She lays here in the bed eroding into it, transformed from loud, energetic and insane to a mull of whines from time to time. Her eyes are puffy and droopy; the pupils look like a dooming endless tunnel of exhaustion. She seems never to be at ease covers on and off, on and off, leg up, leg down, arm bent, arm straight, 1 pillow, 3 pillows, 2 pillows, better with no pillows. Her throat is swollen at both sides her glands press through like someone punching out ward from inside her neck. Her breath stinks of rot and medicine. Her hair is a mess, she’s sweating constantly. The melody to her environment is the constant beep, beep, beep, beep, beeeep beeeep beeeeep of the thermometer. When she can sleep she seems the most content, but the parallel world it sends her to seems quite unappealing as well. It's as if all the energy that usually pours outward upon others is battling within her trying to kill the bacteria. She has a high fever for the 3rd day now, strep throat, and an odd genital infection. She has lost all control and has had to surrender, home chained to the bed yearning to feel the snowflakes melt rapidly upon her cheeks. She says she is a visual person and needs to imagine, understand, and see what is happening inside her. Her parents say they do not know what she would do if the mirror and the flashlight hadn’t been invented. She goes into the bathroom stumbling from the whirlwind of haze that happens when one has a fever, attempting to maintain her balance; she turns off the light, sticks out her tongue, opens her mouth, and turns on the flashlight. She stands there peering to the depths of her throat; the red inflamed tonsils are visible covered in white specks and fleshy bumps. She examines thoroughly I am not sure what she is looking at for so long. She does so regularly she says, and with her genital infection as well, though that I was not graced with the opportunity to witness (joking). Once satisfied she turns off the flashlight and on the light, and stumbles back to her room. This is a process she has always done, and a claim is essential to her healing. She needs to know what things look like inside her, what the results of her pain are. She says it helps her imagine the process of healing. She describes having a fever as if a gas valve might be shut off to her brain suffocating her thoughts causing her to feel as if she’s in different dimensions. Her tonsils push against her ears causing discomfort; she says she wishes she could just pop them with a nettle.
The remedies have been a many. Attempting to keep the fever quite high to kill the bacteria but not so that she is terribly un-comfortable. To reduce the fever there is Advil liquid gels and cold washcloths laid upon her forehead. Her mother in the middle of the night tried to relive her intense pain by rubbing outward on her temples, nose, and eyes. She has used a neti pot, an Indian invention which one places salt water in the pot and drains it into ones nostril, with the proper head tilt it comes out the other. There has been relaxation oil applied, antibiotics taken, Vicks vapor rub on the feet and neck, LOADS OF WATER, hot tea the list goes on.
She narrates one of her dreams, I see the hospital all white all the attendants so happy so content to serve me, it makes me happy taking the work off my parents, I beg for help. They hook me up to an IV tell me exactly what I have and I feel so much better. I feel the liquid running through my body cooling me down appeasing every tissue layer, every red blood cell. I wake up. I want to go. I am worried about the price. I am ashamed. I don’t want to tell my parents that I want to go, it will seem so dramatic I only have strep throat, I don’t want to be charge tons. I see them cramped in a plastic chairs, so I withdraw from the idea, ohhhh but wouldn’t it be great she says.
She becomes very needy, dependant and in the constant need for affection. She realizes once we are better how quick we are to forget the sufferance of being sick the desire to simply breath fresh air, hold ones head up, read a book. We become so involved and worried about everything else when sick its back to the core. She says she feels completely out of control and she does not like it, she feels as if all the walls around her are crashing in and she is struggling to climb through the rumble, reaching for serenity with her weak will.
Many times she becomes very dreary and negative, dying to be better and then she says she must focus. Focus on he current state and place her energy upon the workings of her body, support them with her soul and tell them to work harder. She says she continues to think of all the others who are sick like her, but with no home, no medicine, no family. She says she feels there pain but doesn’t urn for their intensity.
A few days later, she is feeling a lot better, slight pain still in her neck but she can go about, she’s washed up, and no more fever. We go to a Manhattan health clinic to try and get her to see a gynecologist. It is a fail, we go to 2 other places, consecutively fails. She is frustrated, at losses for an explanation, uncomfortable. The first place we visit there are hundreds of different doctors at the establishment, and there is a room with only office workers, with paperwork everywhere, boxes and boxes of it. All symbols of the people they see and the money being accepted and the absence of any doctor or medicinal objects is clear. It feels so absent of help. As she leaves full of the absence she continues to ponder.
Health is a reflection of how one is doing mentally and how the exterior is affecting the body. Sometimes the mind and ones thoughts blocks one from seeing what is directly in front of ones eyes, what one can feel. It is an unexpected chaotic break upon the physic forcing it to take a step back and premeditate. This usually does not happen until after the break has been released and a little gas has been added and the gears begin to turn and one cane reflect, ironic.
December 29, 2010
HW 26 - Looking back & forward in unit
Some knowledge acquired this unit:
• 200,000 people in the U.S.A are iatrogenic (Source: Class discussion, Andy & Lucas)
• 50 million Americans have no health insurance (Source: Sicko)
• An American hospital will treat a homeless person but will not give them a prescription (Source: Casey & Andy)
• In Haiti it cost $20,000 to treat a certain disease where in America it cost $6 million
The source that has been most helpful in this unit was the book “Mountains Beyond Mountains” this helped me the most because it was an inspirational story of someone who was fulfilling himself. It also showed medical practices in 3rd world countries versus the USA’s manner of approaching health. This helped me the most because it contrasted not having resources because of absolute destitute versus not having resources because of greed and unfair distribution. I believe comparing is a good manner to show what is absent or present in certain locations versus others. I also think this helped the most because I was interested because I know what the practices are like in our country and I am intrigued by how they work in other places.
I think an aspect that is crucial that we visit before the end of the unit is how our body physically reacts before death (because in many cases we do thing to ease the going) and what we think the definition of death is and how we determine that. There is a good movie by national geographic that is only 45 minutes called (Moment of Death), it is also available of netflixs. I also think some kind of class conversation would be nice I miss those!!
• 200,000 people in the U.S.A are iatrogenic (Source: Class discussion, Andy & Lucas)
• 50 million Americans have no health insurance (Source: Sicko)
• An American hospital will treat a homeless person but will not give them a prescription (Source: Casey & Andy)
• In Haiti it cost $20,000 to treat a certain disease where in America it cost $6 million
The source that has been most helpful in this unit was the book “Mountains Beyond Mountains” this helped me the most because it was an inspirational story of someone who was fulfilling himself. It also showed medical practices in 3rd world countries versus the USA’s manner of approaching health. This helped me the most because it contrasted not having resources because of absolute destitute versus not having resources because of greed and unfair distribution. I believe comparing is a good manner to show what is absent or present in certain locations versus others. I also think this helped the most because I was interested because I know what the practices are like in our country and I am intrigued by how they work in other places.
I think an aspect that is crucial that we visit before the end of the unit is how our body physically reacts before death (because in many cases we do thing to ease the going) and what we think the definition of death is and how we determine that. There is a good movie by national geographic that is only 45 minutes called (Moment of Death), it is also available of netflixs. I also think some kind of class conversation would be nice I miss those!!
SiCKO By: Michael Moore
1.) PRECIS:
In this documentary I condemn American health insurance and pharmaceutical companies, as well as the politicians who have been paid millions to do their bidding. I then state that America is ignorant for not having learned from many other industrialized countries whom have great working free health care, so I expose them! Firstly I show the consequences of being ill in America with & without health insurance, which range from bankruptcy to un-necessary deaths. I then proceed to contrast this with the exploration of free health care systems in Canada, France, Britain, and Cuba, debunking all the fears (lower quality of care, poorer compensation for doctors, big-government bureaucracy) that have been used to dissuade Americans from establishing such a system here. The failure of such a system in America I have traced to President Richard Nixon's deceptive support of the then-emerging HMOs pursuing huge profits and insufficient pressures for Congress to sacrifice corporate profit for sound health care.
2.) EVIDENCE:
a. FACT #1 "$100 million spent to defeat Hillary's health care plan." FACT #2 "Like Canadians and Brits, the French live longer than we do"
b. FACT #1 is important for supporting Moore’s argument because it shows the masses of money that few elitist hold (republican politicians) are being wasted on preventing care for others. $100 million could have been used to treat people instead of preventing their treatment. It also shows the sole purpose of such an act is greed spending these sums so that later on the HMO's can rake it in. FACT #2 is crucial to supporting Moore’s argument because he places these countries on a pedestal for having free health insurance so he needs to exemplify what is good about such a quality. The leading causes of death are bad health (obviously) and health care is there to improve the people’s health, so if the health is so great it creates a longer life span, this is the essential goal!
d. According to United Nations Human development report (2006) FACT#2 was correct, stating, “the life expectancy in the United States is 77.5, the United Kingdom is 78.5, France is 79.6, and Canada is 80.2.” http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/pdfs/report/HDR06-complete.pdf
3.) RESPONSE:
I enjoyed SiCKO, the first time I saw it I was in 8th grade and was aware of occurrences in the United Sates but I was a lot dumber obviously. I was still able to understand the basics of the issue and what needed to be changed. I think that a certain simplicity and a desire to watch is important in such documentaries because it is an important issue that needs to be exposed to all Americans of all intelligence and age. I also think the way Moore portrays other countries free health care systems has a certain simplicity to it that I think is important to motivating our scared into submission citizens. If we want our people to fight back we need to illustrate HOW POSSIBLE dreams being accomplished are, if people act up.
In this documentary I condemn American health insurance and pharmaceutical companies, as well as the politicians who have been paid millions to do their bidding. I then state that America is ignorant for not having learned from many other industrialized countries whom have great working free health care, so I expose them! Firstly I show the consequences of being ill in America with & without health insurance, which range from bankruptcy to un-necessary deaths. I then proceed to contrast this with the exploration of free health care systems in Canada, France, Britain, and Cuba, debunking all the fears (lower quality of care, poorer compensation for doctors, big-government bureaucracy) that have been used to dissuade Americans from establishing such a system here. The failure of such a system in America I have traced to President Richard Nixon's deceptive support of the then-emerging HMOs pursuing huge profits and insufficient pressures for Congress to sacrifice corporate profit for sound health care.
2.) EVIDENCE:
a. FACT #1 "$100 million spent to defeat Hillary's health care plan." FACT #2 "Like Canadians and Brits, the French live longer than we do"
b. FACT #1 is important for supporting Moore’s argument because it shows the masses of money that few elitist hold (republican politicians) are being wasted on preventing care for others. $100 million could have been used to treat people instead of preventing their treatment. It also shows the sole purpose of such an act is greed spending these sums so that later on the HMO's can rake it in. FACT #2 is crucial to supporting Moore’s argument because he places these countries on a pedestal for having free health insurance so he needs to exemplify what is good about such a quality. The leading causes of death are bad health (obviously) and health care is there to improve the people’s health, so if the health is so great it creates a longer life span, this is the essential goal!
d. According to United Nations Human development report (2006) FACT#2 was correct, stating, “the life expectancy in the United States is 77.5, the United Kingdom is 78.5, France is 79.6, and Canada is 80.2.” http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/pdfs/report/HDR06-complete.pdf
3.) RESPONSE:
I enjoyed SiCKO, the first time I saw it I was in 8th grade and was aware of occurrences in the United Sates but I was a lot dumber obviously. I was still able to understand the basics of the issue and what needed to be changed. I think that a certain simplicity and a desire to watch is important in such documentaries because it is an important issue that needs to be exposed to all Americans of all intelligence and age. I also think the way Moore portrays other countries free health care systems has a certain simplicity to it that I think is important to motivating our scared into submission citizens. If we want our people to fight back we need to illustrate HOW POSSIBLE dreams being accomplished are, if people act up.
December 19, 2010
Kreyon pep la pa gen gonm.
*Only got too read up to page 265
Tracy Kidder. Mountains Beyond Mountains. United States: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2009.
Précis:
Traveling with Dr. Paul Farmer while narrating his life work and the struggle of the impoverished. Farmer's mission is to serve the poor, gratis in countries like Haiti, Peru, and Russia. It runs from approximately 1982 to 2003. Farmer's crusade is to end infectious disease and bring lifesaving medicines to those that have no access to it and most need it. The great antagonist faced is poverty and the inherent epidemics that come with it. Caused by the people who turn their backs on poverty and the government policies that allow it to flourish. The climax stemming from the Haitian proverb “Dye mon, gen mon.”, it is about trying to reach the top of the mountain and when getting there deciding which mountain to climb next.
