uwi fired prof fe exposing funnee truth

[blugiant]

‘Hang your head in shame, UWI’


The Editor, Dear Sir, The University of the West Indies (UWI) termination of the contract of Professor Brendain Bain as director of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training (CHART) network is a prejudicial and bigoted move.

The UWI should hang its head in shame for having taken the decision, for it certainly does not coincide with what the University should be promoting. O’ what a fickle university the UWI has turned out to be. I have never been so disappointed in the University. It is now Lobby groups’ beating stick – as Jamaicans would say.

The Professor, being qualified and competent enough to do so, gave testimony for a church party in a constitutional case in Belize involving a man who is challenging the constitutionality of ‘anti-gay laws’ in Belize.

When I first heard of the story, my initial reaction was, the University is going to stand up for its Professor; the University, being a school of learning and advancement is going to advocate for knowledge, the contesting of knowledge and harnessing knowledge. So, I was surprised to hear of the sacking of the Professor. I immediately cried SHAME!

How dare the UWI reprimand the gentleman for stating his position on an issue he is more than qualified to talk about? What really is the University doing? It is a very backward move; the University should harness and promote the use of knowledge to inform decisions - not reprimand people for doing it. SHAME!

The move by the UWI will now force lecturers to crawl back into their shells for fear of being fired from their jobs. Firing a lecturer for giving testimony, the UWI must learn - does not encourage nor promote the use of knowledge and experience to advance Jamaica and the wider Caribbean.

Irrespective of the arguments he had presented, whether he was stating outdated fact or new facts – it is not for any Gay Lobby group to demand anything from the University. It is rude and disgraceful.

The learned Professor presented facts based on what he knows, scientific and otherwise, it is therefore unacceptable and inappropriate for these groups to come to the forefront demanding his head based on emotions. That is unheard of; all well-thinking individuals know that: scientific evidence is contested by scientific evidence.

Throwing in a number of spanners and hoping one will stick is exactly what these groups are doing. First, they stated they had lost confidence in the Professor to carry out his duties. Fine. Does it call for a militant approach? Couldn’t it have been dealt with at an executive level?

All of some 35 groups ejecting venom at the professor is not indicative of concern about his ability to lead, but something else. The second argument was about outdated facts. There are appropriate channels to address these concerns. Were they used?

The lobby groups are intolerant of other people’s views and it does not help their cause. They cannot preach and beg for tolerance from the wider populace, yet they are intolerant to others.

The Lobby groups have only exacerbated the situation and now people will resent them even more. The Lobby groups have won the battle but have lost the war. HANG YOUR HEAD IN SHAME, UWI.



I am,

Romario Scott

Youth Advocate




ONLINE BUZZ
Here are some online reactions to Dr. Bain’s dismissal from the Facebook Page, ‘I support Professor Brendan Bain’

ALMA MOCKYEN: “Time to rethink, UWI administration...or will our government leaders follow your cue? Get rid of those of us who express our fears, angst and anxieties openly on such channels as Facebook?”

KACY WEST: “He didn’t express “views” ... he reported scientific facts. And if those facts are uncomfortable for 35 lobby groups that called for Bain’s dismissal, then we need to ask WHO these people are, WHY they have so much power and WHERE they are leading UWI and other educational institutions, when they base decisions on emotions/fetishes instead of on facts and logic. if you or anyone else can compile a list of the groups it would be greatly appreciated.”

LADY TAMAYA WILSON: “There are many questions that need to be answered. Who are the 33 organizations that wrote UWI for Bain to be sacked? Which of them currently provide funding to CHART or UWI? How many of them are potential future funders? Were any of the groups covered by the umbrella lobby groups consulted for their opinion? Has any promise of funding been made contingent on his dismissal? Was there any threat to withdraw funding if he was not dismissed?”

ROBERT WESTCART: “UWI and its backers should be ashamed of themselves; trampling on the right of free speech...When is it a crime to say what you believe in? This institution of higher education needs to look at itself.”

QUINCY JOHNSON: “So the UWI fired this man for doing his job. Today, Prof. Bain, tomorrow anyone who doesn’t agree with the agenda OR can prove the destructive nature of the gay lifestyle - even if it is proven via secular scientific views. This man helped AIDS & HIV victims through his work and because some loud mouth ppl didn’t like hearing the truth of the matter, they resort to bullying him & the UWI. Well, let them continue in their ways, only death and destruction await them and the irony is that they are only causing it on themselves. As for me and my house, we will not bend to their evil agenda, we won’t be swayed by what they say or do. My belief is my belief and at the end of the day, no amount of bullying will change that.”

http://www.westernmirror.com/index.php/permalink/6942.html

[blugiant]

Belize Action protests ouster of Brendan Bain


Friday, May 23, 2014. AARON HUMES Reporting: This afternoon in Belize City, members of Belize’s Christian community led by Belize Action showed their support for fired UWI professor Dr. Brendan Bain, released after pressure from LGBT rights organizations for his testimony in the Caleb Orozco Case last May.

They taped their mouths shut, displaying a message stating “freedom under attack” as well as additional slogans on placards.

Pastor Richard Smith of Belmopan says it is about family values.

While LGBT have their individual rights and freedoms it is felt that they are interfering with Dr. Bain’s right to work and live and have free speech.

Attorney Audrey Matura-Shepherd felt the wrath of the LGBT movement when last year she wrote a critical column in the Amandala newspaper that prompted her to leave the vice-presidency of OCEANA in Belize.

