Monday, August 14, 2006

AIDS SURVIVOR AND THRIVER NIRO MARKOFF IS ALIVE AND WELL 20 YEARS AFTER HEALING

In 1985, therapist Niro Markoff tested HIV positive and was moving into ARC (Aids Related Complex). Facing what many saw as a death sentence at the time, Niro created her own program of emotional therapy, daily meditation, healthy diet and exercise. Niro’s program includes facing and healing fear, shame and guilt; powerful daily meditations, productive journaling, reprioritizing your life, and listening to your inner healer who will tell you what you need to do to allow healing to flow through you…yes you. Since 1986 she has tested HIV negative. She was featured in Parade Magazine and appeared on Donohue on 7/13/93.

I am happy and grateful to report that 20 Years After her healing, Niro Markoff is alive and well. If results in healing counts for anything, this is a case worth revisiting.

Back in the mid 90's at Hale House, the Computer Underground Railroad was able to introduce the Harlem community to Niro Markoff. The day of the event the mothers and children were given free tickets to Radio City Music Hall at the time of the event, so attendance was light.

Hale House's Dr. Ivan Black and a few of the women with HIV/AIDS attended. Dr. Black is one of those true healing angels who helped Mother Clara Hale with her work. Dr. Black was able to achieve a 100% remission rate of babies brought in HIV positive and reverted to HIV negative. The response was to fire Dr. Black. He had created a solution that could get in the way of fundraising. Poverty pimps need poverty to pimp.

Over the years I lost contact with Niro but in June we reconnected via the internet. Out of frustration that there was no real representation of this great healing warrior's work, I typed her book and put it on line for free. Markoff''s book, telling both her story and how folks can connect with their Healer Within, is WHY I SURVIVE AIDS. The work was originally published by Simon & Schuster and is posted to read for free or available at amazon.com .

Niro Markoff healed herself by working with her Healer Within of HIV with ARC back in 1986."God is the true healer. Healing is being whole with God." Click Here To Contact Niro Via Email.

Since there is little to no money to be made by medical special interests using her techniques (though sometimes the Healer Within does lead one to the right doctors) not much attention was paid to her work, though it was powerful enough to be introduced into the public consciousness.

On 7/13/93, Markoff appeared on Donohue in a show called SHOCKING AIDS CASES DOCTORS - TS930722. She was also frequently featured in Parade Magazine as a long term AIDS survivor.

And the great healers of the day gave her ample praise: Dr. Bernie Siegel was a cancer surgeon for over 20 years at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He is the author of LOVE, MEDICINE AND MIRACLES and PEACE. LOVE AND HEALING. He wrote “Niro has been one of my most powerful teachers. Her book can show all of us how to overcome adversity and survive any of life’s threats. I highly recommend it.” The late, great Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (The Wheel of Life) wrote in her foreward to Markoff’s book: “Niro’s story about her discovery of the AIDS disease as well as her struggle with it-step-by-step-is a light in the darkness for millions.” Hay House’s founder, Louise Hay, author of YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE wrote “Niro is involved in some of the powerful healing work being done with AIDS. She is a beautiful woman whom I admire enormously.”

With what we now know about lobbyist purchasing government policy, that Markoff is not yet well known is no surprise. Through it all, with her champion spirit, she’s never given up on her mission to help heal the planet of AIDS and other life threatening dis-eases by working with one’s Healer Within.Markoff’s work expands beyond AIDS in its effectiveness.

Currently she is looking into healing World Trade Center Illness, an issue that is on its way to the front pages of every news operation in the world. The first responders have already begun to die. They were not the only ones exposed to the toxic material from the explosions of the WTC, nor did the dust stop at 14th Street in Manhattan, where she spent 3 months close to Ground Zero. She lost 3 people close to her on 9/11.Markoff is available for interviews, setting up workshops, and working on her new book.Markoff can be contacted via email.

We are overcoming now.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Hey Harlem, Nayer Here

I left Harlem in '98. As a third generation Harlemite, my soul, on a daily basis, reminds me where home is. Her art, the people, the hope on the streets are still a source of joy in my life. Her parties, politics, accomplishments and beat make Harlem's magic reach me all the way to Arizona. The problems, the solutions, the possibilities, though I'm not there, are still important to me.

I left so many people I deeply love in Harlem.

My brother, Albert Davis, has with the creation of the Harlem Blogosphere given me a back door into the hood.

So, though I have not even visited Harlem, or New York for that matter where I lived for 25 years, I'm taking advantage of this space to get back to addressing the issues that I believe will make Harlem, my homeland, free to be the place of dreams my grandparents came to in the 1920's from Daytona Beach, FL.

I'm talking computerization, the environment, education, health empowerment, community safety, spirit, prosperity, beauty, etc.

So let's start with my main problem with Harlem when I left. A total lack of computerization in the 90's.

