I, Borges

By Carlos Duguech

I look like those others whom I do not see.
They are so many that I lose count.
Only voices, voices only, a fleeting
life, sounds. I just think

I am as vital as a fluttering bird.
I wander in an unknown and badly injured
vastness of the heavens in a defeated combat
of distant stars, the zenith

of a dance that ignores my sleepless nights:
navigator of languages, ignorant
at once of the color of those skies,

of the meanings, of what is real,
I fumble blindly calling myself "the wanderer"
until the day that Borges will be "the corpse".

Carlos Duguech is an Argentinian poet. The poem was translated by Fortuna Calvo-Roth.

I was returning by taxi to the hotel I was staying in Tripoli with an Argentine friend when, unexpectedly, I understood the characteristics of the regime of former Libyan dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi. We had started talking to the driver who, in perfect English, answered our questions. When he heard we were Argentines his face lit up and he started talking excitedly about the Argentine former soccer player Diego Maradona. Undoubtedly, the soccer star's name, with its tinsel achieved as a player and despite his personal chiaroscuro, remains a magnet around the world.

At one point, as we passed by a military barracks, my friend asked the driver if Khadafy lived there. Immediately our driver had a marked change of mood: his apparent friendliness transmuted into an awkward nervousness and he became almost hostile to us. Stunned, we tried to return to the conversation about Maradona, but were unsuccessful.
More effective than a lesson in politics, this incident highlighted the unpredictable terror the Libyan dictator was able to cause in the population and explains that under a calm exterior, a climate of oppression and terror was reigning then in Tripoli.

With the fall of the Libyan dictator and his replacement by a National Transitional Council (NTC) headed by Mustafa Abu Jalil, there were expectations that the terror and abuses of the Qaddafi era had finally ended. Not so, say Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, whose statements are corroborated by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an organization which has decided to stop its operations in Misrata, due to the torture of detainees being carried out there.

This organization claims that several of the patients that had been treated for torture were sent again to interrogation centers where they were tortured again. MSF general director stated, “Our role is to provide medical care to war casualties and sick detainees, not to repeatedly treat the same patients between torture sessions.” MSF claims of torture in Misrata have been confirmed by Human Rights Watch, which has been monitoring prison conditions in Misrata since last April.

In a 25 January presentation to the UN Security Council Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that the human rights situation in Libya “…remains of concern and requires increased vigilance and sustained assistance from the international community.” According to Mrs. Pillay, the fact that the Interim Government doesn’t have effective control over the revolutionary brigades has human rights effects in several areas.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been most active in overseeing the conditions of detainees in Libya. Between March and December of 2011 the ICRC visited over 8,500 detainees in approximately 60 detention centers. Although the majority of detainees were Qaddafi loyalists, the ICRC found that there were also large numbers of detainees from Sub-Saharan countries who acted as mercenaries for the Qaddafi regime during the revolution.

According to Amnesty International, torture is carried out by official military and security units and by numerous armed militias operating outside of any legal framework. Many detainees died while in custody, after being subjected to different kinds of torture including beatings, use of electro-shocks with live wires and being hit with metal chains and bars. As Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International Senior Crisis Adviser in Libya recently stated, “After all the promises to get detention centres under control, it is horrifying to find that there has been no progress to stop the use of torture.”

Amnesty International states that both the police and the judiciary remain dysfunctional in the country, with several unofficial groups carrying out interrogations in detention centres outside the control of the judiciary, a situation that needs to be urgently addressed.

Although Libya’s new government is facing considerable challenges on all fronts, unless it ensures that rule of the law and respect for human rights, it runs the risk of descending into chaos. And a possible return to the dire conditions that Libyans thought they had already overcome.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

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The recent death in Cuba of 31-year-old Wilman Villar Mendoza - who was on a hunger strike as a protest for having been sentenced to four years in prison - is a severe indictment of the Cuban regime and of its avowed respect for human rights. Villar Mendoza’s death follows that of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, another Cuban dissident, who died in 2009 following an 80-day hunger strike.

Villar was arrested last November for disrespecting authority and resisting arrest. He protested the sentence going on a hunger strike. His wife, Maritza Pellegrino, said that initially Cuba’s state security hadn’t allowed her to see the body of her husband. Villar’s death was mourned by all freedom loving Cubans. Berta Soler, a spokeswoman for the Ladies in White stated, “We lost a young man of 31-years because the Cuban government is not interested in the lives of its citizens or those men who protest inhumane conditions.”

Villar’s death shows that, in spite of freeing several political prisoners as a result of an agreement brokered by the Catholic Church and the Spanish government, the Cuban government is not willing to allow new and peaceful protests against the regime.

I became aware of the omnipresent pressure of the Cuban state during my first trip to Cuba in 1982, to attend a health-related meeting. As I walked with a friend into Bodeguita del Medio – a traditional restaurant known by the number of famous visitors who had dined there over the years (Hemingway was a frequent patron) – a young Cuban man was discreetly asked to leave.

When the man saw us and realized that we weren’t Cubans, he began ranting against the government restrictions on Cubans. “I have money to spend here,” he told us. “But they prefer that foreigners eat and spend their money here. I am just fed up with this regime.”

He then asked us, “Do you see something in that corner?” “Yes,” we said. “there is a man standing there.” “You are wrong,” he said. “He is not a man. That’s a gigantic ear listening to everything I say to you. But I don’t care any longer. I am sick and tired of this situation.”

Instantly, I got a first-hand sense of the problem besieging Cuban society: the need for foreign money, the oppressive nature of the regime and the dissatisfaction of the country’s youth. These impressions were later confirmed during other visits to the island. Highlighting those shortcomings, though, is in no way to deny the Cuban government’s achievements, particularly in health and education.

Cuba, for all its faults and drawbacks, is in the forefront of both fields when compared not only to other Latin American countries but also to the United States. This progress, however, has been hindered by an unnecessary and ineffective embargo that has exacted a tremendous cost not only to Cuba but also to the U.S.

Paradoxically, the Castro regime remains in power and is allowed to abuse its citizens precisely by an embargo that most Cubans feel is an attack on their country’s sovereignty. The limited isolation provoked by the embargo enables the regime to act with total impunity in the abuse of dissident Cubans.

Although political pressure from the powerful Cuban exile community in Florida has been a key factor in maintaining the embargo, the descendants of that immigrant generation have a more nuanced view of the Cuban regime. They have seen the damage caused by decades of antagonism between both countries – and are eager for better relations between them.

President Barack Obama has eased some restrictions on travel to the island by Cubans and their descendants. However, scientists, doctors, artists and ordinary citizens from both countries still face constraints. Easing those restrictions could have a dramatic effect in neutralizing the atmosphere of antagonism and should lead to a lifting of the embargo and the normalization of relations between both countries.

An important condition for lifting the embargo, however, should be the release of all political prisoners in Cuba and an agreement with the Cuban government to open to the free exchange of ideas both inside and outside the country. No government should be allowed to let its own citizens die of hunger because they are protesting their arbitrary detention.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

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In its latest outlook of the global economy, The World Economic Forum Global Risks 2012 report paints a gloomy panorama of the future if world’s institutions –governments, private industry, academic institutions and social organizations- don’t make some radical changes. The report was prepared as a prelude to the Davos, Switzerland, meeting later this month.

Increasing number of unemployed young people, growing number of elderly people dependent on the states and the expanding gap between the rich and the poor are sowing ‘seeds of dystopia’. This term was originally coined by the British philosopher John Stuart Mill as a contrast to utopia. Social critics use the term ‘dystopian’ to condemn negative trends in post-industrial societies.

The findings in the report are based on surveys of 469 experts and industry leaders, and show a shift of concerns from environmental risks to socioeconomic risks which were the focus of the report a year ago. “For the first time in generations, many people no longer believe that their children will grow up to enjoy a higher living standard than theirs,” stated Lee Howell, the World Economic Forum Managing Director and responsible for the report.

This situation exists not only in industrialized countries, beset by economic crises, but also in developing countries that also suffer the effect of those crises. The recent downgrading of France’s sterling credit rating by Standard & Poor’s Corp. followed by a similar measure on other European countries, underscores the seriousness of the situation affecting the countries’ economies. Meanwhile, as the second Greek bailout is looking more complicated, the country’s pharmacies are running out of basic medicines. In addition, some families, unable to take care of their children are abandoning them to be cared for in youth centers.

The report analyses 50 global risks and divides them in three different sets of risk cases to the world’s prosperity and security. The three risk cases describe the links across a selection of global risks, their interplay and how they are likely to develop over the next 10 years.

The first case, called Seeds of dystopia, describes what happens when efforts to build a better world do not go as anticipated. This case deals with how formerly wealthy countries can descend into lawlessness and unrest as they are unable to meet their social and fiscal obligations. In that regard, it warns that developed economies such as those of Western Europe, North America and Japan are in danger of being destroyed. As a result, workers near retirement fear that cutbacks in social entitlements, mainly access to quality health care, will seriously affect their quality of life.

The challenges in emerging economies such as Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Mexico, Peru and the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are different since these countries are trying to take advantage of a demographic window of opportunity of a young and large labor force before this population also ages. Rapid growth among these emerging economies has created expectations that improved conditions will benefit all of them, a premise that recent economic developments is unable to sustain. As stated in the report, “…social contracts may not be forged quickly enough to rectify increasingly visible economic inequalities and social inequities.”

The second case discussed in the report is called, How Safe are our Safeguards? In it, the analysis of the Global Risks Survey stated that “…the risk of unintended negative consequences of regulations was tightly connected with many other global risks.” The report stresses that to be effective the safeguards have to strike the right balance on topics such as global finance, transportation networks, emerging science and new technologies, scarce resources, the climate and biodiversity.

One of the main problems is that, frequently, safeguards are inadequate, over-complicated, fragmented and slow to respond to the rapid pace of global change. A change of mentality is necessary, states the report, “…so that policies, regulations or institutions can offer vital protection in a more agile and cohesive way.”

In the third case, called The Dark Side of Connectivity, the report analyses how our daily lives depend on hyper connected online systems, and underscores that new mechanisms are now required to finance private investment in exploring existing system vulnerabilities before they can be abused.

In the last few years, the increasing popularity of the Internet has changed the ways in which we communicate, conduct business and even amplify popular uprisings, as recent events have shown in several countries worldwide. Communication techniques have touched areas such as human rights and made it possible to forcibly prosecute some human rights abusers.

At the same time, recent progress has dramatically increased the possibilities for cyber attacks whose consequences may affect from petty crime to shutting down critical government systems and even potentially triggering physical armed warfare. Cyber espionage, for example, has reached now a high level of technical sophistication and although now is believed to be restricted to major corporations, government agencies and elite hackers, it can have a wider use in the future.

What makes this report particularly valuable is that it stresses the need to develop new thinking regarding private and public responsibilities, and alerts on how some specific risks, if not properly addressed, can be a serious threat to peace and economic progress in the world.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a New York writer on human rights and foreign policy issues.

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Recently, as we discussed international political events, a friend told me, “Countries are like people: they react in the same manner.” I didn’t quite realize the full import of her words until now that I view the seemingly inevitable path to war between the United States/Israel and Iran.

There are abundant historical examples to prove that an effective weapon in creating antagonism between countries as a prelude to war is by dehumanizing the enemy. Although the Holocaust during World War II and the Rwandan genocide are extreme cases of enemy dehumanization, a similar process exists almost every time there is war.

This is also true in the case of Iran, whose leaders have described their enemies pejoratively. However, that same language has also been used in describing Iranians, which further exacerbates an extremely delicate situation.

Anthropologists Ashley Montagu and Floyd Matson wrote that dehumanization could be considered the “fifth horseman of the apocalypse” because of the damage it has caused society and wrote, “The possible attainment of full humanness –the transformation of the species from Homo sapiens to Homo humanus- rests upon our recovery of the lost world of fellow feeling, the source of all human connection.”

In a beautiful poem entitled “How to Create an Enemy” Sam Keen, an American former professor of philosophy and religion, expresses similar feelings:

Start with an empty canvas
Sketch in broad outline the forms of
men, women, and children.
Dip into the unconsciousness well of your own
disowned darkness
with a wide brush and
strain the strangers with the sinister hue
of the shadow.
Trace onto the face of the enemy the greed,
hatred, carelessness you dare not claim as
your own.
Obscure the sweet individuality of each face.
Erase all hints of the myriad loves, hopes,
fears that play through the kaleidoscope of
every infinite heart.
Twist the smile until it forms the downward
arc of cruelty.
Strip flesh from bone until only the
abstract skeleton of death remains.
Exaggerate each feature until man is
metamorphosized into beast, vermin, insect.
Fill in the background with malignant
figures from ancient nightmares – devils,
demons, myrmidons of evil.
When your icon of the enemy is complete
you will be able to kill without guilt,
slaughter without shame.
The thing you destroy will have become
merely an enemy of God, an impediment
to the sacred dialectic of history.

Is there, one wonders, some other way to face what seems to be an inevitable rush to widespread destruction and death? I believe there is. Untested diplomatic approaches could be applied in the current situation with Iran.

A possible first step before time runs out is to declare a moratorium on confrontational actions from both sides, while making an effort to know the other better. This could be achieved through a series of exchanges of scientists, doctors, artists, students, and sportspersons among the countries in conflict.

The recent rescue at sea from Somali pirates of 13 Iranian fishermen by American sailors shows what these kinds of actions can do to improve relations among people in conflict. Iranian fishermen could not hide their appreciation to the Americans for their rescue. We can make a conscious effort to create an atmosphere for peace with the same steadfast determination we use to create an atmosphere for war.

This approach will probably be dismissed as hopelessly naïve by many learned pundits. It does not conform to their idea that Iran is a devious power which will only respond to force. However, there can be no peace if an atmosphere of peace is not created among the common people. All other options have so far been ineffective. This is the moment to give a constructive proposal a try.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

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The deteriorating global economic outlook is increasing worries among health experts on the effects that the economic crises will have on people’s health. As the World Health Organization stated in 2009, “It is not yet clear what the current financial crisis will mean for low-income and emerging economies, but many predictions are highly pessimistic.”

In low-income countries, economic crises lead to a reduction in the demand for imports – including medicines and medical supplies and technology - tighter access to capital and falling remittances from family members working outside the country. In addition, there is less government revenue to finance health and social services.

A recent article in Lancet, highlights those effects in Greece, one of the European countries most affected by the ongoing global economic crisis. As a result, there has been a significant increase in unemployment, which rose from 6.6% in May 2008 to 16.6% in May 2011. Even more troublesome, youth unemployment rose in the same period from 18.6% to 40.1%.

Several studies have shown that unemployment increases both the risk of psychiatric and somatic disorders. For example, a strong correlation has been found between job loss and clinical and subclinical depression, substance abuse, anxiety and antisocial behavior. In addition, several studies have shown that prolonged unemployment increases mortality rates.

In Greece, there has been a 17% increase in suicides between 2007 and 2009. During that same period, homicide and theft rates almost doubled. 25% of callers to a national suicide help line reported financial difficulties in 2010. The inability to pay high levels of personal debt may be one of the explanations behind the increase in the number of suicides, which had a 40% increase in the first six months of 2011 compared to the same period in 2010.

Also, a surge in intravenous drug users may explain a rise of more than 1000% HIV infections among them. In addition to intravenous drug use, prostitution and unsafe sex are also responsible for the increase in HIV infections in the general population, estimated to be 52% higher in 2011 than in 2010.

Although in Greece patients with social insurance may visit general practitioners (GPs) free of charge or attend outpatient clinics for a very low fee, there was a reduction of those visits in 2009 compared to 2007. At the same time, there was a 24% rise of public hospital admissions in 2010 compared to 2009 while admission to private hospitals declined by 25-30% during the same period. This situation may be a result of a 40% cut in hospital budgets causing understaffing and occasional shortages of medicines and medical supplies.

Another example of the effect of the economic crisis in Greece on vulnerable groups is the increased use of street clinics run by NGOs, such as the Greek chapter of Médecins du Monde, which report an increase on those seeking medical attention from their street clinics from 3-4% before the crisis started to about 30% now.

That their health situation has worsened as a result of the crisis is demonstrated by the number of Greeks who consider that their health is “bad” or “very bad”, which has increased by 14% from 2007 to 2009. To make matters worse, a third of the country’s outreach programs have been eliminated as a result of budget cuts in 2009 and 2010.

By many accounts, Greece’s public health care system is riddled with corruption and inefficiency. Oftentimes, patients offer doctors informal payments to receive treatment, particularly when they are not covered by their social insurance fund. In addition, hospitals frequently face shortages of materials and equipment.

The situation in Greece may be a harbinger of what may happen –or is happening- in countries with similar social and health care systems and which may go through similarly difficult economic situations. And it is up to the governments in those countries to rationalize resources, increase efficiency and protect their most valuable asset: the health of its citizens.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant.

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Russia cannot be understood with the mind
Or measured with a common yardstick,
She has a peculiar character-
In Russia, one can only believe.

Thus wrote Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev (1803-1873) considered one of the last three great Romantic poets in Russia. Perhaps Prime Minister Vladimir Putin should have remembered those words, when he dismissed the reaction of the Russian people to the last parliamentarian elections in the country, which the people widely considered to have been rigged.

Although Russia under Mr. Putin, and his designated successor Medvedev, has achieved progress in several areas –incomes were raised, there were more consumer goods available and people were free to travel- the tens of thousand of people demonstrating in the street were doing so against what they rightly believe was Putin’s intentions to remain indefinitely in power through rigged elections.

People were also reacting to what they saw as widespread corruption under Putin. Over the past decade, one in six businessmen in Russia has been prosecuted for an alleged economic crime. In addition, people feel that the state has failed to provide ordinary citizens adequate health care, good education, security and justice.

In Russia, words and symbols often count more than reality. And Putin has repeatedly tried to use symbols to gather support for his policies. One of those symbols has been the use of Russia as an isolated and besieged fortress surrounded by powerful enemies. One of the most powerful enemies was the U.S. through its anti-missile system, which he portrayed as an existential threat to Russia, a point of view that was strengthened by Dmitry Medvedev’s bellicose statements.

Two important factors seem to have been the trigger that led to people’s fury. One was the acknowledgment by Putin that his job swap with Medvedev had already been planned long ago, and the other, the obviously manipulated elections. Interestingly, the popular demonstrations against Putin and the government are taking place not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also in smaller cities around the country.

Putin tried to dismiss the significance of the demonstrators saying that they lacked a program, a leader and specific demands. He may have misinterpreted them. People were clear in asking for the removal of Vladimir Churov, head of the electoral commission, the release of imprisoned political activists, registration of all political parties and clean elections.

In addition, some among the demonstrators seem to have special clout. One of them is Alexei Navalny, a popular blogger, who has extensively used the power of social networking to confront Putin and Medvedev’s power. Navalny acquired widespread notoriety when as a response to being asked about his opinion of the United Russia party he answered, “I think very poorly of United Russia. United Russia is the party of corruption, the party of crooks and thieves.” Few words resonated as much among protesting Russians as these two last nouns.

There was ample reason for that. According to a recent article in the New Yorker magazine, Russia is one of the few countries in the world to slip consistently in Transparency International’s annual rankings of corrupt countries, and is now in a rank similar to Cambodia, Guinea-Bissau and the Central African Republic. As a confirmation of this fact, last October President Dmitry Medvedev stated that a trillion rubles –roughly thirty-three billion dollars (equivalent to three percent of the country’s G.D.P.) disappears annually on government contracts.

In the meantime, the situation in Russia continues to deteriorate. Inflation and unemployment are close to eight percent, and there is low purchasing power and increased capital flight. In addition, while the economy grew by a yearly average of around seven percent between 2000 and 2007, it has declined since then and it is estimated that it will have grown by four percent at the end of 2011. In addition to corruption, Russia is beset by high rates of crime and widespread unemployment.

Nobody can predict where the present demonstrations against the government will take Russians. So far, the government has made only minor moves as a response. One of them was making Vladislav Surkov, who had been deputy chief of the presidential administration and a man with wide ranging powers, deputy prime minister in charge of economic modernization But opposition forces believe that proposed reforms are too little too late.

Proud of their past, Russians are also eager to be able to express freely their political wishes. It is highly improbable that Vladimir Putin will relinquish his grip on power and allow for a repeat of the parliamentary elections. However, it was also considered unlikely a year ago that the Arab Spring would engulf the Arab world as a ball of fire in the way it did so far.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

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Perhaps one of the most important questions in the United States now is who the real Barack Obama is, and what can we expect from him from now on, as we move towards next year's presidential elections facing unrelenting opposition of the Republicans in Congress.

Many people, disillusioned with the Obama administration, insist on the little enforcement of his campaign promises and on his lack of principles. No one can speak of the achievements or failures of President Obama, however, without mentioning the factors and groups that brought him to power and which continue to influence his actions.

Perhaps the most notorious among those groups is the so-called military-industrial complex, about which General Dwight D. Eisenhower had already warned in his farewell address as president of the Unites States. Today, more than before, the military-industrial complex has a marked influence on the decisions of the U.S. president.

Similar to the nightmare that Iran was for Carter, Obama had to face the tremendous challenge posed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although theoretically the Iraq war has ended its aftermath remains, including sectarian violence that costs the lives of tens of people weekly and has left a country still in chaos. In Afghanistan, only the total withdrawal of U.S. troops could eventually lead to a state, if not of peace, at least of less chaos and bloodshed.

Other factors, however, influence the actions of the U.S. president. To the enormous power of the military-industrial complex one must be add the power of Wall Street and that of the international financial institutions.

Among the groups of influence there is also the exclusive and secretive Bilderberg Club, whose members are politicians, government ministers, international financiers, bankers, and leaders of the most powerful media in the United States and Western Europe. This group helps define the international economic agenda and has considerable political influence.

Thus, although theoretically U.S. power is in the hands of the President, he is under the influence of the real factors of power that can be called the military-industrial-financial complex (MIFC).

These factors can, in turn, act directly and indirectly on the three branches of U.S. government. Different "lobbies" such as the pharmaceutical industry, farmers, national and multinational corporations, and groups that respond to foreign interests exert their pressure on these branches of government. This represents, therefore, a veritable "spaghetti bowl" of influences that partly explains the difficulties that President Obama faces in carrying out the government agenda that he originally proposed.

One can see how difficult it is for President Obama to eliminate government subsidies to oil companies, whose current earnings are skyrocketing, or his inability, particularly when the House of Representatives is in Republican hands, to increase taxes on the richest people in the country. As he tries to do so, Republicans in Congress threaten to eliminate or lower the most basic social benefits to the most vulnerable sectors of the population.

Despite the difficult situation he inherited and the stark opposition not only from Republicans, but also from some Democratic lawmakers, President Obama has had significant achievements. These include increasing health care coverage for the majority of the population; overcoming, at least partially and temporarily, the economic crisis; signing a nuclear arms treaty with Russia, and withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. Taking into account the difficult circumstances that he has to face, these results show Obama to be a pragmatic and realistic individual who prefers the incremental achievement of his policies and wants to avoid unnecessary confrontations.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

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As critical Republican elections are approaching, so are increasing shrill statements by Republican contenders over the Middle East situation. Republican candidates are so forcefully trying to show their support for Israel –without even mentioning the Palestinian people and their rights-- that leading Jewish peace activists and academicians have felt the need to give their opinion about the candidates and their position regarding Israel and the conflict with the Palestinians.

Uri Avnery, one of Israel’s leading peace activists and a former member of the Knesset, comments on Newt Gingrich’s assertion that the Palestinians are an “invented” people. Avnery explains that at some point after the founding of the State of Israel, Golda Meir famously said, “There is not such thing as the Palestinian people!” To which Avnery replied in the Knesset, “Mrs. Prime Minister, perhaps you are right. Perhaps there really is no Palestinian people. But if millions of people mistakenly believe that they are a people, and behave like a people, then they are a people.”

In an interview with Haaretz, Deborah Lipstadt, the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Atlanta’s Emory University, says, “You listen to Newt Gingrich talking about the Palestinians as an ‘invented people’ –it’s out-Aipacking AIPAC, it’s out-Israeling Israel,” she said. And she added, “There is something about it that is so discomforting. It’s not healthy. It’s a distortion.”

When referring to the Republican candidates’ assertions regarding Israel Professor Lipstadt described them as “pandering,” “embarrassing” and “unhealthy.” “There is no nuance, no middle ground, it’s taking any shade of grey and stomping on it --and it’s dangerous, for your support of Israel to become a litmus test,” she said.

Equally egregious is the misuse of historical facts such as the Holocaust (Shoah) for contemporary political purposes. When asked about this Professor Lipstadt replied, “It’s a use and abuse of the Shoah. That doesn’t mean there aren’t political lessons to be learned from the Shoah – from anything - but it’s a use and abuse that I think is dangerous, just plain dangerous. Not only dangerous, because that can be debated, it’s a distortion of what Israel is all about, what Zionism is all about.”

When asked about the use of the Holocaust in describing Israel’s present situation, and if this is a form of Holocaust denial Professor Lipstadt answered, “I wouldn’t call it that. I would call it a form of Holocaust abuse or instrumentalization of the Holocaust. That you take these terrible moments in our history, moments that deserve to be treated truthfully, and exactly, without exaggeration, in which the facts should speak for themselves. And you use it for contemporary purposes, and in so doing, in order to fulfill your political objectives, you mangle history, you trample on it.”

In criticizing President Obama’s policy on the Middle East, Michelle Bachmann, one of the Republican contenders said, “It seems as if lately, our President has forgotten the importance of Israel to America and thinks of our relationship only in terms of what we do for Israel. The President is more concerned about Israel building homes in its own land than the threats that Israel and America face in the region…Our policy has confused engagement with appeasement and has inspired Israel’s enemies.”

Framing the conflict in the region as if Israel were the threatened country by the much weaker and still stateless Palestinians doesn’t allow for a fair and balanced discussion of the conflict. History has amply shown that both sides have rights to an independent state where people live side by side with each other. Only recognizing the rights and the humanity of the other will lead to a solution of the conflict. Failure to recognize the existence of the Palestinian people and ignoring their legitimate aspirations does nothing for peace in the region.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

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Children in foster care are taking psychotropic drugs at a rate much higher than non-foster children in Medicaid. According to a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO,) children in foster care in five US states are taking powerful mind-altering drugs at a rate two to almost five times higher than non-foster children. Overmedicating children with powerful drugs may alter their quality of life and psychological development.

The investigation by the GAO was prompted by a request from both Republican and Democratic United States senators, led by Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), concerned by numerous reports of waste and abuse in treating foster children with psychiatric medications.

Although all children can be affected by overmedication, foster children are particularly vulnerable, since they lack the family and social support that other children usually have.
In addition, they tend to have more serious medical and mental health conditions than children in different situations.

The GAO report analyzed the situation of 609 foster children and 1,100 non-foster children in Oregon, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan and Texas, and found that at least one-third of foster children were prescribed one or more psychiatric drugs. The cost of this policy is staggering: the five states in the study spent $375 million for psychotropic prescriptions for children covered by Medicaid, $200 million of which was spent in Texas alone.

As indicated in the report, although hundreds of children -both foster and non-foster- were given five and in some cases even more medications, there is no evidence that such a medication regime can really benefit the children but can, instead, give rise to serious side effects. In addition, thousands of infants under one year old were given psychotropic drugs which could have serious adverse effects such as metabolic and cardiovascular problems.

Even though the actual percentages of children receiving several psychiatric drugs at the same time were relatively low in the five states analyzed, the chances of this happening among foster children are a cause for concern. In Texas, for example, foster children were 53 times more likely to be given five –and sometimes more- psychiatric medications at the same time than non-foster children.

The GAO report also found that almost 4,000 foster and non-foster care infants under a year old who were on Medicaid were taking those drugs. In addition, foster children were nine times more likely than non-foster children to be given medications for which there was no FDA-recommended dose for their age, according to an investigation carried out by Rutgers University among 300,000 children in 16 states.

Among the so-called psychotropic drugs are medications such as anti-depressants, anti-anxiety, antipsychotics and mood stabilizers that act by altering chemical levels in the brain, and as a result provoke altered mood and behavior. Among those medications, antipsychotics are the most prescribed psychiatric medications, particularly among foster children on whom they are used as chemical restraints.

Although psychotropic drugs have proven to be effective in treating a variety of mental disorders and have been approved for use in adults by the Food and Drug Administration, they have not necessarily been approved for use in children of all ages. The report found that thousands of foster and non-foster children were given high doses of medications with potentially serious side effects.

Antipsychotic medications may cause tremors, muscle spasms, restlessness and tardive dyskinesia, a serious condition in which patients have involuntary movements of the tongue, lips, and arms and legs. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, each year five percent of people on antipsychotics will develop tardive dyskinesia.

Elizabeth J. Roberts, a psychiatrist in California wrote, “Using such diagnostics as bipolar disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Asperger’s, doctors are justifying the sedation of difficult kids with powerful psychiatric drugs that may have serious, permanent or even lethal side effects.”

A critical recommendation of the GAO report is that HHS considers endorsing guidance for states on best practices for overseeing the prescription of these drugs to all, but particularly to foster children. Unless stricter procedures are followed, the quality of life and health of thousands of children will continue to be negatively affected.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant.

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Displacement and survival are two branches of a same tree. Following the Second World War, many Jewish survivors of forced labor camps, concentration camps and death marches sought to rebuild their lives far from the countries of their birth. Those who found shelter in the Displaced Persons (DP) camps, called She’erit ha-Pletah in Hebrew (meaning 'surviving remnants'), eventually began anew in North and South America, in Western Europe, in what is now Israel. Today in the latter country Palestinians are the victims of forced displacement at an alarming rate.

An international coalition of twenty leading aid agencies and human rights groups - among them Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam International - has issued a statement condemning the forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes and has called upon the Middle East Peace Quartet (the U.S., U.K., European Union and Russia) to demand that the Israeli government reverse its settlement policies and freeze all demolitions carried out in violation of international law.

The situation has been deteriorating rapidly, the aid groups indicate. Since the beginning of 2011, more than 500 Palestinian homes, wells, rainwater harvesting cisterns and other basic structures have been destroyed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. According to statistics published by the United Nations, more than one thousand Palestinians have been 'displaced' doubling the numbers for the same period in 2010.

The psychological and physical effects of house demolitions and displacement are dire. Families must face the economic consequences of the loss of property, shelter and employment. More than half of the displaced are children are subjected to poverty and are unable to resume normal schooling.
At the same time, there has been an accelerated expansion of settlements on Palestinian land. Over the past 12 months, plans for approximately 4,000 new settlement housing units in East Jerusalem have been approved, the highest number since 2006.

The approval for new settlement construction was announced just as mediators from the Middle East Peace Quartet began efforts to revive peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Last Monday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated that he was “deeply concerned” about the Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank and called on the Israeli government to “freeze all settlement activity.”

At the same time, there has been a significant increase in settler violence against Palestinians. The number of aggressions in 2011 has doubled since 2010 and increased by over 160 percent compared to 2009. Settlers have destroyed some 10,000 Palestinian olive and other trees during this year, trees that were providing a livelihood for hundreds of Palestinian families. Between 2005 and 2010, ninety percent of the complaints against settler violence have been closed by the police without indictment.

In addition, if reported plans for 2012 proceed, up to 2,300 Bedouins living on Jerusalem's periphery will be forcibly and unlawfully relocated, their houses and livelihoods destroyed. One is reminded of the words in a James Fenton poem about WWII,

It is not what they built. It is what they knocked down.

It is not the houses. It is the spaces between the houses.

It is not the streets that exist. It is the streets that no longer exist.

Unless the Israeli government adopts a more active policy to stop the unlawful demolition of Palestinian homes and contain settler violence, it risks becoming hostage to the settlers’ delirious violence. As Gideon Levy writing in Haaretz has so aptly stated, “It is not only the government, as important as that is, that hangs in the balance, but also the very character of the state.”

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

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December 10 is Human Rights Day. On December 12, 2011, Saudi Arabian authorities ordered the execution of a woman convicted of practicing magic and sorcery. Although the Saudi Interior Ministry didn’t give details of the woman’s crime, the London-based al-Hayat newspaper quoted Abdullah al-Mohsen, chief of the religious police, who stated that the woman had tricked people, making them believe that she could cure them of a variety of ailments. It was an outrageous response to a serious crime.

“Despite the fact that I hate violence against women, when it comes to God’s will, I have to carry it out,” said Muhammad Saad al-Beshi, Saudi Arabia’s top executioner, during an interview with the Saudi daily Arab News. And with remarkable calm he added, “It doesn’t matter to me: two, four, ten – as long as I am doing God’s will, it doesn’t matter how many people I execute.”

Beheadings of women in Saudi Arabia didn’t start until the early 1990’s. Before then, they were shot. Up to the end of 2011, forty-nine women have been publicly beheaded, mainly in major cities such as Riyadh, Jeddah and Dahran. Executioners are proud of their job, which is handed down from one generation to the next. In Saudi Arabia, executioners use a traditional Arab scimitar approximately 44 inches long.

Many people consider the government headed by King Abdullah as reformist. After all, he was behind the decision to allow women to vote and in local elections, albeit in 2015. However, the World Economic Forum 2009 Global Gender Gap Report ranked Saudi Arabia 130th out of 134 countries when considering gender parity issues. That same report ranked several Muslim countries such as Kyrgystan, Gambia and Indonesia significantly higher than Saudi Arabia on issues of women’s equality.

At the U.N. Third Millennium Summit in New York City in 2010, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdulla bin Abdul Aziz defended his country’s human rights conduct, stating that “It is absurd to impose on an individual or a society rights that are alien to its beliefs or principles.” However, his position is difficult to accept if one takes into account that Saudi Arabia has ratified the International Convention against Torture in October 1997, and has created the Human Rights First Society in 2002 and the Association for the Protection and Defense of Women’s Rights in Saudi Arabia in 2007.

Beheadings such as the one just carried out in Saudi Arabia don’t happen in that country alone. Similar ones have been carried out in countries such as Iraq, Yemen, Kuwait, Iran and United Arab Emirates. In no way, however, can it justify the use of a practice that has been severely criticized by several international human rights organizations.

Amnesty International, for example, has criticized Saudi Arabia not only for its execution but also for trials that are considered a mockery and don’t allow victims to properly defend themselves. Saudi Arabia, however, has consistently justified this behavior reminding critics of Saudi Arabia’s tradition and the humanity of its courts.

Beheading people, however, easily falls into what is widely considered as “cruel and unusual punishment,” a phrase that describes unacceptable punishment due to the suffering or humiliation it inflicts on the condemned person. These are the words that were used in the English Bill of Rights in 1689 and that later also appear in Article Five of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1948 and in several other international conventions.

The 345 executions carried out in Saudi Arabia between 2007 and 2010 were all conducted by public and humiliating beheadings. Giving women the right to vote is an important measure. Giving women the right to their life and dignity is a much more significant one.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

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Madre de Dios, the name of a region in southeastern Peru bordering Brazil and Bolivia, is a very common designation for the Virgin Mary, meaning Mother of God in Spanish. In real life, however, the name exemplifies what intense and unregulated gold exploration and extraction are doing to this up to now privileged area in Peru.

Madre de Dios is a region rich in cotton, coffee, sugarcane, cacao, Brazil nuts and palm oil. However, plentiful gold has attracted tens of thousands of illegal miners whose activities are having a deleterious effect not only on precious species in the environment but also on the health and quality of life of both native and new populations in the region.

Alluvial gold mining in Peru’s Amazon rainforest has rapidly spread in recent years, driven by the high price of gold. Although many jungle mining concessions have been granted by the energy and mines ministry, the informal sector has grown out of control, and it is estimated that almost a quarter of the gold produced in Peru, the world’s sixth largest producer, is illegal. The majority of this illegal gold comes from the Madre de Dios region. Local non-governmental organizations believe that there are up to 30,000 miners in the area.

Gold deposits are mined by both large-scale operators and small-scale miners who use hydraulic mining techniques and heavy machinery to expose potential gold-yielding gravel deposits. Gold is extracted by a sluice box, a piece of gold prospecting equipment that has been in continuous use for over a hundred years. The sluice box is used to separate heavier sediment and mercury is also used for amalgamating the precious metal.

Several studies have shown that small-scale miners are less efficient in their use of mercury than industrial miners. As a result, 2.91 pounds of mercury is released into waterways for every 2.2 pounds of gold produced. It is estimated that more than 40 tons of mercury are absorbed into the rivers of Madre de Dios, poisoning the food chain.

Mercury not only contaminates waterways and becomes a serious threat to human health but is also a dangerous toxin to fish. Fish in the area contain three times more mercury than the safe levels permitted by the World Health Organization. According tot the World Wildlife Fund, “After fossil fuel burning, small-scale gold mining is the world’s second largest source of mercury pollution, contributing around 1/3 of the world’s mercury pollution.”

Mercury contamination is not the only draw-back of small scale mining, however. Another significant problem is the significant amount of deforestation it produces while clearing forests for the construction of roads to open remote areas to transient settlers and land speculators. In addition, deforestation is the result of cutting trees to obtain building material and fuel wood.

The enormity of the damage has been documented in a study by American, French and Peruvian researchers published in the peer-reviewed magazine PLoS ONE. According to the study, Using satellite imagery from NASA, researchers were able to assess the loss of 7,000 hectares (15,200 acres) of forest due to artisanal gold mining in Peru between 2003 and 2009. This is an area larger than Bermuda.

Jennifer Swenson, the lead author of the study, says that such enormous deforestation is “plainly visible from space,” and suggests that Peru should limit the importation of mercury.

In addition to these problems, illegal gold mining has significantly increased the number of 12 to 17 year-old girls and young women drafted by prostitution rings. These young women are brought from all over the country to brothels that have sprung up in mining camps. Many of the women that fall into these prostitution rings eventually disappear, and are never seen again. Miners also bring diseases to local indigenous populations.

While Peruvian authorities have sent almost 1,000 security forces to destroy river dredgers used by illegal gold miners in the Madre de Dios region even more drastic measures are needed, such as stricter vigilance and regulation. At stake is the survival of what has been recognized as one of the most biologically rich areas in the world.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

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Landmines continue to exact pain and loss of lives, mostly of children and civilians. In Afghanistan, for example, all deaths by landmines are on those under 18. In an attempt to eliminate forever the use of landmines, Handicap International calls for the universalization of the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty.

The Ottawa Treaty, officially known as the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, intends to eliminate anti-personnel landmines around the world.

As of September 2011, there were 158 States Parties to the treaty and 38 states which are not party to it. Among the countries which have not signed the treaty are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (People’s Republic of China, Russia and the United States) and, among others, India, Israel and both Koreas, where landmines remain active in the Demilitarized Zone.

A party to the treaty must not only cease the production and development of anti-personnel mines, but must also destroy its stockpile within four years, although it may retain a small number of mines for training purposes. The treaty also calls on States Parties to provide assistance to mine-affected persons in their own country, and to assist other countries in meeting the Mine Ban Treaty obligations.

In its last annual report, recently released in Bangkok, Handicap International found that at least three States which are not party to that treaty used anti-personnel landmines in 2011. According to this organization, Libya, Burma and Israel used these weapons in 2011. Also, independent armed groups in Afghanistan, Colombia, Burma and Pakistan also used landmines between 2010 and 2011. Paul Vermeulen, Head of Advocacy and Institutional Relations at Handicap International calls the persistent use of landmines “unacceptable and extremely worrying.”

In addition to the countries still using landmines, other countries such as Belarus, Greece, Turkey and Ukraine have not yet met the deadline for destroying their stockpiles, in violation of the treaty. The Landmine Monitor 2011 reports that during this year there have been thousands of new victims of anti-personnel landmines. According to Handicap International, “79 countries and territories are still contaminated by these weapons.”

It is estimated that more than 500,000 survivors of accidents caused by landmines and unexploded remnants of war still need lifelong assistance, and the funds allocated for this provision fall short of meeting the victims’ needs. It is estimated that only 10 percent of funding is allocated to victims’ assistance.

There has been some progress, however. Since the treaty’s entry into force in March 1999, signatory nations have destroyed more than 44 million mines. In 2010, decontamination of mined land reached an unprecedented level: Almost 177 square miles of land were demined and more than 1.6 million unexploded remnants of war were destroyed, according to Landmine Monitor 2011. On December 2, 2009, Rwanda was declared free of landmines. On June 18, 2010, Nicaragua was also declared free of landmines and on June 14, 2011, Nepal became the second country to be landmine-free in Asia.

In addition to the treaty, there are two basic clauses of international humanitarian law that prohibit the use of landmines: the first, all means and methods that “fail to discriminate between those taking part in the fighting and those, such as civilians, who are not, the purpose being to protect the civilian population, individual civilians and civilian property,” and second, those means and methods that “cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering.”

From November 28 to December 2, the 11th Meeting of States Parties to the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty will be held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, one of the most affected land-mine countries in the world. This meeting will be a special occasion to remind States of their obligations, particularly in terms of victims’ assistance. It will also be useful to remind people of the barbaric nature of the use of these mines.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

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Increasingly, there are calls for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release taxes Israel owes to Palestinians. Unless Netanyahu releases those funds, Israel runs the risk of confronting another Palestinian intifada, warn several international groups.

Taxation in the Palestinian territories is a complex issue. It may involve payment to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and/or Israel within the context of Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians. On other occasions before, Israel has withheld Palestinians taxes, in retaliation for actions by the Palestinians.

For example, in June 2008, Israel withheld taxes owed to the Palestinian Authority. This action was apparently taken as retaliation for what the Israeli government interpreted as Salam Fayyad’s (the PA Prime Minister) attempt to undermine relations between Israel and the European Union.

The more than $100 million now withheld by the Israeli government’s express its opposition to the Palestinian Authority’s policy of pursuing United Nations membership, renewing power-sharing with Hamas and as a “punishment” for the Palestinian Authority recent incorporation into UNESCO.

The transfer by the Israeli government of money to the Palestinian Authority is made up of custom duties, taxes on Palestinian purchases of Israeli goods and other taxes on Israeli fuel bought by the Palestinians. The money is critical to pay tens of thousands of people, among them the Palestinian Authority security forces who work on preventing attacks on Israelis and whose professionalism has won praise both from Israel and the United States.

Although Prime Minister Netanyahu has fully backed Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz on this move, in the past Defense Minister Ehud Barak had described this kind of delay as “capricious.” He indicated that these were Palestinian funds and that if the Israeli government refused to transfer those funds it was a violation of international agreements.

While other Israeli defense officials said that cutting funds to the Palestinians threatens’ Abba’s moderate Palestinian Authority, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that he vehemently opposes the release of Palestinian funds, and stated that Palestinians use the money from tax revenues to fund housing for terrorists. He also threatened to dismantle the governing coalition if the funds are released.

UN Middle East peace envoy Robert Serry warned the Security Council that freezing the transfer of Palestinian funds undermined the PA’s state-building gains and the security forces in charge of upholding law and order in the West Bank. According to Oussama Kanaan, the International Monetary Fund’s mission chief in the West Bank and Gaza, unless the transfer of funds proceeds normally before December 1, up to one million Palestinian workers would go unpaid.

In addition, in recent days, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and senior American officials urged Prime Minister Netanyahu to release the funds, as did Tony Blair, the representative of the Middle East peace quartet.

In a recent editorial, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz stated, “None of Netanyahu’ reasons are relevant or legitimate. The money is Palestinian money, and it must go to the Palestinians. The fact that Israel collects these funds is a technicality, and doesn’t justify acts of abuse and revenge. Concern for the Likud primaries and the struggle with Lieberman over right-wing votes are putting Israel’s national security at risk and making a third intifada more likely.”

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

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A widespread perception that Congress people respond increasingly to special interests has received additional support from a person who knows something about it. In a cynical interview with Lesley Stahl, from “60 minutes” Jack Abramoff, one of the most notorious lobbyists in recent times, explains the tactics that he used in dealing with people in Congress. In addition, he gives a chilling assessment of recent reforms intended to change this situation.

In 2011, it was estimated that there were over 13,000 registered federal lobbyists based in Washington, DC. They spend huge amounts of money on their work, up to $3.5 billion in 2010 according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Their competence as individuals, groups or corporations to lobby the government is protected by the right to petition clause in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

For his illegal activities, in 2006, Abramoff pleaded guilty to defrauding Indian tribes of tens of millions of dollars on issues associated with Indian gaming, and corruption of public officials, in a Washington, D.C., federal court. He served most of a six-year sentence after pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy, honest services fraud, and tax evasion.

He was deft at influencing legislation, and one of his strategies was to make some Indian tribes make substantial campaign contributions to select members of Congress. In addition, Abramoff spent large sums of money providing congressmen with free flights to the world’s best golf destinations such as St. Andrews in Scotland. He also provided them with free meals at his upscale Washington restaurant Signatures, and the best tickets to all the area’s sporting events. He said that he spent a million dollars a year on those tickets and on different other venues.

When asked by Ms. Stahl if he could state how much it costs to corrupt a congressman, he answered, “I was actually thinking of writing a book –“The Idiot’s Guide to Buying a Congressman”- as a way to put this all down.

According to Abramoff, the best way to get a congressional office to be responsive to his demands was to offer a staffer a job that could triple his salary saying, “You know, when you are done working on the Hill, we’d very much like you to consider coming to work for us.” At that moment, said Abramoff, we owned them. They were going to do everything that he requested. Neil Volz, one of the staffers Abramoff was referring to said in that program, “Jack Abramoff could sweet talk a dog off a meat truck, that’s how persuasive he was.”

It is not a memory Abramoff now feels proud of. As he said, “Look. I did things and I was involved in the system I should not have been in. I’m ashamed of the fact that I was there, the very reason why now I am speaking about it. And now I am trying to do something, in recompense, is the fact that I thought it was – it was wrong of me to do it.

After these events, Congress passed what many consider the most sweeping new ethics rules since Watergate. Although the bill regulating lobbyists’ activities incorporated the Lobbying Transparency Act of 2006 legislation which governs lobbyists’ activities, some senators and a coalition of good-government groups stated that the bill was too weak. It is an opinion that Abramoff would certainly agree with.

Abramoff doesn’t believe in the least that these reforms are going to be effective. As he stated, “The reforms efforts continually are these faux-reform efforts where they’ll change, they’ll tweak the system. They’ll say, ‘you can have a meal with a congressman if they are standing up, not sitting down”.

For Abramoff, the system has not been cleaned up at all. As he said, “But the people who are actually in the system are the people who are making reforms. That is why he says that the most important measure to be taken is to prohibit members of Congress and their staff from ever becoming lobbyists in Washington.” According to the online disclosure site LegiStorm, 5,400 former congressional staffers and almost 400 former lawmakers have become lobbyists over the past decade.

When considering how to limit the power of lobbyists, former congressman Lee Hamilton, Director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University, wrote, “I’d even go further. I favor the radical steps of prohibiting members of Congress from accepting contributions from firms that lobby them, and banning lobbyists from contributing to members they lobby.”

In addition, Hamilton believes that Congress needs an institution, similar to the Congressional Budget Office, to give it “unbiased and unvarnished analysis of pending issues each week. But the last word on this is Abramoff’s, “If you make the choice to serve the public, public service, then serve the public, not yourself. When you’re done, go home. Washington is a dangerous place. Don’t hang around."

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

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A new study based on the practical application of stem cell research offers hope for the treatment of heart disease. In addition, if the initial results of this study are confirmed, its findings can be applied for the treatment of several other serious diseases. In the study, heart failure patients who were given adult stem cells taken from their own bodies showed dramatic and lasting improvement of their condition.

Embryonic stem cells are cells that have the ability to divide for indefinite periods in culture, and to give rise to specialized cells (such as heart muscle cells, blood cells or nerve cells) under certain physiologic or experimental conditions. Adult stem cells, also called somatic stem cells, can be found in many organs and tissues in the body.

The study involved 16 patients, and used adult cardiac stem cells which had been collected from the patients’ hearts during coronary bypass surgery. The cells thus obtained were purified and prepared for infusing them back into the damaged tissue.

Although bone marrow stem cells --which are much easier to extract and prepare-- had been used in other studies to reverse the damage caused by heart attacks, they were not as effective as cardiac stem cells.

Fourteen patients in the study who showed a good response to the treatment had an increase in their heart blood-pumping capacity from 30.3 percent before the treatment to 38.5 percent afterward the treatment. Seven patients out of those 14 underwent also magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which showed that there was less dead heart muscle tissue one year after the treatment than before.

Dr. Roberto Bolli, director of cardiology at University of Louisville and lead author of the study published in The Lancet, considers this one of the biggest advances in cardiology in his lifetime. What is particularly important in this study is that the positive results are caused by the fact that it addressed the fundamental problem, replacing dead tissue with new cardiac muscle, according to Bolli. Seven control patients in the study who didn’t receive the stem cell treatment showed no improvement in their condition.

Dr. Bolli also indicated that this procedure may also benefit patients whose heart damage was up to three and a half years old. Another advantage of this procedure is that the quantity of cells need for the procedure - estimated in between one to two million - can be prepared from a heart biopsy, eliminating the need for surgery.

The cells obtained from biopsy can then be re-infused back into the heart through a catheter while the patient is awake. Another advantage of the use of adult stem cells is that they are less likely to be rejected by the immune system of the patient. This is a considerable benefit since immune rejection needs to be circumvented by immunosuppressive drugs which may cause serious side effects on the patients.

Mike Jones, who suffered a massive heart attack in 2004, and who was the first patient to receive this treatment in July 2009, stated that the procedure not only gave him more years to live but also a better quality of life.

Although there was considerable optimism with these results some experts expressed caution. One of them, Dr. Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, told the BBC that although these results were encouraging they still need to be confirmed in the final completed trial, and that it was still necessary to understand the mechanism that is producing the effect.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD), which includes hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke and congestive heart failure, has ranked as the number one cause of death since the early 1900s. It is estimated that approximately 2,600 Americans die of CVD each day. Given the aging of the population and the dramatic increases in other diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes, CVD will increasingly become a serious health concern. In this context, the benefits of this new procedure should not be underestimated.

Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, carried out research in molecular genetics at The Public Health Research Institute of the City of New York.

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The killing under torture in a maximum security prison in Cairo of Essam Ali Atta Ali, a 24-year-old Egyptian, raises concern on the role of the Egyptian military in the “New Egypt.” His death was likened to that of Khalid Said, who was beaten to death by the police in Alexandria last year. What Atta’s death show is that the same abuses that were perpetrated under former president Hosni Mubarak continue, and that true democracy and respect for people’s rights are still a long way off in Egypt.

Atta was arrested last February, convicted of “thuggery.” He was sentenced to two years in prison. According to the Interior Ministry, he was also carrying an unlicensed weapon. He is one of 12,000 cases who, according to human rights activists in the country, have been tried by military, instead of civilian, courts. In contrast, Mubarak and his cronies are being tried in civilian courts and their trials are expected to last for months or even years.

“The military justice system should never be used to investigate or prosecute civilians. Military courts are fundamentally unfair, as they deprive defendants of basic fair trial guarantees,” states Amnesty International. One may recall, in this regard, George Clemenceau’s statement that, “Military justice is to justice as military music is to music.”

What makes his case special, however, is that it proves that torture and assassination continue to be practiced in Egyptian jails. Atta was sodomized to death by prison guards who used hoses to inject water into his mouth and anus which produced profuse bleeding leading to his death. A statement from the military government attributed Atta’s death to “unknown poisoning” and said that prison guards tried to save him.

According to his father, however, after being tortured for more than an hour other prisoners pleaded with the prison guards to stop torturing him. When the guards stopped, he was transferred to Kasr El-Aini hospital where he died an hour later. After seeing Atta’s bloodied body for a short time at the morgue, where she was verbally abused by the guards, Aida Seif al-Dawla, an official at the El-Nadim Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, called Atta “the second Khalid Said”.

When the military adopted a calming behavior during the revolt in Tahrir Square many thought, or hoped, that this event signaled a change in the military’s policy towards its former associates. They also thought that the military was going to open the way for the creation of authentic democracy in Egypt. History shows, however, that once the military assume direct power, they only relinquish it by force or after a serious national crisis, as has been proved in Argentina, Chile and in many other countries worldwide.

The continued practice of torture in Egyptian jails is only one of many Tahrir activists’ complaints against the ruling military junta. Activists are concerned that the military would like to perpetuate their rule, either holding power for as long as possible or by opening the way for one of their own to become president.

Recently, several hundred posters appeared in Cairo and Alexandria, calling on Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to run for president, feeding people’s fears that the military may want to indefinitely remain in power. Two members of the military council recently stated that the military plans to retain full control of government after the election of Parliament begins in November and until a new president is elected, a process that could well extend into 2013 or even longer.

In the meantime, and following the attack on the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, the SCAF not only kept the state of emergency but has broadened the law’s mandate, including now “aggression against freedom to work, sabotaging factories and holding up transport, blocking roads and deliberately publishing false news, statements or rumors.” The law gives security forces wide powers of search, arrest and detention and shows the big divide between people’s demands and actions by the military, which in 2010 had promised that it would use the law only to combat terrorism and drug trafficking.

The evidence of systematic torture, expanding the reach of the emergency law and the military’s heavy hand in quelling civilian protests such as the one on October 9 in which 27 people –mostly Christians- were killed raises serious doubts about the military allowing peaceful dissent and allowing democracy in the country. Slowly, and surely, the Egyptian military is lifting its democratic mask.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

Two Israeli human rights organizations, the Public Committee Against Torture (PCAT) and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) have released a report, Doctoring the Evidence, Abandoning the Victim, in which they claim that medical professionals in Israel fail to document and report injuries caused by the ill-treatment and torture of detainees by security personnel. The report states that the doctors’ behavior is a violation of their ethical code.

The report, based on 100 cases of Palestinian prisoners brought to PCAT since 2007, “reveals significant evidence arousing the suspicion that many doctors ignore the complaints of their patients; that they allow Israeli Security Agency interrogators to use torture; approve the use of forbidden interrogation methods and the ill-treatment of helpless detainees; and conceal information, thereby allowing total immunity for the torturers.”

Although the Israeli government denies torturing or ill-treating prisoners, included in the report are evidence of beatings, being held for long periods in stress positions, sleep deprivation and threats. In addition, doctors are accused of not keeping proper medical records of injuries caused during interrogations. In this regard, the report notes “countless cases wherein individuals testified to injuries inflicted upon them during detention or in interrogation, and yet the medical record from the hospital or the prison service makes no mention at all.”

The report deals with medical professionals who have witnessed, participated in or been in contact with prisoners who have been interrogated by the Shin Bet internal security service, which has often been accused of inflicting physical or psychological violence on Palestinian prisoners. Either through direct action or through their silence, medical professionals were complicit with what goes on in the interrogation places, says the report. It also says that medical staff in prisons “approves the use of forbidden interrogation methods and the ill-treatment of helpless detainees; and conceals information thereby allowing total impunity for the torturers.”

“Palestinian political prisoners and detainees incarcerated by Israel are subject to harsher pre-trial detention laws (e.g., lengthy prohibition on meeting with lawyers), interrogations and conditions of confinement than other prisoners and detainees held in Israel. In Israel Security Agency (ISA or shabak) facilities, testimonies taken by human rights organizations in past years indicate clear patterns of torture and/or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees,” stated in 2010 the Public committee against torture in Israel.

According to this committee, detainees being held in the Ashqelon, Jalameh, Petakh-Tikva and Moscobiya facilities are routinely subjected to inhuman and degrading detention treatment during their interrogation by the ISA. It is mainly Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians from the OPT who are detained and interrogated in these facilities. However, only the new report deals with medical personnel participation or acquiescence in torture.

“In Israel it is illegal to abuse inmates, including security prisoners,” stated Israel government’s spokesman Mark Regev. “Guidelines have been passed to the relevant authorities. If years ago the guidelines were not clear, they are today. And if there are allegations of wrongdoing against people in custody, they are investigated thoroughly,” he added.

However, the evidence cited in the new report by PCAT and PHR Israel, indicates that abuses continue. As Dr. Ishai Menuchin and Ran Cohen, Executive Directors of the PCAT and PHR Israel respectively state, “We are hopeful that this report will help the medical system change its ways and those of the doctors who ignore their ethical obligations. The world will be a better place if the doctors conduct themselves in a moral fashion.”

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

Christopher Johnson’s execution by the State of Alabama creates serious doubts about the justice of a measure that is widely criticized by human rights advocates throughout the world. According to the group Equal Justice Initiative, the Alabama Supreme Court planned the execution without even engaging in a meaningful review of the case.

Christopher Johnson was convicted of killing his son in 2005. Johnson’s attorneys claimed that he wasn’t guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. However, during the trial, Johnson asked the trial judge for permission to represent himself. Despite ample evidence that Johnson had a long history of mental illness, the judge allowed him to do so. Although during his detention Johnson showed destructive behavior associated with mental illness, the trial judge sentenced Mr. Johnson to death. He was executed on October 21, 2011.

There were several mitigating circumstances for Johnson’s behavior. He was sexually molested by an uncle from age seven to twelve; he started taking drugs at sixteen, and throughout his childhood he was placed in programs for children with severe behavioral problems. Death sentences imposed without consideration for mitigating circumstances are inherently unreliable, held the U.S. Supreme Court.

An even more egregious case is the execution of the mentally retarded. Such was the case of Milton Mathis, 32. Despite considerable body of evidence showing that Mathis was clearly retarded, the Supreme Court denied his appeal for clemency and he was executed in Texas last June 21st. He became the 470th individual put to death in Texas in modern times.

According to Amnesty International, executing the mentally ill –those who don’t understand the reasons for their punishment- violates the U.S. Constitution (Ford v. Wainwright, 1986). In this case, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the common law rule that the “insane” cannot be executed.

In a 1986 opinion by Justice Thurgood Marshall, he reasoned that executing them didn’t serve any punitive goals and that Florida’s procedures for determining competency to stand trial were inadequate. After he was reevaluated, Alvin Bernard Ford was transferred to Florida State Hospital for treatment and found to be incompetent to be executed. There is widespread international criticism of the death penalty. Carlos Duguech, Director of the radio program Peace in the World in Argentina told me, “The death penalty is the failure of the social order, is the worst scourge that contaminates society.”

In reference to minors and the mentally ill, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions said that, “Governments that continue to use the death penalty with respect to minors and the mentally ill are particularly called upon to bring their domestic legislation into conformity with international legal standards.” And in 2000, the UN Commission on Human Rights urged all states that maintain the death penalty “not to impose it on a person suffering from any form of mental disorder; not to execute any such person.”

Since 1983, over 60 people with mental illness or retardation have been executed in the United States. A striking case was that of Viet Nam veteran Manny Babbitt. Because of his heroism during the war, he had been awarded a Purple Heart for his heroic behavior during the war. After returning from Vietnam, Babbitt’s life revolved around drugs, medications and mental institutions. He also suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He screamed for help, saying, “I am going to hurt somebody.”

During what seemed to be a burglary attempt, he struck a woman in the head and she died of a heart attack. The details of his crime seem to indicate that he had a flashback to his actions during the war. He wrapped his victim in a blanket and tagged her as if she were a captive soldier on the battlefield. Manny’s brother turned him into the police, and was promised counseling and support for his brother. Instead, he was tried by an all-white jury (Manny Babbitt was black) and was executed on May 4, 1999. After he was executed for his crime, he received a funeral with military honors.

The American Bar Association passed a 2006 resolution calling for the exemption of those with serious mental illness from imposition and execution of the death penalty. The National Association of Mental Health estimates that five to ten percent of those on death row have serious mental illness.

One of those in death row is Scott Panetti, convicted for the murder of his parents-in-law Joe and Amanda Alvarado on September 8, 1992, in Texas. He was sentenced to death in 1995, although he had a long history of mental illness. He was hospitalized, both voluntarily and involuntarily, for mental illness 14 times before his arrest for capital murder in 1992.

After his conviction, Sonia Alvarado, Panetti’s former wife and daughter of the victims filed a petition stating that he should have never been tried for his crimes, since he was suffering from paranoid delusions at the time of the killings. And Panetti’s mother said, “He did a terrible thing, but he was sick. Where is the compassion? Is this the best our society can do?”

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

It was an unprecedented event in Guatemala, and perhaps in all of Latin America. Alvaro Colom, Guatemala’s President, issued an official apology to the family of former Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz. The apology was made 57 years after the US backed a coup d’état by Guatemalan officers that removed him from power. “As head of state, as constitutional president of the republic and as the military commander in chief, I hereby wish to request the forgiveness of the Arbenz Vilanova family for this great crime,” said Colom.

Among new measures announced by president Colom to redress this crime is the redrafting of school textbooks to add a new and more accurate version of the events that took place in the country and of Arbenz’s legacy, and the renaming of a national highway in his honor. “It was a crime against him, his wife, his family, but also a historic crime for Guatemala. This day changed Guatemala, and we still haven’t recovered,” added Colom.

Arbenz was elected President of Guatemala in 1950 to implement a process of socioeconomic reforms that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) called “an intensely nationalistic program of progress colored by the touchy, anti-foreign inferiority complex of the ‘Banana Republic.’” Both the CIA and the intelligence community in the U.S. feared that Guatemala and the Arbenz government were rapidly falling under the sway of the Communists. Those fears were later proven to be unfounded.

Arbenz was overthrown in 1954 in a coup led by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas which was planned and funded by the CIA and that opened the way for a 36-year civil war, according to President Colom. Arbenz died in Mexico in 1971, leaving his widow, children and later grandchildren to fight for his reputation and to try to gain back their confiscated property.

What the coup against Arbenz demonstrates is the complicity of not only the CIA but also of the highest levels of the U.S. government. According to declassified information on Guatemala, the first CIA effort to overthrow Arbenz was a collaboration of that agency with Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza to support a frustrated Guatemalan general named Carlos Castillo Armas in an operation codenamed PBFORTUNE which had been authorized by President Harry Truman in 1952.

When that operation was blown, a new operation, codenamed PBSUCCESS was authorized by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1953. The operation had a budget of $2.7 million for “psychological welfare and political action” and “subversion”, among other components. According to a CIA study, up until the day that Arbenz was forced to resign “the option of assassination was still being considered.” The operation lasted from late 1953 to 1954.

According to Kate Doyle and Peter Kornbluh, senior analysts at the National Security Archives, “Although Arbenz and his top aides were able to flee the country, hundreds of Guatemalans were rounded up and killed.” More than two decades later, Director of Central Intelligence William Colby prohibited any CIA involvement in assassination, confirmed later by an Executive Order.

Arbenz had raised fear in the U.S. because of a series of new policies such as the expropriation of unused, unfarmed land belonging to private corporations such as the United Fruit Company (UFC). Those policies were considered communist in nature. The United Fruit lobbied several levels of the U.S. government to take strong action against Arbenz (both CIA Director Allen Dulles and his brother were shareholders of that company.)

Land redistribution advocated by Arbenz intended to remedy the unequal situation in the country. In 1945, it was estimated that 2.2% of the country’s population controlled 70% of the arable land in the country, only 12% of which was being utilized. In March 1953 uncultivated lands owned by the UFC were to be expropriated under a compensation plan based on the company’s declared taxes and what the company said was the real value of the land. The government’s move triggered the U.S. government’s response.