Farmer tries to eradicate the evil of poverty and illness among the poor and it’s his trying that makes him great. Resulting in Farmer reaching the top of many mountains, such as the adoption of new prescriptions for MDR-TB by the World Health Organization (WHO). However, the outcome is still uncertain, because there are still many more mountains for people like Paul Farmer to climb, as there always will. If the world continues to turn its back on the needs of the poor, then the outcome will once again be uncertain rather than hopeful.
Quotes:
• “Of all the worlds errors, he seemed to feel, the most fundamental was the “erasing” of people, the “hidings away” of suffering. “My big struggle is how people cannot care, erase, and not remember.”” (Pg.219) I feel the same, things happen in the past but I still find them pertinent, and find the greedy & rich’s only manner of staying sane is erasing everyone drastically beneath them.
• “It also freed him from the efforts that many people make to find refuge and distinction from their pasts, and from the mass of their fellow human beings” (pg. 219) This statement spoke clarity to my mentality and relived a weight off my shoulders for being able to understand the actions of myself. I believe my action divulges into the human nature to seek understanding. We want to be our own entity with our differences but we also want to attain that dependency on others.
• “Farmer got the same answers everywhere, and when he approached the drug companies, looking for donations or at least reduced prices, they suggested he go to the same agencies and foundations that had deemed his program non-sustainable because of high drug prices” (pg. 243) This is clear cut evidence for my reflection to follow. Also, where I derived my inspiration.
• “You’re a great guy,” I said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “But without your clinical practice –“ He interrupted. He said, “I wouldn’t be anything.” (Pg.237) I found this quote honest and disturbing. He would be nobody on a global scale of his impact upon others but he would still be a flourishing mind, so I agree with this statement but I also contradict myself by believing it is not true. I think this pertains to me because I want to change societal living in the world but need something to make me “something” like Farmer, to fight the “experts” or “idiots in power” and connect me with masses of my fellow brothers and sisters for rebellion and revolution.
Reflection:
The more I read the more thoughts of political radical actions to change the world arose in my sprit. All based on eliminating economic class systems! Ideas such as creating a cap price on ALL products sold. It would be determined based on the total cost of creating the product, taking a certain percentage of that adding it to the cost of production for sales price. To help reduce the differences in class scale. I cannot place this in words well. So for example:
A drug cost $5 to make (including all factors of production) so say the company could only sell the drugs for $10 to make 100% revenue! Fair, I say. SO ERRADICATING THE FREE MARKET. This would also reinstate the purpose of making an object of quality because that of quality will bring in more revenue. I also believe this would help instate the benefits of giving skill to all Americans, have them not import from the rape of the poverty in sweatshop locations such as China, but make things themselves. It also made me dream of a country with no borders, which are also materialistic objects that simply create separation from all our fellow brothers and sisters. Mountains are there to climb, so I am going to hike till it kills me.
A dominant social practice and belief I observed in this book is to act more urgently in the case of death or illness when it is a person’s own child or blood. I believe this is instinctual because they have an emotional connection to ones spirit or soul. I find this contrast to acting more urgently in the case of someone with wealth versus ignoring someone poor, placing more importance on the paper than the value of someone’s life. I also believe in America this is the dominant social practice established through the government.
Tracy Kidder. Mountains Beyond Mountains. United States: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2009.
Précis:
Traveling with Dr. Paul Farmer while narrating his life work and the struggle of the impoverished. Farmer's mission is to serve the poor, gratis in countries like Haiti, Peru, and Russia. It runs from approximately 1982 to 2003. Farmer's crusade is to end infectious disease and bring lifesaving medicines to those that have no access to it and most need it. The great antagonist faced is poverty and the inherent epidemics that come with it. Caused by the people who turn their backs on poverty and the government policies that allow it to flourish. The climax stemming from the Haitian proverb “Dye mon, gen mon.”, it is about trying to reach the top of the mountain and when getting there deciding which mountain to climb next.
Farmer tries to eradicate the evil of poverty and illness among the poor and it’s his trying that makes him great. Resulting in Farmer reaching the top of many mountains, such as the adoption of new prescriptions for MDR-TB by the World Health Organization (WHO). However, the outcome is still uncertain, because there are still many more mountains for people like Paul Farmer to climb, as there always will. If the world continues to turn its back on the needs of the poor, then the outcome will once again be uncertain rather than hopeful.
Quotes:
• “Of all the worlds errors, he seemed to feel, the most fundamental was the “erasing” of people, the “hidings away” of suffering. “My big struggle is how people cannot care, erase, and not remember.”” (Pg.219) I feel the same, things happen in the past but I still find them pertinent, and find the greedy & rich’s only manner of staying sane is erasing everyone drastically beneath them.
• “It also freed him from the efforts that many people make to find refuge and distinction from their pasts, and from the mass of their fellow human beings” (pg. 219) This statement spoke clarity to my mentality and relived a weight off my shoulders for being able to understand the actions of myself. I believe my action divulges into the human nature to seek understanding. We want to be our own entity with our differences but we also want to attain that dependency on others.
• “Farmer got the same answers everywhere, and when he approached the drug companies, looking for donations or at least reduced prices, they suggested he go to the same agencies and foundations that had deemed his program non-sustainable because of high drug prices” (pg. 243) This is clear cut evidence for my reflection to follow. Also, where I derived my inspiration.
• “You’re a great guy,” I said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “But without your clinical practice –“ He interrupted. He said, “I wouldn’t be anything.” (Pg.237) I found this quote honest and disturbing. He would be nobody on a global scale of his impact upon others but he would still be a flourishing mind, so I agree with this statement but I also contradict myself by believing it is not true. I think this pertains to me because I want to change societal living in the world but need something to make me “something” like Farmer, to fight the “experts” or “idiots in power” and connect me with masses of my fellow brothers and sisters for rebellion and revolution.
Reflection:
The more I read the more thoughts of political radical actions to change the world arose in my sprit. All based on eliminating economic class systems! Ideas such as creating a cap price on ALL products sold. It would be determined based on the total cost of creating the product, taking a certain percentage of that adding it to the cost of production for sales price. To help reduce the differences in class scale. I cannot place this in words well. So for example:
A drug cost $5 to make (including all factors of production) so say the company could only sell the drugs for $10 to make 100% revenue! Fair, I say. SO ERRADICATING THE FREE MARKET. This would also reinstate the purpose of making an object of quality because that of quality will bring in more revenue. I also believe this would help instate the benefits of giving skill to all Americans, have them not import from the rape of the poverty in sweatshop locations such as China, but make things themselves. It also made me dream of a country with no borders, which are also materialistic objects that simply create separation from all our fellow brothers and sisters. Mountains are there to climb, so I am going to hike till it kills me.
A dominant social practice and belief I observed in this book is to act more urgently in the case of death or illness when it is a person’s own child or blood. I believe this is instinctual because they have an emotional connection to ones spirit or soul. I find this contrast to acting more urgently in the case of someone with wealth versus ignoring someone poor, placing more importance on the paper than the value of someone’s life. I also believe in America this is the dominant social practice established through the government.
December 18, 2010
Book Review part 2
Tracy Kidder. Mountains Beyond Mountains. United States: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2009.
Précis[Chapter 17]:
In 1996 at the beginning of a hectic project in Peru, Famer found the time to marry his Haitian fiancé Didi. 3,000 people attended the ceremony in Cange, including all of Cange. Peru was taxing PIH's resources tremendously, while the number of patients in Caraballyo kept growing. Ophelia and Howard Haiatt (previously Harvard Medical schools dean) were worried that the project Farmer and Jim Kim had taken on was un-manageable. What they were doing looked reckless because the finite resources, other doctors did not believe in movement and they did not have proper institutional resources. Jim would travel to Carabayllo once a month, and Farmer more often. Farmer currently had his Peru & Haiti project, while teaching at Harvard, while working at the Brigham. In February 1997 Farmer began feeling ill but he continued to ignore his symptoms and plow through his work. He finally diagnosed himself with Hepatitis A, and when he finally gave in to being treated he spent 2 weeks on the hospital bed. After his recovery Ophelia sent him and Didi on a vacation to the south of France, and 9 months later they had their daughter Catherine. The MDR Project was making progress with patients but the Peruvian government was still denying acknowledgement of the fact. One day when we went to the hospital in Peru Farmer was walking rapidly to diagnose a patient when he encountered his first proof of success a little boy of 3 years of age once weighing 20 pounds with MDR TB now chubby and running. Farmer created a regime of second-line drugs based on his knowledge of TB, and children. It worked miraculously. Then the joy was over, on to the next patient the daughter of a Peruvian daughter with MDR TB, already known by the father but unable to treat correctly because of Peru's "norma’s" for the tuberculosis regime. So Farmer was able to conduct an official charade to diagnose the young girl to start her treatment, after many thanks to Farmer and bows from Farmer to the other staff we were in the parking lot leaving, on to the next 'bwat' to check off.
Quotes:
• “People think we’re unrealistic. They don’t know we’re crazy.”
• This explains everything I say in relation to most un-believing people.
• “MDR treatment was cost-effective in a place like new York, but not in a place like Peru.” This exemplifies the clear-cut fact that medicine evolves “cost-effective” where they measure the value of treating someone. HOW DO YOU PUT A COST ON LIFE? Of course, the person in NYC with an easier life deserves the treatment.
• “A couple of children were playing nearby with a ball. It got away from them. I watched the ball bounce downhill until I lost sight of it, thinking of gravity, sewage and disease.” I thought this was an arresting quote and showed this authors beautiful craft. The symbolism of even a child losing his playful joy as it rolls down an endless mountain of destitute.
Reflection of Illness and dying:
People around the world are dying simultaneously and constantly. As a doctor you can save many lives and the key is to remember even saving ONE life makes a difference. Every human in every corner of the world has a soul and is precious and deserves the seconds of existence to smile and frown. The hardships of illness and dying in this world (in subject of masses) are no longer dependent on the intelligence and knowledge to cure the maladies those have been found. Rather implementing them in our social atmosphere where greed powers in towering amounts for the few, preventing the rest to have the availability to be cured. Most people in this world that save lives for the sake of caring for all souls (such as Farmer) do not work for the money. In our world the most anti acquisitive
Happening; life now depends on the material of class status. A belief I already held true has been enforced by Farmer, when embracing all aspects of life, pain, beauty, suffering, inequality, greed, intelligence, arrogance, destitute, death, faith, and so on one can be more aware of the short process of living and as to what we want to do with it in relation to all the other beings we share this planet with. Ignoring the reality is ignorant, when one opens one eyes to all is when one can live thoroughly. The expression happiness can be bought with money in our world IS REALITY. If one has money one can, have health, nutrition, transportation, education, safety, a home, pets control, sanitation, and medicine IN OUR WORLD this constitutes the quality of ones daily life. Now it is true in absolute poverty one can still feel joy, the warming beams of the sun, the joy of family, the relief of knowing someone is safe but it is hard to enjoy life when the majority of daily life constitutes of absence.
Précis[Chapter 17]:
In 1996 at the beginning of a hectic project in Peru, Famer found the time to marry his Haitian fiancé Didi. 3,000 people attended the ceremony in Cange, including all of Cange. Peru was taxing PIH's resources tremendously, while the number of patients in Caraballyo kept growing. Ophelia and Howard Haiatt (previously Harvard Medical schools dean) were worried that the project Farmer and Jim Kim had taken on was un-manageable. What they were doing looked reckless because the finite resources, other doctors did not believe in movement and they did not have proper institutional resources. Jim would travel to Carabayllo once a month, and Farmer more often. Farmer currently had his Peru & Haiti project, while teaching at Harvard, while working at the Brigham. In February 1997 Farmer began feeling ill but he continued to ignore his symptoms and plow through his work. He finally diagnosed himself with Hepatitis A, and when he finally gave in to being treated he spent 2 weeks on the hospital bed. After his recovery Ophelia sent him and Didi on a vacation to the south of France, and 9 months later they had their daughter Catherine. The MDR Project was making progress with patients but the Peruvian government was still denying acknowledgement of the fact. One day when we went to the hospital in Peru Farmer was walking rapidly to diagnose a patient when he encountered his first proof of success a little boy of 3 years of age once weighing 20 pounds with MDR TB now chubby and running. Farmer created a regime of second-line drugs based on his knowledge of TB, and children. It worked miraculously. Then the joy was over, on to the next patient the daughter of a Peruvian daughter with MDR TB, already known by the father but unable to treat correctly because of Peru's "norma’s" for the tuberculosis regime. So Farmer was able to conduct an official charade to diagnose the young girl to start her treatment, after many thanks to Farmer and bows from Farmer to the other staff we were in the parking lot leaving, on to the next 'bwat' to check off.
