Ebola Fears Cloud Jehovah's Witnesses International Convention in Zimbabwe

by jwleaks 7 Replies latest jw friends

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  jwleaks

  VOICE OF AMERICA

  August 14, 2014
  
  http://www.voanews.com/content/ebola-fears-cloud-jehova-witness-meeting-in-zimbabwe/2413748.html
  
  HARARE—

  Zimbabwe's government is in a quandary as the country prepares to host a three-day Jehovah's Witnesses conference with 50,000 people from around the world expected to attend. Some delegates will come from West Africa, where there has been an outbreak of Ebola. Given the state of the host’s health care system, however, some delegates might be barred from attending.
  
  Dr. Christopher Tapfumaneyi, the principal director in Zimbabwe’s health ministry, says the country has not had an Ebola case, but that the government is aware of problems that the conference might present. Tapfumaneyi says with the advice of the World Health Organization, Zimbabwe has started educating some medical officials about Ebola.
  
  “They are going to ensure that if there is a visitor coming into the country who in the past three weeks has been in the three countries that have been targeted, they will look at the person closely. If there is reason to isolate that person, that isolation will be done. The centers have already been prepared for that," he said.
  
  The Zimbabwean official is referring to Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia and that Zimbabwe is not taking chances. The government has since recalled all its soldiers on the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Liberia following the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa.
  
  The World Health Organization head in Zimbabwe, Dr. David Okello, says the southern African nation must not panic.
  
  “The likelihood of Ebola coming here is remote," he said. "The risk is low, but we live in a global village. Somebody could be infected with Ebola in Liberia, flies to South Africa and is here the next day. I think my main worry is we are now dealing with, not an epidemic of Ebola here, but an epidemic of fear and panic."
  
  Zimbabwe's health care system has been near collapse for more than a decade.
  
  Earlier this week, the African Union said the continent’s ministers of health would meet in September to lobby their countries to replenish the AU's Special Emergency Fund for Drought and Famine, which will also now cover public health.
  
  The AU said the Ebola outbreak provides an impetus to speed up the establishment of the African Center for Disease Control and Prevention for early detection, preparedness and response. An early detection center is what all Jehovah's Witnesses coming to Zimbabwe will experience.

  Effort Mugabe, in Harare, Zimbabwe, Aug. 13, 2014. (Sebastian Mhofu)

  If they have been to Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea, they might not attend the conference, but Effort Mugabe, the coordinator of the Jehovah's Witnesses conference, is convinced all will go well.
  
  “We are not very much concerned, because very shortly the government assured that they are in total control of it. We do hope that with the help of the government, we will be happy to do it without any problems at all," he said.
  
  The Ebola epidemic in West Africa is probably the deadliest in history and led health ministers from southern Africa to meet in South Africa last week. They asked World Health Organization officials to provide for the control of the international spread of disease across borders.

  

  2014 District Convention of Jehovah's Witnesses New Releases
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  jwleaks

  BULAWAYO24 NEWS | ZIMBABWE

  August 2, 2014

  http://www.bulawayo24.com/index-id-news-sc-religion-byo-51784.html

  Thousands of foreign visitors will this month come to Zimbabwe to attend the first international convention of Jehovah's Witnesses to be held at the National Sports Stadium in Harare.

  More than 5000 delegates from as far as the United States, Europe, Latin America and African countries will descend on Zimbabwe international convention to be held from the 22 to the 24th of August.
  
  In the past, national conventions were held and this is the first time it has gone international with Zimbabwe being chosen to host on behalf of Africa.
  
  Some of the delegates are already in the country and figures from the tourism and hospitality industry show that all major hotels are fully booked for the duration of the conference.
  
  Convention overseer, Mr Effort Mugabe said apart from delegates from Brazil, Germany and other African countries such as Kenya, Burundi and Morocco, 2000 will come from the United States.
  
  “We are happy that visitors from all over the world will converge in Zimbabwe. This is the first convention in Africa and we expect to host between 35000 to 40000 delegates, with America sending 2000 delegates. I can also confirm that everything is in now place for the convention," he said.
  
  The convention, which was arranged by the governing body of the Jehovah's Witnesses, will be held under the theme; ‘Keep Seeking First God's Kingdom.'
  
  The church, which is also known as Watch Tower, is popular for street evangelism and believes God's kingdom will bring to an end all the sufferings the earth is experiencing.
  
  The church also has kingdom halls in almost every suburb of towns and cities and some rural areas.
  