An invasion led by Castillo Armas was mainly designed to provoke panic in the population and give the impression of insurmountable odds in order to bring Guatemalans to their side, including the military. Arbenz was particularly concerned that the military would strike a deal with the invading forces. When this proved to be the case he resigned.

Most historians agree that this was a serious blow to Guatemala’s democracy and the start of a civil conflict in the country that caused up to 250,000 deaths, according to some human rights activists’ estimates. It was also proved that the socialist movement that had gained influence during Arbenz’s presidency had no ties to the Soviet Union. The coup against Arbenz not only toppled a democratic government. It caused serious damage to Guatemala’s democracy and to the country’s chances for sustained development.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

At an October 2011 meeting at the United Nations in New York, Korea demanded that Japan take “legal responsibility” for Korean women who were coerced to provide sex services to Japanese soldiers. “This systematic rape and sexual slavery constitute war crimes and also, under defined circumstances, crimes against humanity,” said Shin Dong-ik, Korea’s deputy chief envoy to the United Nations, to the Third Committee of the U.N. General Assembly. On the eve of his trip to Seoul, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said that war compensation issues regarding Korean “comfort women” had already been “legally resolved.”

Amnesty International, in a 2005 report titled "Still Waiting After 60 Years: Justice for Survivors of Japan's Military Sexual Slavery System," calls on the Japanese government to accept full responsibility for crimes committed against women condemned to sexual slavery by their Japanese recruiters. These so-called comfort women were recruited from several countries, mainly Korea, during World War II, and forced to serve as sexual slaves for the Japanese soldiers.

Among the estimated 100,000 to 200,000 women recruited from different countries, 80 to 90 percent were from Korea. Girls as young as 11 years-old were forced to serve between 5 and 40 soldiers a day, and almost 100 soldiers on weekends. Those who resisted were often beaten, burned or wounded. During the Japanese retreat many were left to starve or were executed to eliminate any trace of the atrocities they were subjected to by the Japanese military.

For many years after the end of World War II, the government of Japan had insisted that the "comfort stations" were in fact private brothels that had been administered by private citizens. Only in 1993 did the government admit that the Japanese military had been "directly or indirectly" involved in establishment and operation of "comfort stations" and in transportation of the women. The Japanese government also said that private citizens, at the request of the military, had been mainly involved in recruitment of the women.

The first Korean former comfort woman to tell her story was Bae Bong Ki, in 1980. After her, Kim Hak Soon, who died in 1997, related in 1991 how she was abducted by Japanese soldiers when she was 17 years old, and forced to carry ammunition by day and serve as a prostitute by night. Her testimony sparked several other testimonies by women who were obliged to work as sexual slaves in military comfort stations. Evidence of such stations has already been found in the Koreas, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, New Guinea and Okinawa.

Illustrative of the ordeal comfort women went through is the testimony of Chung Seo Woon in the book titled "Making More Waves" (Beacon Press, Boston, 1997). Chung was an only child born in Korea to the family of a wealthy landowner. Because of his activities against colonial rule, her father was sent to prison and badly tortured. When she was 16 she was allowed to visit her father. The same Japanese official who allowed her to see her father came later to her house. He told her that if she went to work in Japan for two years her father would be released. Despite strong objections from her mother, she agreed to do so.

Chung was placed on a ship with many other girls and women. She was hopeful that at the end of the two years her father would be released from prison, as she had been told by the officer. After being taken to Japan, the women were sent to several other countries and a group of them left in each country. After reaching Jakarta, the group that included the young Chung was taken to a hospital where she was sterilized.

The group was then taken to Semarang, a costal city in Indonesia, and placed on a row of barracks. From then on they were obliged to perform sexual intercourse every day with dozens of soldiers and officers. In the process, she was forced to become an opium addict. Chung attempted to commit suicide, by swallowing malaria pills.

Two of her friends reported her to the authorities, she was revived, and, she remarks, "It was then that I made up my mind to survive and tell my story, what Japan did to us." When the war ended and she returned home, she found her house deserted. From neighbors who came to help her she learned that her father had died while in prison. Her mother, humiliated by the Japanese soldiers' attempt to rape her, committed suicide.

Chung decided to rid herself of the opium addiction. She managed this after eight months, and she worked hard to regain her dignity as a human being. She was never able to attain a normal sex life, but found companionship and care from a physician who had had a nervous breakdown after serving in the Japanese Army.

In November of 1994, an International Commission of Jurists stated that, "It is indisputable that these women were forced, deceived, coerced and abducted to provide sexual services to the Japanese military . . . [Japan] violated customary norms of international law concerning war crimes, crimes against humanity, slavery and the trafficking in women and children . . . Japan should take full responsibility now, and make suitable restitution to the victims and their families."

In 1995, the Japanese government introduced the Asian Women's Fund as a response to strong international criticism. The fund is widely perceived by the survivors as a way for the Japanese government not to fulfill its legal responsibilities toward those women. Still unresolved, however, is a formal, clear and unambiguous apology to the victims of sexual abuse by Japanese soldiers.

There is an important symbolic meaning related to the issue of monetary compensation. During her testimony at the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, Chung declared, "I might be poor, but not that poor. I demand the compensation that is rightly due to me, even if I would burn the money after it is in my hand. It is not a matter of money but of principle. The Japanese have defiled my body but not my spirit. My spirit is strong, rich, and proud."

As the Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues stated in a letter to the Emperor and Empress of Japan last July, “You are recognized around the world as moral and spiritual leaders of the Japanese people, as well as for your efforts to advance world peace. This letter is a heartfelt appeal to you to exercise your moral and spiritual leadership to speak clearly to your people about one of the cruelest offenses perpetrated during World War II. This offense remains unresolved today.”

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

I am sitting at a coffee place in San Cristóbal de las Casas, a misty town in Chiapas, in southern Mexico. I am told that occasionally Sub Comandante Marcos, the famed leader of indigenous people in the region, used to come here. I wonder if I will see him, although he has not made a public appearance in more than two years. He doesn’t come –or may be I didn’t recognize him without his signature ski mask— so I spend my time reflecting on the consequences or legacy of his movement.

Sub Comandante Marcos' movement, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) took its name from Emiliano Zapata, the commander of the Liberation Army of the South during the Mexican revolution which broke out in 1910. The EZLN has largely defied political classification, being mainly a movement seeking to redress the unjust treatment by the government -largely in response to the new world economy- of the country’s indigenous people.

The movement went public in 1994. On January 1st, 3,000 armed insurgents briefly took several towns in Chiapas, including San Cristóbal de las Casas, the residence of the late Chiapas Bishop Samuel Ruiz, an almost legendary figure widely respected by the indigenous people in the state. The goal of the insurgents was to dramatize the harsh living conditions, poverty, and lack of governmental response to Mexico indigenous population’s serious situation, which had deteriorated markedly as Mexico rushed to become a player in the global economy.

In an essay written for Le Monde Diplomatique, Sub Comandante Marcos said that neo liberalism and globalization constitute the “Fourth World War,” since he called the Cold War the “Third World War.” “If the Third World War saw the confrontation of capitalism and socialism on various terrains and with varying degrees of intensity, the fourth will be played out between large financial centers, on a global scale, and at a tremendous and constant intensity,” he wrote.

The violent revolt and capture of Chiapas’ towns was met with fierce government response and ended 12 days later thanks to a ceasefire brokered by Bishop Samuel Ruiz. The Zapatistas took heavy losses and retreated to the jungle where they had come from.

Although the Mexican government allowed Bishop Ruiz to mediate its conflict with the Zapatistas, the government accused the Bishop of being the driving force in the rebellion. Bishop Ruiz, however, always advocated non-violence as a way of resolving conflicts, and repeatedly stated that a spiral of violence, once started, cannot be easily resolved once the weapons stop firing.

“This war was not carried out to shed blood and take power but to be heard. When they [the insurgents] were heard they laid down their weapons and chose the pathway of dialogue,” said Bishop Ruiz in a movie called “A Place Called Chiapas.”

After the clashes with the much superior forces of the Mexican army, the EZLN decided to stop using their weapons, and to put special emphasis on the political solution of the conflict with the Mexican government. Ina 2009 article for Le Monde Diplomatique Sub Comandante Marcos stated, “We don’t want to impose our solutions by force, we want to create a democratic space. We don’t see armed struggle in the classic sense of previous guerrilla wars, that is, as the only way and the only all-powerful truth around which everything is organized. In a war, the decisive thing is not the military confrontation but the politics at stake in the confrontation. We didn’t go to war to kill or be killed. WE went to war in order to be heard.”

Sub Comandante Marcos made it clear that he wanted the government respond to what he saw as legitimate indigenous people’s claims for better education, more and better health services, equal work opportunities, and better roads to the indigenous communities. After the government sent an unprecedented amount of funds to Chiapas, and for what I saw during my visit there, most of these goals have, to an important extent, been accomplished.

However, there are still in Mexico 3.3 million indigenous people still unable to satisfy their basic nutritional needs, according to figures from the Ministry of Social Development. And the 2010 infant mortality rate in 2010 among indigenous people was 22.8 per 1,000 live births, compared to 14.2 per 1,000 live births for the population at large, according to the government’s National Population Council (CONAPO).

Although the Zapatista movement doesn’t have the same goals as the “indignados” in Europe who are now becoming every day more numerous in many U.S. cities, they share the aim for a more egalitarian society, where the greed of the few shouldn’t take precedence of the rights of the many. According to the U.S. Census Bureau one in six Americans were living in poverty last year, a situation that is hitting children the hardest.

“Here in Chiapas we have to speak of before and after Sub Comandante Marcos,” said Gustavo Flores Alfaro, a building engineer from this area. When analyzing the beginning of the Twenty First century perhaps historians will also talk of the situation before and after the “indignados” movement that is taking the world by storm.

Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

In 1999, a study called the Rotterdam Study uncovered the strong association between diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. In this landmark study carried out in the Netherlands, 6,370 elderly men and women were followed for an average of two years. In what was perhaps one of the first reports on this issue, they found that having diabetes almost doubled the risk of dementia. Since then, several studies have confirmed these findings, and threw light on the probable mechanism for this connection.

A nine year study published in 2004 followed 842 older Catholic nuns, priests and brothers. Although none of them had any signs of Alzheimer’s at the beginning of the study, at the end of it, 151 of them had developed Alzheimer’s. A statistical analysis found that those who had type 2 diabetes had a 65% increased risk of getting Alzheimer’s. Later, it was also found that this increased risk applies to both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes frequently occurs before the age of 20. It is caused by antibodies destroying the pancreas, the organ that produces insulin. This type of diabetes occurs in 10 to 15 percent of diabetics. In type 2 diabetes, which occurs in 85 to 90 percent of diabetics, the cause is primarily a condition called ‘insulin resistance’ where insulin just doesn’t work as it is supposed to do. Type 2 diabetes has a strong genetic component but, initially at least, can be prevented with changes in diet and lifestyle.

In the U.S., Alzheimer’s disease affects one in 10 Americans over 65 years of age, and almost 50 percent of those over 85. Almost 26 million Americans have diabetes and close to 80 million are pre-diabetic, that is, haven’t developed all the symptoms of the disease. While care for diabetics represents $174 billion in health care costs, the cost for the estimated 5.4 million Americans who have Alzheimer is over $180 billion.

A Swedish study published in 2008 found that men with low insulin production at age 50 were nearly one-and-a-half times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than people without insulin problems. That study also found that the strongest association between diabetes and risk of Alzheimer’s was strongest in people who did not have the APOE4 gene. That gene has been found to increase the risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

Diabetes may also lead to people developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which is a transitional stage between the cognitive characteristics of normal aging and the more serious problems resulting from Alzheimer’s or other kinds of dementia. For example, because diabetes damages the blood vessels, it has long been known as a serious risk factor for vascular dementia, manifested by cognitive and memory problems.

What explains the association between these two serious diseases? Studies carried out over the last several years show that both diabetes and Alzheimer’s share some very damaging molecules known as advanced glycation end products (AGEs). Once produced, these substances affect the structure and functions of important proteins in the body.

The connection between diabetes and Alzheimer’s begs the obvious question. Is it possible to affect Alzheimer’s by altering insulin levels? By mimicking high insulin levels in healthy adults ranging in age from 55 to 81, researchers were able to elevate some markers of Alzheimer’s in the brain.

But, how about lowering insulin levels? Would that also have an effect? Researchers from the Boston University School of Public Health reported that individuals who used thiazolidenedione (TZD) drugs to lower their blood sugar levels had lower rates of Alzheimer’s disease. In 142,328 patients who received a first prescription for TZDs or insulin without previous prescription for either medication had up to 20% fewer cases of Alzheimer’s than patients who hadn’t received them.

These important studies suggest that preventing or effectively treating diabetes may lower the risks for Alzheimer’s disease. The positive effects on diabetes of dietary changes, exercise, nutrients and drugs are well known. Now there is an additional reason to put them to use.

Dr. Cesar Chelala carried out research in biochemistry, molecular genetics and pharmacology.

The increasing war on words between Turkey and Israel not only threatens to deprive Israel of an important ally, but, more ominously, it threatens to engulf the region in an arms race and wider conflict. It is time for both former allies to conduct serious negotiations before the situation reaches a point of no return.

In remarks recently in Cairo and in an interview with TIME magazine on September 26, 2011, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was extremely critical of Israel’s actions with the Gaza convoy. He was also critical of Israel’s refusal to pay compensation to the families of the victims and to apologize for the death of nine Turkish activists when the Gaza flotilla was intercepted by Israeli commandos.

After that incident, in November of 2010, Ankara’s National Security Council named Israel as a central threat to Turkish security for the first time since 1949. “The region’s instability stems from Israeli actions and policy, which could lead to an arms race in the Middle East,” said the report.

During his visit to Cairo, in a 30-minute speech to the Arab League, Prime Minister Erdogan said that Israel had undermined its legitimacy by irresponsible behavior. “It [Israel] acts irresponsibly and without hesitation in smashing human dignity and international law by carrying out assaults on international convoys, which carry nothing but food and toys for children,” said Erdogan.

Israel expressed regret for the loss of lives aboard the flotilla, and said that it was time for the two countries to restore their former close ties. However, the Israeli government has refused to apologize for its actions or to pay compensation to the families of the activists killed during the raid on the Mavi Marmara going to Gaza.

In addition, Israel’s recent announcement approving the building of 1,100 housing units in the Gilo neighborhood in east Jerusalem will not help to improve relations between the two countries, particularly since Erdogan has been a strong advocate for Palestinian rights. “It is time to raise the Palestinian flag at the United Nations. Let’s raise the Palestinian flag and let that flag be the symbol of peace and justice in the Middle East,” said Erdogan.

During a recent interview with CNN, Erdogan accused Israel of using the Holocaust to justify its actions against the Palestinians, as well as to convey the idea that “they are the victims all the time.” Erdogan also said that there were no accurate statistics on the number of Israelis killed in the conflict with the Palestinians, suggesting that there were approximately 200, while hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had been killed as a result of Israeli attacks on the citizens of Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly reacted to these allegations saying that, “These are outrageous charges against Israel that have nothing to do with the facts.” And Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called Turkey’s leadership radical, extremist and terror supporting. “We certainly respect the Turkish nation and Turkey as a state. Our problem is first and foremost with the current Turkish leadership – the radical and extremist Islamist leadership that supports and nurtures terror,” said Lieberman.

During a recent interview with TIME magazine Erdogan was also extremely critical of the Middle East Quartet. “…you need to take a sincerity test before you even think of accomplishing this: [Ask yourselves the question], do we really want to resolve this issue or not? Unfortunately, I do not see even the traces of this within the Quartet,” said Erdogan.

His point of view may be shared by those who see the Quartet’s biggest achievement as having provided Mr. Tony Blair with free flyer miles during his frequent trips to the Middle East. “He is useless to us,” said Nabil Shaath, senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, assessing Blair’s contribution to peace negotiations in the Middle East.

The situation between Israel and Turkey is now at a stalemate. It is to the benefit of both countries to overcome the issues separating them and renew friendly relations. The alternative could be an escalation of the hostilities and more unrest in that volatile region.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

Despite increasing bans on tobacco use, smoking cigars had, and will continue to have, universal appeal. As trade embargo on Cuban cigars in the U.S. is still in place, it is good to remember one of Cuban cigars’ greatest fans, the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy. And we can reminisce of an historic moment in US/Cuba relations when President Kennedy almost broke his own embargo against the Caribbean country. We know the details from Kennedy’s former press secretary, the ebullient Pierre Salinger.

President Kennedy is just one of many famous historical figures who loved to smoke cigars. Sigmund Freud was a big addict, smoking up to 20 cigars a day, which probably was the reason for the mouth cancer that led to his death. In a conversation with Carl Gustav Jung, where they were probably discussing the allegoric meaning of cigars, Freud is supposed to have said, “You know, Carl, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”

Winston Churchill, who loved to dunk his cigars in port wine or brandy, dressed an iconic figure during WWII holding a cigar in his hand. In more recent times, former president Bill Clinton was known to have enjoyed smoking cigars, although this is a pleasure now denied him out of concerns for his health.

At the other end of the political spectrum, Karl Marx was also a passionate smoker. However, both for theoretical and practical reasons he only smoked the cheapest cigars. As Guillermo Cabrera Infante, the famous Cuban writer, says in his book “Holy Smoke,” “All of them [were] of the ‘cheap and nasty’ variety; therefore the cigars Marx smoked were feared by all his friends.”

Aside from Cuban cigars, President Kennedy is known to have enjoyed Philippine cigars, probably the Alhambra brand, one of the mildest cigars made by the Philippines’ largest cigar maker, La Flor de la Isabela. President Kennedy’s favorite Cuban cigar was the Petit Upmann, also considered a mild to medium kind of cigar.

In an article published in 1996 in Cigar Aficionado, entitled “Cigars & Che & JFK” Richard Goodwin who served in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and who was instructed by Kennedy to draw up the executive order invoking the Trading with the Enemy Act against Castro’s Cuba, tells of a little know incident involving Che Guevara and President Kennedy.

In August of 1961, there was a meeting of all the American nations at Punta del Este, a seaside resort in Uruguay. It was there that Richard Goodwin met Che Guevara. Aware of Kennedy’s preference for Cuban cigars, Guevara gave Goodwin two cigar boxes, one for him and the other for Kennedy.

The cigar box for Kennedy was inlaid with the Cuban seal, and had a note to Kennedy in Spanish which said, “Since I have no greeting card, I have to write. Since to write to an enemy is difficult, I limit myself to extending my hand.” The note was signed “Che” over the typewritten “Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara.”

Further details of Kennedy’s predilection for Cuban cigars are detailed by Salinger in an article published in 2002 in Cigar Aficionado. Several months after the Bay of Pigs fiasco in April 1961, President Kennedy called Pierre Salinger to his office and told him that he needed some help. Always solicitous, Salinger asked him what he wanted. “I need a lot of cigars, Pierre,” Kennedy told Salinger.

“How many do you need, Mr. President,” asked Salinger. “About 1,000 Petit Upmanns,” said Kennedy. When told that Kennedy needed them by next morning Salinger shuddered, knowing how difficult it would be to get them. However, being a cigar aficionado himself, Salinger knew of places where he could obtain them. So next morning, as soon as he arrived in his office he was called by Kennedy who asked him how he had done on his errand. “Very well, Mr. President,” answered Salinger. He had gotten 1,200 Petit Upmann, among the best of Cuban cigars which he handed to Kennedy.

Kennedy smiled, opened his desk and took a long paper which he immediately signed. It was a decree by which he broadened all trade restrictions originally imposed by President Dwight Eisenhower to a ban on all trade with Cuba. The embargo on Cuban cigars has been effective since February 7, 1962.

Dr. Cesar Chelala, a New York writer, is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

There was not a happier person in Barcelona last Saturday than an 11-year-old boy from Morocco, called Soufian. He saw his hero Lionel Messi, the Argentine soccer player, slapping his thighs after scoring the first goal against the team called Osasuna. Following Messi’s goal, he lifted his hands in a characteristic gesture and immediately started slapping his thighs, a way he had agreed beforehand with Soufian so that he would know that this goal was dedicated to him.

Lionel Messi, considered the best soccer player in the world, had met Soufian last January and for some unforgettable minutes had played soccer with the Moroccan boy, a fan of his. When he met again the boy last Friday, he promised him that his first goal would be dedicated to him. And he kept his promise. It was a characteristic gesture of generosity by the most uncharacteristic, and talented, of all soccer players.

Soufian had lost both of his legs to Laurin-Sandrow disease, an extremely rare genetic condition. Set with artificial legs, he hadn’t lost his passion for soccer. And he feverishly followed Messi’s performances in Barcelona’s team. The Moroccan boy was never disappointed. Nor was the Spanish sportscaster disappointed either, aware of that promise, who kept yelling after that goal, “Messi is huge, Messi is huge!” When the game was finished, Messi’s team had defeated Osasuna 8-0, with two more goals from Messi, one of them a hat-trick.

The Moroccan boy is such a fan of Messi that he has his artificial legs painted with the colors of Messi’s team, called Barça. And he has also painted in them the number 10, Messi’s shirt number, usually given to the best player.

Since he was 19 Messi had decided to use part of the earnings from soccer to good causes. In 2007, he established the Leo Messi Foundation, a charity aimed at helping vulnerable children to gain access to better health and education opportunities. It was, perhaps, the way of expressing gratitude for overcoming his childhood health problems.

In a fan site interview Messi stated, “Being a bit famous now gives me the opportunity to help people who really need it, particularly children.”

Messi came to Barcelona when he was 13-years-old, after being diagnosed with growth-hormone deficiency, which made him unable to grow at the same pace as children his age. He was then only 4 feet 7 inches. His soccer team, called River Plate, could not afford at the time the medical costs for treating his condition.

Barça’s sporting director, Carlos Rexach, aware of the boy’s talent, offered him a contract which included payment for treating his hormone deficiency. Since at the time he had no other paper at hand, Rexach drew the contract in a napkin, probably the only such contract in soccer’s history.

Although Messi now stands at 5-7, he uses his relatively short size to full advantage. He can easily dribble among three or four opponents with unstoppable speed until he can reach the opponents’ goalkeeper whom he usually also dribbles to score a goal. Because he is short, Messi’s nickname is The Flea, as he is widely known.

Messi’s foundation supports sick Argentine children (mostly from his hometown of Rosario) to allow them to get paid treatment in Spain, covering hospital, round-trip transportation from Argentina and recovery costs. In March 2010, Messi was also named Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF, where he has been able to continue his work in support of vulnerable children.

Throughout his 24 years Messi has proven to be unique. He is unique as a soccer player and remarkable as a human being. He not only is the most recognizable face of soccer worldwide, he is a kind young man who brought hope and a brilliant smile to a young Moroccan boy.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a New York writer.

The issue of food safety is important in China, particularly in rural areas, that lack the controls and supervision that can be better done in cities. In the first four months of this year, there have been government supervisions on more than 8.5 million sellers of food products and over 180,000 trade markets. Although the government has stepped up the supervision of food, dairy and liquor products sold in markets in rural areas at all points in the supply chain, more needs to be done to ensure food safety.

It is estimated that 1.8 to 3.1 billion people are infected each year by microbiological contamination of the food and water supply. In addition, large numbers of people become sick as a result of the intentional contamination of food or due to careless and unsupervised practices. The addition of some prohibited substances to foods is done to mask poor quality, to extend their shelf life past their expiration date and to make them look more nutritious to the consumer.

Two years after a national health scare over melamine-tainted milk products shocked China’s dairy industry there has been a new wave of reports of adulterated food. Melamine is a substance used in concrete, fertilizers and plastics which mimics protein in food-quality tests. This substance, that some Chinese manufacturers added (and some still do) to infant food, chocolate and other products to make them more appealing can, if consumed in excess, lead to permanent kidney damage.

In recent weeks, there have been reports of pork adulterated with the drug clenbuterol, which can cause heart problems; rice contaminated with cadmium, a metal discharged by smelters; soy sauce laced with arsenic; noodles mixed with ink and wax; bean sprouts contaminated with an animal antibiotic; and artificial eggs made up of chemicals, gelatin and paraffin, among other adulterated food.

Rather than diminishing, the problem of contaminated food seems to be increasing, particularly in rural areas. What explains this situation? The lure of making money at any cost is too tempting to many food producers. They see that by using additives they boost profit margins, and they don’t consider the serious effects adulterated food can have on consumers.

In addition, China’s rapid growth in recent times has given rise to an estimated half a million food producers, most of whom employ 10 or fewer workers. Because these producers are scattered throughout the country, oversight is difficult. This situation is aggravated by the fact that there are not enough qualified supervisors in the country and that the great number of food suppliers makes it difficult to enforce national standards, monitor food production and trace problems to their source.

Since adulterated food can bring considerable economic benefits to localities, such as increased government income and employment opportunities, many local officials tolerate these activities. To make things even more complex, adulterated products are not sold around the places where they are produced but instead they are transported to other localities, thus reducing the incentives of local authorities to crack down on these counterfeiting illegal businesses.

Many adulterated food products are sold in rural areas. Such is the case of fake milk powder, whose victims tended to be mainly villagers. Some analysts attribute the prevalence of adulterated foods in rural areas to the low purchasing power of many villagers and to their lower educational level. In addition, there is a regulatory chasm between urban and rural areas.

Many experts consider that the most evident feature of China’s food safety regulatory system is the fragmentation of regulatory authority among several government agencies. There is a difference with the United States, where except for meat and poultry, which are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates almost the entire food chain.

In 2003, in an attempt to solve this situation, the Chinese leadership created the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), in charge of food regulation and comprehensive food supervision. However, soon after it was created, it was evident that this new agency was going to confront some serious criticism, particularly from other regulatory agencies.
Following years have shown that SFDA does not have enough authority to exercise complete supervision over food safety, and that its authority remains divided among different government agencies.

Some progress on this issue, however, has been achieved. In 2009, China adopted a comprehensive food-safety law, bringing hundreds of standards in food production in line with international norms. As a result, almost half of dairy food companies have been ordered to stop production after failing to meet new licensing requirements. In addition, the Ministry of Health is planning to update and make public a list of legal food additives and publish a black list of illegal additives by the end of the year.

It is important to increase consumer food safety education, particularly in rural areas, which will give them the knowledge and confidence to demand better and safer products. At the same time, the government should accelerate the training of more enforcement agents, since there is now less than one food inspector for every 10,000 people.

China’s food regulating agencies should be streamlined and their responsibilities should be clearly established. A clear division of duties will give the Chinese citizens the sense that their health and well being are being effectively protected by the government.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant.

Experiments carried out in the last several years indicate that some viruses can help in the fight against cancer. Scientists have been experimenting with genetically engineered vaccinia, measles and reovirus, and have found that they can have a negative effect on several kinds of cancers. Further studies may well demonstrate viruses offer the best chance to fight against this disease.

Scientists found that a genetically modified vaccinia virus – used to develop a smallpox vaccine - named JX-594, when injected into the blood can selectively target cancer cells in the body. Although previously some viruses had proven to have a strong effect when injected directly into tumors, this is the first time that a virus has been shown to replicate in cancer tissue after intravenous infusion in humans, according to Prof John Bell, a lead researcher from the University of Ottawa.

The modified vaccinia virus was injected at different doses into the blood of 23 patients. They all had cancers which had spread to several organs in the body. What made this experience particularly important is that in eight patients who were receiving the highest dose, seven of them had the vaccinia virus replicating in their tumors but not in healthy tissue. This modified virus has proven to be effective even against mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer that develops from the protective lining that covers many of the body's internal organs, which is particularly difficult to treat.

It is important to state, however, that the virus didn’t cure cancer. The experiments with modified vaccinia virus are significant because they showed that the virus multiplied only in tumor cells, leaving normal cells intact. This finding could be used in the future to deliver them directly into cancerous cells in high concentrations so as to be more effective.

“This new study is important because it shows that a virus previously used safely to vaccinate against smallpox in millions of people can now be modified to reach cancers through the bloodstream -even after a cancer has spread widely through the patient’s body,” Prof. Rick Lemoine, director of London’s Barts Cancer Institute was quoted as saying.

An additional advantage of this kind of treatment is that other treatments such as chemotherapy attack not only cancer cells but also normal cells, and as a consequence its side effects are much more pronounced. Treatment with the modified vaccinia virus only produced minor side effects such as flu-like symptoms that lasted for less than a day and could be treated with over-the-counter medications.

Reovirus, a kind of virus that can cause coughing and mild diarrhea, has also been used experimentally to kill cancer cells. Using a mutated virus, scientists have been able to accentuate the positive traits of the virus and attenuate the negative ones and have been experimenting in several kinds of cancers.

Scientists were able to show that there are synergistic anti-tumor effects of the modified reovirus when used with radiation therapy or with chemotherapy. Because of it slow toxicity, reovirus is an attractive anti-cancer option for ongoing clinical tests. In addition, infection with the mutated reovirus only produces minor flu-like symptoms.

In one set of experiments, patients with prostate cancer were injected with the mutated reovirus directly into their prostate tumors previous to having their prostate glands removed. When the prostates were analyzed, it was found that cancer cells around the site of injection were killed, but normal cells were unharmed. It was a significant discovery.
However, scientists also found that the virus didn’t spread to the rest of the prostate, thus limiting its efficacy. Different approaches are being tried at the moment, aimed at overcoming those obstacles.

Initial results with these and other viruses are important enough to raise hopes that these new approaches can be successful. It is interesting that while some viruses can cause cancers, other viruses, when properly modified and used, can be the answer to a most devastating disease.

Dr. Cesar Chelala conducted research in molecular genetics at the Public Health Research Institute of the City of New York.

I remember vividly the terrible day when our lives (our world) changed forever. I was listening to the radio in my apartment, a few blocks away from Ground Zero, when the plane hit the first Twin Tower and I heard the cries from the street below: "Oh, no, no, no!" "Oh, my God!" I ran downstairs just in time to see the second tower crumble like a sand castle. It was 9:59 am.

I joined others rushing to the spot when a large group of people came running back shouting: "Go back, go back, for God's sake, go back!" We rushed back only to discover later that it was a false alarm and that there would be no more attacks on the towers after the second plane hit. Without fully understanding the significance of events, I felt - like so many others - that a relatively peaceful way of life had been replaced by a darker, more sinister one. A great sadness came over me.

Soon after, we learned the details of what had happened, and heard stories and saw pictures of those who had thrown themselves voluntarily to their certain deaths rather than remain trapped inside an inferno. Richard Drew, who photographed one of the iconic images of that fateful day, the "Falling Man," where you see the lonely image of a man falling to his death with one of the towers in the background, said recently that for him that was the image of the Unknown Soldier. An estimated seven percent of those killed in the attack of September 11 did so by jumping into the void from their offices.

We also learned of the heroic conduct of hundreds of firefighters who risked and lost their lives. One of the firefighters was a 34 years-old Argentine man named Sergio Villanueva. That day, about an hour before the attack on the Twin Towers, he had finished his shift. But, like so many other days, he had stayed to have breakfast with his peers. When they heard news of the attack, he decided to join his fellow squad members and went with them to the towers to help in rescue efforts. Neither he nor his fellow brigade members ever returned.

We also heard heartbreaking stories about people we knew who were killed in the towers. One, the son of friends, had just enough time to call his brother and tell him, "Please tell Mom and Dad that I love them a lot as I love you," before the line went dead. To this day his parents have not regained their joie de vivre. Or the employee of a large company who left the towers, called his wife to say he was fine after the first tower had been hit, then returned to retrieve documents from his office and died shortly afterwards when the atrocious fire ravaged his office.

What promised to be a peaceful September morning turned into a nightmare. As usual, that day (a beautiful sunny day with a very clear sky) we woke up with my wife around 7 am and, after having breakfast, she had left for her work on Long Island, a distance of about 45 minutes from home. I was planning to have a working lunch at the United Nations headquarters.

After the second attack on the towers I hastily tried to contact my wife at work. It was impossible to communicate by phone with my wife on Long Island. However, I learned that it was possible to communicate by telephone with Queens, where a medical colleague, Dr. Juan Rivolta, lived. I called him immediately to see if I could communicate with my wife through him. I quickly summarized what had happened. He initially thought that I was joking but changed his mind when he heard the desperation in my voice and finally was convinced when I told him to turn the TV on and see what was happening.

Juan was able to communicate with my wife and told me that she was safe. When we spoke later that day she explained that soon after arriving at her college someone had called the office and they quickly turned the television on and were able share the horror of what was happening. Since virtually all roads leading to the New York City were closed, my wife went to a colleague’s house and stayed there until three days later when was able to return to our home.

Once satisfied that my wife was safe but still in a state of shock, I went to a nearby square and sat on a bench watching people hurrying to the scene. That state of shock was with me, like with many other New Yorkers, for at least three months after the attacks. During that time we could smell the pungent odor of burned materials, some of which certainly came from the incinerated bodies of thousands who had perished there.

One was Sean Rooney, whose last moments were described by his wife, Beverly Eckert, in a story published in New York magazine in a special issue on September 2011. Beverly described how her husband called her while he was trapped on the 105th floor, unable to find an escape route as the flames approached ominously towards him and how, during his last minutes of life could only manage to say "I love you, I love you." Then when the smoke almost prevented him from speaking, Beverly heard a terrible noise of something cracking, followed by the sound of an avalanche and a groan, probably from her husband when he felt the ground crumbling beneath his feet.

When George W. Bush later visited the scene of the tragedy, Karl Rove, one of his closest advisers, saw a fire truck completely destroyed in place. Rove then asked two firefighters to jump repeatedly on the truck to make sure that it would hold the weight of the U.S. president. When he made sure there would be no problem, Rove suggested to Bush to get on top of the truck with a megaphone and address the firefighters gathered there.

It seems impossible that someone who had been trapped inside the towers could have survived. Yet that is what happened to 20 people, including firefighters and police officers and an administrative secretary of the Port Authority called Genelle Guzman-McMillan.

As Matthew Shaer tells in New York magazine, Genelle followed a group of colleagues to the smoke-filled stairways. As they descended, Genelle was certain that she would survive and could go down and meet with her boyfriend, as they had planned to do. However, she suddenly lost her balance as a result of the collapse of the building and was dragged to the ground floor surrounded by tons of cement and steel. Finally she stopped, and felt something soft and warm under her – it was a dead person. She remained silent for 27 hours, praying and asking God for her life. After that time a German Labrador named Trakr managed to find her.

The shock people experienced as a result of the attacks may mirror the shock that Americans felt after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Such was the state of fear after the attack on the towers that the noise of the few aircraft that crossed the air afterwards was enough to frighten New Yorkers.

Such fears led to unexpected reactions. A friend, an art teacher at a university in New York, told me recently, talking about that fateful day: "Although I am a total agnostic I must confess that after the attacks I felt something strange, as if my house was invaded by ghosts whose steps I seemed to hear at night. I was so afraid, that I had to ask a Buddhist priest to make an exorcism ceremony of my apartment to feel that I was not going crazy. "

The attacks on the Twin Towers caused the most concentrated response to an emergency in the history of the United States. It is estimated that at least 100 units of emergency and dozens of private ambulances headed toward the scene from which they took the injured to nearby hospitals. At the same time, more than 2,000 police officers searched the towers and rescued survivors. But the weight of the response fell to the Fire Department of New York whose members had a truly heroic response to the events.

Will we be ever be able to eliminate terrorism? Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Security Council of the United Nations on September 27, 2010, "Stopping people from becoming terrorists," Clinton said, "requires addressing the political, economic and social conditions that make people vulnerable."

On the 10th anniversary of the tragedy one of the main lessons to be drawn is: Violence begets violence, and intolerance breeds intolerance. Unless there is a new approach to preventing terrorist acts we will continue to live under the threat of preventable terror.

Political confrontation is not the answer. It's easy to create an enemy. It's much harder to understand "the other", a necessary approach if we want to eliminate misunderstandings, while honoring the desire for peace and security of all peoples of the world.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

The growing worldwide demand for resources is threatening the world's environmental health to an unprecedented extent. Unless new policies are set in place, this situation could have devastating implications for human development. In this context, women and children can be very active participants in the defense of the environment and stop, or even reverse, the degradation of our natural resources.

At a worldwide level, there is a growing awareness of the need and importance of making women contribute to the identification of environmental problems, as well as in the planning of activities geared at the sustainable development of their communities.

Over the past 200 years, industrial processes have been responsible for increasing levels of pollution and for the degradation of air, water, and land. In addition to unrestricted exploitation of natural resources, unsound agricultural practices have had devastating effects on the environment and on people's health and quality of life. Women and children have been particularly affected.

Women, especially those pregnant, are particularly susceptible to several environmental threats, particularly women living in rural or marginal suburban areas in developing countries. Until recently, women had few choices about the kind of lifestyle they wanted to lead and fewer opportunities to change unsatisfactory conditions and improve their families and their own health.

Because of their roles as home-managers, economic providers, and their role in reproduction, women are susceptible to health problems and hazards in several situations. The reproductive system of pregnant women is especially vulnerable to environmental contaminants. Every step in the reproductive process can be altered by toxic substances in the environment. These toxic substances may increase the risk of abortion, birth defects, fetal growth retardation, and peri-natal death.

Although for a long time women have been considered passive recipients of aid rather than active participants in development, their role is crucial both to the economies of developing countries and to the future of the environment. In that regard, as environmental educators and motivators for change, women are key agents in the processes leading to a more sustainable and healthy development of the planet.

Women are traditional protectors of the environment. A world survey on public attitudes on the environment sponsored by the United Nations Environment Program showed that women, when compared with men, are more likely to choose a lower standard of living with fewer health risks rather than a higher standard of living with more health risks.

Perhaps the best example of women’s participation in environmental activities is represented by the work of Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, the founder of the Green Belt movement. Through her efforts, more than 30 million trees have been planted by participants in this movement in public and private lands. Her work has led to the restoration of Kenya’s rapidly diminishing forests and has empowered rural women in environmental preservation techniques.

In Nepal, Saraswoti Bhetwal has been able to survive as a farmer thanks to techniques learned at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), such as roof water harvesting, drip irrigation, composting and leveling terraces. In Latin America, indigenous women have become more active in the use of poverty reduction and sustainable development strategies.

In addition, the increasing participation of women in think tanks and in environmental training activities is allowing them to educate both the public and policy makers about the critical link between women, the use of natural resources, and sustainable development.

In that regard, women have better access to local environmental issues and how to approach them than men. Women have often had a leadership role in reducing unnecessary use of resources, promoting an environmental ethic, and recycling resources to minimize waste.

There is growing evidence that women in several countries around the world are taking central roles in the grass-roots environmental movement. And there is increasing belief that development policies that do not involve women and men alike will not, in the long run, be successful.

As stated by Diane Reed, President of the Cree Society for Communications "Now the women are rising up. And when the women rise up from a nation, they are the strongest voice that can be heard and it's a voice that cannot be silenced."

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international medical consultant and the author of the Pan American Health Organization publications ''The Impact of the Environment on Children's Health'' and “Maternal Health.”

In Chile, a 23-year-old woman has been leading students protests against the government of President Sebastian Piñera. Her high-profiled actions are posing a serious challenge to the government and may lead to a significant overhaul of the country’s education system.

Until a few months ago, Camila Vellejo Dowling was almost unknown in Chile. But recently she became the second female leader in the 105-year history of the University of Chile’s student union. When students protests gradually started last May, she quickly became their face and voice, and has led popular protests and cacerolazos – a kind of popular protest during which participants bang pots and pans.

The student leader said that the government strategy of violent students repression only aggravated the situation, cancelled dialogue and worsened the political climate in the country. Students’ demonstrations provoked a drastic fall in popularity of the government of Chilean billionaire Sebastian Piñera, whose positive image came down to 26% among respondents and obliged him to take emergency measures to confront the crisis.

Although Vallejo preaches non-violence, she has received several death threats and has been given police protection. Vallejo is demanding better salaries and work stability for teachers and for the government to assume responsibility for education at the universities which, according to her, are no longer accessible to the general population. She acknowledged, however, that it is very difficult to obtain structural reforms with a rightist government, saying that what they want is a long term political and educational reform in the country.

Students are demanding a new framework for education in Chile, and an end of the Chilean school voucher system and its replacement by a public education system managed by the state. Presently in Chile, only 45% of high school students are in traditional public schools. Most universities are in private hands.

The majority of Chileans (estimated in 72 to 80%) support the student movement, which has been energized by a 48-hour nationwide strike by the Workers United Center of Chile (CUT). Although Deputy Interior Minister Rodrigo Ubilla stated that the strike was a “great failure,” the CUT released a press statement saying that 82 social and labor union organizations had joined the strike.

As a response to student demands, President Piñera said that the government would improve education financing, cutting interests rates on students’ loans from 6.4% to 2%, would help indebted students and would provide fellowships. But the government promises did little to control the uprising.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, education costs in Chile make it the country with the most expensive higher education. According to Chilean economist Marcel Claude, student’s debt is close to 174% of their annual salary and 50% among them are heavily indebted.

President Piñera’s response to new demonstrations was to announce a US $4000 millions in education through a new proposal called GANE (Great National Accord for Education) which was also rejected. Should popular demonstrations gather momentum, the government may confront a situation very difficult to deal with, particularly after workers joined the student protests.

When Camila was recently asked about the effect on people of her striking good looks she responded, “I am attractive and don’t have any problems in acknowledging it, but I didn’t decided when I was born how I was going to look like. What I decided is which was going to be my political project and my work with the people.” In the unstable political situation of Chile now, the leadership of a 23-year-old woman can help chart a new course for her country.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant and writer.

by Cesar Chelala and Alejandro M. Garro

Several NGOs have filed an amicus brief urging the United States Supreme Court to review the ruling of an appeals court that corporations, under international law, cannot be held liable for damages on account of serious human rights violations. The Supreme Court should accept the case and hold that, if supported by the evidence, civil damages is an available remedy against corporations for aiding and abetting international wrongs.

Kiobel vs. Royal Dutch Petroleum is a lawsuit filed in 2002 by members of the Ogoni community complaining of human rights violations that took place in the 1990s. The Ogoni are approximately half a million people who live in a 650 square kilometers region in Rivers State, Nigeria. Traditionally, they made their living by fishing and as subsistence farmers, a way of life threatened when Shell discovered oil in 1958.

The environmental effects of oil exploitation in Ogoni territory have been dire. Major oil spills have caused serious damage to the ground and jeopardized the livelihood of the Ogoni people. Gas flares produce a constant noise near Ogoni villages. Polluted air from the flairs produces acid rain and causes respiratory problems in the surrounding communities. These damages are underscored in the lyrics of an Ogoni song:

'The flames of Shell are flames of Hell,
We bask below their light,
Nought for us to serve the blight,
Of cursed neglect and cursed Shell.'
The Ogoni people have seen their livelihood threatened by rapacious oil exploitation in their land. In 1998, the United Nations Rapporteur accused both the Nigerian government and Shell of abusing human rights and failing to protect the environment in the Ogoni Region. However, both Shell and the Nigerian government have been unresponsive.

The survivors of serious human rights violations resorted to the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) as a way to seek civil compensation in U.S. Courts. The ATS allows non-U.S. citizens to bring civil suits in U.S. federal courts for wrongful acts that in violation of international law, regardless of the country where the wrong was perpetrated or the harm was suffered. Whereas criminal liability of legal entities remains a controversial issue under international law, corporate civil liability for egregious wrongs is a widely accepted principle of international law.

In September of 2010, a split panel decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that the ATS does not apply to corporations but only to individuals. As indicated by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York, this view is at odds with previous decisions of other federal courts, such as a relatively recent by the Seventh and District of Columbia circuit courts of appeals, holding that corporations can be held liable under the ATS. As recalled by the CCR, the majority of a panel in the District of Columbia case, held that corporations (such as EXXON Mobil on account of operations conducted in Indonesia), are not immune “for torts based on heinous conduct allegedly committed by its agents in violation of the law of nations.” As stated by Katherine Gallagher, a Senior Staff Attorney at the CCR: “The Second Circuit’s decision undermines fundamental concepts of accountability and leaves victims of the most serious human rights violations without a remedy.”

Making corporations immune from suits resulting from human rights violations will only ensure that these violations will continue to occur, unimpeded by any legal constraint. The Supreme Court should take the case, opening up the possibility, in cases where the evidence supports such a finding, to hold corporations liable for damages under international law.

Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of the Overseas Press Club of America award for "Missing or Dead in Argentina: The Desperate Search for Thousands of Abducted Victims," which was a cover story for The New York Times Magazine.

Alejandro M. Garro teaches comparative law at Columbia Law School and sits on the advisory boards for Human Rights Watch/Americas, the Center for Justice and International Law, and the Due Process of Law Foundation.

Doctors and medical personnel have become regrettable victims of the uprising taking place in several Arab countries. Attacks on doctors violate the principle of medical neutrality that ensures that doctors and medical personnel should be free to treat those in need –regardless of politics, race or religion. Rule 26 of the List of Customary Rules of International Humanitarian Law states that, “Punishing a person for performing medical duties compatible with medical ethics or compelling a person engaged in medical activities to perform acts contrary to medical ethics is prohibited.”

Violation of this rule has been particularly evident in Bahrain, were doctors, nurses and other medical personnel have been viciously tortured and set on trial in military court. Among the allegations against them is that doctors and nurses stole blood so that protesters could fake serious injury, and also of being part of a militant Shia clique that had taken control of Manama’s biggest hospital and used it as a base for overthrowing the royal government. The Sunni rule a majority-Shia populated country.

Unlike his serious protests against government abuses in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, the U.S. government has been extremely cautious in criticizing the government in Bahrain. This reluctance can be explained by the fact that Bahrain is host t the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet. As stated by Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, “North American and European Governments, so vocal recently in espousing the cause of human rights in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, also need to speak loudly about what is going on in Bahrain.”

Unlike those governments, human rights organizations such as Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International (AI) and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have been extremely vocal in their concern about abuses against doctors and other medical personnel. The Bahraini authorities stated that they were just taking necessary measures to prevent destabilization in the country provoked by foreign forces.

Many convictions of medical personnel are for political reasons such as having participated in unauthorized demonstrations and “incitement of hatred against the regime.” Human Rights Watch has urged the Bahraini government to stop special military court proceedings against those arrested during the country’s antigovernment protests.

In Syria, there is an underground network of medics, who call themselves the “Damascus Doctors” who want not only to save lives but to expose the crimes of the Syrian regime. The group is made up of approximately 60 medical professionals who provide on-the-ground care and help the wounded. The Syrian secret police has ordered doctors and other medical personnel not to treat wounded protesters threatening retribution. It is a sad paradox that doctors are afraid of reprisals by a government ruled by Dr. Bashar al-Assad, a medical colleague.

In Libya, doctors are also in the frontline, in many cases working in extremely hard conditions and under constant threat of government forces. Some of the doctors in the frontline have been trained overseas and have returned to their country to help during the civil war. Last March, government troops attacked the main hospital in Misrata that had at the time 400 patients and medical personnel inside.

In Yemen, medical workers set up a field hospital in a local mosque, providing care as security forces and the regime supporters opened fire on thousands of mostly unarmed civilian protesters.

Across North Africa and the Middle East, medical personnel have been courageously treating the wounded at great personal risk. Legal protections do not seem to work in authoritarian regimes under threat. The international community should continue to exert pressure to ensure that they are safe and able to fulfill what doctors and other medical personnel believe is their professional responsibility.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant.

In these times of so much civil strife, internecine wars and racial and political intolerance, it is good to remember an episode involving Turkey, Australia and New Zealand. It shows the power of words to console the grieving, and to bring closure to a painful history.

Last April thousands of people from Australia and New Zealand gathered in northwestern Turkey to render homage to their ancestors, brave young soldiers, who lost their lives on the fields of Çanakkale 96 years ago in what is known as the Gallipoli Campaign during World War I.

The Gallipoli Campaign took place on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey between April 1915 and January 1916. A joint British and French operation had been conducted to capture the Ottoman capital of Istanbul, and secure a sea route to Russia. The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, or Anzac, formed the foundation of a 200,000 British-led army that landed at Gallipoli. The operation failed with thousands of casualties on both sides.

To each of the ANZAC soldiers one could apply the words of William Butler Yeats,

I dreamed that one had died in a strange place
Near no accustomed hand

Painful as the losses of young soldiers’ lives were, however, this episode fostered the creation of national identities and also laid the foundations of friendly relations among the people from Turkey, Australia and New Zealand. The battle was also a defining moment in the history of the Turkish people, laying the grounds for the Turkish War of Independence.

It was during that campaign that Mustapha Kemal, who would later be known as Kemal Ataturk, counterattacked the heroic Anzac soldiers’ advance and reached unparalleled prestige among his compatriots. Mustapha Kemal, then a 34-year-old Lt.-Col., had been familiar with the Gallipoli Peninsula from his operations against Bulgaria during the Balkan War.

The prestige this military leader gained during the Gallipoli Campaign allowed him to create the Republic of Turkey as a secular nation with Western values, revitalizing it from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. After the Gallipoli campaign he proved to be as generous in peace as he had been daring in war.

Dr. Bülent Atalay, president of the Ataturk Society, recounted last May at the Turkish Embassy in Washington D.C. how in 1930, 14 years after the Gallipoli Campaign, and as president of Turkey, Kemal Ataturk was given a letter by his aid-de-camp. In the letter, the mothers of the Anzacs fallen at Gallipoli were requesting permission to visit the graves of their sons.

Ataturk pondered how to respond. His aid told him, “Warn them if anyone invades us again we’ll break off their legs.” Ataturk responded, “I cannot do that.” Instead he sat down and wrote to the mothers,

“Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours... You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.”

The words are now inscribed in the Memorial of Anzac Cove, which commemorates the loss of thousands of Ottoman and Anzac soldiers who gave up their lives at Gallipoli. They reveal that Kemal Ataturk wasn’t only an excellent politician. He was a great statesman as well.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

A new study carried out in Stanford University found that environmental factors may play an even more important role than genetics in causing autism. Autism is a neuro developmental disorder –an impairment of the growth and development of the brain or central nervous system- characterized by defective social interaction and communication, and by restrictive and repetitive behavior. It first appears during infancy or childhood, and generally follows a steady course without remission. Autism is one of three recognized disorders in what is known as autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).

The number of children diagnosed with autism has increased considerably since the early 1980s. Although the explanation for this increase can be improved diagnosis, the rate of increase is so dramatic as to disregard this as the only cause. Although worldwide the prevalence of autism is estimated in about 1-2 per 100,000 children, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that approximately one on 110 children in the U.S. have some form of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Although there is no cure for this condition, there are a few reported cases of children who recovered. Some autistic children have continued to lead highly successful professional lives.

Until a few decades ago, many psychiatrists thought that autism was caused by lack of maternal warmth, a belief that did a lot of harm to the mothers of children affected with this condition. More recently, it was believed that autism had a very strong genetic component. This happened until this new study, that stresses the important of a wide variety of environmental factors.

According to the study, conducted in 192 pairs of twins in California, genetics accounted for approximately 38 percent of autism cases, while different environmental factors were responsible for about 62 percent. The results, which contradict previous studies that suggested that genetic causes were far more important, offer hope for a better control of this condition once specific causes are better defined.

In this new study researchers looked at both identical and fraternal twins drawn form California databases. While identical twins share 100 percent of their genes, fraternal twins share only 50 percent of them. Comparing the rates of autism on both types of twins allowed the researchers to measure the importance of genes versus environment as causing this condition.

The study found that autism or autism spectrum disorders occurred more frequently in identical twins when compared to fraternal twins. Surprisingly, however, a mathematical study of the results strongly suggested that environmental factors were responsible in a greater percentage of cases than genetic ones. This new study confirms similar results reported by University of California scientists in 2009.

Probably dozens if not hundreds of chemicals in the environment are neurodevelopmental toxins, that is, they affect the growth of the brain or central nervous system. Among these environmental toxins are polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), brominated flame retardants, pesticides, mercury, lead and several other substances.

In addition to these environmental factors, another recent study has shown a potential association between use of antidepressants during pregnancy and risk of developing autism. The study of more than 1800 children found an adjusted 2-fold increase risk for ASD among mothers who used a type of antidepressant during the year before delivery and a 3-fold increased risk when the antidepressant was taken during the first trimester of pregnancy.

However, as the authors of the study were quick to state, these findings should be taken with extreme caution, since further studies are needed to determine if these studies represent a causal and not a coincidental connection.

These studies on the effect of drugs and environmental factors are extremely important since they show that eliminating those factors can also lead to a dramatic reduction in the number of children affected by autism, a disorder that has serious effects not only on the children but also on the whole family as well.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant.

Many things can be said about the U.S. policy towards Cuba except that the long-standing embargo is an intelligent way of solving the problems with that country. After the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 was passed in the U.S. Congress prohibiting aid to Cuba and authorizing the President to create a “total embargo upon all trade” with Cuba, the policy has been a resounding failure. Lifting the embargo and normalizing relations with Cuba is now more imperative than ever if we want to create a more peaceful world.

Paradoxically, the only ones who have benefited from the embargo are the ones it was meant to punish, the Castro brothers. They have intelligently used the embargo to cover their own shortcomings, maintain their grip on power and keep Cubans railing against the U.S.

The embargo on Cuba has been criticized both at the international level and by national political leaders. Last October, the 192-member United Nations General Assembly adopted a draft resolution in favor of lifting the embargo; 187 countries voted in favor, 2 voted against and 3 abstentions. This pattern has been the same for the last 19 years.

As early as 1963, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy referred to the embargo as “inconsistent with traditional American liberties” and difficult to enforce. In 1975, Senator Edward M. Kennedy said, “I believe the idea of isolating Cuba was a mistake. It has been ineffective. Whatever the reasons and justifications may have been at the time, they are now invalid.”

More than hurting the Castro brothers the embargo has hurt the Cuban people’s health and quality of life. Because of the embargo Cubans don’t have easy access to all medications and some food items are in short supply. The lack of essential medicines have led to some medical crises and heightened levels of infectious diseases.

“We must recognize the ineffectiveness of our current policy and deal with the Cuban regime in a way that enhances U.S. interests,” said in 2009 Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. George P. Schultz, who served as Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan has called the continued embargo “insane.”

Lugar’s words are particularly relevant considering that Cuba has begun exploratory drilling for oil in its territorial waters. According to some estimates Cuba could become a major oil producer, a fact to take into consideration as traditional sources of oil for the US have become less reliable. And while the US continues its policy of antagonism to Cuba, the Chinese government has developed closer relations and vowed to increase its military relations with that country.

Cuba is still on the State Department’s state sponsor of terrorism list along with Syria, Iran and Sudan. However, US counterterrorism experts like Richard Clark, former National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism claims that Cuba is on the list only for political reasons.

Support for the US position on this issue is that Cuba supports groups such as the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) the Basque nationalist organization in Spain. However, last April, after talking with the Ambassadors of Spain and Colombia in Havana, former president Jimmy Carter said, “And so, the American allegations, the affirmation of terrorism, is a premise which is completely unfounded, and that is another aspect that the President of the United States could address.”

In June of 2010, 74 Cuban political dissidents signed a letter to the US Congress in support of a bill that would lift the US travel ban for Americans wishing to visit Cuba. “We share the opinion that the isolation of the people of Cuba benefits the most inflexible interests of its government, while any opening serves to inform and empower the Cuban people and helps to further strengthen our civil society,” stated the dissidents.

Normalization of relations with Cuba could also benefit the US which is, even now, Cuba’s largest food supplier. A 2010 Texas A&M University study found that increase trade and travel between the US and Cuba could result in $365 million in increased sales of US goods in Cuba and create 6,000 new jobs in the US. More significantly, though, it would benefit the Cuban people, who have suffered the most from the antagonism between Washington and Havana.

Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

A 12-year-old boy committing suicide in Paktika province in Afghanistan last May in a crowded marketplace, killing four people in the process and wounding dozens, is just one the latest incidents of children’s participation in deadly acts of war. The act is in itself a severe indictment of adults using children for such actions, and the need to further control children’s participation in war, thus depriving them of a normal childhood.

That same month, Afghan security forces arrested three boys, all under 14, as they attempted to cross into Afghanistan from Pakistan to carry out suicide attacks. Using children as suicide bombers is a new and dangerous act by the insurgents in Afghanistan -aimed at both Afghan and American forces- where children are used as pawns in acts of war.

Many children may ‘voluntarily’ take part in warfare, probably not realizing the dangers involved in this participation. Most children, however, are forcibly recruited. They are driven to join in other cases by poverty and abuse, and in some cases to seek revenge for violence carried out against their families.

Using children as soldiers is probably as old as war itself, which doesn’t make it less regrettable. It was customary for youths in the Mediterranean basin to act as aides, charioteers and armor bearers to adult warriors, examples of which can be found in several writings and artistic features.

In more recent times, the Khmer Rouge exploited thousands of children to commit mass murders and other inhuman acts during the Cambodian genocide. During the conflict in Sierra Leone (1993-2002) thousands of children were recruited and used by all sides involved in hostilities. In Uganda, stating that he had “received a message from God” Joseph Kony organized the Lord’s Resistance Army in 1987 that forcibly recruited thousands of children and forced them to commit criminal acts.

Although it is difficult to assess the real numbers, it is estimated that some 300,000 children –both boys and girls under 18- are involved in more than 30 conflicts worldwide. Africa has the largest number of child soldiers, who are used in armed conflicts in Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and Sudan.

There is important legislation against children’s participation in war. In 2002, the Optional Protocol on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in conflict entered into force. The Protocol outlaws the participation of children under 18 in hostilities, raising the previous standard of age (15 years) set by the Convention and the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their 1977 Additional Protocols.

In addition, in July 2002, the Statute of the International Criminal Court entered into force, making a war crime the conscription, enlistment or use of children under 15 in hostilities by national armed forces or armed groups. Important as these laws are, however, violations of the laws of war regarding children need to be properly monitored and reported. This will allow that perpetrators can be held accountable before appropriate tribunals.

The US Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 prohibits governments using child soldiers from receiving US military financing, military training and several other ways of US military assistance. Last October, President Barack Obama issued national waivers to allow Chad, Congo, Sudan and Yemen to continue receiving military aid despite their use of child soldiers.

Issuing those waivers is to send those countries the wrong signal on an issue of critical humanitarian importance. As long as countries continue receiving military assistance, they will not feel any constraint in recruiting children. As Jo Becker, children’s rights advocate at Human Rights Watch stated, “Last year the administration gave these governments a pass. It shouldn’t do so again.”

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

It was one of these days where everything seemed to be going wrong. After a grueling winter we had enjoyed a brief spat of good weather until today, when it was extremely hot and humid and clothes hang immitigably to my body.

An unpleasant man who usually sits on the steps next to my building was more unpleasant than usual. He asks passersby for money and when they don’t give it to him he yells and curses at them. He is, by all regards, a bad addition to our otherwise wonderful neighborhood.

I had been feeling down for several weeks with some vague pain and other unusual symptoms. Earlier, I had gone for another visit to a doctor carrying the results of some tests. I was obviously concerned that I could have some very serious health condition.

I traveled uptown to see a doctor at a place with which I am not familiar. I took the wrong turn and was late for my appointment. While waiting to see the doctor I had difficulty breathing, something generally provoked by my allergy to pollen. The problem is usually resolved by taking my anti-allergy medication, which I usually carry with me; usually, that is, except for today.

After carefully reviewing the tests, and after a thorough physical examination, the doctor told me that I had a kidney problem, although not life-threatening. It is the kind of news I prefer to be spared of.

On my way home I witnessed a horrible traffic accident. A man on a bicycle was coming on a big avenue at full speed when he had a collision with a car that unwisely was crossing the avenue on a yellow/red light. As a Brazilian traffic code states, “When crossing on a yellow light do anything you want, but do it quickly.”

This is precisely what the driver at the car didn’t do, since he was crossing the light going at a very slow speed. I was a bit distracted but still I heard the tremendous noise of the thump of the cyclist against the car and saw him flying over it and falling on the street on the other side of the car. With some difficulty the cyclist got up, and started rubbing his legs and arms, which probably hurt a lot after the collision.

“What were you thinking, man, what were you thinking?” he repeatedly asked the car driver. “This is a $20,000 bike, man, this is a very expensive bike,” he said, not even complaining about how painful the collision had been for him. I felt very sorry for him, his bike destroyed and who knows what happened to his body.

I was wondering what else could go wrong. I started crossing the avenue when I saw coming from the opposite side a most beautiful young woman. She was tall, had very long legs, an attractive face with full lips and a small, perfectly shaped nose. She was dressed in white, a summer skirt loose on her body. She looked like a young Marylyn Monroe.

As she started to cross the avenue there was a sudden, strong wind coming in front of her. Her dress gave way and the skirt jumped all over her face. Her legs were indeed beautiful, and reminded me of the iconic Marylyn Monroe photograph when her skirt is lifted by a breeze coming from a vent placed underneath her.

Perhaps the only advantage of being an older man is that young women will never misinterpret a remark done in good will. As she was passing me by I told her, “You have a beautiful body.” As if reading my mind she answered with a smile, “But I am no Marylyn, you know….” Her quick and good humored riposte changed my mood for the rest of the day.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a New York writer.

Ayat al-Qarmezi, a 20-year-old woman poet in Bahrain, recently condemned to one year in prison, has become the human face of defiance against the regime ruling the country. Her crime, to have spoken at a pro-reform rally in Manama’s Pearl Roundabout in February. Unless the government changes its approach and accepts peaceful dissent, the seeds of resistance will flower in Bahrain.

Speaking at a rally, Ayat al-Qarmezi recited a poem among whose lyrics were, “We are the people who will kill humiliation and assassinate misery.” She was arrested after the police raided her parents’ house and threatened to kill her brothers if Ayat didn’t give herself up. During her detention she was whipped across her face with electric cable, held for days in a small cell with near-freezing temperatures and forced to clean lavatories with her bare hands, the same hands that wrote other beautiful verses.

One of her poems, translated from the Arabic by Ghias Aljundi, says:

We don’t like to live in a palace
And we are not after power
We are the people who
Break down humiliation
And discard oppression
With peace as our tool
We are people who
Do not want others to be living in the Dark Ages.

Ayat is one of many women – doctors and medical personnel among others - who have been targets of repression by Bahrain’s regime. Her detention has been harshly condemned by Amnesty International and other human rights organizations.

“By locking up a female poet merely for expressing her views in public, Bahrain’s authorities are demonstrating how free speech and assembly are brutally denied to ordinary Bahrainis,” stated Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Smart asked that the Bahraini authorities drop all unfair charges against Ayat al-Qarmezi, and release her immediately and unconditionally. His request follows President Barack Obama’s statement during the visit to Washington of Bahrain’s Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa that stability of the Gulf Kingdom “depends upon respect for universal human rights.”

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has joined the protests against the Bahrain regime’s actions, particularly regarding special military court proceedings against those arrested during the country’s anti-government protests. “Bahraini authorities should immediately halt all proceedings before the special military court and free everyone held solely for exercising the rights to free speech and peaceful assembly,” stated HRW, while at the same time demanding that all those charged with criminal offenses be tried in independent civilian courts.

