Followup: Child Survival

Perhaps some of you faithful readers remember my post on child mortality rates, where we discussed the main causes of child deaths globally.

This week I got some good news on my Facebook feed. (Are you Facebook-friends with UNICEF yet? It's a super-convenient way to keep up on headlines related to global children's issues.) Here's the good news: Recent reports indicate that global child mortality rates are continuing to drop.

Thanks to measures like immunizations, insecticide-treated bednets, and vitamin A supplements, the child mortality rate is declining steadily. From the article linked above: "UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman noted that compared to 1990, some 10,000 fewer children are dying every day."

This is good news--it really is--but of course there has to be an addendum. Although death rates are declining, 8.8 million children still die every year. Nearly 40 percent of these child deaths occur in just three countries: India, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most of these children die of preventable causes, as discussed in my previous post, like malnutrition, malaria, and other preventable diseases.

Still, we are on the right track. Visit unicef.org for ideas on how you can get involved with the fight for child survival.

Issue: Women

I will be amazed if anyone is still checking this blog, but here comes a post anyway! It has been a long hiatus, and I apologize. In the past couple of months, we bought a house, moved across the country, changed jobs, finished one thesis (my husband's) and started another (mine)--and of course, there's always that thing where we're chasing a toddler (or rather, waddling behind a toddler, since I'm third-trimester-pregnant). We are settled into our new home now, internet access and all, so I think that I will be returning you to your regularly scheduled blog-programming.

Today I mostly just have a recommendation. Last week a friend forwarded me an amazing article that was recently published in the New York Times. This article, "The Women's Crusade," was written by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. If Kristof's name sounds familiar to you, it might be because of his regular Times column that often addresses, among other social issues, global women's issues. Past columns have covered topics like sex trafficking, maternal health and obstetric fistula, and mass rape as an element of warfare. (You can access a full list of his columns here.)

Kristof and WuDunn (who are married to each other) have written a new book called Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Worldwide, which is scheduled to be released in early September. In preparation for the book release, the Times published an excerpt from the book under the title "The Women's Crusade." Please take some time to go read this article. If it is any indication of the quality of the book, you can bet I will be reviewing the rest of the book soon. "The Women's Crusade" is an excellent introduction to a number of issues that affect women around the world, such as domestic violence, poverty, bride burning, sex-selective abortion, sex slavery, maternal mortality, health, education, etc. etc. I hope to delve more deeply into some of these topics in future blog posts, but for now the excerpt from the book will provide you will a good overview, and a sense of why these issues are so urgent.

Book Review: Regarding the Pain of Others

"To paraphrase several sages: Nobody can think and hit someone at the same time."
-Susan Sontag


OK, the cover picture is disturbing. Actually, it just gets increasingly disturbing as you look at it more, and as you think about its implications. Susan Sontag's book Regarding the Pain of Others is about violence, essentially. Every day we are exposed--in newspapers, on the internet--to photographs of violence that is occurring in some distant part of the world. What effect does the viewing of that violence have on us? What effect does it have on the person whose suffering is depicted? What is the relationship between the viewer and the viewed, and how can we make that photographic relationship more compassionate and less exploitative?

Regarding the Pain of Others is a really interesting look at issues connected to photography, the gaze, representation in times of war and suffering, and the complex relationship between those who look and those who are looked at. This book deals with the outer limits of human cruelty and brutality, and how people respond when exposed to visual images of these kinds of acts.

Try this. I've recommended James Nachtwey's photographs before on this blog, but I want to recommend them again. Take a look at his famine photographs, for instance. They are not easy to look at, nor should they be. But as you look--as you gaze at this other flesh-and-blood person whose day-to-day reality is so different than yours--think about what you feel for that person. Think about how you are affected by the presence of a lens or the presence of the ocean. Think about how you are connected, and also the ways you will never be connected. Think about these words: complicity, silence, helplessness, voice. Think about whether there is even an appropriate way to respond to photographs like these.

Regarding the Pain of Others ends like this:

"'We'--this 'we' is everyone who has never experienced anything like what they went through--don't understand. We don't get it. We truly can't imagine what it was like. We can't imagine how dreadful, how terrifying war is; and how normal it becomes. Can't understand, can't imagine. That's what every soldier, and every journalist and aid worker and independent observer who has put in time under fire, and had the luck to elude the death that struck down others nearby, stubbornly feels. And they are right."

Issue: Consumption

(Photo from the Wall Street Journal)

I don't know if this blog post is properly titled, or even if I have a concise and cogent topic for the post, but I just want to throw out a few things that I've been thinking about lately.

To get started, please click here and check out the Global Rich List. You put in how much money you earn, and see how much of the world's population is poorer than you.

Go ahead.

Do it.

I'll wait.

OK, now that you've done it, perhaps you're feeling richer than you did before you clicked on the link. Maybe you just found that you're in the richest 10 percent, or 4 percent, or 2 percent of the world. But your place there is not surprising, since half of the world (roughly 3 billion people) lives on less than $2.50 a day. And the richest 20 percent of the world accounts for three-quarters of the world's income.

Some people would like to think that this is changing--that as more wealth is created throughout the world, more people have access to wealth. But according to the UNDP, 80 percent of the world's population lives in countries where the income differentials are actually widening.

Whenever I start thinking about poverty, I invariably find myself considering my own place and role in the continuing existence of world poverty. After all, the world is rich in resources and wealth, but that wealth is unequally distributed. So the wealthy have more wealth, and as a result they (we) are able to consume more resources. This means that the richest people in the world consume far more resources than the poorest people in the world. In fact...

I got this image from a Global Issues blog:


If you break it down even further, the richest 10 percent of the world's population consumes nearly 60 percent of the world's resources. (By the way, in case you're interested, the breakdown in the United States is no less shocking--in the U.S., the richest 1 percent of the population holds 40 percent of the country's financial wealth.)

So what I keep thinking about is: How much of that consumption am I responsible for?
And the more I think/read about it, the more I feel like there is a crucial link between the widening gap between the rich and the poor, and the overconsumption by rich countries of the earth's (limited) resources.

My sister-in-law told me that when she was young, when her parents would say something like "Eat your dinner because there are starving children in China," she would respond with, "Then why don't you pack up this food and send it to them?!" It's funny, but it's also sort of a valid question. How does my eating everything on my plate change the lot of a hungry person in China (or Ethiopia, or Bolivia)? What is the connection between the amount of resources I consume and the amount of resources other people have access to? I definitely have a sense that this is a moral issue, and that it is immoral for me to consume extravagant amounts of resources when so many people don't even have enough to eat. So I believe that I should consume resources responsibly, AND I believe that we have to find ways to improve the distribution of goods and services so that the income gap doesn't continue to widen... but I want to hear people's ideas about how these two things are linked. Because I believe that they are, but I'm having a hard time explaining myself.

