Tales from Here and There

BBC News - In pictures: Cairo protests fill Tahrir Square

2011-11-25T16:07:00.000-05:00

Truly impressive images.

BBC News - In pictures: Cairo protests fill Tahrir Square

Somalia famine: Minister warns of starvation in rebel controlled areas | Global development | guardian.co.uk

2011-08-02T20:00:00.000-04:00

Curated by Stillmind

August 2nd- 2011.

Somalia famine: Minister warns of starvation in rebel controlled areas | Global development | guardian.co.uk

A Somali refugee drags a sack with food aid given to her at a food distribution point at the Dadaab refugee camp this week. Photograph: Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty

Somalia's deputy prime minister tells FAO meeting that people in areas controlled by Al-Shabaab may starve to death if aid does not reach them in the next few weeks

The vast majority of people in insurgent-controlled areas of Somalia may starve to death unless aid reaches them in the next few weeks, said Mohamed Ibrahim, Somalia's deputy prime minister.

Ibrahim's blunt warning came at an emergency summit in Rome organised by France, the current president of the G20, and the Foodand Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as the world community seeks to mobilise help to relieve Somalia's first famine in 18 years.

Somalia's deputy prime minister said the fundamental cause of the famine was the fragility of the state and enduring conflict that has hindered the provision of basic services. He also blamed insurgents who have blocked lifesaving aid.

"The plight of the Somali people is desperate," said Ibrahim. "We have witnessed suffering in the heart of the capital."

Access to affected regions has emerged as a key problem in the current crisis. Last week, the UN declared a famine in two regions of Somalia southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle. Somali Islamist rebels, who control these areas, last week denied lifting a ban on certain aid groups indrought-affected areas and rejected the UN's claim that there is a famine in the region.

Earlier this month, the rebel group al-Shabaab, which controls much of southern Somalia, had said earlier this month that it would allow all humanitarian groups access to assist with the drought response. But al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage told a local radio station on Friday that the ban on specific aid agencies, which was imposed in 2009 and 2010, still stands.

At the time, the rebels accused various humanitarian groups, including the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), which is expected to lead the current drought response, of damaging the local economy, being anti-Muslim, and of spying for the government.

An estimated 11.6 million people need humanitarian assistance in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti, according to the UN.

As G20 leaders met in Rome, Save the Children warned that the number of malnourished children in 14 of its feeding centres in camps in Puntland, northern Somalia, has doubled from 3,500 to 6,000 in just two weeks.

The number of acutely malnourished children – and those who will die without emergency assistance – has also doubled, rising from 300 children to 600 in the last two weeks at the charity's clinics in Puntland.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said its feeding centres were operating beyond their original capacity and, compared to last year, they were receiving up to seven times more patients in certain locations each week. MSF said "spontaneous camps" are emerging in various locations, such as in the Lower Juba Valley.

Save the Children said if world leaders at the emergency meeting fail to plug a $1bn (£613m) funding gap for the east Africa aid effort, more than a million children could die in Somalia alone.

Save the Children pointed out that, despite organising the meeting, the French government has donated just £1.6m to the aid effort, lagging far behind the UK government's recent £52m donation. Italy – the host of today's summit and Europe's fourth largest economy – has contributed only £550,000. Norway told the FAO meeting that it was ready to contribute more money to the relief effort, while the EU has increased its funding to euros 100m. It hopes to increase this further to euros 160m.

Funding commitments

In a pointed intervention, Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to the UN on the millennium development goals, said the world needed to turn to the Gulf states if it was serious about raising money quickly.

"We have to look to the Gulf states," he said. "It is the only place where the money really is. This is a room of governments without money."

In a later press conference, Kanayo Nwanze, the head of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, a UN special agency, chastised the lack of political leadership in Africa in supporting agriculture.

"If Africa does not get its house in order and expects the world to help us out, we are dreaming," said Nwanze. "Thank goodness Tanzania, Kenya and Ghana are moving ahead with agriculture."

He criticised African governments for not keeping their 2003 promise to earmark 10% of their budgets for agriculture.

"Less than 10 countries have fulfilled that pledge," he said.

The World Bank promised to provide more than $500m to help drought victims. The money would be spent on projects in Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti and Somalia, including the worst-stricken areas in that country "where circumstances permit", the bank said.

"The recurring nature of drought and growing risk it poses to social and economic gains in this region calls not only for immediate relief from the current situation, but also for building longterm drought resilience," said Obiageli Ezekwesili, World Bank vice-president for Africa.

Opening the meeting, the FAO's director general, Jacques Diouf, said there was a need for greater co-ordination in response to the drought and famine in east Africa to "save our brothers and sisters of dying of thirst and hunger".

He said the world was faced with a similar crisis in the region in 2000, which prompted the then secretary general of the UN, Kofi Annan, to appoint an inter-agency taskforce to investigate what could be done to make the region more food secure.

The resulting report, The elimination of food insecurity in the Horn of Africa: A strategy for concerted government and UN agency action, recommended each of the seven countries in the area draft food security programmes, the implementation of regional food security programmes, expanding markets and trade opportunities, and improving in-country health and nutrition.

The report said large-scale infrastructure was needed alongside investment in small-scale projects, particularly in rural roads, livestock markets and basic services, "ensuring that these developments are community-driven".

Diouf drew parallels with the recommendations made in the report by the taskforce, which he led, and the situation now. He pointed out that irrigation was an important component in addressing the crisis. Just 1% of land in the effected region was irrigated in 2000, he said.

Little appears to have been done to increase this figure. An estimated 2% of land in eastern and southern Africa is believed to now have an irrigation system in place; only about 7% of land in the whole of Africa is irrigated, compared with more than 30% of land in Asia.

Diouf said the 2000 crisis was averted and international attention drifted to other issues. "Must history always repeat itself?" he asked. "And in the first few years of the 21st century, must the international community go through the agonising spectacle of seeing children and livestock dying, as in ancient Egyptian times?

"My hope is that the international community and the G20 in the next few years will marshal enormous resources so in the future such tragic events are nothing more than a bad memory ... that fields will be irrigated and roads will be built so the region will no longer weigh on our collective conscience."

The executive director of the World Food Programme, Josette Sheeran, said the current crisis stemmed from a "triple storm" of drought, soaring food prices and conflict.

Mass psychosis in the US - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

2011-07-12T17:57:00.002-04:00

Mass psychosis in the US

How Big Pharma got Americans hooked on anti-psychotic drugs.

James Ridgeway Last Modified: 12 Jul 2011 06:20

Drug companies like Pfizer are accused of pressuring doctors into over-prescribing medications to patients in order to increase profits [GALLO/GETTY]

Has America become a nation of psychotics? You would certainly think so, based on the explosion in the use of antipsychotic medications. In 2008, with over $14 billion in sales, antipsychotics became the single top-selling therapeutic class of prescription drugs in the United States, surpassing drugs used to treat high cholesterol and acid reflux.
Once upon a time, antipsychotics were reserved for a relatively small number of patients with hard-core psychiatric diagnoses - primarily schizophrenia and bipolar disorder - to treat such symptoms as delusions, hallucinations, or formal thought disorder. Today, it seems, everyone is taking antipsychotics. Parents are told that their unruly kids are in fact bipolar, and in need of anti-psychotics, while old people with dementia are dosed, in large numbers, with drugs once reserved largely for schizophrenics. Americans with symptoms ranging from chronic depression to anxiety to insomnia are now being prescribed anti-psychotics at rates that seem to indicate a national mass psychosis.
It is anything but a coincidence that the explosion in antipsychotic use coincides with the pharmaceutical industry's development of a new class of medications known as "atypical antipsychotics." Beginning with Zyprexa, Risperdal, and Seroquel in the 1990s, followed by Abilify in the early 2000s, these drugs were touted as being more effective than older antipsychotics like Haldol and Thorazine. More importantly, they lacked the most noxious side effects of the older drugs - in particular, the tremors and other motor control problems.
The atypical anti-psychotics were the bright new stars in the pharmaceutical industry's roster of psychotropic drugs - costly, patented medications that made people feel and behave better without any shaking or drooling. Sales grew steadily, until by 2009
Seroquel and Abilify numbered fifth and sixth in annual drug sales, and prescriptions written for the top three atypical antipsychotics totaled more than 20 million. Suddenly, antipsychotics weren't just for psychotics any more.
Not just for psychotics anymore...

