Response to Daily Show interview of Anna Baltzer & Dr. Mustafa Barghouti

Last night, I watched Jon Stewart's interview of Anna Baltzer & Dr. Barghouti.  The TV version was significantly cut down, so I wacthed the full version online, please watch the first part and the second part of the interview online.

This is what I sent The Daily Show in response:

"I just wanted to thank you for your brave decision to address the all-the-more obvious yet mysterious facet of Palestine/Israel conflict.

The fact that you, of ALL the prominent America media, has the courage and the character to bring into light a perspective that, although uncomfortable, addresses the heart of the issue- speaks volumes of your commitment to the truth VS propaganda.

Kudos to you and your staff for showing the courage that has been almost nonexistent in the US media for 60 years."

Show had their first heckler in 11 years and is now getting a LOT of hate-mail for bringing these guests on the show, so please show support, even if you don't agree with the guests, but for the sake of democracy and open media.  You can send your comments here:

http://www.comedycentral.com/help/questionsCC.jhtml

Pakistani military's assault in Waziristan

I am surprised by the lack of coverage of this significant event in the mainstream media, so I decided to keep track of it on my own:


Background:

On October 17, 2009, Pakistani military launched a massive operation, code-named Rah-i-Nijat (path to deliverance), with jets, helicopters, tanks and artillery in South Waziristan at US's behest.  During its previous three such operations in South Waziristan, — in 2004, 2005 and early last year -- military suffered heavy casualties before striking a peace pact.


Some Facts:

• South Waziristan has an area of about 6,620 square km (2,550 square miles).
• Population of about 500,000, (mostly Pashtuns) according to the most recent figures.  Largest tribe is of Mehsuds.
  
• A senior security official told Dawn that the estimated number of hardcore militants in South Waziristan was 10,000. The number includes 1,000 to 1500 foreign militants, most of them Uzbek.
  
• Approximately 30,000 soldiers were taking part in the operation, which is a combination of ground offensive and aerial strikes.
• No media coverage is allowed inside the affected territory.
  

Goal:

Isolate the Pakistani Taliban in their stronghold and hope other militant factions, including a Wazir-dominated faction led by commander Maulvi Nazir in South Waziristan, and other factions, will stay out of the battle.

Timeline (will try to update this daily as long as I can):

11/4/2009:

Since the last updates, there have been almost daily bombings in Pakistan, killing civilians and security personnel.  Sigh.

10/22/2009:

• The Karachi Stock Exchange KSE-100 Index today closed at 9,144, declining 103 points
• Illegal Afghans given 72 hours to leave the capital city Islamabad by Interior Minister Rahman Malik  and ordered a door-to-door search in five major sectors of the capital. 

10/21/2009:

Head of the United Nations peace-keeping mission in Sudan and former deputy director general military operations Brigadier Moinuddin Ahmed is assassinated, along with another army official in a shootout in Islamabad on Thursday. 

10/20/2009:

• International Islamic University, Islamabad is bombed killing three girls were among six people.
• Iran ramps up pressure on Pakistan over Jundallah bombing.

10/19/2009:

• In an open letter to the Mehsud tribes, Chief of the Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani seeks support of Mehsud tribes in the operation and expresses the hope that the tribes would fully back the army in the operation.
• The alleged Amir of the Karachi branch of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and his three accomplices are arrested on Monday. Police seizes a large cache of arms and ammunition.
• An insurgent Sunni organization called Jundallah associated suicide bomber kills seven commanders of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards and up to 42 other people on Sunday in an attack that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad charges has been plotted from Pakistan.

10/18/2009:

• Security forces claim on Sunday to have made steady gains and were surprised by low level of resistance (I'm not sure why surprised, they withdrew to avoid being bombed, like w/ the US in 2001).
• The Taliban spokesman claims that militants’ supporters were joining from religious organisations and madressahs in Punjab, Sindh and the NWFP, including Afghan Taliban commander Mullah Sangeen's 1,500 fighters.
• An anti-Baitullah militant group offers support for security forces against the TTP, “We are with the security forces and, if called, we would fight alongside them against (former TTP chief) Baitullah’s men,” a spokesman for the Misbahuddin group says.

10/17/2009:

250,000 IDPs from Waziristan, says UN (that's apparently half of the total population), while some sources put that number at 150,000

Better CPR technique, mouth to mouth not 'always' required!

I came across this new development in CPR techniques on CNN today, and thought was really cool! Mouth to mouth is not always necessary (children and drowning cases, it still is), simplifying the process in many cases.

Although, it's not really new, Arizonians were talking about this a year ago where "survival jumped from 4.7 percent with the old CPR to 17.6 percent with the new CCR".

The American Heart Association says bystanders who witness an adult's* sudden cardiac arrest can opt to perform hands-only CPR and skip mouth-to-mouth breathing. If someone collapses, stops normal breathing and is unresponsive to shaking:

First, have someone call 911, or call yourself.

Put the victim on the floor, face up.

Put one hand on top of the other in the middle of the victim's chest.