[This is where I'm really hoping that some of you (I know you're out there reading this, but most of you are COMMENT-SLACKERS) will step in, comment, and tell me what you think, because I feel like it's important and I also feel like there is something I'm missing.]

Of course, I can think of lots of things that each of us can do to reduce our ecological footprint and consume the earth's resources in a more responsible way, and it seems like this would be a good place to mention a few. A few suggestions, each with a link that will explain why it's relevant/important:

*Eat less (or no!) meat.

*Eat (real) food that is locally grown.

*Remember that famous maxim: Reduce, reuse and recycle.

*Assess your own ecological footprint and think about how to reduce it.

*Diagnose yourself: Do you have affluenza?

What else?

Film Review: The Soloist, and Issue: Homelessness in America

Yesterday I saw "The Soloist" in a theater, and it inspired me to go domestic on the blog. "The Soloist" has a potent combination of themes; those of you who know me will not be surprised that I loved a movie that addresses homelessness and poverty in America, mental illness, race, the dynamics of helping/not helping people, group identity, the power of music, and the process of writing. It's in theaters right now, and I really recommend that you check it out if you have a chance. You can watch the trailer here.

For this blog entry, I'll review the film and also talk a bit about homelessness in the U.S. of A.

"The Soloist" is based on the true story of an encounter between Steve Lopez, a columnist for the L.A. Times, and Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a gifted Julliard-trained musician who Lopez finds living on the streets of L.A. Lopez begins to write about Ayers' life, and the two of them become friends. He learns about the mental illness (schizophrenia) that derailed Ayers' plans to be a successful musician. He listens to Ayers play a two-stringed violin, and then a donated cello, in the street. He tries to help Ayers; he learns that helping is more complicated than we would like to think.

On a filmic level, I was impressed with "The Soloist." I thought Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. (and the other cast members as well) were completely brilliant in their roles. The soundtrack (comprised mostly of classical music and variations, featuring a lot of Beethoven music) was gorgeous. I was also pleased because the cello happens to be my favorite instrument to listen to, besides the piano. But what really made me fall in love with this movie was what it's about.

When I was in high school I started volunteering weekly in the playroom at my local homeless shelter. I think it was this experience that really broke apart, for me, some of the myths about the face of homelessness. Throughout high school, college, and my post-college years, I continued to volunteer (and, for a time, work as a paid employee) with the homeless population. (I haven't managed to do much work in this area since I had a baby two years ago.) So you can imagine why this issue is so important to me. When I think of homelessness, I think of specific people--like a woman I knew, who had been married to an abusive husband and had no family to turn to. One day, after a particularly bad beating, she took her two daughters (ages 2 and 6 months) and all the cash she could find, got in the car, and drove until she ran out of money. She ended up in our city (three states away) and at our soup kitchen. She ate all her meals with us, and took public assistance for a few months until she could find a job and affordable+adequate childcare (not easy things to find). After a while she saved up enough money to put a deposit on an apartment... and then I lost touch with her. But when I think of homelessness, I think of people like her.

I've often said that poverty in America is a different thing than global poverty, and it is. (You're not very likely to die of starvation in America, or of diarrhea or measles or malaria--in other parts of the world, you're lucky if you don't. In some countries, the majority of people make less than a dollar a day, and live in conditions that would qualify them as homeless in America.) Poverty in America is is a bit different, and that's part of the reason I typically focus this blog on global issues. But don't assume I'm not equally concerned with domestic issues--I am. America has extreme economic inequality; there is a LOT of money up in here, and we still have children sleeping on the streets. And since most of my blog readers live in the U.S., that means some of the issues raised in this post are happening in your own backyard--and I don't know about you, but it makes me feel complicit.

It's difficult to find reliable statistics about homelessness, because homelessness is, by its very nature, a transient and difficult thing to measure. There are homeless people who live in shelters, or on the streets, or in cars, or who sleep on friends' couches. Some people may experience a lack of permanence that has them sleeping in hotels when they have some cash, or on the streets when they don't. An estimated 3.5 million Americans experience homelessness every year. For most of them, homelessness is a temporary condition, although an estimated 10 percent of them deal with chronic (or long-term) homelessness.

I know many people have a particular image that comes to mind when they think of people dealing with homelessness. When I think of homelessness, I think first of children--which is appropriate, since nearly 40 percent of America's homeless people are children (and nearly half of those children are under the age of five).

So who is homeless in America? Here are some things to consider, gleaned from the National Coalition for the Homeless:

* Approximately 40 percent of homeless men are veterans of the armed forces.

* Roughly 16 percent of homeless individuals suffer from "some form of severe and persistent mental illness."

* Studies have found that nearly half of all homeless women and children are fleeing domestic violence.

* Families with children comprise nearly one-quarter of homeless individuals.

* Up to 25 percent of homeless people work full-time.

* The federal definition of "affordable housing" is housing that costs 30 percent of a person's income. This is calculated to guarantee that there is adequate money left to pay for insurance, health care costs, food, heating, and the many other expenses that people face (especially people who have to deal with the high costs of prescriptions and doctors' visits for treating chronic health conditions, including mental illnesses). But in most states, a minimum-wage worker would have to work 89 hours a week in order to earn enough to pay only 30 percent of their income to housing.

The problems faced by homeless individuals should be self-explanatory, but I'll mention a few anyway. Homeless people are extremely vulnerable to physical assault, rape and sexual assault, and theft. Homeless families generally don't have good access to health care, mental health care, and dental care, and mortality rates are three times as high as within the general population. Between the risk of physical danger, subpar health care, and being subject to dangerously cold weather, the average life expectancy for homeless individuals is age 51. Children in homelessness are much less likely to get a good education (which is part of the reason that homelessness is so self-perpetuating). One-third of homeless people do not get enough to eat. This section could go on for pages, but I think you get the idea.

How can this happen? Honestly, I ask myself that question every day. I mean, I can understand why it happens: A confluence of events that force people onto the streets. Poverty + expensive rental housing + increasing unemployment + the mortgage crisis + mental illness + inadequate health care/mental health care for many low-income Americans + domestic violence + inadequate veterans assistance + a low minimum wage + inadequate substance abuse programs + widespread misconceptions and intolerance toward homeless people that result in huge challenges for organizations that are trying to create more opportunities for housing and employment. Etc.

But the question I ask myself is not answered by any of these "explanations;" it is: How do we let this happen? President Obama recently said that it is "not acceptable for children and families to be without a roof over their heads in a country as wealthy as ours." I agree; I think it's unconscionable.