By now, just about everyone knows how the drug industry works to influence the minds of American doctors, plying them with gifts, junkets, ego-tripping awards, and research funding in exchange for endorsing or prescribing the latest and most lucrative drugs. "Psychiatrists are particularly targeted by Big Pharma because psychiatric diagnoses are very subjective," says Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, whose PharmedOut project tracks the industry's influence on American medicine, and who last month hosted a conference on the subject at Georgetown. A shrink can't give you a blood test or an MRI to figure out precisely what's wrong with you. So it's often a case of diagnosis by prescription. (If you feel better after you take an anti-depressant, it's assumed that you were depressed.) As the researchers in one study of the drug industry's influence put it, "the lack of biological tests for mental disorders renders psychiatry especially vulnerable to industry influence." For this reason, they argue, it's particularly important that the guidelines for diagnosing and treating mental illness be compiled "on the basis of an objective review of the scientific evidence" - and not on whether the doctors writing them got a big grant from Merck or own stock in AstraZeneca.
Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and a leading critic of the Big Pharma, puts it more bluntly: "Psychiatrists are in the pocket of industry." Angell has pointed out that most of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the bible of mental health clinicians, have ties to the drug industry. Likewise, a 2009 study showed that 18 out of 20 of the shrinks who wrote the American Psychiatric Association's most recent clinical guidelines for treating depression, bipolar disorders, and schizophrenia had financial ties to drug companies.
In a recent article in The New York Review of Books, Angell deconstructs what she calls an apparent "raging epidemic of mental illness" among Americans. The use of psychoactive drugs—including both antidepressants and antipsychotics—has exploded, and if the new drugs are so effective, Angell points out, we should "expect the prevalence of mental illness to be declining, not rising." Instead, "the tally of those who are so disabled by mental disorders that they qualify for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) increased nearly two and a half times between 1987 and 2007 - from one in 184 Americans to one in seventy-six. For children, the rise is even more startling - a thirty-five-fold increase in the same two decades. Mental illness is now the leading cause of disability in children." Under the tutelage of Big Pharma, we are "simply expanding the criteria for mental illness so that nearly everyone has one." Fugh-Berman agrees: In the age of aggressive drug marketing, she says, "Psychiatric diagnoses have expanded to include many perfectly normal people."
Cost benefit analysis
What's especially troubling about the over-prescription of the new antipsychotics is its prevalence among the very young and the very old - vulnerable groups who often do not make their own choices when it comes to what medications they take. Investigations into antipsychotic use suggests that their purpose, in these cases, may be to subdue and tranquilize rather than to treat any genuine psychosis.
Carl Elliott reports in Mother Jones magazine: "Once bipolar disorder could be treated with atypicals, rates of diagnoses rose dramatically, especially in children. According to a recent Columbia University study, the number of children and adolescents treated for bipolar disorder rose 40-fold between 1994 and 2003." And according to another study, "one in five children who visited a psychiatrist came away with a prescription for an antipsychotic drug."
A remarkable series published in the Palm Beach Post in May true revealed that the state of Florida's juvenile justice department has literally been pouring these drugs into juvenile facilities, "routinely" doling them out "for reasons that never were approved by federal regulators." The numbers are staggering: "In 2007, for example, the Department of Juvenile Justice bought more than twice as much Seroquel as ibuprofen. Overall, in 24 months, the department bought 326,081 tablets of Seroquel, Abilify, Risperdal and other antipsychotic drugs for use in state-operated jails and homes for children…That's enough to hand out 446 pills a day, seven days a week, for two years in a row, to kids in jails and programs that can hold no more than 2,300 boys and girls on a given day." Further, the paper discovered that "One in three of the psychiatrists who have contracted with the state Department of Juvenile Justice in the past five years has taken speaker fees or gifts from companies that make antipsychotic medications."
In addition to expanding the diagnoses of serious mental illness, drug companies have encouraged doctors to prescribe atypical anti-psychotics for a host of off-label uses. In one particularly notorious episode, the drugmaker Eli Lilly pushed Zyprexa on the caregivers of old people with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, as well as agitation, anxiety, and insomnia. In selling to nursing home doctors, sales reps reportedly used the slogan "five at five"—meaning that five milligrams of Zyprexa at 5 pm would sedate their more difficult charges. The practice persisted even after FDA had warned Lilly that the drug was not approved for such uses, and that it could lead to obesity and even diabetes in elderly patients.
In a video interview conducted in 2006, Sharham Ahari, who sold Zyprexa for two years at the beginning of the decade, described to me how the sales people would wangle the doctors into prescribing it. At the time, he recalled, his doctor clients were giving him a lot of grief over patients who were "flipping out" over the weight gain associated with the drug, along with the diabetes. "We were instructed to downplay side effects and focus on the efficacy of drug…to recommend the patient drink a glass a water before taking a pill before the meal and then after the meal in hopes the stomach would expand" and provide an easy way out of this obstacle to increased sales. When docs complained, he recalled, "I told them, ‘Our drug is state of the art. What's more important? You want them to get better or do you want them to stay the same--a thin psychotic patient or a fat stable patient.'"
For the drug companies, Shahrman says, the decision to continue pushing the drug despite side effects is matter of cost benefit analysis: Whether you will make more money by continuing to market the drug for off-label use, and perhaps defending against lawsuits, than you would otherwise. In the case of Zyprexa, in January 2009, Lilly settled a lawsuit brought by with the US Justice Department, agreeing to pay $1.4 billion, including "a criminal fine of $515 million, the largest ever in a health care case, and the largest criminal fine for an individual corporation ever imposed in a United States criminal prosecution of any kind,''the Department of Justice said in announcing the settlement." But Lilly's sale of Zyprexa in that year alone were over $1.8 billion.
Turning people into zombies
As it turns out, the atypical antipsychotics may not even be the best choice for people with genuine, undisputed psychosis.
A growing number of health professionals have come to think these drugs are not really as effective as older less expensive medicines which they have replaced, that they themselves produce side effects that cause other sorts of diseases such as diabetes and plunge the patient deeper into the gloomy world of serious mental disorder. Along with stories of success comes reports of people turned into virtual zombies.
Elliott reports in Mother Jones: "After another large analysis in The Lancet found that most atypicals actually performed worse than older drugs, two senior British psychiatrists penned a damning editorial that ran in the same issue. Dr. Peter Tyrer, the editor of the British Journal of Psychiatry, and Dr. Tim Kendall of the Royal College of Psychiatrists wrote: "The spurious invention of the atypicals can now be regarded as invention only, cleverly manipulated by the drug industry for marketing purposes and only now being exposed."
Bottom line:Stop Big Pharma and the parasitic shrink community from wantonly pushing these pills across the population.

Playing For Change | One Love

2011-05-30T22:40:00.000-04:00

Playing For Change | One Love

BBC News - Could the insurgents be defeated in Afghanistan?

2011-05-22T00:51:00.005-04:00

BBC News - Could the insurgents be defeated in Afghanistan?

22 May 2011
(Video)>
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12981618

Suicide bombers storm Afghan police base

Suicide bombers wielding machine guns have stormed a government building in eastern Afghanistan, officials say.

Initial reports say at least three gunmen wearing suicide vests shot their way into the traffic police headquarters in Khost city.

Security forces have surrounded the compound and a gun battle is taking place, police say. At least one person is reported to have been killed.

The attack comes a day after a suicide bombing in Kabul killed at least six.

In the latest attack, a guard was killed in the initial assault which happened at about 0500 (0030 GMT) on Sunday, said Gen Raz Mohammad Oryakhail, army commander for Khost province.

He said the militants were on the second floor of the building and shooting down at police and soldiers outside.

However, a provincial police chief told AFP news agency that three police officers had been killed.

Another official said police and troops were trying to avoid a full-scale assault because they didn't want the gunmen to detonate their suicide vests.

In Saturday's attack, a suicide bomber detonated his device in a tent in the grounds of Charsad Bestar Hospital where medical students were eating lunch.

Although the hospital treats Afghan military personnel, the victims were all civilians and medical students, police said.

The Taliban said it carried out the attack.

Dangerous Supplements You Should Stay Away From

2011-04-27T16:47:00.001-04:00

Dangerous Supplements You Should Stay Away From

April 27- 2011

Curated by Rene Volpi via deefoster

Natural Does not Mean Safe!

We are living in a time when more and more people appear to be more health conscious than ever before. The health and wellness industry is a growing trend, accounting for billions of dollars in health and wellness products, such as herbal and natural supplements.

Many, however, do not realize that they are putting themselves in grave danger when taking natural supplements in an attempt to either improve their health or to combat certain illnesses and diseases.

I believe that too many believe the hype and buy in too quickly before taking the time to do the necessary research to ensure that what they are taking is not going to have any harmful side effects.