She told us that if the LGBT are allowed to get away with bullying their opponents that there is no limit to what they will do.

Can what Orozco and his supporters did be classified as a crime?

Pastor and news director for PLUS TV Louis Wade thinks so.

Because the case has not been decided, he told us, any attempt to disturb expert witnesses like Dr. Bain can be seen as witness tampering. But he said he would leave it to Government to speak out.

The protest lasted through the lunch hour.

http://www.patrickjonesbelize.com/2014/05/23/belize-action-protests-ouster-brendan-bain/

[blugiant]

The sacking of Dr Brendon Bain: The dilemma of our times



THE latest example of how we self-destruct as a nation comes in this week's firing of Professor Brendan Bain as director of the Regional Co-ordinating Unit of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training (CHART) Network, by the University of the West Indies (UWI). Dr Bain lost his job following news reports that a coalition of 33 lobby groups from across the Caribbean had called for his head because of expert testimony he gave in a constitutional challenge brought by a gay Belizean man against that country's criminal code in September 2010.

Dr Bain, regarded as a pioneer in clinical infectious disease practice in the Caribbean and a leading medical authority on the HIV epidemic in the region, has developed a formidable reputation for caring and devoted service to the HIV/AIDs community but that could not save him because he has an opinion against homosexuality.

And that's the bane of our existence, if readers will forgive the unintended pun.

Just before that it was the turn of Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell, who was hounded out of the 381-megawatt power plant project, to suit certain interest groups, without any solid explanation as to what is being done now to get the project back on track. We're good, really good at dismantling but not so at building.

In capitulating to the pro-gay interest groups, the University of the West Indies — we have no doubt — would have considered the various agendas of its donors, many of whom have serious financial clout and are very favourable to the gay community. But the decision has left the university on the horns of a dilemma.

Must all its officers now subscribe wholly to the lifestyle of the various communities they serve? Was it in Dr Bain's job description, as well as that of the other academics at the UWI, that he must hold no public opinion against homosexuality? How far must the university go in censoring and muzzling its academics to suit interest groups? Is this the end of scientific freedom and freedom of expression in the academic community?

Of course, the decision would also have confirmed what many people have long held that homosexuals have strong influence in the running of the university and have firmly ensconced themselves in the human rights lobby.

We have been consistently circumspect in this editorial space where the gay lifestyle is concerned, promoting tolerance about people's right to their lifestyle if it does no harm to other citizens. But we admit to growing unease that the gay community is not as tolerant as they want others to be of them.

If action speaks louder than words, Dr Bain's hard work to better the life of HIV/AIDS sufferers should have outweighed his personal opinion against homosexuality. A surgeon may be publicly against murder but that should not stop him from saving a murderer's life in his professional capacity. And who is to say that all HIV/AIDS sufferers are men who have sex with men (MSMs)? Who is speaking for those who are not gay?

We should be free to admit that not all MSMs are promiscuous, wild and careless about sex. But there are some who are, and this makes Dr Bain's pronouncement about the spread of HIV/AIDS among MSMs something to be taken seriously.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/editorial/The-sacking-of-Dr-Brendon-Bain--The-dilemma-of-our-times_16716174

[blugiant]

da gleaner seems fe be defendinn homosexualitee ann da firing aff prof bain. mii wander woo own ja gleaner? sum bigg peeps att da gleaners inna a latt aff back back smellee tings

[blugiant]

Pioneering University HIV/AIDS researcher sacked over accurate but politically incorrect court testimony



Dr. Brendan Bain, a pioneer in fighting HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean, lost his research position at University of West Indies after submitting expert report in landmark Belize case.




belize

[blugiant]

Pioneering University HIV/AIDS researcher sacked over accurate but politically incorrect court testimony


Dr. Brendan Bain, a pioneer in fighting HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean, lost his research position at University of West Indies after submitting expert report in landmark Belize case.



The attacks on a University of Virginia law professor for expressing legal views not in keeping with the views of some LGBT activists and much of the political establishment has created a stir in legal academia.

In Jamaica, a somewhat analogous case is developing regarding a recently retired professor who was fired from his continuing HIV/AIDS research position after filing an accurate, but politically incorrect, expert report in a highly contentious case in Belize (h/t Blazing Cat Fur). The case has received almost no attention outside the Caribbean press, and none in the U.S. as far as I can tell.

The background is that the Belize Supreme Court is considering a court case seeking to overturn Section 53 of the criminal code, which bans some forms of homosexual behavior, specifically male-on-male sodomy. Argument was held in May 2013 but there has been no decision as of this writing.

The highly charged nature of the case pits a coalition of international gay rights activists against some Christian churches and groups.

Enter Dr. Brendan Bain, who retired as a Professor in 2013 from the University of West Indies. While still a professor, in 2012 Dr. Bain submitted testimony in the form of an Expert Report in the case (embedded in full at the bottom of this post).

Dr. Bain is one of the pioneers in the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean, as detailed in the introduction to his Expert Report, and in the numerous news reports referenced later in this post.