OK, so... what do we do? Often when I'm writing these posts I want to drop everything and move to Uganda. I want to do something. This post will be easy for you to act on in a very personal way, because homelessness exists in communities across the United States. Chances are, there is a homeless shelter or food pantry near you that is in need of volunteers or donations.

Click here to access a directory of service organizations across the country. You can search by state. The directory is not comprehensive, though, so you might also want to check in your phone book. The "blue pages" near the front should have a listing of local community service organizations. Or just get to work on Google. If your nearest organization has a website, it probably includes lists of what the organization is most in need of.

Also, the Take Part website for "The Soloist" has a directory of volunteer opportunities, as well as information and tips on how to get involve in your own community. While you're there, check out this video that debunks some of the popular myths about homelessness.

Once you've found an organization, call your nearest shelter/pantry and ask to talk to the volunteer coordinator. If possible, call with an idea of what you're hoping to do already in mind. This will depend on how much time you're willing to commit, but here are a few ideas:

*If you want to commit a couple of hours a week: Your organization may need people to serve meals, or to sort through donations, or to wash dishes, or to play with kids in the playroom, or to teach a computer class, or to teach a dance class for kids... Setting aside two or three hours a week will enable you to really get to know the people you're working with.

*If you want to do a big one-time only project: Donate some cash! Or organize a food or clothing drive in your neighborhood, or plan a party and ask everyone who attends to make a donation or bring a sack of food for the food bank. Be creative; big projects take planning, but they are a great way to pull together resources and simultaneously raise awareness about the issues connected with homelessness. (Some of your friends might not even realize that homelessness exists in your community.)

*If you want to do a little bit here and there: Perhaps you can take in periodic donations of food or clothing, or maybe the organization needs people to pick up food/donations from local businesses. Or maybe the organization has a big event coming up and they need help preparing or staffing. Some organizations will be able to accommodate you on this kind of an occasional basis.

*If you'd prefer to get involved in an activist kind of way, local organizations may or may not be your best bet. Sign up for the newsletter at the National Coalition for the Homeless website, or check out this list of advocacy groups.

All right, get to it! If you are able to watch "The Soloist" or get involved in a community project, I would love to hear about your experiences...

Film Review: War Dance

This week I noticed a documentary on the shelf at my library, called War Dance, directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine. I took it home and watched it; I'm glad I did. Maybe your local library has it, too.

War Dance is set in northern Uganda, a region that has been wracked by conflict for two decades. Ongoing fighting between government forces and the rebel group Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has created instability in wide swaths of the countryside. (The LRA is also linked with the conflicts in neighboring Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which we've previously discussed on this blog.)

Perhaps the dimension of the conflict that has received the most attention is the forcible "recruitment" (a.k.a. abduction) of children to serve as soldiers or slaves for the LRA. Although child soldiering is not the main focus of War Dance, one child featured in the documentary tells his story about being abducted, taken into the bush with the rebels, and forced to perform terrible acts. The other children interviewed in the documentary share their stories of how the war has affected their lives and the lives of their families. The film is a good introduction, on an educational level, to issues like child soldiers and orphan-headed households.

But the film doesn't stop with tales of atrocities. The main storyline of the film revolves around Uganda's National Music Competition, where 20,000 schools compete in dance, singing and instrumental music. The featured students in northern Uganda (from the Patongo school) have never made it to this competition before; after all, many of them are orphans, refugees, heavily impacted by the war. The film follows these students in their quest to compete in the Competition in Kampala. I won't give away the ending, but I will say that it was refreshing to see a film in which the children come away feeling empowered because of something they accomplished. So often, kids are portrayed strictly as victims, or they are shown being empowered by adults' lectures--but in this film, the kids work hard, accomplish something, and feel powerful as a result.

If you like music and dance, you will love the scenes of children performing traditional music and tribal dances. And if you like stylistically-beautiful films, this one's for you. Despite its sometimes-dark subject nature, it is gorgeous. The cinematography is breathtaking, the landscape is beautiful--and the color! the light!

I think the filmmakers made a stylistic choice to skimp a bit on historical analysis, so if you watch this film I would recommend that you read up on the LRA and the situation in northern Uganda, to help you contextualize what you're seeing. In fact, even if you don't watch the film, click on these links. Northern Uganda gets remarkably little international attention, and it is one of the world's most dangerous conflicts, especially for children.

You can watch a trailer for the film and look at (beautiful) still photographs at the War Dance website.

Issue and Action: Malaria

Tomorrow (April 25) is World Malaria Day, so of course: Let's talk about it.


(This photo is from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation photo gallery.)

This is how it happens: Malaria is caused by a microscopic parasite that is carried by infected mosquitoes. When an infected mosquito bites a person, the parasite goes straight to the person's liver and begins to reproduce, then the infection is passed throughout the body through the blood stream. If the parasite arrives in the brain, cerebral malaria (which may lead to a coma and permanent neurological damage, and may be fatal) occurs.

Every 30 seconds, a child dies from malaria. Worldwide, malaria exists in 109 countries (which, combined, are home to half of the world's population) and kills a million people every year. In Africa specifically, malaria kills more children than any other disease. Overall, 90 percent of the people who die of malaria live in Africa. As is the case with so many public health issues, children are disproportionately affected by malaria.

Of course, even if a person doesn't die of malaria, there can be long-term effects just from contracting the disease. Globally, there are an estimated 350 to 500 million cases of malaria every year. Children who survive a case of cerebral malaria may suffer from long-term learning impairments or brain dysfunction. Also, malaria can cause anemia in children, which makes them more vulnerable to diarrhea, dehydration, and respiratory illnesses--which can, as we've seen in previous posts, be fatal in areas without ready access to health care, clean water, and adequate nutrition. Also, pregnant women (another high-risk population) who contract malaria have higher infant mortality rates, and their babies may be born with dangerously low birthweights.

You can imagine the toll that this disease takes on communities and nations; Africa loses an estimated $12 billion every year because of malarial infections.

One of the best-known (and simplest, and cheapest) ways to prevent malaria is to promote mosquito control initiatives. Distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito nets have been shown to have a remarkable effect on decreasing malaria. Technological innovation has made these nets more effective; old nets sometimes had to be re-sprayed with insecticide every six months, but the new nets are extremely effective. This, in combination with simple public health efforts such as removing standing water from the vicinity of homes (since mosquitoes breed near standing water), is crucial toward preventing malaria.