The young Bahraini poet joins the ranks of other women in history who have written forcefully against brutality and oppression. In the book “Women Against Tyranny: Poems of Resistance During the Holocaust,” edited by Davi Walders, Marianne Baum, one of the creators of the Baum Group, a resistance group opposing the Nazis from 1937 until 1942 when most were arrested and sent to concentration camps, wrote,

They hunted us. Retaliation everywhere.
Then the Sondergericht –‘special court.’
They carried me there, my shattered legs
dangling. No one talked. A hundred
Berliners rounded up for each of us.
Five hundred –most shot there and then;
The rest, slower deaths at Sachsenhausen.
This, too, our burden, but…would they
Have died anyway? You must understand.

We had to do something.

Changing a few circumstantial details, those words could have been written by Ayat al-Qarmezi today in Bahrain.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

The discovery that two new drugs can control melanoma offers hope for the treatment of this cancer that has devastating consequences in humans. Melanoma is cancer of the pigment cells in the skin. Although it accounts for only 4% of all skin cancers, it is responsible for almost 80% of the deaths, particularly because it tends to spread early in its course. This recent finding can revolutionize the treatment not only of melanoma but of other cancers as well.

Melanoma kills by spreading through blood and lymph nodes into the internal organs of the body. This is what makes it more dangerous than other skin cancers which don’t metastasize as easily. A melanoma the size of a dime on the skin has a 50% chance of having already spread. In addition, melanoma is spreading faster than any other kind of cancer in the United States. It is estimated that at least one person in the country dies of skin cancer every hour.

One study focused on an experimental drug called Vemurafenib. The drug was given to 675 people worldwide who had late stage metastatic melanoma. The drug acts by targeting a mutated gene that tells cancer cells to grow rapidly in 50 percent of melanoma patients who carry this mutation. In patients with this mutation, the drug not only killed cancer cells but shrunk the size of tumors as well. Vemurafenib, which is taken orally, has fewer side effects than traditional chemotherapy.

Tumors result from cell growth that gets out of control. Those patients who were responsive to Vemurafenib had a mutation in a gene called BRAF, which results in a protein being produced which makes the cells multiply out of control and form tumors. Vemurafenib acts by neutralizing the effects of the mutation in the BRAF gene. What makes this finding particularly important is that a similar approach may be tried on other cancers whose origins can be traced to a genetic mutation.

The role of the BRAF mutation in the production of melanoma had been discovered in 2002 by scientists at the Sanger Institute in Britain. Since then, researchers both in Britain and in the US have been working to see whether drugs targeting the mutation might interfere with tumor growth. Although initial trials were disappointing, a new formulation of the drug under study increased its penetration in the target cells and allowed to obtain better results.

Prior to this study there were no treatment options for dealing with metastatic melanoma resulting from the BRAF mutation. “Until now, available therapies [for metastatic melanoma] were few and unreliable, so these findings can really change the outlook for patients whose tumors are fueled by this mutation,” stated Keith Flaherty, MD, director of Development Therapeutics at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, lead and corresponding author of the article describing the effects of the new drug.

In a second study, a drug called Ipilimumab, sold under the trade name Yervoy, was tested for its effects on melanoma patients with advanced disease. Yervoy acts differently than Vemurafenib since it does not target cancer cells but instead stimulates the patients’ immune system response. The study with this drug showed that 21 percent of patients treated with Yervoy were alive after three years compared to 12 percent of patients who had received traditional chemotherapy or a placebo.

Because Ipilimumab acts by stimulating the patients’ immune system it can have serious side effects. An important side effect observed was liver damage. An additional disadvantage in the use of both drugs is the elevated cost of treatment. However, given the promising results so far, efforts are underway to see the effects of both drugs used in the same patients. If initial results are improved, we may be facing a radically new and effective treatment not only of melanoma but of other cancers as well.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant. He conducted research in molecular genetics at the Public Health Institute of the City of New York.

The United Nations Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, has issued a very critical report of the U.S. on its policies on women’s rights. The report is based on a trip of the Special Rapporteur to the US from 24 January to 7 February 2011. During that trip, Ms. Rashida Manjoo broadly examined issues of violence against women in different settings. Her recommendations should provide fruitful material for the U.S. to improve its policies towards women.

As indicated in the report, “Violence against women occurs along a continuum in which the various forms of violence are often both causes and consequences of violence.” Domestic violence or Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is one of the most critical expressions of violence. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) 552,000 violent crimes by an intimate partner were committed against women in the U.S. in 2008.

Their husbands or intimate acquaintances are responsible for the majority of crimes against women. The Violence Policy Center states that the number of women shot and killed by their husbands or intimate acquaintances was four times higher than the total number of women murdered by male strangers using all weapons combined, according to an analysis of 2008 data.

Rape and sexual assault continue to be prevalent forms of violence against women in the country. According to the NCVS, 182,000 women were raped or sexually assaulted in the U.S. in 2008, i.e. approximately 500 women per day. In addition, there were 3.4 million persons who were victims of stalking, most of them women. One in 12 women and one in 45 men have been stalked in their lifetime in the U.S.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics, the cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $5.8 billion each year. $4.1 billion of that amount is for direct medical and mental health services. Intimate partner violence incidents result in more than 18.5 million mental health care visits each year.

Children are also victims of violence carried out against their mothers. It has been shown that 30% to 60% of perpetrators of intimate partner violence also abuse children in the household. Witnessing violence between one’s parents or caretakers is the strongest risk factor for transmitting violent behavior among generations. In that regard, it has been shown that boys who witness domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse their own partners and children when they become adults.

Domestic violence offenses are one of the most chronically underreported crimes. It is estimated that only approximately one-quarter of all physical assaults, one-fifth of all rapes, and one-half of all stalkings carried out against females by intimate partners are reported to the police.

There are several reasons for these crimes not being reported. Among those reasons are: fear of retaliation from their abuser, the perception that the police will not respond adequately to the complaint or the belief that these are issues that should be privately addressed. According to a 2009 Department of Justice report, only 56% of intimate partner violence cases filed with the courts resulted in a conviction.

Women victims of domestic violence suffer a wide array of negative consequences, aside from the physical and psychological. Women victims of domestic violence face serious consequences in terms of economic instability, loss of employment and homelessness. In addition, violence against women is frequently seen among women in the military, women in detention, and among immigrant and undocumented women.

The extent of the phenomenon has made that violence against women is now recognized as an issue that belongs not only to the private sphere but that requires State intervention. According to the U.N. Rapporteur, the U.S. Government has taken positive legislative and policy initiatives to reduce the prevalence of violence against women.

Among those steps is the enactment and subsequent reauthorizations of the Violence against Women Act, as well as the establishment of dedicated offices on violence against women at the highest levels of government. However, according to the UN Rapporteur, more U.S. government actions are needed to curb a phenomenon that continues to cause tremendous harm to women’s health and quality of life.

Dr. Cesar Chelala, an international public health consultant, has written extensively on women’s health issues.

Will Hamza al-Khateeb, the 13-year-old child tortured and killed by the government become Syria’s equivalent of Tunisia’s Mohamed Bouazizi whose immolation sparked a revolution that swept several Arab countries? Although the circumstances are different, the anger provoked by little Hamza’s torture and assassination will have serious consequences in the events now taking place in Syria. With Hamza’s cruel death, the Syrian government has crossed the Rubicon.

When Bashar al-Assad became Syria’s president in 2000, after the death of his father Hafez al-Assad, who had brutally ruled Syria for 29 years, there was hope that he would introduce drastic changes aimed at improving the human rights situation in the country. Those hopes were reinforced when soon after taking office he stated that he saw democracy as Syria’s tool to a better life, shut down the notorious Mezzeh prison, and released hundreds of political prisoners.

However, such hopes were soon dashed. Security crackdowns and the arrest of political opponents started again within a year of assuming power. Although in 2007, during an interview with ABC News he said that Syria didn’t have any political prisoners, it was reported in December of that year that 30 political opponents had been arrested.

In addition, several human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International have documented how Bashar’s regime and its secret police routinely torture, imprison and kill political opponents and those who dare to speak out against the regime. After more than a decade in power, Bashar has led a repressive government, oblivious of the population’s most basic human rights. As stated by HRW, “Syria is still a de facto single-party state with only the Ba’ath Party holding effective power."

This situation has become even more evident following the last wave of protests which started on January 26. Although the Syrian government has ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment on July 1, 2004, torture has been widespread since the last uprising and, more ominously, has even included children, as Hamza’s torture and assassination demonstrate.

As indicated in HRW recent report "‘We've Never Seen Such Horror: Crimes against Humanity in Daraa," based on more than 50 interviews with victims and witnesses to abuses in Daraa governorate, security forces have killed hundreds of protesters and arbitrarily arrested thousands, subjecting many of them to brutal torture in detention. Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has strongly criticized Syria’s government actions, calling them an “outright disregard for basic human rights.”

In addition, Pillay states, “[the government’s] resort to lethal or excessive force against peaceful demonstrators not only violates fundamental human rights, including the right to life, but serves to exacerbate tensions and tends to breed a culture of violence.” As a response, Syria’s deputy foreign minister accused Western powers of seeking a return to the “colonial era” by initiating action against his country at the UN.

In an unusual move, UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, called on Syria to investigate report of “horrific acts” of violence against children detained during the current wave of unrest in the country. According to UNICEF, the use of live ammunition against demonstrators had reportedly killed at least 30 children, although it said it could not independently confirm that figure or circumstances of their death.

UNICEF stated that it was “particularly disturbed by the recent video images of children who were arbitrarily detained and suffered torture or ill-treatment during their detention leading in some cases to their death.

One of those children, Hamza al-Kateeb, whose case has drawn strong international condemnation against the actions of the Bashar regime, may become the iconic figure the protest movement needs to help overthrow this vicious regime.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

With Messi’s performance against Manchester United still fresh in soccer fans’ minds, an inevitable question rises again: Who is a better soccer player, Messi or Maradona at their best? To answer that question it might be useful to seek help from a Greek oracle, since both are, or were, in Maradona’s case, exquisite players. Or perhaps -as the saying goes- only time will tell.

Maradona came from the humblest of homes to become the most talked about soccer player of his generation. His two goals against the British team in the World Cup in Mexico City are now the stuff of legend. The first, the famous (or, more properly infamous since it was scored with the help of his hand,) became the now iconic “Hand of God” goal. For Maradona, it was revenge after Argentina’s defeat by the British in the Malvinas/Falklands war. Talking later about that goal he declared, “Not even the photographers managed to capture what really happened. And Shilton, [the British goalkeeper] jumping with his eyes shut, was outraged! I like this goal. I felt I was pick pocketing the English.”

His second goal, however, after he dribbled several opponents –including the goalkeeper- was considered by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) the best goal of the century.

In my native Argentina Maradona was revered, at least until he became the coach of the Argentine team in the last World Cup where Argentina lost to Germany in a dreadful performance. Maradona, who even has a religious movement named after him, The Church of Maradona, lost some of the prestige he had had until then.

Both Messi and Maradona share similar ways of playing. A great speed, a wonderful dribbling capacity as well as the capacity to send the ball to the best placed team mate. What is evident in Maradona, however, is his street urchin savvy. An Italian friend told me that when Maradona was playing for Napoli, during a game, while holding the ball he feigned that he was going to fall forwards. On seeing this, those from the opposing team that were closing on him moved slightly aside. What Maradona was doing, instead, was trying to see who was the best placed among his companions, sent him the ball and it was easy for his team mate to score. According to my friend, the Napoli fans went crazy with enthusiasm and for two minutes applauded Maradona.

In Napoli, Maradona is as revered as in Argentina and portraits of him are placed in many places in the city as if he were a saint, even placing candles under his figure. The Napoli soccer team never won as many championships as when Maradona was playing for it.

Cesar Luis Menotti, who managed the Argentine team that won the 1978 World Cup thus defined Maradona’s talent, “I am always cautious about using the word ‘genius’…The beauty of Diego’s game has a hereditary element –his natural ease with the ball- but it also owes a lot to his ability to learn: a lot of those brushstrokes, those strokes of ‘genius’, are in fact a product of his hard work. Diego worked hard to be the best.”

The physical characteristics of both players are similar; they are both short, sturdy, and have a demoniacal speed which allows them to easily overcome their opponents. Actually, Maradona’s goal of the century against the British team was rivaled, even in its minor details, by a wonderful goal Messi scored against the Spanish team Getafe in 2007.

But it is perhaps in their personal characteristics where one can find the real differences between them. While Messi is quiet, Maradona is boastful. While Maradona was a fighter against the world, Messi seems to have a natural timidity, even modesty.

They are both strategists and team players, and they are both highly technical with the ball, which seems attached with Velcro to their feet, only to be shot with force when circumstances are favorable. Who is the best, Messi or Maradona? The comparison is perhaps not fair. They are both equally talented, each a great player and both of them a glory to the game.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a New York-based writer.

The decision by Egypt’s military rulers to open the Rafah border with Gaza will not only allow the movement of people and goods across the border. Perhaps more importantly, it will end the feeling of isolation the Gazans have had since the blockade was imposed by Israel –with Egypt’s collaboration- more than three years ago.

The blockade on Gaza has had a devastating effect on Gazans’ health and quality of life, despite a partial easing of the restrictions by Israel in recent months. “The situation in Gaza remains very serious from a humanitarian perspective. The blockade has been eased in some respects but it has been maintained in other respects, and it continues to put the population there under great psychological and physical stress,” stated last October Professor Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Professor Falk added that Israel’s continued refusal to allow export of goods from Gaza has destroyed its internal economy, and young people from Gaza continue to be denied the right to visit their families in the West Bank and East Jerusalem or attend universities in other parts of the territories.

The most vulnerable -old people and children- are the ones who suffer the most. Even the supply of paper is limited, for fear it may be used to print propaganda, making children unable to play and draw pictures with crayons.

Lacking raw materials and the chance to export, Gaza’s businesses are unable to compete with cheaper, imported goods. At the same time, inflow of construction materials is only 11% of pre-blockade levels. “What I see in Gaza is a reversal of development,” stated Joyce Dalgliesh, a Scots charity worker after a visit to Gaza.

The blockade has predictably had a detrimental impact on the health of the people living in the Strip. On average, two patients die every month waiting for Israeli permits so the sick can leave Gaza for treatment, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO also stated that a shortage of required medicines poses a threat to the working of hospitals in the Strip.

According to the WHO, 38 percent of basic medicines in the Strip were out of stock in early 2011, while 40 percent of primary health care services and 80 percent of general services offered by hospitals suffered as a result. Out of 260 cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy in Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital, 100 are not able to receive treatment because several medicines are required and are not available.

Many times, several basic illnesses such as diarrhea, pneumonia and skin infections cannot be treated due to lack of antibiotics. Even drugs needed for asthma treatment are not easily available in the Strip’s central warehouses.

Former UK Prime Minister and United Nations envoy to the Middle East Tony Blair stated in June of 2010, “The policy of Gaza is counter-productive and what [Israel] should be doing is allowing material in to rebuild homes and sanitation and power and water systems and allow business to flourish. Nor do we in fact do damage to the position of Hamas by harming people in Gaza. People are harmed when the quality of service is poor and people cannot work.”

The permanent opening of the Rafah border crossing by Egypt will bring new hope to Gazans of surviving a brutal occupation. In the poem “Silence for the Sake of Gaza” Mahmoud Darwish, Palestine’s greatest poet, said:

The enemy may defeat Gaza. (The stormy sea might overwhelm a small island.)
They may cut down all her trees.
They might break her bones.
They might plant their tanks in the bellies of her women and children, or they might toss her into the sand, into the sea, into blood.
But:
Gaza will not repeat the lies.
Gaza will not say yes to the conquerors.
And she will continue to erupt.
It is not death, it is not suicide, it is Gaza’s way of announcing she is worthy of life.

Dr. Cesar Chelala, a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights, is a contributing editor for The Globalist.

by Cesar Chelala and Alejandro M. Garro

For a relatively slight margin, the US Congress rejected an amendment by Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D) to declassify files on Argentina’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship. The refusal to declassify files on Argentina is likely to have momentous consequences on the fate of hundreds of babies stolen or “disappeared” during those years. Many of those babies were born in clandestine torture centers, while others were adopted or given in adoption by the same members of the military or police personnel responsible for their parents’ disappearance.

It is not altogether clear whose interests are sought to be protected, but one can hardly imagine that national security, or the work of US spies fighting Al Qaeda, as suggested by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R), may be put in jeopardy by keeping these files in secret. It is not even clear whether President Cristina Kirchner’s administration is interested in having these files in the open. However, if an official request from the Argentine government were submitted, the U.S. government would be hard pressed, as a matter of international comity, not to reveal at least a redacted text of those files.

Aside from governmental interests and politicians’ desires to keep secrets, what is at stake are human lives, victims, and the administration of justice. In 1999, during the Clinton administration, Rep. Hinchey presented a similar amendment for declassifying documents related to General Augusto Pinochet’s administration. Declassification resulted in the publication of 24,000 documents that proved to be crucial in the prosecution of crimes committed during the Chilean dictatorship. It provided clear evidence of Pinochet’s connections to the 1976 assassination, in Washington, D.C., of Chilean foreign minister Orlando Letelier, along with his secretary Ronni Karpen Moffitt. Also disclosed was Pinochet secret police’s plans to assassinate former Chilean president Patricio Aylwin, the presidential candidate of the coalition that ultimately defeated General Pinochet in 1988.

In December of 2009, President Obama signed an executive order entitled “Classified National Security Information,” stating: “I expect that the order will produce measurable progress towards greater openness and transparency in the Government’s classification and declassification programs while protecting the Government’s legitimate interests, and I will closely monitor the results.” Failure to disclose information on Argentina’s brutal reign of terror cannot be in the interest of the U.S. Government and, to the extent that it may in the interest of some members of the Argentine Government, it is unlikely that those interests may qualify as “legitimate”.

Both the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo have been searching for decades for their disappeared children and grandchildren. This decision by the U.S. Congress only adds to their difficulties in finding their loved ones. As Representative Hinchey stated, “The United States can play a vital role in lifting the veil of secrecy that has shrouded the terrible human rights abuses of the despotic military regime that ruled Argentina.” It is about time.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for “Missing or Dead in Argentina: The Desperate Search for Thousands of Abducted Victims,” a cover story for The New York Times Magazine.

Alejandro M. Garro teaches Comparative Law at Columbia Law School and sits at advisory board of Human Rights Watch/Americas, the Center for Justice and International Law, and the Due Process of Law Foundation.

Better education, particularly among mothers, is widely associated with better health. Experiences in several countries have shown the power of education to increase the nutritional levels and the health status of the poor. Girls’ education is one of the most effective investments a nation can make toward development and better health.

In urban India, for example, it has been found that the mortality rate among the children of educated women is almost half than that of children of uneducated women. In the Philippines, primary education among mothers has reduced the risks of child mortality by half, and secondary education reduces that risk by a factor of three. A study in rural Ghana on health-protective behaviors related to HIV/AIDS infection among adults found that individuals with more education practiced more protective health behaviors, thus decreasing the risk of contracting the infection.

In addition, those living in poverty and suffering from malnutrition have an increased propensity to a host of diseases, a lower learning capacity, and an increased exposure and vulnerability to environmental risks. Poor children frequently lack stimuli critical to growth and development.

Poverty cannot be defined solely in terms of lack of income. Little or no access to health services, lack of access to safe water and adequate nutrition, illiteracy or low educational level and a distorted perception of rights and needs are also essential components of poverty. Poverty is one of the most influential factors for ill health, and ill health –in a vicious cycle — can lead to poverty. Education has proven to be critical to breaking this cycle.

There is a two-way link between poverty and health. Illness impairs learning ability and quality of life, has a negative impact on productivity, and drains family savings. Poor people are more exposed to environmental risks (poor sanitation, unhealthy food, violence, and natural disasters) and less prepared to cope with them.

Because they are also less informed about the benefits of healthy lifestyles, and have less access to them as well as to quality health care, the poor are at greater risk of illness and disability. It is estimated that one third of deaths worldwide –some 18 million people a year or 50,000 a day- are due to poverty-related causes.

More than 1.5bn people in the world live in extreme poverty, 80% of which live in developing countries. Poor people have little or no access to qualified health services and education, and do not participate in the decisions critical to their day-to-day lives.

Those who live in extreme poverty are five times more likely to die before age five, and two and a half time times more likely to die between 15 and 59 than those in higher income groups. The same dramatic differences can be found with respect to maternal mortality levels and incidence of preventable diseases. Level of education in relation to health is particularly important among women. In addition, education for women is closely associated with later marriage and smaller family size.

Increased income alone cannot guarantee better nutrition and health because of the impact of other factors, notably education, environmental hygiene and access to health care services, which cannot necessarily be bought with increased income in the developing world.

Several strategies can be used to improve the access of mothers and children to educational opportunities as a way of improving their health status. At the national level governments, particularly in developing countries, have to establish education -– including the education of the parents — as a priority, and provide necessary resources and support. Interventions should be targeted to vulnerable groups such as those with lower income or with less access to adequate food.

At the international level, lending institutions have to implement debt-reduction policies for those countries willing to provide increased resources for basic education.

Although an important goal is to reduce economic inequity to improve the health status of populations, emphasis on education can provide substantial benefits in the health of populations even before reducing the economic gap between the rich and the poor.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a public health consultant for several international organizations.

By practically any criteria it is now time to end Gilad Shalit’s ordeal. Although both Hamas and the Israeli government are to blame for the delay in the negotiations, a new Egyptian initiative should be embraced by both sides and stop punishing the Israeli soldier and his family. Freedom for Shalit would not only be a needed humanitarian action. It would contribute to bring hope to a hopeless region.

According to Al Jazeera television, there is a new Egyptian initiative aimed at bringing an agreement from both Israelis and Palestinians for Shalit’s release. At the same time Netanyahu has recently appointed David Meidan as his negotiator on this issue. He will be presented with a new Egyptian draft for an agreement in the next few days.

Hamas’s leader, Khaled Meshaal, has indicated that he hoped to see soon the release of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, which could be a roundabout acknowledgement of Hama’s willingness to reach an agreement on Shalit based on new terms.

Speaking at a special Memorial Day address, Israel’s prime minister said that efforts are constantly being made to return kidnapped and missing soldiers, including actions that may be hidden from view. “We will not rest until they are returned,” he stated.

Netanyahu has two main objections to demands Hamas made in the past. One objection is that the most dangerous among the Palestinians should not be allowed to return to the West Bank, where they could send out attacks against Israel, but instead should go to Gaza or abroad. However, three former heads of Shin Bet, Israel’s security service, declared, “Israel is strong enough, both from an intelligence perspective and a military perspective to deal with murderers who decide to return to their bad habits.” Netanyahu’s second objection is that “arch murderers” should not be released.

It is possible that Hamas may now agree to the first point. As regards the second, included in those called arch murderers by Netanyahu is Marwan Barghouti, who is regarded as a leader of the First and Second Intifadas. It is difficult to think that the Palestinians will agree on Barghouti not being part of the agreement.

Marwan Barghouti has been accused by Israeli authorities of directing numerous attacks and suicide bombings against civilians. He was tried and convicted on charges of murder, and he was sentenced to five life sentences. He refused to present a defense to the charges against him, claiming that the trial was illegal and illegitimate. His detention and transference from an occupied territory to the territory of the occupier violates the tenets of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

He is one of the most admired Palestinian leaders, and has been called “Palestine’s Mandela” by Uri Avnery, a leading Israeli peace activist. In an op-ed piece in the Washington Post Barghouti stated, “Let us not forget, we Palestinians have recognized Israel on 78 percent of historic Palestine. It is Israel that refuses to acknowledge Palestine’s right to exist on the remaining 22 percent of land occupied in 1967. And yet it is the Palestinians who are accused of not compromising and of missing opportunities.”

As with the peace process, where Netanyahu refused to stop the building of settlements for peace talks to resume, Netanyahu has been firm in refusing Palestinian’s demands that could lead to Shalit’s release. He may find out that buying time doesn’t lower the price.

Writing to Netanyahu last April Zvi Shalit, Gilad’s grandfather, stated, “A year ago a deal to secure Gilad’s release was all but signed but you thwarted it in a last minute decision….Your refusal then and today to comply with the request of former defense officials to free Gilad at the said price is tantamount to Gilad’s death sentence.”

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

He has been called “a real Jew hater” and a “real anti-semite” by former Israel’s Minister of Education Limor Livnat. However, few musicians have done as much for peace between Israelis and Palestinians as Daniel Barenboim, the noted Argentine-born Israeli orchestra conductor. It is only through efforts like his that peace can eventually be reached in the Middle East.

On May 3, 2011, Barenboim conducted a concert in the Gaza Strip. The orchestra, that had musicians from European countries such as Germany, Austria, France and Italy, played the concert “…as a sign of our solidarity and friendship with the civil society of Gaza,” said Barenboim in a statement released by the United Nations, which coordinated the concert.

In 1999, together with the Palestinian-American professor Edward Said, one of the most prominent Palestinian intellectuals worldwide, Barenboim founded the West-Eastern Divan orchestra, a youth orchestra based in Sevilla, Spain, with musicians from countries in the Middle East of Egyptian, Iranian, Syrian, Lebanese Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian background.

Talking to The Guardian about the ensemble Barenboim said, “The Divan is not a love story, and it is not a peace story. It has very flatteringly been described as a project for peace. It isn’t. It’s not going to bring peace, whether you play well or not so well. The Divan was conceived as a project against ignorance. A project against the fact that it is absolutely essential for people to get to know “the other,” to understand what the other thinks and feels, without necessarily agreeing with it. I am not trying to convert the Arab members of the Divan to the Israeli point of view, and I am not trying to convince the Israelis to the Arab point of view. But I want to –and unfortunately I am alone in this now that Edward [Said] died a few years ago-…create a platform where the two sides can disagree and not resort to knives.”

Barenboim is certainly no stranger to controversy. On July 7, 2001, Barenboim led the Berlin Staatskapelle in part of Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde at the Israel Festival in Jerusalem, despite the fact that Wagner’s music had been unofficially taboo in Israel’s concert halls.

Originally, Barenboim had been scheduled to perform the first act of Die Walküre. However, facing strong opposition from Israel Festival’s Public Advisory board, which included some Holocaust survivors, Barenboim agreed to substitute Wagner’s music by music by Robert Schumann and Igor Stravinsky.

At the end of the concert he regretted his initial decision and decided to play Wagner as an encore, inviting those who opposed it to leave the concert hall. After a strong debate, 50 attendees walked out and 1,000 remained, applauding enthusiastically after the performance.

Barenboim has performed before in Palestinian territory. In 1999, he performed at Palestinian Birzeit University. In January of 2008, after a concert in Ramallah, Barenboim accepted honorary Palestinian citizenship, a decision strongly criticized by Israeli authorities. Following these events, the leader of the Shas party stated that Barenboim should be stripped of his Israeli citizenship. Barenboim, however, declared that it was a big honor for him to have been given the Palestinian passport.

Barenboim’s visit to Gaza had been conducted in clear defiance of Israeli law, which bans Israeli citizens from visiting the Strip. With this concert, Barenboim and his orchestra had done more than bring hope to hundreds of thousands of people who felt neglected by the world. They have proved the power of music to triumph over war, the power of music to exalt life.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

As the transition from a harsh winter to a still reluctant-to-appear spring is on the works, I feel the need to visit Washington Square Park. The park is the Village’s lung, its historic frame of reference, a tourists’ Mecca, a place of encounter for lovers, musicians, gymnasts and equilibrists.

• Washington Square Park, New York. Photograph by flickr user fussy onion and used under Creative Commons licenses. •

In his just published memoirs, The Age of Deception, former chief United Nations nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei asks that George W. Bush and officials in his administration face international criminal investigation for the war in Iraq. One thing he learned from the Iraq war, he says, is that deliberate deception is not limited to small countries ruled by ruthless dictators.

ElBaradei is harshest in his comments when criticizing the 2002-2003 drive for war with Iraq, when he and Swedish inspector Hans Blix led UN missions looking for signs that Saddam Hussein’s government had revived nuclear, chemical or biological weapons programs. They found no evidence that Saddam Hussein actually did so.

The Egyptian nuclear expert tells about a meeting he and Blix held with leading Bush administration officials. In that meeting, held in October 2002, they met with, among others, Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. They tried to convert the UN mission into a cover for what Bush officials wanted to be a United-States directed inspection process.

Both he and Blix resisted, and their teams carried out some 700 inspections of potential weapons sites in Iraq, and found no evidence supporting the U.S. claims. Former president Bush and his team rejected ElBaradei and Blix’ findings, and continued to insist on Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction to justify the war against that country. The unfortunate result is that the US orchestrated a war in which hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians were killed as well as several thousand U.S. soldiers.

ElBaradei’s demand for Bush’s prosecution is in line with several previous actions by individuals and legal and human rights organizations. In the book The Prosecution of George W. Bush, former U.S. prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi argues that former president Bush intentionally misled Congress and the American people about the evidence that he claimed justified going to war with Iraq.

The strongest evidence against Bush is a speech he gave on October 7 of 2002 in which he claimed that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the security of the U.S. and was capable of attacking America at anytime with his stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, according to Bugliosi. In addition, says Bugliosi, leading officials in former president Bush’s administration edited a declassified version of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released to Congress and the public in a way that made the Iraqi threat look more ominous than what it really was.

Bugliosi also asserts that far from making serious efforts to avoid going to war, former president Bush considered the possibility of starting a war by sending U2 reconnaissance aircraft falsely painted in UN colors on flights over Iraq along with fighter escorts. If Saddam ordered them shot down, that would constitute ground for war.

In their seventh annual convention in Austin, Texas, Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) stated that the growing body of evidence, including testimony from British officials in the Chilcot Inquiry, shows that Bush officials could be charged with criminal offenses against the U.S. and violations of international law for making false claims about national self-defense.

Although there are formidable legal barriers that may rule out such an investigation, ElBaradei cites the war-crimes prosecution of Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic as showing that, indeed, it should be possible to do it. As the IVAW stated, “It is time for America to hold the officials responsible for this war to account for their decisions.”

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

The Government of Bahrain has been conducting a systematic attack on doctors and other medical personnel, ostensibly because of care they are providing to protesters attacked and maimed by government forces. The United States, which has been quite clear in its criticism of repression in Syria, should make it clear now where it stands with regard to human rights abuses in Bahrain.

The Bahrain regime of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa started its last round of repression following protests last February 15, and hasn’t stopped since then. As of the middle of April more than 400 people had been arrested. Twenty-seven political opponents and protesters are reported dead and dozens are missing.

On March 16 the government imposed a state of emergency. Its security forces, backed by troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, cleared protesters from Pearl Square in Manama, the kingdom’s capital.

Government soldiers have taken control of Salmaniya Medical Complex, Bahrain’s largest public hospital. According to the government, both the hospital and local clinics are nests of radical Shiites intent on destabilizing the country. The result is that many sick people have nowhere to go.

The government’s crackdown on doctors and medical personnel is probably intended to instill fear in doctors so that they will not take care of wounded demonstrators. However, many doctors still respond to the mandate of their Hippocratic Oath and manage to care for those wounded, in many cases taking them to the hospital or neighborhood clinics in their own cars rather than in ambulances to avoid being stopped by the police.

Bahrain’s campaign of intimidation and persecution of doctors runs counter to the Geneva Convention rules about guaranteeing medical care to people wounded in conflict. A series of email messages between a surgeon in Salmaniya hospital and a British colleague obtained by The Independent shows the extent of the abuse. “It has been a long day in the [hospital] theatre with massively injured patients equivalent to a massacre. Things are still volatile and I hope that there will be no more death,” wrote the Bahraini doctor to his colleague in Great Britain.

The government has repeatedly denied that it is targeting doctors or medical personnel. However, the opposition claims that plainclothes policemen target medical personnel at checking points if they suspect that they have been treating injured protesters. In addition, the government is accused of having turned away a Kuwaiti medical delegation which was coming to the aid of injured civilians.

“Now we are seeing security lockdowns and attacks against hospitals, tampering with medical records, beating of patients and arrests of doctors. This represents a serious escalation of violence against the medical community,” states Human Rights Watch, which has been closely following the situation in Bahrain.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has denounced that armed security forces have abducted three doctors, one of them from the operating room while he was performing surgery, and their whereabouts are still unknown. PHR has also found flagrant abuses against patients and detainees including torture, beating, verbal abuse, humiliation, and threats of rape and killing.

The government’s repression is not only targeted at doctors, however. According to Human Rights Watch, unknown assailants threw teargas grenades at the home of Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and a member of the Human Rights Watch Middle East Advisory Committee.

The grenades were identified as Triple Chaser CS 515 grenades, manufactured by Federal Laboratories in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania. According to Human Rights Watch, only Bahrain’s security forces have access to this type of grenades.

“In two decades of conducting human rights investigations in more than 20 countries, I have never seen such widespread and systematic violations of medical neutrality as I did in Bahrain,” wrote Richard Sollom, deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights in The Independent. Given its close relationship with the Bahrain government, the U.S. has the right, and the responsibility, to help put a stop to these abuses.

Dr. Cesar Chelala, an international public health consultant, is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

“For the next six months, no walking!” the doctor warned my friend Robert (not his real name), a well known architect in Manhattan. To say that my friend was thunderstruck by the news is an understatement. Not to be able to walk for six months meant altering his normally heavy work schedule in Manhattan, plus canceling travel plans abroad scheduled for the next few months. For a man devoted to his students and a key participant in professional meetings overseas the blow was incalculable.

Although he is no longer that young, Robert keeps in extremely good physical shape. On weekends he plays soccer with neighborhood friends. During one game, he suddenly felt intense pain after making a rough movement and had to be taken home in his friends’ arms.

He had broken his Achilles tendon, and for it to recover, he required total rest. In addition, the doctor prescribed sessions with a physiotherapist several times a week.
Even with the rehabilitation process in full swing, he remained dependent for the most basic chores at home. He was barely able to move around nor cook for himself. A group of old friends met and decided to visit him regularly to supply him some home-made food, something that he would probably miss during the prolonged stay at home.

One day, anticipating that he would be by himself, I decided to visit him in the evening, and bring him a dish that I knew he liked: spinach with tahine (sesame seeds) sauce, an Arab dish that my mother had taught me how to prepare and whose recipe I am usually quite selfish to share.

When I arrived at Robert’s apartment, I knocked on the door and was surprised not to have any response. I knocked again and since there was no answer nor any noises emanating form inside -slightly worried- I decided to go in, concerned that something may have happened to him.

As soon as I entered, however, I was relieved. On a couch in the living room was Robert joined in a passionate embrace with a young, attractive woman, his leg with a cast dangling precariously in the air.

Surprised as he was at this unexpected visit he eminently gracious and welcomed me in. I, however, felt as out-of-place as a fishmonger in the Sahara. I said hello to his companion, had a brief conversation with them and, after leaving my spinach dish in the kitchen, was ready to exit. Robert wouldn’t hear of it so heeding his insistent request I stayed for dinner determined to leave as soon as we finished eating. While waiting for them to finish preparing dinner, I could hear their romantic exchanges...

Although it was an awkward moment, we managed to have a rather pleasant dinner with abundant good wine. Aside from the spinach dish, my friend (or the woman visiting him) had prepared some very good appetizers followed by Chilean sea bass with vegetables and a terrific dessert with ice cream, chocolate truffles, and Grand Marnier. From Robert’s Soho apartment, we had a stunning view of downtown Manhattan.

Since I assumed they both wanted to continue their unfinished business, I told them that I had to prepare some classes and left my friend’s apartment. Finally! they probably thought, eager to make up for lost time. I was happy to see my friend in good company but frustrated about what had happened. As soon as I was leaving Robert’s apartment, however, I found myself face-to-face with another mutual friend, a big smile on his face. Over his arm was a bag containing a bottle and several containers of ice cream…

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a writer on human rights and foreign policy issues.

One of the stanzas in the Argentinean epic poem “Martin Fierro,” by José Hernandez, says, “He who is born with a fat belly will not be helped by a cummerbund.” The concept could very well apply to the Egyptian military, which is now facing a special dilemma: Are its members going to respond to the Egyptian people’s demand for change or are they continuing to be the same powerful class as before, inured to the needs of the majority of Egyptians?

The question is quite pertinent today, as the military high command faces people’s demands to try former President Hosni Mubarak, his family and cronies and all those who committed serious abuses during Mubarak’s term in office. The Egyptian military are known to possess considerable –and diverse- economic interests in the country.

“Based on my financial disclosure report that confirms that I do not own any assets abroad, I agree to present any documents, reports or signatures that would help the Prosecutor General ask the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to reveal any assets owned by me or my wife abroad,” stated Mubarak in a recorded audio message.

What Mubarak failed to mention is that it took the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) a long time to freeze assets, thus allowing Mubarak to hide any evidence to support accusations of foreign investments, as indicated Nabil Abel-Fattah, a researcher in Al-Ahram Institute for Political and Strategic Studies.

In the meantime, Egypt’s Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud has notified the United States and other governments around the world that Hosni Mubarak and his sons Gamal and Alaa may have hidden hundreds of billions of dollars worth of cash, gold and other state-owned valuables, according to information obtained by The Washington Post.

Egypt’s Prosecutor wrote that Mubarak and his sons may have violated laws prohibiting the “seizing of public funds and profiteering and abuse of power.” They may have done this using complicated business schemes that allowed them to divert the assets to offshore companies and personal accounts in banks overseas. According to some preliminary estimates, Mubarak’s family fortune may be as high as or even higher than $70 billion.

Despite these actions, it is not known how far the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces under the leadership of Field Marshal Muhammad Hussein Tantawi will support these investigations and the proper punishment of those guilty. Tantawi was, after all, appointed defense minister by Mubarak, was part of Mubarak’s inner circle and, according to WikiLeaks documents he is very much a conservative, reluctant to embrace change or reform.

During last Friday’s demonstrations in Tahrir Square, called “Friday of Purification and Trial” because of the protesters’ demand to cleanse the government of corruption, hundreds of soldiers beat protesters with clubs and fired into the air, reportedly killing two protesters and injuring at least 10. Many protesters trying to flee were blocked by soldiers, who hit them and dragged them away.

This is critical time for Egypt’s budding democracy, one in which the army can show that it is willing to answer to people’s demands for justice and for choosing a new way out of the present interlude in the country’s history. It is a difficult –but not impossible- call for an organization which has been no stranger to corruption itself.

Former International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief, Mohamed ElBaradei indicated that the road to stability consists of: quick responses to legitimate demands, power sharing with civilians during transition, a clear road map and the need to start a national dialogue. These are important aims, ones that the Egyptian military should keep in mind if they are willing to chart a new course towards democracy and development for the country.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

Somalia can be considered one of the most troublesome countries in the world, one frequently called a “failed state,” ravaged by violence and instability. But in such unfavorable place a valiant woman has quietly emerged as a presence of dignity and hope. Dr. Hawa Abdi Dhiblawe has, for years, been taking care of thousands of Somalis and is a voice of peace in the war-torn land.

A physician trained in the Ukraine, the 63-year-old Dr. Abdi returned to Somalia in 1983 and opened her own one–room clinic in the outskirts of Mogadishu, a city lacking in government health facilities. Since then, that one room has grown into a huge 400-bed hospital surrounded by 1,300 acres of farmland where 90,000 now make their home.

In Somalia, fighting between rival warlords and an inadequate response to famine and disease have marked the life of this nation and led to the deaths of up to one million people in recent decades. Presently, almost a third of the population depends on food aid and the country hasn’t had an effective government since 1991.

The country, divided into clan fiefdoms, is in desperate need of a working government and the rule of law. In January of 2009, a moderate Islamist and former rebel, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was elected president of a transitional government. His government, however, only controls a few blocks of the capital with the support of the United Nations and African Union troops.

Most of the country is controlled by insurgent groups, particularly by Al-Shabab, which means “youth” in Arabic and which wants to impose a strict version of Islam throughout Somalia. Mr. Ahmed had been elected by the Somali parliament which was sitting in neighboring Djibouti to be safe from the violence back at home.

With very few exports and living mainly through remittances from Somalis living abroad (they sent an estimated 20 million dollars a month to Mogadishu alone) and a climate of lawlessness in the country it should not surprise that piracy has become a serious threat to international shipping.

In the meantime the country, with an estimated 1.2 mn displaced in South-central Mogadishu alone, is undergoing one of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Added to these severe social challenges is the Somalis’ lack of access to adequate heakth care. It is in this context that Dr. Hawa Abdi and her two daughters are working to address not only the health needs of tens of thousands of internal refugees in the country but also other social and educational needs.

Dr. Abdi achieved international notoriety in May of 2010 when 750 armed militias from the group Hizbul Islam surrounded her hospital, held her at gunpoint and demanded that she stop her work. They also allowed dozens of adolescents to ransack the hospital, destroy anesthesia machines, tear up medical records and destroy hospital infrastructure.

Undeterred, Dr. Abdi confronted her assailants and asked them to explain their behavior. When they threatened to kill her she calmly responded, “If you want to kill me, kill me, no problem. Someday I have to die.” When the incident was known internationally there was widespread outrage. Dozens of Somalian women stormed the hospital in a show of solidarity and insisted on the departure of the militia.

Facing strong condemnation for their actions, and after keeping her under detention for seven days, the leader of Hizbul Islam, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys ordered her release. When the militia left, Dr. Abdi was able to resume her work. She had won an important battle.

In 2010, the U.S. magazine Glamour named Dr. Abdi and her two daughters, Dr. Amina Mohamed Abdi and Dr. Deqa Mohamed Abdi “Women of the Year,” and called them the “Saints of Somalia.” As they continue their work, these valiant women represent a ray of hope in a bleak land.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

The health and well being of Yemen’s children, which has never been adequate, is even less now with the conflicts raging throughout the country. On March 8, UNICEF stated that the violent protests now taking place in Yemen are affecting children’s well being, who should be protected at all costs. UNICEF also said that a number of schools in al-Mansoura and al-Mu’alla districts in the Aden governorate were being attacked by demonstrators and putting children’s lives at risk.

The seven-year-long war in Northern Yemen has produced a generation of children grown in violence. It is estimated that children make 60 percent of the roughly 300,000 people who have been displaced and had to flee their homes in terror. As a result of this, many children bear the scars of war and have manifested in a variety of psychological symptoms and threatened their proper development.

Because of the situation of abject poverty, many children are trafficked to Saudi Arabia, often with the support of their parents who are promised a bright future for their children by intermediaries. They end up, in many cases, being abused and some fall prey to adults who involve them in prostitution, drug-trafficking and other illicit activities. Some escape and go back to Yemen only to become “street children” in the country’s main cities and where many continue a cycle of abuse and lawlessness. A UNICEF study showed that there are more than 30,000 street children in Yemen.

The phenomenon of street children in Yemen can be traced back to 1990s, when the economic situation in the country deteriorated. Today, the number of street children is rapidly increasing and includes children of other governorates who came to live in Sanaa city, children from poor families living there and children from refugee families coming mainly from Somalia.

Although the rights of children are enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Yemen is a signatory, the situation of the children in Yemen is shameful, according to the Director of the Democratic School for Human Rights, Mr.Jamal al-Shami. According to Mr. al-Shami, children are exposed to violence in homes, in schools and on the streets, and about 60 percent among them are exposed to torture in refuge homes and prisons.

Due to lack of economic resources and poverty in the families children often work in difficult and dangerous jobs and may end up exploited by gangs and subject to abuse. “The ministry has carried out a number of projects dealing with child labor, and it is preparing a project to monitor the worst forms of child labor in a number of Yemeni governorates,” said Mona Ali Salem, chairwoman of the Child Labor Unit in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour.

The situation is even worse for Yemeni girls, who are worse off than boys in almost all social indicators. Poverty and lack of awareness has discouraged many poor parents from having their children, particularly girls, educated. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) approximately 52 percent of girls attend primary school, compared to 86 percent of boys. In rural areas, where 72 percent of Yemen’s population lives, fewer than one in three girls go to school. Despite some recent improvements in enrollment, education statistics in Yemen are among the worst in the Arab world.

Violence throughout the country affects everybody, including children, who grow up in an atmosphere of danger and lawlessness. In Yemen, there are three times as many guns as there are people, and boys learn to carry out an AK-47 from an early age. 500-600 children are killed or wounded every year through direct involvement in tribal combat in the country, according to some estimates.

Disruptions caused by conflict have a negative impact on children and youngster’s health, education and well being. As Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF’s Yemen representative stated, “Ignoring the plight of Yemeni youngsters short of food, education and security is not only cruel but dangerous.”

Dr. Cesar Chelala, an international public health consultant, is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

China’s economy has developed significantly in the last decades, lifting millions of people out of poverty and improving their health. One of the consequences of economic progress has been the increase in life expectancy at birth from 69 in 1990 to 74.51 in 2010. Also notable have been the decreases in infant mortality rate (expressed as per 1,000 live births) which declined from 37 in 1990 to 17 in 2009, and under-five mortality rate (also expressed per 1,000 live births) which declined from 46 in 1990 to 19 in 2009.

Despite this progress, however, many health issues remain unresolved. While the wealthier portion of the Chinese population has benefited from advanced health technologies, many among the poor do not have adequate access to even the most essential services. It is estimated that about 80 percent of the health and medical care services are concentrated in cities, while timely medical care is not available to more than 100 million people in rural areas.

Although some progress has been made in underdeveloped rural areas there is still lack of safe water and sanitation, under-nutrition, vitamin and mineral deficiencies and indoor air pollution. It is estimated that 80 percent of rural households have no access to a sanitary lavatory and 20 percent of rural households lack safe drinking water. A 2008 Report on Chinese Children Nutrition and Health Conditions concluded that 7.6 million children in West China lack adequate nutrition.

New threats related to the environment, workplace and lifestyle are also becoming more widespread. Emissions from motor vehicles have increased considerably in the major Chinese cities. Today, 16 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world are in China. Coal burning, however, continues to be the number one source of air pollution in China and conditions in the workplaces are an important source of disease, injury and death.

In addition, smoking is a serious problem throughout China and it is estimated that more than half of children in China are exposed to second-hand smoke which may explain increased rates among them of respiratory tract infections and sudden infant death syndrome. Presently, tobacco causes 13 percent of deaths among men. Alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems have also increased steadily in the last decades.

Obesity is increasingly becoming a serious problem. It is estimated that over 25 percent of urban children are overweight. In addition, diseases associated with obesity such as diabetes and cardiovascular problems are on the increase. According to a study by Tulane University researchers 92.4 million adults in China age 20 or older have diabetes, and 148.2 million have pre-diabetes, a risk factor for developing diabetes and/or cardiovascular disease. Recent studies have shown that people who have diabetes live an average of six years less than people not affected by the disease.

Like other nations with migrant and socially mobile populations, China has experienced increased incidence of HIV/AIDS, and the stigma against this syndrome remains prevalent in Chinese society. Although the Chinese government has adopted a much more proactive attitude toward the infection, efforts are still hindered by poor baseline data necessary for properly assessing the problem and earmarking needed resources.

The problem is compounded by the fact that in traditional Chinese culture sex and sexuality are not openly discussed. Many young people lack information on sexually transmitted diseases and HIV transmission. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, only 10% of Chinese who have HIV/AIDS know that they are infected.

Mental illness is an underestimated problem in China. According to a recent study 17 percent of the population has some kind of mental illness. In 25 percent of the cases, the severity of their disability causes them to be unable to work. Because of its impact on society, new ways of addressing this problem have to be developed.

The Chinese government’s 850 billion yuan (US $125 billion) health care reform plan is being implemented to help solve some of these problems. According to this plan, primary health care facilities will be improved, an essential drug system will be introduced, there will be equitable access to basic public health services and there will be a pilot reform of state-run hospitals. Public non-profit hospitals will continue to be the main providers of health care services, but more priority will be given to grassroots-level hospitals and clinics.

Although the government has admitted that building a “safe, effective, convenient and affordable” health service will not be easy, these are commendable goals. The government should prioritize the promotion of healthy lifestyles and the prevention of chronic non-communicable diseases.

A critical aspect stressed by WHO and the Social Development Department of China State Council Development Research Center is the need to create a better system of information, accountability and enforcement of health laws and regulations.

With the assistance of the World Health Organization and other international agencies, the Chinese government has improved the health of its population. Although millions have benefited, millions are also lagging behind. The great challenge for China is how to strengthen its health care system to reduce disparities and improve quality health care for the population at large.

As Wagstaff and Claeson from the World Bank have remarked, “It is vulnerable populations in China who need to be empowered, protected from risks, informed and educated, and encouraged to participate in health activities…Public health regulations need to be established and enforced…Public health infrastructure needs to be in place to reduce the health impact of emergencies and disasters. All this needs to be done through a public health system that is transparent and accountable. Thus, the government has responsibilities beyond the provision and financing of health services to improve health outcomes.”

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant.

Facing greater restriction in the USA and other industrialized countries, transnational tobacco companies are increasingly marketing their products in developing countries, particularly among women and adolescents.

While smoking rates in some industrialized countries are decreasing at about 1% a year, those in developing countries are increasing at around 3% per year. It is estimated that, if current trends persist for the next 30 years, seven million people from developing countries will die every year from smoking-related diseases.

For the past several years, corporations such as Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds, and British-American Tobacco have been expanding rapidly in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Tobacco-provoked deaths can only add to the inequities in health of ethnic and minority populations. Jeanette Noltenius, an expert on tobacco and alcohol abuse issues, stated, “In the US, minorities such as Hispanics have been specifically targeted by the tobacco companies since the early 1960s, and have received a double dose of advertising (in Spanish and English).”

According to data from the Bureau of Census, US Department of Commerce, Latino smoking youth will triple in size in 2020 in the U.S., increasing from 9% of the national youth population to 19%.

Since the early 1980s, US trade officials, with help from the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), have led a sustained campaign to open markets in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand among the Asian nations.

In Taiwan, US officials' efforts to force Taiwan to open its markets to US tobacco products have resulted in increased smoking, particularly among women and children. Talking about US government support for American tobacco companies, a corporation executive remarked, ‘We expect such support. That's why we vote them in.’

These actions have prompted the Asia-Pacific Association for the Control of Tobacco to protest strongly at what they consider an invasion of their countries by US companies targeting Asian women and children. The Association has complained about the strong-arm tactics used by US government officials in their countries. A report from the US General Accounting Office established that ‘US policy and programs for assisting the export of tobacco and tobacco products work at cross purposes to US health policy initiatives, both domestically and internationally’.

Several studies have shown that in the poorest households in developing countries 10 percent or more of the total household expenditure is on tobacco. As a result, there is less money to spend on some basic items such as food, education and health care needs, thus increasing malnutrition, illiteracy and premature death.

In China, tobacco companies have been moving steadily inland with intense promotional campaigns. It is estimated that of the world's 1.71 billion smokers, more than 350 million are in China, where lung cancer has been increasing at a rate of 4.75% a year.

The Chinese government is facing the dilemma of promoting tobacco cessation policies while it is heavily dependent on earnings from the state-run monopoly tobacco company. However, researchers with the School of Public Health at the University of California state that raising the tobacco tax fifteen cents per cigarette pack could save more than 13 million lives and generate $9.5 billion in revenue for the Chinese government.

Lured by financial gains from growing tobacco, millions of hectares in China are presently under cultivation. Gains from the sale of tobacco, however, may be just short-term, since the costs of treating lung cancer and other related diseases amply exceed the tobacco profits. According to experts, those excess costs are $200 billion annually on a global scale, one-third of which is incurred by developing countries.

While anti-smoking efforts gather momentum in the USA, those efforts are far less effective in developing countries. Such countries' policies will not be as effective unless transnational tobacco firms are made to limit their aggressive advertisements.

Countries in Asia and Latin America are conducting health-education campaigns and have passed legislation to control smoking. Up to now, several countries worldwide have enacted legislation to control tobacco consumption. Although in general this legislation has been passed at the national level, in the USA, Canada, and in several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean these laws are being enacted by state or local bodies.

Despite increasing condemnation by public health officials and the World Health Organization (WHO), international companies continue with their indiscriminate tobacco-promotional efforts in developing countries, at a high human cost. As things stand now, only a multidisciplinary strategy including education, taxation, legislation, and regulation of trade practices of transnational corporations will be able to control this pandemic.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant.

Every evening, at the end of the PBS News Hour, one of the most respected news programs in the U.S., one can see the images of the U.S. soldiers killed the previous day. They usually are young men, generally between 20 and 25 years of age. Even the most hardened person cannot but feel a pang of anguish looking at these young people whose lives were cut short by an irrational war. And one can imagine how many vibrant lives were lost and will be lost until the war in Afghanistan ends.

Awful as these losses are, another reality should be considered – the photos of these same soldiers degrading Afghan prisoners. Through these photos we can see that these soldiers’ lives have been compromised by war but, equally terrifying, that war has changed them, has made them lose that essential humanity that makes us respect other people at their most basic level. And thus we suddenly have a vision of the essential evilness of war.

These thoughts are brought to mind after looking at three photographs recently released by the German newspaper Der Spiegel, part of 4,000 photos and videos taken by the soldiers. The photos are among a number seized by U.S. Army investigators investigating the deaths of three unarmed Afghan civilians during 2010.

Twelve soldiers from the Bravo company unit of the Fifth Stryker Combat Brigade in Kandahar province are accused of serious crimes against Afghan civilians. Those accused include Special Sergeant Jeremy Morlock, 22, and three other men who were allegedly following orders from Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, 25. These soldiers are accused of killing Afghan civilians for sport and collecting their body parts –including a human skull- as trophies.

The first photograph shows Morlock holding the naked corpse of an Afghan civilian named Gul Mudin by his hair and grinning proudly at the camera. The second photograph shows another soldier, Pfc. Andrew Holmes, posing with the same man, whom he is holding by his hair with one hand while holding a cigarette with his other hand. The third photograph shows two Afghan civilians murdered by these soldiers. The victims’ dirty clothing suggests that they were dragged by a vehicle and possibly tortured before being killed.

As reported by Afghans for Peace (AFP) an investigation shows that the military ignored the warnings of a soldier, Spc. Adam Winfield, whose father persistently tried to inform the military commanders of the atrocities only to be turned away. “They planned everything out. I knew about it…I want to do something about it, but I don’t have the courage…” wrote Adam Winfield.

Although many critics have compared these events to those that happened at Abu Ghraib, AFP states that while those incidents occurred with prisoners, the events now described, including murder, occurred publicly in broad daylight.

In another incident described by Der Spiegel, the team apprehended a mullah who was standing by the road, was asked to kneel down in a ditch and a grenade was thrown at him while an order was given for him to be shot.

The army apologized for the distress caused by the photographs which, according to a statement, “depict actions repugnant to us as human beings and are contrary to the standards and values of the United States.”

No amount of apologies, however, can bring back to life these Afghan civilians who were killed. No amount of apologies can give back to these soldiers the humanity they lost in this terrible war. No amount of apologies can eliminate the essential evilness of war.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

It happens every day, and with alarming frequency. Adolescent suicide is a serious problem in every country. In the United States, teen suicide is the third leading cause of death among teenagers. A U.S. survey found that almost one in five high school students had seriously considered attempting suicide, and more than one in six had already made plans to commit suicide.

Several environmental and social situations can have an impact on adolescents' health. Among those situations are the following: extreme poverty; an unfavorable family situation; factors related to employment possibilities and those that result from a clash between the new life values acquired by the youth and traditional family values.

When adolescents do not adapt to new and challenging situations, they may develop or manifest mental and psychological disturbances that can lead to serious psychiatric problems, such as depression, that may end up in suicide.

Suicide is a tragic but potentially preventable public health problem. In the case of adolescents, they may be prone to "suicide contagion," where the exposure to suicide or suicidal behavior within one family, one's peer group or through media reports of suicide can result in an increase in suicide and suicidal behavior. It is estimated that there may be between eight and 25 attempted suicides for every suicide death.

Although there are no tests to identify those that are going to commit suicide, there are risks factors that should be taken into consideration by parents, friends and teachers. Among those risk factors are the following: a previous history of depression, a family history of psychiatric disorders (particularly depression or suicidal behavior), family disruption, a history of physical or sexual abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, and poor self-esteem.

There are some signals that may alert that adolescents may be attempting to commit suicide. These clear danger signals include sudden changes in behavior, withdrawal from friends, suicide threats, increased irritability and self-destructive behavior, school difficulties or failure, and giving away treasured possessions. Suicidal comments by adolescents should never be considered unimportant.

Parents and educators should be always aware of the psychological needs of adolescents, since their peculiar behavior may indicate that they are going through a difficult period in their lives. They should create conditions (in the family, in the school and in the community) that will adequately respond to the emotional needs of young people.

Suicide-prevention programs should be carefully planned, tested and monitored to make sure they are safe, effective, and worth the effort and the cost of implementing them. Parents and teachers should be aware of danger signals in adolescents, and take appropriate measures when they appear. Schools should increase the number of trained counselors, and teachers should be trained in spotting emotional distress among their students.

The World Health Organization has developed four basic steps as suicide prevention guidelines: limiting accessibility to the means of suicide such as pesticides, toxic drugs and guns; treating mental illness; enhancing social support networks and changing social norms.

They should be complemented by health promotion campaigns focused on mental health and suicide prevention. Through combined efforts it is possible to lower the impact of this most serious threat to adolescents' lives.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant and the author of "Adolescents' Health in the Americas."

The great number of Afghan women who commit self-immolation (burning oneself to death) is one of the most tragic responses to gender violence in that country. Aside from the horror of dying, surviving this act makes its victims unfit for a normal life. They are often permanently maimed, disfigured, and shunned by their communities. Unless present laws regarding the protection of women are fully implemented, the consequences of gender violence will continue to exact a punishing effect on Afghan women’s lives.

Self-immolation seems to be the only response available to women who want to escape domestic abuse, forced marriage and other misogynistic social customs. Although many Afghans –including some religious leaders- reinforce these social customs based on their interpretation of Islam, these practices are inconsistent with Sharia law as well as with Afghan and international law since they violate women’s basic human rights.

Reliable national statistics on this phenomenon are not available, since many families cover up these acts because of shame. At the same time, lack of good medical care and adequate government services means that such events are never officially recorded. According to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), 106 cases of self-immolation were registered in 2006, 184 cases in 2007 and it is feared that the phenomenon has continued to grow.

What makes the situation even more troublesome is that the police and judiciary do not conduct any formal investigations to determine the causes of suicide and self-burning by women, according to the AIHRC. “There is a culture of impunity for those who push women to self-immolation and suicide,” remarks Homa Sultani, a researcher on women’s rights at the AIHRC.

Women’s self-immolation in Afghanistan is a reflection of their disadvantaged situation in the social and health areas. Some statistics are telling: 87 percent of Afghan women are illiterate, more than one in three women experience physical, psychological or sexual violence, and 70 to 80 percent of women face forced marriages.

Some people feel that marriage in Afghanistan is, in some cases, like a form of sale in which women are traded to solve family disputes or strengthen family bonds. In this context, forced marriages with under age girls often occur in defiance of national law, which stipulates that women must be 16 to be eligible. Some girls are married off to men who are as much as five times their age.

The majority of Afghan women are victims of mental and sexual violence, which compels them to commit suicide or engage in drug abuse. Most of the recorded cases occur in Afghanistan main cities, while those that occur in rural areas remain unrecorded.

There is a way to lower these tragic incidents. In August 2009, the Afghan Government enacted the Law on Elimination of Violence against Women (EVAW), which criminalizes many harmful traditional practices. However, although the passing of that law was a significant achievement, the Human Rights, United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA HR) found that law enforcement authorities are often unwilling or unable to apply laws that protect women’s rights. Such inaction is one of the main factors that allow these practices to continue.

What is urgently needed is for the Government of Afghanistan to create the conditions for the full implementation of the EVAW law. As the UNAMA HR has indicated, “Convictions under the EVAW law can result in deterring perpetrators of violence against women.” At the same time, Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai should indicate that respect for women’s rights is at the core of the government’s human rights policy.

Dr. Cesar Chelala, an international public health consultant, is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

I became aware of the nature of Mr. Qaddafi’s regime during an HIV/AIDS professional visit to Libya in 2006. I was in a taxi with a friend when the driver, as he learned that we were from Argentina, started talking enthusiastically about Maradona and Argentine soccer. As we were passing some military barracks my friend, rather naively, asked the driver if these were Qaddafi’s living quarters. The driver’s facial expression, a genuine friendly one until then, immediately changed to a hostile, fearful look.

Realizing that he had made a faux pas my friend immediately resumed his talk about Maradona. In spite of that, the driver never resumed his friendly way with us again. Although this was a small incident, we became aware of the climate of fear reigning the country, and of the obsessive nature of its ruler.

The way things are going in Libya, where he is massacring his own people with the help of mercenaries, indicates that the time has come to exert the greatest international pressure and make him go.

Qaddafi thinks that the present people’s rebellion is not the result of his abusing them for more than 40 years, leading a tyrannical and corrupt government and antagonizing many countries with his erratic, criminal behavior. Rather, he believes that it is the result of a flare-up of tribal rivalries bent on destroying what he considers is the people’s power in Libya. Since he took power in 1969, he has been able to maintain control of the population through the use of an omnipresent security apparatus.

Recent admissions from his own former officials throw necessary light on his regime, as African mercenaries are descending on Tripoli to help quell the rebellion. How miserable can a person be to use foreign soldiers to kill his own people? “We are sure that what is going on now in Libya is crimes against humanity and crimes of war,” said Ibrahim Dabbashi, Libya’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations.

And now we have an even more striking revelation regarding Qaddafi’s role in the Lockerbie bombing, as a result of which 270 people were killed in southern Scotland
in a Pan Am flight bound for New York. “I have evidence that Qaddafi ordered the Lockerbie bombing,” stated Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, Libya’s recently resigned justice minister.

During my stay in Libya I would learn about other incidents that profoundly troubled me, as was the case of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who had been in detention for many years, falsely accused of spreading AIDS in Libya. I realized that Libya’s ruler wouldn’t stop at anything to get revenge for what he thought was his unfair portrayal in the Western press.

The six health workers had been accused of infecting 426 children with the HIV virus. Many in Libya, and most of the international community, believed that they were trumped up charges. According to E.U. and U.S. officials and human rights advocates the six health workers were charged of these crimes to cover up poor hygiene conditions at the hospitals where infections took place (some of the children had been infected even before the health workers arrived). The six health workers were tortured to extract confessions.

Finally, a deal was reached under which Bulgaria, the United States, Britain and the European Union agreed to set up a nongovernmental organization to financially help the families of the infected children. Although the six health workers were eventually released, the incident showed once more that Qaddafi had no restraints in using false information for his own, devious goals.

With an increasing number of Libyan officials now abandoning his government, it is fair to assume that Qaddafi’s days are numbered. The United Nations and international community should continue to exert strong pressure to force Qaddafi to step down. To allow such a dangerous person to be in power is to risk the survival of thousands of Libyans.

Dr. Cesar Chelala, an international public health consultant, is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

As protests increase in several countries in the Middle East, it is becoming more obvious that a final agreement between Israelis and Palestinians is one of the most critical issues facing policy makers in the region. For the U.S., which is steadily losing control of events, it is also the time to help Israel define its real strategic interests in the area.

If one lesson can be learned from the tumultuous events in Egypt, it is that people cannot be held submissive forever while being denied their most basic rights. Dismissal of this lesson can bring harsh consequences, something that former president Hosni Mubarak refused to admit.