Among other things, even after his retirement as a professor Dr. Bain was director of the U.S.-funded Regional Coordinating Unit of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training (CHART), which he helped create. Here is his bio from 2013 from the CHART website:

Dr. Brendan Bain is Professor of Community Health at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Coordinator of the UWI HIV/AIDS Response Programme (UWI HARP) and Director of the Regional Coordinating Unit of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training Network (CHART). He is trained in internal medicine, clinical infectious diseases, and public health. He has worked as a Consultant Physician at the University Hospital of the West Indies for 25 years and has been a leader in AIDS care and treatment in Jamaica. He is an advisor on HIV/AIDS to the Jamaican Ministry of Health and the Association of Commonwealth Universities.Dr. Bain has been a pioneer Clinical Infectious Diseases Lecturer and Attending Physician at the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), Mona, Jamaica since 1980. He is a former Wellcome Trust Research Fellow in Infectious Diseases and was part of a team of doctors who reported the first case of AIDS to be recognized in Jamaica in 1983. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of International Health of the Boston University School of Public Health.

Dr. Bain has served as an advisor on pharmaceuticals and infectious diseases to the Jamaican Ministry of Health since 1980. He is an active member of the Pan-Caribbean Partnership against AIDS (PANCAP) and sat on its first Board. He is an inaugural member of the Trans-Caribbean HIV/AIDS Research Initiative (TCHARI), established in 2006 with support from the US National Institutes of Health. In 1989-1990, Dr. Bain was appointed by the Jamaican Ministry of Health as the first National HIV/AIDS Staff Trainer for hospital and laboratory personnel. In that capacity, he designed and led a series of on-site workshops and seminars for all categories of staff in the 21 public hospitals of Jamaica and their associated microbiology and pathology laboratories.In the 1990s, he led the first national educational workshops on HIV/AIDS for healthcare personnel in Belize and the Cayman Islands. In August 1999, he started an out-patient clinic for persons living with HIV/AIDS at UHWI and has inspired the commencement of a similar clinic at the Kingston Public Hospital.

The Caribbean Health Leadership Institute describes the importance of Dr. Bain in fighing HIV/AIDS:

Brendan Bain is the Principal Investigator on the CDC grant to support the launch of the Caribbean Health Leadership Institute. He helped to start the UWI HIV/AIDS Response Programme (UWI HARP) in 2001 and serves as its Lead Coordinator. He also directs the Regional Coordinating Unit of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training (CHART) Network, part of UWI HARP. He is one of the pioneers in Clinical Infectious Disease practice in the Caribbean and was responsible for launching the first medical clinic dedicated to the care and treatment of persons living with HIV/AIDS in Jamaica.

The general thesis of the Expert Report was as follows, in part:

This report shows that the relative risk of contracting HIV is significantly higher among men who have sex with other men (MSM) in Belize than in the general population. This is also true in several other countries for which data are available, including countries that have repealed the law that criminalizes anal sex and countries where the law still applies.

Dr. Bain did not take sides in the dispute, and his findings themselves are not the focus of controversy, as one observer who supports the repeal of the ban has noted:

If you haven’t read Prof Bain’s affidavit, I encourage you to do so. … It is difficult to find much objectionable in it. Most interestingly it doesn’t seem to take the militant stance that on one hand some Christians are celebrating, and on the other, HIV/AIDS workers are criticizing him for. For the most part the document simply makes the undisputable point that for both biological and social/cultural/behavioural reasons — the HIV virus is passed on to Men who have sex with Men with something that approaches efficiency. The figures are simply staggering…. Bain’s affidavit does not take or register a stance against gay communities or gay men. It earnestly steers clear from such opinions and tries to stick to the figures….

The Jamaican National AIDS Committee issued a statement that it had no problem with the content of Dr. Bain’s report:

The National AIDS Committee wishes to clarify that it takes no issue with the content of the Report of Professor Brendan Bain to the Court in Belize. There is nothing in that Report which is contrary to or offensive to the work of the National AIDS Committee.

In his report, Professor Bain highlighted for the court that homosexual men were at higher risk of contracting HIV and other sexual transmitted infections and that a supportive environment is needed at the community and governmental levels to enable high risk groups to access and practice safe sex.

This is the very position of the National AIDS Committee….

Rather, Dr. Bain’s mere participation in the case and seeming to render an opinion that arguably helps defenders of the Belize law upset a coalition of activists, who demanded Dr. Bain’s removal from his position as the head of CHART, as The Jamaica Gleaner reported:

Some 35 advocacy groups, under the banner of the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition, had written to the vice-chancellor of the UWI, Professor E. Nigel Harris, to indicate that they had lost confidence in Bain as the head of CHART, following his statement in the case, submitted in 2012, and called for him to be removed.

The Coalition’s full statement is here, and reads in part:

We thank retired Professor Brendan Bain, with whom many of us once worked productively and collegially, for his acknowledged contributions to fighting HIV in the region, and we reaffirm our respect for his freedom to express his personal views in academic and other settings.

It is not his right to have deeply held views that has been at issue, but the evident conflict of his action to rob some of justice and equality before the law with his capacity to represent UWI’s values in leading an HIV movement working for health and justice for all.

The university has been careful to note the hurt Professor Bain’s advocacy has done to gay and lesbian persons in the Caribbean….

And so it happened, Dr. Bain was removed from the position he helped create:

The UWI, in its statement announcing Bain’s dismissal, said that “Many authorities familiar with the brief presented believe that Professor Bain’s testimony supported arguments for retention of the law, thereby contributing to the continued criminalisation and stigmatisation of MSM. This opinion is shared by the lesbian, gay and other groups who are served by CHART”.

The university also said that while it recognises Bain’s right to provide expert testimony in the manner he did, “it has become increasingly evident that he has lost the confidence and support of a significant sector of the community which the CHART programme is expected to reach”.