Other crucial initiatives involve improving access to drugs that treat malaria (which at present may be hard to come by, or too expensive). Other organizations are working to develop other prevention strategies (such as a malaria vaccine). The international community is working toward a goal of near-zero deaths from malaria by the year 2015. Obviously this will require concerted effort--and commentators seem divided on whether it is possible at this point--but many organizations are working toward this goal.

Recent data suggest that things are already changing, in some target countries, even faster than anyone expected. For instance, in Zambia, malaria deaths have been cut by two-thirds! And countries like like Rwanda and Ethopia are registering significant declines in their child mortality rates, attributable to the widespread distribution of bed nets.

I love these figures; I love to tell them to people who try to tell me that making donations to public health NGOs doesn't make a difference. Because if you choose your organizations wisely, your small donations really can contribute to difference-making.

If you're interested in learning more or donating to one of these organizations, here are some good ones to check out:
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
Nothing But Nets
Malaria No More

Also, if you have ten seconds to spare, you can sign this proclamation indicating your support for President Obama's promise to make ending malaria a national priority in the USA.

And if you have ten dollars to spare, you can donate an insecticide-treated mosquito net to an African country (and receive a woven African bracelet as a gift).

Followup: Genocide Prevention Month

All right, folks. This blog has gotten a lot of hits over the past couple of weeks, but I didn't get any comments on that last post! Did any of you watch a film or read a book about genocide? Do any of you have any recommendations for me or for other blog readers? I'm working on another post about Genocide Prevention Month, but before I get there I would love to hear some input on what you are learning and thinking about. (It's okay if you don't know me; I'd love it if you introduce yourself.)

So... anyone?

Action: Genocide Prevention Month

April is Genocide Prevention Month. April 7 marked the 15th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, where nearly one million people were slaughtered in three months. Other genocides have begun in April, too--the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia. Genocide Prevention Month was established in the United States to be a period of remembrance, and also a period of activism directed toward fighting the forms of genocide that are happening today.

(By the way, if you're interested in the nitty-gritty definition of genocide, click here.)

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be putting up several posts with suggestions on how you can commemorate Genocide Prevention Month, and turn it into an opportunity for activism. This post, though, is going to focus on what I view as the heart of everything: Education. The first thing I want you to do this month is to read a book and watch a movie. Learn more about genocides that have occurred; feel it.

1) Read a book. The Genocide Prevention Project and the American Booksellers' Association have created a list of "Books of Conscience" that will give you insight into past and current conflicts and genocides. I'm going to post the list in its entirety here, but please be aware I haven't read most of these books.

ABOUT GENOCIDE

A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power

The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness by Simon Wiesenthal

ARMENIA

The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak

Forgotten Fire by Adam Bagdasarian

A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility by Taner Akcam

BOSNIA

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo by Paula Huntley

Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo by Zlata Filipovic

CAMBODIA

Children of the River by Linda Crew

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung

DARFUR

Darfur: A Short History of a Long War by Julie Flint and Alex de Waal

Darfur Diaries: Stories of Survival by Jen Marlowe, Aisha Bain, and Adam Shapiro

The Devil Came on Horseback: Bearing Witness to the Genocide in Darfur by Brian Steidle, Gretchen Steidle Wallace

A Long Day's Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide by Eric Reeves

Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond by Don Cheadle, John Prendergast

The Translator: A Memoir by Daoud Hari

THE HOLOCAUST

The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank by Anne Frank, Susan Massotty (translator)

The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi

Maus I: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman

Night by Elie Wiesel, Marion Wiesel (translator)

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi

RWANDA

Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe by Gerard Prunier

Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda by J.P. Stassen, Alexis Siegel (translator)

Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan

Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda by Romeo Dallaire

A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali: A Novel by Gil Courtemanche

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families
Stories From Rwanda by Phillip Gourevitch


ALSO OF NOTE

What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng by Dave Eggers

Let me recommend a couple of others that aren't on this list: When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge by Chanrithy Him, and Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza.

This is why I love to read: I believe that reading breaks down the barriers between groups and peoples. It gives us the chance to see from behind someone else's eyes, to get inside their skin. It humanizes everyone, including the reader. And I like to believe that this process--of humanization and the destruction of superficial barriers--is a crucial part of creating a world where genocide is unthinkable. So do a little something to get more human: read a book of conscience this month.

2) Watch a film. A good film does the same thing as a good book; it puts you into another place and time and makes you capable of feeling what someone else feels. I'm going to list some that I can vouch for personally, and others that I haven't seen but have heard recommended. Some of these films are feature/fiction films, and some are documentaries. Some are about the genocides listed above, and others just share similar themes.

FILMS I HAVE SEEN:
Schindler's List
Hotel Rwanda
War Photographer
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
Rabbit Proof Fence
Life is Beautiful

FILMS I HAVEN'T SEEN (but have heard recommended):
The Devil Came on Horseback
The Killing Fields
Sometimes in April
Darfur Now
Blessed is the Match
My Neighbor My Killer
Ghosts of Rwanda
The Diary of Anne Frank
Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire

Feel free to list other recommendations of books and movies in the comments section! And if you'd like to write a book review or film review for this blog, just let me know!

Issue: Water

"The human right to water is essential for living a life of human dignity. It is the pre-requisite for all other human rights."
(Kofi Annan)

Yesterday (March 22) was World Water Day, and this coming week (March 22-28) is World Water Week. It's perfect timing for this blog to address the world water crisis. Water is often discussed in conjunction with sanitation, but for today's post I am just going to focus on water.

Across the world, nearly 900 million people lack access to clean water. This lack of access to water poses a huge public health problem; every day, 4,200 children die of water-related diseases. (An estimated 125 million children under the age of five live in households that do not have regular access to clean water.) Most of these children dying of water-related diseases are die from diarrhea--an illness that kills an estimated two million children every year. Incredibly, the number of diarrhea-related deaths around the world is currently on the rise.

This is a big, big deal and it directly affects roughly 1/7 of the world's population.

There are really two linked issues when we're talking about the world water crisis: water scarcity, and water quality.

The water scarcity issue is particularly prevalent in Africa, where vast tracts of the land is dry and receives little rain. In some rural regions, women walk ten miles a day to fetch water for their families--carrying 40- or 50-pound water containers--and during the dry season, women may walk nearly twice that distance. (You'll notice I said women, not people--water-gathering is typically considered a female activity, linked to domestic reproductive tasks, and across the world women generally bear the brunt of water-collecting labor.) In fact, the World Health Organization has estimated that African women and children spend, collectively, 40 billion hours a year gathering water.