Quotes:
• “People think we’re unrealistic. They don’t know we’re crazy.”
• This explains everything I say in relation to most un-believing people.
• “MDR treatment was cost-effective in a place like new York, but not in a place like Peru.” This exemplifies the clear-cut fact that medicine evolves “cost-effective” where they measure the value of treating someone. HOW DO YOU PUT A COST ON LIFE? Of course, the person in NYC with an easier life deserves the treatment.
• “A couple of children were playing nearby with a ball. It got away from them. I watched the ball bounce downhill until I lost sight of it, thinking of gravity, sewage and disease.” I thought this was an arresting quote and showed this authors beautiful craft. The symbolism of even a child losing his playful joy as it rolls down an endless mountain of destitute.
Reflection of Illness and dying:
People around the world are dying simultaneously and constantly. As a doctor you can save many lives and the key is to remember even saving ONE life makes a difference. Every human in every corner of the world has a soul and is precious and deserves the seconds of existence to smile and frown. The hardships of illness and dying in this world (in subject of masses) are no longer dependent on the intelligence and knowledge to cure the maladies those have been found. Rather implementing them in our social atmosphere where greed powers in towering amounts for the few, preventing the rest to have the availability to be cured. Most people in this world that save lives for the sake of caring for all souls (such as Farmer) do not work for the money. In our world the most anti acquisitive
Happening; life now depends on the material of class status. A belief I already held true has been enforced by Farmer, when embracing all aspects of life, pain, beauty, suffering, inequality, greed, intelligence, arrogance, destitute, death, faith, and so on one can be more aware of the short process of living and as to what we want to do with it in relation to all the other beings we share this planet with. Ignoring the reality is ignorant, when one opens one eyes to all is when one can live thoroughly. The expression happiness can be bought with money in our world IS REALITY. If one has money one can, have health, nutrition, transportation, education, safety, a home, pets control, sanitation, and medicine IN OUR WORLD this constitutes the quality of ones daily life. Now it is true in absolute poverty one can still feel joy, the warming beams of the sun, the joy of family, the relief of knowing someone is safe but it is hard to enjoy life when the majority of daily life constitutes of absence.
December 14, 2010
GOOGALLY BOOOGALLLY
COMMENT TO EVAN: I AM SO UPSET I MISSED THIS !!! HONESTLY THIS IS THE ONLY CLASS I WISH I COULD GOT TO SCHOOL FOR !!! GRRRRRR !!! you stated "search the deepest, most painful realms of my thoughts" I have been doing this alone recentley and I feel it has been helping me but it is hard, what were some of the questions asked?
COMMENT TO CASEY: "She grieved, but accepted that he died. I think that there is something almost sweet about pain, because even though pain is an effect of loss, something was there before it was lost. We cannot grieve the loss of something that never was, unless we experienced that something in the first place, or have some inkling of what is missing."
I think this is so beautifully written, and so true. Their is a certain bliss in pain, but only when embraced and excepted not when fought. I also think if we don't feel these losses we can never value having.
The only suggestion I could provide is tying this back to the dominant social practice and thinking of what in all of this normality is weird ?
I also would like to commened you on the fact that I now have a good sense of what Beth's visit was like even though I was absent!
*** I did not do this blog, because I was home sick !
COMMENT TO CASEY: "She grieved, but accepted that he died. I think that there is something almost sweet about pain, because even though pain is an effect of loss, something was there before it was lost. We cannot grieve the loss of something that never was, unless we experienced that something in the first place, or have some inkling of what is missing."
I think this is so beautifully written, and so true. Their is a certain bliss in pain, but only when embraced and excepted not when fought. I also think if we don't feel these losses we can never value having.
The only suggestion I could provide is tying this back to the dominant social practice and thinking of what in all of this normality is weird ?
I also would like to commened you on the fact that I now have a good sense of what Beth's visit was like even though I was absent!
*** I did not do this blog, because I was home sick !
December 11, 2010
Book Review part 1
Tracy Kidder. Mountains Beyond Mountains. United States: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2009.
Précis: Chapters 1- 3
• In 19994 I was working as a reporter for the US army base. One evening Farmer came to speak to head commander and announce the peoples plans to revolt with some Haitian friends. The man intrigued me and as a coincidence we met on the plane, we then meet up in Boston and had lunch his personality and determination scared me, until 1999 we met once again. I wanted to learn more about Farmer so I shadowed him at the hospital in Brigham Boston. That day he discussed with his team of students about a certain patient, Joe. He was thought of having tuberculosis so Farmer with his team went up to visit him. He deemed it a case of phenomena. While there farmer nested a deep connection with his patient. Getting to know and later meet his personal desires and necessities to nurse him to health. Farmer then returned to Haiti and I wanted to learn more, so he told me to go see him, and to Haiti I went. When arrived at the airport a pickup truck Farmer sent brought me on a 35 mile journey up a mountain that took 3 and a half hours, seen on the way was the up mounting poverty and the growing of absence. Cangre, Haiti is the poorest part of poor. The next day we went to Zanmi Lasante medical complex, Farmer took me on rounds. The first case we saw was gangrene forming from a minor cut happening 15 days previous; Farmer said minor incidents became huge health problems. The rules of the medical complex are no one can be turned away. The price 80 cents for everyone except women, children and the desperate, basically everyone. A million peasant farmers rely on the complex; a hundred thousand live in the catchment area. The staff is entirely Haitian besides Farmer and has 7 doctors not all fully competent. The complex has reduced H.I.V transmition from mother to babies to 4 percent. No one has died from tuberculosis since 1988. It has a 1.5 million year budget versus a Boston hospital serving the same amount of people with a budget of 60 million. Farmer is a poor man but rich in achievements. He lives in a little 1-room house with a tin roof and concrete floor in Haiti most of the year, but 4 months a year he lives in Boston in his fundraising organizations basement. Farmer takes care of all patient personally and to the best of his ability aids there personal needs in however possible, from getting them sunglasses to getting there children an education. One elderly woman who is dying comes in everyday for money and food; Farmer greets her as “my mother”. People respect him and see him as the sorcery of healing. All day long he is diagnosing patients from ulcers caused by starvation to pregnant women with aids & tuberculosis. He keeps a 2 do list by his desk and checks off a “bwat” every time he has completed a task. Voodoo is the Haitian religion and in Farmers eyes a way of explain suffering. Farmer is rich with knowledge on Haitian culture and helps breach holistic & allopathic methods for the people. He tends to narrate Haiti explaining their suffering and daily struggles. At 3 in the morning Farmer is called in to the complex because a Girl arrives by donkey and needs a spinal tap, while she is screaming from excruciating pain she is also complaining of hunger.
QOUTES
• “She poured out her family’s story, her sadness, her present worries, and Paul listened intently, never sating she shouldn’t feel as she did, but only now and then suggesting ways she might accommodate her feelings.” Pg.69
This quote really hit me deeply because I recently lost a friend because of multiple issues, one of them being her bad position and my inability to facilitate them. I think Farmer has the magical quality to not tell the person not to feel the way the do (as I would) but how to help cope with the feelings. That in its self is HARD to do, that made me realize what I did wrong and the desire to improve, and not put my self down for my inability.
• ‘“bondye konn bay, me li pa konn separe” in literal translation “god gives but doesn’t share”’ pg.79
I thought this was beautiful and saddening, A great representation of finding explanation for tragic suffering. I think it is so true of our whole world and I wish greed could be abolished!!! I also don’t understand how people can be so greedy when they themselves come from the same horrible position as the people they grow to oppress.
• “Some people said that medicine addresses only symptoms of poverty. This, they agreed, was true, and they’d make “common cause” with anyone sincerely trying to change the “political economies” of countries like Haiti” pg.100
This passage (like many others) ignites the thought within me of, what do I want to do with my life. I know it is to help aid this world in some manner like Farmer has amazingly done. I have known this since I was young but now I want to now HOW? I feel I will lean towards the politics because as amazing as all the work Farmer is doing I still see it as a band-aid in a sense because it is only one part of Haiti and all of his issues stem from poverty, which stems from the governments unjust ruling. WHICH seems to be the actions of all government, the favor of the rich. It sucks that money is the easy power to attain that simply overrides other powers with simplicity.
• “He came down with dysentery, probably because his budget obliged him to eat food sold on the streets if the cities and towns. He remembered lying in a grubby hospital in Port-au-Prince, on a floor that lacked a toilet, and a middle-aged American woman, a public health expert whom he’d gotten to know, visiting him there. She was saying that, if he got any sicker, she was going to take him back to the states, and he was telling her, no, no, he was all right, while thinking, please take me home.” Pg. 78
This part of the book seemed to really pin point that Farmer he to is a human susceptible to the harms of poverty. It really drove home the point of the horrible disposition that his patients were in whereas Farmer could just get up and go. This was a true demonstration in the differences between being “blan” or Haitian.
Flesh’s Insight
I think this book shows that health has a cost, like everything else in this world. We have come to a point in this world where material has a higher value than our life. As a result if one has money one can be healthy, if not one becomes ill. With a huge scale the richer, the healthier, the poorer the sicker.
Précis: Chapters 1- 3
• In 19994 I was working as a reporter for the US army base. One evening Farmer came to speak to head commander and announce the peoples plans to revolt with some Haitian friends. The man intrigued me and as a coincidence we met on the plane, we then meet up in Boston and had lunch his personality and determination scared me, until 1999 we met once again. I wanted to learn more about Farmer so I shadowed him at the hospital in Brigham Boston. That day he discussed with his team of students about a certain patient, Joe. He was thought of having tuberculosis so Farmer with his team went up to visit him. He deemed it a case of phenomena. While there farmer nested a deep connection with his patient. Getting to know and later meet his personal desires and necessities to nurse him to health. Farmer then returned to Haiti and I wanted to learn more, so he told me to go see him, and to Haiti I went. When arrived at the airport a pickup truck Farmer sent brought me on a 35 mile journey up a mountain that took 3 and a half hours, seen on the way was the up mounting poverty and the growing of absence. Cangre, Haiti is the poorest part of poor. The next day we went to Zanmi Lasante medical complex, Farmer took me on rounds. The first case we saw was gangrene forming from a minor cut happening 15 days previous; Farmer said minor incidents became huge health problems. The rules of the medical complex are no one can be turned away. The price 80 cents for everyone except women, children and the desperate, basically everyone. A million peasant farmers rely on the complex; a hundred thousand live in the catchment area. The staff is entirely Haitian besides Farmer and has 7 doctors not all fully competent. The complex has reduced H.I.V transmition from mother to babies to 4 percent. No one has died from tuberculosis since 1988. It has a 1.5 million year budget versus a Boston hospital serving the same amount of people with a budget of 60 million. Farmer is a poor man but rich in achievements. He lives in a little 1-room house with a tin roof and concrete floor in Haiti most of the year, but 4 months a year he lives in Boston in his fundraising organizations basement. Farmer takes care of all patient personally and to the best of his ability aids there personal needs in however possible, from getting them sunglasses to getting there children an education. One elderly woman who is dying comes in everyday for money and food; Farmer greets her as “my mother”. People respect him and see him as the sorcery of healing. All day long he is diagnosing patients from ulcers caused by starvation to pregnant women with aids & tuberculosis. He keeps a 2 do list by his desk and checks off a “bwat” every time he has completed a task. Voodoo is the Haitian religion and in Farmers eyes a way of explain suffering. Farmer is rich with knowledge on Haitian culture and helps breach holistic & allopathic methods for the people. He tends to narrate Haiti explaining their suffering and daily struggles. At 3 in the morning Farmer is called in to the complex because a Girl arrives by donkey and needs a spinal tap, while she is screaming from excruciating pain she is also complaining of hunger.