Push hard and fast, 100 presses a minute.

If there's another bystander, take turns.

Continue until paramedics take over.

Use an automated external defibrillator if available.

* Children and drowning victims still need mouth-to-mouth.

American healthcare reform and Autoimmunity

The on-going outrage of American public (mostly Republicans) against the recent healthcare reform is fascinating to me. It reminds me of a  medical condition called Autoimmunity where the body attacks and destroys itself from within.

The very same middle-class Americans who are in the most dire need for this reform, (one study shows 45,000 Americans die every year partly due to lack of health insurance), have been brainwashed into thinking that this is somehow "bad" for them. I saw on a doctor friend's facebook status a while ago that a lady patient of hers who had gone bankrupt for paying for her healthcare after losing her insurance was STILL against the healthcare reform!  The reform which makes a point to help people in exactly the situation like hers.

Classic three "arguments" that are put against the reform:

1) It'll put a beaurocrat between me and my doctor!

There is already a beaurocrat between you and the doctor- your private insurance company.  The only difference would be, with the reform, you would have at least some level of influence since government, at the end of the day, is accountable to the public.  Privately owned companies are only accountable to the Wall Street.

2) It'll turn us into a Socialist country!

From your complete judicial system, to law and enforcement, to military - they are already "socialized" institutions.   You wouldn't even dream (I hope) about putting these institutions that are in-charge of your physical-care, in the hands of private companies. But somehow, you think the same private companies should be the only in-charge of your health-care??

3) It'll drive private insurance companies out of business in the long run!

And I should care, because?  Taking more from people + giving back less, while keeping the difference as profit is a fine business model for car/home insurance companies, but not when comes to human life.  It is sacred, unless you disagree?  So if we consider human life to be a lot more than a mere commodity like a car/house etc., then how could we treat them all the same?

As history has shown, current private health insurance for-profit business model is neither economical nor moral, as Wendell Potter, former Vice President of Corporate Communications for the CIGNA corporation, discusses. Private health insurance deserves to go out of business ASAP.  This is not to be confused with the pharmaceutical companies, whose sole incentive to R&D is profit, which make sense.  They are creating tangible products to save life, rather than just bartering it.

Healthcare, is a right, especially in a civilized society, just as justice and physical security is.  It's not a privilege or a business.  So if there is anything outrageous about the healthcare reform, it's that it's taken so long for Americans to take it seriously.

Given how weak the anti-reform 'arguments' are, it shows no matter how technologically advanced or well-educated we become, propaganda will remain a force to reckon with.

A must-watch racism exercise for kids (and adults)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html

Obama, as the president of the US, was recently called a liar on national TV by senator Joe Wilson , while Kanya West recently sabotaged Taylor Swift's MTV video award speech .

Racism is probably the most abundant -ism in the world today, and this Frontline video does a marvelous job exploring it.

"This is one of the most requested programs in FRONTLINE's history. It is about an Iowa schoolteacher [Jane Elliott] who, the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in 1968, gave her third-grade students a first-hand experience in the meaning of discrimination. This is the story of what she taught the children, and the impact that lesson had on their lives. "

Ms. Elliott's experiment lead the children to discriminate against each other based on their brown and blue eye color and then analyzed their reaction.  The experiment was such a success, that it was adopted by various business, government and correctional institutions, where adults were subjected to similar experiments.

A very interesting bit about the kids' experiment was that a Yale research team found consistent long-term better  academic performance among the kids after the experiment!

It's a 46 minute 5-part video, worth watching every minute of it.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html

Sting supporting the 3 Million+ Pakistani refugees in dire need!

Sting dedicated this touching song called "Fragile" to the helpless 3 million Internally Displaced People (IDP) from Swat, Pakistan.  He did this in collaboration with his friend Salman Ahmad from Junoon.

Background: Swati IDPs are a result of a military campaign that Pakistani military launched against Talibans in April '09 at US's behest.  The basic sustenance for these people was farming, which was essentially completely destroyed by the time the fighting ended in July 2009.

One example of problems facing the IDPs: http://www.chowrangi.com/swat-idp-camp-uprooted-in-islamabad.html

A heartening story of a little girl and his family as IDPs: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/10/10/world/1247465107008/a-schoolgirls-odyssey.html 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHYmL48ZVxE

Links mentioned by Sting:

http://www.ssgwi.org/index.html

http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/page?page=49e487016

Lyrics to the song "Fragile":

If blood will flow when flesh and steel are one
Drying in the colour of the evening sun
Tomorrow's rain will wash the stains away
But something in our minds will always stay
Perhaps this final act was meant
To clinch a lifetime's argument
That nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could
For all those born beneath an angry star
Lest we forget how fragile we are

On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are how fragile we are

On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are how fragile we are
How fragile we are how fragile we are

Werd up! @ Obama's speech

Obama's address to the Joint Session of Congress on 09/09/09.

The last video at the bottom: http://tinyurl.com/healthyObama

Nice line: "I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last".

Hope healthcare, like justice and physical security, is finally regarded as a right than a privilege in this country.