You can imagine that this takes its toll on women and families in various ways. Health problems can develop from carrying heavy loads long distances (even, in some cases, curved spines and pelvic deformities that cause problems during childbirth). Pregnant women who carry these heavy loads suffer increased health risks. Women and girls traveling alone can be vulnerable to violence and rape. And in some families, girls are required to gather the water--a task that can take so much time that it makes it impossible for the girls to attend school. This time-consuming activity also prevents women from working in other income-generating activities or vital domestic tasks (or caring for their own health).

In the West, we're always being exhorted to drink eight glasses of water a day. Certainly this would be good, healthy advice for anyone, but it isn't an option for much of the world. In fact, one flush of a Western toilet uses as much water as the average person in the developing world uses for a whole day's washing, drinking, cleaning and cooking.



So once a woman has spent half her day collecting and carrying water, the difficulty still hasn't ended. Because chances are, the water she found is not clean or safe for her family to drink. Issues of water quality affect people in urban and rural areas alike.

My own personal introduction to the water quality issue came when my husband and I were living in Mozambique. We were conducting a research project that took us out to a rural village with our research assistants to do some interviews. We noticed a hole in the ground toward the center of the village, and we went to take a look. This was the water supply for the entire village: A crumbling hole dug in the ground--not even a well--with dirt and dead insects floating on top. I remember feeling sick: Even though I'd read about water quality issues, I looked down at that dirty water and imagined scooping up a cup of it for a child to drink, and I felt the world's inequity sink down into my bones.

When a person drinks unclean water (any water from a non-purified source, which can include groundwater, contaminated rainfall, floodwater, or river water, to name a few), that person is vulnerable to various waterborne diseases. Diarrhea, cholera, and typhoid are the most common diseases that are transmitted through unclean water supply. There are dozens of other waterborne diseases--giardiasis, guinea worm, etc. (These are all diseases that occur from drinking unclean water; I am not even going to go into diseases that are connected to standing water, like malaria, dengue fever, or schistosomiasis and related parasitic infections--maybe in a future post.)


This interesting document is a reminder that water scarcity and quality are not necessarily issues of physical scarcity, but that the Africa water crisis is "structurally induced scarcity." In some cases, the world water crisis has been accentuated by politics, economic interests, and even unscrupulous marketing practices. I can't resist mentioning an issue that I find particularly telling:

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, people began to learn that Nestle and other baby formula companies had been aggressively marketing infant formula in less-developed countries. The suggestion implicit in the marketing campaigns was that babies would grow fatter and healthier with formula than they would with breastmilk. Many women (who grew up in communities where breastfeeding was previously the normal--and even only--way of feeding a baby) began to give their babies formula instead, in response to the marketing campaigns. And this is what happened: Families began to spend money they didn't have on infant formula they didn't need. They began to mix the formula with the only water sources they had, which were often unclean. And, since the formula labels were often in a foreign language like English (or because the mothers had not been to school or learned to read), the mothers often used very small amounts of the formula, to make the container last longer.

You can imagine what happened. In addition to losing the natural benefits of breastfeeding (like passing antibodies on to the babies, facilitating the release of bonding hormones, and having a natural method of fertility suppression and birth spacing), the families lost money and inadvertently exposed their babies to the dangers of unclean water and malnutrition. And babies got fatal diarrhea. And babies began to die. You can read more about this in Gabrielle Palmer's marvelous book, The Politics of Breastfeeding, which I highly recommend.

When I worked with UNICEF in the Philippines, I learned that UNICEF still will not accept monetary or in-kind donations from Nestle, because Nestle has continued to promote the use of baby formula in the Philippines, undermining the health of babies and accentuating the already-enormous issue of water impurity and children's health.

We already have technology for many solutions to the world water crisis. In some cases, solutions are free: Encouraging a cultural return to exclusive breastfeeding, helping urban communities negotiate with their local governments to extend clean water systems to the entire community. Other solutions are well-established and cost-effective: Creating rainwater collection systems, or digging pumps and wells in rural areas to create access to groundwater sources. There is very little mystery behind the world water crisis. It's an issue of distribution, and with increased resources this is something the world community should be able to make fast progress on. Despite this, the world water crisis is actually becoming worse over the past few years. As the world's climate changes, communities are being subjected to more drought and the drying-up of water tables. It's urgent.

There are many, many organizations that are working on clean water and sanitation issues around the world. I'd like to introduce you to one project that I particularly like: Tap Project.



There are a number of ways you can get involved with the Tap Project.

1) Are you planning to go out to eat anytime soon? Click here for an interactive map, which will show you restaurants in your community that participate in Tap Project. At these restaurants, you can donate $1 (or more, of course) to Tap Project.

2) Learn more about becoming a Tap Project volunteer in your community or workplace by clicking here.

3) Make a donation (or learn more about using eBay's Giving Works program) by clicking here.

4) Or (this is even quicker and easier), text the word "TAP" or "AGUA" to UNICEF (864233) to make a $5 donation!

5) Check out this cool article in the New York Times to see some of the great ad campaigns that have been created to help Tap Project.

Do something for World Water Week...

Followup: Sudan

You can read my original post about the conflict in Sudan by clicking here.

Since the beginning of March, there have been some major developments in the crisis in Darfur. Last week, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the president of Sudan. He has been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity; this arrest warrant is significant because it is the first time that the ICC has ever issued a warrant for a sitting head of state. (You can read more about the ICC here.)

In response to the issuing of the warrant, the al-Bashir government rejected the authority of the ICC, and promptly issued a statement saying they would be expelling 13 major non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are distributing aid in the Darfur region, including Oxfam, Care International, Doctors Without Borders, and Save the Children. This is obviously a political ploy, an attempt by al-Bashir to "raise the stakes," and it's one that will have a devastating impact on the lives of millions of people.

The government began kicking these organizations out of the country a few days ago. NGOs like these have been providing ongoing aid to millions of displaced people across Darfur and Southern Sudan. The UN warned that "the loss of these non-governmental organizations means that more than one million people will be without food, 1.5 million without health care, and over one million without drinkable water" (read the full article here). You can listen to or read a March 10 NPR story about the situation in Darfur here.

Aid organizations predicted that the Sudanese population could begin to feel the effects of these expulsions within a few days--so, that means today. I read that some NGOs from Asian and Arab countries have applied to begin working in Sudan, in attempt to fill some of the gaps left behind by the departure of these major NGOs. This is a small glimmer of hope, but the information trickling in from Darfur is pretty dire. Save Darfur has up-to-the-minute information on their website.

A couple of things you can do:

1) Sign up, if you haven't already, to receive e-mail updates with action alerts from Save Darfur.

2) Click here to send a letter to Secretary of State Clinton, urging her to make Darfur an immediate priority.

