that is the basis of any contract between the individual and the state.
Quoting Birdie McClean:
Careful, Birdie…
The Spanish Inquisition used similar logic, I believe, to justify burning heretics… the infamous “auto da fe”…
In any case, if you take the vaccine, and it provides the claimed protection, what business is it of the state if I choose to remain unprotected? Under the assumption of protection of the vaccinated, the unvaccinated can do them no harm…
… Well, except maybe for the cost of potential health services caused by a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”… Such potential cost can in no way justify making the vaccine mandatory…
But perhaps I’m missing something…
Shalom.
Micah :12-13. “But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.
13. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.”
Youraba, I appreciate your cautionary advice and in matters such as these which involve mandates or restrictions on individuals I think it is appropriate. Yet I would like to point out the difference between the burning of heretics in the Spanish Inquisition and J.S Mill’s position of negative freedom or right. “Auto de fe” means “Act of faith” and it summarized the Inquisition’s terminology for the burning of heretics, they were – acts of faith. The very word – heretics- means: a professed believer who maintains religious opinions contrary to those accepted by his or her church or rejects doctrines prescribed by that church. It is a mental act, a belief. Mill was trying in fact to go against that possibility of persecuting people because of their beliefs, or what they did in their bedrooms, or what they looked like. “That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” And he means physical harm, harm to the body. He is not talking of moral harm, or spiritual harm, or religious harm. What we call “liberal society” is built on that principle, that the individual has freedom of belief, freedom of religion, etc. J.S. Mill’s “On liberty” to a great extent defined liberal society and what I am throwing out, as something to think about, is that even in Mill’s concept of the liberal society, vaccine mandates are permissible with the understanding that religious convictions are always grounds for exception from such mandates. Shalom.
Yoruba, I appreciate your cautionary advice and in matters such as these which involve mandates or restrictions on individuals I think it is appropriate. Yet I would like to point out the difference between the burning of heretics in the Spanish Inquisition and J.S Mill’s position of negative freedom or right. “Auto de fe” means “Act of faith” and it summarized the Inquisition’s terminology for the burning of heretics, they were – acts of faith. The very word – heretics- means: a professed believer who maintains religious opinions contrary to those accepted by his or her church or rejects doctrines prescribed by that church. It is a mental act, a belief. Mill was trying in fact to go against that possibility of persecuting people because of their beliefs, or what they did in their bedrooms, or what they looked like. “That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” And he means physical harm, harm to the body. He is not talking of moral harm, or spiritual harm, or religious harm. What we call “liberal society” is built on that principle, that the individual has freedom of belief, freedom of religion, etc. J.S. Mill’s “On liberty” to a great extent defined liberal society and what I am throwing out, as something to think about, is that even in Mill’s concept of the liberal society, vaccine mandates are permissible with the understanding that religious convictions are always grounds for exception from such mandates. Shalom.
So, people does still get influenced by Fox, CNN, etc?
So the PM of St. Vincent got his head buss because of these networks?
Anyway, ‘we’ are waiting for Dr Kwame Nantambu (Look at that name) to tell us how and why Africa is beating this virus.. Fox and Dem will not tell us… Help we out here nah Doc, please..
The AU need to launch their own Broadcasting Corporation… AUBS.
Social Media is showing up these young talented broadcasters…
Who have time for Fox and Dem?!
https://youtu.be/iLQzCQIVRLQ
Aye, Dr Kwame.. ok, I had to take a look at Fox.. our Homie… well, here.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/nicki-minaj-says-shes-in-twitter-jail-will-never-use-platform-again