A letter from Laura

Laura , is in her eighties , her letter is , conscise & clear .

She reads a lot and does not miss one item in the weekly Time magazine. She is writing the following in response to a letter written by Mr. Jeremy Slomnicki in the inbox of the Time Magazine issue of April 16 in which he emphasizes the need for Israel to defend itself because of Palestinian Terrorism. She did not respond to the Time magazine because she wanted to say more words than allowed, yet she is hoping that in one way or another it will reach Mr. Slomnicki. So please circulate to your international friends.

“I am writing this to remind Mr. Slomnicki and all the Slomnickis of the world that the first perpetrators of “Terrorism” in our region were the Jewish underground in Palestine during the British Mandate. Israel did not exist then, but Jewish terrorism started before 1948. I do not know how old you are Mr. Slomnicki, but if you are under 60 years you probably need to learn about the bombing of the King David Hotel Wing of the British Secretariat in July 1947 in which one hundred Palestinians were blown up. The bombing took place on a Saturday to spare Jewish lives who were off on that day. Ironically the man behind the bombing was Menahim Begin who later became one of Israel’s prime ministers. King David was just the beginning followed by many other terrorist acts, such as the Semiramis hotel when a whole Palestinian family perished and the Palestine Post offices. The list is endless, but fortunately it has been recorded by many historians and ironically some Jewish ones of conscience who had the courage to expose the truth. But surely you must have heard of the “calculated” massacre of Deir Yaseen, a peaceful village near Jerusalem when a defenseless population was massacred, mostly women and children. A gruesome sight that triggered a scare that led to the fleeing of many Palestinians from their homes. After 1967 The Jerusalem Post quoted Mr. Menahim Begin regarding Deir Yaseen: “It was a blessing in disguise because it helped create the State of Israel.” Of course those who did not flee were driven out at gun point in other parts of Palestine.

With regard to your letter Mr. Slomnicki that Israel has the right to defend itself, we are really tired of this cliché. Surely Israeli has the right to defend itself and so does every nation, but not when Israel is the aggressor, the occupier, the oppressor and the fifth strongest army in the world loaded with a stockpile of nuclear weapons. So from whom is Israel defending itself? From a defenseless, dispossessed, and occupied population separated by walls and check points while their homes are demolished and their farms and olive trees are razed. Are you comparing a resistance of an area under siege by the use of crude home-made missiles that might have injured a few people but hardly caused any damage, to the Israeli air strikes of populated Gaza that killed hundreds? The attack on the Jenin camp was another act of “terrorism” and not by underground militias, but by the regular and sophisticated Israeli army. So it is ironic that you should really be so worried about “poor” Israel’s need to defend itself. And so is the implanting of the settlers and settlements on Palestinian land an act of terrorism, especially that those settlers are there as colonizers with the sole aim of driving away the Palestinians. They raid their homes, block them from reaching their farms and groves and use every means to deprive them from living a peaceful life.

I would like to quote a letter that appeared also in the Time magazine inbox written by Mr. Claus Frausing from Copenhagen in the April 9, 2012 issue: “Israel’s irresponsible behavior is dangerous for the security of the rest of the world. Israel is extremely superior from a military point of view. Thanks to the US. But because Israel has never been able to establish true alliances of friendships with its neighbors, it is surrounded by hostile populations. A power whose security is based on military superiority alone can only act militarily. This is the real threat to the World not the possible nuclear power of Iran.”

Not only does Israel want to be the only country that owns nuclear weapons in the region, it wants to be the super power of the region. It succeeded in having the USA fight its war to eliminate what they perceived as a potential threat, a potential threat, Iraq, under false pretexts, and now their next target is Iran. Mr. Carter also alluded to that in the Time magazine at one time that if Iran has one war head, Israel has 300. So Iran will definitely not attempt to attack Israel knowing its strength. Surely The Soviet Union and the USA during the years of the Cold War were aware of each other’s strength and none would have attempted an attack because both countries would have been destroyed. The key word was restraint.

Because we Palestinians live under Israeli occupation, because our territories have been surrounded by separation walls, separating us from our Palestinian families and communities, and because we cannot move further than 20 miles without having to go through an Israeli military check point it is we, Palestinians, Mr. Slomnicki, who have the right to defend ourselves.”

 

KFC ordered to pay $8.3 million to Australian girl

Fast food giant Kentucky Fried Chicken has been ordered to pay Aus$8 million (US$8.3 million) to an Australian girl who suffered severe brain damage and was paralysed after eating a Twister wrap.