3) Send a postcard to President Obama. He has issued some strong statements over the past few days, but we need to hear more. According to this interesting article, President Obama has "moral authority" in this area because of his African heritage, and we need to keep the pressure on him to be an unwavering voice about this conflict.

Followup: Democratic Republic of the Congo

A few months ago, I posted about the conflict in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Please click here to read my post, if you haven't already.

The conflict is still raging. In fact, it's the deadliest war our planet has seen since World War II. People are still dying and being displaced from their homes. Women are still being raped with impunity. Eastern DRC is the most dangerous place on earth for women.

I've been receiving frequently e-mails from the organization Raise Hope for Congo, and I've been able to write letters and sign petitions through their action alerts. This week, I got an e-mail describing the Congo Challenge. For the next three months, the organization is encouraging people to learn more about the crisis in the DRC and become involved in raising the profile of the conflict, and in generating awareness about the atrocities occurring in conjunction with the war. They will be sending e-mails with suggestions on how to get involved, "whether you have 5 minutes or 5 hours," they say.

I want to encourage you to sign up for the Congo Challenge, to read the e-mails, and to become activists, whether that means writing letters to politicians or publications, signing petitions, or using social networking to spread awareness. You can sign up by clicking here. This isn't asking much... but at least it's something.

Followup: Maternal and Newborn Health

I just want to send out a few more items that may be helpful to those of you interested in learning about maternal and newborn health. Let's start in the U.S. In my last post I gave you the link to UNICEF's State of the World's Children address, but the publication offers little information about maternal mortality in the U.S. We need information about domestic maternity care, because the maternal mortality rate in the U.S. is currently the worst it has been in decades. One resource that offers great information (from mothers' perspectives) about maternity and postpartum care is Childbirth Connection's New Mothers Speak Out Report. Click on the link to read more about childbirth in America.

Moving back to international issues of maternal and newborn health: This video made me smile. You can read more about this awareness-raising campaign at Oxfam UK's website.



Also, might I recommend this photo gallery?

Issue: Maternal and Newborn Health

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) recently released their annual report, The State of the World's Children, for 2009. Every year this report offers an in-depth look at one particular issue affecting children around the world. This year the report is entitled "Maternal and Newborn Health," and it assesses the health and well-being of pregnant women and new mothers and their babies around the world.

Doesn't the picture on the front sort of make your heart grow a few sizes?

I'm going to try to offer an overview of some of the issues presented in SOWC 2009, but obviously my efforts will be limited; the report is 158 pages long, packed with information. I really encourage you, if you're interested in this subject, to click here to read the report. You can view it as a pdf file or request a paper copy. The blocks of italics in this post are direct quotes from SOWC.

"In the developing world as a whole, a woman has a 1 in 76 lifetime risk of maternal death, compared with a probability of just 1 in 8,000 for women in industrialized countries. By way of comparison, the lifetime risk of maternal mortality ranges from just 1 in 47,600 for a mother in Ireland, to 1 in every 7 in Niger, the country with the highest lifetime risk of maternal death."

When we're talking about maternal deaths (the term used to describe deaths that occur during labor or as a result of labor), there are two types of causes. "Direct causes" are obstetric complications (like post-partum hemorrhage, infections, eclampsia, or obstructed labor), or complications from abortions. These causes may be labeled as actually causing the mother's death. But there are numerous other "indirect causes," as well, which contribute to the emergence of these direct causes. Common indirect causes of maternal death include:

*Anemia
*Poor nutrition
*Lack of birth spacing (e.g., having too many babies one after another, without giving the body time to recuperate)
*Malaria
*Iodine deficiency
*HIV/AIDS
*Undeveloped anatomy (e.g., young girls whose bodies are not developed enough to bear children)
*Inadequate hygiene (which can cause maternal-neonatal tetanus)
*Poverty

In other words, if a woman is sick and weak and undernourished, her chances of having a normal, uncomplicated labor are greatly diminished. This list is partial; there are many other factors--both biological and socio-cultural--that make labor more dangerous than it needs to be.

Obviously, the health of the laboring woman/new mother is inextricably linked with the health of her baby. These factors that contribute to unusually dangerous labors and serious health problems also contribute to health problems and deaths for newborn babies.

"The latest estimates from the World Health Organization, which date from 2004, indicate that around 3.7 million children died within the first 28 days of life in that year. Within the neonatal period, however, there is wide variation in mortality risk. The greatest risk is during the first day after birth, when it is estimated that between 25 and 45 percent of neonatal deaths occur. Around three quarters of newborn deaths, or 2.8 million in 2004, occur within the first week – the early neonatal period."

The ten countries with the highest death rate for children under the age of 5 are:
1. Sierra Leone
2. Afghanistan
3. Chad
4. Equatorial Guinea
5. Guinea-Bissau
6. Mali
7. Burkina Faso
8. Nigeria
9. Rwanda
10. Burundi

"Some 86 per cent of newborn deaths globally are the direct result of three main causes: severe infections – including sepsis/pneumonia, tetanus and diarrhoea – asphyxia and preterm births. Severe infections are estimated to account for 36 per cent of all newborn deaths. They can occur at any point during the first month of life but are the main cause of neonatal death after the first week."

There are so many ways to promote maternal and newborn health. One of the crucial keys is prenatal care and adequate nutrition. When women are well-nourished and healthy, most labors proceed well without complications. However, this is not as simple as it sounds; the current and ongoing World Food Crisis that is driving food prices up around the world is making it difficult for women to meet their basic nutritional needs, let alone consume the extra calories that pregnant women need. And lack of access to basic health care for infections and illnesses (such as malaria) makes women even more vulnerable to complications.

One crucial element to decreasing maternal and newborn mortality is to provide training and resources to traditional birthing assistants, or midwives. Training programs (like this one, in Afghanistan) can integrate traditional and modern knowledge about childbirth, and provide midwives with much-needed supplies (like soap, clean towels, razor blades, receiving blankets, etc.) and training on techniques they may not be familiar with (such as infant resuscitation). Increasing pregnant women's access (before, during, and after labor) to trained labor assistants can ultimately result in the following crucial elements:

*Better management of infectious diseases (Prevention of malaria has been shown to decrease premature births!)
*Ongoing promotion of breastfeeding
*Prenatal and antenatal visits and assistance
*Improved hygiene practices
*Treated mosquito nets to prevent malaria infections in mothers and newborns
*Kangaroo mother care (e.g., skin-to-skin contact and on-demand breastfeeding) for low-birthweight babies

And of course, it's important to improve access to emergency obstetric care for babies and women with life-threatening conditions. Then, some of the best ways to promote child survival are to ensure that the child is exclusively breastfed, provide access to basic health care and immunizations, and prevent the child from contracting diseases like malaria.