The removal has created a great deal of controversy in Belize and Jamaica, much of which is religious in nature, but also revolving around freedom of speech and academic freedom:

The Jamaican Bar Association and the Medical Association of Jamaica came out strongly in defense of Dr. Bain:

OPPOSITION to the sacking of Professor Brendan Bain continued to mount Friday as the influential Jamaican Bar Association (Jambar) took the University of the West Indies (UWI) to task while expressing concern that the controversial decision could have an adverse impact on experts giving testimony in Jamaica…

The Bar Association also sided with the Medical Association of Jamaica (MAJ) on the issue of the veracity of scientific conclusion, saying that it “should only be challenged on the basis of science and not on emotion or sentiment its conclusions may evoke”.

The MAJ and Jambar concurred that statements of fact are never meant to be offensive. They insisted that as an expert witness, Bain’s “testimony to the Court is a duty to the Court, and is the opinion of the expert himself. He is therefore obliged to discharge his testimony truthfully and professionally”.

The Medical Association of Jamaica was disappointed by the firing, as reported by the Jamaica Gleaner:

The Medical Association of Jamaica (MAJ) has expressed disappointment over the termination of Professor Brendan Bain as the director of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training (CHART) Network.

Dr Shane Alexis, president of the MAJ, said last night that the MAJ’s discontent over the fracas between the parties involved was based on the shifting of the focus from the prevention of HIV to differences in opinions and individual agendas.

“The MAJ is disappointed that one of the pioneers in the diagnosis and treatment of HIV/AIDS is no longer leading CHART. We want to encourage everyone, all stakeholders, to focus on HIV/AIDS and not against each other,” Alexis told The Gleaner.

An I Support Professor Brendan Bain Facebook page has been started as has a Change.org Petition which as of this writing has over 2800 signatures.

Carolyn Cooper, a professor of literary and cultural studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona, who supports repeal of the Belize law, protested the termination:

I do support repeal of the Belize law that criminalises “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any person or animal”. But I am appalled by the decision of the UWI administration to bow to belligerent gay-rights activists, bringing down disgrace on a distinguished academic who has done so much to protect the health of MSM [Men having Sex with Men].

Even within the gay rights community in the Caribbean, opinion is split over the firing.

The University of West Indies, however, disputes that it was forced to fire Dr. Bain or that it is a question of academic freedom, arguing instead that Dr. Bain’s submission of the report frayed his ability to work with constituent groups (full statement here):

UWI Vice Chancellor Professor E. Nigel Harris, told RJR News that the decision to relieve the Professor Bain of his duties, was not about the university caving in to pressure from influential and powerful gay rights lobby groups. He said, it is not an issue about Professor Bain’s academic freedom.

“But if he were a member of the academic community this would have no impact on his academic standing. This is not about his rights to give testimony, it is not about his rights as a Christian, it is not about the views that he might hold, this is about someone having a position in a programme which the university has been contracted to manage and really losing the confidence of the people in an important sector that the programme must reach.

(Audio here also)

There are wider implications, since CHART is funded under a grant from the U.S. government, as Jamaican attorney Gordon Robinson wrote in the Jamaica Gleaner:

Brendan Bain has been in charge of CHART from its inception in 2003 until now. The programme has recorded monumental successes. Bain led the team that wrote the grant application for the ongoing CHART project. As a result, the project was awarded a five-year grant for the period, April 2012-March 2017, valued in 2012 at US$ 9 million.

This grant is one of the largest UWI has received; is also the first grant awarded by the US Health Resources and Services Administration to a university outside the USA; and was awarded on the basis that Professor Bain was identified in the grant document as the principal investigator and project director.

There have been numerous protests so far, including one today at UWI, as posted on Facebook

It will be interesting to see where this leads.

The press coverage in Jamaica has been fairly intense. The firing seems to transcend the prior framing of the dispute as churches versus gay rights.

Now it’s become about freedom of speech and academic freedom. Just like in the United States.

http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/05/pioneering-university-hivaids-researcher-sacked-over-accurate-but-politically-incorrect-court-testimony/

[RichD]

da gleaner seems fe be defendinn homosexualitee ann da firing aff prof bain. mii wander woo own ja gleaner? sum bigg peeps att da gleaners inna a latt aff back back smellee tings

Garfield Grandison is the editor

you can email him at [email protected]

[blugiant]

VIDEO: More pressure

Protests over Prof Bain's sacking in Kingston, Belize City


A second protest against the firing of Professor Brendan Bain increased pressure on the University of the West Indies (UWI) yesterday as the controversy sparked by the decision continued to spiral.

Yesterday's protest, held at the UWI's main gate on Mona Road in Kingston, across from the office of the vice chancellor, came three days after a similar demonstration in Belize City, Belize, where Bain's expert testimony just under two years ago in a constitutional challenge brought by a gay Belizean man against that country's criminal code eventually led to the professor's dismissal as head of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training (CHART) Network last Tuesday.

That action sparked the first protest outside the UWI the following day and opened a floodgate of criticism of the university, which has been accused of bowing to pressure from the gay lobby who had demanded Bain's head.

The Mona protest yesterday saw the involvement of prominent religious leaders, one of whom said Christians should not be surprised if homosexuals marched against the Church in Jamaica.

"What may happen next is that I am looking for them to march on our churches," said Wellesley Blair, administrative bishop for the New Testament Church of God in Jamaica and The Cayman Islands.

