Friday, March 30, 2007
Man chronicles his death by meth use - A.P.
35-year-old made documentary to warn others off highly addictive drug
... By his family’s account, Bridges already had died at least twice, his heart so damaged by years of using meth — a concoction that can include toxic chemicals such as battery acid, drain cleaner and fertilizer — that it stopped and had to be shocked back into beating.
The documentary shows Bridges mostly bedridden, his constant companions a catheter and feeding tube.
...
Family members have said Bridges had been haunted by the dreary day in 1976 when his younger brother Jason, barely a year old, died in a car wreck. Shawn was 4 and nowhere near the accident but still blamed himself, wanting to trade places with his dead sibling, his father said. ...
35-year-old made documentary to warn others off highly addictive drug
... By his family’s account, Bridges already had died at least twice, his heart so damaged by years of using meth — a concoction that can include toxic chemicals such as battery acid, drain cleaner and fertilizer — that it stopped and had to be shocked back into beating.
The documentary shows Bridges mostly bedridden, his constant companions a catheter and feeding tube.
...
Family members have said Bridges had been haunted by the dreary day in 1976 when his younger brother Jason, barely a year old, died in a car wreck. Shawn was 4 and nowhere near the accident but still blamed himself, wanting to trade places with his dead sibling, his father said. ...
New Hope for Amish children - Lancaster Online
Six months after tragedy, school will open Monday at Nickel Mines. Much has changed.
... Much of the new school is made of brick, not wood, and its large outhouse is largely brick. The schoolhouse has locks and a "panic bar" inside the front door. The building is of sturdy construction and can be secured against outside entry.
So why does a paved driveway lead to the front door?...
"The kids all - to a kid - remembered the shooter coming in and spinning tires with the gravel,'' he said this morning. "They wanted that not to be a possible event ever again.''
On the morning of Oct. 2, 2006, Charles Carl Roberts IV, who lived in nearby Georgetown, drove a pickup truck up the gravel drive of the old school.
He walked inside and drew a gun. He dismissed the teacher and other adults and all the boys. He lined up the girls, ages 6 to 13, and shot 10, killing five and seriously wounding the others. Then he killed himself before state police broke into the building. ...
***
According to a related A.P. story, Amish school in shooting rampage to reopen,
[the killer,] Charles Roberts, [was] apparently tormented by an unconfirmed memory of having molested relatives 20 years earlier, and by the 1997 death of his own infant daughter ...
Six months after tragedy, school will open Monday at Nickel Mines. Much has changed.
... Much of the new school is made of brick, not wood, and its large outhouse is largely brick. The schoolhouse has locks and a "panic bar" inside the front door. The building is of sturdy construction and can be secured against outside entry.
So why does a paved driveway lead to the front door?...
"The kids all - to a kid - remembered the shooter coming in and spinning tires with the gravel,'' he said this morning. "They wanted that not to be a possible event ever again.''
On the morning of Oct. 2, 2006, Charles Carl Roberts IV, who lived in nearby Georgetown, drove a pickup truck up the gravel drive of the old school.
He walked inside and drew a gun. He dismissed the teacher and other adults and all the boys. He lined up the girls, ages 6 to 13, and shot 10, killing five and seriously wounding the others. Then he killed himself before state police broke into the building. ...
***
According to a related A.P. story, Amish school in shooting rampage to reopen,
[the killer,] Charles Roberts, [was] apparently tormented by an unconfirmed memory of having molested relatives 20 years earlier, and by the 1997 death of his own infant daughter ...
Labels: murder
Prison torture should seal Gonzales' fate - Amy Goodman, syndicated columnist
The case of Australian David Hicks offers us a glimpse into the Kafkaesque netherworld of detentions, kidnappings, torture and show trials that is now, internationally, the shameful signature of the Bush administration.
...
He was subjected to repeated interrogations. He witnessed other prisoners being beaten and terrorized with dogs. He was at times kept in total darkness, at times in continual bright light (he has grown his hair to chest length so he can cover his eyes to allow him to sleep). He had no access to a lawyer for more than a year or knowledge of the charges against him. Others, those lucky enough to have lawyers or to have actually gotten out, tell similar tales of continual cold, of desecration of the Quran and of sexual humiliation designed specifically to torture Muslim men.
During his five years of detention, people fought for Hicks. His father, Terry Hicks, traveled to the U.S. He donned an orange jumpsuit, like his son was forced to wear, and stood in a 6-foot-by-8-foot cage on Broadway in New York while fielding questions from the media. ...
The case of Australian David Hicks offers us a glimpse into the Kafkaesque netherworld of detentions, kidnappings, torture and show trials that is now, internationally, the shameful signature of the Bush administration.
...
He was subjected to repeated interrogations. He witnessed other prisoners being beaten and terrorized with dogs. He was at times kept in total darkness, at times in continual bright light (he has grown his hair to chest length so he can cover his eyes to allow him to sleep). He had no access to a lawyer for more than a year or knowledge of the charges against him. Others, those lucky enough to have lawyers or to have actually gotten out, tell similar tales of continual cold, of desecration of the Quran and of sexual humiliation designed specifically to torture Muslim men.
During his five years of detention, people fought for Hicks. His father, Terry Hicks, traveled to the U.S. He donned an orange jumpsuit, like his son was forced to wear, and stood in a 6-foot-by-8-foot cage on Broadway in New York while fielding questions from the media. ...
Labels: suffering
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Ex-Issaquah star Kim Evanger: A young, extraordinary life cut short - Seattle P-I
... On March 17, Kim, who competed in triathlons and was an experienced cyclist, was riding her bike down a busy road when she fell and was run over by a passing semi truck. She died instantly, according to her father.
...
[At her service] her brother, David, spoke. He was watching college basketball at a sports bar in Dallas when his cell phone rang and he learned that his sister had been killed. He ran outside into an alley and broke down.
"Then a peace that is not of this earth came over me," he said. "I saw and I heard Kim talking to me."
David said she had a message: "She said, 'Do not question God. Do not ask why this happened.' She said, 'I know why this happened. There is a reason.'"
David, fighting through persistent tears, then looked up at the sanctuary.
"Every one of you is supposed to be here in this room," he said. "She told me, 'I need you to tell them to consider the condition of their own hearts. Just tell them to consider, to open their hearts to God.'"
It was the most moving expression of religious faith I've heard.
This is the most excruciating experience a family, even one with profound faith, can experience. Yet Kim's glowing presence nearly overcame it.
"She was a gift, even if God took her away early," Marc Evanger said.
That's the comfort for her family and friends.
That spark that she gave them, although it glowed far too briefly, has reignited inside them and eventually will burn away the black clouds that shroud their hearts.
And it will endure. [end]
... On March 17, Kim, who competed in triathlons and was an experienced cyclist, was riding her bike down a busy road when she fell and was run over by a passing semi truck. She died instantly, according to her father.
...
[At her service] her brother, David, spoke. He was watching college basketball at a sports bar in Dallas when his cell phone rang and he learned that his sister had been killed. He ran outside into an alley and broke down.
"Then a peace that is not of this earth came over me," he said. "I saw and I heard Kim talking to me."
David said she had a message: "She said, 'Do not question God. Do not ask why this happened.' She said, 'I know why this happened. There is a reason.'"
David, fighting through persistent tears, then looked up at the sanctuary.
"Every one of you is supposed to be here in this room," he said. "She told me, 'I need you to tell them to consider the condition of their own hearts. Just tell them to consider, to open their hearts to God.'"
It was the most moving expression of religious faith I've heard.
This is the most excruciating experience a family, even one with profound faith, can experience. Yet Kim's glowing presence nearly overcame it.
"She was a gift, even if God took her away early," Marc Evanger said.
That's the comfort for her family and friends.
That spark that she gave them, although it glowed far too briefly, has reignited inside them and eventually will burn away the black clouds that shroud their hearts.
And it will endure. [end]
With a Charity for Soldiers, Youths Make Recycling Pay - N.Y. Times
Two teenagers in Boston have raised $1 million for phone cards for American troops overseas by cashing in on used cellphones.
...
On Tuesday, the Bergquists opened an e-mail message — one of more than 50 they get most days — from Sgt. First Class Luis Arzadon, 42, of San Gabriel, Calif., a helicopter mechanic with an Army medevac unit in Iraq.
“I want to let you know that although we don’t know each other, I am extremely proud of you,” Sergeant Arzadon wrote, thanking Brittany and Robbie for helping him stay in touch with his wife and two sons. “I couldn’t do what you have done thus far in touching peoples lives.”
...
Three years later, the Bergquists’ recycling network spans more than 4,000 drop-off sites located in every state and in England, Canada and Japan, and yields some 20,000 cellphones a month, which fetch an average of $5 each from a Michigan recycling company that refurbishes them for resale. ...
Two teenagers in Boston have raised $1 million for phone cards for American troops overseas by cashing in on used cellphones.
...
On Tuesday, the Bergquists opened an e-mail message — one of more than 50 they get most days — from Sgt. First Class Luis Arzadon, 42, of San Gabriel, Calif., a helicopter mechanic with an Army medevac unit in Iraq.
“I want to let you know that although we don’t know each other, I am extremely proud of you,” Sergeant Arzadon wrote, thanking Brittany and Robbie for helping him stay in touch with his wife and two sons. “I couldn’t do what you have done thus far in touching peoples lives.”
...
Three years later, the Bergquists’ recycling network spans more than 4,000 drop-off sites located in every state and in England, Canada and Japan, and yields some 20,000 cellphones a month, which fetch an average of $5 each from a Michigan recycling company that refurbishes them for resale. ...
Labels: compassionate people
Living With Alzheimer’s Before a Window Closes - N.Y. Times
... Ms. Carver, 55, is among the growing ranks of people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, when short-term memory is patchy, organizational skills fail, attention wanders and initiative comes and goes. But there is still a window of opportunity — maybe one year, maybe five — to reason, communicate and go about her life with a bit of help from those around her.
Yet Ms. Carver is often lonely and bored. Her husband leaves her out of many dinner table conversations, both say, because she cannot keep up with the normal patter. He insists on buttoning her coat when she fumbles at the task. She was fired as a massage therapist because she lost track of time. So Ms. Carver fills her days by walking her neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, always with her dog, so she looks like “an ordinary person,” she said, not someone with “nothing better to do.” ...
... Ms. Carver, 55, is among the growing ranks of people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, when short-term memory is patchy, organizational skills fail, attention wanders and initiative comes and goes. But there is still a window of opportunity — maybe one year, maybe five — to reason, communicate and go about her life with a bit of help from those around her.
Yet Ms. Carver is often lonely and bored. Her husband leaves her out of many dinner table conversations, both say, because she cannot keep up with the normal patter. He insists on buttoning her coat when she fumbles at the task. She was fired as a massage therapist because she lost track of time. So Ms. Carver fills her days by walking her neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, always with her dog, so she looks like “an ordinary person,” she said, not someone with “nothing better to do.” ...
Labels: suffering
DNA links town's 3 abandoned babies - A.P.
The first newborn was discovered swaddled in a blanket on a park bench, an umbilical cord still hanging from his tiny body. Then, at neat 11-month intervals, two more abandoned babies were found in parked pickup trucks in the same neighborhood. ...
The first newborn was discovered swaddled in a blanket on a park bench, an umbilical cord still hanging from his tiny body. Then, at neat 11-month intervals, two more abandoned babies were found in parked pickup trucks in the same neighborhood. ...
Iraq's agony: 'Don't go out, they'll kill you' - International Herald Tribune
The two men showed up in the afternoon to evict Suaada Saadoun's family. One was carrying a shiny black pistol.
Saadoun was a Sunni Arab living in a Shiite enclave of western Baghdad. A widowed mother of seven, she and her family had been chased out once before. This time, she called the American and Kurdish soldiers at a base less than a mile to the east.
The men tried driving away, but the soldiers had blocked the street. They handcuffed the men.
"If anything happens to us, they're the ones responsible," said Saadoun, 49, a burly, boisterous woman in a black robe and lavender-blue head scarf.
The Americans shoved the men into a Humvee. Neighbors clapped as if their home soccer team had just won a season title.
The next morning, on Wednesday, Saadoun was shot and killed while walking by a bakery in the local market.
After the police took the body away, all that remained was a pool of blood, a bullet casing and one-half of Saadoun's set of false teeth.
The final hours of Saadoun's life reveal the ferocity with which Shiite militiamen are driving Sunni Arabs from Baghdad house by house, block by block, in an effort to homogenize the capital. ...
The two men showed up in the afternoon to evict Suaada Saadoun's family. One was carrying a shiny black pistol.
Saadoun was a Sunni Arab living in a Shiite enclave of western Baghdad. A widowed mother of seven, she and her family had been chased out once before. This time, she called the American and Kurdish soldiers at a base less than a mile to the east.
The men tried driving away, but the soldiers had blocked the street. They handcuffed the men.
"If anything happens to us, they're the ones responsible," said Saadoun, 49, a burly, boisterous woman in a black robe and lavender-blue head scarf.
The Americans shoved the men into a Humvee. Neighbors clapped as if their home soccer team had just won a season title.
The next morning, on Wednesday, Saadoun was shot and killed while walking by a bakery in the local market.
After the police took the body away, all that remained was a pool of blood, a bullet casing and one-half of Saadoun's set of false teeth.
The final hours of Saadoun's life reveal the ferocity with which Shiite militiamen are driving Sunni Arabs from Baghdad house by house, block by block, in an effort to homogenize the capital. ...
Labels: war
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Owner Says Dog Saved Her With 'Heimlich' - A.P.
Toby, a 2-year-old golden retriever, saw his owner choking on a piece of fruit and began jumping up and down on the woman's chest. The dog's owner believes the dog was trying to perform the Heimlich maneuver and saved her life.
...
That's when the apple dislodged and Toby started licking her face to keep her from passing out, she said.
"I literally have pawprint-shaped bruises on my chest. I'm still a little hoarse, but otherwise, I'm OK," Parkhurst said.
"The doctor said I probably wouldnt be here without Toby," said Parkhurst, a jewelry artist. "I keep looking at him and saying 'Youre amazing.'" ...
Toby, a 2-year-old golden retriever, saw his owner choking on a piece of fruit and began jumping up and down on the woman's chest. The dog's owner believes the dog was trying to perform the Heimlich maneuver and saved her life.
...
That's when the apple dislodged and Toby started licking her face to keep her from passing out, she said.
"I literally have pawprint-shaped bruises on my chest. I'm still a little hoarse, but otherwise, I'm OK," Parkhurst said.
"The doctor said I probably wouldnt be here without Toby," said Parkhurst, a jewelry artist. "I keep looking at him and saying 'Youre amazing.'" ...
Labels: animals
David Hicks: A young man in search of a cause - International Herald Tribune
David Hicks's journey through the post-Sept. 11 military legal labyrinth has sometimes seemed as uncertain and tortuous as his life's journey, from high school dropout and kangaroo skinner to a young man in search of a war and a cause.
Before he was captured in Afghanistan in December 2001, Hicks, then 25, could not seem to figure out what to do with his life.
How Hicks ended up with the Taliban is a mystery to his father, Terry, a printer, and his stepmother, Beverley, a house cleaner. "He was always in search of something, but God knows what," Hicks said in an interview four years ago. ...
David Hicks's journey through the post-Sept. 11 military legal labyrinth has sometimes seemed as uncertain and tortuous as his life's journey, from high school dropout and kangaroo skinner to a young man in search of a war and a cause.
Before he was captured in Afghanistan in December 2001, Hicks, then 25, could not seem to figure out what to do with his life.
How Hicks ended up with the Taliban is a mystery to his father, Terry, a printer, and his stepmother, Beverley, a house cleaner. "He was always in search of something, but God knows what," Hicks said in an interview four years ago. ...
2 senators' paths from Vietnam to Iraq - International Herald Tribune
Chuck Hagel spent 13 months as a grunt in the Mekong Delta in the deadliest period of the Vietnam War. He saw the horror of war from the bottom up — men sheared in half by explosives, half-decapitated by sniper fire, bleeding to death in the gloomy swelter of the jungle. Thirty years later, he came to believe he had been used.
John McCain was shot down 3,500 feet, or 1,065 meters, above Hanoi on a bombing run one month into his tour. He spent five and a half years as a prisoner of war; he was held in solitary confinement, tortured, beaten until he could not stand. An admiral's son, he came to believe, like many pilots, that the war could have been won if only it had been fought right.
...
Infantrymen patrolling populated areas came in regular contact with civilians, sometimes indistinguishable from enemy combatants. Hagel and his brother, Tom, who served with him, saw children with explosives taped inside their shirts, a woman in a rice field with a tripwire tied to her toe. Under the rules of engagement, U.S. soldiers who were fired on from a village could open fire or even call in an airstrike to obliterate it.
Hagel has described seeing a sniper take off the top of the head of a young captain crouching near him in a cemetery. A mine sheared off a fellow soldier at the hips. ...
Chuck Hagel spent 13 months as a grunt in the Mekong Delta in the deadliest period of the Vietnam War. He saw the horror of war from the bottom up — men sheared in half by explosives, half-decapitated by sniper fire, bleeding to death in the gloomy swelter of the jungle. Thirty years later, he came to believe he had been used.
John McCain was shot down 3,500 feet, or 1,065 meters, above Hanoi on a bombing run one month into his tour. He spent five and a half years as a prisoner of war; he was held in solitary confinement, tortured, beaten until he could not stand. An admiral's son, he came to believe, like many pilots, that the war could have been won if only it had been fought right.
...
Infantrymen patrolling populated areas came in regular contact with civilians, sometimes indistinguishable from enemy combatants. Hagel and his brother, Tom, who served with him, saw children with explosives taped inside their shirts, a woman in a rice field with a tripwire tied to her toe. Under the rules of engagement, U.S. soldiers who were fired on from a village could open fire or even call in an airstrike to obliterate it.
Hagel has described seeing a sniper take off the top of the head of a young captain crouching near him in a cemetery. A mine sheared off a fellow soldier at the hips. ...
Labels: war
Poor Somalis risk death to flee chaos - A.P.
Asha Igal walked into a bus station in Somalia's capital Wednesday and spent a year's savings on a ticket — the first step in a journey that she knows might kill her.
Her trip started with a four-day bus ride from the capital to northern Somalia, where she'll find a ride to the bustling port city of Bossaso. From there, she hopes to pay smugglers to ferry her in a crowded, rickety boat across the treacherous Gulf of Aden, and onward to richer Arab countries were she hopes to make new life.
