Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Iran: Back to her roots, but as an outsider - Seattle P-I
... Hamid estimates that half the boys at his school of 400 are drug addicts, using anything they can get their hands on -- most recently a cyanidelike poison used to keep insects out of rice shipments.
...
I'm also happy to see slightly looser restrictions on women's attire. Shorter, tighter tunics (or manteaux, the French word for coats), smaller scarves, exposed bangs, eyeliner and nail polish.They used to lock you up for things like that when I was a kid."They still do, sometimes," said one family friend. "If they don't like what you're wearing, they can haul you in and get you to write a letter, confessing to being a prostitute."She was taken in once for wearing what the police officer said was too much eye makeup. She lucked out, she said, and only had to write a letter of apology for wearing mascara."That's still in my file somewhere."
...
Drinking alcohol is a serious crime. First offense, 70 to 100 lashes; second offense, same, plus possible prison term; third offense, death. All the same, black-market whiskey smuggled from Pakistan goes for about $25 a bottle; tall boys of Heineken are $5 each. ...While depression isn't a topic of conversation in Iran -- one never sees ads for antidepressants and Dr. Phil would be an oddity here -- it would seem that much of the population in the cities suffers from it. It's especially clear on the faces of the country's young people (about 75 percent of Iranians are younger than 35).
...
... Hamid estimates that half the boys at his school of 400 are drug addicts, using anything they can get their hands on -- most recently a cyanidelike poison used to keep insects out of rice shipments.
...
I'm also happy to see slightly looser restrictions on women's attire. Shorter, tighter tunics (or manteaux, the French word for coats), smaller scarves, exposed bangs, eyeliner and nail polish.They used to lock you up for things like that when I was a kid."They still do, sometimes," said one family friend. "If they don't like what you're wearing, they can haul you in and get you to write a letter, confessing to being a prostitute."She was taken in once for wearing what the police officer said was too much eye makeup. She lucked out, she said, and only had to write a letter of apology for wearing mascara."That's still in my file somewhere."
...
Drinking alcohol is a serious crime. First offense, 70 to 100 lashes; second offense, same, plus possible prison term; third offense, death. All the same, black-market whiskey smuggled from Pakistan goes for about $25 a bottle; tall boys of Heineken are $5 each. ...While depression isn't a topic of conversation in Iran -- one never sees ads for antidepressants and Dr. Phil would be an oddity here -- it would seem that much of the population in the cities suffers from it. It's especially clear on the faces of the country's young people (about 75 percent of Iranians are younger than 35).
...
Back from Iraq - Washington Post
[The whole article is worth reading; here's an excerpt:]
But perhaps the worst is when they don't say anything at all and just go on living their lives, oblivious to the war.
Which is exactly what Army Capt. Tyler McIntyre was trying to explain to some family members while eating at an Italian restaurant when he was home on leave a couple of years ago.
He looked across the restaurant and saw everyone stuffing their faces with pasta and drinking wine. "And everyone's kind of just sitting there doing it," he said.
Which is really sort of extraordinary, he said. The country is at war. People are fighting at this very moment. Don't these people know what's going on? Don't they care?
No, he decided. They have no appreciation for their easy, gluttonous lives and don't deserve the freedom, prosperity and contentment he was fighting to protect.
He wanted to yell, "You don't know what you have! You don't appreciate it! You don't care!"
But he didn't. He kept his mouth shut. He was only home on leave. Soon, he would be going back to the war.
[The whole article is worth reading; here's an excerpt:]
But perhaps the worst is when they don't say anything at all and just go on living their lives, oblivious to the war.
Which is exactly what Army Capt. Tyler McIntyre was trying to explain to some family members while eating at an Italian restaurant when he was home on leave a couple of years ago.
He looked across the restaurant and saw everyone stuffing their faces with pasta and drinking wine. "And everyone's kind of just sitting there doing it," he said.
Which is really sort of extraordinary, he said. The country is at war. People are fighting at this very moment. Don't these people know what's going on? Don't they care?
No, he decided. They have no appreciation for their easy, gluttonous lives and don't deserve the freedom, prosperity and contentment he was fighting to protect.
He wanted to yell, "You don't know what you have! You don't appreciate it! You don't care!"
But he didn't. He kept his mouth shut. He was only home on leave. Soon, he would be going back to the war.
Labels: war
In their own words: Troops reflect on their experiences in Iraq - Washington Post
"Everything was like slow motion. I saw a medic. He was going, 'What hurts?' I couldn't hear him but I read his lips, saying 'what hurts?' I said, 'My finger, it's killing me.' He said, 'Your finger? Have you seen your arm?' I said, 'What's wrong with my arm?'"
- Staff Sgt. Chris Bain
...
"I remember one day this guy came in and pulled up his robe and his intestines are hanging out. I'm like, he's walking! I had never seen something like that before. I said, 'What's wrong with you?' They said he was injured. I said, 'You need medical attention.' He said, 'No, I need a job.'"
- Sgt. Michael Kelly
"Everything was like slow motion. I saw a medic. He was going, 'What hurts?' I couldn't hear him but I read his lips, saying 'what hurts?' I said, 'My finger, it's killing me.' He said, 'Your finger? Have you seen your arm?' I said, 'What's wrong with my arm?'"
- Staff Sgt. Chris Bain
...
"I remember one day this guy came in and pulled up his robe and his intestines are hanging out. I'm like, he's walking! I had never seen something like that before. I said, 'What's wrong with you?' They said he was injured. I said, 'You need medical attention.' He said, 'No, I need a job.'"
- Sgt. Michael Kelly
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Weapon Of Mass Destruction - Washington Post
... The AK-47 has become the world's most prolific and effective combat weapon, a device so cheap and simple that it can be bought in many countries for less than the cost of a live chicken. Depicted on the flag and currency of several countries, waved by guerrillas and rebels everywhere, the AK is responsible for about a quarter-million deaths every year. It is the firearm of choice for at least 50 legitimate standing armies and countless fighting forces from Africa and the Middle East to Central America and Los Angeles.
...
Ironically, the weapon that helped end World War II, the atomic bomb, paved the way for the rise of the lower-tech but deadlier AK-47. The A-bomb's guarantee of mass destruction compelled the two Cold War superpowers to wage proxy wars in poor countries, with ill-trained combatants exchanging fire -- usually with cheap, lightweight and durable AKs.
When one war ended, arms brokers gathered up the AKs and sold them to fighters in the next hot spot. The weapon's spread helps explain why, since World War II, so many "small wars" have lingered far beyond the months and years one might expect. Indeed, for all of the billions of dollars Washington has spent on space-age weapons and military technology, the AK still remains the most devastating weapon on the planet, transforming conflicts from Vietnam to Afghanistan to Iraq. With these assault rifles, well-armed fighters can dominate a country, terrorize citizens, grab the spoils -- and even keep superpowers at bay.
...