QOUTES
• “She poured out her family’s story, her sadness, her present worries, and Paul listened intently, never sating she shouldn’t feel as she did, but only now and then suggesting ways she might accommodate her feelings.” Pg.69
This quote really hit me deeply because I recently lost a friend because of multiple issues, one of them being her bad position and my inability to facilitate them. I think Farmer has the magical quality to not tell the person not to feel the way the do (as I would) but how to help cope with the feelings. That in its self is HARD to do, that made me realize what I did wrong and the desire to improve, and not put my self down for my inability.
• ‘“bondye konn bay, me li pa konn separe” in literal translation “god gives but doesn’t share”’ pg.79
I thought this was beautiful and saddening, A great representation of finding explanation for tragic suffering. I think it is so true of our whole world and I wish greed could be abolished!!! I also don’t understand how people can be so greedy when they themselves come from the same horrible position as the people they grow to oppress.
• “Some people said that medicine addresses only symptoms of poverty. This, they agreed, was true, and they’d make “common cause” with anyone sincerely trying to change the “political economies” of countries like Haiti” pg.100
This passage (like many others) ignites the thought within me of, what do I want to do with my life. I know it is to help aid this world in some manner like Farmer has amazingly done. I have known this since I was young but now I want to now HOW? I feel I will lean towards the politics because as amazing as all the work Farmer is doing I still see it as a band-aid in a sense because it is only one part of Haiti and all of his issues stem from poverty, which stems from the governments unjust ruling. WHICH seems to be the actions of all government, the favor of the rich. It sucks that money is the easy power to attain that simply overrides other powers with simplicity.
• “He came down with dysentery, probably because his budget obliged him to eat food sold on the streets if the cities and towns. He remembered lying in a grubby hospital in Port-au-Prince, on a floor that lacked a toilet, and a middle-aged American woman, a public health expert whom he’d gotten to know, visiting him there. She was saying that, if he got any sicker, she was going to take him back to the states, and he was telling her, no, no, he was all right, while thinking, please take me home.” Pg. 78
This part of the book seemed to really pin point that Farmer he to is a human susceptible to the harms of poverty. It really drove home the point of the horrible disposition that his patients were in whereas Farmer could just get up and go. This was a true demonstration in the differences between being “blan” or Haitian.
Flesh’s Insight
I think this book shows that health has a cost, like everything else in this world. We have come to a point in this world where material has a higher value than our life. As a result if one has money one can be healthy, if not one becomes ill. With a huge scale the richer, the healthier, the poorer the sicker.
December 01, 2010
life
Interviewing my parents, which was sort of hysterical because I knew the answers to most of the questions I asked or at least the building blocks. Which then lead to deeper responses, I have not necessarily herd before (from my father in particular). In my family we talk about EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING, I have the most liberal up bring one can have, or relatively speaking to others I know. I am so thankful for the not only liberal but also OPEN family I come from because as a result I am not afraid of death. This openness is most intense with my immediate family (manman & pops) but its pretty open with the rest of my family as well. THIS IS WHY I DON’T HOLD MY TOUNGE & TALK SO FUCKING MUCH (TOO MUCH).
After interviewing I had this odd sense of not being an independent thinker. All my beliefs on death and illness are the same as my parents; If I were raised Republican and Capitalist and fit the "NORMAL"/dominant belief of Americans would I whole heartily agree with what my parents believed? I feel I question a lot of things and am intuitive, intelligent, confident, outspoken, because OF MY PARENTS. So if it weren’t for them, would I be the same deep down inside and still find a liberal way of life?
The first question asked was by my Pops, because my first one was knowingly too general for a response. He asked "Should people who are terminally ill, be allowed to end there own life?" His answer was YES ABSOLUTLEY, and they should be supported by the government, family and with the medical assistance needed. (I agree, which I am not going to state further because it will be redundant.) This clearly exemplifies our chained society, which seems to be different groups of herds that follow one ignoranous ideas and deem them as normal. This in its self is WEIRD, relative to normal. (Even though I no longer like the term weird because it is stating that something is not right because it differentiates from the norm.) HOW IS SOMEONE NOT FIT OF DETERMINING WHEN THERE LIFE SHOULD END, IT IS THEIR'Sdea AND NO ONE ELSES! We come into this world alone (even though aided by a woman), and shall leave it alone (possibly aided by other energy). Capitalist constantly set normal’s to there advantage so the herds try to conform to the labels and in doing so facilitate their goals, such as health insurance, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies.
In my family we would love to go to a holistic doctor, but the harsh reality is WE CANNOT AFFORD IT. So we go to dominantly considered normal (health insurance covered) doctors to do general "les analyses"(in the words of my mother because when the interview was conducted in English she would respond with "quoi?"). In order to make sure there are no tumors in our chest or mercury in our blood, and from there we do what we can with home-remedies (holistic methods). I have never been vaccinated and my mother treats me for the most part with homeopathic. Why? She says because she feared to many chemicals in body, whether it was the right choice she doesn’t know. We will see, but I think she did.
My father is thankful for the advances in Medicine in his lifetime and over the past few hundred years, because a while ago he would be considered very old, and near death (age51). Also because he has the medical condition of Arthritis (he’s got it bad too!) and without the Medical advances they have made he would be constant pain. He would be shunned from society because in our industrial world (he only has a high school education) he would have no place. This and penicillin (and I am guessing his anti-depressants, even though I think we should look into alternatives besides alcohol) are why he likes the allopathic system. I wonder if inventions such as penicillin have made us weaker as a race (people who use them) because it is a way to escape pain and if you have to deal with this pain it builds a callous. What he doesn’t like about the system is that it is distant from human nurturing. It shuns others approaches, it is embraced and supported by the capitalist system making it about profit and control and appeasing of the people, besides the scientist truly seeking to cure the maladies. I think this exemplifies the INSANITY and abnormality of our society that the healing of the mind and human body IS predominantly INDUSTRIAL?
Discussing death with my parents as the questions went deeper became hard (because of our recent lost) and emotional. The first things both my parents stated was that death is inevitable. This (&witnessing it) has helped me accept many aspects of life that we cannot avoid, and they are part of our animal experience. There is no point fighting something you cannot avoid. These thoughts have also help me deviate from sick thoughts such as the world’s current obsession with eternal youth externally. There intense desire to avoid what is inevitable. . . . . AGING, LEADING TO DEATH. Our people are so afraid and in denial of the one thing we have known for sure since the beginning of time, TIME ENDS. So they so seemingly try to fight the effects of time, but the ultimate effect is unavoidable (I hope forever, what will this world come to if people can live forever).
Something I did not touch upon in my interviews and we don’t seem to in class, is metal illness. I feel like metal illness is also something taboo in our culture because A. I am sure people would deny the claim B. our brains are very sacred. In our society people tend to talk about mental illness with uncertainty, AND WE SHUNN the mentally ill. We either make fun of them, send them to institutes, and we consider them unfit for commonplace in our society. I mean mental illness such as schizophrenia to one to many chromosomes.
After interviewing I had this odd sense of not being an independent thinker. All my beliefs on death and illness are the same as my parents; If I were raised Republican and Capitalist and fit the "NORMAL"/dominant belief of Americans would I whole heartily agree with what my parents believed? I feel I question a lot of things and am intuitive, intelligent, confident, outspoken, because OF MY PARENTS. So if it weren’t for them, would I be the same deep down inside and still find a liberal way of life?
The first question asked was by my Pops, because my first one was knowingly too general for a response. He asked "Should people who are terminally ill, be allowed to end there own life?" His answer was YES ABSOLUTLEY, and they should be supported by the government, family and with the medical assistance needed. (I agree, which I am not going to state further because it will be redundant.) This clearly exemplifies our chained society, which seems to be different groups of herds that follow one ignoranous ideas and deem them as normal. This in its self is WEIRD, relative to normal. (Even though I no longer like the term weird because it is stating that something is not right because it differentiates from the norm.) HOW IS SOMEONE NOT FIT OF DETERMINING WHEN THERE LIFE SHOULD END, IT IS THEIR'Sdea AND NO ONE ELSES! We come into this world alone (even though aided by a woman), and shall leave it alone (possibly aided by other energy). Capitalist constantly set normal’s to there advantage so the herds try to conform to the labels and in doing so facilitate their goals, such as health insurance, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies.
In my family we would love to go to a holistic doctor, but the harsh reality is WE CANNOT AFFORD IT. So we go to dominantly considered normal (health insurance covered) doctors to do general "les analyses"(in the words of my mother because when the interview was conducted in English she would respond with "quoi?"). In order to make sure there are no tumors in our chest or mercury in our blood, and from there we do what we can with home-remedies (holistic methods). I have never been vaccinated and my mother treats me for the most part with homeopathic. Why? She says because she feared to many chemicals in body, whether it was the right choice she doesn’t know. We will see, but I think she did.
My father is thankful for the advances in Medicine in his lifetime and over the past few hundred years, because a while ago he would be considered very old, and near death (age51). Also because he has the medical condition of Arthritis (he’s got it bad too!) and without the Medical advances they have made he would be constant pain. He would be shunned from society because in our industrial world (he only has a high school education) he would have no place. This and penicillin (and I am guessing his anti-depressants, even though I think we should look into alternatives besides alcohol) are why he likes the allopathic system. I wonder if inventions such as penicillin have made us weaker as a race (people who use them) because it is a way to escape pain and if you have to deal with this pain it builds a callous. What he doesn’t like about the system is that it is distant from human nurturing. It shuns others approaches, it is embraced and supported by the capitalist system making it about profit and control and appeasing of the people, besides the scientist truly seeking to cure the maladies. I think this exemplifies the INSANITY and abnormality of our society that the healing of the mind and human body IS predominantly INDUSTRIAL?
Discussing death with my parents as the questions went deeper became hard (because of our recent lost) and emotional. The first things both my parents stated was that death is inevitable. This (&witnessing it) has helped me accept many aspects of life that we cannot avoid, and they are part of our animal experience. There is no point fighting something you cannot avoid. These thoughts have also help me deviate from sick thoughts such as the world’s current obsession with eternal youth externally. There intense desire to avoid what is inevitable. . . . . AGING, LEADING TO DEATH. Our people are so afraid and in denial of the one thing we have known for sure since the beginning of time, TIME ENDS. So they so seemingly try to fight the effects of time, but the ultimate effect is unavoidable (I hope forever, what will this world come to if people can live forever).
Something I did not touch upon in my interviews and we don’t seem to in class, is metal illness. I feel like metal illness is also something taboo in our culture because A. I am sure people would deny the claim B. our brains are very sacred. In our society people tend to talk about mental illness with uncertainty, AND WE SHUNN the mentally ill. We either make fun of them, send them to institutes, and we consider them unfit for commonplace in our society. I mean mental illness such as schizophrenia to one to many chromosomes.
November 29, 2010
Thanksgiving
My thanksgiving followed the tradition of my typical thanksgiving, but for once my uncle Garry was not there. We go to RYE, NY and have a marvelous feast with friends (that I consider family).
This event for my family is mostly valued on its antibody experience and is enhanced by the body centered experience of feasting together. When I mean the antibody experience, I mean talking. We also do a lot of hugging and kissing, my family is a bunch of old hippies. the food enchances the sense of being together because we all eat the same food,at a table together.The food though delicious and healthy is not very important, we could have been eating pizza in a small apartment and the being together would make our event special.
Other pleasures practiced were watching my cousin’s play on television (it was taped), but I wouldnt neccesarily call it a pleasure because of the viewing. rather the joy and pride it instilled in my cousin. Other pleasures were also game playing. A game we really enjoy and heartbreaking-ly reminds me of my uncle is exquised corpse. One folds a paper in thrids and one person draws the head and then adds some connecting lines to the next section and fold over the head so it is not visble and passed on to someone who then draws a torso, who then fold it over with connecting lines and the last person draws waist down and you end up with an exquisite corpse. We also played a similar game but instead you do the same principle with words.
These games do not involve physical contact but it creates mental contact as the game goes on the ideas begin to intertwine. I find it a good represntation of how were are all borthers and sisters whether we like it or not. I enjoy this game because when there is no desire to talk one can communicate with art, and it symbolizes unity because you cannot play exquisite corpse if there are less than 3 people ! I belive physicality is important, but emotional closeness can be just as strong. I belive physicality is i9mportant when emotions for other beings are just not strong enough. My uncle helped me out this thanksgiving because after all the partying was done and I had nothing to occupy my brain I had a breakdown. The wise words he shared with me were helpful in the long wrong, but what ultimately help me sing my sorrows was his touch. Him holding me is what kept me together but let me share my broken train of thought. Anti body communication is also very important because if a relationship can not share what bothers them there issues clash until a broken thoughts splint everyone painfully and there is a crash, many times this also comes from a loss of physicality. I belive both are just as important for PERSONS HEALTHY MIND.