You should always remember, what is safe for someone else may not necessarily be safe for you. For example, there are some herbal supplements that can cause lethal side effects when taken with certain medications and may cause dangerous reactions if your have certain preexisting conditions, such as high blood pressure or diabetes, just to name a few.

Dangerous Supplements

Here are a list of supplements that have been identified has having some serious potential to cause a lot of damage. I recommend that you stay away from these supplements and at the very least do some further research before you take these.

Kava - Used for anxiety. This supplement may cause liver damage and has already been banned in Canada, Germany and Switzerland.

Comfrey - Used for the treatment of cancer, couch and also used to treat heavy bleading during menstrual cycle. Possible danger includes liver damage and cancer.

Germanium - Used in the treatment of liver problems, pain infections and arthritis. Possible side effects are kidney damage and even death.

Coltsfoot - Used for sore throat, asthma and bronchitis. Side effects include liver damage and cancer.

Bitter Orange - Used for allergies, nasal congestion and weight loss. Dangerous side effects include stroke, fainting, heart attack and even death

Aconite - Used for gout, joint pain and inflammation. Dangerous side effects include vomiting, low blood pressure, toxicity and even death.

Tips to Protect Yourself

If you are considering adding herbal and other natural supplements to your diet, here are some tips to ensure that you make the safest choices in natural supplements.

See your Doctor. Always check with your doctor before adding any supplements to your doctor. Some supplements could cause dangerous reactions to any medication you may already be taking.

Stay away from supplements for weight loss, body building and sexual enhancement. According to the FDA, these types of supplements could possible contain trace amounts of prescription drugs and steroids.

Only purchase supplements that show the "USP Verified" seal. This organization verifies the quality and purity of the raw materials.

Don't take more than indicated on the container. Taking more does not increase the benefits and could result in over dosing and toxicity.

See your doctor immediately if you start to experience any symptoms as the result of taking supplements.

Libya: British photographer killed in Misurata - Telegraph

2011-04-20T17:25:00.000-04:00

Libya: British photographer killed in Misurata - Telegraph

Curated by Stillmind on 4-20-2011

Libya: British photographer killed in Misurata

Tim Hetherington, a leading British photojournalist, has been killed while covering the fighting in the Libyan city of Misurata, the Foreign Office has confirmed.

Image 1 of 2

Tim Hetherington died from a mortar round while on the front line

Richard Spencer and Nick Collins 8:38PM BST 20 Apr 2011

Mr Hetherington, who had won a World Press Photo of the Year award for his coverage of Afghanistan and had also made prize-winning film documentaries, was said by friends and colleagues to have died from a mortar round while on the front line.

The photographer, who was on assignment for the news agency Panos, is the first known British casualty of the Libyan conflict.

An American colleague, Chris Hondros, who was working for Getty, was reported to be in a critical condition after sustaining brain injuries in the attack. Two other journalists were said to have been injured in the incident.

One of those injured was reported to be Guy Martin, a British photographer with Panos, who was receiving treatment in hospital last night.

The photographers were among a group caught by mortar fire on Tripoli Street, the main thoroughfare leading into the centre of Misurata, according to reports.

Libya: Col Gaddafi 'has spent £2.1m on mercenaries'
20 Apr 2011
Libya: rebel fights 'kill 50 soldiers' in Misurata
20 Apr 2011
Libya: France sends military team to help rebels
20 Apr 2011
Libya: RAF fears over missile shortages
20 Apr 2011

Spanish photographer Guillermo Cervera said: “It was quiet and we were trying to get away and then a mortar landed and we heard explosions.”

A colleague who was with them and was at the hospital confirmed the death on a Facebook page, prompting condolences from other foreign correspondents.

Mr Hetherington, 40, who was from Liverpool but had dual British and American nationality, read English literature at Oxford University before becoming a photographer and film-maker.

He spent eight years in West Africa, covering the Liberian and Sierra Leone civil wars there, before working in Afghanistan.

His first film, Restrepo, which covered the lives of a platoon of soldiers in Afghanistan, which was last year nominated for an Oscar.

Mr Hondros, 41, had been nominated for a Pulitzer prize in 2004 and also lectured and wrote on war in the United States.

Both men lived in New York.

James Golston of ABC-TV News USA, who worked with Mr Hetherinton on Nightline, a documentary about the war in Afghanistan, described him as “one of the bravest photographers and filmmakers I have ever met”.

He said: "During his shooting for the Nightline specials he very seriously broke his leg on a night march out of a very isolated forward operating base that was under attack.

“He had the strength and character to walk for four hours through the night on his shattered ankle without complaint and under fire, enabling that whole team to reach safety.”

Mr Hetherington last year described some of his experiences in Afghanistan as “pretty traumatic events”.

He said: “The thing about the wars in Afghanistan, they've been known as the ghost wars, you know, because not often does one really see the enemy.”

Mr Hetherington wrote on his Twitter profile last night: “In besieged Libyan city of Misurata. Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of Nato.”

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are offering consular assistance to the family.”

The Difference Between Darfur and Libya.

2011-04-10T23:20:00.000-04:00

Intervention in Libya, why not Darfur?

From PRI's The World06 April, 2011 02:25:00

2 Share

Photo of Darfur refugees in a camp along the Chad-Sudan border in 2007 (Image by Jeb Sharp)

International forces didn't intervene in the Darfur crisis, so why did it happen so quickly in Libya?

This story was originally covered by PRI's The World. For more, listen to the audio above.

by Jeb Sharp

The pace of the Libya intervention has stunned the people of Darfur and the activists who worked so hard to protect them. Back in 2004, the assumption was that if you raised a loud enough outcry, governments would act to stop mass atrocities. In Libya the outcry had barely begun when governments intervened. The difference has not gone unnoticed by Rebecca Hamilton the author of "Fighting for Darfur: Public Action and the Struggle to Stop Genocide".

"What Libya has that Darfur never had, still does not have to the present day, and desperately needs, is a unified international commitment to do civilian protection," said Hamilton.

Hamilton says Libya underscores for her how the battle to protect civilians takes place in the realm of global geo-politics. In this case it was the Arab League's request to the UN Security Council to enforce a no fly zone and protect civilians that made the difference.

"Without that then you would have had China in particular doing what it did in Darfur–and which is its typical position–which is to threaten to veto anything that looks interventionist," said Hamilton.

"But with the Arab League specifically requesting to the UN Security Council that they do this, I think that led to China agreeing to abstain and let such a strong civilian protection resolution go through."

The Arab League was willing to forsake Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in a way it was never ready to forsake Sudanese President Omar al Bashir. Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy says a key motivating factor in the Libya intervention was the widespread desire to see Gaddafi fall.

"The Arab League generally has no love for Gaddafi," said Knights. "Many of the key players have a strong desire to see Gaddafi fall because of prior disagreements and bitter conflicts that they've had with him. Likewise the West has long-lasting grudges against Gaddafi whether they be the U.S., the British, the French."

Even so, it wasn't a given that the Arab League would sideline Gaddafi, notes Rebecca Hamilton. At the height of the outcry over Darfur, the Arab League stood by Sudanese President Omar al Bashir.

"I think what made the difference is the high-level defections of some of Gaddafi's closest inner circle," said Hamilton.

"And that again is something that you have not had in Sudan. Bashir's inner circle have stayed tight and in support of him. But I think that when Gaddafi's inner circle started to split it was easier for regional bodies like the Arab League to say, well we can stand beside Libya, whilst isolating Gaddafi."

But Hamilton says there's another striking reason things have played out differently in Libya and Darfur.

"If I had to put it in one word, I'd say Iraq," said Hamilton.

"The problem during the early days in Darfur was that it was really only the U.S. government that was leading the charge for civilian protection, and it was in many ways the worst-placed actor to do so in the context of the recent invasion in Iraq. It just looked like hypocrisy and double standards for the Bush Administration to be talking about human rights in Darfur whilst you had Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and all of the other consequences of Iraq."

It also made it easy for President Bashir of Sudan to paint any discussion of an international peacekeeping force for Darfur as an American-led attempt to invade yet another Muslim country. But things are different today. Time has passed. There's a different administration in the White House, and the rest of the world is less cynical about US motives. There is surprising support for the Libya intervention in the Arab World.

But even if there had been similar agreement on Darfur there's another glaring difference between the two cases, according to Robert Pape of the University of Chicago.

"The main difference between Darfur and Libya is actually the geography," said Pape.

Pape points out that Libya is close to Europe and right on the coast. That means Gaddafi's forces are vulnerable to NATO's sea-based air power. Darfur, by contrast, is in western Sudan, hundreds of miles from the sea, with mountainous terrain and lots of small arms fire. Protecting civilians there is a different proposition.