In late September 1941, the German juggernaut reached the outskirts of Bryansk, hard against the Desna River southwest of Moscow. In the battle, the Nazis destroyed about 80 percent of the town and killed more than 80,000 people. Kalashnikov, who was 21, was wounded in his left shoulder when his tank came under artillery fire. He eventually made it to a hospital on foot after a harrowing two-day trip. He suffered nightmares about the Germans slaughtering his comrades.
Kalashnikov became obsessed with creating a submachine gun that would drive the Germans from his homeland. In his hospital bed, he sketched out the simplest automatic weapon possible.
...
Now 85, tiny, feeble, nearly deaf, his right hand losing control because of tremors, Kalashnikov is often haunted by the killing machine he has bestowed upon the world. "I wish I had invented a lawnmower," he told the Guardian in 2002. ...
... The AK-47 has become the world's most prolific and effective combat weapon, a device so cheap and simple that it can be bought in many countries for less than the cost of a live chicken. Depicted on the flag and currency of several countries, waved by guerrillas and rebels everywhere, the AK is responsible for about a quarter-million deaths every year. It is the firearm of choice for at least 50 legitimate standing armies and countless fighting forces from Africa and the Middle East to Central America and Los Angeles.
...
Ironically, the weapon that helped end World War II, the atomic bomb, paved the way for the rise of the lower-tech but deadlier AK-47. The A-bomb's guarantee of mass destruction compelled the two Cold War superpowers to wage proxy wars in poor countries, with ill-trained combatants exchanging fire -- usually with cheap, lightweight and durable AKs.
When one war ended, arms brokers gathered up the AKs and sold them to fighters in the next hot spot. The weapon's spread helps explain why, since World War II, so many "small wars" have lingered far beyond the months and years one might expect. Indeed, for all of the billions of dollars Washington has spent on space-age weapons and military technology, the AK still remains the most devastating weapon on the planet, transforming conflicts from Vietnam to Afghanistan to Iraq. With these assault rifles, well-armed fighters can dominate a country, terrorize citizens, grab the spoils -- and even keep superpowers at bay.
...
In late September 1941, the German juggernaut reached the outskirts of Bryansk, hard against the Desna River southwest of Moscow. In the battle, the Nazis destroyed about 80 percent of the town and killed more than 80,000 people. Kalashnikov, who was 21, was wounded in his left shoulder when his tank came under artillery fire. He eventually made it to a hospital on foot after a harrowing two-day trip. He suffered nightmares about the Germans slaughtering his comrades.
Kalashnikov became obsessed with creating a submachine gun that would drive the Germans from his homeland. In his hospital bed, he sketched out the simplest automatic weapon possible.
...
Now 85, tiny, feeble, nearly deaf, his right hand losing control because of tremors, Kalashnikov is often haunted by the killing machine he has bestowed upon the world. "I wish I had invented a lawnmower," he told the Guardian in 2002. ...
How One Man's Rage Over His Daughter's Death Sped Reform of Doctor Training - Washington Post
After his 18-year-old daughter Libby died within 24 hours of an emergency hospital admission in 1984, Zion learned that her chief doctors had been medical residents covering dozens of patients and receiving relatively little supervision. His anger set in motion a series of reforms, most notably a series of work hour limitations ...
Libby was a college freshman with an ongoing history of depression who came to New York Hospital in Manhattan on the evening of Oct. 4, 1984, with a fever, agitation and strange jerking motions of her body. She also seemed disoriented at times.
...
Libby finally fell asleep, according to the nurses, but when a nurse's aide took her temperature at 6:30 a.m., it was 107, dangerously high. Weinstein was called and emergency measures were tried to lower the temperature. But Libby Zion suffered a cardiac arrest and died. ...
...
Historians these days tend to distrust the idea that the actions of specific people truly cause large-scale change. Rather, many argue, change more commonly results from a complex interplay of cultural and political factors.
In the case of Libby Zion, however, it is possible to trace a straight line from her death to Sidney Zion's campaign to the Bell Commission to the ACGME regulations. ...
After his 18-year-old daughter Libby died within 24 hours of an emergency hospital admission in 1984, Zion learned that her chief doctors had been medical residents covering dozens of patients and receiving relatively little supervision. His anger set in motion a series of reforms, most notably a series of work hour limitations ...
Libby was a college freshman with an ongoing history of depression who came to New York Hospital in Manhattan on the evening of Oct. 4, 1984, with a fever, agitation and strange jerking motions of her body. She also seemed disoriented at times.
...
Libby finally fell asleep, according to the nurses, but when a nurse's aide took her temperature at 6:30 a.m., it was 107, dangerously high. Weinstein was called and emergency measures were tried to lower the temperature. But Libby Zion suffered a cardiac arrest and died. ...
...
Historians these days tend to distrust the idea that the actions of specific people truly cause large-scale change. Rather, many argue, change more commonly results from a complex interplay of cultural and political factors.
In the case of Libby Zion, however, it is possible to trace a straight line from her death to Sidney Zion's campaign to the Bell Commission to the ACGME regulations. ...
Ad Blitz Satirizes Lebanon's Divides - Washington Post
... It is almost a cliche that Lebanon is home to 18 religious sects -- from a tiny Jewish community to Shiite Muslims, the country's largest single group. The system that diversity has inspired has delivered minorities a degree of protection unequaled anywhere else in the Arab world. But it has left Lebanon a country where individual rights and identity are subsumed within communities and, by default, the personas of their sometimes feudal leaders, who thrive on that affiliation.
By tradition, the president is Maronite, the prime minister Sunni, the parliament speaker Shiite. Other posts are reserved for Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic and Druze. Boy scouts are organized by community, not country -- the Mahdi Scouts for the Shiites, for instance. Television stations have their own sectarian bent -- the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. for Christians, Future for the Sunnis. Christians are partial to the Sagesse basketball team, Sunnis the Riyadi team. There are even two Armenian soccer teams -- Homenmen and Homenetmen -- one faithful to Armenian leftists, the other to the community's right wing. Before this summer's war, Sunni soccer fans loyal to Ansar brawled in a stadium with Shiite youths loyal to Nijmeh.
...
He smiled at his favorite ads, the ones that identified doctors by their sect. "It has infiltrated our fabric so much, almost indelibly," Nahle said. "If I have an earache, an Orthodox doctor will understand it better. It's an Orthodox ear."
He recalled sitting with a Shiite woman at a cafe near the American University in Beirut. She treated him as a fellow Shiite until he revealed his mixed background. She looked at him disapprovingly. It's bad for the children, she said. "They're going to come out confused," she told him.
"I said, 'You know, the problem of this country is we don't have enough confused people. The problem is we have too many people blindly convinced by their political orientation, by their religion, by their community's superiority.' "
She smiled, he recalled, and then laughed a little uncomfortably.
... It is almost a cliche that Lebanon is home to 18 religious sects -- from a tiny Jewish community to Shiite Muslims, the country's largest single group. The system that diversity has inspired has delivered minorities a degree of protection unequaled anywhere else in the Arab world. But it has left Lebanon a country where individual rights and identity are subsumed within communities and, by default, the personas of their sometimes feudal leaders, who thrive on that affiliation.