Monika Samaan was seven when she suffered salmonella encephalopathy — a brain injury linked to food poisoning that also left her with a blood infection and septic shock — in October 2005.

Several other family members also fell ill and they claimed Samaan’s injuries, which include severe cognitive, motor and speech impairment and spastic quadriplegia, were caused by a chicken Twister wrap from a Sydney KFC outlet.

The New South Wales Supreme Court ruled in the family’s favour a week ago and on Friday ordered KFC to pay the girl Aus$8 million in damages plus legal costs.

In a statement, the family’s lawyer George Vlahakis said they were relieved the battle was over.

“Monika’s severe brain damage and severe disability has already exhausted the very limited resources of the family,” he said.

“Monika is now a big girl and they are finding it increasingly difficult to lift her and to look after her basic needs as well as look after Monika’s younger siblings.

“The compensation ordered is very much needed. KFC have to date been determined that Monika does not receive a cent.”

Last week KFC indicated it will appeal the decision but is yet to do so.

During the trial, Justice Stephen Rothman said the chicken became contaminated “because of the failure of one or more employees of KFC” to follow proper preparation rules, which he described as “negligent”.

 

The Type of Food that Will Slow Nearly EVERY Inflammatory Disease…

By Dr. Mercola

You’ve probably heard of enzymes, and you probably already know they are important for your digestion. But you may not be aware of just how necessary enzymes are to every cell in your body—not just for digestion but for ALL your physiological processes.

Enzymes are composed of amino acids and are secreted by your body to help catalyze functions that would normally not occur at physiological temperatures. They literally make magic happen and are absolutely vital to your life.

More than 3,000 different enzymes have been identified, and some experts believe there may be another 50,000 we have yet to discover. Each enzyme has a different function—like 3,000 specialized keys cut to fit 3,000 different locks. In this analogy, the locks are biochemical reactions.

Enzymes drive biological processes necessary for your body to build raw materials, circulate nutrients, eliminate unwanted chemicals, and the myriad of other biochemical processes that go on without your even thinking about it.

For starters, here are just some of the activities in your body requiring enzymes:
•Energy production
•Absorption of oxygen
•Fighting infections and healing wounds
•Reducing inflammation
•Getting nutrients into your cells
•Carrying away toxic wastes
•Breaking down fats in your blood, regulating cholesterol and triglyceride levels
•Dissolving blood clots
•Proper hormone regulation
•Slowing the aging process

And small amounts of enzymes can affect profound changes! Enzymes are the catalysts that cause many essential biochemical reactions to happen—but they are not “used up” IN the reaction. They merely assist—meaning, they accelerate reactions—sometimes to a mind-boggling several million reactions per second!

Enzymes lower the amount of energy needed for a reaction to occur. Without them, some reactions simply would not function in your body.

But enzymes don’t work alone.

Enzymes rely on other elements to accomplish their tasks, such as certain vitamins and minerals. These elements are called “coenzymes.”

You are probably already familiar with one of these—coenzyme Q10. CoQ10 is found in the mitochondria (power centers) of your cells where it is involved in making ATP, every cell’s principal energy source. Another example is magnesium, which participates in over 300 enzyme reactions.

 

Chernobyl memorial

Graffiti adorns a wall April 4 in the ghost city of Pripyat near the fourth nuclear reactor (background) at the former Chernobyl Nuclear power plant, site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images)

The Chernobyl nuclear accident is widely regarded as the worst accident in the history of nuclear power. It is the only nuclear accident that has been classified a “major accident” by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

During a routine test, the plant’s safety systems were turned off to prevent any interruptions of power to the reactor. The reactor was supposed to be powered down to 25 percent of capacity, but this is when the problems began. The reactor’s power fell to less than one percent, and so the power had to be slowly increased to 25 percent. Just a few seconds after facility operators began the test, however, the power surged unexpectedly and the reactor’s emergency shutdown failed. What followed was a full-blown nuclear meltdown.

The reactor’s fuel elements ruptured and there was a violent explosion. The fuel rods melted after reaching a temperature over 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit. The graphite covering the reactor then ignited and burned for over a week, spewing huge amounts of radiation into the environment.