Last week, at least 31 people died during a similar journey when smugglers trying to flee Yemeni security forced hundreds overboard in stormy seas. Survivors said those who resisted were beaten or stabbed. ...
Asha Igal walked into a bus station in Somalia's capital Wednesday and spent a year's savings on a ticket — the first step in a journey that she knows might kill her.
Her trip started with a four-day bus ride from the capital to northern Somalia, where she'll find a ride to the bustling port city of Bossaso. From there, she hopes to pay smugglers to ferry her in a crowded, rickety boat across the treacherous Gulf of Aden, and onward to richer Arab countries were she hopes to make new life.
Last week, at least 31 people died during a similar journey when smugglers trying to flee Yemeni security forced hundreds overboard in stormy seas. Survivors said those who resisted were beaten or stabbed. ...
Labels: suffering
Teenager Casts Light on a Shadowy Game - N.Y. Times
... What happened that October afternoon was that Levi passed out faster than he could react and suffered a heart attack, said his mother, Carrie. His brain was deprived of oxygen for more than three minutes.
Levi’s survival and recovery against the odds — three days in a coma followed by a regimen of antiseizure drugs that he still takes — have made him perhaps the first scared-straight, been-there-and-back spokesman against the choking game.
...
Some medical examiners and pediatricians are looking at the increased teenage suicide rate from suffocation over the last decade and questioning whether dozens of deaths listed as suicide might in fact have been accidental, the result of a choking game experience gone wrong.
...
Mentioning specific, narrow risks from the game, he said, like brain damage, medication and physical disfigurement can be even more powerful disincentives to adolescents than the idea of dying, which can seem theoretical or abstract. ...
... What happened that October afternoon was that Levi passed out faster than he could react and suffered a heart attack, said his mother, Carrie. His brain was deprived of oxygen for more than three minutes.
Levi’s survival and recovery against the odds — three days in a coma followed by a regimen of antiseizure drugs that he still takes — have made him perhaps the first scared-straight, been-there-and-back spokesman against the choking game.
...
Some medical examiners and pediatricians are looking at the increased teenage suicide rate from suffocation over the last decade and questioning whether dozens of deaths listed as suicide might in fact have been accidental, the result of a choking game experience gone wrong.
...
Mentioning specific, narrow risks from the game, he said, like brain damage, medication and physical disfigurement can be even more powerful disincentives to adolescents than the idea of dying, which can seem theoretical or abstract. ...
Monday, March 26, 2007
In Sierra Leone, still a tough dig for diamonds - International Herald Tribune
The tiny stone settled into the calloused grooves of Tambaki Kamanda’s palm, its dull yellow glint almost indiscernible even in the noontime glare.
It was the first stone he had found in days, and he expected to get little more than a dollar for it. It hardly seemed worth it, he said — after days spent up to his haunches in mud, digging, washing, searching the gravel for diamonds.
But farming had brought no money for clothes or schoolbooks for his two wives and five children. He could find no work as a mason.
...
Most days, diggers like Charles Kabia, a 25-year-old grade-school dropout who has been digging since the rebels forced him to mine as a teenager, come up empty - he has not found a stone in two months. That last diamond, a half-carat stone, went for about $65, which he split with his three partners. ...
The tiny stone settled into the calloused grooves of Tambaki Kamanda’s palm, its dull yellow glint almost indiscernible even in the noontime glare.
It was the first stone he had found in days, and he expected to get little more than a dollar for it. It hardly seemed worth it, he said — after days spent up to his haunches in mud, digging, washing, searching the gravel for diamonds.
But farming had brought no money for clothes or schoolbooks for his two wives and five children. He could find no work as a mason.
...
Most days, diggers like Charles Kabia, a 25-year-old grade-school dropout who has been digging since the rebels forced him to mine as a teenager, come up empty - he has not found a stone in two months. That last diamond, a half-carat stone, went for about $65, which he split with his three partners. ...
Labels: suffering
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Head Trip - N.Y. Times
The moment possessed that rare, rapturous feeling of a dream come true. Adam Greenberg knelt in the on-deck circle, awaiting his first at-bat in his first major-league game.
...
Then Greenberg stepped to home plate. ...
A major-league fastball takes less than half a second to travel the 60 feet 6 inches from a pitcher’s hand to home plate. This one was moving at 91 miles per hour, which isn’t particularly brisk as such things go. And yet the ball’s errant path toward Greenberg’s head seemed so utterly unavoidable that it was as if the pitch had been misaligned by some magnetic force, the foreknowledge of its menace allowing time for only the slightest twinge of fear.
As he instinctively spun away, Greenberg was hit behind the right ear, with part of the impact on his helmet and the rest on his skull. An imprint from the curved stitching of the baseball would remain stamped on his skin for days. His eyeballs floated upward, but he didn’t lose consciousness; in fact, he remained alert enough to worry for his life. He was sure his skull must have split open, and as he rolled on his back with his knees in the air, he held his head between his hands, trying to keep anything from leaking out.
...
Fate was in a nasty and perverse mood that evening, and that one throw of a baseball, that single amalgam of variables within the mechanics of pitching — the fingers exploring the braille of the ball’s raised thread, the hurried windmill movement of the arm, the angle of the launch, the density of the air, the deflection of spin as a smooth circle pushes through the emptiness — glided inches awry and changed everything. Adam Greenberg’s biggest moment lasted only a half second. ...
The moment possessed that rare, rapturous feeling of a dream come true. Adam Greenberg knelt in the on-deck circle, awaiting his first at-bat in his first major-league game.
...
Then Greenberg stepped to home plate. ...
A major-league fastball takes less than half a second to travel the 60 feet 6 inches from a pitcher’s hand to home plate. This one was moving at 91 miles per hour, which isn’t particularly brisk as such things go. And yet the ball’s errant path toward Greenberg’s head seemed so utterly unavoidable that it was as if the pitch had been misaligned by some magnetic force, the foreknowledge of its menace allowing time for only the slightest twinge of fear.
As he instinctively spun away, Greenberg was hit behind the right ear, with part of the impact on his helmet and the rest on his skull. An imprint from the curved stitching of the baseball would remain stamped on his skin for days. His eyeballs floated upward, but he didn’t lose consciousness; in fact, he remained alert enough to worry for his life. He was sure his skull must have split open, and as he rolled on his back with his knees in the air, he held his head between his hands, trying to keep anything from leaking out.
...
Fate was in a nasty and perverse mood that evening, and that one throw of a baseball, that single amalgam of variables within the mechanics of pitching — the fingers exploring the braille of the ball’s raised thread, the hurried windmill movement of the arm, the angle of the launch, the density of the air, the deflection of spin as a smooth circle pushes through the emptiness — glided inches awry and changed everything. Adam Greenberg’s biggest moment lasted only a half second. ...
Labels: karma
Teen killed at same spot as friend - A.P.
Youth hit by car at makeshift memorial for friend
A teenager was killed by a hit-and-run driver at the same spot where his 14-year-old friend had died in a car crash just hours earlier. ...
Youth hit by car at makeshift memorial for friend
A teenager was killed by a hit-and-run driver at the same spot where his 14-year-old friend had died in a car crash just hours earlier. ...
Labels: karma
Eritreans risk death in the Sahara - BBC News
... I was arrested for two years. Many many many people are just like me, they're arrested for nothing." Haile says he was beaten - "until I was nearly dead" is how he put it.
Finally, as he was being transported from one prison to another, he saw his chance. A group of prisoners made a bid for freedom. Some were rounded up. But Haile, who had served in the Eritrean army for 10 years, managed to escape.
Walking at night, he travelled west to the Sudanese border. Evading the patrols, he found a way across. There he was arrested by the Sudanese. They were looking for money.
...
Haile had family in Khartoum [Sudan], but even there he was not safe. Eritrean government agents came looking for him.
Fearing that he would be arrested or abducted, he got together with a group of seven others, and hired a truck to cross into Libya. At first it went well, but deep in the Sahara, the truck broke down.
...
Burying his three companions, Haile's only option was to remain by the truck in the scorching sun. Finally, on the fourth day, another truck appeared.
...
Hundreds of Eritreans are detained in the town. Those lucky enough to leave will try to make it to the coast before boarding a rickety boat to cross the Mediterranean. ...
... I was arrested for two years. Many many many people are just like me, they're arrested for nothing." Haile says he was beaten - "until I was nearly dead" is how he put it.
Finally, as he was being transported from one prison to another, he saw his chance. A group of prisoners made a bid for freedom. Some were rounded up. But Haile, who had served in the Eritrean army for 10 years, managed to escape.
Walking at night, he travelled west to the Sudanese border. Evading the patrols, he found a way across. There he was arrested by the Sudanese. They were looking for money.
...
Haile had family in Khartoum [Sudan], but even there he was not safe. Eritrean government agents came looking for him.
Fearing that he would be arrested or abducted, he got together with a group of seven others, and hired a truck to cross into Libya. At first it went well, but deep in the Sahara, the truck broke down.
...
Burying his three companions, Haile's only option was to remain by the truck in the scorching sun. Finally, on the fourth day, another truck appeared.
...
Hundreds of Eritreans are detained in the town. Those lucky enough to leave will try to make it to the coast before boarding a rickety boat to cross the Mediterranean. ...
Labels: suffering
Powered by positive thinking - Seattle Times
A concussion suffered during a football game turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to the former Huskies quarterback, changing his life and setting him on the path toward the baseball mound.
... There are hopefuls. There are optimists. Then there is Johnny DuRocher ... the Next Big Thing turned third-string quarterback turned brain-tumor survivor turned Washington baseball pitcher — all without a hint of anger or regret.
...
DuRocher played against Stanford last season, threw an interception and got knocked silly attempting a tackle, which led to a concussion and an MRI and the diagnosis of a brain tumor.
He only played because Isaiah Stanback and Carl Bonnell went down with injuries, and the Huskies decided not to waste a year of freshman Jake Locker's eligibility.
...
Then what happened? A couple weeks after surgery, somebody stole his Jeep, never to be found. The man upstairs has quite the sense of humor.
DuRocher can't help but marvel at the timing of it all. The tumor grew between when doctors found it and surgeons removed it. Had there been no concussion, symptoms would have surfaced within months — migraine headaches, loss of balance, changes in personality, possibly even brain damage. Had there been no MRI, DuRocher would not be playing baseball now. He would be having surgery, emergency variety.
"I'm extremely lucky," he says. ...
A concussion suffered during a football game turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to the former Huskies quarterback, changing his life and setting him on the path toward the baseball mound.
... There are hopefuls. There are optimists. Then there is Johnny DuRocher ... the Next Big Thing turned third-string quarterback turned brain-tumor survivor turned Washington baseball pitcher — all without a hint of anger or regret.
...
DuRocher played against Stanford last season, threw an interception and got knocked silly attempting a tackle, which led to a concussion and an MRI and the diagnosis of a brain tumor.
He only played because Isaiah Stanback and Carl Bonnell went down with injuries, and the Huskies decided not to waste a year of freshman Jake Locker's eligibility.
...
Then what happened? A couple weeks after surgery, somebody stole his Jeep, never to be found. The man upstairs has quite the sense of humor.
DuRocher can't help but marvel at the timing of it all. The tumor grew between when doctors found it and surgeons removed it. Had there been no concussion, symptoms would have surfaced within months — migraine headaches, loss of balance, changes in personality, possibly even brain damage. Had there been no MRI, DuRocher would not be playing baseball now. He would be having surgery, emergency variety.
"I'm extremely lucky," he says. ...
Labels: karma
Living with memories of the Capitol Hill tragedy - Seattle Times
Survivors and victims' families find strength in each other.
Tony Moulton won't go anyplace unless there are at least two exits.
Marc Verebely couldn't go to work without taking regular breaks to crumple in a corner and cry.
Becky Martin pictured her son bleeding in the living room.
Such is the legacy of the mass shooting one year ago today on Capitol Hill.
Troubled loner Kyle Huff, 28, had been invited to a late-night party thrown by Verebely, Moulton and three other roommates at 2112 Republican St. Huff left the party briefly then returned with an arsenal, systematically killing six people and wounding two others before turning the gun on himself.
...
Meanwhile, the victims' parents had their own brand of pain.
"People don't know how awful it is," Becky Martin said of losing Jeremy.
Jeremy's friends understood, though. So Becky Martin and Jeremy's friends turned to each other.
Admittedly, they weren't exactly Becky's type. She was religious and they were not. She was an ordinary-looking preschool teacher while some, like Verebely, had many piercings and tattoos. She lived quietly in Marysville with her 24-year-old daughter Katie. Jeremy's friends sometimes stayed up all night partying.
But immediately, she recalls, "they embraced Katie and me. We were glommed into this little huddle together to get strength from each other."
Martin made sure her son's friends sat with the family during Jeremy's funeral. "They took care of us, we took care of them," she said. "They were and still are in some ways like a family," she said. ...
Survivors and victims' families find strength in each other.
Tony Moulton won't go anyplace unless there are at least two exits.
Marc Verebely couldn't go to work without taking regular breaks to crumple in a corner and cry.
Becky Martin pictured her son bleeding in the living room.
Such is the legacy of the mass shooting one year ago today on Capitol Hill.
Troubled loner Kyle Huff, 28, had been invited to a late-night party thrown by Verebely, Moulton and three other roommates at 2112 Republican St. Huff left the party briefly then returned with an arsenal, systematically killing six people and wounding two others before turning the gun on himself.
...
Meanwhile, the victims' parents had their own brand of pain.
"People don't know how awful it is," Becky Martin said of losing Jeremy.
Jeremy's friends understood, though. So Becky Martin and Jeremy's friends turned to each other.
Admittedly, they weren't exactly Becky's type. She was religious and they were not. She was an ordinary-looking preschool teacher while some, like Verebely, had many piercings and tattoos. She lived quietly in Marysville with her 24-year-old daughter Katie. Jeremy's friends sometimes stayed up all night partying.
But immediately, she recalls, "they embraced Katie and me. We were glommed into this little huddle together to get strength from each other."
Martin made sure her son's friends sat with the family during Jeremy's funeral. "They took care of us, we took care of them," she said. "They were and still are in some ways like a family," she said. ...
Labels: grief
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Can You Live With the Voices in Your Head? - N.Y. Times
Angelo, a London-born scientist in his early 30s with sandy brown hair, round wire-frame glasses and a slight, unobtrusive stammer, vividly recalls the day he began to hear voices. It was Jan. 7, 2001, and he had recently passed his Ph.D. oral exams in chemistry at an American university, where, for the previous four and a half years, he conducted research into infrared electromagnetism. Angelo was walking home from the laboratory when, all of a sudden, he heard two voices in his head. “It was like hearing thoughts in my mind that were not mine,” he explained recently. “They identified themselves as Andrew and Oliver, two angels. ...
Angelo, a London-born scientist in his early 30s with sandy brown hair, round wire-frame glasses and a slight, unobtrusive stammer, vividly recalls the day he began to hear voices. It was Jan. 7, 2001, and he had recently passed his Ph.D. oral exams in chemistry at an American university, where, for the previous four and a half years, he conducted research into infrared electromagnetism. Angelo was walking home from the laboratory when, all of a sudden, he heard two voices in his head. “It was like hearing thoughts in my mind that were not mine,” he explained recently. “They identified themselves as Andrew and Oliver, two angels. ...
Labels: mental illness
On anniversary of Capitol Hillkillings, the pain lingers - Seattle P-I
As the city of Seattle prepares for a service remembering the victims of the Capitol Hill shootings a year ago, mourners have come together again, bonded through a single horrific act.
After her son went to a party and never came home, everything else changed. Her husband moved out. She stopped sleeping. She raged at God. But a year later, she still comes here -- her son's room -- to smell his clothes, his things.
On his birthday, she had packed balloons, his favorite sandwich and soda, and pictures to show him; his dog had had puppies. Then she picnicked alone at his gravesite, drenched in grief.
"It feels like it's been two weeks," Sandie Williamson said, weeping. "There's no way it's a year, because I'm hurting so much. He was my life." ...
As the city of Seattle prepares for a service remembering the victims of the Capitol Hill shootings a year ago, mourners have come together again, bonded through a single horrific act.
After her son went to a party and never came home, everything else changed. Her husband moved out. She stopped sleeping. She raged at God. But a year later, she still comes here -- her son's room -- to smell his clothes, his things.
On his birthday, she had packed balloons, his favorite sandwich and soda, and pictures to show him; his dog had had puppies. Then she picnicked alone at his gravesite, drenched in grief.
"It feels like it's been two weeks," Sandie Williamson said, weeping. "There's no way it's a year, because I'm hurting so much. He was my life." ...
Labels: grief
Friday, March 23, 2007
A brave few try returning to Baghdad homes - International Herald Tribune
When Hazim Said and his family returned to their house in southwestern Baghdad on March 1, two months after fleeing a murder and intimidation campaign by Sunni Arab insurgents, Said's wife and two sons collapsed to the floor in tears of joy and kissed the walls.
It mattered little that insurgents had looted the house of computers and other electronics and used it as a hide-out, or that most of his neighbors had taken flight and not returned, leaving their block empty and forlorn. They had their home back.
"The only thing I have is this house," Said, a 35-year-old Shiite minibus driver, said in Baghdad's Amil neighborhood, which for months has been a battleground between sectarian militias. "Without this house, I have nothing. That's the only way I can express it to you."
...
She tidied the house in preparation for her family's homecoming, and two days later she returned with her son and a car full of their belongings; her daughter and granddaughters were planning to arrive later. As they pulled up to the house, they saw a chilling message scrawled in red paint on the front wall: "Residents of this house, your blood is wanted. Leave."
"When I saw the handwriting on the wall, I became very scared and started to shake," she said. She decided to move back in with a niece in the Jihad neighborhood, where she remains with her family. "I don't know what to do now," she said. "I'm just crying and beating myself because I don't have any plans." ...
When Hazim Said and his family returned to their house in southwestern Baghdad on March 1, two months after fleeing a murder and intimidation campaign by Sunni Arab insurgents, Said's wife and two sons collapsed to the floor in tears of joy and kissed the walls.
It mattered little that insurgents had looted the house of computers and other electronics and used it as a hide-out, or that most of his neighbors had taken flight and not returned, leaving their block empty and forlorn. They had their home back.
"The only thing I have is this house," Said, a 35-year-old Shiite minibus driver, said in Baghdad's Amil neighborhood, which for months has been a battleground between sectarian militias. "Without this house, I have nothing. That's the only way I can express it to you."