"What is going to happen next [is that] I may not be able to go into my pulpit to preach without being arrested; but I am not afraid," Blair told the Jamaica Observer as he joined more than 100 protestors, most of whom were dressed in black and who had their mouths covered with masking tape labelled 'Free speech'.

Bain earned the ire of a coalition of 33 gay and human rights lobby groups from across the Caribbean when he testified in the challenge brought by Belizean Caleb Orozco that the risk of contracting HIV is significantly higher among men who have sex with other men (MSMs).

Orozco had argued in September 2010 that the law, which states that "every person who has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any person or animal shall be liable to imprisonment for 10 years", violates his right to the recognition of human dignity, to personal privacy and the privacy of the home guaranteed by the Belize constitution.

But Bain, regarded as a pioneer in clinical infectious disease practice in the Caribbean and a leading medical authority on the HIV epidemic in the region, said in his testimony that the risk to MSMs and their intimate sexual partners is not just to their physical health.

"The adverse physical and physiological consequences of STIs (including HIV) in MSMs create significant and avoidable financial costs to individuals, households and governments. These important considerations must be included when considering whether to give public approval to risky behaviours such as are often practised by MSMs," Bain said in his testimony.

But the lobby groups said Bain's testimony represented a conflict of interest and argued that he had lost the confidence of the community that the CHART was established to serve.

The UWI, in announcing its dismissal of Bain, echoed that view and said that many authorities familiar with his testimony believe that it supported arguments for retention of the law, thereby contributing to the continued criminalisation and stigmatisation of MSMs. "This opinion," the UWI said, "is shared by the lesbian, gay and other groups who are served by CHART".

But UWI's action and explantion have resulted in a number of individuals and organisations questioning the university's commitment to academic freedom and free speech.

Among them was the Jamaican Bar Association which, last weekned, expressed concern that the controversial decision could have an adverse impact on experts giving testimony in Jamaica.

Yesterday, during the protest, child rights advocate Betty Ann Blaine said the UWI's decision has left professionals, including church officials in Jamaica, hesitant to speak out on certain issues as they were now concerned about the implications.

A pastor who was among the demonstrators said: "It is Professor Bain today, but who will be next, will it be pastors in the church, will they become a target, will they be taken down from the pulpits as they preach the word which also speaks out against such lifestyle?"

Popular clergyman Reverend Al Miller also added his voice to the protest.

"We will continue to make our voices heard. There is no question that the church should be leading the charge," said Miller.

"We do believe that injustice has been done. We do believe that it is continuing to speak to the issue of declining commitment to values and principles," Miller added.

"This is a critical defining moment for a nation which must decide its destiny; it must decide what are the principles and values that we are going to live by," he said.

"Any nation that gives in to allow moral and spiritual decline there is no question that they will never ever recover from the social and economic breakdown," Miller said.

Daniel Thomas, president of Love March Movement, another Christian organisation, agreed.

The group said that they intended to continue the protest tomorrow.

Last Friday, in Belize City, Christians, led by Christian group Belize Action, voiced support for Professor Bain in a lunch-hour street protest.

A website run by Belize Media Group reported that the protestors "taped their mouths shut, displaying a message stating 'freedom under attack'" and held placards with other messages.

According to the website, Pastor Richard Smith of Belmopan said the protest was about family values.

"While LGBT have their individual rights and freedoms, it is felt that they are interfering with Dr Bain's right to work and live and have free speech," the website said.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/More-pressure_16745859

[blugiant]

Leading Caribbean AIDS Expert FIRED For Noting That Gay Males Get AIDS From Anal Sex


Protests are growing in Jamaica after the sacking of a leading Caribbean authority on HIV/AIDS because he testified as an expert witness on behalf of religious groups against an anti-sodomy law in Belize.

The expert is Brendan Bain, a doctor who had been employed by the Jamaica campus of the University of the West Indies – a public school – before he was canned last week.

Bain’s controversial expert opinion was that “the relative risk of contracting HIV is significantly higher among men who have sex with other men in Belize than in the general population,” according to Legal Insurrection’s William Jacobson.

“This is also true in several other countries for which data are available, including countries that have repealed the law that criminalizes anal sex and countries where the law still applies,” Bain explained in his expert report.

Protesters, who hit the University of the West Indies campus near Kingston on Monday, say school administrators fired Bain because he expressed his professional opinion.

“This is a free speech issue and it’s a truth issue,” said Doreen Brady-West, an oncologist on the school’s faculty of medical sciences, according to ABC News.

Another protester, the Rev. Naila Ricketts of a Jamaican ministry group called “Prayer 2000,” condemned “homo-fascists” for Bain’s ouster. “They want to shut us up,” he contended. “They want to crush us.”

The university’s administration removed Bain as the chief of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training Network (CHART).

In announcing the firing, school officials blamed their decision on the loss of support for CHART among “a significant sector” of people who focus on HIV prevention in the region.

Bain proffered the written testimony that got him dismissed back in 2012 after church groups defending an anti-sodomy law in Belize asked him to provide his expert opinion.

Except for sub-Saharan Africa, the nations of the Caribbean boast the world’s highest proportion of HIV infection. As ABC notes, some HIV authorities have suggested that the region has the highest HIV infection rate in the world among gay men.

Approximately three dozen HIV prevention groups had denounced Bain for suggesting that gay anal sex among men is a significant contributing factor to HIV/AIDS infection.