About 200,000 people had to be permanently relocated after the disaster. IAEA reported in 2005 that 56 deaths could be linked directly to the accident. Forty-seven of those were plant workers and nine were children who died of thyroid cancer. The report went on to estimate that up to 4,000 people may die from long-term diseases related to the accident. Those numbers are a subject of debate, however, as the Soviet Union did much to cover up the extent of the damage. The World Health Organization reported the actual number of deaths related to Chernobyl was about 9,000.
Source:Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

It’s been 25 years since the World’s worst nuclear disaster, and at Chernobyl, calls for lessons to be learned.

Children hold candles at the monument to Chernobyl victims in Slavutich, near the accident site, and where many of the power station’s personnel used to live, during a memorial ceremony. (AFP Photo/Sergei Supinsky)

A woman lights candles at a memorial dedicated to firefighters and workers who died after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster during a night service near the Chernobyl plant in the city of Slavutych April 26, 2012. Belarus, Ukraine and Russia mark the 26th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, the world’s worst civil nuclear accident, on Thursday. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich (UKRAINE – Tags: DISASTER ENERGY ANNIVERSARY)

Villager Ivan Shamianok (L), 87, meets with former neighbours on the eve of “Radunitsa”, or the Day of Rejoicing, a holiday in the Eastern Orthodox Church to remember the dead, at a cemetery in the abandoned village of Tulgovichi, near the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, some 370 km (230 miles) southeast of Minsk, April 23, 2012. Shamianok never left his village in spite of the Chernobyl blast, and he is now one of six six …

 

View the best photographs from hot spots around the world.

Top images from around the globe

April 24: A boy cools off with water from a hose on a hot day in Manila April 24, 2012.
Photograph by: Cheryl Ravelo, Reuters

APRIL 24 – A Buddhist monk walks near tigers at the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province, west of Bangkok.
Photograph by: CHAIWAT SUBPRASOM, REUTERS

April 20: A boy plays in the waters of the Arabian Sea on a beach in Mumbai April 20, 2012. REUTERS/
Photograph by: Danish Siddiqui, Reuter

A defected army soldier sits in the rain as he guards the entrance to Taghyeer (Change) Square, where protesters have been camping for more than a year to demand regime change, in Sanaa April 23, 2012.
Photograph by: Mohamed al-Sayaghi, REUTERS

A Bosnian Muslim woman cries while touching the grave of her relatives before a mass funeral in the town of Vlasenica in the Serbian part of Bosnia, April 21, 2012. The remains of some 26 Bosnian Muslims, killed by Serb forces during the country’s 1992-1995 Bosnian war, were exhumed from mass graves near Vlasenica with more expected to be found. A day before mass funeral ceremonies are conducted, a group of people transporting the remains were stoned by local Serbs near the cemetery, local media reported.
Photograph by: Dado Ruvic, REUTERS

 

World celebrates Earth Day

On Sunday April 22, the world celebrates the 42nd annual Earth Day, a global event meant to celebrate the Earth and raise awareness for environmental causes. Even though it’s nice to see how far we’ve come, images from around the planet remind us how much work is still to be done.

Thousands of cyclists hold up their bicycles at Budapest’s city park, at the end of the Critical Mass bicycle ride across the Hungarian capital, April 22, 2012.The ride was organised to commemorate World Earth Day, which is celebrated April 22 annually. REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh (HUNGARY – Tags: SPORT CYCLING ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY)

Volunteers collect waste materials during a commemorative event a day before Earth Day, along the coast of Freedom island in Manila April 21, 2012. Earth Day is commemorated on April 22 every year. REUTERS/Cheryl Ravelo (PHILIPPINES – Tags: ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY)

An Occupy Wall Street movement activist smokes next to a placard while protesting outside a BP fuel station on Earth Day in New York April 22, 2012. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz (UNITED STATES – Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST ENERGY ENVIRONMENT)

Occupy Wall Street movement activists hold placards while protesting outside a BP gas station on Earth Day in New York April 22, 2012. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz (UNITED STATES – Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST ENERGY ENVIRONMENT)

Indonesian environmental activists parade during a protest to mark Earth Day in Malang. “One Day on Earth” — touted as the first film with footage from every country taken on the same day — was to be screened for the first time Sunday around the world, including at the UN. (AFP Photo/Aman Rochman)

A boatman sleeps in his boat anchored in the polluted waters of the River Buriganga in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday, April 22, 2012. April 22 is observed as Earth Day every year as a tool to raise ecological awareness. (AP Photo/Pavel Rahman)
Source:Yahoo.News

 

The ordeal of ill health

Harsh Mander

To be poor is bad enough; to be ill as well is a nightmare.