By tradition, the president is Maronite, the prime minister Sunni, the parliament speaker Shiite. Other posts are reserved for Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic and Druze. Boy scouts are organized by community, not country -- the Mahdi Scouts for the Shiites, for instance. Television stations have their own sectarian bent -- the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. for Christians, Future for the Sunnis. Christians are partial to the Sagesse basketball team, Sunnis the Riyadi team. There are even two Armenian soccer teams -- Homenmen and Homenetmen -- one faithful to Armenian leftists, the other to the community's right wing. Before this summer's war, Sunni soccer fans loyal to Ansar brawled in a stadium with Shiite youths loyal to Nijmeh.
...
He smiled at his favorite ads, the ones that identified doctors by their sect. "It has infiltrated our fabric so much, almost indelibly," Nahle said. "If I have an earache, an Orthodox doctor will understand it better. It's an Orthodox ear."
He recalled sitting with a Shiite woman at a cafe near the American University in Beirut. She treated him as a fellow Shiite until he revealed his mixed background. She looked at him disapprovingly. It's bad for the children, she said. "They're going to come out confused," she told him.
"I said, 'You know, the problem of this country is we don't have enough confused people. The problem is we have too many people blindly convinced by their political orientation, by their religion, by their community's superiority.' "
She smiled, he recalled, and then laughed a little uncomfortably.
Colo. subdivision OKs Christmas Peace wreath
A subdivision has withdrawn its threat of $25 daily fines against a homeowner who put a Christmas wreath shaped like a peace sign on the front of her home.
...
Jensen was ordered to take the wreath down when some residents in her 200-home subdivision saw it as a protest of the Iraq war. Bob Kearns, president of the board, also said some saw it as a symbol of Satan.
The homeowners' association demanded Jensen remove the wreath from her house, saying it doesn't allow flags or signs that are considered divisive. ...
A subdivision has withdrawn its threat of $25 daily fines against a homeowner who put a Christmas wreath shaped like a peace sign on the front of her home.
...
Jensen was ordered to take the wreath down when some residents in her 200-home subdivision saw it as a protest of the Iraq war. Bob Kearns, president of the board, also said some saw it as a symbol of Satan.
The homeowners' association demanded Jensen remove the wreath from her house, saying it doesn't allow flags or signs that are considered divisive. ...
Oil Angel helps warm the winter chill - Robert Jamieson, P-I columnist
... Dallas Gigrich, 51, runs a new non-profit that takes unwanted oil, which some may consider junk, and gives it away so others can enjoy a treasure -- a warm home.
Fittingly, his organization is called HEAT, short for Home Energy Assistance Team.
When I first heard about the effort I thought it was a perfect example of someone in our community finding a smart and simple way to meet a growing need.
...
HEAT was a relief for the parents of Zakiyyah Ali.
The Seattle woman says her father suffers from emphysema and is short on money. When heating oil started running low at her parents' Greenwood home, the situation became dire. Ali heard about Gigrich and gave her mom and dad his number. "They delivered quickly," Ali said.
Patricia Quaring says when the heat is out at her West Seattle unit it can be warmer outside than in.
Quaring, 56, used to work as a day-care provider, but can't anymore because of a herniated disk in her back and degenerative arthritis. She gets $339 a month for welfare and pays $275 each month for rent. She has been on Gigrich's waiting list for as long as a year-and-a-half.
"I just got 100 gallons a couple of weeks ago," Quaring said with a voice full of gratitude. "Pretty good." ...
... Dallas Gigrich, 51, runs a new non-profit that takes unwanted oil, which some may consider junk, and gives it away so others can enjoy a treasure -- a warm home.
Fittingly, his organization is called HEAT, short for Home Energy Assistance Team.
When I first heard about the effort I thought it was a perfect example of someone in our community finding a smart and simple way to meet a growing need.
...
HEAT was a relief for the parents of Zakiyyah Ali.
The Seattle woman says her father suffers from emphysema and is short on money. When heating oil started running low at her parents' Greenwood home, the situation became dire. Ali heard about Gigrich and gave her mom and dad his number. "They delivered quickly," Ali said.
Patricia Quaring says when the heat is out at her West Seattle unit it can be warmer outside than in.
Quaring, 56, used to work as a day-care provider, but can't anymore because of a herniated disk in her back and degenerative arthritis. She gets $339 a month for welfare and pays $275 each month for rent. She has been on Gigrich's waiting list for as long as a year-and-a-half.
"I just got 100 gallons a couple of weeks ago," Quaring said with a voice full of gratitude. "Pretty good." ...
Witnesses detail Iraq burning deaths - A.P.
... Fifteen minutes later, two white pickup trucks, a black BMW and a black Opel drove up to the marchers. The suspected Shiite militiamen took automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers from the vehicles. They then blasted open the front of the mosque, dragged six worshippers outside, doused them with kerosene and set them on fire. ...
... Fifteen minutes later, two white pickup trucks, a black BMW and a black Opel drove up to the marchers. The suspected Shiite militiamen took automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers from the vehicles. They then blasted open the front of the mosque, dragged six worshippers outside, doused them with kerosene and set them on fire. ...
Police say mother microwaved her baby - A.P.
The death was ruled homicide by hyperthermia, or high body temperature. The absence of external burns ruled out an open flame, scalding water or a heating pad as the cause ...
...
[The mother] has three other children.
...
In 2000, a Virginia woman was sentenced to five years in prison for killing her month-old son in a microwave oven. Elizabeth Renee Otte claimed she had no memory of cramming her son in the microwave and turning on the appliance in 1999. Experts said that Otte suffered from epilepsy and that her seizures were followed by blackouts.
The death was ruled homicide by hyperthermia, or high body temperature. The absence of external burns ruled out an open flame, scalding water or a heating pad as the cause ...
...
[The mother] has three other children.
...
In 2000, a Virginia woman was sentenced to five years in prison for killing her month-old son in a microwave oven. Elizabeth Renee Otte claimed she had no memory of cramming her son in the microwave and turning on the appliance in 1999. Experts said that Otte suffered from epilepsy and that her seizures were followed by blackouts.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Earthly reward for church vandals - BBC News
Three teenagers who burgled and vandalised a church in ... Montana will be given "love baskets" of electronic games by the congregation.
The three youths broke into Missoula's South Hills Evangelical Church two weeks ago, stealing money and smashing windows and computers, police said.
Officers caught them still in the church and charged them with burglary.
Church pastor Jason Reimer said the congregation wanted "to reach out and extend love and mercy to them".
"A lot of us, whether we're churchgoers or not, have been in their shoes before and have made some bad choices," Mr Reimer said. "But God forgives us." ...
Three teenagers who burgled and vandalised a church in ... Montana will be given "love baskets" of electronic games by the congregation.
The three youths broke into Missoula's South Hills Evangelical Church two weeks ago, stealing money and smashing windows and computers, police said.