...
She tidied the house in preparation for her family's homecoming, and two days later she returned with her son and a car full of their belongings; her daughter and granddaughters were planning to arrive later. As they pulled up to the house, they saw a chilling message scrawled in red paint on the front wall: "Residents of this house, your blood is wanted. Leave."
"When I saw the handwriting on the wall, I became very scared and started to shake," she said. She decided to move back in with a niece in the Jihad neighborhood, where she remains with her family. "I don't know what to do now," she said. "I'm just crying and beating myself because I don't have any plans." ...
Labels: war
Hawaii homeless family moves into mansion - A.P.
Japanese billionaire makes homes available to low-income families
Dorie-Ann Kahale and her five daughters moved from a homeless shelter to a mansion Thursday, courtesy of a Japanese real estate mogul who is handing over eight of his multimillion-dollar homes to low-income Native Hawaiian families.
...
Kahale became homeless two years ago when her landlord raised her rent from $800 to $1,200, putting the apartment beyond reach of her salary as customer service representative for Pacific LightNet, a telecommunications company. She first stayed with relatives, then moved to a shelter in September.
“What we need to do is appreciate,” Kahale said after getting the keys to her new house. “As fast as we got it, it could disappear.” ...
Japanese billionaire makes homes available to low-income families
Dorie-Ann Kahale and her five daughters moved from a homeless shelter to a mansion Thursday, courtesy of a Japanese real estate mogul who is handing over eight of his multimillion-dollar homes to low-income Native Hawaiian families.
...
Kahale became homeless two years ago when her landlord raised her rent from $800 to $1,200, putting the apartment beyond reach of her salary as customer service representative for Pacific LightNet, a telecommunications company. She first stayed with relatives, then moved to a shelter in September.
“What we need to do is appreciate,” Kahale said after getting the keys to her new house. “As fast as we got it, it could disappear.” ...
Labels: homeless
In Secret, Polygamy Follows Africans to N.Y. - N.Y. Times
... Aminata Kante, an immigrant from Ivory Coast who found help for herself and Ms. D. at Sanctuary for Families, an agency for battered women, uses her own story to urge rebellion.
Wed at 15 in Ivory Coast, over the telephone, to a New York City taxi driver thousands of miles away, Ms. Kante was delivered to her groom on a false passport. She said she endured his abuse for years, bore three children, turned over her paycheck from work as a health aide, and tried harder to appease him when he sent two of the children to Africa.
But something snapped, she said, when he announced that he had taken a teenage second wife, also married, just as she had been, over the phone — a valid wedding in Ivory Coast. Ms. Kante left him. Relatives pressed her to return. Uncles warned that she would be branded a bad woman, and that the stigma would follow her children in Africa. Without papers, vulnerable to deportation, she ended up in a homeless shelter.
But now, at 30, she tells the story in the warm glow of her own living room, her children restored to her, and a green card secured, through unusual legal efforts by lawyers at Sanctuary.
“I know a lady who lives with her husband and another woman in one room, a two-bedroom, with 11 kids,” she said. “I tell her, she has to move — it’s not a life.” And her own husband? His second wife is 23 now, with three children. And recently, Ms. Kante said, he married a third. ...
... Aminata Kante, an immigrant from Ivory Coast who found help for herself and Ms. D. at Sanctuary for Families, an agency for battered women, uses her own story to urge rebellion.
Wed at 15 in Ivory Coast, over the telephone, to a New York City taxi driver thousands of miles away, Ms. Kante was delivered to her groom on a false passport. She said she endured his abuse for years, bore three children, turned over her paycheck from work as a health aide, and tried harder to appease him when he sent two of the children to Africa.
But something snapped, she said, when he announced that he had taken a teenage second wife, also married, just as she had been, over the phone — a valid wedding in Ivory Coast. Ms. Kante left him. Relatives pressed her to return. Uncles warned that she would be branded a bad woman, and that the stigma would follow her children in Africa. Without papers, vulnerable to deportation, she ended up in a homeless shelter.
But now, at 30, she tells the story in the warm glow of her own living room, her children restored to her, and a green card secured, through unusual legal efforts by lawyers at Sanctuary.
“I know a lady who lives with her husband and another woman in one room, a two-bedroom, with 11 kids,” she said. “I tell her, she has to move — it’s not a life.” And her own husband? His second wife is 23 now, with three children. And recently, Ms. Kante said, he married a third. ...
Alive in Baghdad
"Citizen journalism is gaining ground in dangerous places. Last month the website won a crop of 'Vloggie' industry awards for showing the human face behind Iraq's daily toll of deaths and kidnappings. [That Web site also has links to blogs about life in Iraq.] ... These range from a piece on family men trying to protect their neighbourhood from death squads, to an interview with car bomb survivors." [description from BBC News]
"Citizen journalism is gaining ground in dangerous places. Last month the website won a crop of 'Vloggie' industry awards for showing the human face behind Iraq's daily toll of deaths and kidnappings. [That Web site also has links to blogs about life in Iraq.] ... These range from a piece on family men trying to protect their neighbourhood from death squads, to an interview with car bomb survivors." [description from BBC News]
Labels: war
14-year survivor is living proof cancer can be fought - Seattle P-I
Cancer, even when it has spread, doesn't necessarily mean nothing can be done. Ann Wolz, whose cancer recurred in the same manner as Elizabeth Edwards, has lived with it for years.
Ann Bisgyer Wolz was 38 when breast cancer came into her life.
Two lumpectomies, chemotherapy, radiation, two mastectomies, skin transplants, tumor surgery, more radiation and 14 years later, she's still going strong.
...
"Things have changed. Cancer isn't a kiss of death. You live a good life, with a good quality of life. It's not to say it's not scary, and yes, I'll probably die of this disease, but my husband and I have tried to keep a balance with it. Nobody has any guarantees," Wolz said. ...
Cancer, even when it has spread, doesn't necessarily mean nothing can be done. Ann Wolz, whose cancer recurred in the same manner as Elizabeth Edwards, has lived with it for years.
Ann Bisgyer Wolz was 38 when breast cancer came into her life.
Two lumpectomies, chemotherapy, radiation, two mastectomies, skin transplants, tumor surgery, more radiation and 14 years later, she's still going strong.
...
"Things have changed. Cancer isn't a kiss of death. You live a good life, with a good quality of life. It's not to say it's not scary, and yes, I'll probably die of this disease, but my husband and I have tried to keep a balance with it. Nobody has any guarantees," Wolz said. ...
Labels: cancer
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Letter From Israel: Israel's soldiers engage in some soul searching - International Herald Tribune
... Manekin, who was a first lieutenant, is the director of Breaking the Silence, a group of former soldiers, shocked at their own misconduct and that of others, who have gathered to collect their stories and bear witness. Since 2004, the group has collected testimonies from nearly 400 soldiers (in English, http://www.shovrimshtika.org/articles_e.asp).
He spoke of how some soldiers humiliate or beat Palestinians to keep crowds in line, how soldiers are taught to be aggressive, but how most behave within decent moral limits — and of how the fear that hundreds of people could erupt in anger wears at the soul and turns young men callous. ...
... Manekin, who was a first lieutenant, is the director of Breaking the Silence, a group of former soldiers, shocked at their own misconduct and that of others, who have gathered to collect their stories and bear witness. Since 2004, the group has collected testimonies from nearly 400 soldiers (in English, http://www.shovrimshtika.org/articles_e.asp).
He spoke of how some soldiers humiliate or beat Palestinians to keep crowds in line, how soldiers are taught to be aggressive, but how most behave within decent moral limits — and of how the fear that hundreds of people could erupt in anger wears at the soul and turns young men callous. ...
Husband says shooting was an accident - MSNBC
McLean ‘sorry’ for killing student involved with his wife
... “Why not leave her?” [the interviewer] asked.
“I just couldn’t leave her,” McLean replied.
“Explain that. Why not?”
“Cuz I love her,” McLean said, breaking down.
...
Talking of his sons, he broke down again as he said, “I love them. And I hope I see them again some time, some day. I think about them all the time.”
Thoughts of Powell and his family also torture Eric McLean: “Every day, like, I think — I think about Sean's family and I just feel really horrible ... and I just wish that none of this had happened. It's just a total disaster.”
Observed [the interviewer] in the TODAY studio after the taped interview had run:
“This man who wanted to keep his family together and not get a divorce has guaranteed that his family will be shattered forever.” [end]
McLean ‘sorry’ for killing student involved with his wife
... “Why not leave her?” [the interviewer] asked.
“I just couldn’t leave her,” McLean replied.
“Explain that. Why not?”
“Cuz I love her,” McLean said, breaking down.
...
Talking of his sons, he broke down again as he said, “I love them. And I hope I see them again some time, some day. I think about them all the time.”
Thoughts of Powell and his family also torture Eric McLean: “Every day, like, I think — I think about Sean's family and I just feel really horrible ... and I just wish that none of this had happened. It's just a total disaster.”
Observed [the interviewer] in the TODAY studio after the taped interview had run:
“This man who wanted to keep his family together and not get a divorce has guaranteed that his family will be shattered forever.” [end]
Labels: attachment
On Hit Lists, Anger Finds an Outlet - N.Y. Times
TWO teenagers in Jonesboro, Ark., were overheard at a party last month bragging about a “hit list” and their plans to take a gun to school and use it on their enemies.
...
No hit list was found, but in other cases at schools across the country, hit lists have fallen out of lockers, been scrawled on bathroom walls and have made the rounds like hot gossip among teenagers in Web videos and on blogs.
For reasons that are largely unclear to the authorities, the lists have gained toxic traction with a sub-set of students even as rates of school violence have dropped significantly since the early 1990s. Education and law enforcement officials say it is hard to know in any given case whether students write the lists as an actual blueprint for deadly action or to simply attract attention, amuse themselves, act out bravado or bully other students.
...
The lists are typically long and often include gradations in the level of hate expressed, such as “to kill,” “to hurt” or “to knock out cold.” Sometimes the lists include the names of the students to be protected should schoolwide mayhem erupt. ...
TWO teenagers in Jonesboro, Ark., were overheard at a party last month bragging about a “hit list” and their plans to take a gun to school and use it on their enemies.
...
No hit list was found, but in other cases at schools across the country, hit lists have fallen out of lockers, been scrawled on bathroom walls and have made the rounds like hot gossip among teenagers in Web videos and on blogs.
For reasons that are largely unclear to the authorities, the lists have gained toxic traction with a sub-set of students even as rates of school violence have dropped significantly since the early 1990s. Education and law enforcement officials say it is hard to know in any given case whether students write the lists as an actual blueprint for deadly action or to simply attract attention, amuse themselves, act out bravado or bully other students.
...
The lists are typically long and often include gradations in the level of hate expressed, such as “to kill,” “to hurt” or “to knock out cold.” Sometimes the lists include the names of the students to be protected should schoolwide mayhem erupt. ...
Labels: anger
Betrayed: The Iraqis who trusted America the most - The New Yorker [long article]
... Othman was Sunni, Laith was Shiite.
It had taken Othman three days to get to the hotel from his house, in western Baghdad. On the way, he was trapped for two nights at his sister’s house, which was in an ethnically mixed neighborhood: gun battles had broken out between Sunni and Shiite militiamen. Othman watched the home of his sister’s neighbor, a Sunni, burn to the ground. Shiite militiamen scrawled the words “Leave or else” on the doors of Sunni houses. Othman was able to leave the house only because his sister’s husband—a Shiite, who was known to the local Shia militias—escorted him out. Othman took a taxi to the house of Laith’s grandfather; from there, he and Laith went to the Palestine [Hotel], where they enjoyed their first hot water in several weeks.
They had a strong friendship, based on a shared desire. Before the war, they had both longed for the arrival of the Americans, expecting them to change their lives. They had told each other that they would try to work with the foreigners. Othman and Laith were both secular, and despised the extremist militias on each side of Iraq’s civil war, but the ethnic conflict had led them increasingly to quarrel, to the point that one of them—usually Laith—would refuse to speak to the other.
...
“This is what always calmed me down,” Firas said. “I saw Americans who understand me, trust me, believe me, love me. This is what always kept my rage under control and kept my hope alive.” ...
... Othman was Sunni, Laith was Shiite.
It had taken Othman three days to get to the hotel from his house, in western Baghdad. On the way, he was trapped for two nights at his sister’s house, which was in an ethnically mixed neighborhood: gun battles had broken out between Sunni and Shiite militiamen. Othman watched the home of his sister’s neighbor, a Sunni, burn to the ground. Shiite militiamen scrawled the words “Leave or else” on the doors of Sunni houses. Othman was able to leave the house only because his sister’s husband—a Shiite, who was known to the local Shia militias—escorted him out. Othman took a taxi to the house of Laith’s grandfather; from there, he and Laith went to the Palestine [Hotel], where they enjoyed their first hot water in several weeks.
They had a strong friendship, based on a shared desire. Before the war, they had both longed for the arrival of the Americans, expecting them to change their lives. They had told each other that they would try to work with the foreigners. Othman and Laith were both secular, and despised the extremist militias on each side of Iraq’s civil war, but the ethnic conflict had led them increasingly to quarrel, to the point that one of them—usually Laith—would refuse to speak to the other.
...
“This is what always calmed me down,” Firas said. “I saw Americans who understand me, trust me, believe me, love me. This is what always kept my rage under control and kept my hope alive.” ...
Labels: war
A deadly cancer, a winning fight - Seattle P-I
A dose of naturopathy gives man a second chance at life
The paramedics wheeled him in on a stretcher, weak, pale and barely alive.
After five months, the most evil of all cancers was about to declare victory. His pancreas was riddled with the disease, and tumors had spread to the liver and other surrounding organs.
His doctor predicted he would be dead within weeks.
Aaron Barrett, just 35 years old, sought one last treatment. The paramedics deposited Barrett's thin body into a bed at the Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center. There, his new treatment began.
It was largely untested, and controversial.
...
Barrett received chemotherapy from the end of January 2005 through last August and progressed from being bedridden to sitting up in a wheelchair, to using a walker, to walking with a cane.
Now, 2 1/2 years after his initial diagnosis, Barrett is alive, walking on his own and virtually cancer free, Chue said. The 10-centimeter tumor in his liver has shrunk to 2 centimeters. All other tumors in his pancreas and other organs are gone. ...
A dose of naturopathy gives man a second chance at life
The paramedics wheeled him in on a stretcher, weak, pale and barely alive.
After five months, the most evil of all cancers was about to declare victory. His pancreas was riddled with the disease, and tumors had spread to the liver and other surrounding organs.
His doctor predicted he would be dead within weeks.
Aaron Barrett, just 35 years old, sought one last treatment. The paramedics deposited Barrett's thin body into a bed at the Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center. There, his new treatment began.
It was largely untested, and controversial.
...
Barrett received chemotherapy from the end of January 2005 through last August and progressed from being bedridden to sitting up in a wheelchair, to using a walker, to walking with a cane.
Now, 2 1/2 years after his initial diagnosis, Barrett is alive, walking on his own and virtually cancer free, Chue said. The 10-centimeter tumor in his liver has shrunk to 2 centimeters. All other tumors in his pancreas and other organs are gone. ...
Labels: cancer
Slain daughter adds to father's torment - Seattle P-I columnist Robert Jamieson
He lost his ability to walk. He lost his life partner. Now he has just lost his daughter to murder. But his faith in the investigators and a higher power are getting him through it all.
... On March 9, Lorentson's 24-year-old daughter, Merianne Elizabeth Lorentson, a single mom, was found stabbed to death in her apartment. ...
Her killing comes after Lorentson lost his wife of 35 years to cancer in June. As she battled the disease, Lorentson's son, Michael, 30, struggled with alcohol and drug addiction. The young man, now in his third year of sobriety, vows not to relapse as he grapples with his sister's death.
...
Having lost his wife and daughter in nine months, he wonders, "Why?"
His unshakable Episcopalian faith -- and friends and family within and outside the church -- offer comfort. Lorentson believes God is using him to show the importance of holding onto one's faith through hard times. He refuses to curse the heavens. ...
He lost his ability to walk. He lost his life partner. Now he has just lost his daughter to murder. But his faith in the investigators and a higher power are getting him through it all.
... On March 9, Lorentson's 24-year-old daughter, Merianne Elizabeth Lorentson, a single mom, was found stabbed to death in her apartment. ...
Her killing comes after Lorentson lost his wife of 35 years to cancer in June. As she battled the disease, Lorentson's son, Michael, 30, struggled with alcohol and drug addiction. The young man, now in his third year of sobriety, vows not to relapse as he grapples with his sister's death.
...
Having lost his wife and daughter in nine months, he wonders, "Why?"
His unshakable Episcopalian faith -- and friends and family within and outside the church -- offer comfort. Lorentson believes God is using him to show the importance of holding onto one's faith through hard times. He refuses to curse the heavens. ...
Labels: faith, murder, suffering
Where Doctors Go Wrong - Time Magazine
... For Harvard hematologist Jerome Groopman, who is a friend of the child's parents, the missed diagnosis was more than just a cautionary tale. It was the start of an investigative journey. "People talk about technical errors in medicine, but no one talks about thinking errors," he explains in an interview. "I realized I had no framework for understanding these kinds of problems."
For the next three years--in addition to seeing patients and doing research, plus his gig as a staff writer for the New Yorker--Groopman began to intensively examine how doctors think and how they get sidetracked from the truth. He learned that about 80% of medical mistakes are the result of predictable mental traps ...
The result of Groopman's journey is How Doctors Think (Houghton Mifflin; 307 pages), an engagingly written book that is must reading for every physician who cares for patients and every patient who wishes to get the best care. ...
... For Harvard hematologist Jerome Groopman, who is a friend of the child's parents, the missed diagnosis was more than just a cautionary tale. It was the start of an investigative journey. "People talk about technical errors in medicine, but no one talks about thinking errors," he explains in an interview. "I realized I had no framework for understanding these kinds of problems."
For the next three years--in addition to seeing patients and doing research, plus his gig as a staff writer for the New Yorker--Groopman began to intensively examine how doctors think and how they get sidetracked from the truth. He learned that about 80% of medical mistakes are the result of predictable mental traps ...
The result of Groopman's journey is How Doctors Think (Houghton Mifflin; 307 pages), an engagingly written book that is must reading for every physician who cares for patients and every patient who wishes to get the best care. ...
Labels: understanding the mind
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Dad: ‘Homesick’ Boy Scout strayed from troop - A.P.