"As a result, nearly every plan that was serious included significant numbers of ground troops," said Pape. "The African Union put together the smallest plan for 2000 ground forces, the UN began to look at this and very quickly the number got up to 30,000 ground troops. And once you're talking about tens of thousands of ground troops going into a very hostile environment, now we begin to balance out the humanitarian goal with the serious risk of life to ourselves."

The UN Security Council did eventually deploy a peacekeeping force to Darfur, but not before hundreds of thousands of people had died and millions had been displaced. Even now, says Rebecca Hamilton, there's an urgent need for international pressure for a peace settlement and the enforcement of a ceasefire in Darfur.

Goodies from Spain!

2011-03-19T21:57:00.001-04:00

Curated and recommended.

stillmind, 19 March, 2011

50 Ways to Use Less Oil

2011-02-27T14:49:00.001-05:00

50 Ways to Use Less Oil

Curated by Stillmind

Oil? Who said something about oil? Not the oil industry.

Feature Photo: Seattle Municipal Archives.

This article started as a project for myself. Depressed and aggravated about BP’s oil spill and mismanaged clean-up, I started researching ways to cut back on my own oil consumption.

It was a two-level action plan; I could atone for my petroleum indiscretions and Norman Bates some oil industry profits.

Although the negatives of the oil industry are outstanding–degredation of the ecosystem, global warming, oil spills and oil wars–there’s not a good guy, bad guy battle going on here.

Or is there?

There’s serious money grab happening in the oil industry. Sector profits continually increase and cyclical earning keeps oil companies and their lobbyists engaged in maintaining petroleum as a big part of everyone’s lives.

Consider this:

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, “the petroleum refining industry is the largest industrial consumer of energy”. Basically, we need more oil so we can refine more oil.

Basically, we need more oil so we can refine more oil.

Oil companies, and the politicians that are supported by them, aren’t necessarily looking to promote green energy with such interest in keeping oil lubricating the return of the other “green”.

Petroleum products don’t just include gasoline and crude oil. When petroleum is refined and its various chemical parts separated, petrochemicals make plastic, rubber, and a whole slew of materials that we ingest, wear, and use throughout the day.

Below, I’ve included obvious and not-so-obvious ways to cut back on oil and give less money to the oil industry.

(Statistics provided by the EIA.)

1.) Cut back on/regulate air conditioning and heat.

41% of household energy is consumed by space heating. 8% is from air conditioning use. Programmable thermostats are a great tool for regulating energy use.

2.) Weatherize your home.

Do a home energy audit to see where you’re losing energy. Insulation and natural shade will be key factors.

3.) Eat and buy local.

Support local farmers markets, restaurants that use local produce, and shops that sell locally made items.

4.) Calculate your carbon footprint.

5.) Try going vegetarian. Even for just Meatless Mondays.

In 2006, the United Nations summarized the meat industry as “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.” Loads of sites offer vegetarian/vegan recipes and communities. My favorite, a print magazine and website, is Veg News.

6.) Don’t buy bottled water.

Try a Brita filter. Campaign like Jean Hill for no bottled water in your town.

7.) Cut back on plastic products.

Plastic bags and bottles obviously included. Plastic is made from petrochemicals, the main ingredient of which is oil.

Photo by: woodleywonderworks

8.) Recycle.

If you don’t have a recycling box, call your city’s public works department and they’ll bring you one.

9.) Buy mp3s and used CDs and LPs.

10.) Carpool.

11.) Roll down the car windows.

Turn off the a/c in your car and you’ll save on gas.

12.) Save your car radio and CD player for songs you really want to listen to.

Pull the plug on mediocre songs and unnecessary electronics.

13.) Keep your car in good condition and repair.

Get tire pressure checked, maintain regular oil changes, and replace parts as necessary.

14.) Take yourself off junk mail lists.

15.) Buy clothes at consignment shops instead of purchasing new clothes.

16.) Eat seasonally.

Food will travel less.

17.) Eat less package-heavy food.

18.) Combine trips in town.

Hit up the grocery store, bank, and gym all in one trip.

19.) Eat organic if you can’t eat local.

Pesticides are petrochemical poison.

20.) Avoid synthetic fibers like polyester, nylon, and acrylic in clothes, curtains, carpets.

They’re full of petrochemicals and feel like crap anyways.

21.) Do soap research.

There are two types of detergents: soapy and soapless. Soapless detergents are made from oil products.

Photo by: iLoveButter

22.) Cut back on processed and canned food.

Food additives are another petrochemical.

23.) Avoid standard candles.

Wax is a raw petroleum product that also makes milk cartons and polishes. Buy natural soy or beeswax candles.

24.) If you have a garden, watch out that your fertilizer doesn’t contain petroleum chemicals.

25.) Switch to non-ethylene garbage bags.

26.) Research non-synthetic (i.e. non-petroleum product) natural rubber or natural fiber shoes.

27.) Consider adopting a non-refrigerator lifestyle.

5% of household energy is used by the refrigerator.

28.) Cut off lights.

29.) Put all appliances on a power strip.

Flip the switch when you leave the room. Plugged in appliances are a major energy drain. Lighting and other appliances account for 26% of household energy use.

30.) Limit hot water use.

Take fast showers and wash clothes and dishes in cold water. Water heating accounts for 20% of household energy use.

31.) Make sure your water heater is in good repair.

32.) Switch to compact florescent lightbulbs from incandescent bulbs.

33.) Take the bus.

34.) Take the train.

On my recent trip to NYC for TBEX, I took the train from Virginia instead of flying. It was cheaper and less stressful than dealing with long security lines.

Photo by: jurvetson

35.) Make sure your house in well-ventilated.

36.) Switch to nonpetroleum cosmetics.

37.) Consider holistic medicine.

For yet another reason to switch to holistic medicine: most modern drugs contain petroleum based products.

38.) Avoid ammonia based products.

39.) Don’t chew gum.

Most bubble gum contains petroleum. I tell my voice students not to chew gum anyways since it causes jaw tension.

40.) Watch what you put on your body.

Read the ingredient lists in perfumes and lotions. Many contain petrochemicals.

41.) Tell cashiers you don’t want paper receipts.

42.) Watch your water footprint.

Did you know a cup of coffee requires 37 gallons of virtual water? I didn’t until I read Julie Schwietert’s water footprint article.

43.) Recycle your electronics.

Best Buy recycles your e-waste for you.

Photo by: Flavio

44.) Monitor you energy online.

Google’s PowerMeter lets you view your home’s energy consumption from anywhere online.

45.) Recycle without recycling.

Re-purpose items around the house without even putting them in the recycling bin.Real Simple and Ready Made magazines usually give great tips.

46.) Ride your bike.

47.) Walk everywhere you can.

48.) Buy in bulk.

49.) Don’t buy disposable anything.

Use washable cups, even at picnics. Try mesh coffee filters, cloth diapers, cloth napkins, and cloth towels instead of paper towels. Experiment with reusable feminine products like the Diva Cup.

50.) Watch out for brands that don’t deserve to call themselves “green”.

2011-01-23T19:30:00.001-05:00

The Incredible Lightness of Being Tabu Ley Rochereau and Osho on Vegetarianism
Curated by Rene Volpi

Tabu Ley Rochereau is more than just one of the greatest singers and composers in African popular music. He's also the master politician of the Congolese dance-band nation, which has splintered, fractured, revolted, imploded and rebuilt itself more or less continuously over the course of three generations while producing some of the world's most beautiful and sophisticated music along the way.

Born Pascal Emmanuel Sinamoyi Tabou in 1940 in Banningville, a port town in the Banandu region of the Belgian Congo, Tabu Ley was raised in Léopoldville. He acquired the nickname "Rochereau" as a schoolboy. Teenage Tabu Ley was a prodigy, and the Lingala, French and pidgin-Spanish songs he submitted to Joseph "Le Grand Kalle" Kabasele eventually earned him a gig with Kabasele's African Jazz, the city's top band. Rochereau enjoyed his first hit in 1958 with "Kelya," the dulcet rumba that appropriately kicks off The Voice of Lightness, a marvelous Sterns anthology of Tabu Ley sides released between 1961 and 1977 — with volume two carrying us to 1993.