Bain’s critics argued successfully that his testimony was inconsistent with his leadership of a group dedicated to preventing AIDS and played a role in “the continued criminalization and stigmatization” of homosexual behavior, according to ABC.

Jamaica’s National AIDS Committee weighed in on Bain’s termination, according to the Jamaica Observer, saying that it “takes no issue with the content” of Bain’s testimony.

http://dailycaller.com/2014/05/27/leading-caribbean-aids-expert-fired-for-noting-that-gay-males-get-aids-from-anal-sex/

[blugiant]

Homosexual bigots


I would not say the word bigot is of common use in our society… at least not to me and I surmise that because as a society Belize is far more tolerant and passive than many other societies. This can be good, because we should be a peace-loving people. So for those who do not know what the word means or use it loosely I have taken time to enlighten myself as to its dictionary definition and have a few to share.

Big·ot (noun) – 1. a person who is utterly intolerant of any differing creed, belief, or opinion. Origin: 1590–1600; < Middle French ( Old French: derogatory name applied by the French to the Normans), perhaps < Old English bī God by God. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bigot);

2. Intolerance towards those who hold different opinions from oneself (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/de...lish/bigotry);

3. A person who is intolerant of any ideas other than his or her own, especially on religion, politics, or race. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bigot)



The Free Dictionary website provides this history of the origin: “Word History: Bigots may have more in common with God than one might think. Legend has it that Rollo, the first duke of Normandy, refused to kiss the foot of the French king Charles III, uttering the phrase bi got, his borrowing of the assumed Old English equivalent of our expression by God. Although this story is almost surely apocryphal, it is true that bigot was used by the French as a term of abuse for the Normans, but not in a religious sense. Later, however, the word, or very possibly a homonym, was used abusively in French for the Beguines, members of a Roman Catholic lay sisterhood. From the 15th century on Old French bigot meant “an excessively devoted or hypocritical person.” Bigot is first recorded in English in 1598 with the sense “a superstitious hypocrite.”



Who are the bigots

So it seems from the above definitions anyone can be a bigot. All you need to do is be intolerant of any view other than yours to the point that it is not just disagreeing but outright unable to countenance it that you would seek to annihilate it. The word intolerant in and of itself is a very strong word with much depth of meaning … it makes me envision rejecting something, wanting to get rid of something because you are unable or unwilling to support it or have it around.

The online Meriman dictionary defines intolerant as follows: “not willing to allow or accept something: not willing to allow some people to have equality, freedom, or other social rights; medicine : unable to take a certain substance into the body without becoming sick”

Thus it seems that anything that you repulse because it is of a different view merits you being called a bigot. However, interestingly the word seems to be used of recent as a national anthem for the non-hetero-sexual agenda, who seem to have condemned to bigotry anyone who does not support their agenda, view or opinion and especially if said person dares to express a different view. To me there is a vast difference between people holding differing view and thus agreeing to disagree and people having a different view seeking to quash the person with the other or opposing view.

For varying reasons and beliefs of my own I do not ascribe to men having sex with men, call it by whatever other name you want, but I do not think it leads to a healthy life style nor society, and it is even worse when the same men having sex with men then go and have sex with those of the fairer sex. However, to each his choice and since sex is such a private act, it is best left in the confines of whichever room where it is performed.

But it seems that no matter what is the reason, once a person expresses disagreement with that new age open lifestyle the fanatic pro-gay, LGBT, and profilers quickly call the person with an opposing view a bigot. Hmmmm…. That is funny because the one calling the other is as much a bigot for not being tolerant of the other person’s view.

The “agendaist”, as I will call those people who cannot deal with an opposing view on the gay and men-sex-men have become so intolerant to the point of extreme bigotry that their modus operandi has been to: identify; isolate; target and annihilate. It’s as if they have a manual or their own code of conduct.



Men-sex-men = High Risk!

If I had any doubt that this is their modus operandi. The recent demand for the University of the West Indies to terminate, or rather annihilate Dr. Brendan Bain leaves no doubt. Imagine the here is a professional called by one side of the case in Belize, to give expert evidence. This was an option opened to both sides. Our Civil Procedure Rule 2005 allows for expert witness to be called. At Part 32 it outlines the duty and the process of the expert to and in the court.

It states at Rule 32.4(2) “An expert witness must provide independent assistance to the courts by way of objective unbiased opinion in relation to matters within his expertise”.

To which one of the statements the good professor made was that there is no evidence that decriminalizing sodomy will reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS and cited that in countries where it is not criminalized the rate has still not gone down. Of course this defeats the position presented by UNIBAM that the criminalization has caused grown men, who already know how to sex anally, from making a mature decision and seek medical care for sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS. Now whether you are hetero-sexual or homosexual, common sense will tell you seek medical help. And cultural context will tell you that generally by nature male are very reluctant to go to the doctor.

But in an ironic twist of events in the great USA where even the president is promoting this lifestyle as part of his agenda to appease his lobbyist, there is an interesting news coming out about the increase incidence of syphilis amongst men having sex with men.

“The Atlanta-based Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), dated May 9 of this year, identifies the alarming trend of an “increase in syphilis among MSM [men who have sex with men]” as a “major public health concern.” But more than that, the latest available CDC information also reveals that since 1995 several STDs are quite literally exploding across the United States among homosexual men.” Read more at http://barbwire.com/2014/05/14/cdc-s...wuUyqmSCbm9.99

Syphilis weakens the immune system and causes the virus that causes AID to attack the body. Now this is the very danger against which Prof. Bain was warning and he gets fired for telling the truth… ouch! THE TRUTH HURTS!