Officers caught them still in the church and charged them with burglary.
Church pastor Jason Reimer said the congregation wanted "to reach out and extend love and mercy to them".
"A lot of us, whether we're churchgoers or not, have been in their shoes before and have made some bad choices," Mr Reimer said. "But God forgives us." ...
Labels: compassionate people, faith, forgiveness
Monday, November 20, 2006
A Troubled River Mirrors China’s Path to Modernity - N.Y. Times
... People are already coming down from the mountains. A short drive north of the village, Ma Junqing, a grandfather in a threadbare gray Mao suit, said drought forced him to leave two years ago. ... “There is absolutely nothing in my hometown,” Mr. Ma, 56, said. “It didn’t rain. If it rains, you eat. If it doesn’t rain, you don’t eat.”
...
Down a potholed street leading into an industrial park, a brick building that was once part of a forced labor camp is now another sort of prison: the small sundries shop where Zhang Yueqing lives amid the choking pollution of one of China’s newest industrial corridors.
Hulking factories spew blue smoke as hunched men shovel minerals into the red glow of open pit furnaces. They are making coke, silicon and other raw materials to be shipped elsewhere in China, as well as to Europe, Japan, South Korea and the United States. Furnace ash is spread over empty lots like black icing over a cake.
“If you are here in the morning, you’ll see an inch of coal dust on the ground,” said Mr. Zhang, 54. “We cough a lot. At night, sometimes the smoke is so thick that you can turn on your car lights and you still can’t see where you are going.”
His wife, Chen Fengying, 53, added: “We can’t plant anything. We can’t plant tomatoes or hot peppers. They cannot grow.” ...
... People are already coming down from the mountains. A short drive north of the village, Ma Junqing, a grandfather in a threadbare gray Mao suit, said drought forced him to leave two years ago. ... “There is absolutely nothing in my hometown,” Mr. Ma, 56, said. “It didn’t rain. If it rains, you eat. If it doesn’t rain, you don’t eat.”
...
Down a potholed street leading into an industrial park, a brick building that was once part of a forced labor camp is now another sort of prison: the small sundries shop where Zhang Yueqing lives amid the choking pollution of one of China’s newest industrial corridors.
Hulking factories spew blue smoke as hunched men shovel minerals into the red glow of open pit furnaces. They are making coke, silicon and other raw materials to be shipped elsewhere in China, as well as to Europe, Japan, South Korea and the United States. Furnace ash is spread over empty lots like black icing over a cake.
“If you are here in the morning, you’ll see an inch of coal dust on the ground,” said Mr. Zhang, 54. “We cough a lot. At night, sometimes the smoke is so thick that you can turn on your car lights and you still can’t see where you are going.”
His wife, Chen Fengying, 53, added: “We can’t plant anything. We can’t plant tomatoes or hot peppers. They cannot grow.” ...
Friday, November 17, 2006
Tehran homeless women find refuge - BBC News
The House of Compassion, as it is known ... is a tiny oasis in a city of 12 million people, where homeless people are an increasingly common sight.
The women who live in the House of Compassion range in age from 18 to 70. Many of them look much older than their years - a legacy of life on the street.
They include runaways, drug addicts and prostitutes. Many are suffering from severe mental health problems.
...
Farkhondeh is 52, and has just been brought in by the police. She's painfully thin, with hardly any teeth left.
Her face is clouded by the shadows of drug addiction. When she holds up her hands, her fingers are permanently clenched - the tendons in her wrist have been severed by repeated suicide attempts.
"I'm not a homeless person," she insists. "I just look like this because they cut my hair and gave me these clothes to wear. Why am I here with all these crazy people."
Farkondeh says she was born into a privileged family and had a good education. But like many of the women in the shelter, her life seems to have been ruined by drugs and a bad marriage.
"I'm so sad about my life. I didn't use to be like this. I used to be so much better." ...
The House of Compassion, as it is known ... is a tiny oasis in a city of 12 million people, where homeless people are an increasingly common sight.
The women who live in the House of Compassion range in age from 18 to 70. Many of them look much older than their years - a legacy of life on the street.
They include runaways, drug addicts and prostitutes. Many are suffering from severe mental health problems.
...
Farkhondeh is 52, and has just been brought in by the police. She's painfully thin, with hardly any teeth left.
Her face is clouded by the shadows of drug addiction. When she holds up her hands, her fingers are permanently clenched - the tendons in her wrist have been severed by repeated suicide attempts.
"I'm not a homeless person," she insists. "I just look like this because they cut my hair and gave me these clothes to wear. Why am I here with all these crazy people."
Farkondeh says she was born into a privileged family and had a good education. But like many of the women in the shelter, her life seems to have been ruined by drugs and a bad marriage.
"I'm so sad about my life. I didn't use to be like this. I used to be so much better." ...
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Jewish heritage comes as shock to former Polish skinhead - BBC News
Pawel works in the kitchen of a kosher restaurant in the heart of Warsaw's growing Jewish community, near the 19th Century Nozyk synagogue, a Jewish theatre and cultural centre.
When he was younger, he used to be a skinhead.
"I am from a Catholic family. I was baptised. My parents are still Catholics," he told me.
"When I was a skinhead, I used to go around saying: oh, those Jews, look at what they've done.
"It was madness because we didn't know anything about Jews or Jewish culture. It was just slogans - like Jews Rule the World, Jews are Bad.
...
Six years ago, Pawel made a discovery that turned his life upside down - he found out that he was Jewish. His parents had turned their back on Jewish life and they had never told him about his background.
"When I looked into the mirror I asked myself: why should I be a Jew? It was the biggest shock of my life. It was really a huge blow. For most of my life I hated them. It was too much to take in at once."
Pawel decided he wanted to know more about Judaism and he started attending the synagogue.
Now 30 years old, he is trying to lead an Orthodox lifestyle, but it is not always easy when he wears his skullcap on the streets. ...
Pawel works in the kitchen of a kosher restaurant in the heart of Warsaw's growing Jewish community, near the 19th Century Nozyk synagogue, a Jewish theatre and cultural centre.
When he was younger, he used to be a skinhead.
"I am from a Catholic family. I was baptised. My parents are still Catholics," he told me.
"When I was a skinhead, I used to go around saying: oh, those Jews, look at what they've done.
"It was madness because we didn't know anything about Jews or Jewish culture. It was just slogans - like Jews Rule the World, Jews are Bad.
...
Six years ago, Pawel made a discovery that turned his life upside down - he found out that he was Jewish. His parents had turned their back on Jewish life and they had never told him about his background.
"When I looked into the mirror I asked myself: why should I be a Jew? It was the biggest shock of my life. It was really a huge blow. For most of my life I hated them. It was too much to take in at once."
Pawel decided he wanted to know more about Judaism and he started attending the synagogue.
Now 30 years old, he is trying to lead an Orthodox lifestyle, but it is not always easy when he wears his skullcap on the streets. ...
Afghan women seek death by fire - BBC News
Increasing numbers of Afghan women are committing suicide by setting fire to themselves to escape difficult lives ...