For any poor person in India, to fall ill is a monumental calamity, because whatever public health services exist are beyond their reach. In cities, health facilities are available in private clinics and large public hospitals. But it is hard for poor city residents to enter their doors. The obstacles are highest for homeless persons, stigmatised by public authorities as illegal, illegitimate, unsanitary burdens on the city and its infrastructure, including hospitals.

Public health scholar and paediatrician Vandana Prasad undertook a study to understand the barriers faced by adult street dwellers in Delhi in accessing health care. The study focused on this most marginalised and socially invisible urban population living on city streets, including able-bodied casual workers, rag-pickers, women who escape or are expelled from violent and abusive homes, and people suffering from a variety of disabilities (including mental illness).

Almost all homeless people typically suffer major health problems, not surprisingly because they are forced to sleep rough, exposed to extremes of the seasons, and with virtually no access to clean drinking water, sanitation and home-cooked food. Their health burdens were reported by the Health Initiative Group for the Homeless based on a survey of 2,955 homeless respondents: “A high proportion of homeless people were suffering from serious respiratory ailments including tuberculosis, acute and chronic infections, skin diseases and diarrhoeal diseases”. Our earlier research by the Centre for Equity Studies found that health issues may be also the reason for homelessness in the first place, including mental illness, mental retardation and stigmatising illnesses that precipitate homelessness. Prasad’s study clearly documents the occurrence of catastrophic illnesses as a factor that has tipped poor people into homelessness

The study finds that upper-most among the many barriers faced by the homeless in attempting to access public health care services is simply the lack of money. They lack BPL cards which would otherwise make them eligible for free medicines, and are forced to buy medicines and pay for tests. Many give up because they cannot afford the services even of public hospitals, with devastating outcomes on their health, livelihoods, and their survival with dignity. The researchers encountered from a very small sample three able-bodied, working, homeless men who suffered injuries which could have been treated. But they could not afford the cure in government hospitals. As a result today they are permanently disabled, and forced to beg life-long.

Bureaucratic maze

Another prominent barrier to accessing health care was the delays and “shunting” experienced by the participants in busy public hospitals, which led many participants to give up before their health problem could be addressed. A young homeless woman spent two years begging doctors in four tertiary care public hospitals in Delhi to treat her young baby. They kept insisting that there was nothing wrong with her baby. It was only her persistence — she describes it as haath pair jodna or begging the doctors — that led them to recognise at the end of two years a congenital intestinal blockage, and agree to operate on her child, thereby saving her life.

These problems are compounded by low literacy, isolation, unfamiliarity and stigma. A few homeless people reported insulting behaviour by attending doctors as one of the reasons they hesitate to approach public health facilities: some doctors refuse to touch them because they are unclean; others heap humiliating taunts about their producing too many babies. (But the majority of homeless people said government doctors were courteous.) Other barriers commonly mentioned included difficulties in safely storing their records.

Not a single homeless respondent possessed a BPL card or any other automatic proof of their status as “poor”. The study confirmed a near absence of social security entitlements that are meant for the poor amongst the homeless participants, such as pension or the BPL ration card, which has great practical significance not only for cheap food but as a prerequisite for getting free treatment.

Other barriers included the lack of address, and no attendant. There is a cultural expectation in India that every patient would be accompanied by family members or friends, who would stay with the patient throughout hospitalisation and assist with various tasks such as buying drugs and other consumables, fetching reports, accompanying the patient for various procedures and even, on occasion, nursing and dressing. They take the patient to the toilet, and call for the doctor or nurse when required.

At a disadvantage

Elderly or disabled persons need attendants to negotiate even out-patient services since there are long queues and services are time-bound. People who do not have the ability to read signs and fill in forms, or the social confidence to approach designated help-desks which are also overcrowded, also need assistance. But most homeless persons do not have a family living with them, and even if they do, other members have to work to eat food each day. A woman said that while she was sick and making her endless rounds of hospitals, her husband had to pull his rickshaw and take care of their children on the streets.

It is often said that the greatest crime in India is to be poor. Vandana Prasad’s rigorous and compassionate study documents in painful detail how hard it is to be homeless and require health care. She concludes that it is only a comprehensive universally free public system of health care, one that does not require any cash transactions between the service providers and the users, which could enable the homeless to surmount the barrier of prohibitive costs of care.