Bully Bain …. UWI No Shame!

What is rather interesting about this unjust termination is that Professor Bain has been at the helm of CHART (Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training) Centre since its inception and there was nothing but great reviews of him. His performance and work was so sterling that even when he retired he was asked to return on contract the UWI press statements says he “has had a distinguished career primarily in the field of HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean”.

All was well with his work until he made his findings known in a very public manner and in the very boxing ring set up by the LGBT extremist and they did not like that they were beaten in their own fight, so they had to play dirty outside the ring.

In June 2001, the CARICOM Secretariat proposed the creation of a CHART Centre and two years later the CHART Network was established “for the purpose of contributing to systematic capacity development among institutional and community–‐based healthcare workers involved in prevention of HIV/AIDS and in care, treatment and support of persons living with HIV and AIDS”. However, it seems that the reason UWI had to sell its soul and cave in is simply over money and as usual we in the region sell ourselves short and love the colonial master mentality.

By its own admission UWI explains that CHART “is not a department of the UWI but a regional project managed by the University under a contract funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR), the Global Fund and a group of US agencies, to train health workers dealing with patients and communities affected by HIV/AIDS.” Now key here is the emphasis on the US Agencies who are driving the gay-agenda, which has hijacked the HIV/AIDS portfolio and act as if only homosexuals are concerned with AIDS. So the minority group has demanded the head of “John the Baptist”, a loss to self and the majority, hetero-sexual population who are also at risk for AIDS…. This backside turn upside down, no pun intended …. HMMM!



Fact of AIDS unchanged

With Prof. Bain out of the way this does not in any way change his view given as an expert, and still it will NEVER change the fact that penis penetration into a feces canal will increase your risk of any STD’s and those STD’s include HIV/AIDS. In the case of men who do not consider themselves “gay” and still enjoying putting that same penis into a vaginal canal the risk is taken to another level.

It states at Rule 32.4(3) An expert witness must state the facts or assumptions upon which his opinion is based…”. So when Professor Bain explained that decriminalizing sodomy still does not address the problem, he simply was showing that the argument is not about law but responsible behavior. Even if they legalize abortion and I know the mental and physical health risk associated with it, why would I make that choice.

So according to the fire-Bain-advocates these were the words that Bain gave in his expert evidence that they find most offensive : “Together with promoting individual responsibility, it is clear that environments that enable individuals to make and practice safe and healthy choices must be provided at family, community and GOVERNMENTAL levels,…”. He said nothing about allowing discrimination and stigmatizing LGBT’s. This statement is equally applicable to the minority groups and the majority groups.

So the individual responsibility, I opine, is that even if sodomy is legalized and I engage in it, it being decriminalized does not make me any less vulnerable. And asking that from the family level to the government level they provide humans, of whichever sexual preference, with healthy choices can in no way have caused the minority groups served by CHART to lose confidence.

Rather, this position should have been embraced if the issue was really about reducing HIV/AIDS, but I now conclude it is not about that…. It’s about promoting a lifestyle and sexual choice and wanting it to be embraced and accepted and anyone who gets in the way must have their heads roll!

From 2008 to 2010 the new HIV infection rate grew 12%, from 26,700 to 29,800 cases reported. One in five sexually active MSM carry the AIDS virus, but nearly half of those don’t even know it. However, HIV/AIDS is not the only problem, as the new CDC report on syphilis makes clear. According to the Linacre paper, “MSM are far more likely to be diagnosed with other STDs, some of which have become resistant to commonly used antibiotics.” Read more at http://barbwire.com/2014/05/14/cdc-s...wuUyqmSCbm9.99



The real bigots!

Now, we are all entitled to our own opinion, but we are not entitled to demand the removal of anyone from their jobs and the denial of their constitutional rights: to work; to free speech, to freedom of conscience just because we did not like that their opinion opposed ours! That is low at its lowest since if the role were reversed the bigots so promoting it would not like the same be done.

Further, this now means that we will next hear a call for the removal of the government attorney, who valiantly oppose UNIBAM, we will hear a call for the removal from the roll of attorneys, the two local attorneys who did a splendid job with their arguments.

And after Friday’s protest we might find Caleb hand in to Mrs. PM Kim Simpliss a list of all the government employed person who took time out of their lunch to protest the dismissal of professor Bain. To truly talk about equality she must condemn the LGBT’s phobia of those who do not wish to ascribe to that lifestyle and the LGBT’s economic violence on people like Prof. Bain, who must lose his livelihood for having a perceived different view… such irony and hypocrisy for a few minutes of air time!

Does anyone wonder why would these bigots do this and get away with it…well because they do not really want equal rights, they want superior rights based on how and with whom they have sex, and they know they will get away with it because they got the funding behind them…. No pun intended! Look out the US government has positioned itself to now pressure and influence our government and people to their new world agenda!

Thus I say, “can the real bigots please stand up, please stand up..!” Let the Bigots seek to fire me if they are intolerant of my position and writing on this matter! Ha!

God forgive them because they do not know what they do but expose the darkness of their hearts!

http://www.patrickjonesbelize.com/2014/05/26/op-ed-bigots-midst/

[blugiant]

affii bigg upp bruce golding fe speakinn trooth to power


Jamaica Folding Under Pressure of Powerful Gay-Rights Lobby, Former Prime Minister Says

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/

Written by former Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding:

The sacking of Prof Brendan Bain illustrates the intimidating power of the gay-rights lobby, as well as external sources of funding on which we have to rely. I am saddened at the treatment, not just to Professor Bain, but to the Caribbean community.