The first in a long series of professional splits occurred in 1963, when most of Kabasele's band — including Rochereau and seminal Congolese guitarist "Dr. Nico" Kasanda — split in a financial huff and started their own band, African Fiesta, the best of whose increasingly exploratory Latin-tinged sounds can be heard on African Fiesta Volume I (1962-63) and Rochereau et l'African Fiesta 1968/69. Inspired first by traditional likembe thumb piano music, Dr. Nico took on a woozy Hawaiian steel guitar sound you can hear in "N'daya Paradis." The guitarist left African Fiesta in '65, but Tabu Ley had no problem finding suitable replacements, and went on to record much great music with suave lead guitarist Guvanu Vangu. Rochereau picked up some James Brown dance moves, began extending, hired Congolese music's first traps drummer (Seskain Molenda), and enhanced the spectacle with his dancing Rocherettes.

Africa Fiesta offered a sophisticated urban alternative to the rootsier vibes of Tabu Ley's longtime competitor and eventual partner, Congolese guitar giant Franco Luambo and his OK Jazz. Rochereau's softer, more expressive voice made him particularly attractive to female listeners, while his increasingly dynamic soukous grooves, in which a balladic opening section introduced a longer rhythmic throwdown called a sebene, was moving both Venusian and Martian dancers. Zaire's authoritarian president, Mobutu Sese Soko, dug his sound in a big way, too — although he suspended Africa Fiesta for three months in 1968, condemning the group's late arrival at the presidential New Year's Eve party as nothing less than "attempted sabotage of the artistic and cultural evening."

Following a profile-raising 1970 appearance in Paris (reconstructed, complete with fake applause, on À l'Olympia (Paris) 1970), Tabu Ley shed several musicians and changed his band's name to Afrisa International (he also temporarily dropped his own colonially tinged "Rochereau"). Tabu Ley continued to spread his love among different ethnic groups while inventing or borrowing whatever was moving fickle Zaireans. He lost momentum in 1977, when several bandmembers abandoned him for singer Sam Mangwana's African All-Stars (as commented upon in "Ponce Pilate") but regained his footing the following year when he installed an enhanced lineup at his Kinshasa club, Type K (a French-Spanish pun on tipica). Dr. Nico even returned to the fold briefly in 1980, resulting in the majestic "Ohambe" among other old-school delights.

Seeking a pretty face to co-front Afrisa, Seigneur (Lord) Rochereau, as he became known, anointed sweet-voiced Mbilia Bel in 1982. With Tabu Ley supplying her music, the 22-year-old became Africa's preeminent female vocalist, thanks to terrific albums such as Eswi Yo Wapi (Where Did It Hurt You?). Another winner, "Mobali Na Ngai Wana" (This Husband of Mine) praised her mentor's — and future husband's — looks, wealth, and talent. Tabu Ley and Mbilia Bel separated in 1988, some time after the bandleader added singer Faya Tess to his ensemble. Tabu Ley once claimed to have fathered 69 children around the world and probably launched the careers of at least as many musicians.

After mourning the death of Le Grand Kalle together, Rochereau's Parisian sessions with Franco in 1983 resulted in four albums. Lisanga Ya Banganga (Gathering of Healers) describes the highly unexpected nature of their collaboration ("We're magicians!"), while "Lettre à Mr. le DG" delivered a scathing indictment Mobutu's corrupt regime in a thinly disguised allegory. Like so many Congolese musicians, Tabu Ley moved to Paris to escape the economic catastrophe Zaire had become under Mobutu's hand. Informed he wouldn't be welcome back if he wished to return, Tabu Ley addressed his exile in "Exil-Ley" and "Le Glas a Sonné" (The Bell Has Tolled).

Rochereau lived in Los Angeles during the mid '90s and returned to Zaire in 1997, where he helped form a political party, the Congolese Rally for Democracy. His musical career no doubt provided him a bonus political education; he has since served as a cabinet minister, member of parliament, and Vice-Governor of Kinshasa. In 2008 Tabu Ley Rochereau suffered a stroke from which he has recovered slowly, and remains one of the living legends of African popular music.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Next, Osho on Vegetarianism~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Osho Vegetarianism Quotes – Vegetarianism is of immense help.

6 COMMENTS

in OSHO VEGETARIANISM QUOTES

Osho Vegetarianism Quotes

The idea of vegetarianism is of immense value; it is based on great reverence for life.
It is the other way round: food cannot make you spiritual, but if you are spiritual your food habits will change. Eating anything will not make much difference. You can be a vegetarian and cruel to the extreme, and violent; you can be a non-vegetarian and kind and loving. Food will not make much difference. In India there are communities who have lived totally with vegetarian food; many Brahmins have lived totally with vegetarian food. They are non-violent but they are not spiritual.
I don’t teach vegetarianism; it is a by-product of meditation. Wherever meditation has happened, people have become vegetarian, always, for thousands of years.
Vegetarianism has nothing to do with religion: it is something basically scientific. It has nothing to do with morality, but it has much to do with aesthetics. It is unbelievable that a man of sensitivity, awareness, understanding, love, can eat meat. And if he can eat meat then something is missing he is still unconscious somewhere of what he is doing, unconscious of the implications of his acts.
If you meditate long enough, deep enough, it is impossible for you to hurt anybody for food; it is impossible. It is not a question of argument, it is not a question of scriptures, it is not who says what, it is not a question of calculating that if you take vegetarian food you will become spiritual; it is automatic. It is not a question of cunningness, you simply become spiritual. The whole thing seems so absurd. Just for food, killing animals, birds, seems so absurd, it falls down.
With me, meditation is the only essential religion. And everything that follows it is virtue, because it comes of its own accord. You don’t have to drag it, you don’t have to discipline yourself for it. I have nothing to do with vegetarianism, but I know that if you meditate you are going to grow new perceptivity, new sensitivity, and you cannot kill animals.
Vegetarianism should not be anything moral or religious. It is a question of aesthetics: one’s sensitivity, one’s respect, one’s reverence for life.
No vegetarian has been able to achieve a single Nobel prize. It is a clear-cut condemnation of vegetarianism. Why do all the Nobel prizes go to non-vegetarians? — because vegetarian food does not contain those proteins which create intelligence. And unless we provide those proteins, intelligence cannot grow. The body is a very delicate phenomenon and it needs a very well balanced diet.
In my commune, I have added non-fertilized eggs to the vegetarian food. I am a vegetarian and I would like the whole world to become vegetarian — but not at the cost of risking your intelligence. Non-fertilized eggs fulfill the need completely; in fact, better than non-vegetarian food. We should make it a point that non-vegetarian food is not allowed in the universities because to kill, to do violence just for food, is so ugly and so inhuman that you cannot expect these people to behave lovingly, sensitively, humanly. Non-vegetarian food is one of the basic causes of the whole society being almost in a continuous fight. It makes you insensitive, it makes you hard, it makes you a stone. And it creates things in you — anger, violence — which can be easily avoided.
Life in its infinite forms exists as one organic unity. We are part of it: the part should feel reverence for the whole. That is the idea of vegetarianism. It simply means: don’t destroy life. It simply means: life is God — avoid destroying it, otherwise you will be destroying the very ecology.
Vegetarianism functioned as a purification. When you eat animals you are more under the law of necessity. You are heavy, you gravitate more towards the earth. When you are a vegetarian you are light and you are more under the law of grace, under the law of power, and you start gravitating towards the sky.
Vegetarianism is a conscious effort, a deliberate effort, to get out of the heaviness that keeps you tethered to the earth so that you can fly — so that the flight from the alone to the alone becomes possible.
Vegetarianism is of immense help. It changes your chemistry. When you eat and live on animals…. The first thing: whenever an animal is killed the animal is angry, afraid — naturally. When you kill an animal… just think of yourself being killed. What will be the state of your consciousness? What will be your psychology? All kinds of poisons will be released in your body, because when you are angry a certain kind of poison is released into your blood. When you are afraid, again a certain other kind of poison is released into your blood. And when you are being killed, that is the utmost in fear, anger. All the glands in your body release all their poison. And man goes on living on that poisoned meat. If it keeps you angry, violent, aggressive, it is not strange; it is natural. Whenever you live on killing, you don’t have any respect for life; you are inimical to life. And the person who is inimical to life cannot move into prayer — because prayer means reverence for life.
Pythagoras was the first to introduce vegetarianism to the West. It is of profound depth for man to learn how to live in friendship with nature, in friendship with creatures. That becomes the foundation. And only on that foundation can you base your prayer, your meditativeness. You can watch it in yourself: when you eat meat, meditation will be found to be more and more difficult.
Try vegetarianism and you will be surprised: meditation becomes far easier. Love becomes more subtle, loses its grossness — becomes more sensitive but less sensuous, becomes more prayerful and less sexual. And your body also starts taking on a different vibe. You become more graceful, softer, more feminine, less aggressive, more receptive. Vegetarianism is an alchemical change in you. It creates the space in which the baser metal can be transformed into gold.
Jainism is the first religion that has made vegetarianism a fundamental necessity for transforming consciousness. And they are right. Killing just to eat makes your consciousness heavy, insensitive; and you need a very sensitive consciousness — very light, very loving, very compassionate. It is difficult for a non-vegetarian to be compassionate; and without being compassionate and loving you will be hindering your own progress.