A weird background element that I belive resembles the fear of death is photography. At one point in the evening there were 4 people taking pictures and there were only 12 people at the party. The desire to capture a memory a moment so one can re-live it for ever. The fear of losing the past. I feel it connects to death because we want to reach for a sense of filling up loss. Death was also very connected to this event because of the recent loss of my uncle, so from time to time thoughts of him would come up and half fill the space empty because of his abscence.
This event for my family is mostly valued on its antibody experience and is enhanced by the body centered experience of feasting together. When I mean the antibody experience, I mean talking. We also do a lot of hugging and kissing, my family is a bunch of old hippies. the food enchances the sense of being together because we all eat the same food,at a table together.The food though delicious and healthy is not very important, we could have been eating pizza in a small apartment and the being together would make our event special.
Other pleasures practiced were watching my cousin’s play on television (it was taped), but I wouldnt neccesarily call it a pleasure because of the viewing. rather the joy and pride it instilled in my cousin. Other pleasures were also game playing. A game we really enjoy and heartbreaking-ly reminds me of my uncle is exquised corpse. One folds a paper in thrids and one person draws the head and then adds some connecting lines to the next section and fold over the head so it is not visble and passed on to someone who then draws a torso, who then fold it over with connecting lines and the last person draws waist down and you end up with an exquisite corpse. We also played a similar game but instead you do the same principle with words.
These games do not involve physical contact but it creates mental contact as the game goes on the ideas begin to intertwine. I find it a good represntation of how were are all borthers and sisters whether we like it or not. I enjoy this game because when there is no desire to talk one can communicate with art, and it symbolizes unity because you cannot play exquisite corpse if there are less than 3 people ! I belive physicality is important, but emotional closeness can be just as strong. I belive physicality is i9mportant when emotions for other beings are just not strong enough. My uncle helped me out this thanksgiving because after all the partying was done and I had nothing to occupy my brain I had a breakdown. The wise words he shared with me were helpful in the long wrong, but what ultimately help me sing my sorrows was his touch. Him holding me is what kept me together but let me share my broken train of thought. Anti body communication is also very important because if a relationship can not share what bothers them there issues clash until a broken thoughts splint everyone painfully and there is a crash, many times this also comes from a loss of physicality. I belive both are just as important for PERSONS HEALTHY MIND.
A weird background element that I belive resembles the fear of death is photography. At one point in the evening there were 4 people taking pictures and there were only 12 people at the party. The desire to capture a memory a moment so one can re-live it for ever. The fear of losing the past. I feel it connects to death because we want to reach for a sense of filling up loss. Death was also very connected to this event because of the recent loss of my uncle, so from time to time thoughts of him would come up and half fill the space empty because of his abscence.
November 24, 2010
II recently lost my Unlce to 3 types of cancer, and H.I.V, it was very hard for me and my family and was the first death I have encountered in mylife time that really pertained to someone I LOVED WITH ALL MY HEART. It was hard but to tell you the truth I have dealt with it really well. The reason in being so I belive is either because I am blocking it out (which I don't belive is the case) or is it because recentley I have come 2 terms that life ends and that that is what makes it so great and valuebale. If life went on forever there would be noneed for the sense of time. I also think its important that it to accept it because there is no other way and if people dread it if dying a slow death it only makes it that much harder.
What I find the saddest is when one has to die in a hospital it such an uninviting enviornment, with its bright florecent lights and white walls. Plastic chairs, and blasting ac at all times with windows that don't open. When my uncle was first admitted to the hospital for the first month he did nlt even have one doctor assigned to him. It is such alon unfamiliar place but for many people the end of there life is surrounded by such an enviornment.
The hardest experience I encountered with death was the last to days of my unclres death because not only was his soul trapped inside his body but you could see his body withering away. My uncle was a very loved man and had around 5 people in his room all the tim and people coming ang going and though he couldn't really speak make eye contact and the only movements he made were myscle spazms he was able to hear. And he must have gotten a million calls and peoples goodbyes. I've never heard of someone who was able to say goodbye before they died. Even tough he died of a young age I belive he was given this gift because he was an amazing man. In the end when he died I think its because he finally excepted that it was time for him to go. Since this experience I have had a diffrent outlook on death. I no longer see it as something horribly gruesome but something hard and important that is just part of life.
I do not belive in typical funerals but memorials, and I don't belive in wearing black, but wearing bright joyeux colors.
I belive in reincarnation, not really sure if it actually happens but I love the idea so I have faith in it. I also know the human body is something that withers away like any living matter eventually does. But soul is not a physicality but an energy, a force so whether each persons aurora transfers exactly to some other living matter I don't know. But I do think that auror at least infulences our world.
What I find the saddest is when one has to die in a hospital it such an uninviting enviornment, with its bright florecent lights and white walls. Plastic chairs, and blasting ac at all times with windows that don't open. When my uncle was first admitted to the hospital for the first month he did nlt even have one doctor assigned to him. It is such alon unfamiliar place but for many people the end of there life is surrounded by such an enviornment.
The hardest experience I encountered with death was the last to days of my unclres death because not only was his soul trapped inside his body but you could see his body withering away. My uncle was a very loved man and had around 5 people in his room all the tim and people coming ang going and though he couldn't really speak make eye contact and the only movements he made were myscle spazms he was able to hear. And he must have gotten a million calls and peoples goodbyes. I've never heard of someone who was able to say goodbye before they died. Even tough he died of a young age I belive he was given this gift because he was an amazing man. In the end when he died I think its because he finally excepted that it was time for him to go. Since this experience I have had a diffrent outlook on death. I no longer see it as something horribly gruesome but something hard and important that is just part of life.
I do not belive in typical funerals but memorials, and I don't belive in wearing black, but wearing bright joyeux colors.
I belive in reincarnation, not really sure if it actually happens but I love the idea so I have faith in it. I also know the human body is something that withers away like any living matter eventually does. But soul is not a physicality but an energy, a force so whether each persons aurora transfers exactly to some other living matter I don't know. But I do think that auror at least infulences our world.
November 01, 2010
Food OUTLINE !
OUTLINE
Overarching Thesis: In the United States capitalism has fostered the success of the elite, which they increase with nightmarish industrial atrocities and maintain through tatemae. Thus creating inferior social practices for the dominant population.
Argument #1: Food production and consumption in the United States is centralized around the producer’s fulfillment versus the consumer’s interest. Which has caused major mass industrializations, resulting in un-healthy and dangerous results for the consumer and workers(of industry).
Chunk #1(capitalism elite): The government supports and facilitates the corporations.
• “The Bush administration and the .. health.”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation read on section pg. 7
• “Fast Food chains have accepted … gave job training to the poor.”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation pg. 72
• “ a study of campaign contributions … any other congressman.”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation Pg. 210
• “while the real value of the wages paid … a fast food hamburger”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation pg. 73
Chunk #2(industrial): The CEO’s (not farmers or cooks or butchers) sole interest is to expand as far as possible, to receive the biggest profit for the cheapest cost. (quote corn man foodinc.)
• “Simplot, Lamb Weston … rivals.”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation pg.116
• “but the extraordinary … who grew the potatoes.”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation pg.117
• “it cost about 1,500 … single potato”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation pg.117
• “The line is so fast … when you cut yourself”
SOURCE: http://www.hrw.org/en/node/11869/section/5
•
• -Nebraska Beef meatpacking line worker, Omaha, Nebraska, December 2003
Chunk #2b/3a(tatemae): A façade is created by the corporations to brain wash the consumers with the illusion that they are receiving the highest quality.
• “ a corporate memo…a trusted friend.”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation pg.50
• Propaganda examples
SOURCE: http://www.mcspotlight.org/company/publications/nutrition_balance.html
• Farm images on lables
Chunk #3(inferior social practices): The American population has been tricked through the dominant discourse, now becoming inferior with how they nourish themselves .
• “The growth in children’s advertising has been … advertising strategies.”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation pg.43
• ‘the labor structures of … workers.”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation pg.78
• “a memo sought to explain the underlying … like a good parent”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation pg.50
• “translate into … 5 times a week.”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation
Overarching Thesis: In the United States capitalism has fostered the success of the elite, which they increase with nightmarish industrial atrocities and maintain through tatemae. Thus creating inferior social practices for the dominant population.
Argument #1: Food production and consumption in the United States is centralized around the producer’s fulfillment versus the consumer’s interest. Which has caused major mass industrializations, resulting in un-healthy and dangerous results for the consumer and workers(of industry).
Chunk #1(capitalism elite): The government supports and facilitates the corporations.
• “The Bush administration and the .. health.”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation read on section pg. 7
• “Fast Food chains have accepted … gave job training to the poor.”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation pg. 72
• “ a study of campaign contributions … any other congressman.”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation Pg. 210
• “while the real value of the wages paid … a fast food hamburger”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation pg. 73
Chunk #2(industrial): The CEO’s (not farmers or cooks or butchers) sole interest is to expand as far as possible, to receive the biggest profit for the cheapest cost. (quote corn man foodinc.)
• “Simplot, Lamb Weston … rivals.”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation pg.116
• “but the extraordinary … who grew the potatoes.”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation pg.117
• “it cost about 1,500 … single potato”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation pg.117
• “The line is so fast … when you cut yourself”
SOURCE: http://www.hrw.org/en/node/11869/section/5
•
• -Nebraska Beef meatpacking line worker, Omaha, Nebraska, December 2003
Chunk #2b/3a(tatemae): A façade is created by the corporations to brain wash the consumers with the illusion that they are receiving the highest quality.
• “ a corporate memo…a trusted friend.”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation pg.50
• Propaganda examples
SOURCE: http://www.mcspotlight.org/company/publications/nutrition_balance.html
• Farm images on lables
Chunk #3(inferior social practices): The American population has been tricked through the dominant discourse, now becoming inferior with how they nourish themselves .
• “The growth in children’s advertising has been … advertising strategies.”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation pg.43
• ‘the labor structures of … workers.”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation pg.78
• “a memo sought to explain the underlying … like a good parent”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation pg.50
• “translate into … 5 times a week.”
SOURCE: Fast Food Nation
October 31, 2010
HW #11 Final Food Project
I have chosen activism, I have unfortunately not accomplished anything physically in the past few days but my gears have been turning! I am already active in changing the industrial nightmarish atrocities by eating right and not purchasing anything mass-produced. I TRY! Step 2: Get the word out talking to everyone and anybody who is willing to listen to me and willing to join the movement because it is important to find others like you. Step 3: I have been working on the Added value farm in Red Hook New York City. Now to take this idea further. I live in an impoverished part of New York City, Washington Heights and most of the people from here are use to local produce because back where they came from, la Isla’s (THIS IS A DOMINICAN NEIGHBORHOOD, for the most part) most people don't go to a supermarket they grow there food buy it from the local farmer. When they come here they switch to mostly the cheapest mass-production available. My goal is to try and seese out all the locations that are abandoned and start building small urban farms. If it works here maybe it can spread, I love what added value is doing but it needs to go further than that, it needs to happen everywhere. I need to speak with the owners of added value but more importantly to the community centers in my neighborhood. I know plenty of organizations that would be willing to help and get this movement started. I also think many people around me would not like the farms for the simple fact of it bringing great value to their community but the guard it will put up against gentrification if their are no lots to take, no buildings can happen unless their abandoned (that’s another story). The question is will BLOOMBERG grant us these lots? I am not sure how all this works but that is why I need to get my thoughts transformed into action, but it is very hard for me to do so when I have so much going on around me. I WILL ACCOMPLISH MY IDEAS, I WILL. I was also riding the 5 train on Halloween morning coming from north-bubble-fuck and it was my favorite kind of ride, above ground and I saw this one huge lot completely green (ignoring pollution) and in a hill form I envisioned it as the farms the Aztecs would build with that looked like steps, gorgeous. Then 5 seconds later on the other side I saw THIS HUGE juvenile correctional facility all barbed wired up. I thought to think what are these poor kids doing in there, are they doing anything to get there minds working, and I thought WHAT IF WE COULD HAVE TROUBLED MINDS AS SUCH WORKING ON AN URBAN FARM? When will our society understand it must not simply be detention but attention? Step 4: I am part of the green roof committee at our school and am working with fellow colleges’ to get it running, with the help of parents and students. My main concern is once this happens because I know it will (the seniors will have a beautiful garden for the barbeque) is to get it really connected with the NYC cafeteria food, because I KNOW when we try and do this the official food provided by the government is not going to like it! I think it may be a great example to not simply expose their horrors but show that they could be using great ingredients.