In his affidavit, Professor Bain rendered a professional opinion that the practice of MSM (men who have sex with other men) was harmful and that decriminalizing it would not necessarily lead to a reduction in the rate of HIV infections. Other professionals may offer contrary views, and the litigants in this particular case are entitled to present affidavits in support of those views.

Professor Bain cannot be expected to render an opinion other than his own. His statement can render him unfit to serve as head of CHART [Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training] only if its charter or mandate includes the removal of legal impediments to MSM. Its mission statement says no such thing. Its purpose is “to strengthen the capacity of national health-care personnel and systems to provide access to quality HIV and AIDS prevention, care, and treatment and support services for all Caribbean people.” Nothing in Professor Bain’s affidavit can be said to compromise his ability or commitment to fulfill that mandate.

The awesome power of the gay-rights lobby is at work here, there and everywhere. Phil Robertson and the Benham brothers were recently booted from their television shows for making anti-gay comments. The CEO of Mozilla Firefox was forced to resign because of a donation made six years ago to an organization opposed to the legalization of same-sex marriage in California.

But there is also the awesome power of the donors. CHART is funded primarily by overseas agencies: USAID, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Resources and Services Administration, Global AIDS Program and the Global Fund.

While I was in office, subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle pressure was exerted by some foreign governments and agencies to have the buggery provisions removed from our statutes. I rebuffed these efforts because I felt this involved social, cultural and religious considerations on which Jamaica – and Jamaica alone – would have to deliberate.

I am not opposed to the repeal of the buggery provisions in our laws because I don’t think that legislation can, or should, try to regulate sexual practices, except in certain circumstances such as in the protection of children. The State has no business barging into any bedroom to molest homosexuals any more than it would fornicators or adulterers.

Many Jamaicans, including me, are of the view, however, that once those provisions are repealed, the battle cry will be sounded to secure recognition of same-sex unions and eventually same-sex marriages.

The new libertarian view that has captured the mind of even President Obama is that this is an expression of an individual’s right to choose. It is a dangerous view because it completely severs the moral considerations that inform the norms of a society and the value system within which it operates. The entire society may not be faithful to its value system, but it, nonetheless, recognizes its legitimacy and frame of reference. Hence, although adultery and multiple sex partners may be common in Jamaica, no lobby has yet been mounted to legalize polygamy

[blugiant]

Garfield Grandison is the editor

you can email him at [email protected]

gleaner suck fe dem java script prevent mii fram readinn moas aff dem artikkles

[blugiant]

But there is also the awesome power of the donors. CHART is funded primarily by overseas agencies: USAID, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Resources and Services Administration, Global AIDS Program and the Global Fund.

While I was in office, subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle pressure was exerted by some foreign governments and agencies to have the buggery provisions removed from our statutes. I rebuffed these efforts because I felt this involved social, cultural and religious considerations on which Jamaica – and Jamaica alone – would have to deliberate.

I am not opposed to the repeal of the buggery provisions in our laws because I don’t think that legislation can, or should, try to regulate sexual practices, except in certain circumstances such as in the protection of children. The State has no business barging into any bedroom to molest homosexuals any more than it would fornicators or adulterers.

Many Jamaicans, including me, are of the view, however, that once those provisions are repealed, the battle cry will be sounded to secure recognition of same-sex unions and eventually same-sex marriages.

The new libertarian view that has captured the mind of even President Obama is that this is an expression of an individual’s right to choose. It is a dangerous view because it completely severs the moral considerations that inform the norms of a society and the value system within which it operates. The entire society may not be faithful to its value system, but it, nonetheless, recognizes its legitimacy and frame of reference. Hence, although adultery and multiple sex partners may be common in Jamaica, no lobby has yet been mounted to legalize polygamy

The Negro who lives on the patronage of philanthropists is the most dangerous member of our society, because he is willing to turn back the clock of progress when his benefactors ask him so to do.
Marcus Garvey

Lagging behind in the van of civilization will not prove our higher abilities. Being subservient to the will and caprice of progressive races will not prove anything superior in us. Being satisfied to drink of the dregs from the cup of human progress will not demonstrate our fitness as a people to exist alongside of others, but when of our own initiative we strike out to build industries, governments, and ultimately empires, then and only then will we as a race prove to our Creator and to man in general that we are fit to survive and capable of shaping our own destiny.
Marcus Garvey

For us to examine ourselves thoroughly as a people we will find that we have more traitors than leaders, because nearly everyone who essays to lead the race at this time does so by first establishing himself as the pet of some philanthropist of another race, to whom he will go and debase his race in the worst form, humiliate his own manhood, and thereby win the sympathy of the ?great benefactor?, who will dictate to him what he should do in leadership of the Negro race? These leaders tell us how good Mr. So and So is, how many good friends we have in the opposite race, and that if we leave everything to them all will work out well.
Marcus Garvey



wandar iff funnee peeps cawl mixxed race man ann den imm peeps woo give out aids to farreen guv applied pressure to uwi fii violate prof bain freedom aff speech rites

[blugiant]

Every man has a right to his own opinion. Every race has a right to its own action; therefore let no man persuade you against your will, let no other race influence you against your own.
Marcus Garvey