Let me just give one example of how adequate prenatal care and effective care-provider training can work together. In Africa and Asia, over 30 percent of maternal deaths result from postpartum hemorrhage. The risk of hemorrhage is greatly decreased when a woman is healthy and nourished, and a few basic techniques can prevent hemorrhage. For example, the World Health Organization recommends delaying the clamping and cutting of the umbilical cord until it stops pulsing; this alone significantly decreases the risk of hemorrhage.

In addition to all these logistical factors, there are many socio-cultural factors that need to be dealt with to improve women's and babies outcomes. Here are a few things that have been proven to have a positive effect on maternal and newborn health, according to SOWC:

*Increasing educational opportunities for girls
*Decreasing gender discrimination (and letting women make choices about their health care, rather than having those choices dictated by husbands or communities)
*Preventing child marriage and early child-bearing by undeveloped girls
*Abandoning female genital mutilation (which causes many extra complications for child-bearing, e.g., accelerating the risk of post-partum hemmorhage and obstetric obstruction)
*Involving men and adolescent boys in maternal and newborn health and care (and focusing on family units)
*Creating supportive environments for women and babies
*Stopping violence against women (One example here: A study of 400 villages in rural India revealed that 16% of all deaths among pregnant women were due to partner violence. Cross-culturally, rates of violence against pregnant women are high)

One thing that this particular report didn't mention, though, was the risks that can also come along with the overmedicalization of birth. For instance, in the United States, over 30 percent of women give birth via Cesarean section. Best estimates suggest that perhaps five to ten percent of births require Cesarean intervention (and, in fact, SOWC presents similar figures). Unnecessary C-sections result in a host of risks to mothers (permanent injury to the bladder or uterus, infection, blood loss, damaged bowel functioning, future pregnancy complications, death, etc.) and babies (premature birth, breathing/lung problems, cuts and injuries, side-effects of anesthesia, difficulty breastfeeding, etc.) The United States tends to have extreme cases: On one end of the extreme are women who can't afford access to basic prenatal health care; on the other end, the trend toward non-medically-indicated elective (and expensive) C-sections that pose considerably more risk than a normal vaginal delivery.

On the child mortality list that I mentioned earlier (where the highest child death rates are closest to the top of the list), the United States comes in at number 151 out of 189; this means that there are 37 countries with lower infant-mortality rates than the United States. The countries with the best statistics (meaning the most babies who survive infancy) tend to be countries that provide a "best of both worlds" approach, where women have adequate access to prenatal care, good nutrition, supportive cultures and systems, and care providers trained in supporting natural childbirth processes, as well as emergency care. In other words, the technology exists to save mothers and babies in obstetric emergencies (and people have access to it), but low-intervention births are still considered the ideal situation for women and babies.

In case you're interested, here's the list from 151 to 189, so you can see all the countries that have better child survival rates than the U.S. The best in the world? Sweden.

United States 8 151
Cuba 7 156
Hungary 7 156
Poland 7 156
Thailand 7 156
Australia 6 160
Canada 6 160
Croatia 6 160
Estonia 6 160
New Zealand 6 160
United Kingdom 6 160
Belgium 5 166
Cyprus 5 166
Israel 5 166
Republic of Korea 5 166
Malta 5 166
Netherlands 5 166
Switzerland 5 166
Austria 4 173
Czech Republic 4 173
Denmark 4 173
Finland 4 173
France 4 173
Germany 4 173
Greece 4 173
Ireland 4 173
Italy 4 173
Japan 4 173
Monaco 4 173
Norway 4 173
Portugal 4 173
San Marino 4 173
Slovenia 4 173
Spain 4 173
Andorra 3 189
Iceland 3 189
Liechtenstein 3 189
Luxembourg 3 189
Singapore 3 189
Sweden 3 189

Issue and Action: Child Survival

Today I received a link to the 2009 letter from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I have been consistently impressed with the types of projects the Foundation takes on--and I love their motto, "All Lives Have Equal Value"--so I enjoyed reading Bill Gates's open letter describing the Foundation's successes and failures over the past year. You can read the full text of the letter here.

I was especially interested in the segment on preventing childhood deaths. This is a big deal to me. Some days I wake up and look at my one-year-old daughter and feel overcome with gratitude that she is still here with me; I often feel hyper-conscious of the nearly 11 million children who die before reaching the age of five every year. That's 29,000 children a day (21 children every second) who die, mainly of preventable causes. Every one of those children is as real and warm and tangible to their parents as my daughter is to me. This graph (from the letter) gives a breakdown of the causes of these childhood deaths:



As you can see in the graph, more than half of the child deaths are caused by diarrheal diseases and dehydration, pneumonia and malaria. All these illnesses are preventable and treatable. Sometimes Westerners are surprised to hear about the gravity of diarrhea, in particular, in less-developed regions of the world, but for children who are undernourished and continually exposed to risk factors (like unclean water supplies) these diseases can be death sentences.

Here's some good news: Child mortality rates is one area where great progress has been made over the past 50 years. Here's another graph from Bill Gates' letter:



Amazing, right? The rate of childhood deaths has been cut in half, thanks to fifty years of hard work by many individuals, communities, organizations and entities. What this statistic says to me is that we have the technology and experience to completely eliminate preventable childhood deaths. Diarrheal dehydration can be eliminated when communities have access to clean water supplies, when breastfeeding is encouraged, and when simple rehydration strategies are employed for children who have diarrhea. Pneumonia can be prevented through adequate nutrition and improved sanitation, and the treatment for pneumonia is well-established, which makes it a question of making that treatment easily accessible for all the world's families. And malaria can be prevented with the use of treated mosquito nets and antimalarial medications, as well as vector control. Treatment for malaria exists but needs to be made more widely available in order to save more people's lives.

One of my favorite initiatives to decrease child mortality rates is UNICEF's "I Believe in Zero" campaign. The idea is that with adequate resources and political will, we can improve distribution of existing technologies to ensure that ZERO children die of preventable diseases. Visit the website to sign a petition to President Obama, donate to the cause, and recruit your friends and associates (by putting a collection canister on your desk at work, or putting a banner or widget on your website or Facebook page, or getting the word out to your local media).

Please click here to sign a petition indicating your support for a Presidential Initiative to Accelerate Child Survival.

Then click here to access information about the Global Child Survival Act (introduced in the House and the Senate, H.R. 2266 and S. 1418). From the website you can send letters to your Senator and Representative.

