Nobel winner argues AIDS is a race-war bioweapon
I was cautiously positive about awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Wangari Maathai, hoping there were no skeletons in her closet. Then, one fell out.
It is a common belief in Africa that AIDS/HIV is a biological weapon created by the CIA (or whoever) as part of a racist plot to kill black people. When Maathai expressed her conviction that AIDS is a biological weapon even without making a direct reference to the most extreme tinfoil hat version of this conspiracy theory, it must be interpreted in that context:
"Some say that Aids came from the monkeys, and I doubt that because we have been living with monkeys (since) time immemorial, others say it was a curse from God, but I say it cannot be that.
"Us black people are dying more than any other people in this planet," Maathai told a press conference in Nairobi a day after winning the prize for her work in human rights and reversing deforestation across Africa.
"It's true that there are some people who create agents to wipe out other people. If there were no such people, we could have not have invaded Iraq," she said.
"We invaded Iraq because we believed that Saddam Hussein had made, or was in the process of creating agents of biological warfare," said Maathai.
"In fact it (the HIV virus) is created by a scientist for biological warfare," she added.
Back in August, she expressed the conspiracy part even more clearly.
"Do not be naive. AIDS is not a curse from God to Africans or the black people. It is a tool to control them designed by some evil-minded scientists, but we may not know who particularly did (it)," the August 31 article quoted her as saying at a seminar in her home town of Nyeri.
Considering that AIDS is one of the most serious issues facing Africa today, hailing a conspiracy theorist who seriously undermines scientific research on HIV and AIDS is clearly counter-productive. People who believe stupid things about AIDS, like South Africa's president Thabo Mbeki, are likely to make stupid and dangerous policy decisions.
Most official responses to Maathai winning the prize were positive, but the US congratulation was understandably cautious:
The United States on Friday congratulated Maathai on winning the Nobel Peace Prize, but tempered its praise over her claims about AIDS.
"She said (HIV/Aids) was invented as a bioweapon in some laboratory in the West," a senior state department official said. "We don't agree with that."
I should have seen it coming: another tragic own-goal for the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. The committee members should have known about her nutty statements when they made the decisionto award her the prize, and pushing such conspiracy theories should certainly disqualified her.
I wonder who the runner-up was? No, please don't tell me.
Update: The Nobel Committee did not know about Maathai's opinions about AIDS being a racist bioweapon when they awarded the prize. Norwegian VG writes:
- I don't know about this. I was not aware of this, says teh chairman of the Nobel Committee Ole Danbolt Mjøs.
He doesn't want to comment on these statements before he has researched them further.
Obviously Google is not part of the search apparatus of the Nobel committee!
Ironically, one of the stated reasons for this year's prize was Maathai's application of science.
"Maathai combines science, social commitment and active politics."
A combination of quack science and activism is not necessarily what Africa needs more of.
10:56:08 PM 
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