Tent mate says boy, 12, lost in N.C. mountains wanted to hitchhike home
The 12-year-old Boy Scout who survived on creek water for four days alone in the North Carolina mountains had told his tent mate before wandering off to try to hitchhike home that he didn’t want to go on camping trips anymore, a fellow Scout said Wednesday.
...
Once rescued, the first thing he said to searchers was that “he wanted a helicopter ride out of there,” said Blue Ridge Parkway ranger David Bauer.
...
[His dad] said Michael had been a bit reluctant to go on the trip. The boy had asked his dad if he would give him $5 if he didn’t have a good time. Auberry said he assured his son that if he wasn’t happy on the trip, they would do something fun together the next day.
After the rescue, Kent Auberry said: “To have our son back is a tremendous blessing.” But he offered a plea from Michael about making up his sixth-grade schoolwork.
“He’s worried about make-up work in Miss Self’s class,” Auberry said. “So if Miss Self could cut him a break, he would be very, very grateful.”...
Tent mate says boy, 12, lost in N.C. mountains wanted to hitchhike home
The 12-year-old Boy Scout who survived on creek water for four days alone in the North Carolina mountains had told his tent mate before wandering off to try to hitchhike home that he didn’t want to go on camping trips anymore, a fellow Scout said Wednesday.
...
Once rescued, the first thing he said to searchers was that “he wanted a helicopter ride out of there,” said Blue Ridge Parkway ranger David Bauer.
...
[His dad] said Michael had been a bit reluctant to go on the trip. The boy had asked his dad if he would give him $5 if he didn’t have a good time. Auberry said he assured his son that if he wasn’t happy on the trip, they would do something fun together the next day.
After the rescue, Kent Auberry said: “To have our son back is a tremendous blessing.” But he offered a plea from Michael about making up his sixth-grade schoolwork.
“He’s worried about make-up work in Miss Self’s class,” Auberry said. “So if Miss Self could cut him a break, he would be very, very grateful.”...
In South Korea, tying the knot has plenty of strings attached - International Herald Tribune
When two young television stars called it quits only 12 days after their recent wedding, their very public and acrimonious divorce shone a rare spotlight on the underside of marriage in South Korea.
Lying in a hospital bed with a broken nose, Lee Min Young accused her husband, Lee Chan, of domestic violence, causing much hand-wringing in the country's media and blogosphere. But as accusations and counteraccusations flew, an equally heated debate arose over another reason cited for the breakup: wedding gifts.
According to accounts in the South Korean media, the bridegroom's father said he received a gold-plated spoon among the gifts from the bride's family, but said he merited at least a silver spoon. The bride's mother, in turn, complained bitterly that her daughter deserved to live in a more spacious apartment than the one chosen by the bridegroom.
The divorce showed how, perhaps more than ever, choosing the right wedding gifts for the new in-laws is fraught with pitfalls in South Korea. Shop for a plasma television set that is too small, and the bride's family risks offending the bridegroom's family. Other misjudgments can lead to strained relations between the two families or, at its extreme, a premature divorce....
When two young television stars called it quits only 12 days after their recent wedding, their very public and acrimonious divorce shone a rare spotlight on the underside of marriage in South Korea.
Lying in a hospital bed with a broken nose, Lee Min Young accused her husband, Lee Chan, of domestic violence, causing much hand-wringing in the country's media and blogosphere. But as accusations and counteraccusations flew, an equally heated debate arose over another reason cited for the breakup: wedding gifts.
According to accounts in the South Korean media, the bridegroom's father said he received a gold-plated spoon among the gifts from the bride's family, but said he merited at least a silver spoon. The bride's mother, in turn, complained bitterly that her daughter deserved to live in a more spacious apartment than the one chosen by the bridegroom.
The divorce showed how, perhaps more than ever, choosing the right wedding gifts for the new in-laws is fraught with pitfalls in South Korea. Shop for a plasma television set that is too small, and the bride's family risks offending the bridegroom's family. Other misjudgments can lead to strained relations between the two families or, at its extreme, a premature divorce....
Labels: attachment
Are ya kidding me?! No complaints for 21 days - MSNBC
We all complain, right? It’s just human nature. But a few months ago, the pastor of a Kansas City church told the people in his congregation he wanted them to break that habit.
“The one thing we can agree on,” said the Reverend Will Bowen of Christ Church Unity, “is there’s too much complaining.”
And so he asked his flock to take a pledge: to swear off complaining, criticizing, gossiping or using sarcasm for 21 days. The Rev. Bowen said the inspiration for the no-complaints campaign came to him while taking a shower. And now, the idea has begun to spread far beyond middle America.
People who join in are issued little purple bracelets as a reminder of their pledge. If they catch themselves complaining, they’re supposed to take off the bracelet, switch it to the opposite wrist and start counting the days from scratch.
And now that the church has been written up in several publications, the campaign has mushroomed. On Saturdays, volunteers crowd the church basement filling orders for the no-complaints bracelets, 126,000 so far. ...
We all complain, right? It’s just human nature. But a few months ago, the pastor of a Kansas City church told the people in his congregation he wanted them to break that habit.
“The one thing we can agree on,” said the Reverend Will Bowen of Christ Church Unity, “is there’s too much complaining.”
And so he asked his flock to take a pledge: to swear off complaining, criticizing, gossiping or using sarcasm for 21 days. The Rev. Bowen said the inspiration for the no-complaints campaign came to him while taking a shower. And now, the idea has begun to spread far beyond middle America.
People who join in are issued little purple bracelets as a reminder of their pledge. If they catch themselves complaining, they’re supposed to take off the bracelet, switch it to the opposite wrist and start counting the days from scratch.
And now that the church has been written up in several publications, the campaign has mushroomed. On Saturdays, volunteers crowd the church basement filling orders for the no-complaints bracelets, 126,000 so far. ...
Supplement helps paralysed boy - BBC News
A boy paralysed from the neck down for five years is regaining movement thanks to a nutritonal supplement.
Timothy Bingham's condition was so rare that it was dubbed 'Bingham's syndrome'.
...
Problems first occurred when Timothy was two, when a flu-like illness left him temporarily unable to walk.
Three years later, he suffered another bout of flu and lost control of the whole of his body.
Timothy has been in a wheelchair ever since, and has only been able to communicate through eye movements. ...
A boy paralysed from the neck down for five years is regaining movement thanks to a nutritonal supplement.
Timothy Bingham's condition was so rare that it was dubbed 'Bingham's syndrome'.
...
Problems first occurred when Timothy was two, when a flu-like illness left him temporarily unable to walk.
Three years later, he suffered another bout of flu and lost control of the whole of his body.
Timothy has been in a wheelchair ever since, and has only been able to communicate through eye movements. ...
Surviving life in a Baghdad ER - BBC News
... The nature of the injuries brought into the Emergency Room have changed over time, from the rocket injuries and bullet wounds related to the 2003 US-led invasion, through the revenge killings in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein's fall, to the stabbings of petty crime in the increasingly unstable Iraqi capital.
After that came the bombings and the sectarian violence which grew markedly after the attack on a major Shia shrine in February this year.
Most recently he says, bodies have been dumped in front of the hospital by security forces - between 20 and 40 daily - because the city's central morgue is full.
The bodies have "their hands tied, their faces are covered, some have been executed by being shot in the head; some have been beheaded, tortured or disembowelled".
...
The doctor speaks of insurgents coming on "special missions" to kidnap Sunni patients in retaliation for sectarian attacks against Shia civilians. ...
... The nature of the injuries brought into the Emergency Room have changed over time, from the rocket injuries and bullet wounds related to the 2003 US-led invasion, through the revenge killings in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein's fall, to the stabbings of petty crime in the increasingly unstable Iraqi capital.
After that came the bombings and the sectarian violence which grew markedly after the attack on a major Shia shrine in February this year.
Most recently he says, bodies have been dumped in front of the hospital by security forces - between 20 and 40 daily - because the city's central morgue is full.
The bodies have "their hands tied, their faces are covered, some have been executed by being shot in the head; some have been beheaded, tortured or disembowelled".
...
The doctor speaks of insurgents coming on "special missions" to kidnap Sunni patients in retaliation for sectarian attacks against Shia civilians. ...
Labels: war
Resisting the Nazis from a shed - BBC
Chris Bowlby explains how, for his wife's grandfather, his garden was a place of peace and defiance amid the turmoil of German history.
...
... when the Nazis took power in the 1930s he waged from his potting sheds his own courageous resistance, until the Gestapo came trampling in and forced him to dig up the typewriter that had been buried in a flower bed, on which he had been writing anti-Nazi leaflets.
He was sent to prison and threatened with execution.
But this indomitable handyman, desperate for freedom and the outdoor life he adored, had a metal file smuggled into prison inside a cake, and sawed away at the window bars of his cell in the night until he could escape and walk across the mountains to Czechoslovakia and Poland to eventual wartime exile in Britain.
...
We were sitting once in his home in 1990, when we heard loud banging from the flat above. Herbert went to see what was happening and returned pale and speechless. His neighbour had used his balcony - the sort of balcony Herbert filled with plants - to erect a huge German nationalist flag. Herbert had last seen such flags amid the chaos of the collapsing Weimar Republic as the Nazis took power, and now they threatened to loom over his old age as the political far right revived. ...
Chris Bowlby explains how, for his wife's grandfather, his garden was a place of peace and defiance amid the turmoil of German history.
...
... when the Nazis took power in the 1930s he waged from his potting sheds his own courageous resistance, until the Gestapo came trampling in and forced him to dig up the typewriter that had been buried in a flower bed, on which he had been writing anti-Nazi leaflets.
He was sent to prison and threatened with execution.
But this indomitable handyman, desperate for freedom and the outdoor life he adored, had a metal file smuggled into prison inside a cake, and sawed away at the window bars of his cell in the night until he could escape and walk across the mountains to Czechoslovakia and Poland to eventual wartime exile in Britain.
...
We were sitting once in his home in 1990, when we heard loud banging from the flat above. Herbert went to see what was happening and returned pale and speechless. His neighbour had used his balcony - the sort of balcony Herbert filled with plants - to erect a huge German nationalist flag. Herbert had last seen such flags amid the chaos of the collapsing Weimar Republic as the Nazis took power, and now they threatened to loom over his old age as the political far right revived. ...
When vodka is your poison - BBC News
Thousands of Russians may have been poisoned by bootleg alcohol containing medical disinfectant causing drinkers' skin to turn yellow before they fall dangerously ill or die.
...
Natasha is not yet 30, she's got a seven-year-old boy called Maxim and she has less than a year to live.
Her whole body has gone yellow - an instantly recognisable feature of toxic hepatitis.
Something has destroyed her liver and now all the natural toxins in the body are stacking up.
Her own body is poisoning her and there is nothing medicine - or at least nothing state medicine in Russia - can do about it.
Natasha and everyone else in the hospital corridors had bought samogon, moonshine, as usual - but something had been added to it. ...
Thousands of Russians may have been poisoned by bootleg alcohol containing medical disinfectant causing drinkers' skin to turn yellow before they fall dangerously ill or die.
...
Natasha is not yet 30, she's got a seven-year-old boy called Maxim and she has less than a year to live.
Her whole body has gone yellow - an instantly recognisable feature of toxic hepatitis.
Something has destroyed her liver and now all the natural toxins in the body are stacking up.
Her own body is poisoning her and there is nothing medicine - or at least nothing state medicine in Russia - can do about it.
Natasha and everyone else in the hospital corridors had bought samogon, moonshine, as usual - but something had been added to it. ...
Labels: suffering
Iran's desperate kidney traders - BBC
On streets and in town squares in Iran, young men and women can be seen holding signs offering their kidneys for sale.
One man wishes to sell because his child has been burned in a fire and he needs the cash for an urgent operation. ...
A third shouts: "They want it practically for free. They think I'm selling meat."
Their desperation is obvious.
...
Mehrdad is 23 years old and in deep financial trouble.
Two years ago he was working in the construction industry, had a stable income and was planning to get married.
But just after his wedding he lost his job and his attempts to find a new one were fruitless.
The debts from his wedding were still unpaid and the pile of unpaid rent bills kept growing.
Desperate, he decided he would sell a kidney, hoping to receive around $7,500 (£4,000) for it.
At the clinic Mehrdad was told that the number of sellers had increased so drastically over the past year that prices had plummeted, and unfortunately for him he is blood type A, one of the most common... driving the price even lower.
He was told the most he could expect was $3,700 (£2,000). ...
On streets and in town squares in Iran, young men and women can be seen holding signs offering their kidneys for sale.
One man wishes to sell because his child has been burned in a fire and he needs the cash for an urgent operation. ...
A third shouts: "They want it practically for free. They think I'm selling meat."
Their desperation is obvious.
...
Mehrdad is 23 years old and in deep financial trouble.
Two years ago he was working in the construction industry, had a stable income and was planning to get married.
But just after his wedding he lost his job and his attempts to find a new one were fruitless.
The debts from his wedding were still unpaid and the pile of unpaid rent bills kept growing.
Desperate, he decided he would sell a kidney, hoping to receive around $7,500 (£4,000) for it.
At the clinic Mehrdad was told that the number of sellers had increased so drastically over the past year that prices had plummeted, and unfortunately for him he is blood type A, one of the most common... driving the price even lower.
He was told the most he could expect was $3,700 (£2,000). ...
Labels: suffering
Ghana's illegal abortions - BBC News
... [Gloria] lives in a village two hours from the capital Accra. She has had two abortions in two years, but told nobody because she is afraid she will be thrown out of the community.
So she resorted to what she calls "traditional methods" to end the pregnancies.
She used a mixture of broken glass ground up with seawater and washing detergent, which she inserted into her uterus.
Gloria has been left in constant pain and will not see a doctor. ...
... [Gloria] lives in a village two hours from the capital Accra. She has had two abortions in two years, but told nobody because she is afraid she will be thrown out of the community.
So she resorted to what she calls "traditional methods" to end the pregnancies.
She used a mixture of broken glass ground up with seawater and washing detergent, which she inserted into her uterus.
Gloria has been left in constant pain and will not see a doctor. ...
Labels: suffering
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Less than dogs - BBC News
Haiti's abandoned children face a slave-like existence
Jeanette is walking up a hill in Petionville, a district in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. She is carrying a huge blue drum full of water on her head. Jeanette is only six, but has to walk 4km (2.4 miles) every day to get the water from the public standpipe.
...
So Jeanette is dispatched each morning and evening to secure this precious cargo. She also looks after the other children in the family, cleans the house, and does all the laundry.
What she does not do is go to school, have time to play with friends, or dare to hope that she will find proper employment one day. ...
Haiti's abandoned children face a slave-like existence
Jeanette is walking up a hill in Petionville, a district in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. She is carrying a huge blue drum full of water on her head. Jeanette is only six, but has to walk 4km (2.4 miles) every day to get the water from the public standpipe.
...
So Jeanette is dispatched each morning and evening to secure this precious cargo. She also looks after the other children in the family, cleans the house, and does all the laundry.
What she does not do is go to school, have time to play with friends, or dare to hope that she will find proper employment one day. ...
Labels: suffering
Monday, March 19, 2007
Blind auto mechanic hires deaf assistant - A.P.
Cars have been Larry Woody's life for more than 30 years. He fixed them, he raced them, he restored them. But five years ago on Interstate 5 a truck blew across the median and drove over his tiny Toyota Celica. He almost died, and he was blinded.
But Woody... recently bought his own shop, D & D Foreign Automotive, in Cottage Grove. And he has hired a deaf assistant.
His red-tipped cane stands idle. He walks without hesitation through his shop. He handles the paperwork and billing with the help of a talking computer. He still changes fuel lines, hoists cars and changes filters.
"So much of it is done by feel anyway," he told the Eugene Register-Guard. "I use my hands to see what I'm doing now."...
Cars have been Larry Woody's life for more than 30 years. He fixed them, he raced them, he restored them. But five years ago on Interstate 5 a truck blew across the median and drove over his tiny Toyota Celica. He almost died, and he was blinded.
But Woody... recently bought his own shop, D & D Foreign Automotive, in Cottage Grove. And he has hired a deaf assistant.
His red-tipped cane stands idle. He walks without hesitation through his shop. He handles the paperwork and billing with the help of a talking computer. He still changes fuel lines, hoists cars and changes filters.
"So much of it is done by feel anyway," he told the Eugene Register-Guard. "I use my hands to see what I'm doing now."...
Stolen prayer wheel returned - Seattle P-I
The thief who took a 30-pound handmade Tibetan prayer wheel from the Planet Earth Yoga Center in Fremont apparently returned it sometime overnight.
[This is a follow-up story to one below.]
The thief who took a 30-pound handmade Tibetan prayer wheel from the Planet Earth Yoga Center in Fremont apparently returned it sometime overnight.
[This is a follow-up story to one below.]
Standard funeral not sole option - Seattle P-I
Want to stay home for a while after you're gone? That's what a small but growing number of people are choosing to do through home funerals.
Propped up on the hospital bed where she spends most of her time, Doris Jean Powers eyes a wooden box about the size of a refrigerator a few feet away.
Messages written in bright markers are slowly covering the pale yellow wood. She reads the notes, or has them read to her. She likes to hear what people have to say.
"It's looking more and more like a steamer trunk every day," Phyllis Powers said from her mother-in-law's bedside.
"Well, it's going to be quite a trip," Doris Jean joked.
When the box arrived at the modest blue duplex she shares with her family, Powers wasn't so sure she'd like having her casket so close. Doris Jean, 85, is dying. A heart condition she's had since birth is expected to take her life.
When she goes -- and she's in no rush -- she said she doesn't want to be hauled to a funeral home. With help from a funeral director, she wants her family to take care of her remains at their Renton home. ...
Want to stay home for a while after you're gone? That's what a small but growing number of people are choosing to do through home funerals.
Propped up on the hospital bed where she spends most of her time, Doris Jean Powers eyes a wooden box about the size of a refrigerator a few feet away.
Messages written in bright markers are slowly covering the pale yellow wood. She reads the notes, or has them read to her. She likes to hear what people have to say.
"It's looking more and more like a steamer trunk every day," Phyllis Powers said from her mother-in-law's bedside.
"Well, it's going to be quite a trip," Doris Jean joked.
When the box arrived at the modest blue duplex she shares with her family, Powers wasn't so sure she'd like having her casket so close. Doris Jean, 85, is dying. A heart condition she's had since birth is expected to take her life.