Until now, the Mubarak regime had played a stabilizing role in the region, and had been a key player in mediating negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). It is not yet clear what role Egypt will have now in this process, particularly after the September elections the military junta promised to hold.

The events in Cairo have thrown the Israeli leadership into turmoil. The greatest fear is that Egypt’s new government could terminate the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel signed in 1979. “The Israeli government is freaking out,” remarked Shmuel Bachar, of the Israel Institute for Policy and Strategy. That same fear is echoed by many in the U.S. “Things are about to go from bad to worse in the Middle East,” warned Richard Cohen in the Washington Post.

Those responses are obviously based on the concern that if the Islamic Brotherhood would take power it would develop a more confrontational attitude toward Israel. Those concerns ignore that the Islamic Brotherhood is a mosaic of different ideas and trends, whose positions have changed over time. Although nobody can predict how the movement will evolve, many among its members remain committed to a position of gradual reform.

There is a gap between the older, more radical generation and the younger one, more open to the world and eager to follow the Turkish example of democratic participation in their country’s political life. In addition, the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood had decided to support Mr. ElBaradei’s position in the recent upheaval shows a new, more flexible leadership in the movement.

Israel’s fear about Egypt’s adopting an aggressive attitude ignores the fact that Egypt, particularly after recent events, will need more than ever billions of dollars from the U.S. and the international community. In this situation, violating the peace agreement with Israel would work against its most basic interests.

Although Egypt’s peace agreement with Israel will probably not be abolished, it is possible to think of a scenario where new authorities in Egypt become more assertive in demanding respect for Palestinians’ rights. Continual denial of those rights will do more to stimulate the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood than the political situation in Egypt itself. Unless an agreement is reached in the near future, Israel – although it may continue to win territory - runs the risk of losing the peace.

Speaking recently at the Herzliya Conference in Israel Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO secretary-general said, “…The Israeli-Palestinian conflict may no longer be perceived as the only problem in the region, but it still constitutes a major impediment in addressing other issues that threaten regional stability. The lack of a solution to the Israeli – Palestinian conflict continues to undermine the stability of the region.”

And Uri Avnery, the Israeli leader of the peace movement Gush Shalom recently stated, “Peace with the Palestinians is no longer a luxury. It is an absolute necessity. Peace now, peace quickly. Peace with the Palestinians, and then peace with the democratic masses all over the Arab world, peace with the reasonable Islamic forces (like Hamas and the Muslim Brothers, who are quite different from Al Qaeda), peace with the leaders who are about to emerge in Egypt and everywhere.”

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

Negative stereotypes have been a constant source of friction and misunderstanding between Muslims and Jews. Can a level of understanding be reached between them that would make peaceful relations possible? It believe so. An almost forgotten episode during World War II could bring light to this issue.

During World War II, as Jews were being persecuted by the Nazis, they found refuge in Northern Albania. More than 2000 Jews were protected by the locals, who risked their own lives to do so. Although the Germans demanded that the Albanians provide them with lists with names of Jews in the country, the Albanians didn’t comply and instead sheltered them from the Nazis. According to the International School for Holocaust Studies, the Albanians didn’t turn over a single Jew to the Germans.

This episode was again brought to light by Norman H. Gershman, an American photographer, who has included photos of the Albanians’ descendants still living in the country in a book called BESA: Muslims Who Saved Jews in World War II. According to Gershman, only two countries in Europe refused to cooperate with the Nazis: Denmark and Albania.

Besa is an Albanian cultural concept that means “to keep the promise” and “word of honor.” The word has its origin in the Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini, an assembly of customary codes and traditions compiled by the 15th century chieftain and transmitted verbally over succeeding generations.

Besa means also taking care of those in need, protecting them and being hospitable. Both Catholics and Muslims participated in this effort. Since 70% of Albanians are Muslims it is safe to assume that it was they who were primary in aiding the Jews. Rather than hiding them in attics or in the woods, Albanians gave them Muslim names, gave them clothes and treated them as members of their own families.

Gershman tells the story of an Albanian man called Ali Pashkaj who received the visit at his store of a group of German soldiers surrounding 19 Albanian prisoners. Among the Albanians was a young Jew whom the Germans planned to assassinate.

Since Pashkaj spoke excellent German, he invited the soldiers into the store and gave them food and wine. While he was distracting the German soldiers, he gave the young Jew a melon containing a message instructing him to jump out of the truck at a certain location and run and hide in the woods. The young man followed the instruction and was able to escape.

The German soldiers were furious. They returned to the town and threatened to shoot the man and set the town on fire if the Albanians didn’t return the young Jew. The Albanians refused and the Germans finally left town. Pashkaj went to the woods where he found the young man and brought him back to his house and protected him. The young man, whose name is Yasha Bayuhovio later went to Mexico and became a dentist. In protecting him, Ali Pashkaj was practicing Besa.

As Gershman told the Jewish Chronicle, “Look, you are not talking to someone who is pro-Arab. It is really quite simply that there are good people in this world. I found Muslims who saved Jews. The perception of the religion of Islam as crazy is nonsense. I am a Jew to my core. I would lay down my life for Israel…However, we have objectified Muslims. They are just people. And in this little people (Albanians) they have a message for the world. I defy anyone to look at these people and say these are terrorists or terrorist sympathizers.”

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

Events rapidly unfolding in Egypt may signal that this is President Mubarak’s hour of truth. The riots taking place in Cairo, where some policemen took off their uniforms and joined the protesters, indicate that President Mubarak may be unable to stand the pressure of long-contained popular demands.

Although Egypt’s Interior Ministry said the protests were the work of “instigators” led by the Muslim Brotherhood, demonstrators come from all social and political classes. This is, perhaps, the clearest demonstration of people’s power in decades in Egypt. Confronted with these massive popular demonstrations, the Interior Ministry stated that “No provocative movements or protest gatherings or organizing marches or demonstrations will be allowed.”

For the U.S., that has been backing the Mubarak government since it assumed power in 1981, this is a difficult situation to confront. The U.S. has provided military aid to Egypt to the tune of 1.5 billion per year. As a consequence, the U.S. has more leverage than any other government in what is happening now in Egypt.

While Secretary of State Hillary Clinton initially said that the Mubarak government was stable, she then stated that the U.S. is “deeply concerned” about the violent crackdown on demonstrators and asked the Egyptian government to respect the protesters’ rights to free expression. “As a partner, we strongly believe that the Egyptian government needs to engage immediately with the Egyptian people in implementing needed economic, political and social reforms,” said Clinton at the State Department.

Talking to “Fox News on Sunday,” as if anticipating what may really happen in Egypt Secretary Clinton stated, “We want to see an orderly transition so that no one fills the void, that there not be a void, that there be a well thought out plan that will bring about a democratic participatory government.” Since President Mubarak will clearly not be the leader of such a government it seems clear that Secretary Clinton is anticipating a change of government.

At the same time, there is concern that more radical elements may be gaining ground in the country, notably the Muslim Brotherhood. So far, however, the Muslim Brotherhood has been playing a cautious role, and has even asked Mr. ElBaradei to negotiate on behalf of the protesters. This should allay Mrs. Clinton's fears when she stated that the U.S. wants to avoid a situation that would allow “radicals, extremists, violent elements to take over.”

President Mubarak’s TV address to the nation in which he said that he had dismissed his cabinet but that he will remain in power, as well as his promise of social, political and economic reforms didn’t quell people’s demands for a complete overhaul of the government. People have continued defying the government and asking for Mr. Mubarak to step down, a step Mr. ElBaradei said is not negotiable.
The harsh repression by the Egyptian police may be delaying the inevitable: Mr. Mubarak should resign. Talks now being conducted between Mubarak and the military are critical for Egypt’s future.

The best role for the military to play would be to withdraw its support for Mr. Mubarak and replace him with a transitional government which could include Mr. ElBaradei or be led by him. Such a government should call for elections in six months to allow the country to return to a normal life.

President Obama has told Mr. Mubarak that the government should refrain from using violence against peaceful demonstrators and allow for free expression of ideas. Perhaps this is a diplomatic way of telling Mr. Mubarak that it is time to go.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

The theory that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine was responsible for causing autism has, since it was first elaborated, been a hindrance to a proper assessment of the autism problem. The theory, based on a study led by Dr. Andrew Wakefield, published in The Lancet in 1998, purported to have found a link between the vaccine, gastrointestinal problems found in many autistic children and autism. New evidence has now put that theory finally to rest.

A recent report published by the British Medical Journal, based on a study conducted by British investigative journalist Brian Deer, concluded that the medical histories in the Wakefield study had been misrepresented to make the vaccine responsible for autism in children. According to Deer, the flaws in Dr. Wakefield paper were not honest mistakes but an “elaborate fraud.”

The Deer study is particularly relevant since the erroneous link between vaccines causing autism has led thousands of parents to withhold the MMR vaccine to their children, making them susceptible to illness and provoking hundreds of deaths. In February of 2010, The Lancet retracted the original Wakefield article, stating that its authors had made false claims about how the study was conducted and leading to wrong conclusions. In May of 2010, Britain stripped Wakefield of his medical license.

Mr. Deer’s study showed that time lines in the Wakefield study were altered to make it seem as though autism-like symptoms had developed soon after vaccination, while in reality problems had developed before vaccination and in other cases months after vaccination.

Autism is a complex developmental disorder that begins in early childhood and that has three defining main features: Problems with social interactions, impaired verbal and nonverbal communication and a pattern of repetitive behaviors. They present themselves with a wide range of symptoms and varying degrees of problems. This group of disorders is called autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that an average of 1 in 110 children has ASD in the US. If one assumes that the prevalence rate has been constant over the past two decades, one can estimate that about 730,000 individuals between the ages of 0 to 21 have an ASD. Studies in Asia and Europe have identified individuals with ASD with a prevalence of approximately 0.6% to over 1%.

The MMR vaccine’s effect on autism is one of the most controversial theories regarding the origin of this disorder. Many believers in this theory state that the use of Thimerosal (Ethylmercury) as a preservative in the vaccines could be responsible for the symptoms developed by many children after vaccination. However, rates of autism and ASDs continued to increase even after Thimerosal was no longer used as a preservative in vaccines in 2001

In 2004, the interpretation of a causal link between the MMR vaccine and autism was formally retracted by ten of Wakefield’s twelve collaborators in the study. In addition, in 2007, a CDC study didn’t support any association between early exposure to Thimerosal in vaccines and nervous system disorders in children between the ages of 7 and 10 years.

In spite of this evidence, many parents didn’t allow their children to be vaccinated increasing the likelihood of disease outbreaks. In 2008, according to the CDC, more measles cases were reported than in any other year since 1997. More than 90% of those infected had not been vaccinated or their vaccination status was unknown.

The Wakefield fraud shows the considerable damage that this kind of event can have on children’s health. It also renews the urgency to find the cause/s of autism, taking into consideration that diagnosis is essential for appropriate treatment at an early age, when it can do most good, and help autistic children integrate effectively into their community.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant.

Some people’s lives are marked by their concern for others. That is the case for my friend Janet Brof, whom I have known for many years. She is the equivalent of any heroine from old times. There is in her an ingrained love for those less favored in life, an unbending urge for justice, and an unparalleled generosity.

We met through friends in common during the 1970s, when both of us were trying to understand and bring a sense of fairness to the wars then ravaging Central America. I remember one of the projects to which she gave all her enthusiasm: to teach poetry writing to adult Spanish speakers who immigrated to New York from Latin America.

Most of her students at the school in the Upper West Side neighborhood where the classes were taking place had only the most basic education, and some had never attended school formally. But that didn’t deter Janet from putting all her energies into the project. If anything, it encouraged her even more.

At one of her classes I met Olga Rodriguez, a charismatic 65-year-old woman from the Dominican Republic, who never went to school and learned how to write through informal classes with friends.

Olga had lived in her country until her late 20s, and then moved to New York where she worked in a factory to earn a living and help her family. Only recently had she had the time to study English. When she decided to take Janet’s poetry workshop she never missed a class.

Although her written Spanish frequently has spelling errors, it doesn’t matter. She is keen to express herself through poetry. When I met her she told me, “With these classes I am living the kind of experience I want to live. This is like therapy for me. I feel comforted, happy, isolated from problems of everyday life. Now, out of anything I can write a poem. I feel that this belongs to me.”

The following is one of her poems in translation by Janet Brof.

My old age
by Olga Rodriguez

What will become of me in my old age?
says the palm tree that blooms at the edge of the beach.
I am young.
All the world comes to me and embraces me.
Oh how good I feel
Surrounded by some many lovely people and trees! What greenery!

Oh warm sand, you comfort me with your going and coming.
I am young.

Time goes by.
Already I no longer have so much greenery
And I don’t give shade anymore.
What will happen to me in my old age?

Oh brilliant sun, with your silver rays
Oh breeze, you no longer sustain me as before.
You move me around at will
I can only await
death.

Cesar Chelala is a writer on human rights issues.

Cuba’s announcement that its scientists have developed a vaccine to improve the lives of lung cancer patients is reason for optimism. It should, however, be cautious optimism since previous claims have been made before by several scientists in dealing with this disease which were later proven to be unfounded.

In 1991, I headed a UN mission to Cuba of Latin American physicians. We were asked to evaluate Cuba’s production of interferon, an anti viral substance, and its applications. We were gladly surprised at the excellent technical level of Cuban scientists and of the progress they had made on producing interferon.

During a visit that Fidel Castro paid to our group, he showed considerable enthusiasm on Cuba advances on public health projects, so it didn’t surprise me the reported advances Cubans have made on a lung cancer vaccine. Since the late 1980, following visits by doctors from the MD Anderson Hospital in Houston, Texas, to Havana, the Cuban government had chosen biotechnology as a priority area for development.

Lung cancer is the most common cause of death due to cancer in both women and men throughout the world. It is estimated that lung cancer causes the death of over one million people a year worldwide. According to statistics from the U.S. National Cancer Institute, approximately one of every 14 men and women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with cancer of the lung at some point in their lives.

Until now, treatment of lung cancer involved surgical removal of the cancer, chemotherapy or radiation therapy, as well as a combination of these three procedures. The decision about which treatment to choose depends on the location and extent of the tumor as well as the overall health status of the patient.

Cuba’s biotechnology industry plans to launch the vaccine developed by the Cuban scientists in the international market in the near future. Dr. Gisela Gonzalez, head of the team that researched and developed the vaccine cautions that it is not a miracle drug, although it provides relief in treating terminally ill patients, with fewer side effects than conventional treatments.

The Cuban vaccine against lung cancer, CimaVax-EGF, is composed of a protein, the Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF), linked to another protein that stimulates the patient’s immune system to develop the desired immune response against the EGF. Normally, when the EGF binds to its receptor on the cell membrane it triggers the cell proliferation mechanism, which is increased in the case of tumors.

Following the administration of the vaccine the patients produce antibodies that recognize and specifically bind to the EGF, stopping its binding to a receptor and the beginning of cell proliferation. The consequence is a decrease in tumor growth, the extent varying according to the patient’s individual response.

According to Dr. Gonzalez, this is the first vaccine against cancer to be registered anywhere in the world. CimaVax-EGF has already been patented in Cuba, Peru, Canada, Japan, South Africa and the United States, and there are plans to patent it in other countries. In addition, the vaccine has undergone several clinical trials in Cuba, Canada and the United Kingdom and plans are underway to try it also in China and in the U.S.

Although this vaccine offers considerable promise, one should be cautious in analyzing its potential to treat lung cancer. Several products have been tried in the past that initially looked very promising and later showed no benefit. However, if larger trials confirm the initial findings, an important milestone against lung cancer would have been achieved.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant.

The collapse of former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s government was a crisis waiting to happen. Those that followed the corruption and ruthlessness of the regime knew that sooner or later the situation would explode. And WikiLeaks may have provided the necessary push.

Already in 1993, in a report on Ben Ali’s first six years in office: “Promise Unfulfilled: Human Rights in Tunisia Since 1987,” Human Rights First (then the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights) stated, “Tunisia has seen the independence of the judiciary undermined by the encroachment of military courts into civilian matters; freedom of expression has been severely constrained and freedom of association tightly reined in; lawyers have been subjected to harassment and intimidation, and discouraged from representing unpopular clients. Thus, safeguards that are the bedrock of any society in which basic human freedoms are upheld and protected have been undermined…”

Since that time, things continued to get worse, repression increased and corruption reached high levels, particularly among those close to the president, particularly his wife and other relatives from the notorious Trabelsi family. They all left Tunisia in a hurry, when they realized that their reign of corruption and terror had come to an end.

Tunisia’ economy went from bad to worse in recent years, with unemployment rates of 14 per cent according to official figures -widely considered lower than reality- and rates of up to 50 per cent in some parts of the interior. While these rates worsened, the government reduced or eliminated subsidies for food and gasoline, probably as a response to pressures form the IMF and the World Bank.

Deteriorating economic conditions for most of the population was manifested by sharp inequality, with 20 percent of the population controlling nearly half of the national income. While the masses went impoverished, the two ruling groups, the Ben Ali and the Trabelsi families attained considerable economic power, mainly through abusive practices, some of them denounced by WikiLeaks.

Since assuming power in 1987, Ben Ali ruled with an iron fist, quelling any intent of criticism to his regime through massive human rights violations. The final straw probably came after an incident between the police and a young vegetable street vendor named Mohammed Bouazizi.

When the young man refused to leave the market because, according to the police, he lacked a street vendor license, the policeman beat him up and slapped him on the face. Afterwards, Bouazizi set himself on fire to protest these actions in the central town Sidi Bouzeid, in central Tunisia.

Bouazizi’s self-immolation spurred public protests all over Tunisia expanding from Sidi Bouzeid to other cities such as Tunis, Qasrain, Qabis, Binzert, Sousa, BinQairowan, Gafza, Qarqena, elKalf, Baga and Qibly. These protests were violently suppressed and increased the anger in the population leading to more popular riots that toppled Ben Ali’s government.

The Arab world is watching with considerable interest what is happening in Tunisia. Already in Jordan there are demonstrations against increased costs of living and government in other countries are fearful that anti government demonstrations similar to those in Tunisia may spread to their countries.

There is already a positive sign in Tunisia. Its acting president, Fouad Mebazza, asked Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi to form a coalition government. Although the future is unpredictable, one thing is certain. Things won’t be the same as before in Tunisia. What form this situation will take will depend on the measures the new government of national unity will take and its commitment to democracy that the Tunisian people fought so hard to see realized in their country.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an award-winning writer on human rights and foreign policy issues.

Millions of children, particularly in developing countries, die every year as a result of environment-related diseases. Their deaths could be prevented by using low-cost and sustainable tools and strategies for improving the environment.

A 2007 World Health Organization (WHO) study showed that 13 million deaths worldwide could be prevented by improving the environment. In some countries, more than one-third of the disease burden could be prevented by environmental changes.

Information collected in this study is crucial to letting countries select appropriate intervention methods. According to the WHO study carried out in 23 countries, more than 10 percent of deaths are due to unsafe water (including poor sanitation and hygiene) and indoor air pollution, particularly from solid fuel used for cooking.

Children make up almost half the population of developing countries. Most of the deaths are among children under 5, and are attributable mainly to intestinal and respiratory infections. That is why, in addition to addressing environmental factors to save children’s lives, it is important to use low-cost interventions such as immunization, better delivery and newborn care practices, treatment of common infections and investments in local health workers.

People living in industrialized countries are also affected by environmental factors such as pollution, occupational factors, ultraviolet radiation, and climate and ecosystem changes.

The integrity of the global environment is being increasingly compromised by the deterioration of the atmospheric ozone layer and an ever-higher concentration of gases responsible for the greenhouse effect. To the degree that these factors intensify, the health of populations will be seriously affected.

Environmental factors affect children's health from the time of conception and intra-uterine development through infancy and adolescence. These factors can even exert an influence prior to conception, since both ovules and sperm can be damaged by radiation and chemical contaminants.

It has been widely demonstrated that children are more susceptible than adults to environmental factors because, among other reasons, they are still growing and their immune systems and detoxification mechanisms are not yet fully developed.

Interventions both at the community and the national level can significantly improve the environment, including promotion of safe-water treatment and storage, and the reduction of air pollution. The last measure by itself could save almost a million lives a year.

A series of measures being taken at the local level are having a significant impact on improving the environment. For example, in an overcrowded and unsanitary inner-city building housing several hundred people in South Africa, conventional environmental health control measures had failed. So, a democratically elected tenants committee initiated a series of measures to deal with the main problems affecting the building and its inhabitants. This project has laid the foundation for a participatory way of dealing with environmental problems in inner-city buildings.

In Vietnam, a project to make schools cleaner and safer through the efforts of teachers and members of the community resulted in extremely positive outcomes as measured by field visits and evaluations.

Last April in China, 2.6 million Chinese schoolchildren took part in a painting contest organized by the Luo Hong Environmental Foundation and the United Nations Environment Programme, as a way of increasing children’s awareness of environmental problems.

In Abu Dhabi, universities are embracing environmental improvement, and taking actions to turn both curricula and campuses “green.” The Abu Dhabi Education Council and the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi reached an agreement to encourage learning about environmental conservation through special projects and activities which the agencies plan to develop jointly. In Jordan, Queen Rania has been involved in programs dealing with community empowerment and environmental sustainability.

In Egypt, Dr. Laila Iskandar Kamel has implemented innovative social and environmental projects working with garbage collectors or Zabbaleen. These projects have helped garbage collectors break the cycle of exploitation and receive proper compensation for their work. In addition, she has organized girls from the community in reviving the most ancient of Egyptian crafts, weaving on a handloom using discarded cotton remnants and using the profits for improving their education and providing them with a livelihood.

Also in Egypt, the organization Hope Village Cairo is conducting a wide range of activities with children, aimed at the most vulnerable, providing them with education and skills and teaching them how to improve the environment.

In Qatar, fewer natural resources, climate change and the quality of the air are serious challenges faced by the authorities. The Ministry of Environment has taken a series of measures to improve the environment. Among those measures, creating awareness in the population, particularly among the mothers, is an important task. At the same time, a new school curriculum has been completed, placing emphasis on environmental issues.

In the countries in the Americas, an outstanding series of environmental activities are carried out by Ecoclubs, nongovernmental organizations made up basically of children and adolescents who coordinate their activities through several community institutions.

In Ecuador, the city of Loja was afflicted with dumping yards in inhabited areas, which led to outbreaks of infections and contagious diseases. Through an intensive sensitization and education campaign in which community members played a key role in establishing a sanitary landfill and a means for properly disposing of recyclable materials, there was a manifest improvement in the quality of life for Loja residents. Children, in particular, increased their awareness about the environment and their role in improving it.

Such initiatives are taking place worldwide with the aim of improving the environment and, as a result, people's health. In addition, the planning, design, monitoring and management of the physical environment have proven to be an ideal terrain for children's participation.

Cesar Chelala, M.D., Ph.D., is an international public health consultant and the author of "Environmental Impact on Child Health," a publication of the Pan American Health Organization.

The publication of “Occupation of the Territories: Israeli Soldier Testimonies 2000-2010,” a decade after the Second Intifada, is a necessary volume that reveals the truth of the occupation of Palestinian land, and of the brutal methods used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to carry it out. It should be food for reflection for those who deny the basic inhumanity of war, and a call for justice for Palestinians.

The book, based on hundreds of testimonies of Israeli soldiers, exposes the operational methods of the Israeli military in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the impact of their actions on both Palestinians and on the soldiers themselves. What makes this book particularly valuable is not only that it denounces the methods used by Israeli soldiers on unarmed Palestinian civilians. It also shows that the Israeli military’s actions are aimed at Israel’s de facto annexation of large areas of the West Bank to Israel done through the dispossession of Palestinian residents’ land.

After the second Intifada in September 2000 in which more than 1,000 Israelis and 6,000 Palestinians were killed, the IDF developed even more aggressive ways of action, aimed at stifling Palestinian opposition and prevent attacks on Israelis. However, as the book indicates, the “preventive” methods developed by the IDF were, in reality, intended to punish, deter and exert tighter control over the Palestinian population. In addition, the IDF obscured the distinction between using force against terrorist and using force against civilians.

Although the IDF has repeatedly claimed that its policy of assassinations is used against those who plan or carry out terrorist attacks, the soldiers’ testimonies reveal that this principle was not always followed, even when there were other options available, such as arresting and trying the suspects. After invading Palestinian cities and villages, mass arrests were used to instill fear in the Palestinian civilian population and tighten Israeli military control. According to the soldiers’ testimonies, arrests were accompanied by the abuse of bound detainees, who were beaten and degraded by both Israeli soldiers and higher officials.

These and several more instances of basic human rights abuses by the IDF have left a terrorized Palestinian population, intent on keeping the land that rightfully belongs to them. The IDF actions constitute a brutal policy of dispossession, with surprisingly little international outcry shown in meaningful actions for justice.

A study entitled “Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid?” by the Middle East Project of the Democracy and Governance Programme of the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa is also a re-assessment of Israel’s practices in the occupied Palestinian territories under international law. This study found that “the State of Israel exercises control in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) with the purpose of maintaining a system of domination by Jews over Palestinians and that this system constitutes a breach of the prohibition of apartheid.”

According to this study, “The conclusion that Israel has beached the international legal prohibitions of apartheid and colonialism in the OPT suggests that the occupation itself is illegal… The legal consequences of these findings are grave and entail obligations not merely for Israel but also for the international community as a whole.”

In summary of the present situation the study states, “Israel bears the primary responsibility for remedying the illegal situation it has created. In the first place, it has the duty to cease its unlawful activity and dismantle the structures and institutions of colonialism and apartheid that it has created. Israel is additionally required by international law to implement duties of reparation, compensation and satisfaction in order to wipe out the consequences of its unlawful acts. But above all, in common with all States, whether acting singly or through the agency of inter-governmental organisations, Israel has the duty to promote the Palestinian people’s exercise of its right of self-determination in order that it might freely determine its political status freely pursue its own economic policy and social and cultural development.”

Dr. César Chelala is an award-winning writer on human rights and foreign policy issues.

I have Malawi in my mind, a country I visited several years ago. As a public health consultant, I had visited an official at an international development agency in New York and had left his office in total frustration. Although the man I met there was very pleasant, I couldn’t see how this meeting could lead me anywhere professionally. I was wrong.

• Arable Land with Mulanje Mountains in the background. Photo courtesy of the author. Copyright Cesar Chelala. •

Two weeks later, I received a call from another official at the same agency. He offered me the opportunity to be part of a mission to evaluate the health status of Mozambican refugees in Malawi, a country I had some difficulty placing on the map. When I asked him who had told him about me, he said it was the official I had initially met there. Although I had never been to Africa before, I eagerly accepted.

On arriving to Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital city, I found out that my only piece of luggage had been lost in transit. Since I like to travel light, I only had with me a satchel with some toiletries, a book and the clothes I had on. To say that I was annoyed is an understatement, since I couldn’t see how I would manage the four weeks’ mission in these conditions. I was wrong again. I managed well.

I washed my underwear every night at the hotel, bought another pair of pants and was relieved not to have to carry my heavy luggage every time we visited the interior of the country. My colleagues looked at me with envy every time we had to move. Never before had I been so happy to have so few things.

• Students at Malawi's Vocational School. Photo courtesy of the author. Copyright Cesar Chelala. •

On one of the trips to the interior we passed through beautiful tea plantations that had as a backdrop a wonderful view of Mount Mulanje. Shortly afterward, our hosts wanted us to visit a vocational school, mainly for adult Malawians. I was very interested in the visit, because my wife has been involved in adult education for several years.

At the school, we went through several rooms where we saw people, mostly women learning different skills -young women learning to weave on looms, another group learning how to make wooden furniture, and a third group working on basic reading and writing in English. In this last group, I became fascinated at how adults of different ages went through the rudiments of language, despite the obvious difficulties that the tasks represented.

• Students at Malawi's Vocational School. Photo courtesy of the author. Copyright Cesar Chelala. •

While I was entertained looking at the students in this group, my companions had gone to see another class. A short time afterward, I followed them but, since I had come late, I was unable to get close to the students and remained outside the room. Still, I was able to see that this was a music class and that the adults were singing to the visitors.

The song was a wonderful melody of how beautiful their country was, how powerful its rivers, how green its mountains and how plentiful their tea plantations. It was a song full of longing and appreciation of the beauties of their country. Their voices were so well attuned, and they carried the melody so well that it seemed obvious to me that they had been practicing that song for a long time.

When the song ended, and as my companions were leaving the entrance to the room I was finally able to see the singers. Only then did I realize that I had been listening to a choir of blind men.

César Chelala is an international public health consultant and a writer on human rights and foreign policy issues.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is among the strongest armies in the world. According to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, it is also one the most moral ones. One wouldn’t know that for its treatment of Palestinian children. On December 13, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) stated that the Israeli military and police were violating Israeli law by detaining Palestinian children, some as young as seven years old, and interrogating them. This last denunciation follows an equally serious one of Palestinian children being sexually abused by Israeli police officers.

“They [the police] hit me and dragged along the floor. They handcuffed me with these plastic handcuffs which are very tight. I was very scared. Only when my father came they stopped,” Muslim Odeh, an 11-year-old Palestinian, told the BBC. His charges were strongly denied by the Israeli police.

According to the Geneva-based Defence for Children International (DCI) they have 100 sworn affidavits from Palestinian children who said that they were mistreated by their Israeli captors. Fourteen among them say that they were sexually abused or threatened with sexual assault to pressure them into confession.

In 2009 alone, Defence of Children International (DCI) reviewed 100 sworn affidavits which showed 81% of them were coerced into confessions, 14% were kept in solitary confinement and 4% were sexually assaulted. DCI believes that these figures may understate the extent of the problem. Many parents don’t complain to the authorities, since they feel that they cannot rely on the same system that abuses their children.

There are currently 340 children in Israeli jails, most of them convicted of throwing stones at the Israeli soldiers and police. Children’s complaints of violence are disregarded, and no proceedings are taken against those responsible.

Israel’s policy towards children detainees has been sharply criticized by human rights organizations since it denies them access to their families, although their families’ presence during some of the proceedings is allowed by Israeli law. In addition, children can only see their lawyers when they are in court.

“The ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian child prisoners appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized, suggesting complicity at all levels of the political and military chain of command,” according also to B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization.

Inside the occupied territories the Israeli military considers any Palestinian who is 16 years old or older as an adult, while inside Israel and in most other countries adulthood is reached at 18. Mistreatment of children is against the tenets of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by Israel in 1991.

In Israel, the rules related to rights of minors in criminal proceedings are contained in Amendment 14 to the Youth Law, enacted in July of 2008, which took effect one year later. This amendment’s goal is meant to incorporate the rules of international law into Israeli legislation, particularly those related to the treatment of juveniles in criminal matters and the obligations derived from them.

At he same that these abuses are taking place, Palestinian children’s education has been sharply affected by the situation in the occupied territories. Thousands of Palestinian children in East Jerusalem are unable to attend school since there is no room for them in the state school system, while the drop-out rate is the highest in the Israeli school system. There is a shortage of approximately 1,500 classrooms in East Jerusalem. This means that only about half of all Palestinian children in the city attend state schools, according to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

As Palestinian children’s abuse continues, so does the construction of settlements in Israeli occupied Palestinian land. One cannot but wonder at the international silence to these systematic abuses of Palestinian’s basic human rights.

Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, is an international public health consultant and an award-winning writer on human rights and foreign policy issues.

Inequality and unequal access to education holds millions of girls and women back over the world. While the "gender gap" in education has narrowed over the past decade, girls are still at a disadvantage, particularly in their access to high school education. Women still constitute two-thirds of the world’s illiterate population.

This gender gap is generally wider at higher levels of schooling. According to some estimates, women in South Asia, for example, have only half as many years of education as men, and female enrollment rates at the high school level are two-thirds of those of males.

Within countries, gender disparities are also greater among the poor, and in some countries those disparities continue among the poor even after they have disappeared among the wealthier sectors of the population. To be a girl from a poor family thus becomes a double disadvantage. In addition, gender bias -- approaches to teaching and the degree of attention from teachers -- puts girls at a further disadvantage.

Overall access to basic education has risen markedly over the past decade in many developing countries. In spite of that, however, poor children are still less likely to attend school, less likely to be enrolled in school and more likely to repeat grades than those who come from wealthier families.

There is widespread agreement that primary school should become universal early in this century, but the differences in educational attendance and attainment according to economic status show that the poor are much further away from achieving this goal than those better off economically.

There are several reasons to explain this gap. It is harder for poor children to have easy access to schools, since schools tend to be concentrated in cities and areas where only better-off families reside. The physical availability of schools, though, is not the most critical factor in most developing countries. It is important to consider not only national averages but also how poor girls in rural areas are faring.

Although expenditures in education have increased over the past few decades in many countries, unless these resources are specifically addressed to those most vulnerable, they will tend to increase disparities rather than decrease them.

Attainment disparities have been attributed to ineffective school systems. Governments tend to spend less on public primary and high school education -- the type of schooling that tends to benefit the poor most -- during economic crises. Wars, civil conflicts, economic disruptions and epidemics alter services and affect school attendance. All of these problems are likely to have a greater effect on the poor.

Elimination of gender bias in education is particularly important when the level of education of parents is linked to their children's educational attainment. Several studies have shown that the education of the mother is more important than that of the father in terms of children’s success. In addition, a great deal of evidence shows the benefits of women's schooling not only for their children's educational attainment but also for their health, nutrition and survival. Immunization rates among children of educated mothers, for example, are consistently higher than those of uneducated mothers.

Educated girls can develop essential life skills, including self-confidence, the ability to participate effectively in society, and the capacity to better protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and sexual exploitation. In addition, several studies have shown that educated women not only have fewer children but also have better economic prospects themselves.

Girls’ education not only empowers them, but is considered the best investment in a country’s development.

Several factors indicate that special attention must be paid to the poor. Poor women are far more likely to die as a result of pregnancy and childbirth. Investments in education for the poorer sectors of the population yield better returns in productivity, income and economic growth. Inequality in the distribution of education holds down growth and per capita income in many countries.

Attacking poverty has become an urgent global priority. And one of the best ways to attack poverty is to increase the educational level of the poor, particularly the girls among them.

Cesar Chelala, MD, Ph.D., is an international public health consultant. He writes extensively on health and human rights issues.

“I heard a thundering sound and saw darkness all around me. I spent three months in the hospital –and lost my leg and my son. I had stepped on a landmine and the world as I knew it had come to a halting end,” wrote Monica Piloya, chairperson of the Gulu/Amuru Landmine Survivors’ Network in northern Uganda. She is one of the thousands of women who have been maimed by landmines.

On November 30, 2010, Fifteen Nobel Peace Prize recipients sent a letter to President Barak Obama urging him to join the ban on antipersonnel landmines. The U.S. is still one of 39 states that remain outside the treaty. The Tenth Meeting of the States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty is being held at the United Nations in Geneva from November 30 to December 3, 2010. The U.S. is attending as an observer delegation.

Mrs. Piloya’s ordeal didn’t end with those losses. “I returned to live with my husband, but everything had changed. He verbally abused me, telling me I was useless, helpless. My in-laws told him, ’Monica is disabled; get another woman.’ After a year, my husband left. I was four months pregnant at the time and struggling to care for my older child as well.”

Traumatic as her losses had been, however, Mrs. Piloya was able to overcome her difficulties. Slowly, she rebuilt her life. She started selling fish in the local market, which covers hers and her child’s expenses and has become the leader of a landmine survivor organization in northern Uganda.

Not all landmine victims, however, are able to reorient their lives. For those who are not killed, the disabilities left as sequelae of the landmine explosion are difficult to overcome and leave permanent scars in their lives, particularly in the case of children. UNICEF estimates that 30-40 percent of mine victims are children under 15 years old.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) estimates that 15,000-20,000 people are injured or killed by landmines every year, and that millions more suffer from the economic, physical and psychological consequences of the weapon. The U.S. State Department estimates that fewer than one in four landmine amputees is fitted with an adequate prosthesis.

There are presently millions of landmines and other unexploded ordnance in the ground in more than 80 countries. From 1969 to 1992 the U.S. has exported an estimated 4.4 million antipersonnel mines to countries such as Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, Iraq, Laos, Lebanon, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Somalia, and Vietnam.

The U.S. military has not been immune to the dangers of landmines. These weapons have killed thousands of U.S. and allied troops in every U.S.-fought conflict since World War II, including hundreds of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, in addition to civilian and soldiers from those countries. In the 1991 Gulf War, landmines caused 34 % of U.S. casualties. In spite of that, the U.S. is one of only about 14 countries that refuses to agree that it will never again produce the weapon.

The arguments in favor of the usefulness of landmines use are not valid. In 1996, an International Committee of the Red Cross study, “Antipersonnel Landmines –Friend or Foe?” concluded that they are not indispensable weapons, and that they do not necessarily offer a military advantage.

In addition, because they are indiscriminate and inhumane weapons, their use goes against international humanitarian law. Among the provisions of the Additional Protocol I (1977) to the Geneva Conventions, there are rules that seek to protect civilians by limiting the “means and methods of warfare.” Although the Additional Protocol I does not deal with specific weapons, it provides a general framework of rules applicable in international armed conflicts.

In 2009, Ian Kelley, State Department spokesman, declared that the U.S. wouldn’t join its NATO allies and many other countries in formally banning landmines. By insisting on this policy, the U.S. is complicit in the unnecessary suffering and maiming of thousands of civilians worldwide.

Dr. César Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

For a long time it has been one of Nicaragua most guarded secrets. But a new Amnesty International report, “Listen to their Voice and Act: Stop the Rape and Sexual Abuse of Girls in Nicaragua,” brings it to light. Rape of teenagers in Nicaragua is widespread, and nothing is being done to stop it.

It doesn’t help that Nicaragua’s president, Daniel Ortega, was accused by his own step-daughter that he had been sexually abused by her. In 1998, Zoilamerica Narvaez Murillo accused Ortega of having abused her since she was 11, a situation that started in 1979 and lasted for 19 years.

Both Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, repeatedly denied the charges and said that they were politically motivated. Although a judge dismissed Narvaez’s charge, the Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres de Nicaragua (Nicaragua’s Women Autonomous Movement) stated that history would not absolve Ortega politically or morally despite the ruling.

At the time, the case could not proceed in Nicaraguan courts because Ortega had immunity from prosecution as a member of parliament, there was a five-year statute of limitations for sexual abuse, and rape charges in that context fall under the proviso of statute of limitation.

Regrettably, Narvaez’s case is far from unique in Nicaragua. Between 1998 and 2008, more than 14,000 cases of rape among girls under 17 were reported, according to official statistics. Experts believe, though, that this is just a small percentage of the total; the number would be much higher if the number of cases also included incest.

Two-thirds of rape victims in Nicaragua are under the age of 17, according to Amnesty International. Information is difficult to find for those at risk or suffering sexual violence. In many cases, the stigma associated with sexual crimes blames the victims, not the perpetrators. “Every day, girls in Nicaragua are suffering the horror of sexual violence in silence, rather than risk the rejection that many suffer when they speak out,” stated Esther Major, Amnesty International Central America researcher.

Many victims of rape or sexual abuse rarely go as far as demand prosecution for those crimes, because the legal process is too traumatic or too expensive for them. For those who proceed with the charges, failures in the justice system mean that the attackers frequently walk free. Because most perpetrators are relatives of the victims or people in a position of power, victims are under heavy pressure not to denounce the abuse.

In Nicaragua, the situation is even more serious because of the ban on abortion, regardless of circumstance, which compels incest and rape victims to bear children and thus contributes to the increase in maternal deaths, a fact that had been denounced by Amnesty International.

According to the 2008 penal code regulations abortion is criminalized, with prison sentences for women who undergo the procedure and criminal sanctions for doctors and nurses who help them. “Children are being compelled to bear children. Pregnant women are being denied essential life saving medical care,” stated Kate Gilmore, Amnesty International’s UK Director, at a press conference in Mexico City. I can think of almost no worst fate for a young girl than having a child from the man whom she detests.

The Nicaraguan government needs to provide economic help and psychological assistance to victims of rape, to allow them to rebuild their lives, and the judicial system should be open to allow that the girls’ complaints are heard and properly addressed. At the same time, laws on abortion should be modified so that the victims of rape will be better able to overcome the ordeal they went through.

Nicaragua overcame a bloody civil war to enjoy the fruits of democracy. An essential component of this process is to guarantee gender equality and to eliminate the most brutal forms of abuse and discrimination.

Dr. César Chelala is an international public health consultant and an award-winning writer on human rights and foreign policy issues.

As a writer on human rights issues I don’t lack reasons for concern. There are not too many countries nowadays where human rights in some form are not abused, where violence does not strike in one of its multiple forms. Although writing topics are plentiful, this situation is especially upsetting. At such moments, I visit one of the many neighborhoods outside Manhattan, where I live, and where the change of locale can do wonders for my mood.

One of my favorite places is Brighton Beach, a community in Coney Island in the borough of Brooklyn, a subway ride away from Manhattan. In summer, I go to the boardwalk, sit in front of the sea and the salt breeze energizes me. When it gets colder, I then visit one of the plentiful ethnic stores and delight in their variety. When my appetite is in full force I go to one of the many restaurants in the area to savor food unlike what I eat at home every day.

The area is populated mainly by Jewish immigrants that left the former Soviet Union starting in the 1970s and whose influx continues today. Years ago, the area was dubbed “Little Odessa,” since many of its residents came from Odessa, a city in the Ukraine. I remember the welcome surprise of a friend -with whom I was having dinner at one of the local Russian restaurants- when he realized how many patrons came from his parents’ hometown.

More recently, new waves of immigrants have joined the Russians: Chinese, Vietnamese, Armenian, Turkish, Mexican and Pakistanis make of this an even more cosmopolitan neighborhood. During the summer, they come in throngs to enjoy the beach.

Reading the news today has been particularly disheartening: the continuous impasse between Israelis and Palestinians, with no hint of an effective rapprochement between them. And the sustained violence in Afghanistan and Iraq, countries whose sores never heal. Bombs planted in Baghdad in 12 cars and detonated by remote control killed 122 people and hurt 360, throwing Iraqis into further desperation. “No one knows who is who. Nobody knows when something will happen. Bombing after bombing. Killing after killing. It is a mess,” an Iraqi man was quoted with desperation in his voice.

A few days later a bomb in a Pakistani mosque killed 66 people and wounded more than 80. The attack was carried out by a suicide bomber and may have been aimed at village elders who had formed a militia to resist incursions by the Taliban. Life has become a cheap commodity.

I want to forget about these events. I take the subway and after almost an hour I am in another world. I am sitting by the sea in Brighton Beach. Today is a relatively cold day so there are few people around. A young woman comes with her child and sits next to me. The child is sent to play on the sand. By the occasional remarks the woman makes to him I take her to be of Russian origin.

The child is happily playing with a ball. Suddenly he leaves the ball. Seeing a line of giant ants moving along the sand, he takes a couple of them and crushes them with one hand. Putting her knitting aside, his mother beckons him, puts her hand on his shoulder and in heavily accented English quietly but firmly says, “Don’t do that. You don’t hurt nobody - do you hear me? - you don’t hurt nobody.” The child looks at her with a mixture of fear and surprise and slowly drops the dead ants on the sand. The incident taught me, quite unexpectedly, that some of life's earliest and most valuable lessons do seem to get lost along the way. And gave me a reason for hope.

Dr. César Chelala is an award-winning writer on human rights and foreign policy issues.

Several human rights groups are united in their demand that former president George W. Bush face prosecution following his open admission that he authorized the use of waterboarding, one of the cruelest forms of torture. Former president Bush made his admission during interviews publicizing his book, Decision Points. Bush’s admission of having authorized torture, however serious the claim is, is just one of the reasons for which the former president could be prosecuted.

During an interview with NBC News Bush said, “Three people were waterboarded and I believe that decision saved lives.” And he added, “My job was to protect America. And I did.” This is not the opinion of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch, three of the most prestigious human rights organizations.

“The Department of Justice has made clear that waterboarding is torture and, as such, a crime under the federal anti-torture statute.18 U.S.C. 2340 (c). The United States has historically prosecuted waterboarding as a crime. In light of the admission by the former President, and the legally correct determination by the Department of Justice that waterboarding is a crime, you should ensure that Mr. Durham’s current investigation into detainee interrogations encompasses the conduct and decisions of former President Bush,” says the ACLU in a letter addressed to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

According to Human Rights Watch, the U.S. government’s conduct on alleged torture of its detainees sends an “ugly message” to the international community. “It sends the ugly message that there are no legal consequences in the United States for committing the most heinous of international crimes,” said in a statement Joanne Mariner, a counter-terrorism program director at Human Rights Watch.

While the U.S. has so far taken a lenient attitude towards those that committed or ordained human rights abuses such as torture, both Argentina and Peru have shown that it is possible to indict and punish the highest officials in the land.

In Argentina, more than 30 high ranking officials, including several members of Argentina’s military juntas, were prosecuted and sent to prison on long sentences following their indictment for human rights abuses committed while the military were in power. Among those crimes were the torture and enforced “disappearance” of prisoners.

In Peru, in 2009, former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in jail for ordering killings and kidnapping by security forces. Mr. Fujimori was already serving a six-year term after being found guilty in 2007 on separate charges of abuse of power.

“Under international law, the former President’s admission to having authorized acts that amount to torture are enough to trigger the USA’s obligations to investigate his admissions and if substantiated, to prosecute him,” said Claudio Cordone, senior director at Amnesty International. And he added, “His admissions also highlighted once again the absence of accountability for the crimes under international law of torture and enforced disappearance committed by the USA.”

Regarding its request to prosecute former President Bush the ACLU stated, “The ACLU acknowledges the significance of this request, but it bears emphasis that the former President’s acknowledgment that he authorized torture is without parallel in American history. The admission cannot be ignored. In our system, no one is above the law or beyond its reach, not even a former president.”

During his recent visit to Indonesia, President Barak Obama urged the leaders of that country to acknowledge the human rights abuses of the Suharto regime. Among those abuses is the 1991 killing of over 200 East Timorese civilians in Dili, East Timor. The same principles should be applied to the conduct of former president George W. Bush. As stated by the ACLU, “A nation committed to the rule of law cannot simply ignore evidence that its most senior leaders authorized torture.”

César Chelala, MD, PhD, is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

In his recently published memoirs called Decision Points, and in interviews publicizing those memoirs, former President Bush makes it clear his stand on what many consider a basic human rights violation: the use of waterboarding as a torture technique. With characteristic insouciance, Mr. Bush expresses his unqualified support for torture.

Waterboarding is one of the most cruel torture techniques, used in many countries worldwide. The technique has been practiced, among others, by the Spanish Inquisition and by the French paratroopers in Algeria. It has been also used by American soldiers in Vietnam and by the British Army in Northern Ireland.

During waterboarding, the subject is immobilized keeping his back with the head inclined downwards. Water is then poured over the face and then it goes into breathing passages and triggers a reflex causing the subject to experience the sensation of drowning. CIA officers who volunteered to experience the technique have lasted an average of 14 seconds before capitulating.

Although there is some discrepancy on the legality on the use of this technique, there is no discrepancy on its consequences. “Waterboarding or mock drowning, where a prisoner is bound to an inclined board and water is poured over his face, inducing a terrifying fear of drowning clearly can result in immediate and long-term health consequences. As the prisoner gags and chokes, the terror of imminent death is pervasive, with all the physiologic and psychological responses expected, including an intense stress response, manifested by tachycardia (rapid heart beat) and gasping for breath. There is a real risk of death from actually drowning or suffering a heart attack or damage to the lungs from inhalation of water. Long term effects include panic attacks, depression and PTSD,” declared Dr. Allen Keller, director of the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture, at the Hearing on U.S. Interrogation Policy and Executive Order 13440, to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

There are also questions about the effectiveness of waterboarding as a torture technique. “It is bad interrogation. I mean you can get anyone to confess to anything if the torture is bad enough,” said former CIA officer Robert Baer. Several other former CIA officers have the same point of view.

Former President George W. Bush and officials in his administration such as former vice-president Dick Cheney and former attorney general John Ashcroft have stated, since leaving office, that they don’t consider waterboarding to be torture. However, Senator John McCain, who has some personal experience on this issue, has stated unequivocally that he considers waterboarding to be torture.

Evan Wallach, who teaches the law of war at Brooklyn Law School and New York Law School wrote in 2007 that a the Tokyo War Crimes Trials after World War II, leading Japanese officers were charged, among many other crimes, with torturing Allied military personnel and civilians. The critical proof upon which their torture convictions were based was conduct now called waterboarding.

“I would have no problems with describing this practice as falling under the prohibition for torture,” stated Louise Arbour, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. And she also stated that violators of the UN Convention Against Torture should be prosecuted under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

Former president George W. Bush insists in his book that waterboarding is not torture, but it is just one of a number of “enhanced interrogation techniques.” This point of view is not shared by officials within the British government, who agree with President Barak Obama that water boarding constitutes torture, and has banned the used of such practice.

Former president Bush said that waterboarding is “highly effective” and added that its use provided “large amounts of information.” Although former president Bush has no regrets in having authorized the use of torture, Douglas Johnson, executive director of the Center for Victims of Torture, declared, “This cavalier attitude by the President who authorized torture in violation of US and international law not only damages our nation’s credibility throughout the world, but also discourages global cooperation to combat terrorism.”

César Chelala, MD, PhD, is an award-winning writer on human rights and foreign policy issues.

During the last few years, Palestinian olive trees -- a universal symbol of life and peace-- have been systematically destroyed by Israeli settlers. “It has reached a crescendo. What might look like ad hoc violence is actually a tool the settlers are using to push back Palestinian farmers from their own land,” stated a spokeswoman for Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organization monitoring incidents in the West Bank.

The tree and its oil have a special significance throughout the Middle East. It is an essential aspect of Palestinian culture, heritage and identity, and has been mentioned in the Bible, the Qur’an, and the Torah. Many families depend on the olive trees for their livelihood.

Olive oil is a key product of the Palestinian national economy, and olive production is the main product in terms of total agricultural production, making up 25% of the total agricultural production in the West Bank. Palestinians plant around 10,000 new olive trees in the West Bank every year. Most of the new plants are from the oil-producing variety. Olive oil is the second major export item in Palestine.

For the last forty years, over a million of olive trees and hundreds of thousands of fruit trees have been destroyed in Palestinian lands. The Israel Defense Forces have been accused of uprooting olive trees to facilitate the building of settlements, expand roads and build infrastructure. The uprooting of centuries-old olive trees has caused tremendous losses to farmers and their families. At the same time, restrictions to harvesting have come through curfews, security closures and attacks by settlers.

The uprooting of olive trees by the Israel Defense Forces and by settlers are done to protect the settlers, since they are supposedly used to protect gunmen or stone throwers. “The tree removals are for the safety of settlers…No one should tell me that an olive tree is more important than a human life,” declared IDF army commander, Colonel Eitan Abrahams.

As a result of the attacks on farmers by the IDF and by settlers, the farmers “can’t get to their lands and work them. The settlers chase the farmers, shoot in the air, threaten their lives, confiscate their ID cards and damage the crops,” declared B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization.

Yesh Din has declared that not even one of 69 complaints filed during the past four years on damage to Palestinians trees in the West Bank has resulted n an indictment. The toll includes thousands of trees from several areas from Susya in the southern Hebron Hills to Salem in northern Samaria.

Rabbis for Human Rights has declared that, in recent weeks, the olives from about 600 trees near the settlement of Havat Gilad were stolen before their Palestinian owners could harvest them.

In a review he wrote on this issue, Atyaf Alwazir, a young Muslim American, stated that the uprooting of trees from Palestinian lands violates the Paris Protocols, The Hague and Geneva Conventions and the Covenant on Economics, Social and Cultural Rights. According to Sonja Karkar, founder of Women for Palestine in Melbourne, Australia, uprooting olive trees is contrary to the Halakha (the collective body of Jewish religious law) principle whose origin is found in the Torah, “Even if you are at war with a city….you must not destroy its trees.”

What do settlers actually want? To destroy Palestinians’ livelihood with impunity? To create a barren land, unfit for trees and people? Perhaps they should be reminded of the A.E. Housman verses,

Give me a land of boughs in leaf,

A land of trees that stand;

Where trees are fallen there is grief;

I love no leafless land.

César Chelala is an award-winning writer on human rights and foreign policy issues.

Gender violence, manifested essentially as violence against women, is one of the most significant epidemics in the Arab countries today. This kind of violence occurs in practically all countries in the region and affects families of all backgrounds, religions and social spheres. It affects not only families but societies as a whole.

Worldwide, violence is as common a cause of death and disability as cancer among women of reproductive age. It is also a greater cause of ill health than traffic accidents and malaria put together. Public health experts increasingly consider violence against women a public health issue, one requiring a public health approach.

Various cultural, economic and social factors, including shame and fear of retaliation from their partners, contribute to women’s reluctance to denounce these acts. The lack of effective judicial response to their accusations contributes to their discouragement.

The experience of violence makes women more susceptible to a variety of health problems such as depression, suicide, and alcohol and drug abuse. Sexual violence increases women’s risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, including VIH/AIDS (through forced sexual relations or because of the difficulty in persuading men to use condoms). It may also lead to various gynecological problems.

The World Organization Against Torture has expressed its concern regarding the high levels of violence against women worldwide. Although provisions related to domestic violence are included in several national policies and laws, there are difficulties in implementing them. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “nearly half of women who die due to homicide are killed by their current or former husbands or boyfriends.”

Studies carried out in the Arab world show that 70 percent of violence occurs in big cities, and that in almost 80 percent of cases those responsible are the heads of families, such as fathers or eldest brothers. Both fathers and eldest brothers, in most cases, assert their right to punish their wives and children in any way they see appropriate.

In recent years, there has been some progress regarding this issue. Tunisia, for example, continues to raise the bar for Arab women’s rights in the 21st century. In 1993, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who succeeded Habib Bourguiba as president of the country, improved the Code of Personal Status to give more rights to women. Article 207 in the penal code reducing the penalties for honor crimes was also abolished.

In Lebanon, there are no statistics about domestic violence, a subject that still remains a taboo in Lebanese society. In 2009, however, a photographer and women’s rights activist, Dalia Khamissy has produced, with nine other women, an exhibition of photographs, “Behind the Doors: Through the Eyes of Women Survivors of Violence,” which has served to highlight the problem in the country.

In 2009, the second Arab Regional Conference for Family Protection took place in Jordan. It was held under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania, chairperson of the National Council for Family Affairs (NCFA). The conference formulated a unified strategy for safeguarding families from domestic violence, with the attendance of family experts and sociologists from the Arab world,.

In Morocco, the Union of Women’s Action (UAF) has organized forums to raise public awareness of violence against women, and to lobby local groups to protect victimized women. At the same time, counseling centers have been set up to allow women to talk about their problem and to receive help. In Egypt, where the phenomenon is pervasive in society, Beit Hawa (The House of Eve) has been founded as the first comprehensive women’s shelter in Egypt and the Arab world.

But more work has to be done if this epidemic of violence is going to be controlled. Government and community leaders should spearhead an effort to create a culture of openness and support to eliminate the stigma associated with this situation.

The problem of domestic violence will be eliminated through both education and the widespread use of mass media. Through education, by instilling in the younger generations the concept of equality between men and women and the need for mutual respect to have an harmonious relationship between them. And by the use of mass media, to insist that it is a cowardly act for men to abuse women taking advantage that they are physically stronger, as suggests Carlos Duguech, a peace activist from Argentina.

Furthermore, it is necessary not only to enact but also to enforce legislation that criminalizes all forms of violence against women, including marital rape. Laws should be followed up with plans for specific national action.

The 2009 report by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) stated that women’s lack of social participation “is primarily attributable to the existence of discriminatory laws, failure to implement the non-discriminatory legislation that does exist and a lack of awareness by women of their rights in such matters.”

There cannot be true development in the Arab world without women’s progress and the recognition of their rights. As the last Human Development Report stated, “The rise of Arab women is in fact a prerequisite for an Arab renaissance and causally linked to the fate of the Arab world and its achievement of human development.”

César Chelala, MD, PhD, is an international public health consultant and the author of the Pan American Health Organization publication Violence in the Americas.

Perhaps there is no better observation of the government of Mrs. Cristina Kirchner, Argentina’s President, than the one given by Mario Vargas Llosa, the latest Nobel laureate in Literature. When asked about it, Mr. Vargas Llosa said that Mrs. Kirchner was leading a government riddled by corruption. “I love Argentina,” he told me recently in New York, “and it hurts me to see what is going on in your country.” The death of former president Néstor Kirchner will only make things more difficult for Mrs. Cristina Kirchner.

Mrs. Kirchner has made serious mistakes on several fronts. Among them, using rough tactics, government officials have dismantled the INDEC (National Institute of Statistics and Censuses) of its technical personnel and replaced them with those loyal to the government. As a result, that institution has lost all credibility. According to Argentina’s government, inflation in 2009 was below 8%. However, according to independent economists and consumer groups inflation ranged between 15 and 18% during that same year.

This doesn’t faze the president, who continues to insist that Argentina has a phenomenal economic growth rate. The astronomical raise in subsidies for poor families, however, belies her assertions. In a country’s usual paternalistic culture Mrs. Kirchner has taken that paternalism to extremes. Work ethics, an essential component of the social fabric necessary for a country’s development, is rapidly being eroded.

Mrs. Kirchner has also developed a confrontational style of government. As with many authoritarian leaders, she states that he who is not with her is against her and is to be treated accordingly. She has surrounded herself with a coterie of sycophants who seem to isolate her of reality. One of her ministers attends some meetings with a gun, which he ostentatiously places on top of a table before starting the discussion. She doesn’t seem to realize that people are increasingly against her policies and condemn her imperious behavior.

While Mr. Lula, Brazil’s president, incorporated 30 million poor into the middle class through his economic policies, more than 25% of Argentines live below the poverty line, a situation that has been sharply criticized by Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, Buenos Aires’s Archbishop, the Catholic Church’s highest authority in Argentina.

“We are noticing a situation of dramatic poverty and unemployment,” said Cardinal Bergoglio in 2009. “More and more people are sleeping in the streets, and they have become disposable materials,” he added. Cardinal Bergoglio’s words followed a message by Pope Benedict XVI to the Argentine government demanding action to combat “scandalous poverty.”

“There is no other country with such social regression, such social shame,” stated Bernardo Kosakoff, director of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in Argentina. I can easily believe this statement. As I write this, I am seated at a popular restaurant in Buenos Aires. Through the window I see a very old woman bent under the weight of the largest plastic bag I have ever seen full with garbage, which she collects from garbage cans placed on the street.

This is happening at the same time that the Kirchner’s personal fortune is increasing at outrageous levels. The Anti Corruption Bureau is conducting an investigation into alleged malfeasance by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, after a sworn statement by the president and her former husband stated that their assets had grown 158 percent in a year.

While quite efficient in their own financial affairs, the Kirchner’s have failed to create the conditions for Argentina’s future development. With the death of former president Néstor Kirchner, whom many people believed was the real power behind the throne, Mrs. Kirchner has the opportunity to change policy and exert her own mark in Argentina’s government. The country desperately needs it.

César Chelala is a writer on human rights and foreign policy issues.

President Barack Obama should investigate US’ forces involvement in human rights abuses in Iraq, declared Manfred Novak, the UN’s chief investigator on torture. A failure to investigate them would also be a failure of the Obama administration to recognize its obligations under international law, added Nowak. Nowak’s demands follow WikiLeaks' massive release of military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes.

According to Nowak, if the files released through WikiLeaks indicate a clear violation of the UN Convention Against Torture, the Obama administration has a clear obligation to investigate them. He added that UN human rights agreements oblige states to criminalize every form of torture, conducted either directly or indirectly, and to investigate any allegations of abuse.

Although both US and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exist, the Wikileaks logs show 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities. Although these are high figures, they do not include many more deaths from other causes during the Iraq conflict.

Information contained in the released information by WikiLeaks detail how the US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers. According to the Pentagon, however, when reports of abuse by the Iraq police or Iraq soldiers were received, the US military notified the responsible government of Iraq agency or ministry for investigation and follow-up.

In addition to Nowak’s demands, Phil Shiner, a human rights specialist at Public Interest Lawyers in the UK, declared that some of the deaths in the Iraq war logs could have also involved British forces and would be pursued through British courts. Shiner also demanded a public inquiry into allegations that British troops were responsible for Iraqi civilian deaths during the war.

Article 2 of the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment establishes that, 1. Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction. 2. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture. 3. An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.

Already in 2006, Manfred Novak had declared that the situation in Iraq, including the torture of prisoners, was “out of control”, with abuses being committed by security forces, militia groups and anti-US insurgents. “Torture may be worse now than under former leader Saddam Hussein,” he added.

Article 3 of the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment states that “No State Party shall expel, return (“refouler”) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.” The US, according to Nowak, had therefore an obligation “whenever they expel, extradite or hand over any detainees to the authorities of another state to assess whether or not these individuals are under specific risk of torture.” These conditions were not probably followed by US authorities.

Reacting to this new wave of leaks the Pentagon stated, “Our enemies will mine this information looking for insights into how we operate, cultivate sources and react in combat situations, even the capability of our equipment.” Unless there is a thorough investigation of abuses, however, we cannot expect an effective closure of this tragic chapter in US history.

Dr. César Chelala is an award-winning writer on human rights and foreign policy issues.

The rapid spread of the HIV infection in China is having a devastating impact on the country's children, and threatens to become an epidemic with significant social and public health repercussions due to the rapid rise in AIDS orphan population. The increased number of AIDS orphans in China parallels the increasing number of AIDS orphans worldwide, and is one of the most serious consequences of the AIDS epidemic today.

In rural China, many villages that up to now have had very few orphans have seen their rates soar following AIDS' deaths of their parents as a result of blood transfusions with contaminated needles. Until recently the remaining relatives used to take care of the children. Because in many cases those relatives are now affected by HIV/AIDS, they have become unable to provide basic support to children in their families. The toll on children has become so serious that UNICEF has included a new indicator related to the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in its "child risk measure."

In 2003 it was estimated that worldwide more than 13 million children under 15 had lost one or both parents to AIDS. Although Thailand has the largest number of AIDS orphans —usually defined as children under 15 who have lost their mother or both parents to AIDS—their number is increasing fast in other Asian countries.

In Cambodia, Malaysia and India, the number of AIDS orphans has increased by 400 percent from 1994 to 1997. This rate of increase is similar to that of countries such as Namibia, South Africa and Botswana. Although proportionally the number of AIDS' orphans in Asia is much lower than in Sub-Saharan Africa, in absolute numbers there are more orphans due to AIDS in Asia than in Africa.

Orphaning is a worldwide problem. It is estimated that by 2010 106 million children will lose one or both parents, and 25 million of them will be orphaned because of AIDS. According to estimates of China's Ministry of Health there are at least 100,000 AIDS orphans in China. UNICEF's China Office estimates that over the next five years 150,000 to 250,000 additional children will be orphaned by AIDS.