October 23, 2010
FREAKONOMICS - Response
#2:
The directors seems to pretend that correlation is causation, when that is a fallacy, simply there needs to be correlation to have causation. I believe the directors know this but illustrate their data in a manner that correlation is causation to over-simplify their data so that the viewers can understand their points easily. I believe their arguments would have been stronger if they demonstrated the correlation and then the actual causation, and then if the correlation is correspondent to the causation, explain and if not why? At times they do prove that there must be a correlation to have causation but they illustrate such as “correlation is causation”. Such as a realtor is helping you sell your house, the price is 30k and you receive an offer for 29k he tells you to take it, he then sells his house which is the exact same, and gets 30k. The correlation is the realtor is selling your house and receiving a profit. The causation for him receiving more with the same opportunity is because the realtors job receives a profit of how much you make, but the quicker he can makes the money the better it is for him, because 1k won’t make difference worth his while. So he just wants to sell the house the quickly for his own interest. In one part of the movie they contradict their demonstration that correlation is causation, they state that the correlation is not the causation. They did a study on how you name your child, and where that child will end up in life, and it turns out that the name of our child has no effect upon weather they will be successful in life or not, it is how the child is raised. The cause for a name affecting your child is an outside factor such as someone who is racist and assumes that a person with an African-American name will not be qualified for the job. They explicitly show that the correlation between the child and the name is not the causation for their success or not.
#3: The sources of evidence that the Freakonomics directors rely on the most is statistics and finding patterns in those statistics and from their making conclusions, at times leading to theories. This is seen over and over in the movie with sumo wrestling results, Kind of name and resume call backs, incentives with children, and abortions correlation with violence rates. This is an innovative method when there are other sources of evidence to back up the patters as seen with the sumo wrestling. I think that this is not an innovative technique when there isn’t much evidence supporting the pattern besides the statistics like with legalizing abortion and violence rates. I think the patterns need to be backed up with causation and cannot only rely on the correlation of the statistics and the pattern.
Class correlation: Andy stated, "Freakonomics serves as an inspiration and good example to our attempt to explore the "hidden-in-plain-sight" weirdness of dominant social Practices." I agree with this statement, Freakonomics is a good example of the oddity accepted as normal in dominant social practices because it unveils multiple social practices and shows the true weirdness of it. Such as a real estate agent whom one hires to help you receive maximum profit from the sale of your house when it does the opposite. I think that Freakonomics itself is a strange movie and left me with un-settling thoughts. I think they stated their theories and the causation in odd manners and not very clearly for the viewers. I do think they did a good job at getting the point across that every human as a citizen of a country should not accept all that is happening around them and simply live by what the dominant discourse tells them to see. It is important to see everything from a different viewpoint to truly understand it. I don’t believe the movie is a great "inspiration" because they don’t seem to get to the core of humans emotions and what someone may hold dear but I believe it is a good example of why we need to question everything. Honne and tatamae seem to really explain our society and how we hide things from our people, but at least the Japanese have words stating it exist. We don’t! I think that food production in the United States simply works because of their tatamae tactics backed up with the propaganda, literally changing people’s lifestyles. Honne is disregarded so that they can make money and in doing so they use tatamae to act as if the consumers best interest is in mind so life can be simpler and cheaper for them.
The directors seems to pretend that correlation is causation, when that is a fallacy, simply there needs to be correlation to have causation. I believe the directors know this but illustrate their data in a manner that correlation is causation to over-simplify their data so that the viewers can understand their points easily. I believe their arguments would have been stronger if they demonstrated the correlation and then the actual causation, and then if the correlation is correspondent to the causation, explain and if not why? At times they do prove that there must be a correlation to have causation but they illustrate such as “correlation is causation”. Such as a realtor is helping you sell your house, the price is 30k and you receive an offer for 29k he tells you to take it, he then sells his house which is the exact same, and gets 30k. The correlation is the realtor is selling your house and receiving a profit. The causation for him receiving more with the same opportunity is because the realtors job receives a profit of how much you make, but the quicker he can makes the money the better it is for him, because 1k won’t make difference worth his while. So he just wants to sell the house the quickly for his own interest. In one part of the movie they contradict their demonstration that correlation is causation, they state that the correlation is not the causation. They did a study on how you name your child, and where that child will end up in life, and it turns out that the name of our child has no effect upon weather they will be successful in life or not, it is how the child is raised. The cause for a name affecting your child is an outside factor such as someone who is racist and assumes that a person with an African-American name will not be qualified for the job. They explicitly show that the correlation between the child and the name is not the causation for their success or not.
#3: The sources of evidence that the Freakonomics directors rely on the most is statistics and finding patterns in those statistics and from their making conclusions, at times leading to theories. This is seen over and over in the movie with sumo wrestling results, Kind of name and resume call backs, incentives with children, and abortions correlation with violence rates. This is an innovative method when there are other sources of evidence to back up the patters as seen with the sumo wrestling. I think that this is not an innovative technique when there isn’t much evidence supporting the pattern besides the statistics like with legalizing abortion and violence rates. I think the patterns need to be backed up with causation and cannot only rely on the correlation of the statistics and the pattern.
Class correlation: Andy stated, "Freakonomics serves as an inspiration and good example to our attempt to explore the "hidden-in-plain-sight" weirdness of dominant social Practices." I agree with this statement, Freakonomics is a good example of the oddity accepted as normal in dominant social practices because it unveils multiple social practices and shows the true weirdness of it. Such as a real estate agent whom one hires to help you receive maximum profit from the sale of your house when it does the opposite. I think that Freakonomics itself is a strange movie and left me with un-settling thoughts. I think they stated their theories and the causation in odd manners and not very clearly for the viewers. I do think they did a good job at getting the point across that every human as a citizen of a country should not accept all that is happening around them and simply live by what the dominant discourse tells them to see. It is important to see everything from a different viewpoint to truly understand it. I don’t believe the movie is a great "inspiration" because they don’t seem to get to the core of humans emotions and what someone may hold dear but I believe it is a good example of why we need to question everything. Honne and tatamae seem to really explain our society and how we hide things from our people, but at least the Japanese have words stating it exist. We don’t! I think that food production in the United States simply works because of their tatamae tactics backed up with the propaganda, literally changing people’s lifestyles. Honne is disregarded so that they can make money and in doing so they use tatamae to act as if the consumers best interest is in mind so life can be simpler and cheaper for them.
Food, Inc. SPITBACK
Summary:
Food Inc. (2008) by: Robert Kenner's purpose was to illustrate that "the way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years, than in previous centuries." and for the worst. The food industry is no longer about producing great produce from our earth but inventing food giving the company owners the best profit, at the expense of the consumer’s quality. The first agenda of this movie is to convince the viewer to eat healthy by exposing the antagonist’s food process. Food corporations objectify the product and de-skill the worker, to end up selling the product below the cost of production. The second agenda of this movie is to change the government, which simply encourages such a food system. This is done by laws such as the farm bill and capitalism fueling evil billionaires to receive what they want with bribing. Also laws facilitating their demeanors such as no health inspections, the FDA and USDA being run by share-holders and previous CEO’s and it being illicit to expose such factories.
Text vs. Movie:
The 2 forms of information both have different pros and cons, and the media forms should be used for different purposes. Most bluntly text is better at getting a lot of detailed information to the user. Movie is better for aiming at a more general population and less intelligent. This is because you can get a pretty good general knowledge about a subject in a short amount of time watching a movie. Now a day’s text is for a more dedicated and intelligent population because it takes time in our face paced society and you learn a lot more.
The movie offered an easy concept of percentages and numbers whereas when reading about numbers it is harder to realize the actual effect the numbers have, especially with percentages. For example when the movie had the pigs, cows, chickens going on an assembly line into the factory they showed how the companies dominated the market with shading the animal. This really gives the viewer how much they dominate the industry. Whereas when you simply read about it is less ingrained in your brain.
Books when you read them create a personalized image in your brain that you create, these images are more personal to one self, and have a personal feel to them. For example when reading about the slaughterhouses and the workers conditions you imagine it for your self so you feel like you are there and can really feel the workers pain and struggle. A movie creates an image for you so it is less personal and in this sense more factual because it is actually how it looks, or how they make it look. This can create a more shocking image because it is one you see but it gives you a sense of perceiving it from an exterior's view, as when reading its a view as if you were actually there, since you create it.
A movie also has a sense of brainwashing to it because it plays music behind it the scene, which can sway your emotion and create a way point of view that you might not be true to what you believe. A con from movies are that you can hear the persons tone of voice and see the expression they are making whereas in reading it is described to the reader, so the imagine it. This relates back to a book letting you create the image and a movie creating the image for you. I also think with text you really value words more and their meaning. When watching visuals you value them but on the surface one tends not to find their deeper meaning because they go by to quickly.
Thoughts: I believe the ending of the movie was intense because of the background sound and because of the words but that were powerful, but I believe the solution to their problems were made to simplistic. In thought this is what we need to change the world, we all take part by not indulging in their products because obviously the big corporations would be nothing without our money. But most viewers like Naima stated can't change their life style because of one movie, even though the incentive is clear and worth it. I believe the movie creators should have included easier things for the public to do such as the web links they provided. I also think it is very saddening that we as Americans are so brainwashed by branding and "what we 'know' is what is good" that we can't make lifestyle changes to save our health, our country, our government, or freedom, and our PLANET.
Text vs. Movie:
The 2 forms of information both have different pros and cons, and the media forms should be used for different purposes. Most bluntly text is better at getting a lot of detailed information to the user. Movie is better for aiming at a more general population and less intelligent. This is because you can get a pretty good general knowledge about a subject in a short amount of time watching a movie. Now a day’s text is for a more dedicated and intelligent population because it takes time in our face paced society and you learn a lot more.
The movie offered an easy concept of percentages and numbers whereas when reading about numbers it is harder to realize the actual effect the numbers have, especially with percentages. For example when the movie had the pigs, cows, chickens going on an assembly line into the factory they showed how the companies dominated the market with shading the animal. This really gives the viewer how much they dominate the industry. Whereas when you simply read about it is less ingrained in your brain.
Books when you read them create a personalized image in your brain that you create, these images are more personal to one self, and have a personal feel to them. For example when reading about the slaughterhouses and the workers conditions you imagine it for your self so you feel like you are there and can really feel the workers pain and struggle. A movie creates an image for you so it is less personal and in this sense more factual because it is actually how it looks, or how they make it look. This can create a more shocking image because it is one you see but it gives you a sense of perceiving it from an exterior's view, as when reading its a view as if you were actually there, since you create it.
A movie also has a sense of brainwashing to it because it plays music behind it the scene, which can sway your emotion and create a way point of view that you might not be true to what you believe. A con from movies are that you can hear the persons tone of voice and see the expression they are making whereas in reading it is described to the reader, so the imagine it. This relates back to a book letting you create the image and a movie creating the image for you. I also think with text you really value words more and their meaning. When watching visuals you value them but on the surface one tends not to find their deeper meaning because they go by to quickly.
Thoughts: I believe the ending of the movie was intense because of the background sound and because of the words but that were powerful, but I believe the solution to their problems were made to simplistic. In thought this is what we need to change the world, we all take part by not indulging in their products because obviously the big corporations would be nothing without our money. But most viewers like Naima stated can't change their life style because of one movie, even though the incentive is clear and worth it. I believe the movie creators should have included easier things for the public to do such as the web links they provided. I also think it is very saddening that we as Americans are so brainwashed by branding and "what we 'know' is what is good" that we can't make lifestyle changes to save our health, our country, our government, or freedom, and our PLANET.
October 19, 2010
#7d
Chapter 9 – What’s in the meat?
