Darfur Refugee Camp 

Scotsman.com News - Sudan - UN cash crisis leaves 1m in Darfur facing half rations

Not only is the U.N. unwilling to take military action against the militias, now they cannot even feed the refugees?

Scotsman.com News - Sudan - UN cash crisis leaves 1m in Darfur facing half rations

Carlos Veloso, the WFP’s emergency co-ordinator for Darfur, said: "We have done everything to avoid this, including borrowing supplies. We are simply left with no alternative.

"We are very concerned about the negative effect this drastic ration cut will have on the health and psychological wellbeing of thousands of people, who are already weakened and traumatised by war."

The reduction in food aid will significantly affect the diet of more than one million poor and vulnerable people, WFP added.

The agency said it had received only 41 per cent of the required funds for the emergency programme in 2005.

Scotsman.com News - Sudan - Annan admits UN is failing to prevent human rights abuses

Maybe Annan learned something from Rwanda....

Scotsman.com News - Sudan - Annan admits UN is failing to prevent human rights abuses

Turbanhead.com - Shocked, Awed & Liberated!

An interesting post on the unique intersection of a Western fashion shoot and a Sri Lankan town hit by the Tsunami...The photos are somewhat haunting...
Turbanhead.com - Shocked, Awed & Liberated!

The Allure of the Unknown

Another episode in the Muttawa chronicles...a humorous yet accurate description of a harangue by the Commission for the Promotion of Vice and Virtue
(BTW men do get the same sort of lecture too...been there, done that, got the spittled Tshirt)
The Allure of the Unknown...
" A man with a long beard emerged and started screaming at me in a most threatening manner. He was accompanied by a woman who was demonstrating her might by waving her black begloved fists in my direction...Lunging within a few centimeters of my car the man expectorated up the choice contents of his lungs and spat them all over my windscreen. He repeated this a couple of times and insulted and abused me in between his deposits of saliva, narrating how I was accursed and would go to hell. His companion cheered him on with gusto and after his alveoli had dried up completely, he got into his car and left..."
(Read the article to learn why this hapless woman received this public display of disapprobation)

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: One Hundred Years of Uncertainty

Einstein's problem with quantam mechanics...
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: One Hundred Years of Uncertainty

Opposing the Winds of Change

Trying to come to grips with the slow rate of change in Saudi Arabia....

In the latter half of the article there is a reference in the article to the vanity of some Saudi Male drivers who have their rearview mirrors repositioned so that they can continuously check out the position of their gutra. This was one of the most dangerous things I found about driving in Saudi...the gutra (head dress) completely blocks the side vision, and then the rearview mirror is positioned for the driver to continuously look at himself! It was basically damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead for most drivers! Actually, more accurately, driving in Riyadh is akin to driving through a slew of torpedoes!

Opposing the Winds of Change: "A Saudi novelist made a point that summarized the atmosphere in a single sentence. "If we want to change things, we have to be persistent and quick. It is inexplicable that at present in Saudi Arabia, we are still discussing whether to teach English in elementary school and whether PE should be introduced in girls's schools."

The Observer | International | How many more must die before Kofi quits?

This criticism of Kofi's Annan's passivity is echoed in the book I am currently reading about the Rwandan massacre" I Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Die Along with Our Families." BTW, this is one of the most gripping books I have read in a long time....unfortunately...
The Observer | International | How many more must die before Kofi quits?

Former UN human rights lawyer Kenneth Cain says the secretary-general could finally redeem himself by saving lives - after years of lethal passivity

Spirit of America

Excellent blogsite regarding current events in Lebanon and the impact of Hariri's death...

Spirit of America: "Grief is contagious. I did not know the man. I'm not even sure I had heard of him before he was gone. But I felt the floor drop out from under me when I saw what he meant to the people of Lebanon. His assasination kicked off a liberal-democratic revolution in an Arab Middle East country - the first ever of its kind - and I knew at once when I arrived that I was standing on an important little piece of this world"

Two year old with bilateral retinoblastoma 

Retinoblastoma

The baby seen above had a grapefruit sized tumor of his left eye and a shrunken, phthisical right eye from presumed bilateral retinoblastoma. He was found in the bush by a missionary and brought in to see us in Jos. An extenteration had been planned for the left eye, but the baby started doing quite poorly from a medical point of view and it was not felt safe to take him to the OR. (Keeping in mind, that the ICU does not have ventilators, or running water for that matter).

Retinoblastoma has a cure rate of greater than 90% in the Western World. Even at the King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital in Saudi Arabia (where I worked for nearly a decade), we had a cure rate approaching 90%.

I was quite excited on my initial trip to Nigeria last year to do some tumor work, as I was initimately involved in our biweekly retinoblastoma clinic in Saudi.