And while you're at it, why not click here to access information about a host of other children's issues that you can become involved in? The U.S. Fund for UNICEF website makes it easy to lobby your officials and speak our on issues that are important to you because they are important to children.

I believe in zero. I hope you do, too.

Book Review: Hungry Planet

I have a new obsession: the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Alusio. I had seen these photographs before: families from countries around the world photographed with a week's worth of food. They include photos like this one, from India:

This one, from the United States (Texas):

And this one, from Mali:


You can see more of the photos here and here.

But I really recommend getting your hands on the book; check your local library. In addition to the photographs and captions--which break down the total amount of money spent on food weekly, by food groups--the book also includes essays about each family included in the book and statistics about each country. There are also essays by such luminaries as Michael Pollan, plus recipes from each of the countries.

On one level, this book is a visual feast, a foray through countries and cultures. (In addition to the photographs of individual families, there are tons of gorgeous photos from each featured country.) But on a deeper level, this book is also a dip into some big and crucial global issues: global inequity in the distribution of resources, the very real existence of hunger in people's daily lives, the global coexistence of malnutrition and overnutrition, and the way changing eating patterns and food-marketing patterns are contributing to an increase in diseases like diabetes and cancer. It's eye-opening to think about where each of us would fit into this global portrait, and what that really means.

Book Review: Mountains Beyond Mountains

I have a new hero; his name is Paul Farmer. After reading this book by Tracy Kidder (the full title is Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World, I have a sense of Paul Farmer as being a kind of edgy, smart-alecky Mother Teresa. With his medical degree from Harvard and a lifelong interest in liberation theology and social justice issues, Farmer established Partners in Health, a non-profit dedicated to providing a preferential option for health care for the poor. Farmer also founded Zanmi Lasante, a health clinic in a poor rural area in Haiti. He is this incredibly intense, focused, and passionate character who has literally given all he has to improving health in less-developed countries. Plus--and I love this--the book describes his efforts to merge medicine and anthropology, in the quest to provide improved health outcomes while still respecting cultures and identities and beliefs. Farmer has done more in his lifetime than I can even comprehend, and Mountains Beyond Mountains takes you around the world with him, from Peru to Russia.

After reading Mountains Beyond Mountains, I am definitely planning on reading some of the books that Farmer has authored (like this one and this one), but I recommend Mountains Beyond Mountains. It's a good introduction to public health issues (particularly tuberculosis and AIDS), and provides a really compelling picture of the way economic inequality translates into increased risk of illness and death for the poor.

By the way, if you live in the Boston area, Dr. Farmer will be speaking at Boston University on January 19 for Martin Luther King Jr Day. Click here for more details about the event. Maybe I'll see you there...

Blogroll

I'm adding a new feature to the already-overly-cluttered sidebar: a blogroll (finally). Let me recommend a few great blogs that focus on international/cultural issues (or just do a really great job of evoking empathy):

Woman Stats. The Woman Stats Project, headed up by Valerie Hudson, one of my favorite and most influential college professors, is "the most comprehensive compilation of information on the status of women in the world." The whole website is a fantastic resource for information about women's issues around the world, and the blog highlights specific issues and stories from the researchers.

Globo Diplo. This blog, written by Cory Leonard, another faculty member who provided me with lots of guidance and support during my college years, focuses on current events and issues related to international diplomacy.

(How) Culture Matters. Another of Cory's blogs, but this one deals more with culture: cultural sensitivity, cultural communication, and current events related to why and how culture matters.

UNICEF Field Notes. This one contains reports from UNICEF's global field operations on issues related to child survival, health, protection, etc. Really extensive and really important.

Raise Hope for Congo Blog. Updates from Enough's programs on what's happening in Democratic Republic of the Congo, and what you can (should) be doing.

K. Anane Poku's Blog. This one belongs to a classmate of mine who is getting his Masters degree in Intercultural Relations. Thoughts on culture, race, and intercultural communication.

Story Corps Blog. If you're not familiar with NPR's Story Corps program, read more about it here. Then check out this blog for up-close and personal, deeply humanizing glimpses into the lives of strangers.

If you know of another blog that is relevant to Fissures in Reality, please leave a comment with the URL so that I can include it on the blogroll. Eventually I'll be constructing some kind of a links page, with links to organizations and government pages, but for now let's just stick with blogs. One thing at a time :)

Book Review: A Long Way Gone

This week I read Ishmael Beah's book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. I really recommend it; it is hard to read, but I think the international community owes it to Beah to read this book, get sensitized, and then get passionate and angry about the fact that children are being used as soldiers in numerous conflicts around the world.

This book provides an up-close look at the plight of child soldiers in the civil war in Sierra Leone (which ended in 2002). The conditions described can probably be generalized to many other child soldiers as well. In the 1990s, Sierra Leone was embroiled in a brutal civil war that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people, and displaced more than one-third of the country's population. Both government forces and armed rebel groups recruited and forcibly conscripted children into their armed forces. (This practice continues in a number of ongoing conflicts today--see here, here and here for examples.)

When Beah was thirteen years old, he was conscripted into the national army, and went through "training" to become a soldier. Aside from the training in weapons, the children received a steady diet of drugs and Rambo movies (something that makes me feel really ashamed of Hollywood), and then they were thrust into combat and instructed to kill "anything that moved." Symptoms of post-traumatic stress were treated with cocaine and marijuana. For several years, Beah traveled with the army, attacking villages and rebel camps, and killing people in brutal ways. I can't imagine how painful it must have been for Beah to revisit these events in order to write the book. He doesn't flinch. He tells the truth.

At age 16, Beah was removed from the army by UNICEF and placed in a rehabilitation center. After a challenging rehabilitative period, Beah's path took him to testify before the United Nations, meet with international conferences of youth, and ultimately live in the U.S. and attend college here. It's clear, reading the book, that Beah is a naturally gentle and forgiving spirit, and one of the messages of the book is that under certain circumstances, all people are capable of great acts of brutality. Also, under certain circumstances, we are all capable of reclaiming our humanity.

In the end, A Long Way Gone is a harrowing look at the horrific treatment of children involved in conflict situations --and a graphic and heartbreaking look at war in general-- but it is also a story about hope and the power of rehabilitation. In Beah's words, from an occasion when he spoke before the UN Economic and Social Council: "I have been rehabilitated now, so don't be afraid of me. I am not a soldier anymore; I am a child. We are all brothers and sisters. What I have learned from my experiences is that revenge is not good... If I am going to take revenge, in that process I will kill another person whose family will want revenge; then revenge and revenge and revenge will never come to an end."

You can read more about Beah and the book on his website. I was also interested to read the perspective of the New York Times book review.