In 1997 an outbreak of E. Coli 0157:H7 hit Colorado and contaminated 35million pounds of Hudson beef. The nations industrialized and centralized food system is causing more breakouts because of the mass-production system. Many new food born pathogens are being discovered because of this production system. The hamburger was originally considered food for the impoverished and White castle changed the face of the burger. This caused beef consumption to be pushed beginning mass production, causing major E. Coli 0157:H7 breakouts. E. Coli 0157:H7 is mutated bacteria found in the digestive system. It kills children and harms adults producing bad stomach aches, cramps, anal bleeding and diarrhea can cause harmful diseases overtime, it gets into the meat through the animal fesses. Meatpacking industries filthy factories in early 1900’s caused change but quickly they dominated the FDA ultimately giving it no authority. Slaughterhouses constantly have E. Coli 0157:H7 breakouts and suitable meat is distributed anyways. Instead of changing their procedure companies simply “clean” the meat with ammonium nitrate. The cheapest meat in the U.S.A is cooked in the public school systems and causes many E. Coli 0157:H7 outbreaks.
Gems
• “The USDA plan, however has been significantly watered down during negotiations with the meat packing industry and Republican members of Congress. The new system would shift many food safety tasks to employees. The records complied by those employees-- unlike the reports traditionally written by federal inspectors -- would not be available to the public trough the freedom of information act. And meat-packing plants would not be required to test for E. Coli 0157:H7, a pathogen whose discovery might lead to immediate condemnation of their meat. Instead, they could test for other bacteria as a broad measure of fecal contamination levels; the results of those test would not have to be revealed to the government; and meat containing whatever organisms the test found could still be sold to public.” • “The USDA chose meat suppliers for its National School Lunch Program on the basis of the lowest price, without imposing additional food safety requirements.”
Thoughts & Reflections
This brings back memories from when I was in middle school and elementary school. I felt the pressure to fit in so I would have my parents stop packing my lunch and eat the horrible cafeteria lunch. Fellow students and me always wanted to protest this food and attempted to change the quality of food in our school but we had no idea as to why the food was so horrible and, now I FULLY GET IT! We didn’t even get REAL PLATES OR FORK AND KNIFES, OR WATER. Only milk, Styrofoam trays, and sporks. The government does not care about the people. This also brings me back to my “health” classes where we were brain washed. All the information our P.E teacher gaves us came from the U.S.D.A so if the supposedly know what is best for us, then why do they ignore this fact when it comes to the money. We should have been educated on the TRUTH!!!
Chapter 10 - Global Realization
After Communism collapsed and WWII ended Mc Donald’s opened its visit franchise abroad in Plauen, Germany. This was the first symbol of their Globalization. Many natives of the countries opposed Mc Donald’s but with time gave in because of the corporations dominating monstrosity. Countries such as Turkey whom highly opposed it became a country dominated with Franchises highly imitating American "culture". The Mc Donald’s raised the obesity rates in many countries, and brought with them their mass-production methods for their ingredients changing the face of the earth. Many people tried destroying Mc Donald’s but in doing so were intimidated and hushed by the corporations, giving Mc Donald’s the leeway to continue domination.
Gems
• “The success of McDonalds, Pizza Hut, and T.G.I Fridays in Germany has helped spark a franchise boom.” • "Today 44 million American adults are obese. An additional 6 million are 'super-obese'; they weigh about a hundred pounds more than they should. No other nation in history has gotten so fat so fast"
Thoughts & Reflections
I come from an itsy-bitsy town in the south France, St. Raphael. I’ve visited every summer since I was 5. The feeling I love when landing and sense the motherland, its indescribable. One summer I realized the place I loved so much for its cultural roots was no longer the same, WE NOW HAD MC DONALDS! I didn’t even realize the tremendous difference between the bloods inside of me until; one root began growing in the other. Mc Donald’s was the opposite of the culture we come from especially my family who is in the business of food, and now here it was taking over. It made me so mad to see it and to eat it when I was there. I remember once my whole family had a huge event and for some reason there was no food and we were all starving so my aunts husband thought hey, Mc Donald’s, so we ate Mc Donald’s on my grandmothers dinning room table, all 17 of us. She was the only one who didn’t eat it. I look at it now and see it as the utmost disrespect. It pains me and ingrains in my head even more that I will never eat fast food again. It is one thing to hurt your own culture, but to hurt others that’s where I draw the line!!
Epilogue – Have it your way
Dale Lasater raises cattle the old-fashion American way very un-conventional compared to the dominant discourse. There is still chance of natural farming; Red Top and In-N-Out are fast-food restaurants that use higher quality ingredients and better staff conditions. Corporations don’t have all the power they also have to obey the laws, and with change in legislation the American people can make a change. We can also vote to change every time we eat by choosing the right food and not giving our money to mass-production.
Gems
• "Throughout the Cold War, America's decentralization system of agriculture, relying upon millions of independent producers, was depicted as the most productive system in the world, as proof of capitalism's inherent superiority" • "Every month more than 90 percent of the children in the United States eat at McDonald's.”
Thoughts and Reflections
I thought this book was amazing and it has truly inspired me to get involved in changing American legislation and food ways. I am starting with baby steps by putting love into our schools roof garden and hopefully we can start a project exemplifying how all NYC roof tops should be covered in green, imagine how many acres that would be!! I am also participating at added value an urban farm, and getting the word out there to who ever will listen. I also think the further information at the back of the book is really insightful.
October 18, 2010
#7c
Chapter 9 – What’s in the meat?
In 1997 an outbreak of E. Coli 0157:H7 hit Colorado and contaminated 35million pounds of Hudson beef. The nations industrialized and centralized food system is causing more breakouts because of the mass-production system. Many new food born pathogens are being discovered because of this production system. The hamburger was originally considered food for the impoverished and White castle changed the face of the burger. This caused beef consumption to be pushed beginning mass production, causing major E. Coli 0157:H7 breakouts. E. Coli 0157:H7 is mutated bacteria found in the digestive system. It kills children and harms adults producing bad stomach aches, cramps, anal bleeding and diarrhea can cause harmful diseases overtime, it gets into the meat through the animal fesses. Meatpacking industries filthy factories in early 1900’s caused change but quickly they dominated the FDA ultimately giving it no authority. Slaughterhouses constantly have E. Coli 0157:H7 breakouts and suitable meat is distributed anyways. Instead of changing their procedure companies simply “clean” the meat with ammonium nitrate. The cheapest meat in the U.S.A is cooked in the public school systems and causes many E. Coli 0157:H7 outbreaks.
Gems
• “The USDA plan, however has been significantly watered down during negotiations with the meat packing industry and Republican members of Congress. The new system would shift many food safety tasks to employees. The records complied by those employees-- unlike the reports traditionally written by federal inspectors -- would not be available to the public trough the freedom of information act. And meat-packing plants would not be required to test for E. Coli 0157:H7, a pathogen whose discovery might lead to immediate condemnation of their meat. Instead, they could test for other bacteria as a broad measure of fecal contamination levels; the results of those test would not have to be revealed to the government; and meat containing whatever organisms the test found could still be sold to public.” • “The USDA chose meat suppliers for its National School Lunch Program on the basis of the lowest price, without imposing additional food safety requirements.”
Thoughts & Reflections This brings back memories from when I was in middle school and elementary school. I felt the pressure to fit in so I would have my parents stop packing my lunch and eat the horrible cafeteria lunch. Fellow students and me always wanted to protest this food and attempted to change the quality of food in our school but we had no idea as to why the food was so horrible and, now I FULLY GET IT! We didn’t even get REAL PLATES OR FORK AND KNIFES, OR WATER. Only milk, Styrofoam trays, and sporks. The government does not care about the people. This also brings me back to my “health” classes where we were brain washed. All the information our P.E teacher gaves us came from the U.S.D.A so if the supposedly know what is best for us, then why do they ignore this fact when it comes to the money. We should have been educated on the TRUTH!!!
In 1997 an outbreak of E. Coli 0157:H7 hit Colorado and contaminated 35million pounds of Hudson beef. The nations industrialized and centralized food system is causing more breakouts because of the mass-production system. Many new food born pathogens are being discovered because of this production system. The hamburger was originally considered food for the impoverished and White castle changed the face of the burger. This caused beef consumption to be pushed beginning mass production, causing major E. Coli 0157:H7 breakouts. E. Coli 0157:H7 is mutated bacteria found in the digestive system. It kills children and harms adults producing bad stomach aches, cramps, anal bleeding and diarrhea can cause harmful diseases overtime, it gets into the meat through the animal fesses. Meatpacking industries filthy factories in early 1900’s caused change but quickly they dominated the FDA ultimately giving it no authority. Slaughterhouses constantly have E. Coli 0157:H7 breakouts and suitable meat is distributed anyways. Instead of changing their procedure companies simply “clean” the meat with ammonium nitrate. The cheapest meat in the U.S.A is cooked in the public school systems and causes many E. Coli 0157:H7 outbreaks.
Gems
• “The USDA plan, however has been significantly watered down during negotiations with the meat packing industry and Republican members of Congress. The new system would shift many food safety tasks to employees. The records complied by those employees-- unlike the reports traditionally written by federal inspectors -- would not be available to the public trough the freedom of information act. And meat-packing plants would not be required to test for E. Coli 0157:H7, a pathogen whose discovery might lead to immediate condemnation of their meat. Instead, they could test for other bacteria as a broad measure of fecal contamination levels; the results of those test would not have to be revealed to the government; and meat containing whatever organisms the test found could still be sold to public.” • “The USDA chose meat suppliers for its National School Lunch Program on the basis of the lowest price, without imposing additional food safety requirements.”
Thoughts & Reflections This brings back memories from when I was in middle school and elementary school. I felt the pressure to fit in so I would have my parents stop packing my lunch and eat the horrible cafeteria lunch. Fellow students and me always wanted to protest this food and attempted to change the quality of food in our school but we had no idea as to why the food was so horrible and, now I FULLY GET IT! We didn’t even get REAL PLATES OR FORK AND KNIFES, OR WATER. Only milk, Styrofoam trays, and sporks. The government does not care about the people. This also brings me back to my “health” classes where we were brain washed. All the information our P.E teacher gaves us came from the U.S.D.A so if the supposedly know what is best for us, then why do they ignore this fact when it comes to the money. We should have been educated on the TRUTH!!!
October 12, 2010
#7B
Fast Food Nation By: Eric Schlosser
Chapter 4 - Success
J.R Simpson is now a multibillonaire who owns one of the biggest potato manufactures in Idaho. He began drying onions and potatoes and hit it big with the military. After WW2 he invested in frozen food but it was still not selling for homes because of fridge costs. In 1953 he made a deal with Kroc and opened a facotry just for Mc Donalds. The frozen french fry industry now reduced to 3 suppliers. The number of farmers is reducing and one kind of crop is being mass produced in bigger farms. Farmers are reciving less and less profit as mass corporations rake in more.
Gems
- ""Eventually I opened a Mc Donald's across the street from that store which they had renamed The Big M," Kroc proudly noted in his memoir, "And it ran them out of business.""
- "In New York City, the SBA backed thirteen loans to Burger King franchisees; eleven of them defaulted. The chain was "experimenting" according to congressional investigation, using government-backed loans to open restaurants in marginal locations. Burger King did not lose money when these restaurants closed. American taxpayers had covered the franchise fees, paid for the buildings, real estate, equipment, and supplies."
- "Reeve says, "By the time I was 24, I was making millions, I was pretty pleased with myself... I was selfish and neglected my family... since my accident; I've been realizing ...That success means something quite different. I see people who achieve these conventional goals, none of it matters.""
Reflections
- Kroc is really one of the most selfish people I have ever heard of and cannot wait till his greedy self gets the horrible karma he deserves, I wonder if he lives a happy life with his millons of dollars,and millons of Mc Donalds.
- This makes me sick ! SOON I AM GOING TO BE A TAXPAYER !! I am not about to pay for Burger King establishments I refuse to ever again support such franchises, but back to my life issue, HOW DO I CHANGE ALL OF THIS ?!
- Christoper Reeves is a perfect example of Karma getting at him for what he deserved, apparently but no one will realize that money dosen't matter until they getting a PERSONAL life changing experience.
- I wonder if the publication of this book in the least changed fast food income.. DOUBT IT !