Since 2003, UNICEF has worked with local health authorities and workers, the Women's Federation and communities to provide both psychological and social support to children affected by AIDS. It has also provided support to Summer Camps for Children Affected by AIDS, helping raise awareness about their needs.

Children orphaned because of their parents' death by AIDS are likely to be malnourished and unschooled, and are at greater risk of becoming HIV-infected themselves. At the same time, because they are emotionally vulnerable, when they grow up they may tend to engage in risky sexual behavior that may lead to a vicious cycle of abuse and exploitation.

What makes this situation particularly worrisome is that the number of orphans will continue to rise for at least the next decade. Orphans due to HIV/AIDS are part of a much larger problem, since countries that have high rates of AIDS' orphans also have high number of children directly affected by the epidemic, and who are often just as vulnerable. Although their total number is difficult to assess, it has been estimated that over 3 million children worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS.

It is necessary to develop a major educational campaign to make people aware of the dangers of the infection not only to them but also the risks it poses to their children. The majority of people in China still don't know how HIV is transmitted. According to a survey carried out in 2004 by the Futures Group Europe and the Beijing-based Horizon Research Group, only 8.7 of Chinese knew how HIV is transmitted and 25 percent of rural residents hadn't even heard of the infection.

To help AIDS' orphans in a more immediate and practical way it is necessary to strengthen the capacity of extended families to protect and care for orphan children by providing them with financial aid by local councils or provincial governments. Orphan children's special needs should also be addressed through community-based responses and by increasing the capacity of local orphanages.

It is also necessary to support the work of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) such as the China AIDS Orphan Fund who have been working in collaboration with other NGOs to improve Chinese orphans' health, education, and quality of life.

It is critical to diminish the stigma surrounding the HIV infection. Often times, children who have lost their parents to AIDS are assumed to be also infected with HIV, which further stigmatizes them. It is critical to develop new government policies including legal, education and labor frameworks, and to make sure that these policies will be followed.

Dr. César Chelala is an international public health consultant and the author of AIDS: A Modern Epidemic, a Pan American Health Organization publication.

With hopes for a successful outcome to the peace negotiations initiated by the Obama administration rapidly evaporating, where do the Palestinians go from here? The leading Israeli peace organization, Gush Shalom, has proposed that the Palestinian people declare statehood. It would welcome the declaration of the Free State of Palestine, says Gush Shalom. And the Arab League is prepared to request recognition from the UN General Assembly of a Palestinian State.

The Netanyahu government in lifting the floodgates of Israeli construction in East Jerusalem has in fact condemned the negotiations to failure: more Israeli settlements will be built on Palestinian land, more expulsions of Palestinians. In 2008 alone, 4,600 Palestinians were shorn of their residence papers and banished from their homes.

The Palestinians have made considerable concessions over the years in accepting a territory limited to the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, an area significantly smaller than that awarded them under UN resolution 181. At the time of that resolution, which recommended the division of the British Mandate of Palestine into two provisional states--one Jewish and one Arab--the General Assembly also recommended that the City of Jerusalem be administered by the United Nations, an option that certainly remains valid today.

There is little doubt that the Israeli government would condemn and reject a unilateral declaration of statehood, as it did back in 1978 at Camp David when Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian president, called for the creation of a Palestinian State in Gaza and the West Bank. The status of Jerusalem, however, is another matter: a precedent exists with the proposal made in 2007 by then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that East Jerusalem become the capital of the future Palestinian state.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has stated that he favors a two-state solution to the Palestinian problem although the decisions of his government belie that position. A unilateral declaration of statehood is fraught with complications and Mr. Netanyahu has warned the Palestinians that such a declaration would prompt Israeli counter-measures including annexation of more of the occupied West Bank. From the standpoint of international law and UN Security Council Resolution 465, any further annexation of Palestinian land would be illegal. Moreover, installing Israeli citizens on occupied land would constitute a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and a crime of war.

A declaration of statehood would provide the Palestinian people with a much needed sense of belonging to each other and to the community of nations, at the same time redressing one of the greatest injustices of recent times. Palestinians cannot forget that they once occupied the land from which they are now forcibly ejected. As the poet said, “There is no more cruel prison than memory.”

Dr. César Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

Tucumán, Argentina

Coming home to my native Tucumán, a city in the North of Argentina, has become almost a ritual for me. And, predictably, it has its bittersweet moments.

My native town and New York, the city where I have lived for the last 40 years, are quite different. Relatively small and gregarious the former, the latter is big and anonymous.

Bitter moments are learning the loss of loved ones, whose impact is greater when living far away. The loss is compounded by a feeling of nostalgia (nostalgia is not what it used to be, as the saying goes). It happens when realizing that the city one has left is now a totally new city, a totally new and different urban landscape.

Pablo Neruda, the noted Chilean poet, poignantly expressed this feeling. Coming back to Chile, after a long stay overseas he wrote in the poem “Return to a city” (translated by Alastair Reid):

I come back not to return;
no more do I wish to mislead myself.
It is dangerous to wander
backward, for all of a sudden
the past turns into a prison.

These unsettling feelings are balanced by seeing old friends and relatives again, and by the pleasures of the unexpected.

I travel with my wife to Salta, a town further north. On the way we stop at Amaicha del Valle, a small town in the mountains reputed —at least by the natives— to have the best climate in the world. Remembering that a cousin whom I haven´t seen in more than 45 years lives there, I ask several people about him. Nobody knows him. I am disappointed. We have lunch at a popular restaurant. I ask the owner, a jovial 80-year-old who I discover later is a very good poet: “Of course I know him,” he laughs. “He lives just across the street.” I cross the street and knock on the door. My cousin and his wife come out. He doesn´t recognize me. I take my dark glasses off. He still doesn´t recognize me so I tell him who I am. Our eyes moisten, we join in a long embrace. Afterwards, we go back to the restaurant where the owner regales us with some of his wonderful poems. Life is beautiful.

We are back in my hometown. Today is a cool day in a normally torrid town. I go to the city´s main square, which looks like most town squares in Latin America, from Mexico in the North to Argentina and Chile in the South, to listen to the State Symphonic Band. The program includes music by Cole Porter, Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin.

Although the concert is at noon, the 60 musicians in the orchestra are all formally dressed in black. Their suits are old, and so are the rumbling loudspeakers which occasionally interrupt the performance. But the noises don´t bother me. I am captivated by the scene.

I am sitting near a bass player. My attention is drawn to the strange shape of his instrument. The bridge belongs to another bass and its cords (2 made of steel and 2 of nylon) are held together by a series of knots. And… it has a big hole on the side. None of this fazes the musician, who handles it lovingly, as if it were the best bass in the world.

In the meantime, a couple dances under the shadow of a big and beautiful tree, as one of them holds their dog by the leash. I see the face of a woman who reminds me of the mother of a friend, both of them now dead. I feel another pang of nostalgia for what I believe were better, happier times.

After the concert I ask the bass player how he manages to play an instrument in such bad shape. He answers that the instruments are state property and that sometimes the handlers are careless. “But I love music,” he tells me sadly, “and I have to make do with what I have.”

César Chelala is a writer on human rights and foreign policy issues.

Rape as a weapon of war continues to take a heavy toll on women’s lives in today’s conflicts around the world. A high proportion of the women who are victims of rape end up infected with sexually transmitted diseases and infections, including HIV. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is experiencing an almost perpetual state of internal strife and lacks medicines and basic health-care services, particularly in rural areas. As a result, becoming HIV-infected is virtually a death sentence for many women.

Rape happens on a wide scale in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Sudan. In the DRC, where more than 3 million people have been displaced by war, rape victims are counted in the tens of thousands. According to some estimates, up to 60 percent of combatants in the DRC are HIV-infected, and can transmit the infection to the women they rape. As Anne-Christine d’Adesky, executive director of Women’s Equity in Access to Care and Treatment stated, “Rape is an engine of HIV infection.”

In Uganda, soldiers from the Lord’s Resistance Army have raped and mutilated women during their struggle to replace the government in the country. Despite the cessation of hostilities the situation in the country remains grim. “The horrific violence committed during the many years of conflict in northern Uganda continues to aggravate discrimination against women and girls in the area today,” stated Godfrey Odongo, Amnesty International’s researcher in Kampala.

While rape in Rwanda has stopped, in Sudan and the DRC human-rights activists say girls as young as 3 years old have been raped with knives, sticks and guns. In the DRC, gang rape has become so common that thousands of women suffer from vaginal fistulas, which leave them unable to control bodily functions and lead to lifelong debilitating health problems.

Rape as a way of humiliating women, their families and their communities is frequently conducted in public, in front of husbands and children. It is, in essence, a brutal way to show or maintain dominance over the women and their families.

There are many other consequences of rape aside from the obvious physical and psychological violence of the act and the high risk of HIV. Many women get pregnant after being raped. In many cases raped women are later killed by their attackers. Among those that survive a high proportion are forced to become sex slaves.

Many men view the rape of their wives as a form of humiliation not only against them but also against their ethnic, tribal or religious group. Many husbands and communities reject rape victims and even their children. The women, having endured the brutality of the rape itself and its physical and psychological consequences, afterwards find themselves denied their most basic human rights.

Even when pregnancy does not occur, men in patriarchal societies still may reject their wives, mothers or daughters after they have been raped.

Is it possible to do something about a situation that causes so much harm to women? Many non-governmental organizations are working with victims of rape, trying to re-integrate them into society, despite the strong social stigma against them. But their efforts should be supported by other actions.

It is imperative to do educational work with men in the military to make them aware of the consequences on women of their atrocities and the importance of stopping this kind of violence. “I actually believe out of many interviews with hundreds of men that this is possible,” declared recently in a TV interview Zainab Salbi, founder of Women for Women International.

At the same time it is crucial to find and punish the perpetrators. “It is of the utmost importance that the Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to pursue its efforts to fight impunity,” said a recent U.N. Security Council statement following the mass rape of more than 200 women and children in Congo by Rwandan and Congolese rebels.

Rape of women during conflicts, particularly now in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and its impact on the spreading of HIV/AIDS has been one of most neglected areas of intervention in recent times. It is time to bring this knowledge to the fore and improve a situation that has such devastating consequences on women’s lives and well being.

Dr. César Chelala, an international public health consultant, is an award-winning writer on human rights issues. He is the author of “AIDS: A Modern Epidemic,” a publication of the Pan American Health Organization.

“To me it means that it will bring life back to that horrible, horrible, tragic site. All we think about when we see Ground Zero is death and destruction. Except for tomorrow, when we’ll talk about life, renewal, and rebirth,” said Ronaldo Vega, design director for the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. He was referring to a group of trees (400 swamp white oaks and sweet gums) that were planted at that tragic place.

Since I live a few blocks away from Ground Zero I still remember that terrible day, when all our lives were changed forever. I was inside my apartment when I heard shouts and cries from the street below. “Oh, no, no, NO!” “Oh my God!” were repeatedly being said. I rushed downstairs (I had been watching on TV what happened after the first plane hit the towers when I heard the cries) and heard that a second plane had hit the towers.

Together with other bystanders I rushed towards the site when we saw a large group of people rushing back shouting “Go back, go back, for God’s sake go back!” We run back only to learn that it had been a false alarm and no further attacks were happening. Without exactly understanding what was going on I still remember the feeling that a relatively peaceful way of life was being replaced by a darker, more sinister one. A feeling of tremendous sadness invaded me.

Shortly afterwards we learned the details of what had happened, and we heard the stories and saw the images of those jumping voluntarily to their certain deaths rather than being trapped in a tramp of fire inside their offices. And as we learned of the heroic behavior of hundreds of firefighters who had risked --and many of them lost-- their lives, we also learned personal harrowing stories of some of those who died there.

One of them, the son of a friend, who just had enough time to call his brother and tell him, “Please tell Mom and Dad that I love them a lot as I love you,” before the communication was cut off. Or the employee of a big firm who left the towers, called his wife to tell her that he was OK after the first plane hit, came back to retrieve some documents from his office and died shortly afterwards by the inclement fire that ravaged his office.

On a new anniversary of the tragedy I wonder about what can be learned from it? One of the main lessons is that, as has been shown many times before, violence begets violence. And intolerance begets intolerance. Unless there is a new approach to terrorist actions we will continue to live under the threat of avoidable acts of terror.

To stop terrorism it is important to address the root causes rather than what we imagine is behind those actions. To pretend that terrorists attack us because they are envious of democracy or of the American way of life is nothing short of naïve.

Terrorists attack us because of the shortcomings of Western powers’ (notably the U.S.) foreign policy. Just as we would not admit foreign troops into our country, people from other countries do not willingly accept the presence of foreign troops in their country. This has been repeatedly demonstrated in the case of Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.

In New York, intolerance is shown by the widespread reaction to building a community center, including a mosque, near Ground Zero. A recent fire (reportedly arson) at a planned Islamic Center in a Nashville, Tennessee, suburb is an expression of a climate of hatred and intolerance that will increase animosity among religious groups and unnecessarily increase fear, fueling new terrorist acts.

It is critical to develop approaches that increase goodwill among nations and opposing groups. President Barack Obama has wisely refused to continue the vocally aggressive approach of his predecessor. But more than that is needed. Dialogue is a pre-condition for understanding. We have hardly begun to explore opportunities for civil conversation with other nations, particularly Islamic nations.

Unless Americans show tolerance and a willingness to listen, the dark cloud of misunderstanding and violence will continue to exert its negative presence in our lives. American acceptance of an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero, the current graphic symbol of hatred and violence born of misunderstanding, would be a positive, visible proof that we want to move beyond pain, hatred and the cycle of violence. Ground Zero would then become not a self-defeating shrine to the memory of terrorism, but a testament to the willingness to rebuild a new reality based on religious and cultural tolerance.

Dr. César Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

Every 24 seconds, a motor vehicle is stolen in the United States. Contrary to popular belief, thieves not only target expensive cars, but most frequently, the cars more often stolen are in the middle price range. Cars are stolen not for their value but for the resale value of their parts particularly valuable when they are no longer manufactured or are too difficult or too expensive to obtain.

Stolen cars transported across frontiers have become common features in many countries, an almost inevitable consequence of globalization.

Recently in Albania, I was amazed at the high number of Mercedes Benz cars in Tirana, Albania’s capital city, until a friend explained to me that many among them were stolen cars that came originally from Germany. A similar sight can be observed in many Central American countries where stolen cars from the U.S. make their way south of the Mexican border.

I was recently talking to a policeman, and when I told him that I lived in Soho, in downtown Manhattan, he asked me what type of car I had. When I told him it was one of the leading Japanese models, he told me, “You are a prime candidate to have your car stolen.” When I asked him the reason, he explained that Japanese cars have a very good resale price and that living in downtown Manhattan, I was near the Holland tunnel. It is thus very easy for the robbers to go to New Jersey, out of reach of the New York police. From New Jersey, the car can be transported to other States. Since the policeman’s comment, I decided to use a parking garage rather than keeping the car in the street, although garage prices in New York can run into several hundred dollars a month.

Recent research from the Netherlands found that thieves are less likely to steal brightly colored cars because they have a lower resale value. They can also be more easily detected. Of 109 pink cars in the study, none were stolen.

In former times, when thieves didn’t steal the car, they would break the window and take the portable radio or CD player. For a very long time, parking the car in the street used to be a rather annoying experience, particularly when one was liable to find the window broken and the interior of the car vandalized.

My wife had this unpleasant experience when she left the car in a suburban parking lot. The car was stolen by some adolescents for a joy ride, and when the police returned it, the interior had been totally vandalized --probably by the police looking for hidden drugs.

A physician friend of mine had apparently solved this problem. When he parked his car in the street, he used to put a note in the window saying, “NO RADIO, NO CD PLAYER, NO VALUABLES INSIDE.” For a long time his car was safe and my friend was very happy at having fooled potential robbers. Until one day, he came back to his car and found a note in the back window saying, “NOW, NO SPARE TIRE”.

Dr. César Chelala is a writer on human rights and foreign policy issues.

The return of U.S. forces from Iraq in what is euphemistically called the end of the Iraq war is anything but the end of the conflict. The consequences of the war will be felt for many years to come. Former President George W. Bush and his advisers should be blamed for engaging in a war that has ravaged Iraq and cost the United States not only economically but also the lives and well being of hundreds of thousands of its soldiers.

As of February of 2010, approximately $700 billion had been spent in the war. This figure is based on current expenditure rates from figures from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), and estimates by the Nobel Prize economist Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes from Harvard University.

According to Stiglitz and Bilmes, the total cost of the Iraq war will probably exceed three trillion dollars in a moderate scenario. As Stiglitz has stated, “This number represents the cost only to the U.S. It does not reflect the enormous cost to the rest of the world, or to Iraq.”

A major contributor to the war’s final cost is the medical care and disability benefits provided to veterans. Since medical consequences don’t become immediately apparent, in addition to present costs, claims are likely to be filed for years after the end of the war.

It is estimated that 20 percent of survivors have suffered major head or spinal injuries, 18 percent have suffered serious wounds and an additional six percent are amputees. More than 7,000 veterans with severe brain, spinal and other injuries will require very expensive round-the-clock care. Presently, government medical facilities in the U.S. are overwhelmed by the needs of soldiers who served in Iraq.

In addition to the economic costs described are the high number of suicides among the veterans, the mental health impact of those that survived and the costs to the families’ economies and well being. These costs also do not include the waste of resources or the cost to the Iraq treasury of theft and corruption both by Iraqi officials and by U.S. contractors.

As Iraqi civilian casualties continue to mount –a reflection of internecine conflicts exacerbated by the U.S. occupation, the effects on Iraqi children are staggering. More than half a million children have been traumatized by the war, according to UNICEF. “Iraqi children, already casualties of a quarter of a century of conflict and deprivation, are being caught up in a rapidly worsening humanitarian tragedy,” warned that organization in 2007.

28 percent of children suffer from some degree of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), according to Dr. Haithi Al Sady, Dean of the Psychological Research Center at Baghdad University. How could they not, when they still are being affected by daily explosions, killings, abductions and turmoil in Iraq’s main cities?

More than 2 million children have been displaced from their homes as a result of the war. Children and their families have become refugees in neighboring countries. The sudden influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees has overburdened the recipient countries’ health and social services. In addition, the “brain drain” of doctors and other professionals forced to leave the country has had a negative impact in the quality of services in Iraq.

“Iraqis are suffering from a growing lack of food, shelter, water and sanitation, health care, education and employment,” according to a 2007 report compiled by OXFAM and the NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq (NCCI). The continuing violence since then has only made matters worse.

Hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths, a ravaged infrastructure, a non-functioning and corrupt government and a society terrorized by unending violence is the sad result of a greedy war, in flagrant violation of international norms and treaties. To call the Iraq war a “Pyrrhic victory” is an understatement.

Dr. César Chelala is an international public health consultant and a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

There is no denying that big cities have a special attraction to most people. And New York, being one of the biggest cities in the world, has many qualities that make it unique. Not so for me at the beginning.

I came to New York in 1971 with my wife and daughter to do research in microbial genetics, a new field of research for me. Despite my having lived previously in Buenos Aires, another big city, for five years, the culture shock was tremendous for me (my wife had been here before). And it didn’t help that when we arrived we were sent to the wrong place.

The hotel our hosts –lovely people- had reserved for us had two different wings that couldn’t have been more different: one new, the other old and unattractive, full of sour, strange characters. Out hosts were unaware of this disparity and we ended up in the old wing. Not only was our room old but it was foul-smelling to boot, inhabited by roaches and other insects that terrified my daughter and unnerved my wife and me.

My English was extremely poor. I could manage at reading and writing it but had almost no experience speaking it. My wife, on the other hand, was an English professor who had spoken the language since childhood. These difficulties with the language, together with an unwelcoming and strange environment made me want to take a plane back home soon after I arrived in the city.

Fortunately, my wife’s common sense prevailed and we stayed, felt more used to our new surroundings and soon some friends of friends lent us an apartment before we finally rented our own. From then on we felt totally at ease with the city. New York, so harsh for me at the beginning, has become our home for almost 40 years.

The possibility to meet unusual people is one of the great attractions of a cosmopolitan city like New York which I particularly treasure. I recently had brunch with a friend at an old, wood-paneled restaurant located in the basement of a Greenwich Village hotel. The place at one time had probably seen the likes of Mary McCarthy, Allen Ginsberg, and Edmund Wilson.

As we talked about what makes New York such an interesting place I told my companion an anecdote about the city. I was returning home from dinner at a friend’s house on a frigid winter evening. There were only two people in my subway car sitting close to each other and near an end of the car: an older woman and myself.

We were both silent. She was reading a magazine and I was lost in my own thoughts when we heard a loud, repetitive noise coming from the other end of the car. Suddenly, we saw a young man coming through the door. Despite the extremely cold weather he was only dressed in shorts, a T-shirt and a huge Mexican sombrero with small hanging trinkets in it playing with a basketball as he walked from car to car. My fellow passenger and I looked at each other. Then, she said quietly “Only in New York, only in New York.”

Not to be outdone, my friend told me his favorite subway incident. After shopping the whole afternoon, he and his wife took the subway home. In front of them sat a rather disheveled man, in itself not an unusual sight in New York.

What caught my friend’s attention, however, was that the man was reading a book intently and completely oblivious to his surroundings, without bothering to lift his gaze even for a second, so enthralled was he by his book. What also surprised my friend was this man’s hostile and angry expression, which caused unease in both his wife and himself.

What could that man be reading, my friend wondered, that made him fix his attention on the book in front of him? No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t read its title. Finally, my friend’s curiosity was rewarded. Just before getting off, he was able to look at the man’s source of attention. Disheveled and angry-looking as he was, the man was reading “How to Win Friends and Influence People”.

César Chelala is a writer on human rights and foreign policy issues.

The recent statements by Gen James Jones, President Obama’s national security adviser that the door is open for President Obama to meet with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad if the Iranians agree to resume talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regarding their nuclear program could break the impasse in the situation with that country. President Ahmadinejad should eagerly take this opportunity to present Iran’s position to President Obama and improve relations with the U.S.

“There is no point in a theatrical meeting,” stated Gen Jones in an interview with CNN. “One thing they must do is return our three hikers. That would be an important gesture. It could lead to better relations.” Improved relations are now more necessary ever, given the controversy created by the start-up of the Bushehr nuclear power plant. The conditions under which the plant will start providing energy to Iranian cities could become a model for other nuclear plants in the country devoted to peaceful purposes.

Russia has pledged to safeguard the site and prevent spent nuclear fuel to make nuclear weapons and the U.S. State Department released a statement indicating that it does not see the fueling of Iran’s first nuclear power plant in Bushehr as a “proliferation risk.” The Obama administration, hoping to lower the prospects for an Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, has assured Israel that it would probably take a year or even longer for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.

That is not Israel’s position, however. “World powers must strengthen pressure against Iran to comply with international decisions, stop its activities in uranium enrichment and heavy water plants, and respond to the criticism against it,” said a statement issued by Israel’s foreign ministry. However, Israel itself has refused to sign the Non Proliferation Treaty and is widely assumed to have an arsenal of between 100 and 200 hundred nuclear weapons.

In September of 2009, the General Conference of the IAEA called on Israel to open its nuclear facilities to IAEA inspection and adhere to the non-proliferation treaty as part of a resolution on “Israeli nuclear capabilities.” “Israel will not co-operate in any matter with this resolution,” declared the chief Israeli delegate to the conference.

As a signatory of the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has a right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful use. Iran’s officials have stated that Iran will accept that monitors from the IAEA have access to the fuel shipments at Bushehr, located 745 miles south of Tehran. IAEA officials were at the site last Saturday as the first truckloads of fuel were moved from a storage site to a “pool” inside the reactor, part of the agreement with the Iranian authorities.

This happens at the same time that international media and neoconservative figures in the U.S. continue beating the drums for a war against Iran. That is the case of former U.S. ambassador to the UN John Bolton. In what can only be described as an irresponsible statement, Bolton stated that Israel had a window of opportunity of eight days to attack Bushehr’s nuclear reactor. What Bolton and other neoconservatives in Washington refuse to acknowledge are the tremendous consequences that such a move by Israel would entail, including dragging the U.S. into the confrontation.

Ahmadinejad’s ranting against Israel cannot be a justification for a war against that country. At the same time, he cannot afford to lose this opportunity and take Gen James Jones offer by immediately releasing the three U.S. hikers it is keeping under detention and engaging in serious diplomatic talks with the U.S. At stake is not only Iran’s nuclear program, but a safer world as well.

Dr César Chelala, a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award, writes extensively on human rights and foreign policy issues.

On one of my visits to Cuba on UN-sponsored health-related missions I received one of my most useful foreign policy lessons from a young Cuban. On learning that my group came from the U.S., he told us, “Americans don’t understand Cuban reality. They can get more changes in Cuba with Levi jeans than with an armed invasion.”

His commonsensical reflection is in stark contrast with the U.S. government Cuban policy. The election of president Obama raised hopes that there would be a dramatic change of policy towards Cuba. After all, in April of 2009 he had said that it was time to end “old ideologies and stale debates.”

The recent release by Havana of 20 political prisoners and its promise that it would release 32 more hasn’t elicited a commensurate reaction from the U.S. At the same time, Ricardo Alarcón, the president of the Cuban Parliament, declared that Cuba would later release all political prisoners not guilty of criminal acts. This had been one of the most critical demands of the U.S. government.

However, with the same passion that an old person still feels for a youthful love affair, the U.S. government has persisted in a policy that has brought it only derision, particularly in Latin America. The lack of benefits has been of no concern to several U.S. administrations.

Except for the U.S., the whole world perceives that Cuban policies have remained unchanged in the face of the 50 year-old embargo; nor has the embargo improved the quality of Cuban lives. Instead, it has brought enormous hardships to the Cuban people and allowed the Castro brothers to exert tighter control on the population.

Much can certainly be blamed on the Cuban government, such as repression and imprisonment of political dissenters and economic policies that have only exacerbated the Cubans’ difficult situation, many living from remittances of relatives overseas. But these policies are not worse than similar or even more punishing policies on countries such as China, with which the U.S. has normal trade relations.

Miguel Angel Moratinos, Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, recently declared in Madrid that the release of Cuban prisoners may very well lead to a significant change of the European Union’s policies towards Havana. He also stated, “We will change the European Union shared position on Cuba and we expect that this will lead to a lifting of the U.S. blockade of that country.”

The Cuban government has already participated in more than 200 joint ventures with foreign corporations, although none of them is American. At the same time, there are also offices and representatives in Havana of over 500 companies from around the world. U.S. agricultural exports to Cuba reached a peak of $710 million in 2008 a small amount compared to potential sales under regular conditions. Representative Collin Peterson, chairman of the House Agricultural Committee is supporting a bill, now making the rounds in Congress, which would normalize trade with Cuba and end the embargo.

Arguably, Florida anti-Castro community would be incensed by such a change and the president would lose support of some important legislators. However, the younger Cuban Americans don’t share the older generation opinion of the conflict with Havana. Should the administration take decisive action to end the embargo it may gain the President some significant support, once its advantages become clear.

Cubans would not be the only ones to benefit. At a time of scarce and expensive energy resources, a new estimate by Cubapetróleo (CUPET) raises the oil off its shores to 20 billion bbl. in Cuba’s northwest coast. Even a smaller amount could contribute to alleviate U.S. energy needs.

To persist on the wrong course of action, one that hasn’t produced any significant results in 50 years is like following a sophomoric policy regardless of the suffering it has caused the Cuban people. It is an inexcusable policy for a superpower.

César Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

This has been in New York, as in many other cities around the world, a punishing summer. On one of the first nights the weather gave us a respite, I went to a new place for dinner, a Turkish restaurant a friend had enthusiastically recommended to me. I had intended to go for several weeks but the weather didn’t help me to make a decision about it.

An Adana Kebab plate looked particularly enticing, among other things because my maternal grandmother had been borne in that city. The dish was as delightful as I hoped it would be, a real treat. I mentioned my connection to Adana to the restaurant’s owner. “Oh, Adana,” he said, “what wonderful food they have there!”

After a short walk, I was in Washington Square Park, perhaps the most famous and active park in the city, visited every day by thousands of people. Here come tourists, neighborhood folks, misfits, artists of every kind and (including con artists), and a modern curse, drug dealers and buyers. It is a truly strange but wonderfully attractive mixture of people.

I had started walking towards the center of the park when I heard some wonderful jazz music coming from an alley. As I approached, I saw a trio of a drummer, a double bass player and a saxophonist performing. There was a relatively small, but appreciative audience.

A cool breeze coming through the tall trees, a full moon and an old-fashion looking street lantern made it all look like a Magritte painting, an additional bonus to a beautiful night.

As I was listening enraptured to the music, I saw in the scant evening light a beautiful black woman slowly passing by, dancing with incredible grace to the music being played. She was followed by her companion, who was offering one dollar cold water bottles in a hush voice. She interrupted her dancing to handle the water bottles to the customers and to receive payment.

The person sitting next to me bought a bottle and paid her with a $20 bill. She took the money and handed it to her companion who continued walking without giving her back the change. “Hey,” she said to him, “it is a $20 bill!” In what seemed like a well-rehearsed act he answered laughing, “Well, everybody has to make a living, isn’t that so!”

He handed her the change, took her by her waist and now the two of them were dancing to the jazz tunes, this time to music by the legendary Brazilian musician Antonio Carlos Jobim. They danced and laughed, danced and laughed, their erotic vibes filling the atmosphere. In the meantime, the cold water bottles were waiting on the side. Beautiful music, beautiful dance, good humor. It was a moment to treasure. It was another summer evening in New York.

César Chelala is a writer on human rights and foreign policy issues.

In 2003, several weeks before the start of the Iraq war, I wrote an article on the impending war in which I warned against the terrible humanitarian consequences that a war against that country would unleash. I never imagined that they would be much worse than the nightmarish scenario that I painted in my article.

A recent article by Drs. Busby, Hamdan and Ariabi in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health describes the consequences on the civilian population of the coalition forces’ attack on Fallujah in 2004. Their conclusions are based on a study they conducted in January and February of 2010, in which a team of researchers visited 711 houses in Fallujah and obtained responses to a questionnaire in Arabic on cancer, birth defects and infant mortality.

Among their findings are dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukemia years after the attack on that city. The infant mortality rate was 80 per 1,000 live births, more than 4 times the rate in Egypt and in Jordan, and some 9 times the rate in Kuwait. After 2009, the infant mortality rate increased even more markedly, to 136 deaths for 1,000 live births.

Already in 2005, Iraqi doctors in Fallujah stated that they were being overwhelmed by the number of babies born with serious defects, and they also reported on the high number of cancer and miscarriages suffered by the city’s population. The rate of babies born with heart defects is said to be 13 higher those born in Europe.

Professor Chris Busby, an expert in the effects of radiation on humans said that uranium particles can alter the DNA of sperm and eggs from contaminated adults and cause a multitude of birth defects in any baby they conceive. A doctor in Fallujah quoted by Inter Press Service stated, “I can say all kinds of toxic pollution took place in Fallujah after the November 2004 massacre.”

The U.S. military, which at first denied it had used white phosphorus as an anti-personnel weapon in Fallujah, later retracted that denial and admitted using it. However, the Pentagon argues that white phosphorus doesn’t poison people but burns them. In consequence, it is covered by the protocol on incendiary weapons, which the U.S. hasn’t signed. While Saddam Hussein’s use of white phosphorus against the Kurds was severely criticized, the same criticism should apply to the use of white phosphorus against civilians in Fallujah.

In addition to white phosphorus, depleted uranium (DU) munitions, which contain low-level radioactive waste, were extensively used in Fallujah. According to the Pentagon, 1,200 tons of DU have been used thus far in Iraq.

Reports covering the U.S. offensive on Fallujah state that widespread human rights abuses were committed, including indiscriminate violence against civilians and children.

Writing for The Independent Patrick Cockburn says, “In the assault US commanders largely treated Fallujah as a free-fire zone to try to reduce casualties among their own troops. British officials were appalled by the lack of concern for civilian casualties.”

A documentary produced by RAI, the Italian state TV, shows a series of photographs from Fallujah corpses with the flesh burnt off but clothes still intact, a finding consistent with the effects of white phosphorus on humans. I am reminded of a poem by Yusef Komunyakaa “You and I are Disappearing,” whose first stanza says,

The cry I bring down from the hills

belongs to a girl still burning

inside my head. At daybreak

she burns like a piece of paper.

Dr. César Chelala is an international public health consultant.

It cannot be denied that the recent World Cup helped focus on one of the world’s most popular sports. And it cannot also be denied that psychology plays an important part on who is going to be the winner.

During the World Cup, the Algerian team prepared for its matches by watching the legendary movie “The Battle of Algiers.” The movie, which depicts the fight of Algerians against the French ruling their country, perhaps helped them to a reasonable performance during the Cup.

The Brazilian team, which was on the way to what the players thought was a certain victory, particularly after the first goal against the Dutch, saw their hopes crushed after the Dutch tied the game and went on to win it at the end. Here psychology played against the Brazilians.

Psychology also played against the Argentinians, who, led by the legendary Diego Armando Maradona were convinced they were going to be among the finalists. An early goal by the Germans, a couple of minutes after the start of the game, was a factor in their poor performance and the ultimate 4 to 0 defeat of their team.

Thinking about that psychological effect brought to my mind an event that happened years ago. My town’s basketball team had been on a losing streak, and the players’ mood could be said to be underground. Never before in the history of the club had they had such ruinous performances.

The officials at the club were desperate. They talked to the players, they offered them incentives, they threatened to fire them, all to no avail. The team continued losing. This happened until finally one of the officials had a brilliant idea on how to improve the situation. Why not use the services of a psychologist to better the team’s morale?

The one finally chosen was a friend of mine, known to all by the nickname “Rabbit” obviously because of his uncanny resemblance to that animal. My friend was a hardworking but down to earth professional. I knew he was going to do his best to improve the team’s performance.

In effect, during a long holiday the players were called back to work with my friend. He used several techniques to lift the players’ spirits. Movies, music, pep talks, role playing, everything was tried and nothing seemed to work. When the season resumed, the team continued losing every single game. The fans were disappointed and the club officials were furious with my friend.

One day, I was doing errands downtown when I met the Rabbit. I couldn’t help asking him how things were going. “Terrific,” he answered. “Come on, Rabbit,” I told him, “what do you mean, terrific? Your team has continued losing every single game since you became their psychologist.” “That is correct,” he answered, unperturbed, “but now my job is done. Now, when they lose a game, they at least feel good about themselves!”

César Chelala is a writer on human rights and foreign policy issues.

Russia has one of the world’s most serious epidemics of injection drug-use, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS. It is estimated that Russia has two million injecting drug users (IDUs), 60-70% of whom have HIV-related illnesses. In the past decade, the number of HIV-infected people has increased from an estimated 100,000 to over one million.

Sharing syringes by injecting drug users is the most prevalent cause of HIV transmission in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, where it is responsible for more than 80 percent of all HIV infections.

The Russian authorities have come under strong, widespread criticism for their policies aimed at dealing with the IDU/HIV epidemic. Education to control drug abuse has focused primarily on the promotion of drug abstinence. In addition, officials have relied on criminalization as the main deterrent. That approach has created obstacles to effective addiction treatment and HIV prevention.

Another policy, which has proven effective in other countries, is “harm reduction.” This approach, one dismissed by the Russian authorities, puts prevention of HIV infection and transmission first and features needle exchange programs and treatment with substitute drugs taken orally.

It is estimated that eighty percent of those Russians who are HIV positive became infected by using contaminated needles and syringes. However, despite the proven efficacy of harm reduction strategies in HIV prevention, the Russian authorities have failed to take advantage of them. A 2004 UNAIDS survey found that funding for needle and syringe exchange programs in Russia fell by 29 percent between 2002 and 2004 while the incidence and prevalence of infection and numbers of IDUs was on the rise.

Harm reduction strategies involve providing access to the drug methadone, needle exchange program and addiction counseling. While detoxification is widely available throughout Russia, more comprehensive, longer term treatment remains unavailable in many parts of the country. This failing is critical because research has shown that detoxification by itself is not effective treatment.

Russian law prohibits opiate-substitution therapy (OST) employing oral dosing with methadone or buprenorphine. Use of these drugs, however, has been shown to be the most effective approach for dealing with opiate dependence among IDUs. Although UN agencies strongly support their use in prevention and treatment, these substitute drugs are effectively banned by Russian health and law enforcement officials, despite the fact that OST with them has been shown to reduce HIV prevalence and the risk of HIV transmission. It also has proven to reduce the numbers of IDUs, according to the World Health Organization.

Although it has been proved that appropriate psychosocial counseling is essential for a successful drug addiction treatment, Russian officials also fail to offer such counseling during and after detoxification treatment.

The close relationship between injecting drug use and HIV infection stresses the need for effective drug addiction treatment strategies. As stated by Human Rights Watch, “If Russia doesn’t take steps to address the problems of its drug dependence treatment system it runs the risk of continued and increasing spread of HIV, and even drug resistant HIV strains, due to lack of access by drug users to antiretroviral treatment and their suboptimal adherence due to poor quality drug dependence treatment programs.”

Dr. César Chelala is an international public health consultant and the author of “AIDS: A Modern Epidemic,” a publication of the Pan American Health Organization.

On May 23, 2010, Mordechai Vanunu, whom Amnesty International calls a “prisoner of conscience,” was again sent to prison for a new three-month sentence, accused of violating the terms of his previous release. Previously, he had been in prison for 18 years, and spent the first 11 years in solitary confinement. According to Amnesty International, the restrictions placed on him were not parole, since Vanunu had already served his full term. “They arbitrarily limit his rights to freedom of movement, expression and association and are therefore in breach of international law,” said Amnesty International.

Vanunu is a former Israeli nuclear technician who, in 1986, revealed details of Israel’s nuclear program to the British press. While working as a technician at the Negev Nuclear Research Center, he became increasingly concerned about Israel’s nuclear weapons program and possible Israeli nuclear strategies in case of war. The information he revealed was published by the Sunday Times. In it he estimated that, at the time, Israel had produced more than 100 nuclear warheads.

He was afterwards lured to Italy by a Mossad agent, where he was kidnapped by Israeli operatives. He was transported to Israel where he was tried on charges of treason and espionage, and condemned to 18 years in prison, in a trial conducted behind closed doors.

Although he was released from prison in 2004, he was subject to several restrictions on his speech and movement. He was arrested several times for violating those restrictions. According to Israeli officials, his last prison sentence is the result of his violating the conditions of his 2004 release from prison.

Acknowledgment of possession of nuclear weapons has considerable practical importance for Israel. By denying possession of such weapons, Israel avoids a US legal restriction of funding countries which have a rapid increase of weapons of mass destruction. Presently, Israel receives more than $3 billion a year in military and other aid from Washington.

Although Vanunu is widely reviled in Israel and by many Jews living overseas, he is vastly admired by peace loving people throughout the world. In 1987, he received the Right Livelihood award and in 2001 was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Tromso, in Norway. In 2005, he was awarded the Peace Prize of the Norwegian People.

Daniel Ellbersg has called him “the preeminent hero of the nuclear era.”

Despite his ordeal Vanunu remains defiant. In a poem he wrote entitled “Buried Alive,” in which he compares solitary confinement to living in a grave he wrote, “...Now iron gates, doors, grills, cement in this concrete world solidifying me. Only my mind, my spirit is free- free to remember why I am in prison but not prison for my spirit, they cannot chain my mind.”

Writing in Haaretz, Yossi Melman, its intelligence and military affairs correspondent, stated, “In a proud country that is celebrating its 60th anniversary, which purports to observe the judicial and moral norms of the enlightened world, one might have expected it to take courage and allow Mordechai Vanunu to be free, once and for all.”

Dr. César Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

In recent times, China has greatly improved the health status of the majority of its population — while also maintaining a sustained economic expansion. Some of these achievements have been a model for developing countries worldwide. Gains in the health sector, however, are being curtailed by the environmental consequences of the rapid economic expansion of the country. To continue the country’s economic growth — while at the same time protecting people’s health — is one of the main challenges facing Chinese authorities today.

In the last two decades, China has had average economic growth of 9.4%. For the last 50 years, it has also made impressive advances in public health by improving access to health care and tackling infectious diseases with remarkably good results.

The average life expectancy is now 71.8 years, up from 35 in 1949. Immunization coverage is over 95% for those under age one.

From 1960 to 2003, China’s infant mortality rate fell from 150 to 30 per 1,000 live births, and the under-five mortality rate dropped from 225 to 37 per 1,000 live births. Both rates are used as indicators of access to basic health services. At the same time, there has been a sustained increase in the number of community service networks, which provide basic health services to the population.

UNICEF has found that since 1978, the number of health facilities in China has increased by 82% and the number of health staff by 88%. In spite of these improvements, significant challenges for maternal and child health care remain. For example, emergency obstetric and newborn care is deficient, particularly for people living in remote areas. Child mortality rates in remote areas are several times higher than those in urban areas. Also, many poor rural families and migrants in China’s urban areas simply cannot afford health services.

Gains in the health sector are being curtailed by the environmental consequences of the rapid economic expansion of the country. Progress on environmental issues has not been as sustained, particularly the effect of environmental pollution on children. Children's vulnerability to pollution stems from differences in their physiology, growth characteristics and diet.

Vulnerability to environmental hazards is also related to their developmental stage. Children differ from adults in their degree of exposure to those environmental hazards, on how contaminants are absorbed and distributed in the body, and in their capacity to transform and eliminate different chemicals.

Water pollution is a serious environmental concern. Sewage and agricultural wastes contaminate water supplies and provoke a host of waterborne illnesses. In addition, rivers that are used as a source of drinking water are contaminated with heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and arsenic from industrial discharges.

UNICEF reports that China is one of the countries in the world most seriously affected by arsenic contamination. Several studies carried out on the effects of drinking arsenic-contaminated water show serious effects on children’s intelligence and intellectual development.

Toxic compounds in air and water affect the health of children and adults alike. However, because children are still growing and their immune system and detoxification mechanisms are not fully developed, toxic agents have a more serious impact on them than in adults.

Exposure to high levels of lead at an early age, for example, is responsible for children’s low intellectual development. Lead poisoning is probably the most serious chronic environmental illness now affecting children.

Chinese authorities have been trying to limit the damage caused by environmental pollution and have set guidelines in a document entitled "Priority Activities for Sustainable Development." However, despite new policies and regulations, compliance remains low.

It is estimated that 40% of Chinese cities suffer from medium to high levels of air pollution. According to a World Bank assessment, projected health effects of air pollution in urban China by 2020 will include: 600,000 premature deaths in urban areas, 20 million cases of respiratory illness per year, 5.5 million cases of chronic bronchitis and health damages valued at 13% of Chinese GDP.

To overcome the effects of pollution and a contaminated environment, China needs to continue developing energy-efficient technologies and implementing cheap and environmentally responsible transportation systems.

Even more critically, China needs to enforce its own environmental regulations. Its future generations — and future prosperity — are at stake.

Dr. César Chelala, MD, PhD, is an international public health consultant.

On April 9, 1948, 120 fighters from the Irgun and Lehi Zionist paramilitary groups attacked Deir Yassin, near Jerusalem, a Palestinian-Arab village of approximately 600 people. During the assault, around 107 villagers were killed, including women and children. In addition, several villagers were taken prisoner, and were later jeered, spat at, and stoned.

According to most accounts, those villagers lived in peace with their Jewish neighbors from nearby villages. Some of them, from the Givat Shaul Orthodox community just across the valley, tried to help the Deir Yassin villagers during the Irgun-Lehi combined attack. After the attack, the Irgun and Lehi troops began pillaging the houses and corpses, stealing money and jewelery from the survivors, reported the Israeli historian Benny Morris.

“I saw the horrors that the fighters had created. I saw bodies of women and children, who were murdered in their houses in cold blood by gunfire, with no signs of battle and not as the result of blowing up the houses…I have seen a great deal of war, but I never saw a sight like Deir, Yassin,” declared Eliahu Arbel, Operations Officer B of the Haganah’s Etzione Brigade, who arrived at the scene on April 10.

The news of the massacre sparked terror among the Palestinian-Arabs and were an important factor in encouraging them to flee from their towns and villages afraid of the Jewish troop advances. “They ended up expelling people from all of Palestine on the rumor of Deir Yassin,” declared later Mohammad Radwan, a survivor of the massacre.

Haganah and the area two chief rabbis condemned the killings and the Jewish Agency for Israel sent Jordan’s King Abdulla a letter of apology, which the King rebuffed. At the time of the attack Menachem Begin was a leader of the Irgun, although he wasn’t personally involved in it.

On December 4, 1948, Albert Einstein was the most prominent signatory of a letter to the New York Times by a group of Jewish intellectuals on the occasion of Begin’s visit to the United States. Part of the letter reads as follows “…It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin’s political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents.”

“…The public avowals of Begin’s party [The Freedom Party] are no guide whatever to its actual character. Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.”

“A shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin…Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the deed, and the Jewish Agency sent a telegram of apology to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. But the terrorists, far from being ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre, publicized it widely, and invited all the foreign correspondents present in the country to view the heaped corpses and the general havoc at Deir Yassin. The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party.”

In the Deir Yassin massacre 107 Palestinian-Arabs villagers, including women and children, were killed. Four of the attackers died during the attack. During Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, that took place during the winter of 2008-2009, 1385 Palestinians were killed, among them 762 non-combatants, 107 women and 318 children. 13 Israeli were killed, 10 combatants and 3 Israeli non-combatants, according to B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization.

In September 2009, a UN mission headed by Justice Richard Goldstone conducted an investigation of the Israeli offensive and its consequences. The Israeli Government denied him any collaboration to carry out its task, as I heard him personally state this in New York. In his report, Judge Goldstone accused both Palestinian militants and Israeli Defense Forces of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.

Given that the Israeli forces conducted the Cast Lead Operation attack in clear disproportion of forces and against unarmed civilians, what would Albert Einstein have said about it?

Dr. César Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

One can fight oppression with violence or one can fight oppression with education. Hema Konsotia, a 32-year-old Indian woman, has chosen the latter. She is helping to change a situation affecting an estimated 165 million Indian Dalits. Also known as “untouchables”, they are a mixed population of numerous caste groups all over South Asia. Although the caste system has been abolished under the Indian constitution, there is still widespread discrimination and prejudice against Dalits, particularly women.

Dalits are frequently denied such basic rights as education, housing, property, freedom of religion, choice of employment and fair treatment before the law. This situation led Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to draw parallels between “untouchability” and apartheid in 2006. As a result of discrimination, Dalits are denied full participation in Hindu social and political life.

In rural India, where caste origins are more apparent and Dalits often remain excluded form local religious activities, many upper caste members believe that Dalits will pollute the temples if they go into them.

Every 20 minutes a crime is committed against Dalits, according to a 2005 government report. Although distressing in itself, this figure probably represents a fraction of all crimes against Dalits, since most of them remain unreported for fear of reprisals from the police or from member of the upper castes.

For several years now, Hema Konsotia has been working to change that situation. She is a union activist and college graduate, leader of Delhi’s sewage workers and their wives. For the last 10 years she has been working to empower them and make them aware of their rights while improving their education through mobile education centers she created in Delhi.

A woman of strong character (when a worker was repeatedly disrespectful to her she held him by his collar and slapped him in the face) she has the unwavering support of her mother, who had been through an abusive marriage herself. “My mother is my secret guru,” she told a reporter. Hema is determined that Dalits, particularly women, will not suffer what women of previous generations did.

And they certainly need her help since a situation of centuries of discrimination has affected theirs and their children’s health and quality of life. For most Dalits, good health care is unaffordable and inaccessible, and generally their experience of health care is limited to emergency care.

The maternal mortality rate is a reflection of accessibility and quality of health services. Prenatal and neonatal care is extremely limited. As a result, complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age. Because most Dalit women are poor, their health status is usually worse than statistics suggest.

The maternal mortality rate is 560 deaths per 100,000 live births (that same rate for industrialized countries is 13 per 100,000.) But for every woman who dies during pregnancy and childbirth, approximately 20 more suffer injuries, infections and disabilities that may seriously affect their health. Anemia, which is frequent among poor women, predisposes women to sepsis and hemorrhage during delivery.

Child statistics are equally distressing, since 56 children per thousand who are born alive die before reaching the age of five, a rate that compares with five children per thousand in industrialized countries. In addition, both women and children, particularly among the poor, experience an alarming rate of physical and sexual abuse.

In January of 2007, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women concluded that Dalit women in India suffer from “deeply rooted structural discrimination.” Proud and determined, Hema Konsotia’s work with Delhi’s poor has already made a difference.

César Chelala is an international public health consultant and a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

George W. Bush is among the five least accomplished U.S. presidents, according to a new survey by the U.S.’s top 238 leading presidential scholars. They have been polled by the Siena College Research Institute’s (SRI) annually for the last 28 years. While president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who led the country from 1933 until his death in 1945, ranked first in overall accomplishments, former President Bush ranked worst among modern presidents –and the fifth worst in history.

According to the Survey of U.S. Presidents the top five, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, are Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

The presidential scholars ranked the U.S. Presidents on six personal attributes (background, imagination, integrity, intelligence, luck and willingness to take risks); five forms of ability (compromising, executive, leadership, communication and overall abilities); and eight areas of accomplishment including domestic affairs, economic, working with Congress and their party, appointing supreme court justices and members of the executive branch, avoiding mistakes and foreign policy.

If one analyzes just the Bush administration approach to foreign policy, health care and human rights one may consider among the biggest foreign policy blunders the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The Bush administration blatantly ignored the advice from Gen. Eric Shinseki, who had estimated that several hundred thousand troops would be required to secure Iraq. Even more seriously, the war against Iraq was based, from the beginning, on false premises.

Vice President Dick Cheney repeatedly stated that Iraq was “the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault for many years, but most especially on 9/11,” in spite of the fact that there was no evidence for such assertion. The bipartisan 9/11 Commission itself found that Iraq had no involvement in the 9/11 attacks and no collaborative operational relationship with Al Qaeda.

Compounding the wrongness of the approach towards Iraq is the right to initiate a preemptive war, flaunting international law. The 2006 updated National Security Strategy of the United States had established that, “….The greater the threat, the greater is the risk of inaction –and the more compelling the case for taking anticipatory action to defend ourselves, even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy’s attack. There are few greater threats than a terrorist attack with WMD.”

As was clearly demonstrated not only did the government of Iraq not have any WMD, but at no point it could have been considered a threat to the United States, given the obvious difference in military capability between both countries. This was no impediment for former President Bush and his closest associates to continue using that rationale for the war against that country. That war and the justification for engaging in preemptive wars are among the most serious and damaging foreign policy decisions of the Bush administration.

If one analyzes the Bush presidency regarding its approach to health care one can find a policy of disregard for people’s health and support for corporate interests, which is, after all, only a reflection of the Bush administration decisions on almost all economic matters.

The Bush administration blocked efforts to allow Medicare to negotiate cheaper prescription drugs for seniors thus negatively affecting their health and quality of life, while simultaneously depriving American taxpayers of savings from the very marketplace competition touted by White House economists. The administration also went to court to block lawsuits by patients who had been injured by defective prescription drugs and medical devices. In addition, the General Accounting Office conducted a study that concluded that the Bush administration created illegal, covert propaganda to promote its industry-supported Medicare bill.

The Bush administration record on human rights is dismal. Who can forget the photos of prisoners’ abuse in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq carried out by the U.S. Army and other U.S. governmental agencies and that have tainted forever the image of the U.S. as a defender of human rights? To compound the magnitude of the abuse, Janis Karpinsky, a commander at Abu Ghraib estimated later that 90% of the detainees in the prison were innocent.

Recently Physicians for Human Rights has uncovered evidence that indicates the Bush administration conducted illegal and unethical human experiments and carried out research on detainees in CIA custody. In addition, medical personnel engaged not only in torture of prisoners but also in the crime of illegal experimentation, activities in clear violation of the Nuremberg Code.

It would be naïve to think that all negative aspects of the Bush administration are the responsibility of former President Bush himself. He obviously is the face for members of his administration and others who were influencing policy decisions. But the ultimate responsibility falls on him. And he is the one that will have to respond to history for his actions.

Dr. César Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

It is fair to say that the more we love our country the more we want it to be a better, more honorable country. Using this criterion, we can say that few people loved the U.S. as much as former senator Robert Byrd did. And only death could finally silence him.

Nobody was more vocal than Byrd in the opposition to the Iraq war, which he considered a disgraceful course of action that would have negative effects on the country. And he was one of the few to state that opposition as strongly on the Senate floor.

On March 19, 2003, addressing the nation soon after the bombing of Baghdad had begun, former president George W. Bush stated, “The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder. We will meet that threat now, with our Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard and Marines, so that we do to have to meet it later with armies of fire fighters and police and doctors on the streets of our cities.”

Thus was the beginning of one of the most costly wars, both economically, in the number of lives lost and in the U.S. social standing in the world that this country has ever faced. Senator Robert Byrd reacted with predictable horror to this course of action, and was one of the few to vote against the war.

Speaking from the floor of the Senate on the afternoon of March 19, Senator Byrd said, “…today I weep for my country. I have watched the events of recent months with a heavy, heavy heart. No more is the image of America one of strong, yet benevolent peacekeeper. The Image of America has changed. Around the globe, our friends mistrust us, our word is disputed, our intentions are questioned.”

“Instead of reasoning with those with whom we disagree, we demand obedience or threaten recrimination. Instead of isolating Saddam Hussein, we seem to have isolated ourselves. We proclaim a new doctrine of preemption which is understood by few and feared by many. We say that the United States has the right to turn its firepower on any corner of the globe which might be suspect on the war on terrorism. We assert that right without the sanction of any international body. As a result, the world has become a much more dangerous place.”

“We flaunt our superpower status with arrogance. We treat UN Security Council members like ingrates who offend our princely dignity by lifting their heads from the carpet. Valuable alliances are split.”

“After war has ended, the United States will have to rebuild much more than the country of Iraq. We will have to rebuild America’s image around the globe.”

In his address to the nation on the evening of March 19 former president Bush outlined the purpose of invading Iraq, “to disarm Iraq, to free its people, and to defend the world from grave danger.” Earlier that afternoon, on the Senate floor, Senator Byrd had stated, “The case this Administration tries to make to justify its fixation with war is tainted by charges of falsified documents and circumstantial evidence. We cannot convince the world of the necessity of this war for one simple reason. This is a war of choice.”

And while former president Bush and vice-president Dick Cheney insisted on finding lame excuses for the war against Iraq, Senator Byrd said in his speech, “The brutality seen on September 11th and in other terrorists attacks we have witnessed around the globe are the violent and desperate efforts by extremists to stop the daily encroachment of western values upon their cultures. That is what we fight. It is a force not confined to borders. It is a shadowy entity with many faces, many names, and many addresses.”

The Iraq war has proven to be an unrelenting tragedy not only for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi that were killed but also for the occupying forces soldiers killed and maimed. It is estimated that the total costs of veterans’ health care and disability may be higher than $700 billion. And Senator Byrd has been one of the earliest and strongest voices against this nightmare. His is a heroic voice that could only be silenced by death.

Dr. César Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

I still seem to be hearing the Mexican sportscaster shouting in the radio for more than one minute, “Dieguitooooo, Dieguitoooooo, Diego Armando Maradonaaaaaaa!” after the Argentine soccer player scored his second goal against the British during the 1986 World Cup that Argentina won beating West Germany in the final game. He had good reason to shout. Diego Armando Maradona (now Argentina’s coach at the World Cup) had scored his second goal after dribbling six British players (including the goalkeeper) in what is commonly known as “The Goal of the Century.”

Never mind that his first goal during that game was also the most infamous in soccer’s history since it was made striking the ball with his left hand. Maradona was initially evasive about that goal saying that it had been scored “a little with Maradona’s head and a little with the hand of God.” Since then that goal is known as the “Hand of God,” or “la mano de Dios.” Only in 2005 did Maradona acknowledge that he had used his hand on purpose and that he knew the goal was invalid but the goal stood, to the dismay of the British players.

As a special tribute to him, the Mexican officials at the Aztec Stadium where the game took place built a statue of him scoring the second goal and placed it at the entrance to the stadium. That helped ensure that he would always be remembered as one of the greatest players in soccer’s history. In March of 2010, The Times of London chose him as number 1 among The Greatest 10 World Cup players of all time.

For decades Diego Maradona has been the most admired (and for many the most reviled) sportsman in the world. But whether one likes him or not, nobody can deny that he is a unique character in the world of sports. In trips I took to several countries around the world I always found the same reaction after saying that I was an Argentine. Maradona! Maradona! people shouted. It could be a small city in China or a remote town in Africa. Everybody knew Maradona. And now, as the coach for the Argentine team in the South African World Cup, people are still talking about him.

He was an unlikely soccer star, since he is extremely short, although very sturdy. His two strong legs seemed to anchor him to the ground. He could start dribbling his opponents with maniacal speed and dexterity, as he did during the 1986 World Cup. He was a generous player, always sending the ball to a better placed teammate.

But great as his gifts as a player were, so were his personal shortcomings. While playing in Italy for the Napoli team he made it the most successful in its history leading it to winning its only two Italian Championships in 1986/87 and 1989/90 and the Coppa Italia in 1987. At the same time, however, he intensified his cocaine habit for which he was given steep fines and was suspended from soccer for 15 months in 1991. In 1994 he was sent home from the World Cup in the USA for using ephedrine. He retired from soccer in 1997.

He has suffered from serious health problems and gained considerable weight, in addition to continuing use of cocaine. In 2005, a stomach stapling operation helped him overcome his weight problem and after stopping his cocaine addiction he became a popular TV host in Argentina. In 2008, despite his lack of managerial experience, he was named head coach of the Argentine soccer team. Several defeats of the team in international games made many doubt his technical capacity as a coach.

But Maradona continues to be well… just Maradona. He is still his same defiant, arrogant self. Much as I dislike his antics I am still thankful to him. Years ago I was traveling in several Asian countries when I arrived in Bangladesh. After finishing my work there I was at the airport when a customs officer asked me if I had any cash with me. I told him that I had $2,000. The officer then asked me, “Where is the form that you have to fill?” Surprised I responded “What form?”

Upon hearing this, the officer started yelling at me, saying “You damned foreigners are all the same. You come to this country, make money, don’t pay taxes and then just leave, without caring about anything!” Startled, I started mumbling a response when he asked me, “Where are you from?” After I answered “Argentina” he said, obviously overwhelmed, “Oh, Argentina, Maradona, Maradona, just continue, Sir, please, there is no problem, no problem at all!”

César Chelala is a writer on human rights and foreign policy issues.

I can remember my friend’s face when he told me that his daughter had been born with a severe mental disability. “It was as if somebody had pointed a gun to my head,” he told me. For as long as they have been known, mental disabilities (also called mental retardation) have been the cause of profound unhappiness in the parents of children born with them, as well as in the children themselves. But now there is hope.

An experimental drug made by Novartis, a Swiss pharmaceutical firm, has been shown to improve behaviors associated with mental retardation and autism in people affected with fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited cause of these mental disabilities. Although the results have been obtained in a small clinical trial involving only a few dozen patients, this finding offers the possibility that further advances could be obtained in the near future.

If further trials in larger populations produce equally good or better results, they could offer hope in the field of autism research, since between 10 to 15 percent of autism cases result from fragile X syndrome or another kind of genetic defect. Also, even though Novartis tested the drug only in adults, experts believe that it could be even more effective in young children, whose brains still in development are more likely to respond positively to the drug.

It is estimated that as many as one in 35 people in the U.S. are mentally retarded, which amounts to approximately 3% of the population. Also, every five minutes a child is born with mental retardation. The annual cost to the country is over $6 billion in special services and lost wages.

Mentally retarded children have impaired or incomplete mental development, and are limited in their ability to learn and also in their capacity to apply learning. Most of those affected have mild or moderate mental disability and with proper education, training and understanding they can become productive members of society. However, the limitations in cognitive functioning will cause them to learn and develop more slowly than children who are not affected by this condition.

Fragile X syndrome is caused by a genetic mutation in chromosome X in which part of the instructions in the gene are repeated several times. When that section of the gene is repeated 200 or more times, the body shuts off the gene. As a result, the protein that is normally produced by that gene is not produced any longer or if produced is defective. This is what causes the wide variety of symptoms among those afflicted with Fragile X syndrome.

The protein normally produced by chromosome X acts as a sort of coordinator of information among brain synapses (connections between nerve cells), helping to stop or slow down brain signaling at critical intervals. Regulating the flow of information among brain cells is crucial for the brain’s ability to learn and develop normally.

Until recently many researchers believed that the right and perhaps only approach to dealing with mental retardation was rehabilitation, not medication. The improvement in some patients’ behavior after administration of a drug opens a totally new panorama of possibilities. The new studies confirm some previous studies in mice with the fragile X mutation, that show that the drug was able to reduce some abnormalities such as seizures, atypical rates of protein synthesis and other molecular defects. If further authenticated these findings will show that however hard the steel wall of mental retardation is, it can still be broken.

Dr. César Chelala was a researcher in microbial genetics at the Public Health Research Institute of the City of New York.

Predator drones are equipped with large and powerful cameras that beam real-time images to their operators. Last February, a Predator crew operating out of Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, asked for an air strike against three vehicles with males supposed to be insurgents. An OH-58D Kiowa helicopter fired Hellfire missiles and rockets which destroyed the three vehicles. Instead of insurgents, 23 innocent men, women and children were killed and 12 more were seriously injured.

In a scathing report released on May 29, the American military blamed the “inaccurate and unprofessional reporting” by a team of Predator drone operators that led to the strikes. This episode illustrates the serious risks involved in the use of drones, whom many law experts consider violate rules of war. Predator drones are extensively used in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where they track and kill suspected insurgents, sometimes with their own missiles.

A report by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, makes a thorough assessment on the effect of drones, whose use has provoked significant controversy.

Drones’ proponents argue that since they have significant surveillance capacity and great precision, they are able to avoid collateral civilian casualties and injuries. They also state that since drones may provide the ability to conduct aerial surveillance and to gather “pattern of life” information, they may allow operators to distinguish between peaceful civilians and those engaged in direct hostilities. The above episode is a clear demonstration of the fallacy of this argument and of the dangers to civilians of using such lethal weapons.

According to the Alston report, the main concern about drones is that they make it easier to kill without any risk to a State’s forces. I believe that an even greater risk is the process of trivializing war, making it thus a deadlier, more dangerous activity since it affects not only those who are target but also those who direct the operation and for whom war becomes no more significant than a video game.

An additional complication to the use of drones is that in many cases international forces are too often uninformed of local practices, or too credulous in interpreting information, to be able to arrive at a reliable understanding of a situation, wrote Michael N. Schmitt, a Professor of International Law at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, in Germany.

According to Schmitt, precision warfare such as the one carried out by drones intersects (or has the potential to interact) with international humanitarian law in four specific areas: the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks; the principle of proportionality, the requirement to take precautions in attack; and perfidy and other misuses of protected status.

Precision attacks as carried out by drones may violate international humanitarian law’s tenet of distinction, as stated in Articles 48, 51 and 52 of Additional Protocol I. As indicated by Schmitt, distinction has been cited as a “cardinal” principle of international humanitarian law by the International Court of Justice.