WORLD BLOGS

2010-12-30T16:34:00.001-05:00

20 Awesome Expat Blogs

30 Comments Popular Curated by Stillmind Written by Anne Merritt

Expat blog How Lao Brown Cow

Some expat blogs are simple; some are ranting, and some are way too personal. Luckily, there’s another class of blogs from those living overseas.

These are the truly great blogs; the ones you can visit over and over. For sharp writing, quality photography, or wry humour, these blogs stand out from the pack.

[Editor's note: Blogs are not listed in any particular order; the list is not meant to be a ranking but rather a varied collection of blogs from around the world.]

1. How Lao Brown Cow

Leslie Engle’s blog about her life and work in Laos is hilarious. Her photos are bright and simple, and she writes thoughtful posts like Mama You’ve been On my Mind, about family in Laos. Leslie works for Pencils of Promise, and writes with energy the grassroots changes that are happening with Laotian education. One post I particularly liked, about the frustrations of learning a language more slowly than you’d like, weaves wit into exasperation. Funny, funny stuff.

2. The Mija Chronicles

Mexican-American freelance writer Lesley Téllez takes delicious photos. You could say her site is a food blog, with great, witty recipe narratives like this Chile Mora Salsa. I’d call it a sensory site for Mexico City; bright photos, simple fresh food, and, in one post, the sounds from the street.

3. Danny Choo

UK-born Danny Choo works in software in Tokyo and takes bonkers photographs too. Choo’sJapan is electric, eclectic, and frantic in the best possible way. His Tokyo photo walk series is a balance of sparsity and density on the city’s neon streets. He also snaps a series of anime characters that is, funny, creepy, or sexy, depending on your cup of tea.

Celeste Brash is a travel writer who, until one month ago, lived in Tahiti for 17 years. She writes about traditional dance classes, Tahiti’s vineyards, and a great series on traveling French Polynesia by supply ship; road-trip style narratives about confused schedules and dolphin-spottings. A standout photo isJam Session at the Tahiti Immigration Office, a quick but potent look at French Polynesian character.4. Coconut Radio

5. O’Sullivans Abroad

This blog is by couple from Oregon who live and teach in Taiwan. I love the crowded photos of bright markets and moody cafes. Mostly, I love the fact that this blog is put together with zero pretentiousness. No backpacker bragging, no expat smugness: just pert, honest writing.

They cover the basics of an international teacher‘s everyday life; from oddly-flavored candies to the items they wish they had packed. If I were planning a move to Taiwan, I would comb this blog for tips. A favorite post: the simple photo of a tutu’d Taiwanese girlcelebrating her birthday.

6. How to Learn Swedish in 1000 Difficult Lessons

I adore the format of Francis Strand’s blog. Each untitled entry tells a daily anecdote in the American expat’s life in Sweden; a strange phone call at work; observing two young men making eyes on the bus, a new landscaping project.

Each post concludes with a Swedish word of the day, an often wry one-word summary of the piece. My favorite post is the story of getting stuck in the ice during a Baltic boat ride. The word of the day? En förbannelse. It means a curse.

7. Karolinka In & Around Bulgaria

I love stories like American Carolyn Emigh’s, when a student moves to a new country to study for a semester or two, and ends up staying for years. For Emigh, studying has turned to teaching ESL. During her third year in Sofia, she explores the countryside and small towns with all the zeal of a backpacking undergrad. The enthusiasm and pretty photos from Rhodopes in Autumn can be triggers of wanderlust.

8. I Eat My Pigeon

Liv is one funny writer. She spent three years teaching ESL in Japan and writing. Now, she’s living in her ancestral Italy, blogging with quick candor about stick shift driving lessons and noisy neighbors. One of my favorite posts is about cleaning out a wallet and unearthing travel mementos. Heartfelt but still witty.

Also, Liv’s Mini Japanese Culture Lessons are hilarious and helpful. I love her description of the Japanese “eeehh?”

9. Touching up my Roots

This blog tracks an American family’s sabbatical in Croatia, where they trace their family roots. Each family member has their own page, giving the site a range of voices. Husband Jim narrates the food adventures. The kids blog about homeschooling and skiing for the first time. Wife Jennifer writes simple, vivid notes on everyday Croatian life, like in Starting Each Day with the Strike of a Match.

10. Here is Havana

Conner Gorry is an American journalist based in Cuba, whose writing is sharp and self-aware. A sample: “If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to kiss on the Malecón, go to the doctor for free, smoke tasty 5 cent cigars, or forgoe toilet paper for months [...], welcome to Havana.”

Her vignettes on relating to the neighbors and battling bugs are honest and beautifully written. I loved Keeping in Line, Cuban Style, a post about queuing for food rations in the aftermath of a hurricane. Her account of the hungry crowd is compassionate and dignified.

Continue reading on the next page or click “View All” for 10 more expat blogs.

Continue reading → 1 2 Next Page View All

Tagged under: blogging, expat blogs, expat life, Living Abroad

About the Author

Matador ID: anne137

Anne Merritt has lived in Canada, Europe, and Asia, where she teaches English and writes in her spare time. Her work has appeared in The Globe and Mail, GoOverseas.com, and The Compass online. She is a regular contributor to the Southeast Asian travel site www.khaosanroad.com.

2 Great Posts: Obscene Debate on The Internet and Sound and Images; story of a-NYC- taxi-driver.

2010-12-01T18:14:00.006-05:00

The Most Obscene Debate On the Internet
and Story of a New York cabby:

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/1-in-8-million/index.html#/andrew_baum

Curated by René Volpi

Written by Leigh Shulman

Photo by Denise Finzer /
Feature photo by Kendra Wivell

Emma Kwasnica, childbirth educator and breastfeeding advocate, logged onto Facebook new year’s day, 2009 to find her account had been deleted.

Why? Because Facebook “does not allow photos that attack an individual or group, or that contain nudity, drug use, violence, or other violations of the Terms of Use.

What was the photo? It was Emma breastfeeding her two children a mere six hours after the birth of her second. Now look at all the other photos shown in this essay. They too have been banned by Facebook.

Photo by Emma Kwasnica

Each represents an incredibly private moment between mother and child, yes. But do they represent content that is“hateful, threatening, pornographic, or that contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence.”

Facebook says yes.

A Brief History of the Debate

Kelli Roman founded the Facebook fan group Hey Facebook, Breastfeeding Is Not Obscene after a photo of hers was deleted from her profile. Soon after, the group’s supporters hosted an online nurse-in to protest. Heather Farley, whose photo can also be found in this essay, organized the physical nurse in at Facebook, Inc. headquarters in Palo Alto, California.

Now it looks that there may be a class action lawsuit against Facebook. Those potentially leading the suit charge that while Facebook allows plenty of breast photos, it seems that breastfeeding ones have been specifically targeted for removal.

Hmmm, maybe that’s be the reason Facebook failed to return my repeated calls?

What Does Facebook Have To Say?

After the online and physical nurse-ins at Facebook headquarters, Facebook representative Barry Schnitt spoke to the press.

We agree that breastfeeding is natural and beautiful and we’re very glad to know that it is so important to some mothers to share this experience with others on Facebook. We take no action on the vast majority of breastfeeding photos because they follow the site’s Terms of Use. Photos containing a fully exposed breast (as defined by showing the nipple or areola) do violate those Terms and may be removed. These policies are designed to ensure Facebook remains a safe, secure and trusted environment for all users, including the many children (over the age of 13) who use the site.

Of course, Facebook does not address why the female nipple is objectionable yet the male nipple is not. Nor does Facebook explain why classic art imagery of Mary breastfeeding baby Jesus would be removed. Nor do we know why photos of mothers breastfeeding older children that show no exposed nipple or areola would present a danger to children.

Meanwhile, many legitimate groups and individual profiles display full and partial nudesand exposed breasts presented in a sexual or other non-breastfeeding related manner, yet those photos do not seem to be banned with equal frequency as breastfeeding photos.

What Is Their Policy?

It’s important to remember that Facebook itself does not choose photos for removal. Instead, they rely on community members to report photos they deem to fall outside of Terms of Service guidelines. The photos then go to a team of people within Facebook who make the final determination.

Dr. Paul Rapoport — the founder of Topfree Equal Rights Association an Ontario based group that advocates equal rights for women to go topless — believes Facebook’s policy to be random and impossible to enforce in any fair manner.

