Is History a Threat? (Comment)

Erick Hobsbawm (d.2012) was a Marxist historian, a professor of history at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he taught till the end of his life. Birkbeck is an evening college where most of the students belong to the working class and continue with studies to improve their educational qualifications. Conscious of the condition of students who attended his lectures after a hard day of physical labour, he devised lectures on the history of Europe to create emancipatory thought. His four books use history as a tool to comprehend present-day Europe. They are titled The Age of Capital, The Age of Industrial Revolution, The Age of Revolution and The Age of Extreme. Besides these four books, he has published a number of papers and essays that attempt to build a new historical consciousness. There are other progressive historians besides Hobsbawm who believe that history can be liberating if it is not written in the service of the rulers of the time. It is also not a static and depressing account of the past but is dynamic and constantly changing. While history tells the story of unjust rulers and the institutions they created, it also reveals how the rulers and their unjust institutions meet their end. The reign of absolute kingship where the king was considered the Viceregal God, brutal military dictatorships, and exploitative economic systems that lasted for centuries with the aim of torturing and subduing the common working people were all destroyed over time, especially when people joined forces and resisted them to gradually establish a just order.

Molecular Basis of Thalassemia Intermedia in Pakistani Population

The main objectives for this study were to determine the molecular basis of the disease resulting in the particular clinical phenotype of thalassemia intermedia in Pakistan, to identify the factors affecting genotype – phenotype relationship, to determine the possibility for a consistent prediction of phenotype severity from the genotype factors and to asses their relative importance. Thalassemia Intermedia is clinically and genetically heterogeneous and the genotype is retrospective. However, the disease being of milder form is characterized by late commencement of transfusion, lesser degree of anemia and greater survival time. In this study one consistent factor having a fair ground for the classification was the age of the patient at presentation. Age of the patients in this study was between 2.5 – 36 years. These patients in the radiance of presentation were grouped in four categories; Severe, Moderate, Mild and Very Mild depending on the transfusion commencement. Eleven different beta chain mutations were identified, IVSI-5 = 46 %, Fr 8-9 = 11.5 %, Cap+1 = 10%,, Cd30 = 7.0%, IVSI-I 6.5%, HbE = 6%, HbS = 3%, Del 619 = 1.5 %, Cd15 = 1.0%, Fr 41 – 42 = 0.5%, Fr16 = 0.5% and δβ = 5%. However, 1.5 % of the alleles remained unknown. Out of 100 samples tested for Xmn-I polymorphism 79 were found to be positive, 36 % for +/+ genotype and 43% for -/+ genotype and 21% were negative for the genotype. The samples were also tested for δβ mutations and 5 of them were found to be homozygous. Deletions for α- chain were observed in 30% of the samples, all of them had α3.7 deletions out which 8 % had - α/ - α deletions , 21% had -α/αα deletions and 1% had - - / - α deletions (Table 3.46). Frequency of Alpha Thalassemia in different ethnic groups were determined which revealed that alpha thalassemia mutations are more prevalent in Sindhis, Punjabis and Mahajirs. Relating phenotype to genotype is complicated by complex interaction of the environment and other genetic factors such as coinheritance of other hemoglobin mutations. Alpha thalassemia and Xmn-I predominantly contributed the phenotype. Hemoglobinopathies account for only 9% of the patients. Compound heterozygosity was another factor involved particularly with the assistance of Xmn-I polymorphism and coexistence of α- Thalassemia. Xmn-I +/+ and Hemoglobin S mutation accounted for 9% of cases. To establish a comprehensive diagnosis program the problem of detection of an ability to produce fetal hemoglobin, inheritance of β+ Thalassemia genes and inheritance of α Thalassemia and other factors ameliorating the disease should be defined and incorporated. Molecular basis of thalassemia intermedia as defined in this study explains the involvement of different factors that tend to develop the disease phenotype. However, no single factor finds an authority for the discipline of mildness and thus require cooperation of the elements serving in amelioration.