« Independent Syrian experts are likely right to
say that the ongoing pseudo-revolution there (17 months now) is meant, not only
to achieve macro objectives in the region but, also, in the end, a certain
lifestyle (all independent travellers knowing Syria will understand): the
simplicity of daily life, its low cost, Middle East sociability best expressed
by Syrian coffee-houses and patios with their gurgling narghiles, etc... What
is at stake is the repeated intent, begun in Iraq, to implement the US
Great/New Middle East Project at all levels: from the political hyper-structure
to the socio-cultural aspects. In the view of their designers and their men in
the region, the “Arab way of life” must be shattered thanks to the emergence of
a consumerist society essentially based on competition.”
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Their ""Arab Spring""'s UPDATES (bloody for some of them...):
_________________________
Wasim MAZIAK, the world top ««waterpipe»»™ millionaire expert, major (however undeclared…) author of the the WHO flawed report on ““waterpipe”” smoking (“whose two first sentences contain an error and a misquotation…”) and many similar papers, is apparently in need for more money.
In an article ("The Global Epidemic of Waterpipe Smoking") published in Addictive Behaviors (an antismoking journal similar to "Addiction", "Tobacco Control", "Nicotine and Tobacco Research", and the lot), he makes an apocalyptic description of hookah (narghile, shisha) smoking. Basically, his paper hypes the hazards of hookah smoking by citing the usual (though updated !) list of his antismoking (groups of) friends’ “studies”.
Maziak is also, and above all, selling the myth that hookahs are highly nicotine-addictive (don’t laugh!). He claims that he has no competing interest. This is true, poor man. He is only funded by millions of dollars coming from institutions whose staff (and particularly those who decide to whom the money is granted) maintains close relations with the Pharmaceutical industry (nicotine gums, patches, inhalers, Chantix, etc.). He is also a "modest" active member of the world antismoking Globalink network which is funded by the same industry...
[Two following paragraphs added Nov 8, 2010] Big Pharma, as this industry is also known, is very interested in the opportunity of selling its medicines to hookah users. So its method is now exposed: supporting (in a way or another: congresses, personal contacts, etc.) researchers who will hype the “addiction risk” (You are hooked on hookahs and you need a doctor who will prescribe to you the above drugs!) or the “gateway” (to cigarette smoking) naughty Asian hookahs would represent for our teens in the rest of the world, the US first, of course. Big Pharma wants hookah users to become (or become again) cigarette smokers because it’s already got tons of evidence showing “without the least doubt” (to use the WHO phraseology) that its pills are very efficient with the the latter.
The same happened recently with the "Swine Flu" scam and the propaganda about vaccination by States and individuals। See from whom Kamal has received an innocent "suggestion" to change his method!
"Criminalising Dissent and its Undeclared Motives"
What else ? The fact that he has "won" his job at Memphis University (in which Kenneth Ward, his antiwaterpipe expert, was in charge of funding) was only but "a mere coincidence". By the way, US salaries are also a bit higher than in Syria…. No, please, don't be naughty by making allusions to possible personal interests.... Maziak knows how to make ««waterpipe»»™ studies "sexy” (according to his own word !). In other words, he knows how to draw funding।
In his article in Addictive Behaviors, he accuses The Sacred Narghile:
“hookah promotion and sales, at least in western societies, are done through the internet (Cobb et al., 2010), and at times are concealed under scientific disguise (e.g. the Sacred Narghile site www.sacrednarghile.com/en/index.php)."
If we, The Sacred Narghile, had received money from the Tobacco industry or the Hookah industry, we would have been so happy and even more happy to openly declare it.
We leave the readers consider the miserable state of this professional defamer (he and his likes: Thomas Eissenberg, Alan Shihadeh and Kenneth: see their pitiful comments on the critique of the
WHO flawed report)।
Just like Ahmad Chalabi, Iraq’ “Master’s Manipulator” who “pushed America to War” by selling the CIA the “secret” that Saddam Hussein would have been developing WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction), Wasim Maziak is selling the US puritan prohibitionist funding agencies, the “secret” that ««waterpipe»»™ smoking, the « Arab Way of Smoking » (a Mass Entertainment Weapon !), actually represents a global threat and epidemic for the “Free World” US citizens are living in !
[following two paragraphs added Nov 8 & 12, 2010]
Please send your shoes to:
Dr Wasim Maziak
School of Public Health, University of Memphis, US-Syrian Center for Tobacco Studies,
Browning Hall 112, 3820 DeSoto Avenue,
Memphis, TN 38152-3340,
United States of America
The scientific content of his paper is debunked there:
Human Health, ““Waterpipe”” (Hookah, Narghile, Shisha) Smoking and the Global Epidemic of Misrepresentations and Errors
RELEVANT READINGS
Image: Ahmad Chalabi, Iraq’ “Master’s Manipulator”, “The man who “pushed America to War”(Odd Andersen/AFP)
YOU ARE NOT ON THE HOME PAGE of the OBSERVATORY on HOOKAH OR HEALTH (Narghile, "Waterpipe"™, Health, Risks, Dangers, Diseases, Tar, Nicotine, Cancer). CLICK HERE to go there !
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