When she goes -- and she's in no rush -- she said she doesn't want to be hauled to a funeral home. With help from a funeral director, she wants her family to take care of her remains at their Renton home. ...
Airline moves dead body to 1st class - A.P.
A first-class passenger on a flight from Delhi to London awoke find the corpse of a woman who had died in the economy cabin being placed in a seat next to him, British Airways said Monday. The economy section of the flight was full, and the cabin crew needed to move the woman and her grieving family out of that compartment to give them some privacy, the airline said. ...
A first-class passenger on a flight from Delhi to London awoke find the corpse of a woman who had died in the economy cabin being placed in a seat next to him, British Airways said Monday. The economy section of the flight was full, and the cabin crew needed to move the woman and her grieving family out of that compartment to give them some privacy, the airline said. ...
Deaths become a constant blur in Iraq - A.P.
Only the gravediggers, some distant relatives and a few cousins made it to Nidal Faleh's funeral.
It was too dangerous for her immediate family to make the short trip from Baghdad to where she was killed in the Triangle of Death during a visit to see her elderly mother, or to bring her body back to the capital.
Instead, in this culture where a funeral is an important religious ritual and must take place soon after death, nearly no one was there as 49-year-old Faleh was buried.
...
It was a warm spring Sunday morning and Faleh had spent the weekend visiting her elderly mother in her hometown of Youssifiyah, 12 miles south of Baghdad.
Married late in life and without any children, she was the sibling in the family who did the most for their ailing mother, visiting her regularly, her sisters say.
Shortly before 7 a.m., Faleh was in a hurry to get back to Baghdad to teach an 8:30 a.m. class. She washed down a piece of cheese with tea, kissed her mother and an aunt on their cheeks and walked out the door with her cousin, Kawkab Faleh, 42. Nidal Faleh drove.
"She asked me to pray for her as she left me ... Half an hour later, they gave me the news of the car," her mother said weeping, as relatives and friends gathered around at a mourning gathering last week at a son's home in Baghdad.
Two male cousins in Youssifiyah received the call, telling them a roadside bomb had detonated underneath the car, killing the two cousins. They rushed to the scene.
The explosive device, connected to a wire, had been hidden under dirt close to the highway's median and detonated under the driver's side, setting the white Oldsmobile aflame. It took Iraqi security men from a nearby checkpoint more than a half-hour to put out the fire.
Only skeletons remained of the two women; identity cards and the university exam papers Faleh had corrected until the early hours Sunday were burned to ashes. ...
The roadside bomb had most likely been intended for U.S. troops or Iraqi security forces. ...
Only the gravediggers, some distant relatives and a few cousins made it to Nidal Faleh's funeral.
It was too dangerous for her immediate family to make the short trip from Baghdad to where she was killed in the Triangle of Death during a visit to see her elderly mother, or to bring her body back to the capital.
Instead, in this culture where a funeral is an important religious ritual and must take place soon after death, nearly no one was there as 49-year-old Faleh was buried.
...
It was a warm spring Sunday morning and Faleh had spent the weekend visiting her elderly mother in her hometown of Youssifiyah, 12 miles south of Baghdad.
Married late in life and without any children, she was the sibling in the family who did the most for their ailing mother, visiting her regularly, her sisters say.
Shortly before 7 a.m., Faleh was in a hurry to get back to Baghdad to teach an 8:30 a.m. class. She washed down a piece of cheese with tea, kissed her mother and an aunt on their cheeks and walked out the door with her cousin, Kawkab Faleh, 42. Nidal Faleh drove.
"She asked me to pray for her as she left me ... Half an hour later, they gave me the news of the car," her mother said weeping, as relatives and friends gathered around at a mourning gathering last week at a son's home in Baghdad.
Two male cousins in Youssifiyah received the call, telling them a roadside bomb had detonated underneath the car, killing the two cousins. They rushed to the scene.
The explosive device, connected to a wire, had been hidden under dirt close to the highway's median and detonated under the driver's side, setting the white Oldsmobile aflame. It took Iraqi security men from a nearby checkpoint more than a half-hour to put out the fire.
Only skeletons remained of the two women; identity cards and the university exam papers Faleh had corrected until the early hours Sunday were burned to ashes. ...
The roadside bomb had most likely been intended for U.S. troops or Iraqi security forces. ...
Labels: war
Looking for Monks and Nuns in the New Millennium - Der Spiegel
German monasteries and convents are going gray. Hardly anyone wants to become a monk or nun these days. Paradoxically, though, more and more laypeople are seeking temporary refuge behind the cloister walls. But how much of the outside world can the religious orders take?
... Brother Werner is the master tailor at the Benedictine monastery of Beuron in the Danube River valley. His brightly-lit workshop occupies the second floor of a recently renovated building dating back to the 16th century. Here he sews cassocks and the full range of liturgical vestments. The monk's reputation as a gifted tailor has spread far and wide; he was once even summoned to Jerusalem.
Brother Werner is 72 years old - 54 of which were spent behind the monastery walls in remote Beuron. The village lies somewhere between Sigmaringen and Tuttlingen, in a bowl-shaped valley surrounded by steep limestone walls, at a bend forged by the headwaters of the Danube. His life could not have been happier, the monk proclaims. And that's why the Benedictine monk is still "in love" - with his monastery, his order and his faith.
Sister Scholastika serves as a sort of all-purpose manager at the Arenberg convent, which is nestled on a breezy hill near Koblenz. The dynamic 41-yearold is part of the order's directorate. She both looks after the novices - i.e. new nuns - and acts as a spiritual escort for guests. Anyone wanting to talk about their faith can come to her. And many do.
"More and more people sense an inner void and are looking for something more to their lives," says Sister Scholastika, a former grammar school teacher. "We don't offer instant happiness, but we do offer spiritual encounters." The Dominican nun with the easy laugh talks about how her faith came alive, how she suddenly "felt touched." Today she is sure: "God loves me." ...
German monasteries and convents are going gray. Hardly anyone wants to become a monk or nun these days. Paradoxically, though, more and more laypeople are seeking temporary refuge behind the cloister walls. But how much of the outside world can the religious orders take?
... Brother Werner is the master tailor at the Benedictine monastery of Beuron in the Danube River valley. His brightly-lit workshop occupies the second floor of a recently renovated building dating back to the 16th century. Here he sews cassocks and the full range of liturgical vestments. The monk's reputation as a gifted tailor has spread far and wide; he was once even summoned to Jerusalem.
Brother Werner is 72 years old - 54 of which were spent behind the monastery walls in remote Beuron. The village lies somewhere between Sigmaringen and Tuttlingen, in a bowl-shaped valley surrounded by steep limestone walls, at a bend forged by the headwaters of the Danube. His life could not have been happier, the monk proclaims. And that's why the Benedictine monk is still "in love" - with his monastery, his order and his faith.
Sister Scholastika serves as a sort of all-purpose manager at the Arenberg convent, which is nestled on a breezy hill near Koblenz. The dynamic 41-yearold is part of the order's directorate. She both looks after the novices - i.e. new nuns - and acts as a spiritual escort for guests. Anyone wanting to talk about their faith can come to her. And many do.
"More and more people sense an inner void and are looking for something more to their lives," says Sister Scholastika, a former grammar school teacher. "We don't offer instant happiness, but we do offer spiritual encounters." The Dominican nun with the easy laugh talks about how her faith came alive, how she suddenly "felt touched." Today she is sure: "God loves me." ...
CIA Kidnapping Leaves Ex- Terror Suspect a Broken Man - Der Spiegel
Radical imam Abu Omar was kidnapped by the CIA in Milan four years ago and taken to a prison in Egypt. There, he was tormented with electric shocks and suspended from the ceiling for days on end. ...
Abu Omar breathes heavily at the top of the four flights of stairs to his three-room apartment, like an old man. As soon as he's inside, he immediately bolts the door and pulls the curtains shut. Groaning, he drops onto one of the simple, gold-dyed armchairs in the tiny living room, illuminated by the cold light from a neon tube on the ceiling. "I feel like an old man," the 46-year-old says. "Every movement hurts my back, and my joints are still sore from being constantly restrained in prison." His release from jail may have been a "gift from God," but his life has been left in ruins and it is unlikely he will ever be able to put it back together, he says.
Indeed, there's not much left of the man Italian intelligence dossiers describe as a fundamentalist Muslim agitator and a fiery advocate of jihad. Abu Omar sits in the cramped, corridor-like apartment with his veiled wife Nabila and his son Mohammed. His brother pays the rent. Egypt has banned Abu Omar from preaching in the country, but it's the only profession he knows. "My only diversion is the walk to a little mosque. Apart from that, I just sit here all day," he says. ...
Radical imam Abu Omar was kidnapped by the CIA in Milan four years ago and taken to a prison in Egypt. There, he was tormented with electric shocks and suspended from the ceiling for days on end. ...
Abu Omar breathes heavily at the top of the four flights of stairs to his three-room apartment, like an old man. As soon as he's inside, he immediately bolts the door and pulls the curtains shut. Groaning, he drops onto one of the simple, gold-dyed armchairs in the tiny living room, illuminated by the cold light from a neon tube on the ceiling. "I feel like an old man," the 46-year-old says. "Every movement hurts my back, and my joints are still sore from being constantly restrained in prison." His release from jail may have been a "gift from God," but his life has been left in ruins and it is unlikely he will ever be able to put it back together, he says.
Indeed, there's not much left of the man Italian intelligence dossiers describe as a fundamentalist Muslim agitator and a fiery advocate of jihad. Abu Omar sits in the cramped, corridor-like apartment with his veiled wife Nabila and his son Mohammed. His brother pays the rent. Egypt has banned Abu Omar from preaching in the country, but it's the only profession he knows. "My only diversion is the walk to a little mosque. Apart from that, I just sit here all day," he says. ...
Labels: suffering
Tragedy follows landmark court win - L.A. Times
After success in a long fight against forced medication, a schizophrenic man gained freedom. But now he is accused of killing his roommate.
[When the police arrived,] Kanuri Qawi, was waiting casually in the doorway, a glass of soda in his hand. Qawi invited the officer inside and began spinning a wild tale. Intruders, he insisted, had entered his apartment. They had robbed him of $300, then stripped him naked, strapped him to a flatbed truck and paraded him through the streets. As Qawi talked, incense burned, but it could not hide the smell. It was the smell, the officer knew, of decaying flesh.
...
Qawi was a notorious figure in California mental hospitals. His nine-year legal battle had taken him all the way to the state Supreme Court, where he had won the right — for himself and hundreds of other mental patients — to refuse to take the psychiatric drugs prescribed by doctors.
...
Qawi started life as Kenny Washington, an average kid from an unusual family. As if their 14 children weren't enough, Kenny's parents, Alma and Calvin Washington, also took in a host of foster children at their home in Arcadia, Fla. ...
After success in a long fight against forced medication, a schizophrenic man gained freedom. But now he is accused of killing his roommate.
[When the police arrived,] Kanuri Qawi, was waiting casually in the doorway, a glass of soda in his hand. Qawi invited the officer inside and began spinning a wild tale. Intruders, he insisted, had entered his apartment. They had robbed him of $300, then stripped him naked, strapped him to a flatbed truck and paraded him through the streets. As Qawi talked, incense burned, but it could not hide the smell. It was the smell, the officer knew, of decaying flesh.
...
Qawi was a notorious figure in California mental hospitals. His nine-year legal battle had taken him all the way to the state Supreme Court, where he had won the right — for himself and hundreds of other mental patients — to refuse to take the psychiatric drugs prescribed by doctors.
...
Qawi started life as Kenny Washington, an average kid from an unusual family. As if their 14 children weren't enough, Kenny's parents, Alma and Calvin Washington, also took in a host of foster children at their home in Arcadia, Fla. ...
Labels: mental illness, murder
Kidnapped Reporter Saw Decapitation - A.P.
An Italian journalist held for two weeks in Afghanistan said after his release Monday that he saw his captors cut off the head of one of the two Afghans kidnapped with him and thought he would be next to die.
...He said the kidnappers threw the Afghan to his knees and suffocated him in the sand as they cut his head off.
"Then they wiped the knife on his clothes. I was shaking. Obviously I thought 'it's my turn now,'" Mastrogiacomo said.
The fate of the other Afghan who had been accompanying the journalist was not immediately known.
...Mastrogiacomo said he slept in 15 different prisons that were "as small as sheep pens." His hands and feet were chained, and he was made to walk for miles in the desert, he said.
Mastrogiacomo said knowledge of the support of his colleagues and countrymen gave him strength.
"I knew that Italy was supporting me and that was the only comfort in the most desperate moments, when I feared I was going to be killed at anytime soon," he said. "This is the most beautiful moment of my life." ...
An Italian journalist held for two weeks in Afghanistan said after his release Monday that he saw his captors cut off the head of one of the two Afghans kidnapped with him and thought he would be next to die.
...He said the kidnappers threw the Afghan to his knees and suffocated him in the sand as they cut his head off.
"Then they wiped the knife on his clothes. I was shaking. Obviously I thought 'it's my turn now,'" Mastrogiacomo said.
The fate of the other Afghan who had been accompanying the journalist was not immediately known.
...Mastrogiacomo said he slept in 15 different prisons that were "as small as sheep pens." His hands and feet were chained, and he was made to walk for miles in the desert, he said.
Mastrogiacomo said knowledge of the support of his colleagues and countrymen gave him strength.
"I knew that Italy was supporting me and that was the only comfort in the most desperate moments, when I feared I was going to be killed at anytime soon," he said. "This is the most beautiful moment of my life." ...
Labels: suffering
Live turtle retrieved from retriever's tummy - A.P.
Florida girl's quick thinking saves both pets after dog swallowed reptile
A palm-sized pet turtle and the golden retriever that gobbled it up survived the misadventure thanks to the quick actions of a 12-year-old girl, a veterinarian said.
The saga of Pepper the red-eared slider turtle and Bella the golden retriever started last week. Shelby Terihay, 12, moved her pet pond turtles indoors to protect them from a cold snap — a plan that worked well until Bella found some of the turtles in a bathtub, The Tampa Tribune reported.
A quick head count confirmed Bella had swallowed one of the turtles. Shelby insisted on a rescue mission, and on the advice of a vet, her parents made Bella vomit. Out came Pepper, still alive despite a shattered shell and an estimated 10 minutes inside Bella's belly.
[The vet] patched up Pepper's shell and credited Shelby with saving Bella too.
"The turtle would definitely have caused an obstruction," [the vet] said. "Without cutting it out directly, it eventually would have killed the dog." [end]
Florida girl's quick thinking saves both pets after dog swallowed reptile
A palm-sized pet turtle and the golden retriever that gobbled it up survived the misadventure thanks to the quick actions of a 12-year-old girl, a veterinarian said.
The saga of Pepper the red-eared slider turtle and Bella the golden retriever started last week. Shelby Terihay, 12, moved her pet pond turtles indoors to protect them from a cold snap — a plan that worked well until Bella found some of the turtles in a bathtub, The Tampa Tribune reported.
A quick head count confirmed Bella had swallowed one of the turtles. Shelby insisted on a rescue mission, and on the advice of a vet, her parents made Bella vomit. Out came Pepper, still alive despite a shattered shell and an estimated 10 minutes inside Bella's belly.
[The vet] patched up Pepper's shell and credited Shelby with saving Bella too.
"The turtle would definitely have caused an obstruction," [the vet] said. "Without cutting it out directly, it eventually would have killed the dog." [end]
Labels: animals
2-for-1 transplant lets patients split a liver - A.P.
The transplant surgeon had good news: A donated liver was on the way for critically ill Maggie Catherwood. Then he asked: Would she let doctors cut off part of her new liver to share with an equally sick baby?
“I can’t imagine anyone saying no,” the 21-year-old college student said last week as, teary-eyed, she met 8-month-old Allison Brown, carefully cuddling the wide-eyed baby so as not to bump each other’s healing incisions.
...
Catherwood’s symptoms started in the fall, when suddenly she couldn’t keep food down. The day after her 21st birthday, she learned she had Wilson’s disease — her liver couldn’t properly dispose of the copper in food. The quiet buildup was destroying it. In early February, the Sterling, Va., woman joined the nearly 17,000 people on the waiting list for liver transplants.
Allison was 3½ months old when doctors discovered her worsening jaundice meant biliary atresia — the Waldorf, Md., girl was born without all her major bile ducts. She joined the transplant list in early December, the whites of her eyes turning canary yellow as the months ticked by and her liver shut down.
Livers are distributed to the sickest patients first. Late on Feb. 27, Georgetown’s Dr. Cal Matsumoto got word that the transplant network had flagged Catherwood to receive a liver from a teenager who had just died. Knowing Allison was a match, too, he broached the two-for-one transplant. ...
The transplant surgeon had good news: A donated liver was on the way for critically ill Maggie Catherwood. Then he asked: Would she let doctors cut off part of her new liver to share with an equally sick baby?
“I can’t imagine anyone saying no,” the 21-year-old college student said last week as, teary-eyed, she met 8-month-old Allison Brown, carefully cuddling the wide-eyed baby so as not to bump each other’s healing incisions.
...
Catherwood’s symptoms started in the fall, when suddenly she couldn’t keep food down. The day after her 21st birthday, she learned she had Wilson’s disease — her liver couldn’t properly dispose of the copper in food. The quiet buildup was destroying it. In early February, the Sterling, Va., woman joined the nearly 17,000 people on the waiting list for liver transplants.
Allison was 3½ months old when doctors discovered her worsening jaundice meant biliary atresia — the Waldorf, Md., girl was born without all her major bile ducts. She joined the transplant list in early December, the whites of her eyes turning canary yellow as the months ticked by and her liver shut down.
Livers are distributed to the sickest patients first. Late on Feb. 27, Georgetown’s Dr. Cal Matsumoto got word that the transplant network had flagged Catherwood to receive a liver from a teenager who had just died. Knowing Allison was a match, too, he broached the two-for-one transplant. ...
Labels: sickness
Australian detainee writes of beatings at Guantánamo - International Herald Tribune
David Hicks has alleged that during nearly five years in U.S. custody he has been frequently beaten during interrogations.
... The document said that beatings and other abuse included being thrown on the ground along with other detainees and walked on by soldiers, being stripped naked, having all his body hair shaved, and being subjected to injections. The maltreatment began during interrogations in Afghanistan and continued aboard U.S. Naval ships where he was held before being taken to Guantánamo, in early 2002 ...
One interrogator, "obviously agitated, took out his pistol and aimed it at me, with his hand shaking violently with rage." It was at this point, "I realized that if I did not cooperate with U.S. interrogators, I might be shot."