Back in '98 Harlem didn't even have one computer super store, and the folks in charge were not going to let one come in, as they demonstrated in the Dis-Empowerment Zone meetings. Not only was there not a computer super store, I'd walked down 125th & 145th Streets and not see one PC in a business or a window.

Members of the 'in charge' team had their own agenda. Even Al Gore came to the Apollo to tell us that though we won the designation for the marketing term "Empowerment Zone," our businesses would not be getting a penny.

The computer training my friends and I were doing at Minisink Townhouse was shut down without warning, computers taken away, and poverty pimps closed ranks, though they were ever so nice about it.

What to do to get more folks on computers in Harlem? Help someone become computer literate or cyber enabled. If you know someone who is not yet computer literate, or are a person who I helped train with the cost of passing the training onto at least two other people, I've posted the training notes HOW TO COMPUTE updated for Windows XP and Word 2003.

Instead of (or in addition to) buying the multi-hundred dollar pair of SNEAKERS, buy a computer and programs. Set up a Technology Club at the bank (or stash savings)to stay on the cutting edge in the same way you set up a Christmas Club.

For example, I'm getting into video on the web and the extra change I had stashed came in handy when I needed a video camera and Adobe Premiere. I have my first few pieces posted on my book page. Technology changes fast, and even personal computers are becoming obsolete.

Key to fixing the problem of a lack of adequate computerization is to computerize. So let's see where we are.

  1. Did Harlem ever get a computer super store? (Staples, bless their hearts, is not a computer super store. Consider a web search for "Staples" "Harlem")
  2. Did Harlem ever re-establish an effective, free, community based training for computers and other technology?
  3. Are the politicians and business folks adequately computerized?
  4. Are the senior centers and independent seniors adequately computerized?
  5. Are the community boards adequately computerized?
  6. What's the computer/student ratio in the schools and how are the children using them?
  7. Are the residents getting skills to set up on line businesses to supplement other income, share their art, reunite with family, research passions, worship and pray, build stronger multi-generational bridges, etc?
  8. What do the people see, feel, hear, taste and smell when they consider a computerized Harlem?
  9. If the level of the ocean rose quickly, as what happened during Tsunami '04 and Katrina '05, or the projected impact of global warming on coastal cities (the ice caps are melting in chunks the size of small states), how could computers be used to help folks get out alive?
I pray the answers are yes, Harlem is now adequately computerized, because computers have information folks can use to save their lives in this, the Information Age.

Like many, I watched in horror last year as Katrina come into NOLA. Harlem is a low-lying area at the edge of the ocean at the beginning of global warming, like NOLA. I noticed, among the folks caught in Katrina, not one lap top.

Web access provided supporting documentation to understand the meaning of a storm going from at Cat 2 to a Cat 5 overnight. The cloudy eye was another clue.

During Katrina, people were trapped without a way to find food, water or medical attention. Many were re-united with family and friends on line. Tearful stories.

Katrina my ass. Those without the information and the means were left to suffer. Even though the government acted like they did not know the folks were there, they did, and did nothing.

Information helps folks take care of themselves. Lack of information can leave one stranded at the Superdome (or on Sugar Hill) chanting "HELP ME! HELP ME! HELP ME!"

If a Katrina style storm happens in New York, and it can, Harlem folks should be pretty certain that the rescue helicopters will not be on 110th, 125th or 145th Streets. They will be at Wall Street and Midtown...maybe the Upper East Side.

Consider 9/11. While the government was telling folks that the dust from the WTC was not toxic and that it stayed in lower Manhattan, information on the web painted an entirely different picture. As I read about paper from the exploded World Trade Center buildings reaching Long Island (yes, they were exploded, see Loose Change, Second Edition) I asked, 'if a piece of paper traveled that far, how far did the toxic dust travel? Where did it land? OMG!!!!!!!! "

I'm still concerned about how much of the toxic dust reached Harlem (and throughout the tri-state area), and what will be the health consequences to her under-insured population. Did anybody ever test for the toxic material from the WTC in Harlem? Did it land on the buildings and streets? Was in inhaled, eaten and drank as dust on the food? Did any of the asbestos in the buildings land in the curtains, furniture and clothes uptown? What are the health effects of breathing both treated sewer air from the 5 open sewers and WTC dust?

Computers have their limitations. When 9/11 happened I emailed Clinton, Schumer and others about my concerns. They had policies in place where they don't answer emails from folks not in their district. They said to contact my senators, Kyl and McCain. Both offices told me there was no problem according to the EPA and I should mind my own business. So I put up a site, with a lot of help from World Trade Center Volunteer Albert Davis on the subject.

Second hand information in the information age is the new slavery. With computer access and skills, I find information way before the traditional broadcast and cable media can fit the story into their show line, if they think it's worth mentioning.

Those of us who are computerized have a sacred knowledge that it's imperative that we share. We never know where the next great idea, or salvation piece, will come from.

Please post your thoughts on the subject.

Happy Computing.