Do Not Risk Your Life on The Health Black Market: Your Butt is Fine The Way It Looks

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

It appears common sense expired before the turn of the 20th century but it’s not too late to revive it. The title ‘Doctor’ does not necessarily refer to someone who performs an open heart surgery. I am a doctor too, at least that what the wall hanger in my computer room says, even though unfortunately, no one calls me so, and I want to acknowledge that I’ve never given an injection.

It is time for all of us to apply some common sense to our health and lives. Black market health delivery is a big business and a grave killer of our time. Whenever a ‘so-called surgeon or doctor’ asks you to meet him or her in a hotel room or restaurant to obtain your procedure, you should be worried, very worried.

On Wednesday, it was reported that a 20-year old student from London, Ms Claudia Adusei died in a Philadelphia Hotel after receiving a silicone injection in her butts, presumably to enhance her curves from behind. Other news sources say that Claudia and friends traveled to the US in November 2010 to obtain a similar injection.

This time, things did not go as planned. According to the reports, 12 hours after the procedure, Ms. Adusei began complaining of chest pains and was rushed to the hospital where she later died.

A preliminary medical examination indicated that silicone from the injection had entered Adusei’s vascular system and ultimately stopped her heart.

It is sad to say that Ms. Adusei’s death should not have happened. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prohibits the injection of liquid silicone for cosmetic purposes. Silicones, more precisely called polymerized siloxanes or polysiloxanes, have been approved for cosmetic use, such as breast augmentation, but its use as performed on Claudia Adusei is prohibited.

I know there is somebody reading this article who is thinking of following a similar procedure to look good for the summer beach party or the next classmate’s re-union. If you don’t like the way you look, there are certified practitioners who can assist you look the way you want to you if you have your money. The difference is that none of these professionals will ask to meet you in a hotel or shopping mall to receive the procedure. They belong to trade associations which control and monitor their practices and may have insurance coverage should something get out of hand.

It is important to know that these Black Market MDs are not certified healthcare professionals in the countries they operate. Some are Medical Students from other countries who have immigrated to the US, UK or other countries and are finding it difficult to get the required accreditation papers to practice. Again some of these doctors may have to repeat part of their medical school in the West, and pass a series of difficult and expensive exams which could take years.

They therefore take the short cut by offering services under the table. They resort to using a mishmash of professional and homemade equipments. In fact there are dentist in the black market using your normal dressing room mirrors and hand-held tools to explore the mouths of patients.

Do not risk your life on the health black market. By the way, your butt is fine the way it looks.

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A Woman, Adusei, Dead After Silicone Butt Injection

US police are investigating the death of a woman, believed to be British, who had a silicone injection in her buttocks at a hotel in Philadelphia.

Detectives said the woman, named in reports as UK student Claudia Adusei, 20, and three companions travelled from London and were staying at the Hampton Inn near Philadelphia airport.

Detective Joseph Murray said a 20-year-old woman who had received a buttocks injection later complained of chest pains and difficulty breathing. Paramedics were called, and she was taken to Mercy Fitzgerald hospital where she died.

US news channel NBC named the dead woman as Adusei. Two of her group had previously travelled to Philadelphia in November to have their buttocks enlarged the report said, and on Monday, one received another buttocks injection; the other had a hip augmentation costing $1,800.

It is not known how much Adusei paid for the cosmetic procedure.

Police are seeking two people involved in the cosmetic procedures, which they believe were arranged over the internet.

“We’re not quite sure right now if the person performing that procedure is licensed,” Lieutenant John Walker said. “We’re still working on that information.” He said detectives were awaiting test results to determine the substance used in the procedure.

(The woman has not yet been completely identified, but the name Adusei is a classic name from the West African country Ghana, where big bottom craze is a growing phenomenon. Big bottom fashion trend is common in some African countries, notable among them are Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria. TalkAfrique)

Ivory Coast big bottom craze
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An African Miss World? Hold your breath!

Let’s face it. No black African woman is going to win the Miss World Finals beauty pageant outright any time soon. The facts—if we may call them that—fly in the face of the widely-held view that it is just a matter of time.
It is a contrarian view given that Afro-enthusiasts have been loudly harping the fact that Botswana’s Emma Wareus placed second, and more significantly, that Nigeria’s Agbani Darego took home the title in 2001. However, a cursory look at their frames suggests that they were one-offs. 
Three reasons inform this assertion.
First, a look at most of the contestants in the African franchises suggests a lot of the affluence associated with the emerging middle class, prevalent in many countries on the continent.
 
The winner of the 2010 edition, American Alexandria Mills, was a microcosm of what founder Eric Morley had in mind when he dreamed up the competition—a bag of bones. But despite the rather strict qualifications in place, most African contestants could barely balance on the catwalks in their home countries, badly weighed down by flabby outlines.
 
And this may not be about to change. A conference last month in the South African commercial capital of Johannesburg concluded that Africans were growing fatter. Yes, fatter. This may have been limited to the middle class but that is exactly the problem—that the African has also grown lazier, inviting lifestyle diseases that were a preserve of the West.
 
"In the past, we used to exercise without knowing it," the Associated Press quoted South African Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi as saying.
 
"You would walk a long distance to school. You would walk a long distance to work," Motsoaledi, 52, recalled of his childhood. "But now, I'm an African whose child is dropped at the gate of the school in a car, then picked up at the end of the day and put in front of the TV." Secondly, the competition has been biased against the typical African woman since its inception.
 
The rotund shapes sported by these women have never been swimsuit-wear material, despite the adoption of some Western habits such as the gym and which have over successive generations watered down the gene for portliness.
 
It is safe to say that the African woman has never really been in with a chance in the competition.
 
Lastly, the definition of beauty. The jury is still out over trailblazers—some would say the unconventional—such as Alek Wek and Kenya’s Ajuma Nasenyana. The former has been called many things, not least of all downright ugly.
 
The use of such models—cleverly called “exotic” has stoked more controversy than sold covers, with critics claiming their deployment on international runways is more a political message than a fashion statement.
 
While the story of some weather-beaten white cameraman discovering a gem from far –flung tribes such as the Turkana of Kenya, the Herero of Namibia or the Afar of Ethiopia always makes for good reading, it is in many Western views, a case of not seeing the emperor’s nakedness.
This is the controversy that has raged around the award of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiabo.
 
“If China is to advance in harmony with other countries and become a key partner in upholding the values of the world community, it must grant freedom of expression to all its citizens,” Thorbjorn Jagland, the chair of the Nobel Committee penned in the New York Times.
 
But which “world” was he referring to? The West, and its values.
Given that the judging parameters are Western, for now we can either be content with the sideline prizes such as “Beauty with a purpose’’ won by Kenya's Natasha Metto for her work with jiggers—that scourge of African children—or come up with our own competitions such as the Bobaraba— a national dance craze popular in Cote d’Ivoire.
It translates to “Big Bottom” in the local Djoula language.
 
 
Ivory Coast's 'big-bottom' craze
 Ivory Coast's 'big-bottom' craze
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