Chapter 5 - Why the fries taste good
J.R Simplton is now a multibillionaire who owns one of the biggest potato manufactures in Idaho. He began drying onions and potatoes for the u.s military. After world war 2 he invested in frozen food and he made a deal with Kroc and opened a factory just for Mc Donalds. The frozn french fry industry has now reduced to 3 suppliers. The number of farmers is reducing and one kind of crop is being mass produced in bigger farms. Farmers are reciving less and less profit as mass corporations rake in more. Falovring and color additives are the magic to mass production, without such chemicals mass-produced food wouldnt sell. The fragrance industry is very secretive IFF manufactures in New Jersy and is made up of a small grouyp of chemist whoo mix hundreds of chemicals to rcive falvors and scents, to make food more appeling. This industry now makes 1.4 billion dollars a year. The Lamb Weston company uses state of the art technology to make food. French Fries go through a cleaning, sorting, peeling, cutting, cooking, drying, freezing process thousands at a time. Most of the work is done by machines and the end result is a delicious french fry.
Gems
- "about 90% of the money that Americans spend on food is used to buy processed food"
- "Fast food companies purchase frozen french fries for about 30 cents a pound , reheat them in oil and sell them for about $6 a pound."
Reflections
- This upsets me profoundly and I think it is the example of the ignorance Americans reek in foodway's, simply because they are being controlled by rich puppetires.
Chapter 6 - On the Range
Hank was the first person I met in Colorado
Springs, he is a local rancher. He owns a Farm 2 miles south of C.S. There he
raises 400 free range cattle. He is determined to help the environment because
of fast growth. C.S is causing major water waste eroding land from his property,
and a raceway is now over the hill from him. Ranching use to be a business with
250 different providers and now 4 produce 80% of Americans meat. Ranchers are
being forced into selling for lower prices and mass-producing in order to get their
cattle sold. Ranching is becoming similar to the poultry industry where
Chickens, the quicker and fatter the grower can get them, the more they are
paid. Companies such as Perdue own the food, the birds; the growers simply own
the land. Ranching is dying in the west as land gets more expensive, and
mass-production and urban life is taking over. Hank committed suicide in 1998
because of all the up mounting pressure.
Gems
- "Today the top four meatpacking firms - ConAgra, IBP, Excel, and National Beef - slaughter about 84% of the nation's cattle."
- "Most American beef cannot be exported to the European Union, where the use of bovine growth hormones has been banned."
Reflection, Insight
- (http://www.eu-oplysningen.dk/euo_en/spsv/all/101/) states the life expectancy in the E.U is 80,8.
- (http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/births_deaths_marriages_divorces/life_expectancy.html) states the life expectancy in the U.S.A is 77.
- This is a big jump but in the E.U bovine growth hormones cannot be used, and the E.U over all has better health than americans, but all us Americans care about is money.
October 10, 2010
Home Grown Sprouts !
My sprouts before they were eaten, their were more, just bad photography quality !
This is how I ate the sprouts, falafel bread, ham, avocado,
hummus, and the sprouts.
I wish I would have eaten my
sprouts differently, I was unable to enjoy the taste this way, the other
ingredients over powered the nutty taste, but they did add just the right crunch
to my lunch! I had some of Naima's sprouts in class straight out the jar, and
they were scrumptious just like that. They had a fresh nutty flavor I enjoyed,
but my favorite sprouts were the radish I loved the zing. I found it serial to
be growing food in my own little New York apartment. I loved watching them grow
little by little over the hours and transforming into green beings. I am used
to farming but it is a different sensation when you do it all on your own and
with no soil!!! It makes me think of all the infinite possibilities; we could
all grow our own food everywhere. During my internship I was conducting
interviews on public space and I met a woman who is a farmer for a roof farm in
NYC, Brooklyn! I found that so cool, I think that NYC would not only be miraculous
with farms on all the roofs but so productive. Growing sprouts in a glass jar
is just the start!
October 05, 2010
#7
Fast Food Nation By: Eric Scholoseer
Introduction:
The Cheynne Mountain Air Force Station if ever discovered by archeologist the remains of our food will be fast food packaging. What we eat has changed over the last 3 decades and this is because of American modernization causing food to be sold in franchise with the importance being uniformity. Fast food is now being exported all around the world and is a symbol of American's service economy and the horrible food quality causing deadly pathogens!
Chapter 1: The Founding Fathers
The American Way
Carl N. Karcher was one of the fast-food pioneers he began the Carl jr. Fast Food Chain. It is the story of how he began as a struggling businessman and followed what was making money in California, which was the speedee service; making food in an assembly line. Their are multiple stories of business men who implied the Mc Donald brother speedee food system and began chains such as KFC, Burger King, and Wendy's spreading fast food around the USA. Also expressed is the industrialization of things around this period, including highways, other fast-food corporations, subdivisions, and strip malls.
Chapter 2: Your Trusted Friends
McDonalds headquarters has a shrine (disguised as museum) showing all their achievements in mass-producing. Ray Kroc is the man who made the speedee service a chain and turned fast food into an advertising business. Like his fellow Red Cross worker Walt Disney, they created propaganda to sell their products using synergy. Setting Mc Donald’s as a trusting friend, whom makes the kids happy, and makes your life easier. Most Mass-corporation advertisement is aimed at 'kid kustomers' to create a loyal brand costumer. This has lead to marketing in schools where products such as coke are being sold and having a ' coke day' in school to promote the brand and receive funding for education.
Gems & Questions & Responses:
Customers are drawn to familiar brands by an instinct to avoid the
unknown. A brand offers a feeling of reassurance when its products are
always and everywhere the same. "We have found out...that we cannot
trust some people who are nonconformists," declared Ray Kroc.."
This shows that Americans have been brain washed to think everything
similar is good,creating a culture where only your own is good and
people become close minded And only stay in their comfort zone.
"that was where I learned you could influence people with a smile and
enthusiasm,"
This shows that Mc donalds infulences all their costumers with kindness
to have them believe that they are their 'trusted friends'.
"This is a rat eat rat, dog eat dog. Ill kill' em and i'm going to
kill'em before they kill me. You're talking about the American way of
survival of the fittest."
This I foind the most disturbing because this oppitomizes
mass-production belief that quality is not what matters is making the
most money and doing whatever to get there.
I wonder why It is legal to Advertise to children who cannot even
deffend themself, I think that advertisment all together should be
illegal.
Chapter 3: Behind the counter
Colorado springs was once a varied town with local stores. Has now expanded into the new L.A with replica homes, and hundreds of fast food restaurants, with a huge influx of white middle class, Republican Evangelical Christians. The number of fast food restaurants has increased fivefold in the last 30 years. Elisa Zamot is a teen that works a horrible, minimum wage no -union, un-skilled, and dangerous fast-food job. All food arrives frozen or in syrups and then is placed in machines at the chain, taco bell the recipe is simply "add hot water”. The chains have created standardized products and procedures so they can spend minimum on employees. At a 1999 conference Burger King, Mc Donald’s, and TriconGlobal meet and agreed on how to make employee expenses a minimum, including having temporary employees to receive tax reductions by the government of $2,400 for "training employees" who have no skills. Managers create schedules so workers never work more than 30hours if possible so they never get an overtime salary. Valued the most in staff members is obedience, their is NO SKILL INVOLVED. There is no Union for such staff members, they have tried but have been stopped by the corporations. Fast food relies on mostly teenage staff that is ok with minimum wage and many students give up their schoolwork. There is a protecting Youth at work regulations but is not followed by fast food. Every year 200,000 workers are injured because of minimal training; Fast food companies are also the most robbed companies by their own staff!! Causing many staff murders. And the big dogs of these companies couldn't care, simply care that slowly things are obscuring their sick work.
Gems:
- "A lot of kids at Harrison don't save any of the money earned at their fast food jobs. They buy beepers, cellular phones, stereos, and designer clothes."
- "The turmoil of an earlier era has been replaced by a sad and rootless anomie. "I have lots and lots of kids who are terribly depressed," Trogdon says, "I've never seen so many, so young, feel this way."
- " "I see the possibility of unions," he warned. The thought "chilled" him. He asked everyone in the audience to give more money to the industry's key lobbying groups. "And [senator] Kenndy's pushing hard on a $7.25 minimum wage," he continued. "That'll be fun, wont it? I love the idea of that. I sure do - strike me dead!" As the crowd laughed and roared and applauded Brinker's call to arms against unions and the government, the talk about teamwork fell into the proper perspective."
Reflections:
- It makes me upset that kids work at these horrrible jobs, for these terrible companies and then simply return their salary right back to such companies such as nike, motorola, and so on. These are all companies who rely on cheap labor, cheap quality, and "fashion trend" and ever changing technology to make their profits.
- Something is terribly wrong with the world we live in if so many teenagers are depressed, I thought teens were supoose to have the mind state "im unvincable" and be most determined. This leads me to the thought that so many young people find things wrong with our society but sit back and let it happen, no revolts or protest are ever happening.. I guess I should get off my ass.
October 01, 2010
FOOD DIARY ! 9//10 - 9//10
9/28 : 4 PM After school snack
cheese quesadilla (I made it)
cashews and an apple
9/28 Dinner
Parmesan
spagetti with tomato sauce ( I made it)
I have never enjoyed a plate of pasta so much in
my life! I really at it slooooooowly and savored every bite and felt all the
textures with my tongue and it was so good. The sweet yet salty taste of the
tomato sauce with the perfectly cooked pasta and the rich creamy taste of the Parmesan
was HEVEAN! I realized eating this meal that, I usually eat healthy and better
than most Americans, BUT I am a rushed New Yorker. I throw my food down my
throat and not only is not good for your health but you cannot savor the food
with the respect and time it deserves. I AM A TRUE FRENCHIE !! I LOVE PASTA, I
could eat it anyway and that is the beauty of it there is a million gazillion trillion
ways to eat it.
salad (I made the dressing)
9/29
7:30 am egg & cheese sandwich (forgot to photograph, these were the eggs used)
12:50 lunch time @ sof.. dollar pizza and then another one at 5pm
This dollar Pizza place is the bomb in the sense that it only cost a dollar and tast pretty damn good as far as pizza goes, but my question is what kind of crap ingredients they use in order to satisfy their profit goal. Its sad because I wish I didn't eat this crap but when not home I have no choice ! What scares me more is the place on the corner its hot dogs and fries for real cheap. The reason this guy opens this is because he knows that this is going to be a hit with all the schools and offices around. The scary part is that is what is in demand fries, hot dogs and pizza, for cheap ! You cant get a soup,pasta, or SALAD for cheap ! SALADS COST $9 !
8PM
Lentil salad with balsamic and onions
Skirt steak
Olives
Salad
Yogurt
With honey
I REALLLY ENJOYED this dessert it was so simple but delicious the bitterness of the yogurt contrasting against the ultra sweet honey is so good and the yogurt is so smooth it feels like silk slipping down your throat.
Then mom came home from upstate with fresh organic natural apple cider & apple donuts !!!!
9/30
7:30 am coffee
10:30 am apple
11:45am cheese slices
1:45pm tuna salad & left over lentil salad
Tuna on toast, open face
Then went to an open house where I had a trail mix bar & slice of gross pizza from papa johns and a cup of coke, wanted water but there was no more, i felt guilty for drinking the coke I dont drink soda anymore.
9PM I got home late and was home alone so did tomato sauce pasta again but spicy, and pan simmered swiss chard with garlic.
I
am a little disappointed in my food diary I wanted my mom to whip out her crazy
delicious mind blowing meals, I enjoy showing off her talent :D but We had a
very hectic week and my mom went out of town so their was not time for such
beauty. Since I did have my food diary in mind most of the time I was thinking
about it on the train and I saw an ad for a place called Grub Hub.. and the
slogan was eating made easy. WHAT DOES THIS SAY ABOUT SOCIETY? Food is no
longer about nourishment it’s about throwing food down your throat and not
caring. Grub is just like any kind of food and its food made easy, there is
nothing difficult about food it just takes time, but I guess there is not much
time in our society anymore.
Most
of the food I ate this week was eaten because of convince, what ever I ate was
simple and quick to make BUT everything that came from my home was all organic,
fresh, healthy and so on. I really wish it was everywhere but its not.
One thing I love and is frowned upon especially in my own home, is eating with my hands ! I hate silverware, I feel I experience my food more with my fingers. I think silverware is helpful with some items such as soup but or else I prefer my hands, I cant wait till I have my own home so I can do what I please. Or I need to move to India.
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