CIA officers are concerned that the use of drones will backfire and may help Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders recruit more militants. “Some of the CIA operators are concerned that, because of its blowback effect, [the drones’ program] is doing more harm than good,” said Jeffrey Addicott, former legal adviser to U.S. Special Forces in an interview with Inter Press Service.

Presently, several countries including China, France, India, Israel, Iran, Russia, Turkey and the United Kingdom either have or are seeking drones with the capability to shoot laser-guided missiles. If the use of these dangerous weapons becomes more frequent, so will the safety of innocent civilians and violations of international humanitarian law.

César Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

A friend of mine, a prestigious physician who works the longest hours of anybody I know makes only one exception from her demanding schedule in New York. Once a week, she returns home early to watch a new episode of her favorite soap opera. I cannot think of a more unlikely fan. It goes to show that soap operas appeal across a broad spectrum, from the most intellectually sophisticated to people with little or no formal education.

Increasingly, soap operas, or telenovelas, are being used throughout the world to disseminate messages about health issues such as the need for contraception, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, nutrition, how to achieve peace between countries in conflict and how to elevate the status of women in developing countries. By identifying themselves with the protagonists’ dreams and problems the viewer establishes an immediate connection with them.

In Colorado, State officials have developed a telenovela called “Crossroads: Without Health, There Is Nothing,” specifically aimed at conveying health messages to the population. One of the producers’ aims was to increase the number of health-insured kids in the State, since almost half of the 150,000 uninsured children were eligible either for Medicaid or the Child Health Plan Plus program. Following airing of the telenovelas, there was a substantial increase in the number of children applying for insurance.

In Niger, Africa, Niger’s Broadcasting Corporation (ORTN) and UNICEF have joined forces and produced a serial drama entitled ‘Soueba’ which focuses on the lives of young people in Niamey, Niger’s capital. By following their journey into adulthood, the program explores the realities of love and sex and the dangers posed by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. “Soueba is more than an entertainment. Our aim with Soueba is to stop the taboo around HIV/AIDS, decrease the stigma towards people living with the disease, encourage positive attitudes and improve prevention behaviors,” declared Director Mahaman Souleymane.

In Ethiopia, the characters in the soap opera Yeken Kignit (“Looking Over One’s Daily Life”) have kept millions of Ethiopians glued to their radios for two and a half years. In the process, they may also have changed their lives. Following both Yeken Kignit and a similar soap opera called Dhimbibba (“Getting the Best Out of Life”) male listeners sought to be tested for HIV at four times the rate of non-listeners, while the demand for contraceptives rose 52 percent among married women who listened to the programs.

In Nicaragua, PATH, an international nonprofit organization based in Seattle, working with a Nicaraguan non-profit group called Puntos de Encuentro (“Meeting Points”) has inserted health-related messages into one of the country’s most popular soap operas. The aim of those messages is to change some cultural assumptions that lead to domestic violence and sexual abuse among adolescent girls and young women.

In Vietnam, the Ministry of Agriculture and several partners used entertainment education concepts to communicate pest management and environmental protection techniques to rice farmers. The soap opera project won several awards for its effectiveness in communicating science to people.

Latin American countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Venezuela have become active exporters of these products, which are eagerly watched in countries as far away from Latin America as Russia, Albania, China and several countries from the former Soviet Union.

There may be other advantages to soap operas. I was recently in Albania, a country that had suffered from intense isolation during Enver Hoxha’s regime. While in Tirana, I was running late for a dinner appointment since I couldn’t find the restaurant where the meeting was to take place. I decided to ask a couple of young women who were walking in my opposite direction. Graciously, they told me that it was easier for them to accompany me than to try to explain to me how to go there. They asked me where I was from and when I said that I was from Argentina they said to me in Spanish, “Then we can speak in Spanish!” with flawless Argentine accent. Surprised, I asked them where they had learned to speak it so well. “In the Argentine soap operas, of course,” they answered laughing.

Dr. César Chelala is an international public health consultant and a writer on human rights and foreign policy issues.

One of tango’s best definitions is that of expert Horacio Ferrer, “Tango is music, a dance, a way to see the world, a philosophy, a feeling, a sensitivity, an emotion. It is the mythical dimension of reality, nostalgia, abandonment. It is lovers’ separation, the sadness of lost love, the indifference of the world to pain, the poetry of neighborhoods, the value of friendship…”.

To those themes one should add those tangos that were devoted to a particular street or neighborhood. One of the first tangos dedicated to a street is the one called Caminito (Little Walk), a street located in the neighborhood of La Boca, in Buenos Aires. Although it was created in the decade of the 1920s, Caminito is still one of the most popular tangos of all times.

La Boca is one of the first areas the original Spanish conquerors came to in Buenos Aires. Since the 1880s, Italian immigrants -particularly those from Genoa- who came to Buenos Aires, lived there. That neighborhood was also inhabited by gauchos, creoles and country people. La Boca is now one of Buenos Aires' poorest neighborhoods. Only the street called Caminito, whose houses are now being repainted, retains something of its older allure.

The birth of the tango Caminito is an unlikely story of a musician and a poet, both of them tango experts, and how their friendship with an artist, a painter who gave the name to the street, sparked the creation of that tango. It is also the story of how the street called Caminito became one of the most visited streets in Argentina, an obligatory stop for all tango lovers worldwide.

The creator of Caminito’s music was Juan de Dios Filiberto, a native of La Boca. The writer of the lyrics was the poet Gabino Coria Peñaloza, born in Mendoza, a province in Argentina bordering Chile. And the artist was Benito Quinquela Martín, also a native of La Boca. Quinquela Martín has immortalized that area in a gigantic collection of paintings characterized by their bold colors.

The history of the tango Caminito is still shrouded in mystery. According to some, the name comes from a small road in the town of Olta, in the province of La Rioja. For other tango enthusiasts, the name of the tango is related to the street in La Boca, the neighborhood where the musician Filiberto was born and grew up. Both sides seem to have part of the truth.

The composer Filiberto didn’t achieve his musical expertise very easily. When he was young he worked in different trades. Talking about his musical beginnings he used to say, “When I entered the musical Conservatory I was over twenty-five, and my shoulders were used to the work of the stevedore, blacksmith, metal fitter and caldron maker. My fingers were stiff and clumsy for the keyboard and the fingerboard.” He was, however, passionate about tango and when he became famous he used to say, “My music is many things put together but, overall, it reflects my feelings. In art it is not enough to feel, but to know how to express that feeling.”

He studied violin and music theory in a musical academy in Buenos Aires. Later, Filiberto was given a scholarship to study with a well-known musician, Alberto Williams, and took lessons in counterpoint, piano and guitar. But it was in Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires’ most prestigious classical music theater, where he worked as a technical assistant, where he had a shattering musical experience. In Teatro Colón, Filiberto heard for the first time Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which opened new musical horizons in his life. “Beethoven,” he used to say, “was my musical God.”

Filiberto frequently walked through one of La Boca’s narrow roads to meet his friends. They were frequently greeted from a window by a young woman living in that area. Some believe that he created the music of Caminito as an homage to that little walk and to that woman. Filiberto later formed his own orchestra, continued composing and his music became known all over the world. Ten years after his death, as a special homage to him, the Juan de Dios Filiberto National Orchestra of Argentine Music was created.

When Filiberto was looking for somebody to put words to his music, the painter Quinquela Martín introduced Peñaloza to him. Quinquela Martín, who called Peñaloza a “crazy poet,” thought that he was the ideal person to put words into Filiberto’s musical compositions. Although Filiberto collaborated with Peñaloza in creating other tangos, none of them surpassed the popularity of Caminito.

At a meeting in a Buenos Aires coffee place, Filiberto told Peñaloza that he had composed the music of a tango inspired in his strolls through an alley in La Boca. After humming a few bars he asked Peñaloza if he would write the lyrics for that tango. Peñaloza responded that he already had something he had written after a love affair in La Rioja and recited it to Filiberto. Filiberto enthusiastically adapted the music to those lyrics and Caminito was born.

Peñaloza’s lyrics were written while visiting La Rioja, a province in Argentina, where he had been stranded by heavy storms in the town of Olta. In that town, Peñaloza met a pretty young school teacher called María and created the lyrics in a rapture of enthusiasm after meeting and falling in love with her. With María, Peñaloza used to take long walks along a narrow dirt road.

Since she went away (Desde que se fué)

she never came back (nunca más volvió)

I will follow her footsteps (seguiré sus pasos)

Little walk, goodbye. (Caminito, adiós).

Caminito was first heard in Buenos Aires at a contest for native songs for the carnival parade of that year, where it won an award. Soon afterwards, it was performed at the Rural Society of Palermo, in Buenos Aires and was later recorded by Carlos Gardel, a tango singer who went onto become a legendary singer from Argentina. Since then, Caminito became one of the three most famous tangos of all time.

Most Argentines can repeat by heart the beginning of the tango’s lyrics,

Caminito that time has erased
(Caminito que el tiempo ha borrado)

and that one day saw us passing by
(que juntos un día nos viste pasar)

I came for the last time
(he venido por última vez)

I came to tell you my woes.
(he venido a contarte mi mal).

Originally, the name of the street Caminito was given by Benito Quinquela Martín, an artist who lived in La Boca and whose vibrantly colored paintings are a historic portrait of life in that area. The story of his life reads like a novel.

In March of 1890, a few weeks old child was left in a Buenos Aires orphanage called Casa de Expósitos under the care of an order of nuns called the Sisters of Charity. The child, who was wrapped in expensive clothes, had with him a handwritten note that said, “This child has been baptized and given the name Benito Juan Martín.” Together with the note there was a shawl with an embroidered flower cut in half. Whoever left the child thought that perhaps it would be possible to reclaim him later by showing the shawl’s other half.

The child stayed with the nuns until he was 6 years old, when he was legally adopted by a poor couple, owners of a modest charcoal business in La Boca. He was lovingly cared for by this couple and forged a unique bond with his adopted mother, a woman with humble origins. His father worked as a stevedore in the nearby port area.

Because he had to help at home, Benito was unable to finish elementary school. When talking about his childhood he said, “I had to leave school before learning the multiplication tables.” When he was 15 years old his adopted father asked him to help him with his work as a stevedore in the port, a work that Benito did for several years. When he was seventeen years old, and while still working at the port, he started taking painting lessons at an academy in La Boca, where he met Filiberto and started a friendship that was to last all their lives.

Benito was part of a group of rowdy youngsters who used to go from house to house playing tangos. Once, when playing at a poor tenement house, they learned that there was a woman seriously ill. They were leaving the place when the sick woman asked them to play a tango. As soon as they finished playing, the woman died. Some of the youngsters felt a sense of guilt that their music had provoked the woman’s death but Filiberto retorted, “If she had to die it is better that she died this way. It must be wonderful to die listening to a tango!”

Benito had taken his adopted father’s name and was now called Benito Quinquela Martín. In the same way that Beethoven’s music had “illuminated” his friend Filiberto, Rodin’s book on art had illuminated Quinquela. He would later remark, “Because my academic studies were rudimentary, I had to rely a lot on intuition and emotion. In those two words I found my best guides and teachers.”

Although at the beginning Quinquela combined both his work as stevedore and charcoal merchant with that of painter, he later decided that he would dedicate himself only to painting for the rest of his life. Most of his paintings reflect harbor scenes and the shipyards in La Boca. They are a song to the working men through the prodigal use of color. It was that characteristic of painting workers that made Mussolini exclaim, after meeting the painter in Italy, “Lei e il mio pittore!” (You are my favorite painter!). When Quinquela asked him why he said so Mussolini responded, “Because you are a painter of the working man.”

One day, unannounced, Quinquela was visited in his precarious studio by Pio Collivadino, who was the Director of the National Academy of Art in Buenos Aires. It was a meeting that would dramatically change Quinquela Martín’s life. Collivadino was instrumental in Quinquela Martín’s showing his work –since the beginning to great critical and popular acclaim- at the Witcomb Gallery and then in the aristocratic Jockey Club, both in Buenos Aires. He later showed his work in Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, Rome –where, in a visit to the Vatican he was received by Pope Pious XI- New York, Havana, Paris, and London.

Received and admired by royalty in the countries he visited, Quinquela Martín became one of the best known Argentine painters. His paintings are now in the most important museums in the world. He also became a philanthropist who donated land to build schools, a children’s clinic, a theater and a museum in La Boca.

When he became famous and was financially comfortable, Quinquela Martín decided to improve the looks of one of the streets in La Boca which had been a pasture ground. Through donations of painting to the people living there, Quinquela helped to keep the tradition of having the houses painted in bright colors.

One of the brightest streets was a little walk, through which both Quinquela Martín and Filiberto used to walk. He decided to call it Caminito, and wrote that name on a piece of wood that was attached to one of the houses. In 1959, that name was officially adopted by the Municipality of Buenos Aires, in a ceremony with fireworks that had as a background the howling of the ship’s foghorns. Quinquela Martín would later say, “I think that we can say with optimism that in La Boca we have won the battle for color.”

In 1971, a street called Caminito was inaugurated in La Rioja, a belated homage to Peñaloza. Today, the other Caminito, the one located in La Boca harbors an independent theater, an open air art gallery where both professionals and aficionados sell their work and where tango enthusiasts dance to the music of tango. The name of Quinquela Martín is now indelibly connected to that street, and to La Boca.

Dr. César Chelala is an international public health consultant and an award winning writer and photographer.

All photos were provided by the author.

This piece was co-written by Alejandro M. Garro and César Chelala.

Baltasar Garzón, a Spanish “investigative magistrate” in charge of triggering the investigation of crimes of national or international significance, is now himself under investigation. Conservative groups accuse Garzón of prevaricato judicial (roughly translated as “abuse of a judge’s power”) for having intentionally bypassed a 1977 amnesty law, opening an investigation on human rights abuses committed during Spain’s civil war. If indicted of that charge, the General Council of the Judiciary may temporarily remove him from office.

For many years, Judge Garzón has engaged in a crusade against Al-Qaeda terrorists, Latin American dictators (including Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet,) Russian thugs, and powerful Spanish politicians accused of corruption. In addition, he started an investigation of torture claims by former Guantánamo detainees and for crimes committed by Colombia’s FARC rebels.

Garzón pursued those cases under a controversial statute (subsequently repealed) allowing Spanish courts to exercise “universal” jurisdiction over crimes against humanity, regardless of the country where they were perpetrated and the nationality of victims or perpetrators. These high-profile cases brought Judge Garzón powerful enemies all over the world, not to speak of the antagonism he provoked on Spanish government officials and among his own colleagues, many of who see him as an embarrassing self-promoter.

In October 2008, Judge Garzón launched an investigation on the torture, forced disappearances and summary executions perpetrated between 1932 and 1952 under Franco’s dictatorship. Those crimes are allegedly covered by a blanket amnesty enacted by the Spanish Parliament in 1977 (similar to the general amnesties adopted by Argentina, Chile, and several other countries during the 70s and 80s) and a recent “Historical Memory Act” aimed at forgiving and forgetting Spain’s troubled past.

One may legitimately disagree with decisions taken by Judge Garzón. However, in this particular case, he did what he was required to do under international law. Far from abusing his power, Garzón properly applied international conventional and customary law, which preempts Spain’s domestic amnesty to the extent it is aimed at covering massive and systematic human rights abuses. Two supranational tribunals (the European and Inter American Courts of Human Rights), as well as two UN committees (the UN Human Rights Committee and the UN Committee Against Torture) have consistently condemned blanket amnesties which deprive victims of serious human rights abuses of an effective remedy.

Even if the Spanish Supreme Court ultimately decides that Garzón overreached his authority by ignoring the 1977 amnesty law, such decision may be challenged before the European Court of Human Rights, which has held that, in principle, blanket amnesties violate the member states’ duties to investigate systematic and massive violations of human rights. Thus, Judge Garzón had more than plausible reasons for refusing to apply Spain’s amnesty law.

Admittedly, Judge Garzón is a polarizing figure with a penchant for high-profile cases. One may legitimately disagree, from a political standpoint, with his decision to unearth crimes of the past or feel understandably uncomfortable with his showy profile. Yet, while consistently fighting against the powerful of all political persuasions, he has courageously expanded the protective reach of international human rights law, as shown by the precedent established in the Pinochet case.

Whatever personal opinion one may hold on Garzón as an individual and beyond his controversial civil war investigation, the decision to go after him for opening an investigation of Franco’s worst human rights abuses seriously undermines Spain’s credibility in fighting against impunity. More importantly, it ignores that, under international law, Spain’s sovereign decision to forgive and forget its past cannot be adopted at the expense of the victims’ right to justice, truth, and adequate reparations for serious and systematic human rights abuses.

• The authors: Alejandro M. Garro and César Chelala.•

Alejandro M. Garro is Professor of Comparative Law at Columbia University and Senior Research Scholar of the Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law. César Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

In spite of some moderate progress in some areas, women’s health needs continue to be unmet in Afghanistan. “Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be pregnant,” states a report on maternal mortality by the Afghan Ministry of Health, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This statement is supported by statistics that show that in Afghanistan one woman dies every 27 minutes from a pregnancy-related condition that is preventable, in most cases, with adequate health facilities and medical care.

Other statistics are equally alarming. Afghanistan has the highest infant mortality rate in the world, and the second highest maternal mortality rate, according to U.S. government’s statistics. Hemorrhaging and prolonged or obstructed labor cause the largest number of Afghan maternal deaths, which could be easily prevented by the presence of a trained midwife during childbirth. However, it is estimated that only 14% of women receive skilled medical attention during that time.

The situation is particularly serious in rural areas, where clinics and hospitals may be hours away on foot. To make matters worse, many clinics lack such fundamental supplies as clean water, lighting and other elements for surgery, blood pressure instruments and equipment to test donated blood for HIV contamination.

Travel is complicated by bad weather conditions, lack of security, difficult roads and rough terrain. It is no surprising, then, that the average life expectancy rate for women in Afghanistan is only 44 years.

Women don’t fare better in the educational front. It is estimated that 87 percent of Afghan women are illiterate. Many girls fear going to school for lack of security. Although some aspects of their lives have improved, women are still at a clear disadvantage with men. “Women who try to advocate for their rights in public life are being subject to violence and physical attacks,” said Zia Moballegh, acting country director for the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development.

“Violence targeting women and girls is widespread and deeply rooted in Afghan society,” stated last November Norah Niland, chief UN human rights officer in Afghanistan. Rape, that brutal form of sexual violence, is also a frequent problem. “Our field research finds that rape is under-reported and concealed, and a huge problem in Afghanistan. It affects all parts of the country, all communities and all social groups,” stated Ms. Niland.

It is estimated that one in three Afghan women experience physical, psychological or sexual violence at some point in their lives. Paradoxically, shame is usually attached to the victims, who often find themselves prosecuted for adultery, than to the perpetrators. While adultery is punishable by jail, no provision in the Afghan penal code criminalizes rape.

A sad result of the oppressive atmosphere in their lives is that an increasing number of women in Afghanistan are choosing suicide as a way to escape the violence and abuse in their daily lives, according to a human rights report prepared by Canada’s Foreign Affairs Department. “Self-immolation is being used by increasing numbers of Afghan women to escape their dire circumstances, and women constitute the majority of Afghan suicides,” states de report completed at the end of 2009.

According to the director of a burn unit at a hospital cited in the report, in 2008 more than 80 women tried to commit suicide by setting themselves on fire in the province of Heart. Many among those women died. Last January, two women fled their homes to escape from domestic violence in the Ghor Province in Southwestern Afghanistan. The two women were later arrested; one of them was beaten in public and the other was confined in a sack with a cat, according to Ghor’s Governor.

“I poured fuel over my body and set myself ablaze because I was regularly beaten up by my husband and insulted by my in-laws, said Zarmina, a young woman of 28 told IRIN, a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The abuses to women throughout the country are a serious call of attention to the government. It shows that it not only needs to enact laws protecting women but make sure that these laws are properly followed. It is one of the Karzai’s government most urgent tasks.

Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, an international public health consultant, is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

The revelation that the number of opium-addicted Afghan children has reached new highs is a sad unintended consequence of that war. It dramatically illustrates how adult war games can doom generations of children to a miserable life.

A group of researchers hired by the US State Department found staggering levels of opium in Afghan children, some as young as 14 months old, who had been passively exposed by adult drug users in their homes. In 25% of homes where adult addicts lived, children tested showed signs of significant drug exposure, according to the researchers. According to one of the researchers the children exhibit the typical behavior of opium and heroin addicts. If the drug is withdrawn they go through a withdrawal process.

The results of the study should sound an alarm, since not only were opium products found in indoor air samples but also their concentrations were extremely high. This suggests that, as with second-hand cigarette smoke, contaminated indoor air and surfaces pose a serious health risk to women and children’s health.

The extent of health problems in children as a result of such exposure is not known. What is known is that the number of drug users has increased from 920,000 in 2005 to over 1.5 million, according to Zalmai Afzali, the spokesman for the Ministry of Counter-Narcotics (MCN) in Afghanistan. A quarter of those users are thought to be women and children. Afzali stated that Afghanistan could become the world’s top drug-using nation per capita if current trends continue.

According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) no other country in the world produces as much heroin, opium, and hashish as Afghanistan, a sad distinction for a country already ravaged by war. This may explain why control efforts so far have been concentrated on poppy eradication and interdiction to stem exports with less attention paid to the rising domestic addiction problem, particularly in children.

Both American and Afghan counter narcotic officials have said that such widespread domestic drug addiction is a relatively new problem. Among the factors leading to increased levels of drug use is the high unemployment rate throughout the country, the social upheaval provoked by this war and those that preceded it and the return of refugees from Iran and Pakistan who became addicts while abroad.

Those who are injecting drug users face the additional risk of HIV-infection through the sharing of contaminated syringes. “Drug addiction and HIV/AIDS are, together, Afghanistan’s silent tsunami,” declared Tariq Suliman, director of the Nejat’s rehabilitation center to the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs. There are about 40 treatment centers for addicts dispersed throughout the country but most are small, poorly staffed and under-resourced.

For the first time ever, an international team including World Health Organization (WHO) officials and experts from Johns Hopkins University and the Medical University of Vienna has joined efforts to design a treatment regime for young children.

The U.S. and its allies have the resources to rapidly expand and adequately fund and resource such treatment and rehabilitation centers throughout the country. Anything less will be yet another serious indictment of an occupation gone astray.

Dr. César Chelala is an international public health consultant and a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

Malaria continues to be endemic in the developing world, causing more than 1 million deaths every year, mostly among children living in Sub-Saharan countries.

Because of the failure to develop a truly effective vaccine against malaria, public health intervention remains focused on controlling the mosquito vector of the parasite that causes the disease. And, just as it has for decades, mosquito control relies mainly on the use of the insecticide DDT (dichloro-diphenyl- trichloroethane). While highly effective in controlling the mosquito population, there are serious drawbacks to DDT use.

The good news is that the results of a new project carried out in Mexico and Central America show that the fight against malaria does not have to depend on using DDT. In Mexico and the Central American countries, it is estimated that around 108.7 million people live in areas that are environmentally favorable to transmission of malaria, with 35 percent at high risk of contracting the disease.

The need to continue to rely on DDT to effectively combat malaria has been the subject of a long running discussion. Although DDT spraying has long been successfully used in controlling the mosquito population and the spread of malaria, it easily enters the food chain and persists for many years in the environment. The result is often serious harm to wildlife. In addition, the mosquito population under attack can become resistant to DDT, making necessary the search for alternatives.

Since 2004, a project funded by the U.N. Environmental Program and the Global Environmental Facility has been carried out with the technical support of the Pan American Health Organization in Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Panama. It was developed on strategies outlined in the "Roll Back Malaria" approach championed by the World Health Organization.

This project was initially implemented in Mexico and subsequently adopted to local areas in the Central American countries. Critical to its success has been the use of public health measures aimed at controlling mosquito breeding and standing sites, rapid diagnosis and treatment of those affected with malaria and active community participation.

Public health measures against malaria had already shown their effectiveness in Central America. During the construction of the Panama Canal, which had been abandoned by the French in 1889 due to financial scandals and the high number of worker deaths from malaria and yellow fever, thousands of lives were saved thanks to public health measures implemented by Dr. William C. Gorgas of the U.S. Army Medical Corps.

Similar public health measures have been applied in the Mexico/Central America project, including participatory community treatment of larval breeding sites, improvements in housing conditions, periodical clearing of vegetation around houses, and elimination of stagnant water near houses. These actions are complemented by a wide array of educational interventions aimed at information about malaria transmission, and rapid diagnosis and prompt treatment of those affected in the community.

Early detection and treatment is crucial for eliminating the parasite carriers. A key aspect has been the collaboration of voluntary community health workers who are taught to make an early diagnosis in situ and to administer complete courses of treatment not only to those affected but to patients' immediate contacts.

The project was carried out in "demonstration areas" selected for their high levels of malaria transmission. In those areas, the number of malaria cases fell 63 percent from 2004 to 2007. In several demonstration areas I visited in Honduras and Mexico as a consultant for the Pan American Health Organization, malaria had practically been eliminated. Plans are under way to expand the project to other regions where malaria remains a serious threat.

One of the advantages of avoiding DDT (and its toxic effects) is the enormous savings realized from discontinuing its routine use. These savings can now be put to good use against other diseases.

Although DDT can still be used in some countries or regions with extremely high levels of malaria infection, the fact that an effective campaign against malaria can be waged without it, and at much lower cost, raises hopes that this approach can be used as time goes on by a wide range of developing countries in the Americas, Africa and Asia.

Dr. César Chelala is an international public health consultant.

If past experience with authoritarian regimes is any guide, new sanctions on Iran will not succeed in curbing its nuclear power development and will, instead, strengthen the hardliners in government. Much more can be gained by improving the relationship between U.S. and Iranian citizens.

Ahmadinejad’s despotic behavior is not in itself enough to initiate a war against Iran that may have tragic consequences for the region and for the whole world. Despite Ahmadinejad’s rantings against Israel, Iranian leaders know that an attack against that country would be suicidal, unleashing terrible reprisals from Israel and the United States.

There is widespread suspicion that Iran’s possession of a nuclear bomb may initiate an arms race in the Middle East. However, what is now an open secret – Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons- has not ignited such a race. Since threats of punitive action against Iran are not weakening its nuclear ambitions, it is time to try a different approach.

Iranians insist that portraying them as a warmongering nation does not respond to historical precedent. They point out that the U.S. was responsible for overthrowing a constitutionally elected government in their country, and that it supported Saddam Hussein’s invasion of their country while Israel provided arms to Iran. In addition, Iranians claim that the U.S. and other Western countries supplied Saddam Hussein with chemical and biological weapons that caused hundreds of thousands of Iranian civilian deaths.

On April 23, 2010, Republican Congressman Ron Paul stated his opposition to sanctions on Iran stating, “…it feels as if we are back in 2002 all over again: the same falsehoods and distortions used to push the United States into a disastrous and unnecessary one trillion dollar war on Iraq are being trotted out again to lead us to what will likely be an even more disastrous and costly war on Iran….We need to see this for what it is: Propaganda to speed us to war against Iran for the benefit of special interests.”

President Obama has repeatedly stated the danger represented by nuclear weapons falling into terrorists’ hands, thus suggesting the need to curb Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon. However, Pakistan is a far more serious danger in that regard, since it has a very unstable government and Al-Qaeda is already present in that country.

It is a common experience that many times countries behave like people. If a person is threatened and coerced by an infinitely more powerful adversary, the only way for that person to react is to become more fearful and find extreme ways of defending itself against that menace.

Three decades of sanctions against Iran have proved to be ineffective. Why are they going to be effective now, when the Iranian regime is more determined than ever to pursue its own road to nuclear development? Sanctions will also not stop the Iranian regime abuse of its own people. As Dursun Peksen, a political science professor and an expert on economic sanctions has written, “My research into the effect sanctions have on human rights conditions in authoritarian regimes shows that more abuses typically occur with sanctions in place and that the number of abuses is greater when sanctions on those regimes are more extensive.”

According to Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, who was the first president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, foreign governments which want to support the democratic movement in Iran should adopt a policy of active neutrality. As he recently stated, “Sanctions will be counterproductive because the threat of international crisis is the Iranian regime’s only remaining resource for legitimizing its despotic power.”

Also, for sanctions to succeed they have to be part of a broad international effort. In that regard, the possibilities for Russia and China’s support are very slim, since to do so would harm their own considerable economic interests in that country. Iraq’s president has already spoken against sanctions to its Iranian neighbors, Turkey has expressed reluctance to participate on sanctions and Brazilian President Inacio Lula da Silva has stated that isolating Iran is counterproductive.

History has shown that demonizing people only fosters hate between countries. We fear what we know but we fear even more what we don’t know. Parallel to efforts on the diplomatic front, dialogue between both countries should be actively fostered through an exchange of artists, scientists, writers and religious figures. In February of 2008 The New York Philharmonic gave a concert in Pyongyang, North Korea capital, one of the countries belonging to the “axis of evil” according to President Bush’s infelicitous expression. Why cannot it do the same in Tehran?

Iran is an ancient country which has given the world outstanding artists and thinkers. Let’s conduct an active exchange that will benefit both countries and diminish the atmosphere of confrontation and suspicion. Let’s change a paradigm geared for war for one geared for peaceful coexistence. It would be a logical next step in brokering peace in that troubled region.

Their names are Chandrika, Hamida, Amod, Madhuri, Maria or Jenny. And as varied as these children's names are their nationalities: Indian, Bangladeshi, Nepalese, Nicaraguan or North American. What unites them is that they have been made to work as prostitutes and, in the process, have endangered their lives and well-being and seriously compromised their future.

It is estimated that 4 million women and girls worldwide are bought and sold each year either into marriage, prostitution or slavery. Approximately 1 million children enter the sex trade every year. (Although most are girls; boys are also involved.)

As many as 50,000 women and children from Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe are brought to the United States and forced to work as prostitutes or servants. In the United States during the past two years, the government has prosecuted cases involving hundreds of victims. In other countries where this problem is frequent, the prosecution rate is even lower.

Child sex tourism is worldwide phenomenon, but it is concentrated in Asia and Central and South America. According to UNICEF, 10,000 girls annually enter Thailand from neighboring countries and end up as sex workers. Thailand’s Health System Research Institute reports that children in prostitution make up 40% of prostitutes in Thailand. And between 5,000 and 7,000 Nepali girls are transported across the border to India each year and end up in commercial sex work in Mumbai, Bombay or New Delhi.

Although the greatest number of children working as prostitutes is in Asia, Eastern European children from Eastern European countries, such as Russia, Poland, Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic, are increasingly vulnerable.

As a social pathological phenomenon, prostitution involving children does not show signs of abating. In many cases, organized groups kidnap children and sell them into prostitution, with border officials and police serving as accomplices.

The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women called attention to the levels of state participation and complicity in the trafficking of women and children across borders. Because of their often undocumented status, language deficiencies and lack of legal protection, kidnapped children are particularly vulnerable in the hands of smugglers or corrupt and heartless government officials.

Commercial sexual exploitation of children is increasing worldwide. There are several reasons. These include increased trade across borders, poverty, unemployment, low status of girls, lack of education (including sex education) of children and their parents, inadequate legislation, lack of or poor law enforcement and the eroticization of children by the media, a phenomenon increasingly seen in industrialized countries.

There are also special social and cultural reasons for children entering into the sex trade in different regions of the world. In many cases, children from industrialized countries enter the sex trade because they are fleeing abusive homes. In countries of Eastern and Southern Africa, children who became orphans as a result of AIDS frequently lack the protection of caregivers and are, therefore, more vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation. In South Asia, traditional practices that perpetuate the low status of women and girls in society are at the base of this problem. Children exploited sexually are prone to sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS. In addition, because of the conditions in which they live, children can become malnourished, and develop feelings of guilt, inadequacy and depression.

Besides the moral and ethical implications, the impact that sexual exploitation has on children's health and future development demands urgent attention. Throughout the world, many individuals and nongovernmental organizations are working intensely for the protection of children's rights. Many times, their work puts them in conflict with governments and powerful interest groups.

Among the U.N. agencies, UNICEF has been particularly active in calling attention to this phenomenon and in addressing the root causes of sexual exploitation by providing economic support to families so that their children will not be at risk of sexual exploitation, by improving access to education -- particularly for girls -- and by becoming a strong advocate for the rights of the child.

The work of such nongovernmental organizations and U.N. agencies should be a complement to governments' actions to solve this problem. Those actions should include preventing sexual exploitation through social mobilization and awareness building, providing social services to exploited children and their families and creating the legal framework and resources for psychosocial counseling and for the appropriate prosecution of perpetrators.

The elimination of the sexual exploitation of children around the world is a daunting task, but one that is achievable is effective programs are put in place. Only when this phenomenon is eliminated will we be able to say that the world's children are exercising their right to a healthy, and peaceful, life.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international medical consultant residing in New York.

Puede que sea una sorpresa para muchos, pero don Quijote todavía vive, y en un lugar donde nadie lo imaginaría. Don Quijote vive ahora en Tucumán, mi ciudad natal en el norte de la Argentina.

No viste armadura sino, a pesar de la temperatura, traje y corbata. Probablemente lleve fajos de papeles, algunos de ellos expedientes legales que le permiten perseguir y enfurecer a sus enemigos. Afortunadamente, sus enemigos son los de la civilidad, la decencia y el honor.

Es de estatura mediana, cara alargada con barba corta, nariz aquilina y ojos penetrantes, entre verdes y azules. Son ojos serios y decididos.

Aunque no es abogado, sus conocimientos legales son enciclopédicos y probablemente superiores a los de cualquier letrado, algo que utiliza para perseguir a los pillos. Trabaja como director de una empresa de construcciones, pero —para consternación de su mujer— deja de lado cualquier actividad para seguir su obsesión.

Lo que más lo identifica no es su aspecto físico, sino más bien su devoción por luchar por causas injustas. En español hay una frase maravillosa que lo define totalmente: «defensor de pobres, menores y ausentes».

Sus derrotas no le hacen mella. Protestó vigorosamente cuando el gobierno argentino otorgó una medalla de honor al general Augusto Pinochet, enviando docenas de cartas a las autoridades argentinas.

Sus protestas fueron desoídas y el general Pinochet recibió su condecoración. Presentó entonces una moción especial para prohibirle usar su medalla, alegando que Pinochet había ayudado a los ingleses contra los argentinos durante la guerra de las Malvinas. Su moción fue denegada una vez más.

Cuando Pinochet murió, nuevamente presentó una moción a las autoridades solicitando que la familia devolviera la medalla. La moción fue otra vez denegada. «Este no es el fin de esta historia», me dijo después, mortificado.

Un incidente reciente lo muestra de cuerpo entero. Durante mucho tiempo fue una fuente de irritación para los tucumanos que al lado de la casa de gobierno hubiera un edificio de departamentos de doce pisos cuya pared contigua estaba cubierta con el logo de una empresa internacional de bebidas gaseosas.

Para los tucumanos parecía que la empresa fuera dueña del gobierno de la ciudad. Aunque irritados, los ciudadanos comunes no podían hacer nada.

Vivo en Nueva York y visito a mi familia en Tucumán por lo menos una vez al año. Durante una de mis visitas caminaba con don Quijote cuando vi el logo que abarataba no sólo la casa de gobierno, sino todos los alrededores. No pude evitar comentar a mi amigo que ese enorme logo afeaba la zona.

«No se preocupe», me dijo, «muy pronto ya no estará allí». Me reí descreído.

«¿Quién va a borrarlo?», pregunté. Se dio vuelta y me contestó: «Yo».

Volví a reírme. Afortunadamente, no pareció enojarse por mi reacción. No se lo dije, pero me preguntaba cómo iba a hacer algo que ni los funcionarios del gobierno habían podido hacer: derrotar a una de las empresas internacionales más poderosas del mundo.

En mi siguiente visita a la ciudad ya no estaba el logo. La enorme pared estaba totalmente pintada de blanco. Sorprendido, llamé a mi amigo y le pregunté qué había ocurrido. «¿No le dije que lo borraría?», dijo orgullosamente. Entonces me dio algunos de los detalles de la operación.

Había contactado arquitectos y funcionarios de la municipalidad que estaban de acuerdo con él pero que no habían podido obligar a la empresa a quitarlo. Había intereses muy poderosos detrás del logo que ocupaba el mejor espacio de la ciudad, le explicaron. A pesar de eso, don Quijote presentó varias quejas legales a las autoridades, aunque inútilmente. Siguió luchando sin inmutarse.

Finalmente, después de nueve meses de incansable lucha («fue un parto», me dijo), encontró un resquicio legal y pudo obtener un decreto municipal que obligaba a la empresa a quitar el logo ofensivo.

Después de muchas derrotas, éste era obviamente un importante logro para mi amigo. No pude sino preguntarle, «¿Por qué continúa luchando por todas esas causas perdidas que son tan costosas, le insumen tanta energía, y no le producen ningún beneficio financiero?».

Me miró tristemente y respondió: «Porque si no lo hago, me enfermo».

César Chelala es un médico y escritor argentino, co-ganador del premio Overseas Press Club of America por un artículo sobre derechos humanos.

For people throughout the world, the election of Barak Obama to the U.S. presidency seemed to signal in a new era, that of the end of racism. Indeed, Obama’s election was a momentous occasion and, one would have hoped, a milestone on the road to reconciliation. However, some recent, very ominous events cast a worrisome veil over the democratic process in the United States.

There are many reasons that can explain Obama’s election as President: his penetrating intelligence, a well orchestrated campaign, and a life devoted to public service in which each action was like a brilliant chess move by a master of the game. But there were other factors of equal significance.

Before Obama’s election, not only was the country involved in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in what increasingly looks like a quagmire, particularly in the latter country. The economy was in a desperate state, and unemployment and health costs were rising. There was a feeling of widespread malaise in the country believed by many to be the result of an incompetent president manipulated by darker forces, an opinion widely shared throughout the world.

However, after the initial high of Obama’s election, there is now a changed atmosphere in the country. Violence is an inescapable companion to racism. And violence, or violent outbursts racially motivated, are certainly on the increase in the U.S. Threats against President Obama have increased by 400% since President George W. Bush left office, the highest numbers on record.

What makes this situation particularly worrisome is that they come not only from fringe elements in society. Thinly disguised, they also originate from certain political leaders who seem intent on creating an atmosphere of violence and disrespect around the President and the presidency.

How else can one interpret this statement by House Minority Leader John Boehner? “There is a political rebellion going on in America, and what we saw last night was just a glimpse of it,” he stated after last November’s elections. One doesn’t need to be a psychologist or a linguist to understand that such statements stoke the fires of rebellion, and are all the more dangerous when coming from a leader holding one of the most powerful offices in Washington.

As if this weren’t enough, Boehner added, “Clearly it’s been a difficult year. For us it’s been like standing in front of a machine gun--liberal ideas every single week, one after another. I think it really has the American people concerned. They are scared to death,
actually.”

Not to be upstaged, the ineffable Mrs. Palin, vice-presidential candidate of the Republican Party during the last presidential election—and an avid hunter--told her Tea Party supporters at a recent event in Nevada, “Don’t retreat, reload.”

If to these dangerous words--rebellion, machine gun, scared to death, reload--one adds the recent attacks on Democratic legislators during discussion of the health care bill in which they were spat on and threatened with racial and homophobic insults one has the makings of a racially charged –and extremely dangerous- atmosphere in the country.

Although there are other causal factors as well – political, social, economic - there can be no doubt that racism plays an important role.

The country is now facing an increase of 244 percent increase in the number of Patriot groups (militias and other organizations that see the federal government as their enemy) in 2009. At the same time, there has also been an increase in the number of anti-immigration groups throughout the country. These groups grew from 173 in 2008 to 309 in 2009, a rise of nearly 80 percent.

Are we facing a setback after so much work done in the last decades to overcome division and hatred in America? Mr. Doudou Diène, a former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, stated after visiting several states in the U.S., “Racism and racial discrimination have profoundly and lastingly marked and structured American society. The U.S. has made decisive progress. However, the historical, cultural and human depth of racism still permeates all dimensions of life and American society.”

Cesar Chelala, a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award, is a contributing editor to The Globalist.

It may come as a surprise to many, but Don Quixote is still alive, and in a most unlikely place. Don Quixote is now living in Tucumán, my hometown in Northern Argentina.

He is not dressed with body armor but rather, despite usually scorching temperatures, with suit and tie. He will probably be carrying bundles of papers, some of them legal sheaves which enable him to persecute and enrage his enemies. Fortunately, his enemies are also those of civility, decency, and honor.

He is of medium height, a narrow face with a short beard, an aquiline nose, and penetrating eyes, a mixture of green and blue. They are serious, determined eyes.

Although he is not a lawyer himself, his legal knowledge is encyclopedic and probably greater than that of any lawyer, something he uses to full advantage when suing miscreants. He works as a director in a construction company but—to his wife’s dismay—he will sideline any activity to pursue his obsessions.

What identifies him most is not his physical aspect. It is rather his devotion to fight for unjust causes. There is a wonderful phrase in Spanish that totally defines him, “Defensor de pobres, menores y ausentes,” (Advocate for the poor, the children, and the absent.)

His defeats leave him undaunted. He strenuously protested when the Argentine government awarded a medal of honor to General Augusto Pinochet, sending dozens of letters to the Argentine authorities.

His appeals were denied and General Pinochet received his decoration. He then made a special motion to forbid him from using his medal, on the grounds that Pinochet had helped the British against the Argentines during the Malvinas/Falkland war. His motion was denied once more.

When Pinochet died, he again presented a motion to the authorities to have Pinochet’s family return his medal. Again that motion was denied. “This is not the end of this story,” he later told me, chagrined.

A recent incident shows him at his best, though. For a long time, it had been a source of irritation to Tucumánians that, on the side of the Government House there was a 12 floor tall apartment building whose wall, contiguous to it, was totally covered with the logo of an international soft drink company.

To Tucumánians, it looked as if that company owned the city government. Although greatly irritated, common citizens were unable to do anything about it.

I live in New York and visit my family in Tucumán at least once a year. During one of my visits I was walking with Don Quixote when I saw the logo cheapening not only the Government House next to it but all the surrounding area. I couldn’t help commenting to my friend how that huge logo belittled the whole area.

“Don’t worry,” he told me, “very soon it will not be there.” I could only laugh in disbelief.

“Who is going to erase it?” I asked. He looked at me and answered, “I will.”

I laughed again. Fortunately, he didn’t seem annoyed by my reaction. I didn’t tell him then but I wondered how he was going to do something that not even government officials had been able to do: Defeat one of the most powerful international companies in the world.

On a later visit to my hometown I no longer saw the logo. The huge wall was totally painted in white. Surprised, I called my friend and asked him what had happened. “Didn’t I tell you that I would erase it?” he said proudly. He then gave me some of the details of the operation.

He had contacted architects and government officials at City Hall who agreed with him but had been unable to force the company to remove it. There were very powerful interests behind the logo which occupied the city’s best space, they explained. In spite of that, Don Quixote presented several legal complaints to the authorities, but to no avail. He still continued his fight, undaunted.

Finally, after nine months of unrelenting struggle (“just like a pregnancy,” he told me) he finally found a legal loophole and was able to obtain a municipal decree ordering the company to expunge the offending logo.

After many defeats, this was clearly a major achievement for my friend. I couldn’t but ask him, “Why do you continue fighting all these mostly lost causes which are so costly, take so much of your energy, and don’t give you any financial gain?”

He looked at me sadly and responded, “Because if I don’t do it, I get sick.”

Dr. César Chelala is an award-winning writer on human rights issues.

Captain Ferguson (not his real name) gets up early in the morning, and has breakfast with his wife and children. At the office, Captain Ferguson sits in front of the computer on and off for almost eight hours every day. At the end of the day he heads back home. Captain Ferguson’s wife is glad to see him back to discuss the events of her day. He does the same, with one omission. By most measures, it has been a beautiful day.

Beautiful, that is, if you don’t consider Captain Ferguson’s omission. While sitting in front of his computer, he was directing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, carrying powerful bombs to land in distant countries. He presumes, but he is not totally sure, that he has hit the right target. After the bombs exploded four suspected terrorists were killed. Four fewer criminals the U.S. will have to deal with.

A later investigation will later reveal that they were not terrorists but rather they were parents and children on a birthday party. As a result of the attack, four adults and eight children were killed, and several more seriously injured.

Captain Ferguson, of course, was unaware of the consequences of his actions. He only thinks that he has a somewhat tedious but rewarding job, since he is an important piece in the fight against terror. Only later he will know the truth, when the outcry of the victims’ relatives cannot be silenced any longer. The predictable apologies will not bring back the dead to life, nor heal those injured.

Let’s compare this made–up scenario with reality.

During the first year of the Obama administration, there were 51 drone attacks, compared to 45 drone attacks during President Bush’s two terms in office, according to The Year of the Drone, a report by the Washington-based New America Foundation. The report also states that the civilian fatality rate has been 32 percent in drone attacks since 2004.

“Drones are currently killing people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. It should be noted that the United States is not at war with any of those countries, which should mean in a sane world that the killing is illegal under both international law and the US Constitution,” states Philip Girald, a former CIA officer and fellow of the American Conservative Defense Alliance.

Girald’s observation is confirmed by Mary Ellen O’Connell, a Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School. In a research paper entitled “Unlawful Killing with Combat Drones” Professor O’Connell says, “The CIA’s intention in using drones is to target and kill individual leaders of al-Qaeda or Taliban militant groups. Drones have rarely, if ever, killed just the intended target. By October 2009, the ratio has been about 20 leaders killed for 750-1000 unintended victims. Drones are having a counter-productive impact in Pakistan’s attempt to repress militancy and violence. The use of the drone is, therefore, violating the war-fighting principles of distinction, necessity, proportionality, humanity.”

In the meantime, the U.S. military plans to more than triple its inventory of high-altitude drones capable of 24-hour patrols by 2020. General David Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command, which includes both Afghanistan and Iraq, declared in a speech last January, “We can’t get enough drones.”

War, we should sadly acknowledge, is not a Nintendo game. And innocent people’s lives are not expendable. If we don’t admit the tragic dimension of war we will be cursed by its consequences.

Cesar Chelala, a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award, is a contributing editor to The Globalist.

There is not a single factor that accounts for violence against women, but several social and cultural factors have kept women particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon.

What they have in common, however, is that they are manifestations of historically unequal power relations between men and women.

The involvement of men is critical to curb the spread of this injustice. In this case, NGOs have proven to be more effective than government agencies.

The stubborn fact, however, is that in many countries violence against women, especially in the domestic setting, is seen as normal behavior. In that sense, domestic violence exemplifies perverse power relationships.

When this kind of relationship becomes established, people become conditioned to accept violence as a legitimate means of settling conflicts — both within the family and in society at large — thus creating and perpetuating a vicious cycle.

Violence begets violence, and often does irreparable damage to the family and to the social structure.

Women who marry at a young age are more likely to believe that sometimes it is acceptable for a husband to beat his wife, and are more likely to experience domestic violence than women who marry at an older age, according to a UNICEF study. This, among other reasons, is why it is so essential that young girls forced into marriage in Yemen have been able to come forward and request a divorce from the courts in recent months.

Lack of economic resources and the capacity to lead economically independent lives also underscore women’s vulnerability to violence, and the difficulties they face in extricating themselves from a violent relationship. According to some studies, there is a link between rise in violence against women and the destabilization of economic patterns in society.

Although physical violence and sexual violence are easier to see, other forms of violence include emotional abuse, such as verbal humiliation, threats of physical aggression or abandonment, economic blackmail and forced confinement to the home. Many women consider psychological abuse and humiliation even more devastating than physical violence.

What’s more, from a public health perspective, sexual violence increases women's risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS (through forced sexual relations or the difficulty in persuading men to use condoms), increases the number of unplanned pregnancies, and may lead to various gynecological problems such as chronic pelvic pain and painful intercourse.

The stubborn fact is that in many countries violence against women, especially in the domestic setting, is seen as normal behavior. Even more disturbing, a large proportion of women are beaten while they are pregnant. Comparative studies reveal that pregnant women who are abused have twice the risk of miscarriage and four-times the risk of having low-birth-weight babies than non-battered pregnant women.

In India, a study of maternal deaths carried out in 400 villages and seven hospitals showed that 16% of all deaths during pregnancy were due to domestic violence.

Domestic violence can have devastating consequences on children as well. According to a UNICEF report, as many as 275 million children worldwide are currently exposed to domestic violence. One of the findings of the report is that children who live with domestic violence not only endure the stress of an atmosphere of violence at home but are more likely to become victims of abuse themselves.

It is estimated that 40% of child-abuse victims also have reported domestic violence at home. In addition, children who are exposed to domestic violence are at greater risk for substance abuse, teenage pregnancy and delinquent behavior.

Although doctors and health personnel can greatly help the victims, many times they are not trained to diagnose abuse accurately. And more so, women are often reluctant or afraid to report abuse.

Various cultural, economic and social factors, including shame and fear of retaliation contribute to women's reluctance to report these acts. Legal and criminal systems in many countries also make the process difficult.

Frequently, fear keeps women trapped in abusive relationships. It has been found that almost 80% of all serious gender violence injuries and deaths occur when female victims of violence try to leave a relationship — or after they have left.

As a World Health Organization report states, "The health sector can play a vital role in preventing violence against women, helping to identify abuse early, providing victims with the necessary treatment and referring women to appropriate and informed care. Health services must be places where women feel safe, are treated with respect, are not stigmatized, and where they can receive quality, informed support."

Women who marry at a young age are more likely to believe that sometimes it is acceptable for a husband to beat his wife, and are more likely to experience domestic violence than women who marry at an older age.

Given the difficulties in properly diagnosing abuse or reluctance report it, prevention of violence against women is key.

Prevention may act at three levels: primary prevention stops the problem from happening; secondary prevention stops it from progressing further; and tertiary prevention teaches victims, after the fact, how to avoid its repetition. Studies carried out in industrialized countries show that public health approaches to violence can lower the negative impact of domestic violence.

Governments also have been increasingly responsive to women groups’ demands to deal seriously with this issue. In Bangladesh, new laws make violence against women a punishable offence. Belgium, Peru and Yugoslavia have amended laws to more clearly define sexual harassment. The Dominican Republic, Portugal, Spain, Uruguay and Belgium, among others, have passed laws that increase penalties for domestic abuse. The Kingdoms of Jordan and Morocco have both made strides to protect women’s rights — denouncing so-called honor killings in the former and providing confidential victims’ assistance hotlines in the latter.

In India and Bangladesh a traditional system of local justice called salishe is used to address abuse on a case-by-case basis. For example, when a woman is beaten in Bangladesh, the West Bengali non-governmental organization Shramajibee Mahila Samity sends a female organizer to the village to discuss the situation with the people involved and helps find a solution, which is then formalized in writing by a local committee.

In China, there has been some progress regarding this issue as well, such as placing posters on some roads and in subways stressing the problems that domestic violence represent to society. The All-China Women’s Federation has been playing a significant role in bringing domestic violence into the legislative and policy-making processes.

In February 2007, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón signed a law passed by the Senate, that requires local and federal authorities to curb violence against women. Mexico’s new law is the first-ever federal measure to combat domestic violence and other abuses against women, although similar measures were already in the books in many cities and states.

Studies carried out in industrialized countries shows that public health approaches to violence can lower the negative impact of domestic violence.

Many governments find it difficult to work with women at the community level, which is where NGOs come into play. This is the case in Jamaica, Malaysia and Mozambique, among others, where these organizations have been particularly active. In Ethiopia, the Association of Women’s Lawyers is actively working against sexual violence and domestic abuse.

The involvement of men is critical to curb the spread of this injustice. In this case also, NGOs have proven to be more effective than government agencies. In Cambodia, Jamaica and the Philippines, NGOs are working effectively with men to support women’s empowerment and rights. The Women’s Centre of the Jamaica Foundation counsels young male parents and trains male peer educators through its program Young Men at Risk.

But more work needs to be done if this pandemic is going to be controlled.

Government and community leaders should spearhead an effort to create a culture of openness and support to help eliminate the stigma associated with violence against women. Laws should be followed up with plans for specific national action.

Domestic violence is a threat to equality and justice that no civilized society should allow to exist.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant and a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

Several years ago, during my first visit to Cuba to attend a health-related meeting I was witness to an unusual event. As friends and I walked into the Bodeguita del Medio, a traditional restaurant famous because of the number of illustrious visitors who had dined there over the years, a young Cuban man was discretely asked to leave. Seeing my friends and myself and realizing we were not Cuban, he began ranting against the restrictions placed on Cubans by their government.

“I have the money to spend here,” he told us. “But they prefer to have foreigners eat here. I am fed up with this regime. Do you see something in that corner?” he asked us. “Yes,” we said, “there is a man standing there.” “You are wrong,” he replied, “he is not a man. That’s a gigantic ear that is listening to everything I am saying to you. But I don’t care; I am so sick and tired of this situation.”

In a few brief minutes, I gained an idea of some of the problems besieging Cuban society: the need for foreign money, the oppressive nature of the regime, and the dissatisfaction of the youth. These impressions were later confirmed during another visit to the island when I headed a U.N. mission to assess the progress of Cuban scientists in developing interferon, an anti-viral substance.

To pinpoint the Cuban government shortcomings, however, is in no way to deny its achievements. During that last visit I had the opportunity of meeting Fidel Castro. Although we didn’t raise any political issues in our conversation, I was able to observe his enormous interest in, and knowledge, about health issues. That interest and knowledge underlie his government’s achievements in two critical areas, health and education. Cuba is in the forefront in both fields when compared to other Latin American countries and in some areas on a par with the United States.

This progress, however, has been hindered by an unnecessary and substantially ineffectual embargo against that country, a situation that has cost the U.S. both in material terms and in prestige among Latin American governments who consider the embargo a violation of a nation’s rights and sovereignty.

There is no doubt that political pressure from the powerful Cuban exile community in Florida has been an important factor in maintaining the embargo. However, the descendants of that immigrant generation have a more nuanced view of the Cuban regime; they have seen the damage cause by the antagonism between both countries and are eager for more amicable relations between them.

While Cubans have always been clear as to their admiration for the American people –which I was able to observe during my visits to the island- the embargo does more to foster hate and mistrust of the U.S. government than of the Cuban government. Moreover, the U.S. has been flying in the face of world opinion on the Cuban issue. If votes in the U.N. General Assembly are a test, no country in the world –with the exception of the United States, Israel and the Marshall Islands- support the embargo.

President Obama has wisely eased restrictions on travel to the island by Cubans and their descendants. He should now strengthen that approach through an intense exchange of scientists, doctors, artists and ordinary citizens between both countries. The effect would be dramatic in neutralizing the atmosphere of antagonism and should lead to a lifting of the embargo.

Trade with the United States now amounts to half a billion dollars a year, a negligible amount equivalent to U.S. trade with Canada on a single day. Should normal relations return, the increase in trade could be substantial. A furthering of this administration’s more open attitude toward the island is in the best interests of both the US and the Cuban people, who have been the ones really hurt by this situation.

Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, is an international public health consultant and a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

That violence against women is considered accepted behavior in many countries does not diminish its seriousness or its negative impact on the physical and mental health of women worldwide. Its persistence throughout the world — despite other obvious social measures of progress — indicates the need to confront it with more effective policies.

Some studies conducted in the United States reveal that each year approximately 4 million women are physically attacked by their husbands or partners.

In every country where reliable studies have been conducted, statistics show that between 10% and 50% of women report that they have been physically abused by an intimate partner during their lifetime.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) data, the most devastating effect of gender violence worldwide is that violence against women claims almost 1.6 million lives each year — about 3% of deaths of all causes.

Domestic violence, violence that occurs in the home or within the family, is the most common kind of gender violence. It affects women regardless of age, education or socioeconomic status. Its victims are women in developing nations and Western countries alike.

The situation has led public health experts to consider violence against women a global public health issue — one requiring a public health approach.

Worldwide, violence is as common a cause of death and disability among women of reproductive age as cancer — and a greater cause of ill health than traffic accidents and malaria together.

Few precise figures on violence against women exist, but some of the numbers can be shocking.

According to Mexico’s Health Ministry, about one in three women suffer from domestic violence, and it is estimated that over 6,000 women die in Mexico every year as a result. According to a 2006 study of women in Mexico sponsored by the government (Encuesta Nacional sobre la Dinámica de las Relaciones en los Hogares 2006), 43.2% of women over 15 years old have been victims of some form of intra-family violence over the course of their last relationship.

Worldwide, violence is as common a cause of death and disability among women of reproductive age as cancer — and a greater cause of ill health than traffic accidents and malaria together.

Domestic violence is rife in many African countries as well. In Zimbabwe, according to a United Nations report, it accounts for more than six in ten murder cases in court. According to surveys, 42% of women in Kenya and 41% in Uganda reported having been beaten by their partners.

Although some countries such as South Africa have passed women’s rights legislation, the big test — full implementation, with teeth — has not been passed.

In China, according to a national survey, domestic violence occurs in one-third of the country’s 270 million households. A survey by the China Law Institute in Gansu, Hunan and Zhejiang provinces found that one-third of the surveyed families had witnessed family violence — and that 85% of victims were women.

In Japan, as in many other countries, the number of reported cases has increased in recent times. According to some advocates working to end domestic violence, this may signal that victims may be overcoming cultural and social taboos that once forced them into silence. According to the National Police Agency, reported cases reached an all-time high of 20,992 in 2007, mostly women in their 30s.

The changes associated with the transition period in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union — such as increases in poverty, unemployment, income inequality, stress, and alcohol and drug abuse — have led to an increase in violence in those societies, including violence against women.

In Russia, estimates put the annual domestic violence death toll at more than 14,000 women. Natalya Abubikirova, executive director of the Russian Association of Crisis Centers, in a statement to Amnesty International drew a dramatic parallel to capture the scope of the problem: "The number of women dying every year at the hands of their husbands and partners in the Russian Federation is roughly equal to the total number of Soviet soldiers killed in the 10-year war in Afghanistan."

Domestic violence affects women regardless of age, education or socioeconomic status. Its victims are women in developing nations and Western countries alike.

In a study conducted by the Council for Women at Moscow State University, 70% of the women surveyed said that they had been subjected to some form of violence — physical, psychological, sexual or economic — by their husbands. Some 90% of respondents said they had either witnessed scenes of physical violence between their parents when they were children or had experienced this kind of violence in their own marriages.

Research carried out in several Arab countries, shows that at least one out of three women is beaten by her husband. Despite the serious consequences of domestic violence, and the increasing frequency of violence against women, not enough is done by the governments of Arab and Islamic countries to address these issues.

As the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) has stated, "To date, there is no comprehensive and systematic mechanism for collecting reliable data on violence against women in Arab countries."

In many Islamic countries, or in countries with a substantial Muslim majority, passages from the Koran are sometimes used to justify violence against women. Yet many religious experts state that Islam rejects the abuse of women and advocates equality in the rights of women and men.

In many cases, violence against women — including killings — are based more on cultural than religious grounds and are justified by the need to protect a family’s honor.

This pattern of abuse is similar for industrialized countries.

Some studies conducted in the United States reveal that each year approximately 4 million women are physically attacked by their husbands or partners.

According to the WHO’s "World report on violence and health," between 40% and 70% of female murder victims in Australia, Canada, Israel, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States were killed by their husbands or boyfriends — often within the context of an ongoing abusive relationship.

In Russia, estimates put the annual domestic violence death toll at more than 14,000 women.

According to a U.S. study, violence against women is responsible for a large proportion of medical visits, and for approximately one-third of emergency room visits. Another study found that in the United States, domestic violence is the most frequent cause of injury in women treated in emergency rooms, more common than motor vehicle accidents and robberies combined.

In the United States, 25% of female psychiatric patients who attempt suicide are victims of domestic violence, as are 85% of women in substance abuse programs. Studies carried out in Pakistan, Australia and the United States show that women victims of domestic violence suffer more depression, anxiety and phobias than women who have not been abused.

As Noeleen Heyzer, former executive director of UNIFEM has stated, "Violence against women devastates people’s lives, fragments communities and prevents countries from developing."

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant and a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

The rapid urbanization if our planet, which began in the 19th century, is one of the most notable changes in modern times. While in 1950, 29% of the population lived in cities, that figure is estimated now in 50% and by 2030 that proportion will be 61%. In Africa, urbanization has followed a similar trend: it experienced a rapid shift from 15% in 1950 to 41 percent now. It is estimated that by 2030 54% of the population in that continent will be living in cities. Not only are more people living in cities but the cities themselves are becoming larger and more numerous. This situation poses unique problems related to the provision of water, sanitation and a healthy environment.

There are now 43 cities in Africa with populations of more than 1 million inhabitants. It is expected that by 2015 there will be 70 of them. Because of slow economic growth, lack of effective development policies and limited resources, infrastructure development has not kept up with the increasing needs for shelter and services in growing urban populations. At the same time, urban settlements in the developing countries are growing five times as fast as those in the industrialized countries.

This explosive growth of urban populations has resulted in African cities having overcrowded, informal settlements characterized by inadequate housing and poor infrastructures such as water supplies, sanitation and waste management services. This is the result, in part, of the fact that most cities, both in developed and developing regions are experiencing a polarization of their populations into affluent and poor neighborhoods. Modern trends are towards segregation rather than social integration between rich and poor neighborhoods.

This is the case for many African cities, where local governments have been unable to keep with the pace of change and as a consequence have also been unable to provide dwellers with proper infrastructures related to the provision of water and the collection, transportation, processing and disposal of waste materials.

In developing countries with economies under stress, waste management is a problem that often endangers health and the environment. However, it is a low priority problem for governments often besieged by other problems such as poverty, hunger, children’s malnutrition, water shortages, unemployment and even war. In that regard, fast-growing population, increasing poverty and its effects on living conditions are some of the problems facing cities in the developing world.

Water supply, sanitation and health are closely related issues. Poor hygiene, inadequate management of liquid or solid waste and lack of sanitation facilities are contributing factors in the death of millions of people in the developing world due to diseases that are easily preventable. In addition, people living in un-serviced or poorly serviced areas value the increased convenience and privacy associated with improved sanitation.

For example, lack of sanitation and inadequate disposal or storage of waste near houses can provide habitats for vectors responsible for several infectious diseases such as amebiasis, typhoid fever and diarrheas. Uncontrolled and inadequate landfills, for their part, are a big danger to the environment and a health risk to the population since they may lead to contamination of water and soil. The health risks associated with poor sanitation tend to be higher in densely populated low-income urban areas. At a global level, more than 5 million people die each year from diseases related to inadequate waste disposal systems.

Contamination of water leads to a whole range of diarrheal diseases such as cholera that kills 1.8 million people worldwide. An estimated 90 percent among them are children below five, mainly from developing countries. Most of the burden can be attributed to unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene practices.

The children that are affected the most are those living in low-income urban areas. According to UNICEF, Infant Mortality Rates (IMRs) are almost always higher in poor urban areas than the national average and than those in rural areas. A great proportion of this high mortality among the children of the urban poor can be attributed to diseases common in urban areas such as diarrhea, tuberculosis and parasitic diseases (intestinal worms) that are frequently associated with lack of safe water and sanitation. Malnutrition in children is often a complicating factor.

