TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH 6  ( Final instalment ).

I got up at 5am to be certain of getting all the baggage plus Warren to the
aeroplane in time. In the half light, I found Warren trying crawling across
the veranda of the Lalara's family home like an injured animal. He was trying
to get to his wheelchair.

 The final hour on the island had come. We were returning back to Darwin.
Despite some indirect encounters with the extreme violence of this community,
I was still feeling gutted at having to leave some of my newly made friends .

The airport terminal was just an open sided hut of a building - I was pleased
to find out that security was'nt quite as tight as at Washington Dulles post
Sept 11th !!  Some of the Missionaries and the Aboriginal communities had
already gathered to say goodbye. I was hoping that they were  not all
building up too many false hopes in relation to possible outcomes stemming
from my visit - cures, etc  Afterall, I had not as yet been able to secure
access to post mortem brain material from any victim who had died of Groote
syndrome. The ball was in the court of the Aboriginal community here, for it
is imperative that they waiver some of their beliefs over the sanctity of the
body after death in order to permit the release of some brain sections -
tissues which urgently need to be analysed for  levels / valencies of metals,
antioxidant enzymes, ataxin 2 protein / prion protein status in order to
advance this whole research programme.

If you can get evidence of cause, then you can devise controls, prevention
and cures of this horrendous disease. But up until present day, all post
mortem tissues have been under the reductionist control of the genetic-only
brigade ( funded by the mine corporation !! ) who are only really interested
in viewing the brain material so they can confirm the diagnosis of the so
called exotic  "Machado-Josephs disease" mutation , and no further; eg for
academic prestige.

Much as the dysfunction of the prion protein lies at the heart of the CJD
disease and the dysfunction of the beta amyloid protein lies at the heart of
Alzheimers disease, so the dysfunction of another metallo protein called
ataxin 2 , lies at the  heart of Groote syndrome. In order to work out a
possible means of restoring the metal balance in respect of the correct
folding and functioning of ataxin 2, then it is imperative to gain access to
post mortem brain material.

Despite this indirect monopoly of the mining corporation over all current
research into Groote disease, zero progress has been made from the victims'
perspective.  Groote syndrome is increasing at an unprecedented rate. After
an initial consultation, the victims are just sent home to endure a
protracted, humiliating slow death. They are told that there is no cure.
They have been abandoned . fullstop. If it was not for the Anglicare Mission
in Angurugu, the Aboriginal community would be left with noone other than
themselves to care for the victims' interests.

But I have managed to line up two of the best metal and prion analytical labs
in the world who are more than happy to look at brain material from deceased
victims, thereby  making it more possible to unravel the causal riddle of
this mystery disease. Given that a victim of  Groote syndrome has just died ,
it is imperative that the Aboriginal community authorise release of this
material in order to accelerate a resolution to their escalating health
crises. The researchers concerned are perfectly willing to return all tissues
after microscopic  surveillance / analyses has been carried out.

After the farewells and the usual hilarious problems manhandling Warren up
the steps into the plane, we took off from the island. I saw the goliath
shaped  ore crusher at the mine, and the black oceans of manganese oxide
scarred right back to the frontline of the rainforest - the dozers had been
rapidly advancing  to meet the recent increased orders for manganese dioxide
from the western world. At the same time I thought of the rising incidence
rate of neurodegenerative diseases around manganese processing industries in
the West, as well as the ever increasing rates of mad cow disease in European
cattle who were being fed exceptionally high concentrations of this mineral
at an early age. Did the fruits of this island sow the seeds of madness in
our cats and cows, our deer and elk, our mink and goats, and, more
importantly, in our death row murderers or our innocent teenagers who
contracted vCJD, etc ?

At Darwin I handed back Warren to his partner Jenny, and then took my return
flight to the Uk. At the x rays barriers, I cracked a few jokes about my
metallic samples of manganese rich rock sending off the alarms. The officers
were not too impressed with my humour, since manganese oxide is a component
of some explosives!!

When passing the customs barriers , I took the opportunity of getting the
officers to confirm or refute several reports that had come my way nearly two
years back. These reports had stemmed from UK farmers and vets visiting
Australiasia up to six months prior to the official announcement of the UK
outbreak of foot and mouth disease. All had claimed that they had been
exclusively subjected to a thorough disinfection / cleansing treatment when
visiting Australasia at that time. Some had questioned the reasons for the
cleansing , and  one farmer was told how UK livestock farming was sitting  on
a timebomb which Australia wanted to avoid. But  no more clues were given.

To my surprise,  the customs lady answered  me openly saying that they had
known full well about the foot and mouth disease problem brewing in the Uk
well in advance of the official announcement. She could clearly remember the
UK's briefing to them during the autumn of 2000. "The pommy government has
always been really good over informing us about impending crises in good
time. It is the Chinese lot who never bother !".

 As I walked onto the plane I wondered why the British government had not
told their own livestock farmers before anybody else !! This would have
enabled us all to work cooperatively to prevent the spread of the disease
five months sooner than we actually did. And then I wondered whether this
revelation from my Aussie customs informant betrayed the fact that the pommy
government  had no real intention of halting the spread of the foot and mouth
disease. Their negligent inaction confirms this suspicion !! Furthermore,
their deliberate failiure to address the true cause of BSE  - since Cambridge
University studies in 2000 showed that manganese can cause the prion protein
to transform into its BSE causing form - is equally negligent.

 But I suppose the deviant and delinquent behaviour of the Uk government
towards their own people's interests is all part and parcel of the global and
European ( agenda 2000 ,etc ) totalitarian diktats to reduce livestock
numbers at whatever cost - to make way for the increased consumption of
multinational controlled  GM soya  sources of protein, I guess.