...
Hicks said he could hear other detainees "screaming in pain" when being interrogated.
He was later transferred to the USS Bataan, where the conditions became "drastically" worse, he asserted. He was fed only a handful of rice or fruit three times a day, and on several occasions, he and other detainees, blindfolded, hooded, and handcuffed were thrown onto helicopters and taken to an unknown location, and put in a large hangar. ...
David Hicks has alleged that during nearly five years in U.S. custody he has been frequently beaten during interrogations.
... The document said that beatings and other abuse included being thrown on the ground along with other detainees and walked on by soldiers, being stripped naked, having all his body hair shaved, and being subjected to injections. The maltreatment began during interrogations in Afghanistan and continued aboard U.S. Naval ships where he was held before being taken to Guantánamo, in early 2002 ...
One interrogator, "obviously agitated, took out his pistol and aimed it at me, with his hand shaking violently with rage." It was at this point, "I realized that if I did not cooperate with U.S. interrogators, I might be shot."
...
Hicks said he could hear other detainees "screaming in pain" when being interrogated.
He was later transferred to the USS Bataan, where the conditions became "drastically" worse, he asserted. He was fed only a handful of rice or fruit three times a day, and on several occasions, he and other detainees, blindfolded, hooded, and handcuffed were thrown onto helicopters and taken to an unknown location, and put in a large hangar. ...
Labels: suffering
Behavior May Suggest We're Not Only Human - Washington Post
When Emory University primatologist Frans de Waal read a news story that said Microsoft's chief executive, Steve Ballmer, had hurled a chair across the room on hearing an employee was going to work for rival Google, the scientist immediately made a connection with his own research: "When I see such behavior, I think of a chimpanzee." ...
When Emory University primatologist Frans de Waal read a news story that said Microsoft's chief executive, Steve Ballmer, had hurled a chair across the room on hearing an employee was going to work for rival Google, the scientist immediately made a connection with his own research: "When I see such behavior, I think of a chimpanzee." ...
Labels: anger
Sex slavery widespread in England - BBC News
Young women tricked into coming to England, often by boyfriends, are being sold off in auctions at airport coffee shops as soon as they arrive. They are among the thousands of women brought into the UK to be sex slaves, usually with no idea of their fate.
...
Modern day victims of slavery are often young women from eastern Europe, thinking they are coming to England to work as cleaners or au pairs, only to be forced into prostitution.
... there were also many cases of English women, from backgrounds of poverty, being sold from town to town to work as prostitutes.
...
Jiera, a 19-year-old from Lithuania who was helped by the Poppy Project, thought she was coming to London on holiday with friends, only to find they were people traffickers who sold her into prostitution.
She said: "When I was with clients I tried to pretend I was doing something else, but I couldn't. It made me so angry that I was often violent towards the clients.
"The man who owned me beat me and then sold me on. I was too much trouble. ...
[See also the sidebar, which has victims' stories.]
Young women tricked into coming to England, often by boyfriends, are being sold off in auctions at airport coffee shops as soon as they arrive. They are among the thousands of women brought into the UK to be sex slaves, usually with no idea of their fate.
...
Modern day victims of slavery are often young women from eastern Europe, thinking they are coming to England to work as cleaners or au pairs, only to be forced into prostitution.
... there were also many cases of English women, from backgrounds of poverty, being sold from town to town to work as prostitutes.
...
Jiera, a 19-year-old from Lithuania who was helped by the Poppy Project, thought she was coming to London on holiday with friends, only to find they were people traffickers who sold her into prostitution.
She said: "When I was with clients I tried to pretend I was doing something else, but I couldn't. It made me so angry that I was often violent towards the clients.
"The man who owned me beat me and then sold me on. I was too much trouble. ...
[See also the sidebar, which has victims' stories.]
Labels: suffering
Sudan's slave voices - BBC News photo essay
Some 8,000 people are believed to be living as slaves in Sudan after being seized by Arab militias during the long war between north and south. The war is now over and some ex-slaves have returned home. But most are finding life tough back in the devastated south.
Marko Akot Deng Akot: "In 1987, the Arab militia came and attacked our village and took me.
My niece was also abducted but she was taken by a different man and I have not seen her since.
I had to look after the cattle, goats and sheep. I was only given left-overs to eat and sometimes nothing at all. One day, a cow went missing and I was beaten so badly that my right arm and leg are paralysed. ...
Some 8,000 people are believed to be living as slaves in Sudan after being seized by Arab militias during the long war between north and south. The war is now over and some ex-slaves have returned home. But most are finding life tough back in the devastated south.
Marko Akot Deng Akot: "In 1987, the Arab militia came and attacked our village and took me.
My niece was also abducted but she was taken by a different man and I have not seen her since.
I had to look after the cattle, goats and sheep. I was only given left-overs to eat and sometimes nothing at all. One day, a cow went missing and I was beaten so badly that my right arm and leg are paralysed. ...
Labels: suffering
My Iraq: Ali Abbas - BBC News
Ali Abbas was just 12 when he lost both his arms in a coalition missile attack in Baghdad in March 2003. His parents were among 16 of his relatives who were killed in the bombing. After treatment in Kuwait, Ali was brought to Britain. He's been receiving free tuition at a school in London.
I was in another world when I was in the hospital in Iraq. It was a very bad hospital; there weren't any medical things. With all the pain I had, I preferred to die.
It was when they took me to Kuwait that I realised I didn't have arms.
It was very upsetting when I heard that I had lost my family. It's not something you ever get over, is it?
Because when he bombed the house there weren't any soldiers or weapons. We were farmers; we had cows and sheep.
Sometimes I blame the government. But the people here have been so nice to me.
Now I'm doing well; I'm having a normal life. I'm playing football; doing art; cycling.
I have a very nice school, very nice teachers; nice friends here.
In Kuwait, my doctor told me how to eat with my feet, how to brush my teeth as well.
At first it was very, very hard.
But I keep practising, keep practising, to make it better. ...
Ali Abbas was just 12 when he lost both his arms in a coalition missile attack in Baghdad in March 2003. His parents were among 16 of his relatives who were killed in the bombing. After treatment in Kuwait, Ali was brought to Britain. He's been receiving free tuition at a school in London.
I was in another world when I was in the hospital in Iraq. It was a very bad hospital; there weren't any medical things. With all the pain I had, I preferred to die.
It was when they took me to Kuwait that I realised I didn't have arms.
It was very upsetting when I heard that I had lost my family. It's not something you ever get over, is it?
Because when he bombed the house there weren't any soldiers or weapons. We were farmers; we had cows and sheep.
Sometimes I blame the government. But the people here have been so nice to me.
Now I'm doing well; I'm having a normal life. I'm playing football; doing art; cycling.
I have a very nice school, very nice teachers; nice friends here.
In Kuwait, my doctor told me how to eat with my feet, how to brush my teeth as well.
At first it was very, very hard.
But I keep practising, keep practising, to make it better. ...
Labels: war
Hot but Virtuous Is an Unlikely Match for an Online Dating Service - N.Y. Times
... The site has also been criticized for generating random “winks” — the industry term for messages of interest from other members. Dan Consiglio, a 49-year-old engineer from Vancouver, Wash., said he received dozens of winks from women after signing up for True, and responded to many of them. He got only one response, from a woman who kindly informed him that she had not, in fact, winked at him.
Mr. Vest acknowledged that the service sends artificial winks, but he said users have the option to disable them and that they serve an important purpose. “We try getting people who otherwise might be very retiring or shy to meet each other and fall in love and have children,” he said. “We are just trying to do our job as a matchmaker.”
...
True joined the crowded online dating scene in 2004. To distinguish itself from the pack, it offered a range of personality and sexuality surveys. It also hired the data broker ChoicePoint to perform background checks on customers to ensure that they had no criminal record and were not married.
...
True became more aggressive, and sex-themed, in its advertising. While the site continued to pitch itself as a safe way to date, its ads now featured voluptuous women and slogans like “Come and get them while they’re hot.”
Newer True.com video ads depict models in their underwear, imploring men to visit True and chat with them over live Web cameras. ...
... The site has also been criticized for generating random “winks” — the industry term for messages of interest from other members. Dan Consiglio, a 49-year-old engineer from Vancouver, Wash., said he received dozens of winks from women after signing up for True, and responded to many of them. He got only one response, from a woman who kindly informed him that she had not, in fact, winked at him.
Mr. Vest acknowledged that the service sends artificial winks, but he said users have the option to disable them and that they serve an important purpose. “We try getting people who otherwise might be very retiring or shy to meet each other and fall in love and have children,” he said. “We are just trying to do our job as a matchmaker.”
...
True joined the crowded online dating scene in 2004. To distinguish itself from the pack, it offered a range of personality and sexuality surveys. It also hired the data broker ChoicePoint to perform background checks on customers to ensure that they had no criminal record and were not married.
...
True became more aggressive, and sex-themed, in its advertising. While the site continued to pitch itself as a safe way to date, its ads now featured voluptuous women and slogans like “Come and get them while they’re hot.”
Newer True.com video ads depict models in their underwear, imploring men to visit True and chat with them over live Web cameras. ...
Labels: attachment
A New Sorrow for Afghanistan: AIDS Joins List - N.Y. Times
In the deeply conservative country, H.I.V. remains underground, shrouded in ignorance and stigma.
Sitting and eating quietly on his father’s lap, the 18-month-old was oblivious to the infection in his veins. But his father, a burly farmer, knew only too well. It was the same one that killed his wife four months ago, leaving him alone with four children. The man started to cry.
“When my wife died, I thought, well, it is from God, but at least I have him,” he said. “Then I learned he is sick, too. I asked if there is medicine and the doctors said no. They said, ‘Just trust in God.’ ”
...
During his work in villages and refugee camps in Pakistan, he came across an unmarried man who had returned from the Arabian Peninsula infected with H.I.V. The man told his father, who, not understanding the consequences, told others.
Soon, villagers told the father he should kill his son. The son ended up locked in a brick cell in the family yard, with only a small opening where food was thrown in.
Dr. Bazger and his colleagues eventually rescued him and made a film about him, which has been shown on Afghan television.
[His organization] has also worked among women in the sex trade in Kabul. In a 2003 survey of 126 of the women by ORA, only one was familiar with condoms and only one had knowledge of H.I.V./AIDS. Seventy-eight percent of those surveyed were married. Eighty-four percent were illiterate. ...
In the deeply conservative country, H.I.V. remains underground, shrouded in ignorance and stigma.
Sitting and eating quietly on his father’s lap, the 18-month-old was oblivious to the infection in his veins. But his father, a burly farmer, knew only too well. It was the same one that killed his wife four months ago, leaving him alone with four children. The man started to cry.
“When my wife died, I thought, well, it is from God, but at least I have him,” he said. “Then I learned he is sick, too. I asked if there is medicine and the doctors said no. They said, ‘Just trust in God.’ ”
...
During his work in villages and refugee camps in Pakistan, he came across an unmarried man who had returned from the Arabian Peninsula infected with H.I.V. The man told his father, who, not understanding the consequences, told others.
Soon, villagers told the father he should kill his son. The son ended up locked in a brick cell in the family yard, with only a small opening where food was thrown in.
Dr. Bazger and his colleagues eventually rescued him and made a film about him, which has been shown on Afghan television.
[His organization] has also worked among women in the sex trade in Kabul. In a 2003 survey of 126 of the women by ORA, only one was familiar with condoms and only one had knowledge of H.I.V./AIDS. Seventy-eight percent of those surveyed were married. Eighty-four percent were illiterate. ...
Labels: AIDS
Avery 1st Exonerated Man To Be Convicted of Murder - CBC
A man who spent almost half his life in prison for a rape he didn't commit is the first person ever exonerated through DNA evidence and then convicted of murder, according to a national group.Steven Avery, 44, was released from prison in 2003 after serving 18 years for a 1985 rape that DNA evidence proved he did not commit. On Sunday, a Manitowoc County jury found him guilty of shooting photographer Teresa Halbach in the head near his family's auto salvage lot in rural Manitowoc County on Oct. 31, 2005.
...
... only 21 states compensate people who are wrongly convicted, and only a handful provide college tuition and health coverage to help them acclimate to life outside prison.In Wisconsin, a wrongfully convicted person gets no more than $5,000 a year for each year of imprisonment and not more than $25,000 altogether. Avery filed a $36 million civil lawsuit for his wrongful conviction, but settled for $400,000 after he was arrested in the murder case. His proceeds were $240,000, which went to his lawyers fees in the homicide case.
...
Marvin Anderson, who was exonerated in Virginia after 15 years in prison, recently bought the trucking company where he previously worked as a driver.--Anthony Robinson, who was exonerated in Texas after 10 years in prison, got a law degree and has been studying in China to get a doctorate in Chinese law. ...
A man who spent almost half his life in prison for a rape he didn't commit is the first person ever exonerated through DNA evidence and then convicted of murder, according to a national group.Steven Avery, 44, was released from prison in 2003 after serving 18 years for a 1985 rape that DNA evidence proved he did not commit. On Sunday, a Manitowoc County jury found him guilty of shooting photographer Teresa Halbach in the head near his family's auto salvage lot in rural Manitowoc County on Oct. 31, 2005.
...
... only 21 states compensate people who are wrongly convicted, and only a handful provide college tuition and health coverage to help them acclimate to life outside prison.In Wisconsin, a wrongfully convicted person gets no more than $5,000 a year for each year of imprisonment and not more than $25,000 altogether. Avery filed a $36 million civil lawsuit for his wrongful conviction, but settled for $400,000 after he was arrested in the murder case. His proceeds were $240,000, which went to his lawyers fees in the homicide case.
...
Marvin Anderson, who was exonerated in Virginia after 15 years in prison, recently bought the trucking company where he previously worked as a driver.--Anthony Robinson, who was exonerated in Texas after 10 years in prison, got a law degree and has been studying in China to get a doctorate in Chinese law. ...
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Tigers prowl where bombs fell in Cambodia's Ho Chi Minh Trail - A.P.
Four decades after U.S. warplanes plastered it with bombs, a remote corner of the old Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia is making a comeback as a treasure trove of endangered wildlife.
Tigers prowl imperiously down tracks where weapons-laden North Vietnamese trucks once rolled. Elephants shepherd their young past giant bomb craters to drink at jungle water holes, and rare apes call from trees that once hid communist forces from U.S. pilots. ...
Four decades after U.S. warplanes plastered it with bombs, a remote corner of the old Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia is making a comeback as a treasure trove of endangered wildlife.
Tigers prowl imperiously down tracks where weapons-laden North Vietnamese trucks once rolled. Elephants shepherd their young past giant bomb craters to drink at jungle water holes, and rare apes call from trees that once hid communist forces from U.S. pilots. ...
Labels: animals
Guest workers' Gulf Coast dream unmet - L.A. Times
Mexican and Indians say housing and pay for post-Katrina labor was not as billed, but employers cite a lack of skills.
When Sabulal Vijayan saw the advertisement in a newspaper in his native state of Kerala in southwestern India, he thought he had found the solution to his family's financial problems. The ad offered laborers job opportunities in the U.S. Gulf Coast region after Hurricane Katrina under a guest worker program. Vijayan said the ads... promised welders and pipe fitters a 10-month work visa, followed by permanent U.S. residency. ... So he used his life savings and money borrowed from relatives to pay $15,000 to people who identified themselves as Signal's recruiters. ... But when Vijayan arrived in Pascagoula, Miss., in December, his living quarters were cramped bunk houses where two dozen laborers shared two bathrooms. Then the company cut the workers' wages from $1,850 a week to $1,350 or $950, depending on the position, Vijayan said. When he and other workers complained, they were fired without notice. ..."I cannot go back to India because I cannot pay my debt," Vijayan said ... He was so distraught that he recently slashed his wrist in a suicide attempt. His left arm is still bandaged. ...
Mexican and Indians say housing and pay for post-Katrina labor was not as billed, but employers cite a lack of skills.
When Sabulal Vijayan saw the advertisement in a newspaper in his native state of Kerala in southwestern India, he thought he had found the solution to his family's financial problems. The ad offered laborers job opportunities in the U.S. Gulf Coast region after Hurricane Katrina under a guest worker program. Vijayan said the ads... promised welders and pipe fitters a 10-month work visa, followed by permanent U.S. residency. ... So he used his life savings and money borrowed from relatives to pay $15,000 to people who identified themselves as Signal's recruiters. ... But when Vijayan arrived in Pascagoula, Miss., in December, his living quarters were cramped bunk houses where two dozen laborers shared two bathrooms. Then the company cut the workers' wages from $1,850 a week to $1,350 or $950, depending on the position, Vijayan said. When he and other workers complained, they were fired without notice. ..."I cannot go back to India because I cannot pay my debt," Vijayan said ... He was so distraught that he recently slashed his wrist in a suicide attempt. His left arm is still bandaged. ...
Terror Closes in on 2 Iraq Booksellers - L.A. Times
... Like most Baghdad residents, Zeidan and Abbas are especially afraid of being kidnapped. So they close their store at 1:30 p.m. instead of 3 p.m. These days, the earlier you get home, the less likely you are to be a target.Abbas says only 15 to 20 of the 80 students registered in his English class attend lessons because they fear kidnapping or suicide bombings.For him and Zeidan, the book market bombing is the latest blow.Abbas said he lost a close friend killed in Fallujah in 2005. The following April the violence first touched Zeidan's life when Inad, his 53-year-old brother and father of 10, was killed by a bomb in the minibus he was riding in. Three months later a cousin was shot dead in a town northeast of Baghdad. ...
... Like most Baghdad residents, Zeidan and Abbas are especially afraid of being kidnapped. So they close their store at 1:30 p.m. instead of 3 p.m. These days, the earlier you get home, the less likely you are to be a target.Abbas says only 15 to 20 of the 80 students registered in his English class attend lessons because they fear kidnapping or suicide bombings.For him and Zeidan, the book market bombing is the latest blow.Abbas said he lost a close friend killed in Fallujah in 2005. The following April the violence first touched Zeidan's life when Inad, his 53-year-old brother and father of 10, was killed by a bomb in the minibus he was riding in. Three months later a cousin was shot dead in a town northeast of Baghdad. ...
Labels: war
Seeking a new life, Iraqi finds jihad - L.A. Times (registration required; free)
A Kurd looking for escape joins an extremist group, but it doesn't offer the sanctuary he expected.
