Orient Express

We Reep What We Sow

Last night I went to see 'The Constant Gardener' which is adapted from a novel by John Le Carre by the same title. I had been itching to see it for some time after I found out what it was about and I wasn't dissapointed one bit. I strongly support the idea that everyone should see this film. It really struck a cord and it really hit close to home.

What is it about? Well, the mainframe of the story is the way in which big money making Pharmacutical companies exploit the poorer and sicker population's and the going's on in places such as Kenya, Africa. The movie only consentrates on Kenya, but the fact is, this sort of practice isn't isolated to Africa alone. It is much bigger and the film although only focuses on Kenya really does give a sense of the power which Pharma companies weild and gives a good picture as to the lengths that they will take to carry out their sordid practices.

There are two faces to a Pharmacutical company. The conservative looking, hard working business people who are just earning a crust doing something they feel will benefit people. Making drugs to improve people's lives. Then there is the other face, the greedy, spoilt well off people who see the poorer eastern countries as a human testing play ground. The cost of a life is next to nothing, and the sick who can't afford medicine are willing to try anything in the hopes that it might save their or their loved ones lives. And the big companies exploit this to a T.

Their buildings are top class, the new Roche office in Shire Park is classed as a 1st grade 'environmentally friendly' building. It is classy, trust me. No expense is spared. Their left over's lying close to our community abandoned and unfit for re-use due to some of the laboratory practises that went on inside them. Such as HIV testing. They'll just sit there and rot, unless someone with lots of money is willing to renovate or tear them down. I think there are 3-4 big buildings and I think out of all those only 2 of these could be fit enough for amediate re-use.
As one of them is just a 1960/70's style brown block of concreate similiar in style to the strange concreate buildings on the South Bank (which I believe are now being altered).

Their staff are well treated, even the ones at the very bottom of the office food chain - the administrators, the secrataries and the data entry staff. Every week or month their is a lunch in one of the nicer restaurants in town. Although now that they've moved to their new spangly office, they have their own restaurant and a commerical coffee bar such as Costa or Starfucks. The people higher up in the importance level are given plush bonuses and treats. Loyalty is something Pharma believes it can buy and is willing to pay for because it needs loyalty desperately. It doesn't like schandle and will do everything it can to avoid it. They don't like too many questions asked either. I once had to sit in a meeting where a the team leader for a specific rhumatoid arthritis drug talked a little bit about the drug, the benefits, what it does, what they do etc. But as soon as I started asking him some serious questions he started to get uneasy and wanted to know where I was going with my probing. That's when you back off, and let them think you're just a simple dumb minded cog in the wheel. Fuckers.

Pharmacutical companies sell their drugs for a profit. Their is no charity, no glory about it. Their aim first and fore most is to push their product and make lots of cash. This means that they're sometimes prepared to go that extra mile just to ensure they get sales. It costs billions of paper notes my friends to set up studies, to get the drug making process in motion. And not every drug they test is going to be successful. But a drug company is willing to still go ahead a push a drug through into the general population regardless of risks. They put the risk warning on the packet and hope there are not casualties or schandles. And alot of the time they get away with it. They spend their billions and make qaud trouple what they spent. They make their money in order to throw it at their loyal staff, at their hush-ups, at their friends, at the doctors, at the expensive meals, at the bonuses, at their plush buildings, at the local community, at charity to hush them up too.

In the film and probably in the book too there was an excellent qoute by one of the doctor characters in the film. Dr Lorbeer: Big pharmaceuticals are right up there with the arms dealers.

My last few months of working at Roche were hard. Hard for me internally. I was being pumped with this loyalty bullshit. Fed on luxury pies and up-their-arse meetings where people showed their face and showed off who they were with, what rank they were and where they might be going up to next. I think if I had stayed I might have been promoted elsewhere. It is weird when people look at you, or at least I find it very discomforting when I realise that people are looking at me. Especially when those people are the sleezy creeps in their big suits and their big shiney shoes. People notice you even more when the big sleezy creeps take to having conversations with you about the 'progress' of the company. Jeez, I was reeling in my skin. I was shit at my job, at least I felt like I was. My boss and co-worker (the moodiest bitch from hell I had ever met, bitch never smiled man!) didn't seem to notice and we were all in for a change anyway so who gave a fuck! I tried so hard to quit, to tell em up front but in the end I just didn't give a fuck. I had to walk away from that shit. So I did. I did it the best way and the way that I knew would infuriate them both. I had not signed any contract, I was under no obligation to them or them to me. So I just drifted on out of there and out of Pharmacuticals - hopefully forever.

Please, go and check out 'The Constant Gardener' either read the book or watch the fim. Ralph Finns is charming and Rachal Weizz is her usual hot dark curly haired self.

posted by Burcu Urundul @ 12:39 pm