They say women forced into marriage or suffering chronic abuse are killing themselves out of desperation.
...
One Afghan survivor, a 16-year-old girl, told the summit she had endured beatings from her drug-addicted husband, a man 25 years her senior and whom she was forced to marry.
"When he did not have access to heroin and narcotics, he tortured me. After midnight he would hit me," she said.
"That night he hit me and hit my head. Blood was coming from my nose. I asked him why he was doing it and he hit me even more."
Following the attack, she doused herself with benzene and lit a flame. Since then she has divorced her husband and undergone a series of operations. ...
Increasing numbers of Afghan women are committing suicide by setting fire to themselves to escape difficult lives ...
They say women forced into marriage or suffering chronic abuse are killing themselves out of desperation.
...
One Afghan survivor, a 16-year-old girl, told the summit she had endured beatings from her drug-addicted husband, a man 25 years her senior and whom she was forced to marry.
"When he did not have access to heroin and narcotics, he tortured me. After midnight he would hit me," she said.
"That night he hit me and hit my head. Blood was coming from my nose. I asked him why he was doing it and he hit me even more."
Following the attack, she doused herself with benzene and lit a flame. Since then she has divorced her husband and undergone a series of operations. ...
Bush has chance to hold terrorists accountable - by Amy Goodman, P-I guest columnist
... At the cemetery, we saw hundreds of Indonesian troops coming up the road, 12 to 15 abreast. The Indonesian military had committed many massacres in the past, but never in front of Western journalists. We walked to the front of the crowd, hoping that our presence could stop the attack. Children whispered behind us. I put on my headphones, took out my tape recorder and held up my microphone like a flag. We wanted to alert the troops that this time they were being watched by the world.
The Timorese couldn't escape. They were trapped by the cemetery walls that lined both sides of the road. Without any warning, provocation or hesitation, the soldiers swept past us and opened fire.
People were ripped apart. The troops just kept shooting, killing anyone still standing. A group of soldiers surrounded me. They started to shake my microphone in my face. Then they slammed me to the ground with their rifle butts and kicked me with their boots. I gasped for breath. Allan threw himself on top of me to protect me from further injury.
The soldiers wielded their M-16s like baseball bats, slamming them against his head until they fractured his skull. He lay in the road in spasm, covered in blood, unable to move. Suddenly, about a dozen soldiers lined up like a firing squad. They put the guns to our heads and screamed, "Politik! Politik!" They were accusing us of being involved in politics, a crime clearly punishable by death. They demanded, "Australia? Australia?" The Indonesians executed six Australian journalists during the 1975 invasion. ....
... At the cemetery, we saw hundreds of Indonesian troops coming up the road, 12 to 15 abreast. The Indonesian military had committed many massacres in the past, but never in front of Western journalists. We walked to the front of the crowd, hoping that our presence could stop the attack. Children whispered behind us. I put on my headphones, took out my tape recorder and held up my microphone like a flag. We wanted to alert the troops that this time they were being watched by the world.
The Timorese couldn't escape. They were trapped by the cemetery walls that lined both sides of the road. Without any warning, provocation or hesitation, the soldiers swept past us and opened fire.
People were ripped apart. The troops just kept shooting, killing anyone still standing. A group of soldiers surrounded me. They started to shake my microphone in my face. Then they slammed me to the ground with their rifle butts and kicked me with their boots. I gasped for breath. Allan threw himself on top of me to protect me from further injury.
The soldiers wielded their M-16s like baseball bats, slamming them against his head until they fractured his skull. He lay in the road in spasm, covered in blood, unable to move. Suddenly, about a dozen soldiers lined up like a firing squad. They put the guns to our heads and screamed, "Politik! Politik!" They were accusing us of being involved in politics, a crime clearly punishable by death. They demanded, "Australia? Australia?" The Indonesians executed six Australian journalists during the 1975 invasion. ....
Thursday, November 09, 2006
The Lifeline: A three-part Los Angeles Times series following the lives of soldiers wounded in Iraq - L.A. Times
I think maybe I just need a couple of days without getting blown up.
— Army Spc. Corbin Foster
Vincent Worrell lay shivering on a trauma bay. He felt something in his mouth. He sat up and spat fragments of his front teeth into a bedpan. They were mixed with blood and tissue torn from inside his mouth.He heard someone say: "Significant laceration to the cheek and lip." And then: "Frag under the eye … frag in the face … frag in the shoulder … possible thumb fracture."
A bomb fashioned from two mortar rounds had detonated a few feet behind Worrell, an Army staff sergeant, as he walked on patrol near Tall Afar on the morning of Nov. 6. Now he was inside the Air Force Theater Hospital, a tight web of interlocking tents set up on packed sand 50 miles north of Baghdad....
"My wife's going to be pissed," he told the doctor. "She specifically gave me instructions not to get perforated over here." ...
I think maybe I just need a couple of days without getting blown up.
— Army Spc. Corbin Foster
Vincent Worrell lay shivering on a trauma bay. He felt something in his mouth. He sat up and spat fragments of his front teeth into a bedpan. They were mixed with blood and tissue torn from inside his mouth.He heard someone say: "Significant laceration to the cheek and lip." And then: "Frag under the eye … frag in the face … frag in the shoulder … possible thumb fracture."
A bomb fashioned from two mortar rounds had detonated a few feet behind Worrell, an Army staff sergeant, as he walked on patrol near Tall Afar on the morning of Nov. 6. Now he was inside the Air Force Theater Hospital, a tight web of interlocking tents set up on packed sand 50 miles north of Baghdad....
"My wife's going to be pissed," he told the doctor. "She specifically gave me instructions not to get perforated over here." ...
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
In a Calm Corner of Darfur, Villagers Rebuild Ties - N.Y. Times
Omar Abdul Aziz Gader cupped his hand over his eyes and scanned a landscape of scorched fields and mud huts reduced to rings of ash.“It’s good to be back,” he said.
As a displaced person from Darfur, Mr. Gader found his options were not great. He could have stayed in the packed, increasingly unruly camp where he had been living for the past two years, or he could have ventured back to Artala, his native village, which was burned to the ground by nomadic raiders.
He decided to go home in September after learning that his corner of southwestern Darfur was actually rather peaceful, a place where nomads and farmers had begun to take halting steps toward reconciliation. ...
Mr. Gader says he is looking ahead, building a new hut and planting onions, though at times the past seizes him. ...
Not so long ago, in the village of Wastani, near Artala, nomadic women and women from farms would meet in the fields halfway between their homes and share little glasses of tea.
The nomads, who herded camels and cows, would bring meat, and the farmers would bring grain, and they would trade with one another in a fragile tapestry of interdependence between two peoples surviving off the same slice of dry, unforgiving land.
...
Suleiman Ibrahim, an elder in Mukjar, a camp near Artala with 10,000 displaced people, ... said “It’s not safe out there,” he said.
But many camps are not so safe either, with unchecked violence and rising tension between supporters of different rebel factions.