Germs, particularly those present in water, food or on dirty hands are the most frequent cause of sickness worldwide. Although lack of safe water and sanitary facilities are significant problems, they are made even worse by ignorance in the general population, particularly mothers, about the connection between dirt, germs and childhood diarrhea.

Also, experience has shown that provision of clean water by itself only leads to minor health improvements. The most important factor is personal hygiene, with adequate public sanitation and clean water as additional, supporting components. Thus, while each of these factors is important in itself, they are more effective when they are combined. At the same time, hygienic behavior is not possible without a source of safe water and adequate means to dispose of human and other wastes.

Several naturally-occurring and human-made chemical substances present in drinking water can have a serious effect on health, particularly when present above a threshold level. Among chemicals that can be dangerous in high concentrations are fluoride, arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, nitrates and pesticides.

All these factors stress the need to carry out policies that ensure the provision of safe water to the population, particularly in marginal areas lacking basic health and social services.

These comments are particularly appropriate when one reflects on the fact that Africa has the lowest water supply and sanitation coverage of any other region in the world. It is estimated that 1 in 3 Africans have no access to improved water or to sanitation facilities. Even more seriously, the number of people lacking those basic services is increasing. Unless actions are taken now, the absolute number of people lacking basic services will increase from 200 million in 2000 to 400 million in 2020. The majority of those lacking basic services live in informal or suburban areas and rural communities.

In the last 2 decades, Benin has reported significant gains in terms of sanitation coverage and better access to drinking water. Thus, improved sanitation coverage increased from 12% in 1990 to 30% in 2006, while the proportion of the population that gained access to an improved water source increased by 37% since 1990.

According to the Mid-term review of Progress in Reaching Objectives in A World Fit for Children, considerable progress has been made in the field of provision of safe drinking water, particularly in rural areas in that country. This was possible thanks to Government funds and important external support, as well as to a decentralization process that transferred some responsibilities to the local authorities.

According to the same document, although there have been improvements in basic sanitation the degree of improvement is still very low. Among the components still needed to improve the situation are financial support as well as hygiene and communication components aimed at provoking behavioral change, particularly hand-washing as a way to eliminate the transmission of infections from fecal matter.

Despite progress, however, many Sub-Saharan countries will find it difficult to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set for 2015, particularly the MDG 7 which stipulates to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

This is evident when, according to the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), “Today, it is becoming more and more evident that, in many Sub-Saharan African countries, official data on MDG progress in the area of water and sanitation do not reflect the real situation in the ground. In urban and presumable also in rural areas, coverage is overestimated which, as a result, means that the gaps to be bridged are underestimated.”

The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance has defined a set of conditions to address shortcoming of previous efforts to improve sanitation. Among those conditions to be addressed are the following:

* Capital-intensive solutions tend to be costly, energy-intensive and inflexible, failing to reach large proportions of the new slum poor.

* Importing sanitation models from the industrialized world and trying to implement centralized ‘one-size-fits-all’ solutions is in many cases neither appropriate nor sustainable. Planning approaches must be adapted to better allow for the planning and implementation of context-specific sanitation systems.

* Among recent innovations in sanitation planning are a more integrated planning approach (strategic sanitation planning), and a greater emphasis on the actual needs and means of the users encompassing close consultation with all stakeholders.

* We need to overcome the lack of integration between the various components of environmental sanitation: excreta, domestic and industrial waste-water, solid waste and storm water which are often run by separate agencies or institutions. Better use of synergies can lead to more sustainable and cost-effective solutions.

* To achieve adequate sanitation it is necessary to convince local authorities, utilities and donors that there should be effective commitment and participation by all stakeholders.

Several of these conditions are also applicable to improving the provision of safe water. In both cases, it is important to provide incentives for good practice. One such incentive could be increased financial aid to municipalities that succeed in implementing effective sanitation and safe water programs.

It is also important to move from implementing strategic planning process in a pilot municipality to disseminating results (through workshops, publications, exchange visits), followed by changes in legislation and procedures as necessary to replicating the process on a wider scale.

According to Hans van Damme, a special adviser to the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, the constraints for improvement are neither financial nor technical –they are political, social and managerial. At the same time, local authorities have to empower people through self-reliance and support individuals and families in their efforts. At the same time, water-sector professionals should combine their technical skills with the ability to communicate those they serve.

Better water and sanitation services can improve everybody’s health and well-being, particularly women and children. The seriousness with which we approach this task will be a measure of our commitment for building communities better prepared to face the challenges related to their need for having better access to potable water and adequate sanitation.

- In this blog series, Dr. Cesar Chelala explores the many challenges presented by urbanization, the impact of urban migration, challenges to health, and challenges of providing clean water. - Ed.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant.

The recent statement by the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility that the lawyers who wrote the so called “torture memos” exercised “poor judgment” in writing legal opinions related to the use of torture techniques is a disservice to justice. It is a topic that should be properly addressed by a serious inquiry to establish if there were any violations of the law.

According to the Justice Department’s ethics watchdog, lawyers John Yoo and Jay Bybee wrote opinions on the subject that “contained significant flaws.” In addition, investigators found that Yoo had “violated his duty to exercise independent legal judgment and render thorough, objective and candid legal advice.” As for Bybee, they determined that he had “acted in reckless disregard” of ethical obligations for his actions regarding those memos.

However, the report containing these conclusions stated that Yoo and Bybee were not guilty of professional misconduct that might have led to their disbarment. This is a puzzling statement if one considers that Yoo and Bybee’s actions led to serious violations of national and international law.

It is even more puzzling if one considers that a cover letter accompanying the report stated that an earlier version of the report found “professional misconduct” by the two lawyers. David Margolies, a senior career official at the Office of Professional Responsibility in charge of reviewing the report overruled that finding.

“Justice Department lawyers have an obligation to uphold the law, so when they write legal opinions that are designed to provide legal cover for torture, they need to be accountable with more than a slap in the wrist,” stated Andrea Prasow, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch. She added, “Last minute changes in the Justice Department’s findings should not stop state bars from investigating whether these men violated their ethical obligations as lawyers.”

The “torture memos” sought to provide legal cover for US interrogators to use abusive interrogation techniques such as sleep deprivation and waterboarding. This last practice has been prosecuted as a war crime in the United States. In 1947, the US charged a Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, with war crimes for carrying a form of waterboarding on a US civilian. Asano was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, when Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives were captured, CIA interrogators sought authority to use coercive means of interrogation. These methods were then cleared not only at the White House during the Bush administration, but also by the Justice Department, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

CIA officers used waterboarding at least 83 times against Abu Zubaydah and 183 times against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, according to a 2005 Justice Department legal memorandum, even though the United States had historically treated waterboarding as torture. “We prosecuted our own soldiers for using it in Vietnam,” said Attorney General Eric H. Holder.

Information obtained from waterboarding may not be reliable because a person under duress may admit to anything. “It is bad interrogation. I mean, you can get anyone to confess to anything if the torture is bad enough,” said former CIA officer Bob Baer.

In December 2008, Robert Muller, Director of the FBI, stated that despite Bush Administration claims that waterboarding has “disrupted a number of attacks, may be dozens of attacks,” he didn’t believe that evidence obtained by the US government through enhanced interrogation techniques such as waterboarding disrupted any attack. Despite numerous and serious abuses, not a single CIA official and only a few military personnel have faced meaningful punishment.

There are widespread demands for the Justice Department to broaden its preliminary investigation of CIA abuses and on the role that Bush administration lawyers played in justifying those abuses. Former Vice President Dick Cheney boasted that he was a big supporter of waterboarding. President Obama stated at the beginning of his term, “I believe waterboarding was torture and it was a mistake.” By conducting a proper inquiry on the matter, his administration can show that it is still adhering to those same beliefs.

Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

A simple procedure is saving thousands of lives. Although it has been known for many years it has not been not widely used. This approach shows how sometimes simple ideas which respond to real needs can have a dramatic impact on people’s lives and health.

The rationale behind the development of this procedure was based on the several steps doctors have to follow when treating people in intensive care units, also known as “critical care”. It is estimated that, on a given day, some ninety thousand people are in intensive care, almost five million a year.

During a typical stay in an intensive care unit, patients undergo several procedures, most of them critical for its survival. Under these circumstances it is most important that some basic and necessary procedures are properly carried out. Failure to do so could result in the death of the patient.

In 2001, Dr. Peter Pronovost, a Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, began studying hospital-acquired infections. These infections affect 1 in 10 patients, killing 90,000 of them and costing as much as $11 billion each year.

Pronovost began investigating this alarming situation at Johns Hopkins Hospital focusing on bloodstream infections from central venous catheters used in intensive care units (ICUs). He concluded that providing physicians with a chart reminding them of each step in some routine procedures could drastically reduce the number of errors leading to such infections.

Pronovost shortened lengthy guidelines into a simple checklist of five precautionary steps. According to Pronovost doctors should wash their hands with soap; clean the patient’s skin with chlorhexidine antiseptic; put sterile drapes over the entire patient; wear a sterile mask, hat, gown and gloves, and put a sterile dressing over the catheter site.

Although it can be argued that these are very simple procedures, neglecting one or more can lead to disastrous results.

Pronovost initial findings were confirmed two years later in a Michigan study called the Keystone Initiative. The results of this study, published in 2006 in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that in the first three months of the project the infection rate in Michigan’s ICUs decreased by sixty-six percent. Within the Initiative’s first eighteen months, the authors estimated that 1500 lives and $100 million were saved.

Based on his initial success, Pronovost and his colleagues later developed checklists for other situations in the ICU such as mechanical ventilation. Although he is not the first one to use a checklist to guide procedures, he is the first to be aware of its advantages and exploit its possibilities.

Dr. Atul Gawande, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School enthusiastically promoted this approach. Writing in The New Yorker, Gawande stated that Pronovost work had saved more lives than any other laboratory scientist in the last decade.

Working for the World Health Organization, Dr. Gawande brought the checklist idea to several hospitals around the world, with equally startling results. In eight hospitals ranging from a rural hospital in Tanzania to a high-tech university facility in Seattle Dr. Gawande and a team of public health experts applied a version of the checklist to assess if it improved surgical care.

Without adding a piece of equipment or any extra spending, the rate of major post surgical complications dropped by 36 percent in the six months after the checklist was used and deaths fell by 47 percent in all of the eight hospitals studied.

Despite some drawbacks, such as what to do when a patient has several disorders at the same time and its lack of flexibility, as pointed out by Dr. Sandeep Jauhar, author of “Intern: A Doctor’s Initiation,” it is clear that using checklists for some situations can save lives and money in health care. Pronovost’s approach is now being tried in California and in Spain. If the results are equally positive, it will create new standards of health care performance both in the U.S. and at the international level.

Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, is an international public health consultant.

by Dr. Cesar Chelala (New York) and Dr. Manuel Peña (Lima, Peru)

Poverty cannot be defined solely in terms of lack of income. A person, a family, even a nation is not deemed poor only because of low economic resources. Little or no access to health services, lack of access to safe water and adequate nutrition, illiteracy or low educational level and a distorted perception of rights and needs are also essential components of poverty.

Poverty is one of the most influential factors for ill health, and ill health — in a vicious cycle — can lead to poverty. Education has proven to be a
There is a two-way link between poverty and health. Illness impairs learning ability and quality of life, has a negative impact on productivity, and drains family savings. Poor people are more exposed to environmental risks (poor sanitation, unhealthy food, violence, and natural disasters) and less prepared to cope with them.

Because they are also less informed about the benefits of healthy lifestyles, and have less access to them as well as to quality health care, they are at greater risk of illness and disability.

Close to 1.5bn people in the world live in extreme poverty, a situation which is particularly stark in the developing world, where 80% of them live. Poor people have little or no access to qualified health services and education, and do not participate in the decisions critical to their day-to-day lives.

Those who live in extreme poverty are five times more likely to die before five years of age, and two and a half time times more likely to die between 15 and 59 than those in higher income groups. The same dramatic differences can be found with respect to maternal mortality levels and incidence of preventable diseases. Level of education in relation to health is particularly important among women. In addition, education for women is closely associated with later marriage and smaller family size.

The impact of poverty on health is largely mediated by nutrition and is expressed throughout the life span. However, nutrition and health are only somewhat responsive to mere economic growth.

Increased income alone cannot guarantee better nutrition and health because of the impact of other factors, notably education, environmental hygiene and access to health care services, which cannot necessarily be bought with increased income in the developing world.

Those living in poverty and suffering from malnutrition have an increased propensity to a host of diseases, a lower learning capacity, and an increased exposure and vulnerability to environmental risks. Poor children frequently lack stimuli critical to growth and development.

The unrelenting stresses in the struggle for survival do not allow poor families to fully appreciate the importance of stimulation and nurture, and even if they do the opportunity to provide these stimuli.

Experiences in several countries have demonstrated the power of education to increase the nutritional levels and the health status of the poor. In urban India, for example, it has been found that the mortality rate among the children of educated women is almost half than that of children of uneducated women.

In the Philippines, it has been shown that primary education among mothers reduces the risks of child mortality by half, and secondary education reduces that risk by a factor of three.

Several strategies can be used to improve the access of mothers and children to educational opportunities as a way of improving their health status. At the national level governments, particularly in developing countries, have to establish education — including the education of the parents — as a priority, and provide necessary resources and support.

Interventions should be targeted to vulnerable groups such as those with lower income or with less access to adequate food.

At the international level, lending institutions have to implement debt-reduction policies for those countries willing to provide increased resources for basic education.

Although an important goal is to reduce economic inequity to improve the health status of populations, emphasis on education can provide substantial benefits in the health status of populations even before reducing the economic gap between the rich and the poor.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a public health consultant for several international organizations. Dr. Manuel Peña is the Pan American Health Organization representative in Peru.

Movements of people whether from rural to urban areas or from one country to another often alter the characteristic epidemiological disease profile, and at the same time new diseases appear or old ones reemerge. Such is the case of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, yellow fever, dengue, and Lyme disease.

For example, large-scale migrations to Costa Rica in the 1980s, stemming from conflicts in other Central American countries, produced a palpable increase--especially along border areas--in the prevalence of malaria and other infectious and parasitic diseases. At the same time, urbanization is associated with changes in diet and exercise that increase the prevalence of obesity with increased risks of type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Among migrants, mobility-related risks include poverty, vulnerability to sexual abuse and exploitation, dangerous working conditions and separation from social support networks. Many of these conditions affect the most vulnerable segment of the population: women, children and the elderly.

The reproductive system of pregnant women is especially vulnerable to environmental contaminants. Each step in the reproductive process can be altered by toxic substances in the environment that increase the risk of abortion, birth defects, fetal growth and perinatal death. Many studies have shown that exposing pregnant women to carbon monoxide can damage the health of the fetus. In addition, the developing fetus is susceptible to environmental factors – for example through the mother’s exposure to toxic substances in the workplace.

Children are especially susceptible to disease when they are born and develop in an environment characterized by overcrowding, poor hygiene, excessive noise, and a lack of space for recreation and study. They suffer not only from a hostile physical environment, but from stress and other factors such as violence that such environments create.

The more obvious ill effects of urban life--emotional stress, loss of family structure, congested traffic, noise, environmental pollution-- affect people from all incomes. Many city dwellers take for granted access to basic public services, such as drinking water supply, housing, solid waste disposal, transportation, and health care. For the poor, however, these are either deficient or nonexistent. Instead, those in poverty zones usually receive an extra dose of environmental pollution, since industries tend to cluster in outlying areas where regulations are more lax.

Particularly in cities, motor vehicles are an important source of air pollution. In addition, they can be a significant cause of pedestrian injuries and fatalities. The pollutants that originate from motor vehicles, particularly nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, ozone, and particulate matter, account for a substantial proportion of air pollution in cities and serious impact on health.

Lead particles released as a result of gasoline combustion pose a significant potential threat to children, whose behavior and psychological development can be affected. In Mexico City, a city notorious for its air pollution, children are exposed to several million tons of contaminants.

Yet Mexico City's pollution problem is hardly unique; virtually every major city in the Western Hemisphere is fighting the same battle. Residents of Santiago, Chile, are afflicted with a host of chronic respiratory infections caused by large concentrations of particulate pollutants in the atmosphere, whose persistence is, in turn, facilitated by the area's unique topographical and climatic circumstances.

The crowded urban neighborhoods combined with poor sanitary conditions and inadequate waste removal create conditions favorable to the spread of infectious diseases.

The overcrowded housing in the slums expose the urban poor to high rates of infectious diseases such as pneumonia, tuberculosis and diarrhea. As a result, the proportion of children dying from infectious and parasitic diseases in poor households in Africa, Asia and Latin America is several hundred times higher than in households in Western Europe or in the United States.

The environmental, social and economic situation at home is, in turn, influenced by the general social, economic and political situation. The rules, regulations, and laws governing a particular city or country will be a reflection of the priority that the government attaches to providing good services and a healthy environment to the population.

Given the serious effects that urbanization can have on health, it is essential to include health considerations into policy making. Because many of the negative effects are suffered by the poor and minorities, it is equally essential to view the challenges incorporating considerations of social justice and equity. The economic situation is a key determinant in the decision, resolve and capacity of the authorities to tackle environmental problems more effectively.

As Herbert Girardet, an expert on urban sustainability has stated, “If we are to continue to live in cities, indeed if we are to continue to flourish on this planet, we will have to find a viable relationship between cities and the living world –a relationship not parasitic but symbiotic, or mutually supportive.”

- In this blog series, Dr. Cesar Chelala explores the many challenges presented by urbanization, the impact of urban migration, challenges to health, and challenges of providing clean water. - Ed.

Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, is an international public health consultant and a writer on human rights issues and foreign affairs.

In 2008, the world reached an important milestone: For the first time in history more than half of its human population - 3.3 billion people - were living in urban areas. By 2030, their number is expected to swell to almost five billion. Many of the new urbanites will be poor and their future will depend, to a large extent, on decisions made now.

Rapid urbanization is related in part to population growth and also to migration--both domestic and external--that many countries are experiencing. Frequently, the causes are rural poverty, the search for better social and employment opportunities, or flight from political persecution and violence.

An example of the last situation is the urbanization process in Colombia. Unlike that characteristic of most other Latin American countries the process in Colombia was stimulated, and to some extent defined, by episodes of violence, which occurred principally in rural areas. Since the 1930s, violence has been an inescapable fact of Colombian civilian life.

As families were uprooted and displaced by successive waves of violence, they fled en masse to the country’s main cities, where the majority among them now resides in poverty-stricken marginal areas. As a result of the violence either witnessed or experienced first-hand, many of Colombia’s young generation have internalized the culture of aggression into which they were born.

Colombia's case is certainly not unique. More recently, the rural poor in many other countries throughout the world have been uprooted by violence and forced to flee en masse toward the large urban centers. The recent tragedy in Haiti exemplifies a massive population movement of people from rural areas to the capital city of Port au Prince, where they ended up living in precarious tenements that were destroyed by the earthquakes that cost the lives of over 200,000 people.

Large migrations will intensify as changing climate conditions will lead to abandonment of flooded or arid and inhospitable environments. This will lead to serious health problems both from the various stresses of the migration process and from the civil strife that could be caused by the chaotic movement of people. Every year, climate change causes the death of approximately 300,000 people, and seriously affects 325 million, according to the Global Humanitarian Forum.

A climate refugee is a person who is forced to relocate, either to a new country or to a new location within their country, due to the consequences of global warming. Sometimes, climate refugees are classified as environmental refugees. The number of environmental refugees will reach 150 million over the next 50 years, according to Professor Norman Myers of Oxford University.

In Africa, desertification and its consequences in agricultural production is displacing increasingly large amounts of people. Approximately 10 million people in Africa have been forced to migrate over the last two decades as a consequence of desertification and environmental degradation.

In addition, most people in Africa move into mostly marginal urban areas because of poverty, environmental degradation, political persecution, and religious strife. In addition, food insecurity and lack of basic services in the rural areas encourage people’s migration into the cities, where they all too often end up living in marginal areas.

These marginal areas, known as bidonvilles in French-speaking West Africa, ishish in some Arab countries, kampungs in Indonesia, villas miseria in Argentina, favelas in Brazil, pueblos jóvenes in Peru, and ranchitos in Venezuela, may contain from 30% to 60% of the population of many Third World cities, according to Worldwatch Institute.

Many governments attempt to discourage migration from rural areas to the cities, but these measures are by and large unsuccessful. Since large cities enjoy preferential treatment in terms of infrastructure and industrial development, they serve as magnets for the "have-nots."

Regardless of the big city's allure, many observers now feel that conditions for the ever-growing numbers of urban poor are most likely worse than for their rural counterparts. The true dimensions of this phenomenon remain elusive, according to World Health Organization expert Dr. I. Tabibzadeh, because the poor are either omitted from official statistics or are not considered separately.

Migrations between countries also continue unabated, usually stimulated by similar factors responsible for internal migration. The Latin American country that has produced the greatest number of migrants is Mexico. Among Mexicans living abroad, 99% can be found in the United States, where income opportunities are greater. In the Southern Cone, Argentina is the main destination for migrants from Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia. In Central America and the Caribbean, the U.S. is the most frequent destination, although there are also significant migratory flows from the Dominican Republic to Venezuela and Puerto Rico and from Haiti to the Dominican Republic.

Several European countries have attracted a large number of Africans and many Africans form Sub Saharan countries have migrated to north-African countries. In addition, the traditional pattern of migration within and from Africa is changing. A male-dominated process is becoming increasingly feminized.

Women’s migration is increasingly being affected by the host countries’ family reunification policies. But women are also traveling alone in search of better job and educational opportunities. In many cases, they end up working in low status, low wage jobs and are particularly prone to exploitation and abuse.

Migration within and from Asian countries is not a new phenomenon. The current trends and characteristics of migration in the region have been shaped by the political and economic changes in recent decades. It is estimated that more than six million migrants are working in East and Southeast Asia, one third of whom are in irregular situation. Until the recent economic crisis oil-rich Arab countries have attracted large numbers of Asian workers.

The economic, social and political trends influencing migration will continue for the next few decades. The challenge for governments is to design migration policies that take into account the needs of the migrants as well as those of the host population. Industrialized countries’ economic investments in developing countries as well as more fair trade policies can foster long-term cooperation and ease migration pressures.

- In this blog series, Dr. Cesar Chelala explores the many challenges presented by urbanization, the impact of urban migration, challenges to health, and challenges of providing clean water. - Ed.

Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, is an international public health consultant and a writer on human rights issues and foreign affairs.

“Did you see this?” My colleague asked me in a hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, in 2005. Regrettably, I had seen it. She was referring to a dead child covered by a sheet, flies buzzing around the corpse, seemingly abandoned in a hospital hallway. For days afterwards that sight was a recurring nightmare for me. It also was proof of the already desperate state of Haiti’s hospitals.

I went to Haiti twice, first in 1993 as head of a UN mission to determine the effects of the UN embargo on the population, and again in 2005 to assess the Pan American Health Organization’s efforts in the area.

After my first visit we concluded that although the embargo was worsening the status of the population, the greatest damage to Haitians was caused by the ineffectual and corrupt governments that had plagued the history of this suffering island, as well as by the deleterious influence of the colonial powers.

It would not be fair, however, to easily conclude that everything is wrong with Haiti. In my two visits I was impressed by the Haitians’ entrepreneurial spirit, even among the poor, and by their strong desire for progress and better education. I still remember emerging from my privileged Montana Hotel, now totally destroyed, and seeing clean, impeccably dressed children going to school. And I wondered where they were able to get the water for their basic needs.

I also learned that although the country has among the worst health status indicators on the continent and a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, it also had one of the most effective programs for combating the infection (until the recent disaster.)

I saw what centuries of unregulated deforestation had caused to the country’s environment and how this deforestation would be a critical factor in worsening the negative effects of natural disasters such as the earthquakes the country has recently experienced. As if the Haitian people hadn’t already suffered enough . . .

Like many, I ask myself if there is a future for this country, and what shape that future will have, particularly after the first phase of reconstruction is completed.

I believe that Haiti’s natural and human resources should be the base for a strong new society, one that will right the many wrongs done to the country before. Some have proposed strengthening the country as a manufacturing outpost for industrialized nations, mainly the United States.

Although this point of view is not incorrect, it does not take into account the tremendous intelligence and resourcefulness of Haitians. Although the re-creation of a manufacturing base is important, it is only part of what Haiti needs. What is now necessary is a base for a sustainable future through agricultural renewal, education, a solid infrastructure, further development of tourism through the stimulation of artistic endeavors and, yes, manufacturing.

Haiti has long been a nation of farmers, even though the country has gone through one of the worst deforestation processes of any other country in the Americas. That is why reforestation –as had already been carried out, albeit in a limited way - and creation of a strong agricultural basis are critical. In order to accomplish these goals, Haiti needs other governments to cooperate in rebuilding agriculture in a sustainable, ecological way. But it also needs fair trade policies from industrialized countries, particularly the U.S.

There cannot be a rebirth of the country without a serious massive education effort. A national education plan can be created with input from teachers and administrators from other countries that wish to collaborate. The strides Haiti was making in the fight against HIV/AIDS show that, given appropriate support, the country can respond adequately to its needs. And the same is true for Haiti as a source of artistic creation, closely associated to its tourist potential.

Aside form the obvious rebuilding of houses, roads need to be built to facilitate the easy movement of people and goods throughout the country. It can be a most useful way of employing large number of workers who can stimulate local economies.

Over the years, a brain drain has evacuated top talent from the country. The collaboration of the Haitian diaspora is critical for the rebuilding of the country, a process that can be encouraged through the financing of temporary contracts with Haitian professionals and technicians living overseas. The degree of cooperation of national authorities and international aid organizations will determine the future of this suffering, noble country.

Cesar Chelala, an international public health consultant, is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

¿Has visto esto? me preguntó mi colega Mariela Cánepa en un hospital en Port-au-Prince, la capital de Haití, en el 2005. Lamentablemente, lo había visto. Se refería a un niño muerto cubierto por una sábana, mientras las moscas zumbaban alrededor del cadáver, al parecer abandonado en un pasillo del hospital. Durante los días posteriores a la visita, esa imagen fue una pesadilla recurrente para mí. También fue una prueba de la situación ya desesperada de los hospitales en este injustamente castigado país.

Fui a Haití en dos oportunidades. La primero en 1993 como jefe de una misión de las Naciones Unidas para determinar los efectos del embargo de las Naciones Unidas sobre la población, y de nuevo en 2005 para evaluar la cooperación de la Organización Panamericana de Salud.

Después de mi primera visita, llegamos a la conclusión de que, aunque el embargo había agravado la situación de la población, el mayor daño a los haitianos fue causado por los gobiernos ineficaces y corruptos que habían plagado la historia de esta isla, así como por la influencia nociva de los potencias coloniales. Esa influencia nociva, particularmente de Francia, tiene efectos aun hoy en día.

Durante mi segunda visita en 2005, tuve oportunidad de experimentar lo que significa vivir en un clima de violencia, que es un factor cotidiano en la vida de este país. Habíamos decidido visitar Cité Soleil, para ver que servicios de salud estaban disponibles a la población. Cité Soleil es un área marginal localizada en el área metropolitana de Port-au-Prince.

Esta zona, donde vivían entonces entre 200.000 y 300.000 personas es una de las áreas más pobres, violentas y peligrosas de nuestro hemisferio, con una gran carencia de servicios básicos a la población. Para dar una idea de su peligrosidad la policía no se atreve a entrar allí.

Aunque la Misión Estabilizadora de las Naciones Unidas (MINUSTAH) está en Haití desde el 2004, siempre intentó, infructuosamente, tener control sobre esa zona, la que mantenía bloqueada con tanques armados. Cuando manifesté mi deseo de visitar esa área, me dijeron que la única forma de hacerlo era en un tanque militar armado.

A mi y a mi colega que me acompañaba en esta misión nos dieron sendos chalecos anti-balas y en un tanque con custodia militar nos acercamos a la zona. Una vez llegados allí, la custodia militar nos informó que no podía garantizar nuestra seguridad y que debíamos esperar por un par de horas en una barraca militar de Naciones Unidas localizada a la entrada de Cité Soleil.

Rodeados de soldados jordanos de Naciones Unidas esperamos un cambio en la situación. Allí pudimos ver de cerca la frustración de estos soldados jordanos al estar en una situación y un país para ellos totalmente desconocidos e incomprensibles. También pude ver su cara de felicidad y sorpresa cuando, utilizando las pocas palabras árabes que recordaba, me dirigí a ellos en ese idioma. Aun esa rudimentaria comunicación fue capaz de romper, transitoriamente, la monotonía en que viven allí estos soldados.

Al cabo de casi 3 horas, el jefe de nuestra custodia regresó y nos dijo que ellos no podían garantizar nuestra seguridad, por lo que tuvimos que regresar sin haber podido visitar esa zona. Un año más tarde, en Enero del 2006, dos de estos soldados jordanos fueron asesinados en Cité Soleil, triste corolario de una situación casi insostenible para ellos.

Cuando el primer terremoto asoló al país el 12 de Enero del 2010, su epicentro estaba localizado apenas afuera de la capital Port-au-Prince. Curiosamente, la mayoría de las casuchas de Cité Soleil resistieron el embate y los Médicos Sin Fronteras fueron capaces de reabrir el hospital localizado en el centro de esa zona. Los miembros de pandillas que escaparon de las prisiones luego de los terremotos están regresando a Cité Soleil, lo que aumenta notablemente la situación de inseguridad en esa zona.

No sería justo, sin embargo, llegar a la conclusión fácil de que todo está mal en Haití. En mis dos visitas, quedé fuertemente impresionado por el espíritu emprendedor de los haitianos, incluso de los pobres, y por su fuerte deseo de progreso y de una mejor educación. Todavía recuerdo que saliendo de mi privilegiada estadía en el Hotel Montana, ahora totalmente destruido, vi a los niños ir a la escuela, impecablemente limpios y bien vestidos. Y me pregunté cómo eran capaces de obtener el agua necesaria para cubrir sus necesidades básicas.

También aprendí que si bien el país tiene uno de los peores indicadores de salud sobre la situación del continente y una alta prevalencia de VIH / SIDA, también tenía uno de los programas más eficaces para combatir la infección (hasta los terremotos recientes que asolaron parte de la isla).

Vi también los efectos que siglos de deforestación no regulada han causado al país y a su medio ambiente, y cómo la deforestación podría explicar el mayor impacto que los desastres naturales han tenido sobre el país. Como si el pueblo haitiano no hubiera sufrido bastante. . .

Como muchos, me pregunto si hay un futuro para este país, y qué forma tendrá ese futuro, sobre todo después que la primera fase de la reconstrucción se haya completado.
Creo que los considerables recursos naturales y humanos que posee el país deben ser la base para una nueva sociedad, que compense los muchos errores causados antes al país.

Algunos expertos han propuesto fortalecer el país como un puesto de avanzada de fabricación de mercaderías para los países industrializados, principalmente Estados Unidos. Aunque este punto de vista no es incorrecto, sin embargo no tiene en cuenta la gran inteligencia y el ingenio de los haitianos. Aunque la re-creación de una base de fabricación es importante, es sólo parte de lo que Haití necesita. Lo que ahora se necesita es una base para un futuro sostenible a través de la renovación agrícola, la educación, una sólida infraestructura, un mayor desarrollo del turismo, mediante la estimulación de actividades artísticas y, sí, también de fabricación de mercaderías.

Haití ha sido tradicionalmente una nación de agricultores, aunque el país ha pasado por uno de los procesos de deforestación más marcados que cualquier otro país en las Américas. Por ello, la reforestación, como ya se había llevado a cabo, aunque de manera limitada - y la creación de una fuerte base agrícola son pasos críticos. Con el fin de lograr estos objetivos, otros gobiernos deben cooperar en la reconstrucción de la agricultura en forma sostenible, ecológica. Pero también Haití necesita políticas de comercio justo por parte de los países industrializados, en particular los EE.UU.

No puede haber un renacimiento del país sin un esfuerzo serio de educación masiva. Un plan nacional de educación se puede crear con la participación de los maestros y administradores de otros países que deseen colaborar. Los avances que Haití estaba haciendo en la lucha contra el VIH / SIDA indican que, dado el apoyo adecuado, el país puede responder adecuadamente a sus necesidades. Y lo mismo es cierto para Haití como fuente de creación artística, estrechamente asociada a su potencial turístico.

Aparte de la forma obvia de la reconstrucción de casas, se deben construir caminos para facilitar el movimiento fácil de las personas y bienes en todo el país. Esto puede ser una forma más útil de emplear gran número de trabajadores quienes pueden estimular las economías locales.

Con los años, una fuga de cerebros ha evacuado a los mejores talentos del país. La colaboración de la diáspora haitiana es fundamental para la reconstrucción del país, un proceso que puede ser estimulada mediante la financiación de contratos temporales a los profesionales y técnicos haitianos que viven en el extranjero. El grado de cooperación de las autoridades nacionales y organizaciones internacionales de ayuda determinará el futuro de este sufrido y noble país.

El 28 de Enero, un grupo francés de rescate encontró a Darlene Etienne, una joven de 17 años quien, increíblemente, había sobrevivido dos semanas bajo los escombros de un edificio. Sabemos que es difícil que nadie pueda sobrevivir por más de 72 horas sin agua, mucho menos dos largas semanas. Y aunque es posible que Darlene haya tenido acceso a un poco de agua de los restos de un baño ubicado cerca y, según se la oyó murmurar poco después del rescate, tenía con ella restos de una botella de Coca Cola, su sobrevivencia es casi milagrosa. En un periódico veo su cara llena de lágrimas y cubierta de polvo. Son las lágrimas secas de Haití.

César Chelala, consultor internacional de salud pública, es co-ganador del premio Overseas Press Club of América.

If anybody had any doubts about the influence of corporations in the United States political life, a recent Supreme Court ruling should dispel them. In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court decided, reversing itself, to allow unlimited corporate spending on political campaigns. The damage that this ruling will have on the country’s democratic process should not be underestimated.

The influence of money on US politics is not new. Michael Bloomberg, New York’s mayor, was able to run successfully for office three times thanks in part to the personal funds he infused into his political campaign. The impact of this Supreme Court decision is even more drastic, allowing corporations to invest as much money as they want on political campaigns, deciding in fact the outcome of the elections.

As Senator Russell Feingold, democrat from Wisconsin, has pointed out, this ruling “…means that Wall Street banks and firms, having just taken our country into its worst economic collapse since the Great Depression, could spend millions upon millions of dollars on ads directly advocating the defeat of those candidates who want to prevent future economic disaster by imposing new financial service regulations.”

The amount of corporate money influencing the outcome of elections is staggering. During the 2008 election process, Fortune 500 companies reported profits of over $743 billion, while $2 billion were spent by candidates and political parties during that election. Those profits are just part of the story, since the money corporations have in their treasuries are several times higher than that reported amount.

In its ruling, the Court ignored long standing principles that for over two centuries had gained the public’s respect for its decisions, including the principle of stare decisis, compelling the Court not to depart from its own precedents in the absence of exigent circumstances. In a dissenting opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens stated, “I am not an absolutist when it comes to stare decisis, in the campaign finance area or in any other. No one is. But if this principle is to do any meaningful work in supporting the rule of law, it must at least demand a significant justification, beyond the preferences of five Justices, for overturning settled doctrine.”

Until this decision, corporations and unions were banned from spending their treasury funds on broadcast ads, campaign workers or billboards urging the election or defeat of a federal candidate. After World War II, that prohibition was extended to labor unions. The Court’s conservative group stated that the corporations had the same right to free speech as individuals; therefore, the government could not stop corporations from spending money to help their favored candidates.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion and the most moderate voice among conservatives, stated that “The government may not suppress political speech on the basis of the speaker’s corporate identity.” What Justice Kennedy failed to mention is that this decision will be able to tilt the outcome of U.S. elections to corporate interests, including multinational and foreign corporations.

Although the damage to the democratic process caused by five out of the nine Justices may be mitigated (e.g., by shareholders directing corporate boards of directors to pledge not to use company money to influence elections), allowing corporate money to influence the electoral process has gravely undermined our democracy.

Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

The chaotic growth of today's cities can no longer be ignored. The great challenge is how to improve the quality of urban life by ensuring harmonious growth. Cities can--and should--learn from the experiences of other cities with similar characteristics. This effort requires not only the participation of urban planners but public health and environmental experts, politicians, and fundamentally, the communities themselves. Only when these actions are carried out will it be possible, perhaps, to reach that almost ideal situation heralded by Hippocrates some 2,600 years ago: a balance between the human organism and its environment.

When observing the chaotic, burgeoning growth of the modern city, the more erudite of urban planners will reminisce wistfully on how different it is from its ancient Greek counterpart, the polis, which Italian architectural historian Leonardo Benevolo once described as "dynamic but stable, in balance with nature, and growing manageably even after reaching large dimensions."

The rapid and uncontrolled sprawl of today's cities breeds anxiety not only among urban planners and architects. Experts in the field of public health are alarmed as well, for the apparent randomness of the urban dynamic is robbing the population of its basic health and well-being through unregulated environmental pollution, shrinking green areas, inadequate housing, overburdened public services, a mushrooming of makeshift settlements on the outskirts lacking in both infrastructure and services, mounting anomie and the sheer numbers of neighbors who do not know neighbors.

Beijing, a city of over 17 million inhabitants, exemplifies this social alienation. Until the early 1980s, the Chinese capital was constructed as a multitude of siheyuans, or one-story complexes built around a common courtyard that were inhabited by three or four families who shared a single kitchen and water spigot. These courtyards were connected by narrow streets called hutongs that formed a grid from north to south and east to west.

This open structure greatly facilitated contact between neighbors, encouraged the sharing of resources, fostered relations between contiguous families, and enabled the elderly to care for children and share with them their passion for songbirds. Because of these characteristics, these almost idyllic structures were described as "collections of small rural villages."

Until the mid-1980s, only a few skyscrapers disrupted the harmony of the landscape. Today that panorama has the look and feel of the ultimate modern city, where, with few exceptions, these "small rural villages" have been supplanted by sterile, towering skyscrapers. This striking change is not limited to external structure; it has also dramatically altered the fabric of human relations.

Physical isolation has led to an increase in crime, destroyed the local sense of solidarity, and contributed to the fragmentation of what were once cohesive family groups. As the distance between home and the workplace has also increased considerably, workers now find themselves devoting what was once valuable family time to exhausting commutes in overcrowded buses or subways.

According to Chen Xitong, a former mayor of Beijing, "the capital is growing increasingly ugly and it is steadily losing its Chinese character. Most of the modern high-rise buildings, with their boring concrete facades, look like dominoes set down in the landscape without plan and without imagination."

This situation, of course, is not limited to China. In many Latin American cities, old colonial mansions of considerable historic and architectural value are being replaced by huge apartment buildings unrelated to the character of the neighborhood. A new kind of war is being waged in cities throughout the world: Esthetics vs Profits.

- In this blog series, Dr. Cesar Chelala explores the many challenges presented by urbanization, the impact of urban migration, challenges to health, and challenges of providing clean water. - Ed.

Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, is an international public health consultant and a writer on human rights issues and foreign affairs.

It is an unusual story of how a teacher is bringing books, and culture, to the children in a small community in Colombia. And how, through his personal effort, he may be changing a culture characterized by extreme violence into one of peace.

Since the decade of the 1930s violence has been an inescapable component of Colombian society. From 1948 to 1957 the country went through a civil war known as “La Violencia” which left over 250,000 dead, the result of old rivalries between people from the Liberal and Conservative parties. These incidents created the framework for the extreme violence in Colombian society today.

As a consequence of waves of violence and political persecution, whole families left their homes to live in bigger cities. They usually ended up living in the most marginal and poor areas lacking basic health and social services.

In the 1980’s new factors contributed to the perpetuation of this culture of violence in the country. One of the most important was the dissemination of cocaine and the incorporation of youngsters into the drug trade. Other factors were the economic crisis and the proliferation of guerrilla groups whose activities continue today. Colombia thus became one of the most violent countries in the world.

Inevitably, violence affected all activities of civilian life, such as education. According to some estimates, Colombia now has a 20 percent illiteracy rate, which can be much higher in rural areas affected by violence. In addition, functional illiteracy is also high, due in large measure to the lack of reading materials and libraries in those communities.

Ten years ago, a rural teacher, Luis Soriano Boroquez, had what for many was a crazy idea: to bring books to children in the municipal department of Nueva Granada. He had two unusual allies, two donkeys called Alfa and Beto. It is from them that his adventure got his name: he called it “Biblioburro,” or “donkey’s library.”

Every weekend, this elementary school teacher from the co-ed school of La Gloria loads his donkeys with 70 to 120 books (Alfa is the one that carries most of them) and travels distances from three to eleven kilometers each day bringing books, and culture, to rural children. Every trip takes him up to eight hours each day.

The idea for his library, he explained to the New York Times, came to him after he saw the transformative power of reading among children in a very conflictive area in Colombia. His aim is to fight illiteracy and to help children do research for their homework and provide them with reading materials that they don’t have in their village.

As soon as the first child sees him coming he rushes back to call his companions who come and accompany the teacher as in a parade. When the teacher reaches a village he chooses an empty space. There, he displays a makeshift table where some children do their homework while the rest sit in the grass reading and playing.

Initially, Soriano collected the books in his own house, where he lives with his wife Diana and three children, with the books piled up to the ceiling. But given the demand for books among rural children, and with the financial help of Cajamag, a local financing institution, he recently finished building a small library that has almost four thousand books.

What began as a need son became an obligation on his part, then a custom and now, with the construction of the library, it is an institution. “What I want to do,” Soriano explained, “is to teach children their rights, duties and responsibilities. When they get to know them, every child we teach through Biblioburro,” he added, “becomes an informed citizen who can say no to war.”

Although the new library now serves a small community of 200 children, Soriano still continues his outreach activities during weekends. “Doing this is my life commitment,” he declared to Valentina Canavesio, an independent film producer, “I want to be useful to the society I belong.” Soriano feels that his work contributes, in a small but significant way, to bring peace to his beleaguered country.

Watch this video at Ayoka Productions

Cesar Chelala, a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award, is a writer on human rights issues.

It was a chilly morning in Manhattan late in March. I was on my way to a doctor’s office when I was stopped by a middle-aged black man leaning on a stick he was using as a cane. Although he was dressed in suit and tie, his clothes were dirty and wrinkled. There was a discrepancy between his appearance and the precise, elegant manner of his speech.

“Please tell me where the nearest hospital is, aside from this one,” he asked me, pointing to the hospital that was just across the street. I told him that the nearest hospital was Bellevue, a good mile and a half away by bus and subway. Since he was obviously in pain, I suggested that he try this hospital instead.

“They wouldn’t take care of me. They claim that Bellevue is closer to where I live. But it is not close to here, and I cannot walk that far.” He told me that two weeks before he had been hit by a bus. “Yesterday, somebody stole my crutches, and now I am very much in pain.”

I questioned him about his occupation and where he came from. “I am an accountant form Nigeria. But I have had bad luck in this country and want to go back to Nigeria. I would like to save some money to do it, but I spent the money I had because of the accident.”

I thought that he could use a few dollars to pay for the taxi to Bellevue, so I gave him $10 and said good-bye.

“Wait!” he said, “Give me your name and address. I want to pay you back!” “No,” I said, “that’s fine, don’t worry about it.” “But,” he said, evidently surprised, “you are giving me money, just like that?” “Well,” I answered, “I am also a foreigner, and I know how it is to go through a difficult time away from one’s own country.”

As I was leaving not to be late for my appointment, he turned around and looked at me sadly. “My name is William,” he said, “in case we meet again.”

Cesar Chelala is a writer on human rights issues.

Years of war, bad government, corruption and poverty have left Afghanistan with the highest infant mortality rate in the world, according to UNICEF. More than one out of every five children are dead by the time they are five.

The statistics are frightening. More than 60% of all child deaths and disabilities are due to respiratory and intestinal infections, and of such vaccine preventable deaths as measles. Diarrhea kills tens of thousands of children every year. Many also die from severance of breast-feeding before time. An estimated 7.5 million children and adults are at risk from hunger and malnutrition, the latter affecting children's growth in particular.

Some cities, such as Jalalabad, the largest city in eastern Afghanistan located at the junction of the Kabul and Kunar rivers, are high risk areas for polio due in large part to the massive and continuous population movements from and into polio infected areas. In South Asia in 2000, over 40 percent of the confirmed cases of polio occurred in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is also one of the most heavily mined nations in the world and has one of the highest proportions of disabled people as a result. It is a well-known fact that children are landmines’ most vulnerable victims as they play, go back and forth to school, tend animals or scavenge.

To control the spread of disease, UNICEF and the Department of Public Health in Nangarhar have launched the “Women Courtyard” initiative, aimed at providing local women with information about polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases, as well as such related issues as hygiene and water-borne illnesses. While this is an important initiative, certain popular traditions may well constitute a barrier to its successful conclusion. One such tradition is that babies not leave their homes before the 40th day after birth, a tradition which prevents many newborns from being vaccinated in good time.

To make matters worse, deadly attacks have targeted schools and impeded access to critical health care. According to Daniel Toole, the UNICEF Director for South Asia, “We have had attacks on villages and on schools by both anti-government elements as well as by coalition forces and international troops that have hit civilians”.

Not a single child growing up in Afghanistan today has known peace in his/her lifetime. Deteriorated mental health is one of the consequences of a permanent state of war. A UNICEF study has found that the majority of children under 16 years of age in Kabul suffer from psychological trauma resulting in serious mental health problems including psychiatric disorders and post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Children in Afghanistan are exposed not only to violence related to acts of war but also to violence resulting from accidents, beatings by close relatives or neighbors or seeing close relatives being beaten or executed. As a recent study published in the Lancet has pointed out, “In Afghan children’s lives, everyday violence matters just as much as militarized violence in the recollection of traumatic experiences.”

Daniel Toole, the UNESCO executive, remarked recently at a press briefing in Geneva, “Afghanistan today is without doubt the most dangerous place to be born,” a sad commentary on that beleaguered country.

Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, is an international public health consultant. He has written extensively on child health issues.

On Human Rights Day it is appropriate to remember one of the towering figures for peace, Dr. Albert Schweitzer. I recall a visit I made to Lambaréné, in Gabon, a couple of years ago. It was there that the famous Dr. Schweitzer had carried out his humanitarian work, saving the lives of thousands of patients with total dedication to their health and well being. His is a lesson that we should listen to today.

I was at Cité Soleil, where a community of lepers still lives, created as a special ward next to the hospital. During my visit, three men were sitting on a bench, one of whom was trying to fix a violin, his hands ravaged by disease. I took out my camera and was ready to take his picture when he told me, “Don’t shoot!”

Startled by his reaction, I asked him why he didn’t want his picture taken. As he continued working on his violin he told me, “You don’t even bother to say hello, you don’t ask for our permission and you want to take our picture?” I apologized, greeted him properly and asked his permission for a photograph. He readily agreed.

That man taught me an important lesson. Although my intention had not been to show him any disrespect, that is what I was essentially doing. I felt I had the right to take his photograph because I thought it was an interesting shot, but I hadn’t respected his right to say no. That he was a leper who had probably encountered much disrespect in the past made my insensitivity even worse.

The man’s assertiveness about his rights and the atmosphere of quiet pride in Cité Soleil, I realized, were no accident. Dr. Schweitzer was remarkable because of his devotion to the needs of those less fortunate. He left a brilliant professional career as a musician and a theologian to become a physician. He then moved to Africa with his wife, built a hospital in Lambaréné from what had been a chicken coop, and devoted his life to treating thousands of patients out of an irrepressible sense of personal duty.

Looking at a herd of hippos in the Ogowe River, close to the hospital, Dr. Schweitzer strengthened his commitment to the need to revere life: “The greatest evil is to destroy life, to injure life, to repress life that is capable of development.”

I couldn’t help comparing Dr. Schweitzer’s approach to life to what is happening in today’s world, when we live in what seems to be a permanent state of war and where the reasons for going to war are becoming more and more irrelevant. To make things even worse, in today’s world many times religion is used as an excuse to destroy, not to improve life.

People today speak of a clash of civilizations, when the real clash is the lack of respect for the other, the lack of dialogue, the lack of effort to understand each other. As the American philosopher Sam Keen says in his poem How to Create an Enemy, “…Trace onto the face of the enemy the greed, hatred, carelessness you dare not claim as your own…”

Today we desperately need people of Dr. Schweitzer’s stature. We need to follow his philosophy, based on an essential respect for life. As he constantly stressed, the progress of civilization is closely linked to a conception of the importance of life. Only those who say yes to life, to the world in which we live, are capable of making civilization progress.

Although the medical work at the hospital continues after his death, his message of peace has been lost in today's world, ravaged by sinister wars and unnecessary loss of life. Standing in his room and feeling the force of his personality, I thought that later generations have betrayed his legacy of peace.

When we look up in horror to the destruction of a country through a war based on false premises, at the decades of conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, at the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, we need to remember Dr. Schweitzer’s words in a 1963 letter to President John F. Kennedy, “The goal toward which we should direct our sight from now to the farthest future is that we should not let war decide issues that separate nations, but we should always try to find a pacific solution to them.”

We will reach that understanding only through dialogue with those who think in different ways from us, when we learn to listen to their concerns and fears. Perhaps then Dr. Schweitzer’s guiding principle will become a reality, “I am life that wants to live, surrounded by life that wants to live.”

Dr. Cesar Chelala, a writer on human rights issues, is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is killing teachers at alarming rates in many developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, it is delivering devastating blows to the health, future job possibilities and quality of life to students in those countries. These observations are supported by a World Bank study that warns that in some countries AIDS is killing teachers at a faster rate than replacements can be trained.

Why are these teachers so susceptible to HIV/AIDS? Teachers in rural and impoverished areas in developing countries make more money than the general population. They travel more and are more able to afford illicit unions with infected students and other women they meet. In many of these countries, women are taught to be submissive to men, particularly men in positions of authority. Male teachers may feel entitled to exploit this submissiveness from women.

As a consequence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, there is increased teacher absenteeism and loss of educators, inspectors, planners and management personnel. Although these losses are more evident in sub-Saharan African countries, they occur throughout the developing world. The pandemic affects not only the access to education but the quality and management of education at local, regional and national levels.

According to some statistics, almost 30 percent of teachers in South Africa are HIV positive, a higher infection rate than in the general population. In Ivory Coast, every week, six teachers die of AIDS, according to a 1998 government study, and the number has probably gone up since then. In several places, private spending on educational fees and other expenses fell almost by half in households with someone with AIDS.

In Zambia, two teachers die for every one that graduates from training school. A Grade 4 school (smallest school) in Zambia has an average of five teachers. Statistics from Zambia's ministry of education show that one teacher dies every day from AIDS-related diseases. This is the equivalent of the ministry of education closing down one school per week due to loss of teachers.

According to UNAIDS estimates, the annual per-capita income of half the countries of sub-Saharan Africa is falling by 0.5-1.2 percent and the GDP in the most-affected countries may decline by 8 percent by 2010. Because of its economic impact, AIDS is reversing decades of slow improvement in child survival, life expectancy, educational progress and economic growth.

In many cases, teachers themselves are poorly informed or not informed at all regarding HIV/AIDS prevention. Teachers need to be better educated not only about HIV/AIDS and its transmission, but also on how to become better advocates in the fight against the infection.

Paradoxically, education itself can be a formidable weapon against AIDS. Several studies have shown that infection rates are lower among educated women. In the 1990s, HIV infection rates in Zambia fell by almost 50 percent among educated women, while there was almost no decline in those who hadn't gone to school. In Uganda, infection rates are lower among girls who have attended high school.

It is crucial to introduce life-skills curricula early in primary school, since HIV-prevention activities have been shown to be more effective among youngsters who are not yet sexually active. Among the important components of the life-skills curricula are issues of gender equity, methods to develop healthy lifestyles and healthy reproductive attitudes, and an understanding of when and how to protect oneself from the HIV infection. Life skills should be taught in an environment with other HIV-prevention interventions.

It is also critical to empower women when they are young. This can help them deal better with sexual advances by teachers and other men. In several countries, there is the widespread belief that by having sex with young women, men can be cured of AIDS.

Because of both biological and cultural reasons, girls ages 15 to 24 in Africa are several times more likely than boys of the same age to be infected with HIV. In Africa, almost 60 percent of HIV-infected people are female, and among teenagers infected with HIV, more than 75 percent are girls. Sex education, when combined with improved communication skills, often leads to delayed sexual initiation, to fewer sexual partners and to increased use of condoms.

At the same time, governments have to make provisions to replace the current and estimated future loss of personnel in the education sector. Among those provisions is the need to develop new technologies and alternative and innovative ways of making AIDS education available to children. At stake are not only children's lives, but also the countries' future development.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international medical consultant and the author of "AIDS: A Modern Epidemic," a publication of the Pan American Health Organization. He writes extensively on HIV/AIDS issues.

AIDS is increasingly becoming a serious threat to women, particularly in developing countries. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), AIDS-related illness is the leading cause of death and disease among women of reproductive age in low and middle income countries, particularly in Africa.

While in 1985 there were as many HIV infected men as women in sub-Saharan Africa, women’s infection rate has steadily increased and now the number of HIV infected women is larger than HIV infected men. To date, approximately three quarters of all women with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa.

There are several reasons for this vulnerability. Women and girls are particularly susceptible to be infected due to biological, social, cultural and economic factors. The female genital tract has a greater exposed surface area than the male genital tract, making it more prone to infection with every exposure. Younger women may be even more vulnerable because they are more often victims of coercive or forced sexual relations with men who may already be infected.

Women who are victims of sexual violence are at a higher risk of being exposed to the infection. According to a South African study, women who were dominated or beaten by their partners were much more likely to be infected with HIV than women who were not. Abusive husbands were more likely to be infected with HIV than non-abusive husbands, according to a study in India involving 20,425 couples.

Women’s lower socio-economic status may also lead to high risk behaviors and make them less able to seek information they need to keep themselves safe. Globally, only 38% of young women were able to describe the ways to avoid infection and less likely than men to know that condoms can protect against the HIV infection. Particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, HIV prevalence is generally higher among adolescent girls aged 15-19 than among their male counterparts.

In addition, many young girls enter into sexual relationships with older men who are more sexually experienced, more powerful and are more likely to be infected and thus able to infect them. “We need to help young people develop the skills for mutual consent in sex and marriage and put an end to violence and sexual coercion,” stated Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS.

It has been shown that violence, or even the threat of it, can lead women to avoid HIV prevention, treatment, and care and support services. The problem of violence against women is exacerbated in countries at war, where in many cases rape is used as a “tool of war.” In some cases, women have been intentionally infected with HIV, so as to provoke a “slow death.”

In many societies, women are at an economic disadvantage with regard to men. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, property is generally owned by men, and even when they are married, women don’t have as many property rights as their husbands. Lack of property also means limited economic stability and, as a result, an increase in the possibility of sexual exploitation and violence.

Major inequalities between men and women in all aspects of living persist in many parts of the world, such as employment and education opportunities and power imbalances within relationships. In those situations, gender roles limit women to positions where they lack the power to protect themselves from physical abuse and from HIV. Gender inequalities prevent women from asserting their rights and controlling the circumstances that increase their vulnerability to infection.

As a response to this situation international development organizations have stepped up their work on the promotion of women’s basic rights. Recognizing and challenging stereotypes and harmful gender roles is crucial to preventing the spread of HIV. It is important to understand, however, that programs that focus on men and the need to change their stereotypical behavior also need to be implemented. Defeating HIV and AIDS is everyone’s responsibility.

Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, is an international public health consultant and the author of “AIDS: A Modern Epidemic,” a publication of the Pan American Health Organization.

One thing is certain in these uncertain times. The Middle East process, as conducted until now, is dead. New alternatives must be tried to revive it and a unilateral declaration of statehood by Palestinians should be seriously considered.

Such an option wouldn’t have universal support. Hamas has rejected it and, in a rare show of agreement, the U.S. most surely would veto it if presented to the U.N. Security Council. That measure, nonetheless, has the support of some Israelis. A recent newspaper add by Gush Shalom, one of the best known peace groups in Israel reads, “We shall welcome the declaration of the Free State of Palestine.”

What could lead Palestinians to follow such a drastic course? One reason is that, on one of the more contentious issues, the building of settlements, no progress has been achieved. For the past 25 years, every US President has tried to persuade Israel to stop building settlements in Palestinian lands to no avail. And this is just one of the issues separating Israelis and Palestinians.

The position held by the Palestinians is that they have already made important concessions by accepting a state covering only the areas of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem which are significantly smaller than the territory allocated to the Arab state in UN Resolution 181.

At the time of that resolution, which recommended the division of the British Mandate of Palestine into two provisional states, one Jewish and one Arab, the UN General Assembly also recommended that the City of Jerusalem be administered by the United Nations. This could be one of the options to overcome the present impasse on the status of that city.

Israel most probably would reject a Palestinian declaration of independence as it did in 1978 during the Camp David negotiations between Israel and Egypt when Anwar Sadat, Egypt’s president, proposed the creation of a Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza.

There is also an important precedent regarding the status of Jerusalem. At the Annapolis conference of 2007, Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made an important proposal. He offered East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine and 99.3% of the West Bank to the future Palestinian State. His position, however, was strongly criticized by Israel’s right wing political parties.

Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of the Shas party, threatened that his party would leave the government coalition, thus ending the coalition’s majority in the Knesset, if Olmert agreed to divide Jerusalem. Mahmoud Abbas rejected the offer due to the non-inclusion of the Gaza Strip and continuing settlement construction.

A unilateral declaration of statehood is fraught with complications, although it would follow on the steps of Israel’s unilateral declaration of independence on 1948. Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu has warned Palestinians that such a declaration would lead to Israeli counter-measures that could include annexation of more of the occupied West Bank, a move that is clearly illegal from the point of view of international law and of the UN Security Council Resolution 465.

In addition, such a move would surely be vetoed by the U.S. at the U.N. Security Council. However, as the noted Israeli journalist Gideon Levy recently stated, “Israel is so much not willing to make peace, someone has to push Israel, and the only actor who can push Israel is the United States.”

By many criteria, a unilateral declaration of statehood by the Palestinians is an expression of desperation. But it is also an act that can give them a much needed sense of belonging to the community of nations. As stated by the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish,“…we declare our presence as a wound crying in the depths of time and space in spite of the tempests which try to rend our roots from the very earth to which we gave our name.”

Cesar Chelala, a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award, is the foreign correspondent for the Middle East Times International (Australia).

It can be considered one of the most unequal battles in the world today. It pits a group of indigenous people in Ecuador, almost totally devoid of material resources, against one of the most powerful oil corporations in the world.

From 1964 to 1992, Texaco (which later merged with Chevron and now is called Chevron-Texaco) carried oil exploration and exploitation activities in the Ecuador area of the Amazon. However, drilling for oil without adequate safeguards is one of the most destructive industrial activities both for people and for the environment. This danger has been particularly stark in the case of these activities conducted in the forested areas of the Amazon basin.

Accused of polluting significant portions of the Amazon region, Chevron-Texaco is now facing a multibillion-dollar law suit. The outcome of this battle –expected before the end of this year- may demonstrate how far U.S.-based and other multinational companies can be held accountable for their deeds.

Drilling for oil produces several substances and waste products, which are stored in special pits. If these pits are not properly lined, toxic materials can contaminate surrounding areas. Once toxic waste leaks into water basins, rivers and lakes, it kills fish and makes people and livestock ill, at times threatening their very survival.

Oil activities conducted by Chevron-Texaco in the northeast Amazon region in Ecuador have caused significant environmental damage and serious health consequences for the indigenous population. Chevron-Texaco spilled more than 70 billion liters of toxic waste into 900 unlined pits in an area of more than 5,180 square kilometers. This toxic dumping has affected an indigenous community of 30,000 and has led to the loss of 1 million hectares of rain forest. Experts believe this is the worst oil-related contamination on the planet.

The health damage incurred by the indigenous population has been documented in the village of San Carlos, which contains more than 30 oil wells constructed by Chevron-Texaco. One of the first studies on the effects of oil pollution on people's health in that village was carried out by two medical doctors in collaboration with the University of London's Department of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. The study, called the "Yana Curi" report (yana curi is the local indigenous term for "oil" or "black gold"), found that cancer rates in San Carlos exceed the average by up to 30 times.

For several years the residents of San Carlos had been exposed to more than 3.8 million liters of oil and toxic waste-water dumped by Chevron-Texaco. Exposure occurred through several routes, including absorption through the skin, ingestion of contaminated food and water, and inhalation of oil and related gases.

Additional evidence on the health effects provoked by improper oil-exploitation techniques was provided by Richard Cabrera, an expert appointed by the court. After reviewing all the data in evidence and several health studies Cabrera, along with a team of 14 technical officials concluded that 1,401 excess cancer deaths in the region were due to oil contamination.

It is estimated that the water used by local residents for drinking, bathing and laundering contains nearly 150 times the amounts considered safe for substances such as hydrocarbons. The study also found the risk of cancer of the stomach, liver, bile duct and skin for those living in San Carlos was more than double the average. Chevron-Texaco claims that these results were only preliminary and not worth analyzing.

Chevron-Texaco has used inadequate extraction techniques, in the process spilling waste products into creeks and rivers rather than pumping it back into the ground as is commonly done elsewhere. Because of pipe breakages, the amount of crude pumped into the ground was nearly double the volume spilled into Alaska's Prince William Sound by the Exxon Valdez in 1989.

In November of 1993, a class-action lawsuit on behalf of residents of the rain forest area known as Oriente was launched in a U.S. District Court in New York, close to Chevron-Texaco's world headquarters in Westchester County. Although the plaintiffs wanted the case to be tried in New York, a federal appeals court in New York ruled that it should be conducted in Ecuador. But in an important decision, the court also stated that any judgment against the oil company would be enforced in America. U.S. courts will also reassert jurisdiction if Chevron-Texaco refuses to cooperate with the litigation in Ecuador.

The suit charges that Chevron-Texaco dumped nearly 70 million liters of toxic waste into hundreds of unlined open pits, and from there it seeped into estuaries and rivers from 1964 to 1992, thus exposing residents to carcinogenic pollutants. The plaintiffs want a thorough cleanup of the area, an assessment of the long-term health effects of the contamination and damage compensation, which could total $ 27 billion.

If Chevron-Texaco is found liable in a fair trial, it will be not only a victory for the environmental movement but also for the thousands of indigenous people whose survival and quality of life have been affected by the careless exploitation of oil on their lands.

Cesar Chelala, M.D., Ph.D., is an international public-health consultant and an award winning writer on human rights issues. He is the foreign correspondent for the Middle East Times International (Australia).

It is impossible to win a war that you cannot define. That seems to be the main lesson to be drawn from Afghanistan, where a so-called victory seems ever more unreachable. It is also the conclusion of several experts on the region, who fear U.S. forces would be mired forever in that unjustly punished country.

Sometimes, people not geared for war can offer insights into a war situation that professional warriors cannot do. In 2001, U.S. writer Philip Caputo offered a unique insight into the Afghan psychology. He had spent a month in Afghanistan with the mujahedeen as a reporter, during the Afghans’ decade-long war with the Soviets.