  In Zimbabwe alone, there are nearly 40000 Jehovah's Witnesses.
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  Balaamsass2

  EXPLANATORY JOURNALISM

  Ebola: Focus on One Family

  By Laurie Garrett

  Kikwit, Zaire -- "The international team investigating the epidemic of Ebola in Zaire has discovered a family that suffered a devastating loss to the disease in December: Seven of 12 family members died, all within a period of roughly two weeks around Christmas. The family, according to scientists here working with the World Health Organization, are Jehovah's Witnesses. As such, they do not believe in consuming meat that is perfused with blood. Here, that translates into draining the blood from an animal while it is still alive. Investigations are ongoing, but the scientists speculate that members of the family may have become exposed while preparing a meal of whatever animal actually carries the Ebola virus. Scientists will now scour the areas of Kikwit from which the family's meat supply reportedly came in search of the until now mysterious source of the deadly hemorrhagic virus. Another puzzle researchers will now focus upon concerns transmissions outside the family. So far, it seems the Jehovah's Witnesses group had few outside contacts, and that their Ebola episode was a dead end, not a contributor to the overall epidemic. But the search is on for connections between that family disaster and Kikwit's larger crisis. Yesterday the epidemic reached a grim milestone, with more than 100 deaths having been reported since its onset. The World Health Organization said that another four people died of Ebola in the Kikwit area, the epicenter of the epidemic, bringing the death toll to 101. They said another 36 people were infected. A planeload of face masks, gloves and other protective clothing was rushed here. Meanwhile, 250 miles away in the capital of Kinshasa, about 250 trucks loaded with produce rolled into city markets after the lifting of a 10-day quarantine on the region surrounding Kikwit. The government ended the blockade of the entire Bandundu region Saturday after admitting that the quarantine was impossible to enforce."

  This article was from a previous post on an Ebola outbreak in the 90s. I am certain well meaning JWs will attend the convention regardless of "worldly government restrictions" in order to be "Blessed" by Holy Spirit". And no doubt bring tainted fruits and vegetables along with them as instructed by the Governing Body. Could be ground ZERO for a WORLDWIDE EBOLA OUTBREAK...ARMAGEDON actually brought on by a religious cult...a self fulfulling prophecy.
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  jwleaks

  *** g96 5/8 p. 23 Killer Virus Strikes Zaire *** [Awake! magazine, May 8, 1996]

  BY AWAKE! CORRESPONDENT IN AFRICA

  KIKWIT, Zaire, is a sprawling town on the fringe of a tropical rain forest. Forty-two-year-old Gaspard Menga Kitambala, who lived outside the city, was the only Witness of Jehovah in his family. Menga was a seller of charcoal. He prepared his charcoal deep in the forest, bundled it up, and carried it on his head to Kikwit.

  On January 6, 1995, he felt ill. He fell twice on his way home from the forest. When he reached his home, he said that he had a headache and a fever.

  Over the next few days, his condition deteriorated. On January 12, his family took him to Kikwit General Hospital. The Witnesses in Menga’s congregation helped the family to care for him at the hospital. Sadly, his condition worsened. He began to vomit blood. Blood flowed uncontrollably from his nose and ears. On January 15, he died.

  Soon others in Menga’s family who had touched his body became sick. By early March, 12 people closely related to Menga had died, including his wife and two of their six children.

  By mid-April, hospital staff and others began to sicken and die in a way similar to Menga and his family. Quickly the illness spread to two other towns in the region. Clearly, outside help was needed.

  Professor Muyembe, Zaire’s top virologist, went to Kikwit on May 1. He later told Awake!: “We concluded that Kikwit was suffering from two epidemics: one was diarrhea caused by bacteria, and the other was a severe hemorrhagic fever caused by a virus. Of course, we needed to confirm this diagnosis. So we collected some blood from patients and sent it to be tested at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, U.S.A.”

  The CDC confirmed what Muyembe and other doctors in Zaire had already suspected. The disease was Ebola.

  .....

  SEE ALSO: http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/5860
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  flipper

  If any JW's are sitting on the fence- it would be a good time to stop attending I'd say
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  jam

  They will all be there , they have the Angelic forces to protect them...
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  NAVYTOWN

  If they believe in 'draining the blood of an animal while it is still alive', then that shows me that they are oblivious to the suffering of those animals. I couldn't care less if it's the 'way things are done there'. Making animals needlessly suffer has it's consequences. Maybe Ebola is such a consequence. In my opinion, what goes around, comes around.
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  Half banana

  Even if it's a disaster JW org will say Big J was looking after them.