The young blacksmith with an easy laugh and the looks of a Kurdish Sean Penn wasn't particularly devout or angry at the West. He didn't aspire to "martyrdom." But five years ago, Karzan Rasool made a decision that haunts him still: He became a holy warrior in the army of Islam.He joined Ansar al Islam, an extremist group with links to Al Qaeda, almost on a whim. Unlike true believers, he just wanted an escape from his desperate life.
...
But when Rasool's father died, Iranian authorities deported the 19-year-old back to Iraq, where he ended up with an abusive uncle. He was regularly beaten, he and relatives said, and he wanted to run away.As Rasool approached the checkpoint that day in April 2002, he said, the only thing he wanted was to be embraced by someone.
...
In a strange prison near the Kurdish town of Qala Chwaran, he was locked in a 3-foot-square cage, he said. "They lowered you in and covered the top," he recalled. "The lid would go down and make you crouch."There were English-speaking interrogators who Rasool assumes were Americans."They were nice," he said. "They offered me tea and coffee and Pepsi — and then suddenly in the middle of the interview pinch my finger with pliers." ...
A Kurd looking for escape joins an extremist group, but it doesn't offer the sanctuary he expected.
The young blacksmith with an easy laugh and the looks of a Kurdish Sean Penn wasn't particularly devout or angry at the West. He didn't aspire to "martyrdom." But five years ago, Karzan Rasool made a decision that haunts him still: He became a holy warrior in the army of Islam.He joined Ansar al Islam, an extremist group with links to Al Qaeda, almost on a whim. Unlike true believers, he just wanted an escape from his desperate life.
...
But when Rasool's father died, Iranian authorities deported the 19-year-old back to Iraq, where he ended up with an abusive uncle. He was regularly beaten, he and relatives said, and he wanted to run away.As Rasool approached the checkpoint that day in April 2002, he said, the only thing he wanted was to be embraced by someone.
...
In a strange prison near the Kurdish town of Qala Chwaran, he was locked in a 3-foot-square cage, he said. "They lowered you in and covered the top," he recalled. "The lid would go down and make you crouch."There were English-speaking interrogators who Rasool assumes were Americans."They were nice," he said. "They offered me tea and coffee and Pepsi — and then suddenly in the middle of the interview pinch my finger with pliers." ...
Labels: war
A peril that dwelt among the Navajos - L.A. Times
During the Cold War, uranium mines left contaminated waste scattered around the Indians. Homes built with the material silently pulsed with radiation. People developed cancer. And the U.S. did little to help.
... Over the decades, Navajos inhaled radioactive dust from the waste piles, borne aloft by fierce desert winds.They drank contaminated water from abandoned pit mines that filled with rain. They watered their herds there, then butchered the animals and ate the meat.Their children dug caves in piles of mill tailings and played in the spent mines.And like the Holidays, many lived in homes silently pulsing with radiation. ...
During the Cold War, uranium mines left contaminated waste scattered around the Indians. Homes built with the material silently pulsed with radiation. People developed cancer. And the U.S. did little to help.
... Over the decades, Navajos inhaled radioactive dust from the waste piles, borne aloft by fierce desert winds.They drank contaminated water from abandoned pit mines that filled with rain. They watered their herds there, then butchered the animals and ate the meat.Their children dug caves in piles of mill tailings and played in the spent mines.And like the Holidays, many lived in homes silently pulsing with radiation. ...
Labels: cancer
Immigrants' journey took a deadly turn - L.A. Times
When a truck driver agreed to smuggle them past a Texas checkpoint, he had no idea he would usher 19 to their deaths.
...Williams' refrigerator on wheels had become a convection oven, with the passengers' own bodies acting as individual furnaces. ... Moreover, with each breath they drew, they were cutting into a finite supply of oxygen, replacing it with the poisonous carbon dioxide they exhaled.
Jose Juan Roldan-Castro, a 26-year-old from Puebla, Mexico, who was headed to Iowa to join his brother, was the first to act. He swam through the mass of people until he reached the doors. He ran his hands along the edges, looking for tears in the insulating fabric. He gained a purchase and pulled at the foamlike material, tearing away a piece to expose the bracket of a taillight. He punched at the bracket with his bare hands."You don't care about pain," he recalled in court. He managed to knock out the light, leaving it to dangle on a cord. This created a hole about the size of a fist. Not much air came through, but by pressing his face close, Roldan-Castro received a bit of relief. Passengers became angry with him. Somebody struck him. ...
When a truck driver agreed to smuggle them past a Texas checkpoint, he had no idea he would usher 19 to their deaths.
...Williams' refrigerator on wheels had become a convection oven, with the passengers' own bodies acting as individual furnaces. ... Moreover, with each breath they drew, they were cutting into a finite supply of oxygen, replacing it with the poisonous carbon dioxide they exhaled.
Jose Juan Roldan-Castro, a 26-year-old from Puebla, Mexico, who was headed to Iowa to join his brother, was the first to act. He swam through the mass of people until he reached the doors. He ran his hands along the edges, looking for tears in the insulating fabric. He gained a purchase and pulled at the foamlike material, tearing away a piece to expose the bracket of a taillight. He punched at the bracket with his bare hands."You don't care about pain," he recalled in court. He managed to knock out the light, leaving it to dangle on a cord. This created a hole about the size of a fist. Not much air came through, but by pressing his face close, Roldan-Castro received a bit of relief. Passengers became angry with him. Somebody struck him. ...
Labels: suffering
Coming Home: Seven Families Lay Their Fallen Soldiers to Rest. A Photo Essay - Mother Jones
... Most combat fatalities are neither storied nor spectacular. Spc. Martin Kondor and Spc. Bert Hoyer died while traveling in vehicles that were hit with improvised explosive devices (IED), as the military calls them, or roadside bombs, which is a clearer definition. Kondor acted as a bodyguard for an infantry colonel whose job it was to spread American good will to the Iraqi people. The colonel was fortunate enough to survive. Pfc. Luis Moreno was shot while guarding a gas station. Dominican by birth, he was awarded U.S. citizenship posthumously. Staff Sgt. Scott Rose died when the Black Hawk helicopter he served on went down. The Humvee that Pvt. Bryan Nicholas Spry was driving crossed a bridge that crumbled under the vehicle. Three of his comrades swam to safety, but Spry was unconscious, and his lungs filled with water. Pfc. Bruce Miller, Jr. died from a noncombat gunshot wound; his death is still under investigation.
...
The colleagues of these fallen would have been asked to pack their personal belongings for shipment home. Long before they were killed, the dead would have been advised to discard any paraphernalia they didn’t want people back home to receive. Every soldier carries a private self that even his closest loved ones will never know. And they should not. Shortly after their deaths, the unit armorer assigned their weapons to someone else in the battalion, a new guy. ...
... Most combat fatalities are neither storied nor spectacular. Spc. Martin Kondor and Spc. Bert Hoyer died while traveling in vehicles that were hit with improvised explosive devices (IED), as the military calls them, or roadside bombs, which is a clearer definition. Kondor acted as a bodyguard for an infantry colonel whose job it was to spread American good will to the Iraqi people. The colonel was fortunate enough to survive. Pfc. Luis Moreno was shot while guarding a gas station. Dominican by birth, he was awarded U.S. citizenship posthumously. Staff Sgt. Scott Rose died when the Black Hawk helicopter he served on went down. The Humvee that Pvt. Bryan Nicholas Spry was driving crossed a bridge that crumbled under the vehicle. Three of his comrades swam to safety, but Spry was unconscious, and his lungs filled with water. Pfc. Bruce Miller, Jr. died from a noncombat gunshot wound; his death is still under investigation.
...
The colleagues of these fallen would have been asked to pack their personal belongings for shipment home. Long before they were killed, the dead would have been advised to discard any paraphernalia they didn’t want people back home to receive. Every soldier carries a private self that even his closest loved ones will never know. And they should not. Shortly after their deaths, the unit armorer assigned their weapons to someone else in the battalion, a new guy. ...
Labels: war
Saturday, March 17, 2007
The Women’s War - N.Y. Times
Many female soldiers have lived through the terrible violence of the war in Iraq. Others have experienced sexual assault — or worse, a combination of the two. They have found themselves struggling to cope with their lives.
On the morning of Monday, Jan. 9, 2006, a 21-year-old Army specialist named Suzanne Swift went AWOL. Her unit, the 54th Military Police Company, out of Fort Lewis, Wash., was two days away from leaving for Iraq. Swift and her platoon had been home less than a year, having completed one 12-month tour of duty in February 2005, and now the rumor was that they were headed to Baghdad to run a detention center.
...
She told Army investigators that the reason she did not report for deployment was that she had been sexually harassed repeatedly by three of her supervisors throughout her military service: beginning in Kuwait; through much of her time in Iraq; and following her return to Fort Lewis. She claimed too to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, a highly debilitating condition brought on by an abnormal amount of stress. ...
Many female soldiers have lived through the terrible violence of the war in Iraq. Others have experienced sexual assault — or worse, a combination of the two. They have found themselves struggling to cope with their lives.
On the morning of Monday, Jan. 9, 2006, a 21-year-old Army specialist named Suzanne Swift went AWOL. Her unit, the 54th Military Police Company, out of Fort Lewis, Wash., was two days away from leaving for Iraq. Swift and her platoon had been home less than a year, having completed one 12-month tour of duty in February 2005, and now the rumor was that they were headed to Baghdad to run a detention center.
...
She told Army investigators that the reason she did not report for deployment was that she had been sexually harassed repeatedly by three of her supervisors throughout her military service: beginning in Kuwait; through much of her time in Iraq; and following her return to Fort Lewis. She claimed too to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, a highly debilitating condition brought on by an abnormal amount of stress. ...
Labels: war
At Housing Project, Both Fear and Renewal - N.Y. Times
On a night of freezing temperatures, a bare-chested baby crawled alone along an open ninth-floor gallery at the Cabrini Green housing project [in Chicago], its wails piercing through a nearby apartment’s living room walls.
“Whose child is this?” Mattie Gibson shouted, darting from the apartment and peering into vacant units. “Hello? There’s a baby here!”
From a corner apartment, two little boys from a family of squatters emerged to take the child from Ms. Gibson’s arms.
...
Cabrini Green was the kind of place where a young boy could be killed by sniper fire while holding his mother’s hand on the way to school, as happened in the fall of 1992.
Though life in the project remains hellish — a woman recently fatally overdosed in the stairwell near Ms. Gibson’s door, and drug dealers sometimes take control of the building entrances — there is a feeling that the worst of the bad old days are over for the neighborhood at large. From the gallery outside her apartment, Ms. Gibson can see the gleaming lights of two new Starbucks, a Blockbuster and the shopping carts from a stylish grocery store. ...
On a night of freezing temperatures, a bare-chested baby crawled alone along an open ninth-floor gallery at the Cabrini Green housing project [in Chicago], its wails piercing through a nearby apartment’s living room walls.
“Whose child is this?” Mattie Gibson shouted, darting from the apartment and peering into vacant units. “Hello? There’s a baby here!”
From a corner apartment, two little boys from a family of squatters emerged to take the child from Ms. Gibson’s arms.
...
Cabrini Green was the kind of place where a young boy could be killed by sniper fire while holding his mother’s hand on the way to school, as happened in the fall of 1992.
Though life in the project remains hellish — a woman recently fatally overdosed in the stairwell near Ms. Gibson’s door, and drug dealers sometimes take control of the building entrances — there is a feeling that the worst of the bad old days are over for the neighborhood at large. From the gallery outside her apartment, Ms. Gibson can see the gleaming lights of two new Starbucks, a Blockbuster and the shopping carts from a stylish grocery store. ...
Labels: suffering
Facing Life With a Lethal Gene - N.Y. Times
... Huntington’s, the incurable brain disorder that possessed her grandfather’s body and ravaged his mind for three decades, typically strikes in middle age. But most young adults who know the disease runs in their family have avoided the DNA test that can tell whether they will get it, preferring the torture — and hope — of not knowing.
...
Anyone who carries the gene will inevitably develop Huntington’s.
She fought her tears. She tried for humor. ...
... Huntington’s, the incurable brain disorder that possessed her grandfather’s body and ravaged his mind for three decades, typically strikes in middle age. But most young adults who know the disease runs in their family have avoided the DNA test that can tell whether they will get it, preferring the torture — and hope — of not knowing.
...
Anyone who carries the gene will inevitably develop Huntington’s.
She fought her tears. She tried for humor. ...
Labels: sickness
Killing Jared - Salon
Matt Baker was a restless teenager in suburban Las Vegas who loved gangster movies and acting cool. Nobody could imagine he wanted to murder his best friend and bury him in the desert.
Matt Baker was the first to pay his condolences when the news came that the body of Jared Whaley, one of his best friends, had finally been found in the desert outside of Las Vegas, on March 2, 2004. The 17-year-old Whaley had been stripped naked, shot twice, and some of his teeth had been cut out.
...
Today, Matt Baker sits in a Nevada prison, convicted of murdering Jared Whaley, shooting him in the chest and head with a shotgun. He will spend at least 35 years in prison, a sentence longer than the ones received by his four teenage friends, also involved in the killing. ... Matt never explained why he killed Jared.
...
Matt moved to the valley from Pomona, Calif., with his mom (he told friends that his dad had died before he was born). She worked as a clerk at a jewelry store on the Strip, living paycheck to paycheck and not always quick to pay bills. "By the time I was arrested," Matt wrote me, "I had lived in eleven different places I can recall, but I lived at my grandmother's twice so that means I moved twelve times.
...
Kids of tough, resilient single moms, with nonexistent dads, Matt and Jared were selfish to a fault, and became more so the more they hung out. They weren't much for responsibility -- neither one had ever had a job, nor much of a plan of what to do after high school, and now they talked about dropping out of high school too. A lot of what made their relationship work was that Matt was incredibly shy, and he was just in awe of Jared's nerve, his ability to say whatever he wanted without caring what anyone thought.
...
Anything to do with a real, honest-to-God murder would probably have stayed that way if another Shane -- Shane Johnson -- hadn't moved to town. ... The year before, he had transformed from clean-cut junior ROTC member when he followed his older brother into membership in a KKK spinoff, the International Klans of America. "It was fun," he would tell me. "We went to lots of barbecues, told jokes, ate good food. I had a bad home life, and it gave me a new family." ...
Matt Baker was a restless teenager in suburban Las Vegas who loved gangster movies and acting cool. Nobody could imagine he wanted to murder his best friend and bury him in the desert.
Matt Baker was the first to pay his condolences when the news came that the body of Jared Whaley, one of his best friends, had finally been found in the desert outside of Las Vegas, on March 2, 2004. The 17-year-old Whaley had been stripped naked, shot twice, and some of his teeth had been cut out.
...
Today, Matt Baker sits in a Nevada prison, convicted of murdering Jared Whaley, shooting him in the chest and head with a shotgun. He will spend at least 35 years in prison, a sentence longer than the ones received by his four teenage friends, also involved in the killing. ... Matt never explained why he killed Jared.
...
Matt moved to the valley from Pomona, Calif., with his mom (he told friends that his dad had died before he was born). She worked as a clerk at a jewelry store on the Strip, living paycheck to paycheck and not always quick to pay bills. "By the time I was arrested," Matt wrote me, "I had lived in eleven different places I can recall, but I lived at my grandmother's twice so that means I moved twelve times.
...
Kids of tough, resilient single moms, with nonexistent dads, Matt and Jared were selfish to a fault, and became more so the more they hung out. They weren't much for responsibility -- neither one had ever had a job, nor much of a plan of what to do after high school, and now they talked about dropping out of high school too. A lot of what made their relationship work was that Matt was incredibly shy, and he was just in awe of Jared's nerve, his ability to say whatever he wanted without caring what anyone thought.
...
Anything to do with a real, honest-to-God murder would probably have stayed that way if another Shane -- Shane Johnson -- hadn't moved to town. ... The year before, he had transformed from clean-cut junior ROTC member when he followed his older brother into membership in a KKK spinoff, the International Klans of America. "It was fun," he would tell me. "We went to lots of barbecues, told jokes, ate good food. I had a bad home life, and it gave me a new family." ...
Labels: murder
Vets on the Street - Newsweek
Hundreds of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are ending up homeless. How could this happen?
Kevin Felty came back from Iraq in 2003 with nowhere to stay, and not enough money to rent an apartment. He and his wife of four years moved in with his sister in Florida, but the couple quickly overstayed their welcome. Jobless and wrestling with what he later learned was posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Felty suddenly found himself scrambling to find a place for himself and his wife, who was six-months pregnant. They found their way to a shelter for homeless veterans, which supported his wife during her pregnancy and helped Felty get counseling and find a job. ...
Hundreds of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are ending up homeless. How could this happen?
Kevin Felty came back from Iraq in 2003 with nowhere to stay, and not enough money to rent an apartment. He and his wife of four years moved in with his sister in Florida, but the couple quickly overstayed their welcome. Jobless and wrestling with what he later learned was posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Felty suddenly found himself scrambling to find a place for himself and his wife, who was six-months pregnant. They found their way to a shelter for homeless veterans, which supported his wife during her pregnancy and helped Felty get counseling and find a job. ...
One Murder Too Many - Newsweek
David Rattray died in one of the senseless killings that have become all too common in crime-ravaged South Africa. Will his killing be a turning point in the nation’s fight against violence?
Even in crime-ravaged South Africa, the killing has shocked the nation. The 48-year-old Rattray died on Jan. 26, when six robbers slipped onto his game preserve, Fugitives’ Drift. The men came from the poor Zulu communities that eke out their survival on hardscrabble farms in this rural part of KwaZulu-Natal province. They accosted workers at the lodge, where tourists stay during battlefield forays, then forced one of the workers to take them to Rattray’s home. Rattray’s wife, Nicky, screamed when she saw one of the intruders heading for their bedroom; Rattray pushed her out of the way and moved toward the gunman, who fired three shots. Two hit the historian in the arm and hand, but a third fatal bullet hit him in the chest. The robbers fled empty-handed. Initial reports speculated that the attack may have been part of a possible vendetta over a land dispute between Rattray and local farmers, but a confession by one of the attackers subsequently arrested by police suggests that burglary was the gang’s real motive. ...
David Rattray died in one of the senseless killings that have become all too common in crime-ravaged South Africa. Will his killing be a turning point in the nation’s fight against violence?