How they choose what they choose is an unanswerable question. They hire a bunch of people who don’t seem to have training. You can see from the photos that have been deleted there’s not much of a pattern to it. It’s sloppy and careless. With that kind of capricious nonsense, you can’t form any kind of rule.

In response to the Facebook bans, Paul published an entire section on his website of banned breastfeeding photos.

What Do Facebook Users Have to Say?

April Purinton posted this photo of herself tandem feeding her twins Rhys and Quin.

Photo by April Purinton

There is nothing in this photo that directly violates the guidelines Facebook determines. Yet her photo was removed with only an e-mail to let her know. She wasn’t even told which photo was removed, although it wasn’t difficult to ascertain.

“After three years of infertility and a traumatic and pre-term birth, I finally tandem nursed my babies successfully for the first time. Facebook told me this picture was offensive. And warned me that they will delete my account if I continue to break the rules.”

That same blog post includes examples of non-breastfeeding photos April found on Facebook that show the same amount of exposed breast, yet hers was singled out for removal.

The Cultural Aspects of Breastfeeding

Comments on a recent article on The Traveler’s Notebook highlight how different cultures and religions may inherently find an exposed breast to be offensive. Matador intern Heather Carreiro says she would feel uncomfortable sharing this photo with many of the people she knows from her time living and teaching in Pakistan.

It’s basically about the cultural relativism of modesty. In context of Pakistan and northern India, women — outside of posh areas — are expected to be covered. Leaving your dupatta (large scarf) at home or not using it fully cover your chest – in addition to your clothing – is seen as being close to naked. Even just seeing the contours of a woman’s body often makes people uncomfortable. With that in mind, you might be able to imagine how my sharing a link [with an exposed breast] would be kind of like sending a link to an X-rated site

007 Breastfeeding publishes a collection of person-on-the-street comments, asking people worldwide for their views on breastfeeding in public.

Breast feeding is very common in Pakistan. Even working women take babies to their working places and feed them. It is free source of pure milk, full of vitamins and protein. According to Islamic teaching, there is emphasis on mothers to adopt breast feeding for their babies up to two year duration.

Photo by Heather Farley

Coincidentally or not, theWorld Health Organizationalso suggests two-years as the optimal time for mothers to breastfeed their children.

In fact, many countries, often considered as part of the imprecisely-titled undeveloped world consider breastfeeding to be the primary form of feeding infants and young children. In Ghana, where bottle feeding is for orphans, “if a baby cries and you do not breastfeed, people draw the conclusion the baby is not yours.”

But What About the So-Called Developed World?

In the United States, Canada and Europe, we regularly see partially nude women on television, movies and in advertisements. Even children’s movies include characters who expose almost as much breast as April Purinton or Emma Kwasnica do in their photos.

Why the disparity?

Why are western, non-religion based cultures so comfortable with breasts but not breastfeeding? What is it that causes so many western women to see two years of breastfeeding as an acceptable norm for women in these developing countries and yet not for themselves?

Economics certainly can play a large role in that. Let’s say you’re working a full time job. Are facilities available for you to breastfeed your child at work? Doubtful. It’s also likely your child will be at a daycare in another part of town and thus impossible for you to breastfeed.

If you still prefer your child receive breastmilk, you will then have to pump.

Photo by Anne Hinze

Which, if you’ve never pumped, as I assume a large percentage of the population has not, can be done by hand or with amachine.

Either way, it can be time consuming and often yield frustrating results as many women who could successfully breastfeed their children often will not find the same milk yield through the pump.

Economics, though, is most certainly not the entire story.

Says Iris Marion Young in The Politics of Women’s Bodies:

Patriarchal logic defines an exclusive border between motherhood and sexuality. The virgin or the whore, the pure or the impure, the nurturer or the seducer is either asexual mother or sexualized beauty, but one precludes the other. Breasts are a scandal because they shatter the border between motherhood and sexuality.

Have we become so conditioned as a society to see the female body as purely sexual that we have lost touch with reality?

Emma Kwasnica explains her point of view. “Breasts have the primary function of feeding babies.” While breasts do play a role in initiating the reproductive process, the reality is, they are one of many erogenous zones that come into play. There’s only one part of the body that produces milk enough to sustain a child for the first year of life.

Breasts are not biologically intended to solely play a sexual role in our lives, just as childbirth cannot exist independently of the sexual act. Yet somehow images of sexuality that include pregnancy, breastfeeding or other images of motherhood are considered perverse, obscene and pornographic.

Photo by D. Miller

The community led banning of honest, normal photos of motherhood and the human body hints at a much larger issue.

It shows a slice of society that seeks to disassociate humans from their nature, ultimately turning women into large, empty breasted dolls designed for sexual pleasure and caricaturing men as primarily sexual beasts who have lost the capacity for multi-faceted thought in relation to the women with whom they attempt to mate.

In truth, divorcing form from function of the human body does us all a huge disservice. Are you suddenly no longer beautiful and sexual because you have become pregnant? What happens after labor and delivery? Will a man no longer be attracted to his female partner because he’s watched her give birth or breastfeed? Surely we are far more complicated and less capricious beings than that?

Barry Schnitt claims Facebook believes breastfeeding to be natural, beautiful and healthy. Based on the photos you see here and the guidelines presented by Facebook, does his statement ring true in your ears?
Breastfeeding and childbirth tie in closely to discussions of self-esteem and body image. How does the leaning to say only certain types of bodies or body parts are appropriate for public exposure while other types must hidden play itself out both as a cultural phenomenon and on the ways we see ourselves?
~/~

Story of a New York cabby:
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/1-in-8-million/index.html#/andrew_baum

Fascinating Clouds Photos for Tales from The Amazon

2010-11-27T04:52:00.001-05:00

Curated by Stillmind on Nov. 26th. 2010

t’s time to look up and think about all the weird and fascination formations that sometimes appear above our heads. Blue sky is a great place to find inspiration and we are about to prove that to you folks. Being able to see more than just a visual image is one of the best features for designers and our photoset is an excellent proof for the fact that ordinary things can be absolutely amazing when your imagination is ready to accept it. All you have to do is just to make sure you don’t forget to raise your head.

There are many words that would perfectly fit these clouds description – something like mind-blowing, breathtaking, stunning and so on. The main idea behind our post is to help you find nature harmony and not to forget that creative ideas are in the air, they’re all around you and within you – you just have to catch them! We can’t stop admiring the nature’s beauty in its various exposures.

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Fascinating Clouds Photos & Design Signal - Your Ultimate Design... - StumbleUpon - Tales from The Amazon by René Volpi

Unlikely friends

2010-11-26T23:58:00.001-05:00

This is the type of video you'll never forget. Promise!
Curated by Stillmind
Unlikely friends. by Ruth:

And if you don't share this, what then, you think is more shareable? (with the same premise, of course)

20 Things I've Learned From Traveling Around the World for Three Years - StumbleUpon

2010-11-19T00:05:00.000-05:00

19) We view other nations by a different set of criteria than we view ourselves.

(see all 20 by clicking the link

20 Things I've Learned From Traveling Around the World for Three Years - StumbleUpon

7 Really Weird Religions You Haven’t Heard Of

2010-11-12T20:24:00.001-05:00

7 Really Weird Religions You Haven’t Heard Of

11/13/10 by Alex Andrei and curated by Stillmind

The imagination knows no limits. People will search for meaning in very odd places (not to say mainstream religions aren’t odd in their own ways).

Now I’m not expressingany real value judgment as to the merits of these “religions” (I guess the quotes aren’t a good start). I’m simply highlighting some of the more unusual (often hilarious) belief systems out there… but again… I make no judgment.

1. Jediism – The Jedi Religion

Little did George Lucas realize what he was starting. With his Star Wars movies, he set in motion a religious movement that has inspired generations of fake-light-saber waving, nylon-cloak-wearing warrior-nerds.

Adherents, or “real world” Jedis believe the Force actually exists.

According to the Star Warsmythology, the Force is the energy that holds the Universe together and flows through every material thing (obviously borrowing some concepts from Eastern religions).

Jedis are monks/knights capable of controlling and using the Force, and bound by a code of morality and justice.

So you can see the appeal to every mathlete hoping to use a light saber to bore a hole in to the forehead of an evil bully.

Jediism has been referred to as a blend of Taoism and Buddhism that also incorporates elements of medieval chivalry. While there’s no formal central doctrine, all this is loosely referred to as the “Jedi Code”.