However, in Nigeria (and much of subSaharan Africa) it is very rare to see a patient early enough to save the eye. In fact, in the majority of cases the child will die within a year due to extraocular spread/metastasis. Even if the tumor is caught early, most parents cannot afford the workup (CT/MRI scan) and/or the treatment (chemotherapy/radiation etc...). The other huge problem is that there is a lack of basic equipment for the doctors--indirect ophthalmoscopes, cryotherapy units, lasers...

As Bono sings in "Crumbs from Your Table":
(fromU2's latest album, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb)

"Where you live should not decide
Whether you live or whether you die"

Link:http://radio.terra.com.br/busca/musicas.php?musica=Crumbs%20From%20Your%20Table

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Animal laughs no joke says expert

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Animal laughs no joke says expert: "Many animals may have their own forms of laughter, says a US researcher writing in the magazine Science."

Dispatches From Zimbabwe - To understand the election results, you must understand the nation's hunger. By Gretchen L.�Wilson

More on starvation and voting for Mugabe from Zimbabwe...
Dispatches From Zimbabwe - To understand the election results, you must understand the nation's hunger. By Gretchen L.�Wilson: "It's hard to overstate the extreme poverty and tremendous state power in today's Zimbabwe. The Economist has declared Zimbabwe the worst place to live in the world, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently included the nation in the world's six 'outposts of tyranny.'
In the weeks leading up to yesterday's parliamentary elections, the government's control and manipulation of food became a major campaign issue. The main slogan of the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, was, 'Let your stomach cast your vote.' Some people told me that even rallies of the ruling ZANU-PF party were interrupted by the crowd crying 'nzara,' the Shona word for hunger."...
"There is no food shortage in this country," said Muriel Thamu Zemura, a spokeswoman at the head office of the Grain Marketing Board, the state-run monopoly grain distributor. "We are ready to feed the nation for one and a half years to come."

Every time I told an average Zimbabwean what Zemura told me, it was met with rounds of laughter. Many told me they're now down to eating only one meal a day, something they say ZANU-PF ignores...

"Their use of food as a political weapon has angered Zimbabweans," he said. "But it's one thing to be angry and another thing to be starving two weeks from now because of a lack of food."...
"People will continue to cut down meals and soon will be eating one meal every two days," the official said. "Combine this with the high HIV prevalence rate in Zimbabwe, and when this crop is finished, we'll be seeing even more malnutrition deaths. Unless we import massive amounts of aid, we'll start to see deaths directly attributed to starvation."...

Tsetse fly vector for African Sleeping Sickness 

Trypanosomiasis

For anyone who watched "House" last night, here is a good link about African Sleeping Sickness. This is the one TV show I watch--a medical detective show covering unusual conditions, from colchicine toxicity to leprosy to African Sleeping Sicknesss! The main character is"Dr. House" --a brilliant, unbelievably cynical, yet peculiarly charming attending.
Trypanosomiasis: "More than 66 million women, men and children in 36 countries of sub-Saharan Africa suffer from human African trypanosomiasis (HAT). There are two forms of African sleeping sickness, caused by two different parasites"

The World, Dubai [Island/Islands] - TEN Guide [UAE]

Wow, first the Burj Al Arab (the world's only 7 star hotel) and now this...Click on link to see the amazing photo. Although Dubai, is one of our favorite vacation spots (having been there five times) this latest project seems a bit excessive, even for the U.A.E. BTW, the Al Nakheel group was also very active in Saudi Arabia. One of the principal shareholders in this investment group was one of my patients.
The World, Dubai [Island/Islands] - TEN Guide [UAE]: "The same company that brought us The Palm Islands, Al Nakheel Properties (Nakheel Corp), have done it again expanding their portfolio of man-made islands with this latest Dubai island project shaped like the continents of the world"

The New Yorker: PRINTABLES

Interesting and balanced article regarding physician compensation in the U.S., written by a physician. Definitely a worthwhile read for non-physicians and physicans alike...

The New Yorker: PRINTABLES

Don't weep for me - Sunday Times - Times Online

Don't weep for me - Sunday Times - Times Online: "'A short while before dying, the Pope raised his right hand in a clear, although simply hinted at, gesture of blessing, as if he became aware of the crowd of faithful present in St Peter's Square, who in those moments were following the reciting of the Rosary,' he added.
'Just after the prayer ended, the Pope made a huge effort and pronounced the word 'Amen'. A moment later, he died.'"

Zimbabwe's downward spiral

Zimbabwe's downward spiral: "People have lost faith in the system," said the doctor. They think: "Why spend money on a sub-standard, ineffective service?" Now, if they really want to be cured, they go to a witch doctor.. Life expectancy in Zimbabwe is 33 years, compared to 63 in 1988."

allAfrica.com: Zimbabwe: Praying for Regime Change At Ballot Box

allAfrica.com: Zimbabwe: Praying for Regime Change At Ballot Box: "He will always be remembered as the man who launched the Gukurahundi war against ex-Zipra guerillas, in which 20 000 died, among them innocent women and children. He will also be remembered as the man who launched the so-called Third Chimurenga in which white farmers and their black workers were killed in 2000."