Even in crime-ravaged South Africa, the killing has shocked the nation. The 48-year-old Rattray died on Jan. 26, when six robbers slipped onto his game preserve, Fugitives’ Drift. The men came from the poor Zulu communities that eke out their survival on hardscrabble farms in this rural part of KwaZulu-Natal province. They accosted workers at the lodge, where tourists stay during battlefield forays, then forced one of the workers to take them to Rattray’s home. Rattray’s wife, Nicky, screamed when she saw one of the intruders heading for their bedroom; Rattray pushed her out of the way and moved toward the gunman, who fired three shots. Two hit the historian in the arm and hand, but a third fatal bullet hit him in the chest. The robbers fled empty-handed. Initial reports speculated that the attack may have been part of a possible vendetta over a land dispute between Rattray and local farmers, but a confession by one of the attackers subsequently arrested by police suggests that burglary was the gang’s real motive. ...
Labels: murder
Displaced Colombians Struggle to Survive in Urban Slums - Doctors Without Borders
... Often forced at gunpoint to abandon most of their worldly possessions and their way of life, displaced Colombians have had to make a difficult transition to urban slums where poverty, disease, and violence make daily life extremely hard.
"Currently, we are living with my sister-in-law, who is also displaced," one Soachan resident told MSF. "She has five children. Her six-month old baby is sick–he has lost weight–and she does not work every day. We all sleep in the same room. There are ten of us and we pile on top of each other. The only one working, although intermittently, is my sister-in-law. She supports us all. Some days we have no food for our children and we just stay here looking at each other. I feel ashamed but I hope the situation changes. My sister-in-law has been displaced for two years and I came with my daughters a month ago and my husband followed a month later. We have been told we will receive some aid in a month's time." ...
... Often forced at gunpoint to abandon most of their worldly possessions and their way of life, displaced Colombians have had to make a difficult transition to urban slums where poverty, disease, and violence make daily life extremely hard.
"Currently, we are living with my sister-in-law, who is also displaced," one Soachan resident told MSF. "She has five children. Her six-month old baby is sick–he has lost weight–and she does not work every day. We all sleep in the same room. There are ten of us and we pile on top of each other. The only one working, although intermittently, is my sister-in-law. She supports us all. Some days we have no food for our children and we just stay here looking at each other. I feel ashamed but I hope the situation changes. My sister-in-law has been displaced for two years and I came with my daughters a month ago and my husband followed a month later. We have been told we will receive some aid in a month's time." ...
Labels: suffering
My Life with HIV - Doctors Without Borders
MSF gave cameras to people living with HIV/AIDS in eight countries and asked them, with the help of their friends and relatives, to document their lives in photos and words. These are their stories.
Ton from Thailand: ... "When I was sick in hospital with TB my sisters would grind up my pills for me so I could swallow them. They were always there for me.
But the greatest surprise was how HIV brought me closer to my father. I had always believed my father didn't love me and that we could never hope to understand each other. But when he knew about my status my father did many unexpected things and showed affection in many ways. He started studying up on HIV/Aids, attending training courses and exploring different treatment options. Now we are much closer than before.
... Even after the TB I still didn't want to take ARVs. Not long after, I became sick with another opportunistic infection: CMV. This is common in people with HIV and can make you lose your sight.
One day I woke up and it was like a black curtain had gone down over one eye. I tried to rub it away but it wouldn't go.
My mother took me to the hospital and I was put on a course of treatment that meant I had to have injections directly into my eyeball. The doctors told me that if I didn't start ARV treatment I would go blind. I can't tell you how terrifying those injections were. I wouldn't wish them on anybody. ..."
...
MSF gave cameras to people living with HIV/AIDS in eight countries and asked them, with the help of their friends and relatives, to document their lives in photos and words. These are their stories.
Ton from Thailand: ... "When I was sick in hospital with TB my sisters would grind up my pills for me so I could swallow them. They were always there for me.
But the greatest surprise was how HIV brought me closer to my father. I had always believed my father didn't love me and that we could never hope to understand each other. But when he knew about my status my father did many unexpected things and showed affection in many ways. He started studying up on HIV/Aids, attending training courses and exploring different treatment options. Now we are much closer than before.
... Even after the TB I still didn't want to take ARVs. Not long after, I became sick with another opportunistic infection: CMV. This is common in people with HIV and can make you lose your sight.
One day I woke up and it was like a black curtain had gone down over one eye. I tried to rub it away but it wouldn't go.
My mother took me to the hospital and I was put on a course of treatment that meant I had to have injections directly into my eyeball. The doctors told me that if I didn't start ARV treatment I would go blind. I can't tell you how terrifying those injections were. I wouldn't wish them on anybody. ..."
...
Labels: AIDS
Among Sudan crimes, stealing childhood - MSNBC
Thousands of orphans from Darfur struggle to survive in Chad
From a distance, Khamis and his friends look like any schoolboys, but when you look closer you find a stolen childhood. His mother is dead, his father is lost. At 13, he is an orphan, and home is a refugee camp.
Three years ago, he told us, the Arab militia, the Janjaweed, swept in on horseback. Alone, Khamis stood up to the armed soldiers to protect his family's precious cows.
"[The] soldier turned around, he called me a slave, and hit my face with a stick," he says. ...
Thousands of orphans from Darfur struggle to survive in Chad
From a distance, Khamis and his friends look like any schoolboys, but when you look closer you find a stolen childhood. His mother is dead, his father is lost. At 13, he is an orphan, and home is a refugee camp.
Three years ago, he told us, the Arab militia, the Janjaweed, swept in on horseback. Alone, Khamis stood up to the armed soldiers to protect his family's precious cows.
"[The] soldier turned around, he called me a slave, and hit my face with a stick," he says. ...
Labels: suffering
Few know who is held behind the tiled walls of Tehran's Evin prison - Globe and Mail
Iran's baby boom created a generation that now feels stifled by the spirit of 1979
Two weeks ago, plainclothes officers stopped three women as they were about to board an airplane at Tehran airport, loaded them into cars, and took them away without explanation.
They became the latest people to disappear into a place that all educated Iranians know and fear, a place known as Section 209. These women were writers with relatively moderate views, on their way to attend a journalism seminar in India.
They had government permission to attend, their passports had been stamped and none of them had ever had problems with the law.
Mansoureh Shojai, Sadigheh Taghinia and Farnaz Seifi were lucky: They were released on bail after a day of frightening interrogation, and charged with the nebulous crime of "acting against national security." Countless others remained in cells around them, held for months without charge.
...
The wing is forever associated, in the minds of both Iranians and Canadians, with Zahra Kazemi, the Montreal photographer who was arrested while taking pictures outside the prison in 2003. Inside, she was tortured, brutally abused and then beaten to death. ...
Iran's baby boom created a generation that now feels stifled by the spirit of 1979
Two weeks ago, plainclothes officers stopped three women as they were about to board an airplane at Tehran airport, loaded them into cars, and took them away without explanation.
They became the latest people to disappear into a place that all educated Iranians know and fear, a place known as Section 209. These women were writers with relatively moderate views, on their way to attend a journalism seminar in India.
They had government permission to attend, their passports had been stamped and none of them had ever had problems with the law.
Mansoureh Shojai, Sadigheh Taghinia and Farnaz Seifi were lucky: They were released on bail after a day of frightening interrogation, and charged with the nebulous crime of "acting against national security." Countless others remained in cells around them, held for months without charge.
...
The wing is forever associated, in the minds of both Iranians and Canadians, with Zahra Kazemi, the Montreal photographer who was arrested while taking pictures outside the prison in 2003. Inside, she was tortured, brutally abused and then beaten to death. ...
Labels: suffering
Teen killed after affair with teacher; husband charged - CNN
In a tragic twist to a familiar story, a teenager who had sex with his married 30-year-old teacher was fatally shot outside the woman's home, and authorities have charged the woman's husband.
...
Powell "was a great kid, full of life," Flynn said. He had taught himself to play guitar and just received his driver's license. His adoptive parents, Scarlett and Jack Powell, had just bought him a car.
But he left school November 20 and did not return. School officials refuse to explain why, citing privacy laws. Flynn said her son had a substance-abuse problem and went to rehab for less than a month.
Norman McLean described his son, one of his eight children, as "an excellent person" who was not violent, but he acknowledged that his son "had a lot of burden on him for months now," referring to Erin McLean's affair. ...
In a tragic twist to a familiar story, a teenager who had sex with his married 30-year-old teacher was fatally shot outside the woman's home, and authorities have charged the woman's husband.
...
Powell "was a great kid, full of life," Flynn said. He had taught himself to play guitar and just received his driver's license. His adoptive parents, Scarlett and Jack Powell, had just bought him a car.
But he left school November 20 and did not return. School officials refuse to explain why, citing privacy laws. Flynn said her son had a substance-abuse problem and went to rehab for less than a month.
Norman McLean described his son, one of his eight children, as "an excellent person" who was not violent, but he acknowledged that his son "had a lot of burden on him for months now," referring to Erin McLean's affair. ...
Labels: murder
Monkey and dog fast friends after flood - 9news.com
A monkey and a dog in northern Mozambique have surprised locals by becoming firm friends after flooding in 2002.
Villagers in Caia are not sure how the unlikely pair met, but think they bonded as they fought to survive the raging waters in the area. The monkey, Kiko, and dog, Billy, eat, walk and even sleep together. The sight of the skinny dog emerging from the bush with a tiny monkey on his back is now a common sight in the region. The two friends live with a family that runs a bar in Caia. While the pair avoid getting too close to people, they will wander happily around the yard. Billy isn't the only one looking out for the monkey. He has other siblings who help protect Kiko from hungry neighboring village dogs, who have tried to turn the little monkey into a breakfast snack. [end]
A monkey and a dog in northern Mozambique have surprised locals by becoming firm friends after flooding in 2002.
Villagers in Caia are not sure how the unlikely pair met, but think they bonded as they fought to survive the raging waters in the area. The monkey, Kiko, and dog, Billy, eat, walk and even sleep together. The sight of the skinny dog emerging from the bush with a tiny monkey on his back is now a common sight in the region. The two friends live with a family that runs a bar in Caia. While the pair avoid getting too close to people, they will wander happily around the yard. Billy isn't the only one looking out for the monkey. He has other siblings who help protect Kiko from hungry neighboring village dogs, who have tried to turn the little monkey into a breakfast snack. [end]
Labels: animals
Pain of Afghan suicide women - BBC News
Gulsoom is 17-years-old and married. Last year she tried to commit suicide - she failed.
She set fire to herself but, against the odds, survived with appalling injuries.
Her plight reflects that of a growing number of young Afghan women, campaigners say.
Driven to desperation by forced marriages and abusive husbands, more and more are seeking release through self-immolation.
Gulsoom was engaged at the age of 12. Three years later her family married her to a man aged 40 who she says was addicted to drugs. ...
Gulsoom is 17-years-old and married. Last year she tried to commit suicide - she failed.
She set fire to herself but, against the odds, survived with appalling injuries.
Her plight reflects that of a growing number of young Afghan women, campaigners say.
Driven to desperation by forced marriages and abusive husbands, more and more are seeking release through self-immolation.
Gulsoom was engaged at the age of 12. Three years later her family married her to a man aged 40 who she says was addicted to drugs. ...
Labels: suicide
Voices from inside Zimbabwe - BBC News
... Life for people like myself and my girlfriend, who finished university in 2004, has never been rosy. I finished my education almost three years ago and yet I cannot even afford anything, not even a small room of my own.
We would like to go to South Africa and are definitely planning to go. I am waiting for my work permit and then we'll see what happens over that side.
I want to be able to make plans for the future. Here one cannot.
Your money erodes before you. Say that today you have 10 million Zimbabwean dollars ($177 as per the current black market exchange rate) in the bank, tomorrow it will be eight million and at the end of week it will be nothing.
It is impossible to put your money in the bank - you would lose it all. As soon as you get paid you must spend it, as soon as you can, just to maximise its worth.
...
[Related article: So where are Zimbabweans going?
The BBC News website has been speaking to Zimbabweans who have left the country in recent years about their reasons and the risks they took.]
... Life for people like myself and my girlfriend, who finished university in 2004, has never been rosy. I finished my education almost three years ago and yet I cannot even afford anything, not even a small room of my own.
We would like to go to South Africa and are definitely planning to go. I am waiting for my work permit and then we'll see what happens over that side.
I want to be able to make plans for the future. Here one cannot.
Your money erodes before you. Say that today you have 10 million Zimbabwean dollars ($177 as per the current black market exchange rate) in the bank, tomorrow it will be eight million and at the end of week it will be nothing.
It is impossible to put your money in the bank - you would lose it all. As soon as you get paid you must spend it, as soon as you can, just to maximise its worth.
...
[Related article: So where are Zimbabweans going?
The BBC News website has been speaking to Zimbabweans who have left the country in recent years about their reasons and the risks they took.]
Labels: suffering
Friday, March 16, 2007
Christo Brand & Vusumzi Mcongo - The Forgiveness Project
Christo Brand was one of the warders directly assigned to guard Nelson Mandela at Robben Island prison between 1978 and 1987. At the same time Vusumzi Mcongo was a political prisoner serving a 12-year sentence. Following the collapse of the apartheid regime, both men now work for the Robben Island Museum in Cape Town.
CB: The first time I saw Vusumzi was on our way to Robben Island. We both arrived on the same day in 1978. I was a warder. He was a prisoner in chains, on his way to maximum security. We did not speak to one another. The first time we spoke properly was nearly 20 years later when we were both applying for a job at Robben Island Museum. We embraced each other warmly. Now that we work together we talk about what was wrong in the past. Sometimes we have a laugh about things that happened then. There is no bitterness between us.
When I started on Robben Island I was told that the men we guarded were no better than animals. Some warders hated the prisoners and were very cruel. But I could never hate because these political prisoners were far more polite and friendly than any prisoner I’d met before.
Eventually I was put in charge of the educational studies of Nelson Mandela and a few other prisoners. Mr Mandela was determined to turn Robben Island into a university. It meant that prisoners who arrived with no education at all left as powerfully educated men. He kept saying that as long as you’re alive, they can’t take away your education. He was even determined to learn how to speak and write Afrikaans.
Mr Mandela is the epitome of forgiveness, able to reach out to all people. While he was in prison, the man who was the architect of apartheid, Hendrik Verwoerd, died. When Mandela was finally released, one of the first people he visited was Verwoerd’s widow, Betsie. She received him with open arms in their house in a white suburb. ...
Christo Brand was one of the warders directly assigned to guard Nelson Mandela at Robben Island prison between 1978 and 1987. At the same time Vusumzi Mcongo was a political prisoner serving a 12-year sentence. Following the collapse of the apartheid regime, both men now work for the Robben Island Museum in Cape Town.
CB: The first time I saw Vusumzi was on our way to Robben Island. We both arrived on the same day in 1978. I was a warder. He was a prisoner in chains, on his way to maximum security. We did not speak to one another. The first time we spoke properly was nearly 20 years later when we were both applying for a job at Robben Island Museum. We embraced each other warmly. Now that we work together we talk about what was wrong in the past. Sometimes we have a laugh about things that happened then. There is no bitterness between us.
When I started on Robben Island I was told that the men we guarded were no better than animals. Some warders hated the prisoners and were very cruel. But I could never hate because these political prisoners were far more polite and friendly than any prisoner I’d met before.
Eventually I was put in charge of the educational studies of Nelson Mandela and a few other prisoners. Mr Mandela was determined to turn Robben Island into a university. It meant that prisoners who arrived with no education at all left as powerfully educated men. He kept saying that as long as you’re alive, they can’t take away your education. He was even determined to learn how to speak and write Afrikaans.
Mr Mandela is the epitome of forgiveness, able to reach out to all people. While he was in prison, the man who was the architect of apartheid, Hendrik Verwoerd, died. When Mandela was finally released, one of the first people he visited was Verwoerd’s widow, Betsie. She received him with open arms in their house in a white suburb. ...
Labels: forgiveness
Photo project helps teens describe life with painful disease - Seattle P-I
... Through the photo project, called Photovoice, group leaders at the clinic gave the teens disposable cameras and sent them to visually describe a life with the disease.
"Sometimes we give cameras to people who don't feel like they have power and it helps them create change," said Seema Mhatre, Photovoice's coordinator. "When these kids have pain crises, they have to be admitted to the hospital many times and they sometimes don't feel like they're understood."
The idea was to give them a voice to share with others.
...
Like everyone afflicted with the disease, Buck was born with sickle cell, which causes the body to make abnormally shaped red blood cells. The resulting hard and curved cells pass painfully through the system, and can block blood flow to organs, causing organ failure. Frequent hospital visits for blood transfusions and pain medication are common.
Buck's family stopped counting at visit number 50.
... Through the photo project, called Photovoice, group leaders at the clinic gave the teens disposable cameras and sent them to visually describe a life with the disease.
"Sometimes we give cameras to people who don't feel like they have power and it helps them create change," said Seema Mhatre, Photovoice's coordinator. "When these kids have pain crises, they have to be admitted to the hospital many times and they sometimes don't feel like they're understood."
The idea was to give them a voice to share with others.
...
Like everyone afflicted with the disease, Buck was born with sickle cell, which causes the body to make abnormally shaped red blood cells. The resulting hard and curved cells pass painfully through the system, and can block blood flow to organs, causing organ failure. Frequent hospital visits for blood transfusions and pain medication are common.
Buck's family stopped counting at visit number 50.
Labels: sickness
'Really bad karma' to take wheel of prayers - Seattle P-I
The Tibetan prayer wheel sat about two feet off the sidewalk on a wooden beam in front of the Planet Earth Yoga Center in Fremont.
When people and yoga students passed by on North 35th Street, they could spin the copper drum, which has prayers pressed on its side and a scroll of good thoughts inside.
In the Buddhist tradition, thoughts of peace and awakening would flow into the wind. But the 30-pound handmade wheel from Nepal has been missing since Saturday.
...
Richmond has a message for the thieves: "They can return it and make themselves better."
But if the wheel is not returned, Richmond will have another one made for the yoga center and help raise money for it. ...
The Tibetan prayer wheel sat about two feet off the sidewalk on a wooden beam in front of the Planet Earth Yoga Center in Fremont.
When people and yoga students passed by on North 35th Street, they could spin the copper drum, which has prayers pressed on its side and a scroll of good thoughts inside.
In the Buddhist tradition, thoughts of peace and awakening would flow into the wind. But the 30-pound handmade wheel from Nepal has been missing since Saturday.
...
Richmond has a message for the thieves: "They can return it and make themselves better."
But if the wheel is not returned, Richmond will have another one made for the yoga center and help raise money for it. ...
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