Though I haven’t confirmed it, there’s a rumor that the Jedi elders force anyone wanting to join to sit in a dark room and watch the original trilogy 16 times in a row (the first trilogy ONLY, as the newer films are widely considered an abomination).

2. The Church of Ed Wood

Ed Wood is famously known in Hollywood as one of the worst (if not the worst) directors of all time (hear that Paul Verhoeven? You and your classic Showgirls are off the hook.)

Since his death he’s gained quite the cult status, and his off-camera exploits were brought to life by Johnny Depp in the 1994 film Ed Wood (directed by Tim Burton).

Ed Wood’s most celebrated picture is Plan 9 from Outer Space, which was in fact the last film of Bela Lugosi (a bit of a trainwreck himself).

So the Church of Ed Wood (or “Woodism”) labels itself a pop-culture religion that hopes to bring spirituality to those people who don’t find it in more mainstream religions. A “punk-libertarian religion” if you will. They look upon Ed Wood as a savior (but as the church notes, not the savior.)

Tenets include upholding the morals and ideals of Edward D. Wood and preaching Ed’s message of total understanding and acceptance, regardless of what modern society may say.

Wood was also a transvestite in 1950s America… probably not a fun time to have a sexual identity crisis.

The church claims there are over 3000 legal “Woodites” worldwide.

3. Aetherius Society

What do you do if you’re stuck as a cab driver, but also have a passion for Yoga? The answer is obvious… you start your own religion.

On an uneventful day in 1954, George King was sitting alone in his London apartment when suddenly, out of the blue, Alf (well not really Alf… but “Aetherius”) shouted:

“Prepare yourself! You are to become the voice of Interplanetary Parliament.”

So he did just that.

King started the Aetherius Society which hopes to combine alien wisdom of the “Cosmic Masters” and Yoga into something useful that will bring balance to humanity.

They believe Jesus, Buddha and Krishna are in fact aliens (yes… plausible), and one of their claims to fame is that the aliens alerted them to the imminent Chernobyl disaster a good 4 hours before it melted down. Well… I’m convinced. Why lie?

They claim about 650 adherents.

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7 Really Weird Religions You Haven’t Heard Of

Photo Essay: The Sacred Temples of Angkor, Cambodia

2010-11-05T00:03:00.000-04:00

Curated by Stillmind
Photographer Davidlohr Bueso sheds a different light on the ancient temples of Angkor.

The beauty of Angkor’s temples has brought tourists to Cambodia for years, and stacks of photos have come out of the visits. But as with any wonder, whether man-made or natural, there is always possibility for a different view – one that sets the object, and the people of the place, in a new light.

The photos below seem to capture the essence of the energy and spirit contained within the carvings, and people, of Angkor.

http://matadornetwork.com/bnt/2010/06/04/photo-essay-the-temples-of-angkor-cambodia/

Tales from the Road

2010-10-31T00:35:00.000-04:00

Tales From The Road: Greenland, USA, Nepal, India
Post by René Volpi via Tim Patersson
I’ve got a lively and eclectic batch of stories for you this week, but before I get to the picks, here are some thoughts about the intersection of travel writing and the Internet.
The web has enabled a budding renaissance of quality travel writing, with sites like Worldhum.com,PerceptiveTravel.com and MatadorTravel.comleading the revolution.
Of course, you can still find first-rate travel writing in the traditional print media. Outside,New Yorker, Get Lost! and Wend are four examples of traditional magazines that regularly feature outstanding travel narratives.
Even better, many magazines archive some or all of their stories online, freely available to anyone, anywhere, anytime.
Then there’s the travel blogosphere. Finding well-written travel stories in this boggling bubblebath of breathless blogs can feel like panning for gold in the Mississippi, but there are at least three great things about finding a compelling story on a little known blog:
No hidden agenda - you get the story straight up, unedited and honest.
Ease of conversation – bloggers will almost always appreciate and respond to comments or questions.
The thrill of discovery – finding a great story on an obscure blog is like exploring a Thai island and stumbling on a hidden white sand beach.
Each week in this column I’ll link to five quality travel stories I’ve discovered online.
Whether you’re in the office, at home or checking e-mail in an Internet cafe in Nairobi, these stories will stoke your wanderlust and keep you entertained. So without further ado:
1) “A Very Long Way to the Hong Kong Cafe” by Daisann McLane
Daisann McLane’s story about her discovery of a Chinese restaurant – and a Chinese chef – among the sled-dog pens of Ilulissat, Greenland is a prime example of a detailed, perceptive and entertaining travel story that so rarely makes it into the pages of certain mainstream magazines and newspapers.
2) “A Day of Discovery” by Richard Preston
Take it from me, Northern California’s massive and majestic redwood trees are even more awe-inspiring than man-made wonders like Angkor Wat, St. Paul’s Cathedral or the Great Pyramids.
In this story from Orion Magazine, two naturalists bush-whacking through dense rainforest in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park discover a previously unknown grove of titan trees. Richard Preston takes you there and makes you feel their sense of wonder.
3) “Journey to Dolpo” by Michael McCarthy
Ever since I read Peter Matthiessen’s classic travel narrative “The Snow Leopard” I’ve been intrigued by the Dolpo region of Nepal, one of the most remote places on Earth and a last refuge of Tibetan culture.
Michael McCarthy undertook an epic journey of his own to Dolpo recently, trekking over high passes and dodging Maoist rebels to reach the impoverished villages of Upper Dolpo.
McCarthy was on a mission to collect children for an orphanage in India, a cause that makes me uncomfortable, but regardless of the moral implications of his journey, the tale makes for an excellent read.
4) “India” by Jeff Vize
Jeff Vize sets off for India on the bus from Kathmandu, scared and tantalized by the sensory assault that lies ahead. His thoughts will be familiar to any traveler who has contemplated a journey to the sub-continent:
“India occupied a legendary position in my mind. It was the place everyone talked about; the place we all simultaneously loathed and loved. Mere mention of its name evoked groans of ecstasy and pain. One traveler would sit you down, look you in the eye and beg you not to go; another would swear that somewhere among its seething mass of humanity there existed the key to enlightenment. India. I couldn’t figure it out, so I had to go.”
5) “Wish You Were Here” by Mark Surkin
Here’s an off-beat leftover from last week’s Pink Floyd themed edition.
The first paragraph made me scratch my head, the second made me smile, but by the third I was grinning and nodding along. Kind of like listening to The Wall.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s round-up. If you come across a great story with a travel theme, please contact us for possible inclusion in next week’s edition of “Tales From the Road.”

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50 Ways to Use Less Oil

1.) Cut back on/regulate air conditioning and heat.

2.) Weatherize your home.

3.) Eat and buy local.

4.) Calculate your carbon footprint.

5.) Try going vegetarian. Even for just Meatless Mondays.

6.) Don’t buy bottled water.

7.) Cut back on plastic products.

8.) Recycle.

9.) Buy mp3s and used CDs and LPs.

10.) Carpool.

11.) Roll down the car windows.

12.) Save your car radio and CD player for songs you really want to listen to.

13.) Keep your car in good condition and repair.

14.) Take yourself off junk mail lists.

15.) Buy clothes at consignment shops instead of purchasing new clothes.

16.) Eat seasonally.

17.) Eat less package-heavy food.

18.) Combine trips in town.

19.) Eat organic if you can’t eat local.

20.) Avoid synthetic fibers like polyester, nylon, and acrylic in clothes, curtains, carpets.

21.) Do soap research.

22.) Cut back on processed and canned food.

23.) Avoid standard candles.

24.) If you have a garden, watch out that your fertilizer doesn’t contain petroleum chemicals.

25.) Switch to non-ethylene garbage bags.

26.) Research non-synthetic (i.e. non-petroleum product) natural rubber or natural fiber shoes.

27.) Consider adopting a non-refrigerator lifestyle.

28.) Cut off lights.

29.) Put all appliances on a power strip.

30.) Limit hot water use.

31.) Make sure your water heater is in good repair.

32.) Switch to compact florescent lightbulbs from incandescent bulbs.

33.) Take the bus.

34.) Take the train.

35.) Make sure your house in well-ventilated.

36.) Switch to nonpetroleum cosmetics.

37.) Consider holistic medicine.

38.) Avoid ammonia based products.

39.) Don’t chew gum.

40.) Watch what you put on your body.

41.) Tell cashiers you don’t want paper receipts.

42.) Watch your water footprint.

43.) Recycle your electronics.

44.) Monitor you energy online.

45.) Recycle without recycling.

46.) Ride your bike.

47.) Walk everywhere you can.

48.) Buy in bulk.

49.) Don’t buy disposable anything.

50.) Watch out for brands that don’t deserve to call themselves “green”.

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