Mr. Gader, 32, spoke in hushed tones of camp politics and how some of the displaced people had called him a traitor for even thinking of going home, because they said it bolstered the government’s claim that things were not so bad.
Aid workers and camp dwellers say camp elders have a vested financial interest in keeping as many people as possible in the camp, because the elders can make money by siphoning food aid and selling it in local markets. But the returnees are learning that home is a complicated place, too.
...
Mr. Gader said his new hut would be made from straw, not mud. “You never know when we might be leaving again,” he said. ...
Omar Abdul Aziz Gader cupped his hand over his eyes and scanned a landscape of scorched fields and mud huts reduced to rings of ash.“It’s good to be back,” he said.
As a displaced person from Darfur, Mr. Gader found his options were not great. He could have stayed in the packed, increasingly unruly camp where he had been living for the past two years, or he could have ventured back to Artala, his native village, which was burned to the ground by nomadic raiders.
He decided to go home in September after learning that his corner of southwestern Darfur was actually rather peaceful, a place where nomads and farmers had begun to take halting steps toward reconciliation. ...
Mr. Gader says he is looking ahead, building a new hut and planting onions, though at times the past seizes him. ...
Not so long ago, in the village of Wastani, near Artala, nomadic women and women from farms would meet in the fields halfway between their homes and share little glasses of tea.
The nomads, who herded camels and cows, would bring meat, and the farmers would bring grain, and they would trade with one another in a fragile tapestry of interdependence between two peoples surviving off the same slice of dry, unforgiving land.
...
Suleiman Ibrahim, an elder in Mukjar, a camp near Artala with 10,000 displaced people, ... said “It’s not safe out there,” he said.
But many camps are not so safe either, with unchecked violence and rising tension between supporters of different rebel factions.
Mr. Gader, 32, spoke in hushed tones of camp politics and how some of the displaced people had called him a traitor for even thinking of going home, because they said it bolstered the government’s claim that things were not so bad.
Aid workers and camp dwellers say camp elders have a vested financial interest in keeping as many people as possible in the camp, because the elders can make money by siphoning food aid and selling it in local markets. But the returnees are learning that home is a complicated place, too.
...
Mr. Gader said his new hut would be made from straw, not mud. “You never know when we might be leaving again,” he said. ...
Be glad that bus driver broke the rules - Susan Paynter, Seattle P-I columnist
You're riding a Metro bus at Third and Spring in downtown Seattle when ...
Wait. Let me rewrite that. Your CHILD is on a Metro bus at Third and Spring when a thug with a loaded 9 mm waves the pistol at him/her, shoving and shouting threats to give up his/her digital camera or else.
A dangerous scuffle ensues with a fully loaded gun in play, a bullet in its chamber.
You hope that the driver would:
A: Follow rule-book procedure to the letter by staying in his seat and radioing for help, or
B: Swiftly assess the situation, safely overpower and disarm the thug, wrestling him to the street while enlisting a passer-by to call the cops.
Personally, this parent picks B.
And B is exactly what a big and burly, but catlike quick, Metro operator named Anthony Woods did last July, probably saving the life of said kid and possibly other young riders within firing range. ...
You're riding a Metro bus at Third and Spring in downtown Seattle when ...
Wait. Let me rewrite that. Your CHILD is on a Metro bus at Third and Spring when a thug with a loaded 9 mm waves the pistol at him/her, shoving and shouting threats to give up his/her digital camera or else.
A dangerous scuffle ensues with a fully loaded gun in play, a bullet in its chamber.
You hope that the driver would:
A: Follow rule-book procedure to the letter by staying in his seat and radioing for help, or
B: Swiftly assess the situation, safely overpower and disarm the thug, wrestling him to the street while enlisting a passer-by to call the cops.
Personally, this parent picks B.
And B is exactly what a big and burly, but catlike quick, Metro operator named Anthony Woods did last July, probably saving the life of said kid and possibly other young riders within firing range. ...
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Japan pupil in 'suicide warning' - BBC News
Japan's education ministry has published a letter purportedly from a school pupil threatening suicide on Saturday if he continues to be bullied.
...
"This is a matter of life and death," [said a cabinet secretary]. "We want him (the pupil) to treat as precious the life received from his parents and ancestors."
... the pupil - who is believed to be a boy - complains that he is been bullied and those responsible have not been punished.
"I am writing this letter because living is painful," the letter said.
"If nothing has changed by Wednesday, 8 November, I will commit suicide."
...
In a note to the bullies the boy asks why they are picking on him. Another note addressed to a teacher asks why they will not help him.
...
Bullying is a real problem in Japan. Three bullied teenagers have taken their own lives in Japan since August.
Japan's education ministry has published a letter purportedly from a school pupil threatening suicide on Saturday if he continues to be bullied.
...
"This is a matter of life and death," [said a cabinet secretary]. "We want him (the pupil) to treat as precious the life received from his parents and ancestors."
... the pupil - who is believed to be a boy - complains that he is been bullied and those responsible have not been punished.
"I am writing this letter because living is painful," the letter said.
"If nothing has changed by Wednesday, 8 November, I will commit suicide."
...
In a note to the bullies the boy asks why they are picking on him. Another note addressed to a teacher asks why they will not help him.
...
Bullying is a real problem in Japan. Three bullied teenagers have taken their own lives in Japan since August.
Labels: mental illness, suicide
Monday, November 06, 2006
Where Plan A Left Ahmad Chalabi - N.Y. Times
... The election is coming, and we are heading south. Twenty cars, mostly carrying men with guns. They hang out the windows, pointing their Kalashnikovs at the terrified drivers. Get out of the way or we shoot, and maybe we shoot anyway — that’s the message. But that’s Iraq. We move quickly, weaving, south in the southbound, south in the northbound. Very fast. Unbelievably fast. Drivers veer and career. We go where we want.
We’re low on fuel, and a gas station beckons. It is one of the strange and singular facts of Iraqi life that despite sitting atop an ocean of oil, Iraqis must wait hours — often days — for gasoline at the pumps. Lack of refining capacity, smuggling, stealing, insurgent attacks, Soviet subsidies: it’s complicated. On the road outside Salman Pak, the line is perhaps 300 cars long.
The Chalabi convoy cuts straight to the front of the line. No one protests. It’s the guns. The Iraqis wait for days, and our effrontery brings no protest. Not a peep. We get our gas and we speed away, guns out the windows. Very fast. ...
... The election is coming, and we are heading south. Twenty cars, mostly carrying men with guns. They hang out the windows, pointing their Kalashnikovs at the terrified drivers. Get out of the way or we shoot, and maybe we shoot anyway — that’s the message. But that’s Iraq. We move quickly, weaving, south in the southbound, south in the northbound. Very fast. Unbelievably fast. Drivers veer and career. We go where we want.
