Rock the Boat 2001 Concert to Benefit Alternative AIDS Groups Postponed
The Rock the Boat 2001 concert, scheduled to be held on March 17 in Miami, Fla., in an effort to raise funds for alternative AIDS organizations, has been postponed without explanation and without a new date set, according to the concert's Web site. The show, touted as the "anti-red ribbon AIDS gala," was to feature a rock band lineup including the Foo Fighters, Days of the New, Seven Mary Three, Darwin's Waiting Room, Crease and Endo, with informational video footage and celebrity guest statements interspersed between performances. Education material on alternative AIDS ideas was also slated to be distributed at the event. Rock the Boat 2001 was to be an event to "explore and expose perspectives on AIDS that have been censored in the mainstream media for 15 years" and a fundraiser to support scientists and organizations that have fought for a "reexamination of the data that led to the conclusion that AIDS is caused by the retrovirus HIV, and that the best approach to the disease is to target those who are HIV-positive with highly toxic anti-HIV drugs." Among the groups that would have received concert proceeds were Rethinking AIDS: The Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV/AIDS Hypothesis, Health Education AIDS Liaison, Alive and Well AIDS Alternatives and Students Reappraising AIDS.According to the event mission statement, "Every mainstream AIDS organization, every Web site, every chat group, every conference, even virtually every activist group is openly funded by the pharmaceutical industry to the tune of countless millions of dollars." This AIDS industry "continues to silence, censor and even demonize those who question the HIV/AIDS paradigm ... [which] has led to massive destruction of human lives and civil liberties all throughout the world," the Web site says. "Those who have dissented and critiqued [the HIV/AIDS] hypothesis have been systemically punished," including South African President Thabo Mbeki. The site states that over 600 scientists, journalists and academics insist that HIV does not cause AIDS; 5,000 cases of AIDS exist without a trace of HIV; AIDS "does not spread along the routes of sexual activity"; the HIV test is unreliable; "virtually" no one who went on a high dose of AZT in the early years of AIDS survived; and almost all of the 90,000 AIDS groups in the United States are funded by the drug industry. The Web site continues, "If the media won't do its job and investigate, then we have to somehow compensate. Rock music is the perfect medium through which to do so." Although the concert for this Saturday has been cancelled, the Foo Fighters will perform a show that will benefit Rock the Boat tonight in Orlando, Fla. (Rock the Boat 2001 Web site, 3/14).
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