They would require, in addition, comprehensive social protection, homeless shelters, recovery shelters, and support for their peculiar needs as homeless persons such as nutritional support and paid attendants for the periods when they need to be hospitalised. But in a country where even existing public health services are being down-sized and privatised, there can be little optimism that the homeless will secure the dignity of health care if they have the misfortune to be houseless, alone, and unwell.

 

Political Cartoon

 

Excessive Worrying May Have Co-Evolved with Intelligence

Source:SUNY Downstate Medical Center

Newswise — Worrying may have evolved along with intelligence as a beneficial trait, according to a recent study by scientists at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and other institutions. Jeremy Coplan, MD, professor of psychiatry at SUNY Downstate, and colleagues found that high intelligence and worry both correlate with brain activity measured by the depletion of the nutrient choline in the subcortical white matter of the brain. According to the researchers, this suggests that intelligence and worry both correlate with brain activity
“While excessive worry is generally seen as a negative trait and high intelligence as a positive one, worry may cause our species to avoid dangerous situations, regardless of how remote a possibility they may be,” said Dr. Coplan. “In essence, worry may make people ‘take no chances,’ and such people may have higher survival rates. Thus, like intelligence, worry may confer a benefit upon the species.”

In this study of anxiety and intelligence, patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) were compared with healthy volunteers to assess the relationship among intelligence quotient (IQ), worry, and subcortical white matter metabolism of choline. In a control group of normal volunteers, high IQ was associated with a lower degree of worry, but in those diagnosed with GAD, high IQ was associated with a greater degree of worry. The correlation between IQ and worry was significant in both the GAD group and the healthy control group. However, in the former, the correlation was positive and, in the latter, the correlation was negative. Eighteen healthy volunteers (eight males and 10 females) and 26 patients with GAD (12 males and 14 females) served as subjects.

Previous studies have indicated that excessive worry tends to exist both in people with higher intelligence and lower intelligence, and less so in people of moderate intelligence. It has been hypothesized that people with lower intelligence suffer more anxiety because they achieve less success in life.

The results of their study, “The Relationship between Intelligence and Anxiety: An Association with Subcortical White Matter Metabolism,” was published in a recent edition of Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience,

The study was selected and evaluated by a member of the Faculty of 1000 (F1000), placing it in their library of the top 2% of published articles in biology and medicine.

 

Tree nuts linked to lower body weight, decreased type 2 diabetes risk: study

Go nuts — it’s good for your health! A handful of nuts a day could keep you slim and lower your risk of type 2 diabetes, according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.

By “a few,” researchers mean more than a quarter ounce of tree nuts — so a small handful of almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios or walnuts. Sorry, your peanut butter and jelly sandwiches weren’t included in this study.

“One of the more interesting findings was the fact that tree nut consumers had lower body weight, as well as lower body mass index and waist circumference compared to nonconsumers,” states the study’s lead author, Carol O’Neil, professor at Louisiana State University Agricultural Center.

Related: High levels of worrying linked to a high IQ: study

“It shows small differences,” says Sharon Zeiler, dietitian and senior manager of diabetes education and nutrition at the Canadian Diabetes Association, “but as we know from diabetes, small differences can make a big difference.”

The daily dose of tree nuts was linked to higher levels of the so-called “good cholesterol,” high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, as well as lower levels of the inflammation-related C-reactive protein. The study included 13,292 adults in the United States who participated in National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys from 1999 to 2004.

Tree-nut consumers were also found to have a five percent lower prevalence of metabolic syndromes, which increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease, and stroke.

“As a dietitian, I know that nuts are a good source of protein, fiber and a lot of essential fatty acids — walnuts especially,” says Zeiler. But she warns that they are only good in moderation.

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“The thing for consumers to think about,” she warns, “is that while nuts are very good for you, they’re also very high in calories. They contain ‘good’ fat, but they contain a substantial amount of fat.”

So a small handful — maybe six or eight walnut halves, or a dozen almonds — might be good for your health. And for those of you who might be allergic to nuts, you can substitute with things like fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats, lentils and tofu, she suggests.

Skeptical readers should note that funding for the study came from the International Tree Nut Council Nutrition Research & Education Foundation.

Unsurprisingly, the executive director of that non-profit organization, Maureen Ternus, states that “we need to educate people about the importance of including tree nuts in the diet.”

So, go nuts! Just don’t overdo it.