We’re low on fuel, and a gas station beckons. It is one of the strange and singular facts of Iraqi life that despite sitting atop an ocean of oil, Iraqis must wait hours — often days — for gasoline at the pumps. Lack of refining capacity, smuggling, stealing, insurgent attacks, Soviet subsidies: it’s complicated. On the road outside Salman Pak, the line is perhaps 300 cars long.
The Chalabi convoy cuts straight to the front of the line. No one protests. It’s the guns. The Iraqis wait for days, and our effrontery brings no protest. Not a peep. We get our gas and we speed away, guns out the windows. Very fast. ...
'Medically vulnerable' find haven at Harborview - Seattle P-I
Center aids cases complicated by drugs and mental illness:
... There was a woman who'd jumped out of a moving car and now had multiple head injuries -- in addition to a cocaine and methamphetamine addiction, depression and suspected neurological problems; another patient, treated previously for bipolar disorder, had attempted suicide by jumping off a highway overpass and now had multiple fractures in her spine and legs; a 47-year-old man was found unable to walk or speak because he had suffered a stroke -- as well as testing positive for cocaine; and a 59-year-old veteran, diagnosed with depression and panic disorder, recently suffered adrenal failure. The list continued.
"It's the perfect storm of patients with medical, psychiatric and substance abuse overlaps" ...
In general, only the acutely mentally ill -- schizophrenics or psychotics -- can expect treatment in the state system ... Those struggling with depression, lacking insurance and getting by on low-level wages, often fall through the cracks.
...
Blanca Gonzalez, 39, struggled to keep her job as a kitchen worker while battling alcoholism and became such a frequent visitor to Harborview's emergency room that doctors there knew her on sight.
An uninsured single mother, Gonzalez had visited various clinics, complaining of gastritis, ulcers and other stomach problems.
"But it was really undiagnosed alcoholism," said Robert Ries, director of Harborview's outpatient psychiatry and addictions program.
Emergency room doctors eventually referred her to treatment, and now, six months later, she said her entire life has changed. ...
Center aids cases complicated by drugs and mental illness:
... There was a woman who'd jumped out of a moving car and now had multiple head injuries -- in addition to a cocaine and methamphetamine addiction, depression and suspected neurological problems; another patient, treated previously for bipolar disorder, had attempted suicide by jumping off a highway overpass and now had multiple fractures in her spine and legs; a 47-year-old man was found unable to walk or speak because he had suffered a stroke -- as well as testing positive for cocaine; and a 59-year-old veteran, diagnosed with depression and panic disorder, recently suffered adrenal failure. The list continued.
"It's the perfect storm of patients with medical, psychiatric and substance abuse overlaps" ...
In general, only the acutely mentally ill -- schizophrenics or psychotics -- can expect treatment in the state system ... Those struggling with depression, lacking insurance and getting by on low-level wages, often fall through the cracks.
...
Blanca Gonzalez, 39, struggled to keep her job as a kitchen worker while battling alcoholism and became such a frequent visitor to Harborview's emergency room that doctors there knew her on sight.
An uninsured single mother, Gonzalez had visited various clinics, complaining of gastritis, ulcers and other stomach problems.
"But it was really undiagnosed alcoholism," said Robert Ries, director of Harborview's outpatient psychiatry and addictions program.
Emergency room doctors eventually referred her to treatment, and now, six months later, she said her entire life has changed. ...
Labels: drugs, mental illness
A (poor) man's best friend - Seattle P-I
... There are those who volunteer at food banks to nourish people in need. And there are those, such as Dr. Stanley Coe, a retired veterinarian, who nourish the souls of people by volunteering to keep their best friends -- and sometimes only companions -- healthy.
...
She said she would have committed suicide if not for the clinic. "I suffer from chronic depression and fibromyalgia, which means I have constant muscle pains," she said. "My daughter won't have anything to do with me, so I'm alone."
Referring to her black and white pet, who she says is a "tuxedo cat," she said, "It's because of her that I have to get up and leave the house and take care of her. She seems to know when I'm sad."
Last year, the cat developed an infection in her eye and could no longer see. She said Coe, who used to be a co-owner of the Elliott Bay Animal Hospital, operated for free at the hospital. These days the cat's eye has reopened and can see just fine.
...
Among the 15 volunteers, mostly veterinarians, who keep the Doney Memorial Pet Clinic going is Don Rolf, who used to train dolphins and whales at Sea World. He has volunteered at the clinic for 20 years.
Twice a month, he drives to the shelter in Seattle from Centralia. ...
... There are those who volunteer at food banks to nourish people in need. And there are those, such as Dr. Stanley Coe, a retired veterinarian, who nourish the souls of people by volunteering to keep their best friends -- and sometimes only companions -- healthy.
...
She said she would have committed suicide if not for the clinic. "I suffer from chronic depression and fibromyalgia, which means I have constant muscle pains," she said. "My daughter won't have anything to do with me, so I'm alone."
Referring to her black and white pet, who she says is a "tuxedo cat," she said, "It's because of her that I have to get up and leave the house and take care of her. She seems to know when I'm sad."
Last year, the cat developed an infection in her eye and could no longer see. She said Coe, who used to be a co-owner of the Elliott Bay Animal Hospital, operated for free at the hospital. These days the cat's eye has reopened and can see just fine.
...
Among the 15 volunteers, mostly veterinarians, who keep the Doney Memorial Pet Clinic going is Don Rolf, who used to train dolphins and whales at Sea World. He has volunteered at the clinic for 20 years.
Twice a month, he drives to the shelter in Seattle from Centralia. ...
Naked man arrested for concealed weapon - A.P.
A man was arrested on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon after police found him outdoors - naked - and he told them he had a tool in his rectum, authorities said. ...
The man was lying on a tree stump, masturbating beside a nature path ... [he] was initially arrested on suspicion of indecent exposure.
Sheehan, who was paroled from state prison last week, was then booked into jail on suspicion of parole violations, indecent exposure and one felony count of possessing a concealed weapon. ...
A man was arrested on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon after police found him outdoors - naked - and he told them he had a tool in his rectum, authorities said. ...
The man was lying on a tree stump, masturbating beside a nature path ... [he] was initially arrested on suspicion of indecent exposure.
Sheehan, who was paroled from state prison last week, was then booked into jail on suspicion of parole violations, indecent exposure and one felony count of possessing a concealed weapon. ...
Guatemala System Is Scrutinized as Americans Rush In to Adopt - N.Y. Times
... Most babies that find their way to America are conceived in the countryside. Some of the birth mothers have brought shame on the family by becoming pregnant out of wedlock. Others are married but had affairs after their husbands emigrated to the United States. Inevitably, the pregnancies were not planned.
Poverty is a way of life in these villages, and infant mortality, at 36 per 1,000 births in 2002, is among the highest in the hemisphere.
Those children who survive have a rough start, with almost half of them chronically malnourished. Guatemala’s adoption system is run not by judges, courts and bureaucrats — as in most other nations — but by some 500 private lawyers and notaries, who hire baby brokers and maintain networks of pediatricians and foster mothers to tend children awaiting adoption.
...
