STORY

Why Lions Don't Suffer Heart Attacks

There's something I have been meaning to write about since April but have always encountered a distraction whenever I put pen to paper. I have a cousin who passed away some few years ago at the age of 25 following a long illness. Those who have read Taste of my Vomit will recall a poem on page 91 titled ghetto heaven. Now, when my cousin was ill there was all these stories of which medication would help him better than the other. The question was between the Western (scientific) or the traditional (indigenous knowledge) which are both available in heavy doses. It's called the orthodox and the alternative (alternative as in Oriental like acupuncture and reflexology which target the energy centres in every person)

Now, depending on who you choose to engage and how indoctrinated is that one you are likely to get totally opposing views. Those who have misread the Bible and misunderstood the inspired text when they had an option of asking the parts they don't understand from those in the know will always shout that non-scientific medication is demonic and evil. They will argue that the fact that the herbalist does not put on a white coat and carry a stethoscope and a pair of scissors means that he can not accurately diagnose because diagnosis is done through studying the vital signs - pulse and temperature.

When you argue further that old people never put a stethoscope on a cow to see that it was suffering from foot-and-mouth they discount the wisdom of bones and human instinct to be as effective as a stethoscope and what they don't understand is that a stethoscope is a headphone while bones are wireless technology. Human beings have relinguished so much of their responsibility to a gadget that still needs them to listen to it and translate the rythmn to discharge effectiveness. So, religious doctrine and a misunderstanding that Apostle Luke, who contributed the book of Luke in the Bible was a medical doctor (read herbalist) means that he was not in a white coat but ordinary clothes but knew from experience how to diagnose and prognoses. The only time anybody with Jesus was in white was when an angel visited them.

Often my argument would be that given that these herbs are buried deep underground and possess such strong remedial qualities, why would the Creator provide humankind with such knowledge not to deploy in the field of medicine but to rather resort to chemicals from a periodic table masquerading as medication to survive? Why would the Creator store these powerful herbs from the heat and soil erosion only for them to be discredited by people who never read between the lines because they were busy looking through microscope or ogling a test tube? Why are these herbs part of our ecosystem if they are not meant to be used to treat diseases?

On another note, one wonders what's the point of having a marijuana plant when the purpose is not to use it for whatever remedial purpose. United States rapper Scarface once rapped, 'she from the block of only finer crops.../a true friend in my time of need - all i need/ you natural you come from seeds - i decree/make me happy when i'm feeling pain/...Mary Jane i love you Mary Jane - do your thang/ through the seasons you ain't never change - stayed the same/... once again makes me happy just to hear your name/ do your thang Mary Jane'.

Discredited AIDS dissident Dr Matthius Rath claims that lions will never die of heart attacks because when they are ill they go back to the ground for Vitamins based remedy which boosts the immune system and not some laboratory product patented to a pharmaceutical company which will dispense it with its side effects like nausea and dizziness which will trigger vomitting which was not there before you took their muti.

Let's go back and dig the ground, probably even the cure for AIDS is buried somewhere in our backyards or the Amazon, forever concealed by Western medicinal dogma while as humans we come from the ground and we should go there for our solutions. One of my friends once asked me where would I take a TOYOTA brand if it started giving me problems. I responded 'to a TOYOTA workshop'. He asked me why wouldn't I take it to a BMW workshop. I argued that 'because TOYOTA knows its cars better than BMW'. Then he asked me why would we take our bodies to a different workshop when we are illing even though we come from the ground and when we die we return back there to nourish the soil so that those still living can have more fresh herbs? I did not respond, he said, that's why we need all herbs today - all the African potatoes and the beetroots and the garlic and their hidden friends, cuz they are our kin.