“Babies are being sold, and we have to stop it,” she said. “What’s happening to our culture that we don’t take care of our children?”
...
Baby brokers tread carefully as they seek pregnant women in the countryside, where many villagers believe what is apparently a rural myth that there is an active market overseas for children as organ donors.
A few months back, in a village outside the provincial town of Nahuala, two women and a man went house to house selling baby slings, pieces of cloth used to carry infants across the back. It was a ruse, neighbors recounted, to find out who would give birth soon.
In early October, villagers in Ixtahuacán killed one person with machetes, captured another 12 and set fire to five cars when fear spread that a gang of child snatchers was in the area. The police said it remained unclear whether the outsiders had actually been looking for children.
...
... Most babies that find their way to America are conceived in the countryside. Some of the birth mothers have brought shame on the family by becoming pregnant out of wedlock. Others are married but had affairs after their husbands emigrated to the United States. Inevitably, the pregnancies were not planned.
Poverty is a way of life in these villages, and infant mortality, at 36 per 1,000 births in 2002, is among the highest in the hemisphere.
Those children who survive have a rough start, with almost half of them chronically malnourished. Guatemala’s adoption system is run not by judges, courts and bureaucrats — as in most other nations — but by some 500 private lawyers and notaries, who hire baby brokers and maintain networks of pediatricians and foster mothers to tend children awaiting adoption.
...
“Babies are being sold, and we have to stop it,” she said. “What’s happening to our culture that we don’t take care of our children?”
...
Baby brokers tread carefully as they seek pregnant women in the countryside, where many villagers believe what is apparently a rural myth that there is an active market overseas for children as organ donors.
A few months back, in a village outside the provincial town of Nahuala, two women and a man went house to house selling baby slings, pieces of cloth used to carry infants across the back. It was a ruse, neighbors recounted, to find out who would give birth soon.
In early October, villagers in Ixtahuacán killed one person with machetes, captured another 12 and set fire to five cars when fear spread that a gang of child snatchers was in the area. The police said it remained unclear whether the outsiders had actually been looking for children.
...
Students on the Spectrum - N.Y. Times
Valerie Kaplan has an aptitude for math, and scored a perfect 1600 on her SAT. ... But less obvious signals — a raised eyebrow or impatient glance at a watch — elude her. In ... And during a critical meeting to win approval for her customized major, electronic art, she intently circled the freckles on her arm with a marker.
Miss Kaplan’s behavioral quirks are agonizingly familiar to students with an autism spectrum disorder. Simply put, their brains are wired differently.
...
Ms. Jekel worries about exposing inherently naïve students, who are as sexual as the next college student, to the complexities of dating. Women on the spectrum are especially vulnerable sexually and emotionally, since they have problems deciphering intentions. Men are at risk, too, misreading clear signals of rejection (“I’m busy”); instead, they might pursue a romance until a confrontation results.
...
Students on the spectrum need help chopping course loads into manageable bites. They need to learn how to act appropriately in class — correcting professors or asking too many questions are common gaffes. They also need support with ticklish social issues like roommates who complain they are too messy or who lock them out when a date stays overnight. ...
Valerie Kaplan has an aptitude for math, and scored a perfect 1600 on her SAT. ... But less obvious signals — a raised eyebrow or impatient glance at a watch — elude her. In ... And during a critical meeting to win approval for her customized major, electronic art, she intently circled the freckles on her arm with a marker.
Miss Kaplan’s behavioral quirks are agonizingly familiar to students with an autism spectrum disorder. Simply put, their brains are wired differently.
...
Ms. Jekel worries about exposing inherently naïve students, who are as sexual as the next college student, to the complexities of dating. Women on the spectrum are especially vulnerable sexually and emotionally, since they have problems deciphering intentions. Men are at risk, too, misreading clear signals of rejection (“I’m busy”); instead, they might pursue a romance until a confrontation results.
...
Students on the spectrum need help chopping course loads into manageable bites. They need to learn how to act appropriately in class — correcting professors or asking too many questions are common gaffes. They also need support with ticklish social issues like roommates who complain they are too messy or who lock them out when a date stays overnight. ...
Photographs of an Episode That Lives in Infamy - N.Y. Times
During the winter of 1942, in the first heated months of America’s war with Japan, the United States government ordered tens of thousands of people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of them American citizens, to report to assembly centers throughout the West for transfer to internment camps.
...
... one man, Ichiro Shimoda, was so distraught he tried to commit suicide by biting off his own tongue. When that failed, he tried to asphyxiate himself. Finally he climbed a camp fence, and a guard shot him to death.
Another man, Kokubo Takara, died after being forced to stand in line in the rain as a disciplinary measure at Sand Island in Hawaii. At assembly points in Hawaii, Mr. Okihiro writes, some detainees were forced to strip naked and had their body cavities searched.
Upon arrival at the assembly centers — including the Tanforan Assembly Center in San Bruno, Calif., a former racetrack — the internees passed through two lines of soldiers with bayonets trained on them. Lange was not allowed to photograph the soldiers, but she did manage some stark images of the horse stalls where the families lived, pictures that are included in the book.
Lange photographed hospital patients in outdoor beds beside latrines, exposed to the elements; children neatly dressed for school, kneeling on the hard floor as they wrote in exercise books, because there were no benches or chairs.
...
Because they couldn’t bring their belongings with them, they were often forced to sell them to speculators at reduced prices. In harrowing images that uncomfortably echo the Nazi round-ups of Jews in Europe, Lange’s photographs document long, weaving lines of well-dressed people, numbered tags around their necks, patiently waiting to be processed and sent to unknown destinations. ...
During the winter of 1942, in the first heated months of America’s war with Japan, the United States government ordered tens of thousands of people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of them American citizens, to report to assembly centers throughout the West for transfer to internment camps.
...
... one man, Ichiro Shimoda, was so distraught he tried to commit suicide by biting off his own tongue. When that failed, he tried to asphyxiate himself. Finally he climbed a camp fence, and a guard shot him to death.
Another man, Kokubo Takara, died after being forced to stand in line in the rain as a disciplinary measure at Sand Island in Hawaii. At assembly points in Hawaii, Mr. Okihiro writes, some detainees were forced to strip naked and had their body cavities searched.
Upon arrival at the assembly centers — including the Tanforan Assembly Center in San Bruno, Calif., a former racetrack — the internees passed through two lines of soldiers with bayonets trained on them. Lange was not allowed to photograph the soldiers, but she did manage some stark images of the horse stalls where the families lived, pictures that are included in the book.
Lange photographed hospital patients in outdoor beds beside latrines, exposed to the elements; children neatly dressed for school, kneeling on the hard floor as they wrote in exercise books, because there were no benches or chairs.
...
Because they couldn’t bring their belongings with them, they were often forced to sell them to speculators at reduced prices. In harrowing images that uncomfortably echo the Nazi round-ups of Jews in Europe, Lange’s photographs document long, weaving lines of well-dressed people, numbered tags around their necks, patiently waiting to be processed and sent to unknown destinations. ...
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