At some point in the 1980s, he was accompanying a platoon of mujahedeen who were escorting 1,000 refugees into Pakistan. They had to cross a mountain torrent on a very primitive bridge, consisting essentially of two logs laid side by side. In front of him was a 10-year-old boy, separated from his family, his feet swollen from several days of barefoot marching.

When Caputo realized that the boy was terrified thinking that he could fall into the rapids below, he carried him to the other side. With the help of his interpreter he found the father and handed the boy to him. The father, rather than thanking him slapped the boy in the face and poked Caputo in the chest, shouting angrily at him. Caputo was obviously shocked.

He asked his interpreter about the boy father’s reaction and the interpreter explained to him, “He is angry at the boy for not crossing on his own, and angry with you for helping him. Now, he says, his son will expect somebody to help him whenever he runs into difficulties.”

Caputo concludes, “Well, that little boy probably learned. I don’t know what became of him, but in my imagination, I see our troops encountering him: now 31, inured to hardship and accustomed to combat, unafraid of death, with an army of men like him at his side.”

In a few words, Caputo magisterially captured the strength of the Afghan soldier, able to fight with the most primitive weapons against the greatest empires on earth. When these soldiers feel their land usurped by foreign forces, their strength is multiplied. And this is just one of the obstacles confronting U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

There are increasing doubts that a plain increase in the number of soldiers fighting in Afghanistan can lead to a victory progressively more difficult to define. Matthew Hoh, a former Foreign Service officer and former Marine Corps captain who became the first U.S. official to resign in protest over the Afghan war, declared to the Washington Post, “Upon arriving in Afghanistan and serving in both the East and South (and particularly speaking with local Afghans) I found that the majority of those who were fighting us and the Afghan central government were fighting us because they felt occupied.”

Can an increase in the number of foreign forces subdue a naturally proud and nationalistic people? In an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, U.S. National Security adviser Mr. James Jones offered a sobering view. When asked whether he agreed with General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, that a troop increase was needed he responded, “Generals always ask for more troops….You can keep on putting troops in, and you could have 200,000 troops there and Afghanistan will swallow them up as it has done in the past.”

Afghanistan has been called the graveyard of empires. It should more properly be called the graveyard of illusions.

Dr. Cesar Chelala, the foreign correspondent for the Middle East Times International (Australia), is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

The disastrous effects of the Russian invasion on Napoleon Bonaparte’s army are well known. Less widely known are the reasons for the defeat of the Grand Army. Although Russian resistance, brutal weather and the lack of food and water decimated the French army, new genetic evidence proves that Pediculus humanus, otherwise known as body lice, had a key role in the debacle.

Researchers led by Dr. Didier Raoult unearthed 2 kg of material containing bone fragments, clothing remnants, and segments of body lice from soldiers buried in a mass grave in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Analysis of the material proves that almost one-third of those buried there were affected by louse-born infections such as typhus and trench fever.

Raoult and his colleagues from the University of the Mediterranean, Marseille, France, studied segments of body lice as well as the dental pulp from soldiers’ teeth. The dental pulp revealed DNA from Bartonella quintana and Rickettsia prowazekii, the agents that cause trench fever and epidemic typhus, respectively. When the DNA of such pathogens is present in teeth, the team concluded, it is very likely that the organism was the cause of death.

Typhus fever and typhoid fever are two different entities. While typhoid fever is a water-borne disease caused by a bacillus, typhus fever derives from a class of organisms that are carried by lice and are between a large bacterium and a virus in size. Under epidemic conditions, the typhus mortality rate nears 100 percent.

In 1812, Napoleon marched into Russia with 500,000 soldiers, leading what up to then had been Europe’s largest army. By the time the French army reached Moscow, only 90,000 soldiers out of a central force of more than 300,000 remained.

Conquering Moscow proved to be a Pyrrhic victory, for most of the capital’s citizens had already abandoned the city and set fire to it. There was almost no food, no shelter, and typhus raged among the soldiers. The only option was retreat.

Until recently, it had been assumed that Russia’s brutal winter was one of the main causes of the French soldiers’ deaths. This idea had been buttressed by Napoleon’s report to the Senate on Dec. 20, 1812: “My army has had some losses, but this was due to the premature rigor of the season.” He thus tried to deflect criticism of his bad decisions during the campaign.

One decision that proved particularly costly was to continue the march toward Moscow despite tremendous loss of life during the march and his own generals’ desperate pleas to halt the invasion. Undaunted, Napoleon answered his generals: “The very danger pushes us on to Moscow. The die is cast. Victory will justify and save us.”

In December 1812, the retreating army reached Vilnius with only 7,000 soldiers and 20,000 stragglers. From there they continued their retreat, leaving the sick and wounded in Vilnius. Those who died there were buried in mass graves.

Napoleon’s Grand Army was destroyed during the invasion of Russia. Of the more than 400,000 military deaths, 220,000 can probably be attributed solely to typhus. A great dream had become a great nightmare.

Although historians had assumed that disease played a big part in dooming the invasion of Russia, the investigation by Raoult and his colleagues provides the first solid evidence in support of this belief. The confirmation by a team of medical researchers that typhus transmitted by lice was one of the main reasons for Napoleon’s defeat shows the value of their technique in helping to reinterpret history.

That Europe’s most powerful army was defeated by a humble microbe should be cause for sobering reflection in these troubling times.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant and the winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

In what can be considered a sad paradox of history, an analysis of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) actions during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza shows that the IDF violated several of the Nuremberg Principles, as well as the principles of the Geneva Conventions.

The Nuremberg Principles, a set of guidelines established after World War II to try Nazi Party members, were established to determine what constitutes a war crime. The Geneva Conventions consist of four treaties and three additional protocols that establish the standards in international law for humanitarian treatment of the victims of war.

According to Nuremberg Principle I, “Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefore and liable to punishment.” As detailed in the “Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict,” also known as the “Goldstone Report,” several crimes against unarmed civilians were committed by the IDF during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.

The UN Mission investigated 11 incidents in which the IDF launched direct attacks against civilians with lethal outcome. The facts in all except one case, states the Mission, indicate no justifiable military objective. According to the report, “From the facts ascertained in all the above cases, the Mission finds that the conduct of the Israeli armed forces constitutes grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention in respect of willful killings and willfully causing great suffering to protected persons and, as such, give rise to individual criminal responsibility. It also finds that the direct targeting and arbitrary killing of Palestinian civilians is a violation of the right to life.”

Both Israeli government and military officials are responsible for the IDF actions during Operation Cast Lead. As Nuremberg Principle III states, “The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as Head of State or responsible government official does not relive him from responsibility under international law.”

It has been argued that those that were following orders are not guilty of crimes, and the responsibility for those crimes falls on the superior officers. However, Nuremberg Principle IV states that, “The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.”

Nuremberg Principle VI establishes three kinds of crimes punishable as crimes under international law: crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Among crimes against peace are those crimes “involving planning, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances.”

Although the Government of Israel has the duty to defend its citizens, it is clear that Operation Cast Lead was a war of aggression against Gazans, out of any reasonable proportion and aimed at inflicting massive damage on Gaza’s civilian population. According to a study carried out by B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, 1,387 Gazans were killed during operation Cast Lead, a figure that includes 773 civilians and 330 combatants.

Among the war crimes established by Nuremberg Principle VI are the, “…plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.” The UN Mission investigated several incidents involving the destruction of industrial infrastructure, food production, water installations, sewage treatment plants and housing. Among the installations destroyed by the IDF was the el-Bader flour mill, the only operating flour mill in Gaza.

As stated in the UN report, “…the Mission finds that there has been a violation of the grave breaches provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Unlawful and wanton destruction which is not justified by military necessity amounts to a war crime. The Mission also finds that the destruction of the mill was carried out to deny sustenance to the civilian population, which is a violation of customary international law and may constitute a war crime. The strike on the flour mill furthermore constitutes a violation of the right to adequate food and means of subsistence.”

The UN Mission also investigated four incidents in which the IDF coerced Palestinian civilian men at gunpoint to take part in house search operations. The men, blindfolded and handcuffed, were forced to enter houses suspected of having combatants, ahead of the Israeli soldiers. “From the facts available to it, the Mission is of the view that some of the actions of the Government of Israel might justify a competent court finding that crimes against humanity have been committed,” states the report.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that Israel will never allow its soldiers and war-time leaders to appear before an international war-crimes tribunal regarding the IDF conduct during the war on Gaza. As stated in the UN Mission report, however, “In the context of increasing unwillingness on the part of Israel to open criminal investigations that comply with international standards, the Mission supports the reliance on universal jurisdiction as an avenue for States to investigate violations of the grave breach provisions of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, prevent impunity and promote international accountability.”

Cesar Chelala, a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award, writes extensively on human rights issues.

It was, according to tradition, an unusual evening at Taller Latinoamericano, a language school (and much more) in uptown Manhattan. Like Sinatra’s many last performances, this one was supposed to be the last performance at the Taller (they had to move, unable to pay the rent) but I know, as many people do, that it won't probably be the last one. The Taller, as it is frequently called, has survived at that same place before.

The Taller is a language school, a meeting place for unusual people eager for company, a showcase of artistic talent for people from all over Latin America, a concert hall, and a dance school. I used to joke that on a given night you could find a lion tamer, a young Japanese woman giving tango lessons, a tango guitar player from Argentina playing Brazilian songs, an obsessive painter of remarkable naïve paintings, many of which cover the Taller walls … an unending list of colorful characters.

Bernardo Palombo, its director, is an unusual talent. A native of Argentina, he is an innovative teacher of Spanish—he frequently illustrates his lessons with guitar music. He is also a talented musician and singer who has performed with leading Latin American and North American artists.

Tango is among the most performed musical styles played and performed at the Taller, so it was fitting that this event—reported to be a farewell party from this location—would only be tango dancing. Although a few dancers were Argentinean, there were many from different Latin American and Asian countries and even a couple from Africa.

While watching some old and graceful dancers, my thoughts went back to Buenos Aires where during my last trip, I had had a singular experience. I was having lunch at a popular restaurant. Concerned about my weight, I was having a small piece of chicken with a salad when I saw, at the table next to mine, an older man, perhaps in his middle seventies, having a hearty lunch. He was a thin man of normal height.

He had started with a heavy bean soup, and now he was having a huge steak with French fries and a salad accompanied by a big bottle of wine. I envied that he could have such a big lunch while I, younger than him, was also much heavier and unable to do the same.

I congratulated him on his good appetite, something not unusual to do in an informal setting in Buenos Aires, where people are much more gregarious than in other big cities.

“Well,” he said to me, “You won’t believe what happened to me.” He continued. “A couple of years ago, I was diagnosed with a rare form of rheumatism which hindered my movements. I was even unable to cross a wide street without being concerned that I would be hit by a car, since I walked that slowly.

“A friend recommended that I start dancing tango, something that I almost never did before. Although I was a bit reluctant at first, I decided to follow my friend’s advice and soon after I started dancing, I realized that I was walking with much less effort. Not only that, the more I danced the better I felt. I had started dancing a couple of nights a week. Then I was dancing every day and feeling younger, better, and losing weight in the process.

“In the beginning, my wife used to accompany me. Soon, however, she lost interest, perhaps because she couldn’t keep my pace. By common agreement, we decided that I would go to live in an apartment at the back of our house so we that could lead independent lives, but still on friendly terms. I am glad we did that because what began as a curiosity became an obsession, but a wonderful one for me.

“After a few months, I had recovered all my ability to move without pain. I also lost several pounds and made many new, wonderful friends. As a result, not only has my rheumatism disappeared, but now I can eat whatever I want without fear of gaining any weight.”

Looking at my plate before he parted, he said, “Start dancing tango, amigo, it will do wonders for you, too.”

As I recalled his advice, the last stanzas of a tango were being played at the Taller...

Dr. Cesar Chelala is a writer on human rights and public health issues.

The growing worldwide demand for resources is threatening the world's environmental health to an unprecedented extent. Increasingly, women are active participants in the defense of the environment and significantly contribute to stop, or even reverse, the degradation of our natural resources.

“Women have always been more environmentally sensitive compared to men because they are mother earth themselves. Any harm to the mother is bound to affect her progeny, and that is why very instinctively she wishes to protect the earth that is everybody’s mother,” stated Notan Kotak, a woman from a tribal group in India. She was commenting on the role of women from pygmy communities in Congo Brazzaville to protect the natural forests in the region.

In addition to unrestricted exploitation of natural resources, unsound agricultural practices have had devastating effects on the environment and on people's health and quality of life. The National Wildlife Federation has found that diseases associated with contaminated water kill between 5 and 12 million people every year, mostly women and children.

Women are considered the primary users of natural resources in developing countries, because they are responsible for gathering food, fuel and fodder. Because in many cases women are home-managers, and economic providers, women are susceptible to health problems and hazards in several environmental situations.

Women, especially when they are pregnant, are particularly susceptible to several environmental risks, particularly those living in rural or marginal suburban areas in developing countries. The reproductive system of pregnant women is especially vulnerable, since every step in the reproductive process can be altered by toxic substances in the environment. It has been proved that several substances may increase the risk of abortion, birth defects, fetal growth retardation, and peri-natal death.

Although for a long time women have been considered passive recipients of aid rather than active participants in development, their role is crucial both to the economies of the developing countries and to the future of the environment. As environmental educators and motivators for change, women are key agents in the processes leading to a more sustainable and healthy development of the planet.

Just over 100 years ago, in 1906 in India, there was a conflict between men and women in a hilly area called Chipko. Women were protesting the massive clearing of forests by men, who wanted to use them for industrial purposes. When their protests went unheard, women from the villages started hugging themselves to the trees to prevent them for being cut down. They not only prevented large forest areas from being destroyed but they initiated what is now called the Chipko movement, which has become a significant historical reference of women’s efforts in favor of the environment.

The more active participation of women in think tanks and in environmental training activities is allowing them to educate both the public and policy makers about the critical link between women, the use of natural resources and the creation and fostering of sustainable development. In that regard, women have more direct access to local environmental issues and how to approach them than men. Women have often had a leadership role in reducing unnecessary use of resources, promoting an environmental ethic, and recycling resources to minimize waste.

There is growing evidence that women in several countries around the world are taking central roles in the grass-roots environmental movement. And there is increasing belief that development and environmental policies that do not involve women in the same footing men as will not be successful in the long run.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international medical consultant and the author of the Pan American Health Organization publication ''The Impact of the Environment on Children's Health.''

Antonio Peralta, known to listeners as exageradamente loco, or "extremely crazy," is a well-known radio personality in Argentina where a radio show is heard by 12 million people. But his studio is hardly conventional: He broadcasts from the courtyard of Buenos Aires's largest psychiatric hospital.

On the air with are also colleagues –other patients– who read news headlines and poems, sing tangos and conduct interviews inside and outside Dr. José T. Borda Hospital. That is where Antonio Peralta, a tall man with long hair and a pleasant smile, hosts an innovative program on mental patients' legal rights.

They work for "Radio La Colifata" -- slang for "Loony Radio," and all are patients who do the weekly show as part of their therapy. It is the first radio program in the world to broadcast from inside a psychiatric hospital, according to the Pan American Health Organization.

"Loony Radio" is one of Argentina's most popular radio programs. Broadcast on 58 stations from cold Tierra del Fuego to trendy Buenos Aires it reaches 12 million listeners who tune in for something out of the ordinary.

During its 18-year existence, the show has managed to stay popular, a remarkable achievement in a nation that has undergone profound economic and social changes over the past two decades. "Loony Radio" has been copied elsewhere in Argentina as well as in Uruguay, Chile, Germany and Spain, and it has won several local and international awards, including a special cultural citation from Argentina's National Congress in 1997.

Maria Lopez Geist, a Buenos Aires psychiatrist said, "'Loony Radio' demystifies the idea that a person with a mental health problem cannot have effective participation in society. Most important for the patients themselves, the show offers a unique therapy that provides contact with the world and eliminates their isolation."

The program is the brainchild of Alfredo Olivera. When he started with the program, Olivera was a 23-year-old psychology student making regular visits to the Borda hospital for a research paper. He was struck by how isolated the patients had become during their stay. They often slept 30 to a room and in some cases were denied contact with the outside world for up to 40 years.

“We created a tool to undo the marginality they normally experience,'' said Alfredo Olivera, who began the program as an experiment in 1991. “We try to change the idea many people have that these patients are dangerous people.” I met Olivera and visited La Colifata during one of my frequent trips to Argentina.

When friends at a small community radio station asked to interview him on hospital conditions, Olivera decided to record patients' views and play them on air. The first tapes were such a hit they were picked up by network radio shows.

Now, nobody is having a better time than the patients themselves. And so is Olivera, who now has a Masters in Psychology from the University of Buenos Aires and works as a consultant with non-governmental organizations interested in replicating La Colifata’s example. So far, there have been almost 40 similar experiences in Europe and Latin America based in La Colifata’s experience.

In 2007, La Colifata hosted the “First Global Meeting of Radios Implemented by Mental Health Patients” in Buenos Aires. Both professionals and mental health patients from several countries such as France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Brazil, Chile, and other Latin American countries attended the meeting. In 2005, Olivera was named “Distinguished Citizen” by the Buenos Aires Legislature.

La Colifata was featured in the movie “Tetro,” directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and has the support of the famous European singer Manu Chao who recently recorded music at the hospital, working together with patients. Although listeners donate food, clothes and other everyday items used by the patients, steady financial support is always a challenge. But Olivera is undaunted by the obstacles. And so is Peralta, who remarked that he is always looking forward to the next program.

"We eagerly wait to help each other," he said, talking about the other patients. "They are my family."

Dr. Cesar Chelala, a frequent contributor to Americas, is an international public health consultant and a writer on human rights issues.

Where Iran is going and what other countries can do to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons are timely concerns. Difficult as the situation is now it can also provide an opportunity for reaching a wider, more important goal: a nuclear weapons free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East.

Talks between Iran and representatives of the U.S., Britain, Germany, France, Russia and China can help develop a consensus regarding Iran’s development of nuclear power. Iran’s eventual production of nuclear weapons and a possible Israeli or US response can precipitate a war of unknown -but certainly terrible- consequences.

In this context, Israel’s concern over Iran’s nuclear program is legitimate, particularly given the avowed antagonism of Iran for the State of Israel. But Iran’s concerns for an Israeli attack can’t be easily dismissed either.

Given this situation, is it possible to redirect talks in a way to avoid such a disastrous alternative? I believe it is. Both Iranian and Israeli concerns about the other party’s use of nuclear weapons –which by many accounts Iran is still years away from developing- could be addressed by the discussion of an old idea: the creation of a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East.

The call for such a zone in the Middle East was first issued in 1974. That year, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution calling for all countries in the region “to declare that they will refrain from producing, acquiring or in any way possessing nuclear weapons and nuclear explosive devices and from permitting the stationing of nuclear weapons in their territory by any third party.” In following years, the UN General Assembly renewed that call on several occasions.

On September 17, in a non-binding ballot, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) adopted a resolution (100 to 1 with four abstentions) urging all Middle East nations to forswear atomic bombs. Israel voted no because the resolution retained a clause calling “upon all states in the region to accede” to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The creation of a NWFZ in the Middle East would be to everyone’s advantage. It cannot be denied that a nuclear armed Iran is of concern not only to Israel but also to many of its Arab neighbors since it would dramatically alter the balance of power in the region. Iran’s development of nuclear weapons could start a nuclear arms race in the Middle East that would divert precious resources for economic development into the development of nuclear weapons with serious consequences for peace and stability in the region.

The establishment of nuclear free zones in other parts of the world has been an effective deterrent to preventing nuclear proliferation. Latin America, the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, Africa and Antarctica have all been established as NWFZ. Since the establishment of that status, no country in those regions has sought nuclear weapons capability.

In this context, only the U.S. has the clout to revive the discussions on the creation of the NWFZ in the Middle East. Such a move would be consistent with President Obama’s call for a world free of nuclear weapons, and would eliminate the main threat to peace in the region.

The U.S. could provide security guarantees to both Iran and to Israel. In Iran’s case, the U.S. could reaffirm its adherence to the 1981 Algiers Accord. Among the main provisions of that agreement (brokered by Algiers in 1981 to resolve the Iran hostage crisis) is that the U.S. would not intervene politically or militarily in Iranian internal affairs. The U.S. would also remove its freeze on Iranian assets and trade sanctions on Iran. To Israel, the US could offer additional security guarantees to reaffirm what has been a sustained support for that country’s political and security aims.

Incorporating the NWFZ into discussions with Iran would indicate a paradigm shift towards an effective road to peace in a region of the world where war has already exacted a terrible price.

Dr. Cesar Chelala, a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award, is the foreign correspondent for the Middle East Times International (Australia).

The results of a new HIV vaccine trial in Thailand, although positive since it shows a lowered the rate of infection amongst those vaccinated, should be treated with cautious optimism. It is, nonetheless, excellent news particularly considering that every day 7,000 people worldwide are newly infected with HIV and that in 2007 over two million people died of AIDS according to UNAIDS (The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS).

The new AIDS vaccine was tried in 16,000 volunteers aged between 18 and 30 in parts of Thailand and was carried out by the US Army, the Thai Ministry of Public Health, the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the patent-holders of the two components of the vaccine, Sanofi-Pasteur and Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases.

The vaccine used in this trial was a combination of two vaccines that when tried singly had not cut infection rates. The vaccine combination was based on HIV strains that circulate normally in Thailand. Participants in the study were tested for HIV infection every six months for three years.

The study was carried out in 16,402 volunteers at average risk of HIV infection. Half of the volunteers received the vaccine combination and the other half received a placebo. Both groups received counseling on how to prevent becoming infected with HIV at the beginning of the study and every six months after the start of the study for a total of three and a half years.

Among the participants in the study, new infections occurred in 51 of the 8,197 people given the vaccine, and in 74 of the 8,198 among those who received the placebo. The results indicate that there was a 31% lower risk of infection among those who had received the vaccine.

Although the number of infections in each group under study is relatively small it is statistically significant, as indicated by Dr. Jerome H. Kim, who is the army’s HIV vaccine program. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, concurred on the importance of the results.

Although those obtained are indeed important results it is still necessary to be cautious about its implications. For example, the RV144, the vaccine tested in Thailand, was designed to combat the most common strain of the HIV circulating in Southeast Asia. Different strains circulate in the U.S., Africa and other countries and there is no indication yet that the vaccine could function in similar ways when confronted with different HIV strains.

In addition, the number of people involved in the study shows the need for larger, more expensive trials. And finally, although the difference among subjects who had received the vaccine and those who hadn’t is statistically significant, it is still relatively small to consider it for use in the immediate future.

hat is really important, however, is that this study shows a positive response on an issue that up until now had not offered any hopes for solution. If the positive results are shown to be constant and even increase under different conditions we can expect to conquer an infection of tremendous medical, human and economic costs to society.

Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, is an international public health consultant for several UN agencies.

I call them “regulars” because they are always in my neighborhood in downtown Manhattan. They are out of luck people who depend largely on the help of others. By now, the regulars have become almost like friends.

There is Sarge as we call him, a tall, black, heavyset, intelligent man. He was once in the Army (that’s the reason for his nickname) but with time his health began to deteriorate. Sarge walks with some difficulty. He comes and sits on the steps next to my house at least once a week.

He usually prefaces his request for a handout with a question. “Let me pose you a hypothetical question,” he will say. “Do you think that today there is a possibility you may help me with some change, perhaps also something to eat?” Since he has a genial disposition I am happy to comply.

It is not easy, though, to find foods that he will enjoy, since he claims to have some stomach troubles. I rather believe he is a finicky eater, since there is no specific pattern in what he likes. Despite significant differences in his upbringing, he has something in common with former US President George Herbert Walker Bush: they both detest broccoli.

My wife tends to be more generous with the regulars than myself, so it is not surprising that the three of them like her a lot. “I love your wife” Sarge frequently tells me. When he sees a stern look in my face he adds, “Not in the way you do, though, not in the way you do.” We like to tease each other. A couple of weeks ago I told him, “Hey, Sarge, if you win the lottery will you help me out?” Quick as a weasel he retorted, “Don’t worry, man, I already have you in my will….”

The other regular is Roland, an older man, kind, always with a good word. While my wife was recently in Argentina, he asked me about her every day, probably missing her generous presents. He is also a picky eater, although with a very good reason, since he has had several dental problems in recent times. He has the drawn face of a heavy smoker but otherwise he is very properly dressed and speaks with elegance. Regrettably, life has not been kind to him and now he sleeps on the steps of the neighborhood church, after some unpleasant experiences in a municipal shelter where his things were stolen, several times.

I recently saw him being photographed by an Italian tourist. He posed for her and obediently followed her instructions. After she left I asked him who she was and he told me that she was an art student and that she was planning to use the photographs in her student portfolio at an art school. “I hope that she gave you something for your help,” I told him. “I don’t mind,” he said, “she is only a student.” And he added, proudly, “I am sure that she will do a good job.”

Finally there is Joe, another constant presence in the neighborhood. He usually has a paper cup in his hand where he puts the money he collects. Sometimes I think that he collects a lot since I once saw him counting several large bills. He calls everybody “boss” which is a good way of ensuring a sympathetic response from passersby. He is a young, thin man who walks with a limp and always has a crooked hat on. “Boss,” he would say, handing me his paper cup, “do you have any change?” I usually give him a few coins.

Each of the regulars seems to follow a certain schedule. I tend to see Joe in the mornings, Roland from midday on and Sarge in the early evening. Joe’s request for help is so predictable that one day I decided to surprise him. As soon as I saw him approaching, before he would say anything, I dropped a bunch of coins into his cup. He definitely looked surprised. “Boss, what you are doing?” he yelled at me, “This is my coffee!”

Cesar Chelala writes on human rights issues.

The long awaited U.N. report on the conflict in Gaza is strongly critical of both Israel and Palestinian armed groups. Both sides committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity stated the report that recommends that Israel should start its own credible investigation into the conflict within the next three months.

If Israel refuses to comply with this recommendation, the investigators called on the U.N. Human Rights Council to refer the matter for action by the International Criminal Court prosecutor within six months. Israel, however, doesn’t accept the court’s authority, and calls the council “a body constantly critical of Israel.”

Israeli human rights groups issued a statement in which they call on “the Government of Israel to respond to the substance of the report’s findings and to desist from its current policy of casting doubt upon the credibility of anyone who doesn’t adhere to the establishment’s narrative.”

The U.N. report follows an investigation of the Gaza war by B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group. More than half of Palestinians killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza were civilians, states B’Tselem. B’Tselem’s assertions, based on exhaustive investigations, should prompt a serious investigation by Israel’s judiciary and, if its denunciations are confirmed, the punishment of those guilty. Israel’s judiciary cannot afford to be complicit in gross human rights violations carried out the Israeli armed forces.

Although the IDF has acknowledged “rare mishaps” in the conduct of the war in Gaza, it has steadfastly denied violating international humanitarian law. B’Tselem’s investigation does not support the IDF’s allegations, and are a serious accusation against the IDF’s actions in Gaza.

According to the IDF, the Gaza Cast Lead operation death toll is 1,166 which includes 709 combatants and 295 civilians, and has refused to release a list of names or any other evidence. B’Tselem’s findings -based on several months of research and visits to the families of the victims- reveal that 1,387 Gazans were killed. That figure includes 773 civilians and 330 combatants.

The IDF claims that the B’Tselem’s figures are based on flawed research, and reliance on figures reported by Palestinian human rights groups. However, the Israeli human rights group’s figures are similar to those reported by Hamas, which claims that more than 1,350 Gaza residents were killed during the operation, most of them civilians. B’Tselem also claims that the IDF withheld information that could have allowed them to cross-check information.

“Behind the statistics lie shocking individual stories. Whole families were killed; parents saw their children shot before their very eyes; relatives watched their loved ones bleed to death; and entire neighborhoods were obliterated,” states B’Tselem. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, however, denounced the “extensive rumors that have considerably damaged the IDF’s image both at home and abroad.”

“The failure of the IDF and Israeli government to investigate serious allegations of wrongdoing by its soldiers precedes Operation Cast Lead,” states Human Rights Watch. Since 2000 this organization has documented the persistent lack of fair investigations into civilian deaths resulting from the use of lethal force in policing and law enforcement situations, as well as from combat situations in the West Bank and Gaza even when confronted with credible allegations that soldiers deliberately harmed civilians. Israel’s conduct clashes with its obligations under international law.

Following Operation Cast Lead, B’Tselem sent Israel’s Attorney General and the military’s Judge Advocate General 20 cases that raise questions of breach of law. Among those cases is the killing of some 90 Palestinians (half of them minors) that B’Tselem believes didn’t take part in the conflict and Israeli soldiers’ use of civilians as human shields. According to B’Tselem, it has received only one serious response, in which the Judge Advocate General’s Office stated that it had ordered a Military Police investigation into the use of civilians as human shields.

“The extremely heavy civilian casualties and the massive damage to civilian property require serious introspection on the part of Israeli society,” states B’Tselem. And Sara Roy, a senior research scholar at Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies recently wrote in the Christian Science Monitor, “Israel's victories are pyrrhic and reveal the limits of Israeli power and our own limitations as a people: our inability to live a life without barriers. Are these the boundaries of our rebirth after the Holocaust?”

Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights. He is also the foreign correspondent for the Middle East Times International (Australia).

I was irritated with my wife. After waiting for several weeks to carve out some free time to go find a new set of night tables (her own night table had collapsed under the weight of books), we were finally on our way when my wife stopped to talk to a stranger near our house. Though the incident happened some months ago, I only understood its import this morning upon reading a poem by Jack Agüeros, a New York poet, which brought that event back to my mind. But I am jumping ahead, so let me backtrack.

I was walking with my wife, Silvia, to the bus stop when a young man passed in front of us. He was of probable East Indian descent, shabbily dressed and talking to himself, the last being not so unusual in and of itself for New York City. But what told me he wasn’t of sound mind was that on that frigid morning he was shoeless, his feet dirty and calloused.

Seeing his plight, my wife asked him, “Sir, do you need shoes?” The man looked surprised, and mumbled a response which my wife took as a positive answer. Upon hearing that, Silvia said to me, “Just wait a few minutes,” and turned back toward our house.

“What is going on?” I asked myself. “We are very short of time and my wife is going back to pick up some shoes for a man who probably wouldn’t realize if he had shoes on or not.” I was annoyed at her but didn’t have any choice but to wait for her. The man went to sit on a bench nearby. I decided to keep an eye on him, to make sure that he would wait for her and not try to walk away. I tried to engage him in conversation but was unable to. He obviously preferred to continue inhabiting his own world. How my wife was able to reach him escapes me.

Silvia’s trip was taking more time than I had anticipated and, at a moment when I wasn’t paying attention, the man disappeared.

“Well,” I thought, “that will show her that she can’t be a Samaritan all the time. …” I walked up the avenue and down and up a side street, but couldn’t see him.

Finally, frustrated, I retraced my steps and went back home to tell my wife what had happened. Just as I turned a corner, however, I saw her talking to the shoeless man. (He had gone back in the same direction as my wife.) She was handing him a pair of practically new shoes, part of a bunch that we had decided to donate to a homeless shelter.

“Most probably,” I thought, “he will now go and try to sell them.” I was wrong again. My wife’s generous thoughts prevailed over what I believed was my common sense. While sitting waiting for the bus we saw the young man walk by again, proudly wearing his new set of shoes, a smile on his face. It was the man’s pleasure as well as my wife’s unassuming kindness that I recalled upon reading a Jack Agüeros poem months later. In his “Psalm for Distribution,” Agüeros, a Nuyorican poet of the dispossessed, writes:

Lord,
on 8th Street
Between 6th Avenue and
Broadway
In Greenwich Village
There are enough shoe stores
With enough shoes
To make me wonder
Where there are shoeless people
On the earth.

Lord,
You have to fire the Angel
in charge of distribution.

The poem is set a few blocks away from where this incident took place.

César Chelala is an award winning writer on human rights issues.

At a time when we plainly see the negative effects of politics and greed in the life of nations, it is important to remember Pablo Neruda, a Chilean writer whom Gabriel Garcia Marquez called "the greatest poet of the 20th century — in any language." He was an artist who knew very well how to blend politics and poetry in his life.

Neruda was born Ricardo Eliecer Neftali Reyes Basoalto in 1904 and died in 1973. When he was 16, he changed his name to Pablo Neruda, probably after the Czech writer Jan Neruda. He started writing poetry at 10.

I started reading him when I was a medical student in the 1960s, and haven't stopped. How could I? Two of his books — "Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair" (written when he was only 20) and "The Captain's Verses" — are intertwined with my first sentimental adventures. Like millions in Latin America — and across the world — once I read Neruda, he became part of my life.

Neruda's political beliefs were behind some of his most powerful poems. For me, he represents the very ideal of the writer as a political man. When he was only 23, the Chilean government made him honorary consul in Burma, Ceylon, Java, Singapore and later Argentina, and the Spanish cities of Barcelona and Madrid. The Spanish Civil War, during which his friend, the great Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, was murdered, had a profound influence on his writing and his political activities.

He joined the Republican movement, first in Spain and then in France. In 1939, he was appointed Chilean consul in Paris, and from there, he coordinated the emigration to Chile of as many as 2,000 Spanish Republicans who had first escaped to France.

In 1943 he returned to Chile, then joined the protest against President Gabriel Gonzalez Videla's repressive actions against striking miners. In 1945, he became a senator and joined the Communist Party. The government soon expelled him, and from 1947 to 1949 he lived in hiding.

In January 1948, Neruda delivered one of the most passionate speeches on Chile's political history: He read out the names of 628 people being detained at Pisagua concentration camp without having been interrogated or formally charged. That speech became known as "Yo Acuso (I accuse)," after French novelist Emile Zola's 1898 denunciation of the French government's treatment of Alfred Dreyfus. In 1949, he fled to Europe.

Neruda's greatest poetic achievements were fueled by his political beliefs. In his epic work "Canto General (General Song)," published in 1950, Neruda celebrates the richness and beauty of Latin America, and the people's struggle for peace and social justice. Part of the work is the poem "Alturas of Macchu Picchu (Heights of Macchu Picchu)," a celebration of pre-Columbian civilization.

He lived in Europe for three years and returned to Chile in 1952, whence he continued traveling extensively overseas. He visited the United States in 1966 and in 1971 was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, which he received after being stricken with cancer.

When Salvador Allende was elected president of Chile in 1970, he appointed Neruda as Chile's ambassador to France, where he lived from 1970 to 1972. In 1973, he returned to Chile, but in September of that year, Augusto Pinochet, with help from the CIA, overthrew Allende's government.

Neruda's life, I firmly believe, was shattered by Pinochet's coup and Allende's suicide. Neruda died only 12 days later. Shortly before his death, his house was ransacked by a military unit. When he saw the commander of the unit, weapon in hand in his bedroom, Neruda, who could hardly speak, told him, "There is only one dangerous thing for you in this house — poetry."

Officially, Neruda died of leukemia. Most probably, though, this man, the saddest of men after the death of his friend Salvador Allende and the defeat of democracy in Chile, died of a broken heart.

Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant for several United Nations agencies and co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

“Using children in conflict is a heinous crime and destroys the very fabric of society,” the American actress Angelina Jolie declared in The Hague at the trial of Thomas Lubanga. Lubanga is a Congolese militia leader accused of using children, both boys and girls, during the five-year civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

One of the tragic consequences of war is the forced participation of girls as soldiers. In Sudan, as well as in many other conflicts throughout the world, girls (sometimes as young as 13) are unwilling warriors or soldiers' sexual partners. It has been estimated that between 1990 and 2003, girls have been part of military and paramilitary groups in 55 countries and have participated in armed conflict in 38 of those countries. Presently, more than 120,000 girls are participating in armed conflicts worldwide.

“In war, these little soldiers work by killing and above all by dying. They make up half the victims of recent African wars,” says Eduardo Galeano, the Uruguayan political writer talking about child soldiers. If the fate of both boys and girls is tragic, girl soldiers suffer additional indignities, an issue that remains to be solved.

Jasmine, a 16 year-old young woman with a four month old baby explains the process of incorporating girls into armed groups in the DRC. In a testimony to Amnesty International she declared, “When the mayi-mayi (community-based militia groups in the DRC) attacked my village, we all ran away. In our flight, the soldiers captured all the girls, even the very young. Once with the soldiers, you were forced to marry one of the soldiers. Whether he was as old as your father or young, bad or nice, you had to accept. If you refused, they would kill you. This happened to one of my friends. They would slaughter people like chickens. They wouldn’t even bury the bodies they slaughtered – they would even feed on their flesh. I even saw a girl who refused to be ‘married’ being tortured.”

Although in some cases girls voluntarily become soldiers, in most cases they are abducted and obliged to participate in combat operations, forced into sexual relations with commanders or fellow soldiers or required to perform other duties off the front lines, but equally as abusive, such as planting landmines, acting as spies or carrying heavy loads. As a result of rape and other forms of sexual abuse, they may acquire sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, which are particularly frequent among men from both government forces and rebel groups.

A study by the Canadian human rights organization Rights and Democracy found that 30 percent of the girls in three countries studied (Mozambique, Northern Uganda and Sierra Leone) became pregnant during their stay in the armed forces. Many among them were stigmatized because they had been raped and later had serious difficulties in trying to reintegrate into their communities and care for their babies – often unwanted – born of rape.

Why do some girls voluntarily become soldiers in spite of the obvious dangers involved? They may do it because of lack of other options for survival or for the perceived benefit it might provide to them – protection from ill treatment, to escape situations of domestic abuse or in search of food and clothing. Former girl soldiers who have escaped or been released have explained that the lack of opportunities in their future, such as access to education or means of earning a livelihood led them to join without knowing the harsh consequences it would entail. Other girls may do it to seek revenge against armed forces or groups which have attacked their families and communities or to gain a sense of power. In some cases, girls who became "wives" of commanders are sometimes in charge of organizing raids or spying missions on enemy forces.

Sexual violence is a major concern in Darfur, where children as young as six-years-old are raped by soldiers which witnesses identify as belonging to government forces, according to the United Nations. In addition, high incidence of rapes and sexual violence against children continues in Burundi, Central African Republic, Cote D'Ivoire, DRC, Haiti, Chad, Darfur, Uganda and other situations of concern.

Forced recruitment of children and sexual violence against them is not limited to Africa. Children have suffered similar fates in armed conflicts in Nepal, Burma, Colombia, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. For example, in Sri Lanka, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) recruited thousands of boys and girls into their ranks during the course of past two decades.

Beginning in the mid 2000’s the TMVP, a breakaway faction of the LTTE, also increased its recruitment of children with the alleged complicity of certain elements of the Government Security Forces. Although the LTTE reduced its recruitment of children in 2008, according to UNICEF, during the hostilities in northern Sri Lanka in the first part of 2009, reports of LTTE recruitment of boys and girls resurfaced. Today, top UN officials are calling for an inquiry into atrocities committed by both sides during the 2009 fighting; this must include the use and recruitment of children.

Girls don't have the choice of freely leaving the groups with whom they are associated. Those who try to leave may be recaptured and punished. They thus have to deal with a double threat: recrimination and punishment from the armed group or discrimination and ostracism from the community if they do manage to return home. Some girls who return home pregnant or with a child are made to feel that they bring "dishonor" to the family.

Reintegration into society can be more difficult for girls than for boys, as they generally carry the stigma of having been sexually abused. In addition, girls may be left with some other consequences aside from sexually transmitted infections, such as chronic physical and mental disabilities or the need to look after babies conceived during forced service. The stigma is not limited to the child mothers but also extends to their children who frequently experience the same kind of rejection as their young mothers.

Because the participation of girls in conflict has been largely ignored, there are few programs that address their unique needs related to their demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration back into society. In many cases, shunned by their families and communities, they end up working as prostitutes or doing menial work when conflicts end. Girl soldiers, despite the disadvantages of having participated in war, in many cases are extremely resilient and have develop special skills that could be used in post-conflict settings for their re-integration into society. When provided the right opportunities, many of these girls have proven themselves to be productive and capable people who can ultimately contribute to pulling their societies out of the cycle of war.

The practice of using girls as soldiers continues unabated. Because of women's perceived role in society, after their participation in armed conflicts they have more limited options than boys, both in terms of marriage and work prospects. Frequently, former girl soldiers state that they want to receive education once they return home so they can become productive members of society. As Julia Freedson, Director of Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, an organization working to end violations against children told me in New York, “When provided the right opportunities, many of these girls have proven themselves to be productive and capable people who can ultimately contribute to pulling their societies out of the cycle of war.”

It is important to strengthen monitoring and reporting of forced participation of girls as soldiers, as well as other violations against them. This is needed in order to hold perpetrators accountable and to work towards release of children from fighting forces. Preventive measures are also important to eliminate abuse of girls, such as massive education campaigns calling attention to the phenomenon and its serious consequences. In addition, it is necessary to increase the number of and quality of rehabilitation and reintegration programs that specifically respond to former girl soldiers' needs. These are costly enterprises, but ones that will allow girls to become the framers of their own future.

César Chelala, an international public health consultant, is the author of the Pan American Health Organization publication "Adolescents’ health in the Americas."

As if rigged elections were not enough, the new Iranian government has compounded its breach of the law by the systematic abuse of Iranians taken prisoner after the June 12 presidential election. Nobody in Iran is immune to the government’s brutality. Only a strict following of the law, the punishment of those guilty and the release of those whose only crime was to protest the recent election results will bring the government the international respect it so desperately seeks.

The accounts of prisoners’ abuse by their relatives and on opposition websites have provoked outrage not only among Mr. Mousavi (the opposition candidate) supporters but even among some prominent conservative clerics, some of whom have relatives who have been brutally tortured by the Iranian police.

Recently, the government released 140 prisoners, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged the judiciary to show “Islamic mercy” to the detainees, and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, personally intervened and ordered the closing of a notorious detention center. The government actions can only be described as “cosmetic” gestures aimed more to appease the growing opposition to its tactics than to restore a respect for the law since abuse continues in an unending dragnet of brutality.

The critical point that galvanized and widened the opposition was the case of Mohsen Ruholamini, son of an adviser to the conservative presidential candidate Mohsen Rezai. Mr Ruholamini died in prison after being severely beaten by the Iranian police. His death comes shortly after the death of Neda Agha-Soltan , whose death during a demonstration against the government sparked protests around the globe and made of her an iconic figure in Iran.

Mr. Mousavvi reacted with predictable anger at these abuses. “They cannot turn this nation into a prison of 70 million people,” he said. Senior clerics have joined in the protests, indicating that if the government continues to tolerate such abuses, the future of Iran’s theocracy was in danger.

Torture to prisoners is not new to Iran’s government. In 2007 alone, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, sent 24 joint communications and one urgent appeal describing human rights abuses. The Iranian authorities denied any allegations of torture and responded that fair trials had been conducted in all cases.

Despite the government denials, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has verified several reports of systematic torture and abuse of opponents after the recent presidential elections. There are also allegations of the rape of prisoners, which are particular serious abuses in a traditional society such as Iran, aimed at humiliating and dehumanizing prisoners. According to this organization, the widespread, planned and systematic nature of these crimes since the June 12 elections could be raising to the level of crimes against humanity under international law.

On August 9, 2009, Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, Iran’s police chief, acknowledged that protesters were beaten by their jailers at Kahrizak detention center, but blamed an outbreak of disease for their deaths. The police chief’s explanation was flatly denied by several conservative clerics. In addition, Iran’s Prosecutor General Ghorban Ali Dorri Najafabadi, called that those responsible for mistreating prisoners be tried and punished.

There have been reports of family members finding “hundreds of corpses” in a Tehran morgue. The police denied them to retrieve the bodies of their relatives unless they certified that the deaths were due to natural causes.

Iranian lawyer and Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi urged Iran’s government to release those citizens accused of involvement in the country’s post-election unrest, and so did other Nobel laureates such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mairead Maguire and Jody Williams.

If the Iranian government continues to ignore these calls to justice and freedom for those unjustly detained, it will justify the role of “pariah” government among civilized nations that they so strenuously reject.

Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award, is the foreign correspondent for the Middle East Times International (Australia).

As the health care discussion has gathered momentum in the U.S., there is increasing evidence of the role played by corporations and politicians to hinder provision of adequate health care to the majority of Americans. The result is that the U.S. has one of the worst health care systems among industrialized nations.

Studies carried out by the World Health Organization and the Commonwealth Fund in New York show that the U.S. health care system overall performance ranked 37th among the countries included in their analysis.

The Commonwealth Fund study, released in 2007, entitled “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: An International Update on the Comparative Performance of American Health Care,” found that not only is the U.S. health care system the most expensive in the world, but comes in dead last in almost any measure of performance.

The Commonwealth study compared the health system in the U.S. and that of Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Although the most evident way in which the United States differs from the other countries is in the absence of universal coverage, the U.S. is also last in terms of access, patient safety, efficiency and equity.

Compared to the other countries studied, the U.S. lags behind in the adoption of information technology and other national policies that promote quality improvement. In countries such as New Zealand, Germany and the United Kingdom, up-to-date information systems enhance physicians’ ability to monitor chronic conditions and medication use. At the same time, the U.S. pays a higher percentage of health dollars for administration than any other nation.

The U.S. is behind all industrialized nations in terms of health coverage. Almost 47 million Americans lack health insurance coverage, which represents more people than the entire population of Canada. As pointed out by Wendell Potter, a former health insurance executive, if this number includes all those that are underinsured, that represents more people than those living in the United Kingdom. According to the Children’s Health Fund, 9 million children are uninsured in the U.S., while another 23.7 million –nearly 30 percent of the nation’s children- lack regular access to health care.

There are several ways corporations pressure politicians not to support health care plans that benefit the majority of the population. As Wendell Potter stated during an interview with Bill Moyers, “By running ads, commercials in your home district when you are running for reelection, not contributing to your campaigns again, or contributing to your competitor...”

In addition, Potter described how a Republican strategist suggested the use of phrases such as “government takeover,” “delayed care is denied care,” “consequences of rationing,” “bureaucrats, not doctors prescribing medicine,” which despite being evidently untruthful were faithfully parroted by politicians opposing health care for all.

Through several mechanisms insurance companies deny coverage to people so as to increase their profits. As Potter explained in a testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation last June, among those mechanisms are ‘rescission’ and ‘dumping’. If a sick policy holder omits a minor illness or a pre-existing condition when applying for coverage the insurance company use this as a justification to cancel (rescind) the policy.

In addition, insurance companies dump those businesses whose employees’ medical claims exceed what insurance underwriters estimated. What makes the situation particularly serious is that once an insurer dumps a business, that business has no other viable options because of widespread industry consolidation.

Lack of coverage seriously affects the health of the uninsured because they receive less preventive care, are diagnosed at a later disease stage, tend to receive less quality care and have higher mortality rates than those insured.

This is a crucial moment to solve one of the most savage inequities conspiring against people’s health and well being in America. Both individuals and businesses, particularly small businesses, are at the mercy of powerful corporations’ interests. Unless those interests are curbed, people’s health will continue to be a victim of corporations’ predatory appetite.

Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, is a public health consultant for several international agencies.

A new set of revelations by soldiers who participated in the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) operation in Gaza offers a disturbing picture of the actions carried out in that territory. Testimony regarding their conduct in Gaza by Breaking the Silence, an organization of Israeli soldiers, confirms previous denunciations by human rights organizations and signals that urgent attention must be paid to the economic and medical needs of a repeatedly abused civilian population.

Operation "Cast Lead" was initiated December 27, 2008 and ended January 18, 2009. Over 1400 Palestinians were killed, 900 of them civilians (65%), including 300 hundred children (22%). Extensive areas of Gaza were razed to the ground and thousands of people were left homeless, even months after the operation ended. The economy of Gaza was all but destroyed.

"Much of the destruction was wanton and resulted from direct attacks on civilian objects as well as indiscriminate attacks that failed to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilian objects. Such attacks violated fundamental provisions of international humanitarian law, notably the prohibition on direct attacks that failed to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilian objects (the principle of distinction), the prohibition on indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, and the prohibition on collective punishment," states Amnesty International in its July 2009 report entitled "Operation ‘Cast Lead': 22 days of death and destruction."

Among the tactics used by the Israeli military was the repeated firing of white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas of Gaza. White phosphorus ignites and burns when it enters into contact with oxygen up to 1500 degrees Fahrenheit (816 degrees Celsius) until nothing is left or there is no longer any oxygen. Severe and persistent skin burns can be produced, and even burns on less than 10% of the body can be fatal because of damage to the liver, kidneys and heart.

The IDF claims it only used white phosphorus as a smokescreen. However, if the IDF intended it as such, it had a readily available non-lethal alternative -smoke shells produced by an Israeli company, concluded Human Rights Watch (HRW). In addition, HRW stated that the IDF had deliberately or recklessly used white phosphorus munitions in violation of the laws of war.

There has been a persistent effort by several actors to deny Palestinians in Gaza their basic humanity and needs. "Gaza is an example of a society that has been deliberately reduced to a state of abject destitution, its once productive population transformed into one of aid-dependent paupers. This context is undeniably one of mass suffering, created largely by Israel but with the active complicity of the international community, especially the US and the European Union, and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank," states American political scientist and scholar Sara Roy, writing for The Harvard Crimson.

Israeli forces frequently obstructed access to medical care and basic humanitarian aid for those Palestinians who were wounded and trapped. In addition, states Amnesty International, "Israeli soldiers used civilians -including children- as "human shields, endangering their lives by forcing them to remain in or near houses which they took over and used as military positions."

Amnesty International reported that hundreds of civilians were killed in attacks carried out using high-precision weapons -air-delivered bombs and missiles, and tank shells. Others, including women and children, were shot at short range even when they were posing no threat to the lives of Israeli soldiers.

An infant aged 6 months, Nancy Sa'di Wakid, was the youngest Palestinian killed in Gaza. She died as a result of inhaled gas from phosphoric bombs dropped by the Israeli army. A poem by Jane Kenyon entitled Sandy Hole is a painful reminder of her untimely death,

The infant's coffin no bigger than a flightbag....
The young father steps backward from the sandy hole,
Eyes wide and dry, his hand over his mouth.
No one dares to come near him, even to touch his sleeve.

"The IDF is one of the world's most moral armies and operates according to the highest moral code," stated at the time Ehud Barak, Israel's Defense Minister. Uri Avnery, a former Israeli soldier and a leading Israeli human rights activist offers an alternative opinion, "Only one conclusion can be drawn from this: from now on, any Israeli decision to start a war in a built-up area is a war crime, and the soldiers who rise up against this crime should be honored. May they be blessed."

César Chelala, MD, PhD, is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award. He is also the foreign correspondent for Middle East Times International (Australia).

Parallel to the economic revolution in China is a sexual revolution, particularly among youth, which is having far-reaching consequences on their health and quality of life. Since feudal times, sex has been a taboo subject in China. Even today, despite progress in many areas, many Chinese, especially the older generations, consider sex shameful or dirty and refuse to talk about it. Young people's opinions differ greatly from those of their parents. At the same time, boys and girls are becoming sexually mature at a younger age.

An increasing number of Chinese adolescents are engaging in premarital and unprotected sexual activity. As a result, unwanted pregnancies, abortions and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, are on the rise. China is now in the early stages of a major HIV/AIDS epidemic.

It is estimated that more than 240 million people in China are between 15 and 24, and that some 20 million more people enter adolescence every year. Such a significant segment of the population needs to be informed about sexual matters. A survey conducted by the State Family Planning Commission among 7,000 people, ages 15 to 49, found that 89.2 percent of respondents in cities and 74.6 percent in the countryside agreed that high schools should offer sex education courses. Yet, only in recent years have the first textbooks on sex education been published and distributed in schools.

Not only is the rate of underage pregnancies growing, but the age at which adolescents become pregnant is declining. In some hospitals, up to 40 percent of those receiving abortions are unmarried mothers.

Worldwide, an estimated 14 million adolescent girls give birth every year, while about 4.4 million girls have abortions. The 2001 edition of the Almanac of China's Health reports that approximately 10 million induced abortions are performed annually in China -- with 20 to 30 percent done on unmarried young women.

Under Chinese law, a parent or guardian must approve an abortion performed on a girl of 18 or younger. Thus many pregnant girls who fear their family's reaction go to back-street abortionists or quacks that may endanger a girl's life.

Some risk factors increase the probability of adolescent pregnancy, such as familial instability, the adolescent pregnancy of a sister, a mother with a history of adolescent pregnancy, pressure from friends, low socio-economic status, ignorance of one's own physiology and the use of contraception, poor communication with parents and a lack of discussion of sexual problems.

Unwanted pregnancy in adolescents can have devastating effects because it delays or halts an adolescent's personal development. There is loss of autonomy and more dependence on parents. Group relations are interrupted since pregnant adolescents cannot continue their normal activities at school or work.

In addition to abortions following unwanted pregnancies, forced abortions are still practiced in China, despite its having been prohibited by the central government in Beijing, as a way of enforcing the government’s one-child policy.

Education continues to be one of the most powerful ways to teach young how to develop an optimal state of physical and mental health. To be effective, educational materials about sexual issues must be reviewed periodically and their message adapted to the various social and cultural groups they address.

Because sex has been a taboo subject for so long in Chinese society, some parents themselves should be educated not only about sexual topics but also on how to maintain a productive dialogue with their children and how to keep the communication channels open with them.

At the same time, the mass media could help remove the taboo regarding adolescent sexuality by helping to redefine social norms and modifying attitudes. There should be constant discussion among parents, teachers, and health and social workers in programs that involve adolescents’ well being.

Cesar Chelala, M.D., Ph.D., is the author of the Pan American Health Organization publication Health of Adolescents and Youth in the Americas.

The Obama administration should release Guantánamo Bay inmates or try them in a court of law, said Navanethem Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. Her statement follows President Obama’s remarks last May indicating that some Guantánamo detainees were too dangerous to be released and might have to be held indefinitely. The High Commissioner’s comments represent the most serious challenge to President Obama’s decision to limit investigation into past abuses and to continue to hold some Guantánamo detainees without trial.

“The Obama administration has taken aggressive action on this issue from day one, upholding our nation’s fundamental values while making the American people safer,” responded Mark Kornblau, a spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, underscoring the administration stand on human rights. But, according to Ms. Pillay, “There is still much to do before the Guantánamo chapter is truly brought to a close.”

The fate of the Guantánamo detainees is one of the most contentious legal issues facing the Obama administration. In 2003, The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) revealed its concern about the negative psychological impact that indefinite detentions were having on a large number of prisoners at Guantánamo, and on their families.

Although the detainees are entitled to judicial review, only a handful of them have received a hearing on the merits of their case. As Amnesty International has indicated,one year after the US Supreme Court ruled that the detainees were entitled to a prompt habeas corpus hearing to challenge the lawfulness of their detention, only a handful of them have received a hearing on the merits of their challenges. In addition, indefinite detention has continued even when judges have ordered the immediate release of detainees after such hearings.

When President Obama took office on 20 January 2009, there were approximately 245 men held at Guantánamo. Of those, about 200 had habeas corpus petitions pending in District Court. From inauguration day to early April 2009, only one detainee was released from Guantánamo, and the rest remained in indefinite detention at that facility.

The Obama administration has aptly rejected the term “war on terror” for US counterterrorism efforts, and has also stopped the use of the term “enemy combatant” in the Guantánamo detainee litigation process. However, as Amnesty International points out, “…it [the Obama administration] does not yet seem to be rejecting the substance of the insidious global war framework developed by its predecessor and, like the latter, is citing the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), a broadly worded congressional resolution passed after the attacks of 11 September 2001, as the basis for detentions.

According to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), “Anyone whose rights have been violated must be able to seek effective remedy, including through the courts.” This principle is violated by the continuing delay faced by the Guantánamo detainees in having effective and timely access to judicial review.

Several legal and human rights organizations have seriously questioned the US government decision to keep Guantánamo detainees without charge or trial, and call that each detainee be either charged with a recognizable criminal offense for proper trial in existing federal courts or be immediately released.

As stated by the UN Human Rights Committee in its General Comment 29, Even when confronting situations that threaten the life of the nation, “in order to protect non-derogable rights, the right to take proceedings before a court to enable the court to decide without delay on the lawfulness of detention, must not be diminished.”

As Ms. Pillay has stated, “Signals coming from America reverberate around the world. Sending the right ones is the responsibility of power.” The correct decisions on the fate of the Guantánamo detainees are an important test of the Obama’s administration intention to follow the rule of law in this controversial issue.

Several myths regarding Iran stand in the way of reaching a peaceful relationship with that country. Much of the concern that Iran may attack Israel, if it successfully develops nuclear weapons, rests on the avowed statement by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that “Israel must be wiped off the map.”

However, Juan Cole, a University of Michigan Professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History stated that, “Ahmadinejad did not say he was going to ‘wipe Israel off the map’ because no such idiom exists in Persian. Instead, he did say ‘He hoped [Israel’s] regime, a Jewish-Zionist state occupying Jerusalem, would collapse.’”

This is consistent with statements by Iran’s foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki. Speaking at a news conference, he denied that Tehran wanted to see Israel “wiped off the map.” “Nobody can remove a country from the map. How is it possible to remove a country from the map? He was talking about the regime,” Mottaki said.

“There is a huge chasm between the correct and the incorrect translations,” says Shiraz Dossa, a professor of Political Science at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada. “The notion that Iran can ‘wipe out’ U.S.-backed, nuclear armed Israel is ludicrous.”

During an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos last April, Ahmadinejad declared that the Islamic Republic of Iran would recognize the State of Israel if the Palestinians signed a two-state peace deal with Israel. Exactly a month later Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded, “If Israel does not eliminate the Iranian threat, no one will.”

It has been stated repeatedly that an aggressive Iranian government represents a danger for the region and for the U.S. Facts, however, do not substantiate such an interpretation. More frequently than not, Iran has been the recipient of aggressive actions, particularly by the U.S.

Iranians cannot forget that it was foreign intervention, particularly by the British and the U.S. that destroyed democracy in Iran, whose consequences they suffer until today. In 1953, actions by the CIA were instrumental in overthrowing the democratically elected government of Iran’s Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.

In 1988, the U.S.S. Vincennes shot down an Iranian civilian airliner over the Strait of Hormuz toward the end of the Iran-Iraq war. Two hundred ninety passengers were killed, including 66 children, ranking it the seventh among the deadliest airliner fatalities. According to the U.S. government, the Vincennes crew misidentified the Iranian Airbus A300 as an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter.

Although a settlement was reached between Iran and U.S., then Vice-President George H.W. Bush stated, “I will never apologize for the United States of America, ever. I don’t care what it has done. I don’t care what the facts are.” The Vincennes captain received the Legion of Merit, and the crew was awarded Combat Action Ribbons.

The U.S. staunchly supported the Shah of Iran’s regime, despite its brutal repression of the Iranian people. According to Stephen Kinzer, author of All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup And The Roots of Middle East Terror, fears by the Iranians of more U.S. intervention in the internal affairs of their country led to their taking American diplomats as hostages.

During the Iraq/Iran war from 1980 to 1988 the U.S. supported Saddam Hussein, even though Iraq initiated the war and the U.S. had knowledge of his regime’s use of chemical weapons.

Both the U.S. and Israel have repeatedly threatened military action against Tehran, in flagrant violation of the UN Charter whose Article 2 states, “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.”

Although fear of aggression by Iran has been often cited as a justification for war against that country, an ad hoc group of Israeli academicians and peace activists issued an statement on August 6, 2008 that says, “…it is clear that the main source of the immediate danger of a new, widespread war stems from the policies of the Israeli government and the flow of threats from it, backed by provocative military maneuvers. After serious consideration, we reiterate our position that all the arguments for such an attack are without any security, political or moral justification.”

Iran’s intention to develop nuclear weapons has also been given as a justification for an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites. However, speaking at the World Economic Forum in May of 2008, Dr. Mohammad ElBaradei, a Nobel peace laureate and head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stated, “We haven’t seen indications or any concrete evidence that Iran is building a nuclear weapon and I’ve been saying that consistently for the last five years.”

Developing a civilian nuclear program is Iran’s inalienable right and, if some predictions are true, it may also become a need in the near future. There are indications that Iran’s oil resources are fast depleting and Iran may become a net importer of oil a decade from now, according to the Campaign against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII).

Writing in the Jerusalem Post, Douglas Bloomfield quotes Keith Weissman, the former Iran expert at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as saying that although Israel’s worries about Iran getting a nuclear weapon are understandable, the Iranian leaders “are not fanatics and they are not suicidal. They know that Israel could make Iran glow for many years.”

As President Barack Obama has repeatedly stated, diplomacy should be pursued in dealing with the Iranian government. Such an approach should include security assurances to the Iranian government that it will not be attacked and putting a stop to US efforts to undermine that country’s leadership. A linguistic equivalent to the Gulf of Tonkin incident should not be the excuse for attacking Iran and unleashing chaos in the region, if not in the whole world.

Cesar Chelala, a foreign correspondent for the Middle East Times International (Australia), writes extensively on human rights issues.

"We are going to smash your hands to pulp like the Chileans did to Victor Jara." Those were the words of the torturers in a Uruguayan prison spoken to my friend Miguel Angel Estrella, a pianist from Argentina. They were referring to the fate of the imprisoned Chilean singer and guitarist Victor Jara, whose hands were destroyed so that he would never play the guitar again. Jara, a fervent opponent of the Pinochet regime, was brutally tortured and later machine-gunned to death following the coup that brought Pinochet to power in 1973.

Estrella was being held in Uruguay's Libertad prison, accused of being a guerrilla from Argentina fighting the Argentine military regime. Unable to prove the charges against him, and given the unprecedented international pressure, the Uruguayan government released him in 1978 after having kidnapped him at the end of 1977.

Estrella was luckier than most of those imprisoned by the South American military. Although tortured and held for a long time in isolation, Estrella eventually recovered, leads a brilliant career as a musician, and is now Argentina's ambassador to UNESCO.

One of those who trained the Uruguayan torturers was an American operative, Daniel (Dan) Mitrione, who was later captured and killed by Uruguayan guerrillas. According to A.J. Langguth, a former New York Times bureau chief in Saigon, Mitrione was among the U.S. advisers who taught torture to the Brazilian police.

Mitrione's method for the application of torture was carefully orchestrated. Langguth reports that the method was described in detail in a book by Manuel Hevia "Cosculluela," a Cuban double agent who worked for the CIA, "Passport 11333, Eight Years with the CIA."

This is Mitrione's voice: "When you receive a subject, the first thing to do is to determine his physical state, his degree of resistance, through a medical examination. A premature death means a failure by the technician. Another important thing to know is exactly how far you can go given the political situation and the personality of the prisoner. It is very important to know beforehand whether we have the luxury of letting the subject die . . . before all else, you must be efficient. You must cause only the damage that is strictly necessary, not a bit more. We must control our tempers in any case. You have to act with the efficiency and cleanliness of a surgeon and with the perfection of an artist . . ."

In Uruguay, Mitrione was the head of the Office of Public Safety, a U.S. government agency established in 1957 by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to train foreign police forces. At Mitrione's funeral, Ron Ziegler, the Nixon administration's spokesman, stated that Mitrione's "devoted service to the cause of peaceful progress in an orderly world will remain as an example for free men everywhere." Thanks to former U.S. Sen. James Abourezk's efforts, the policy advisory program was abolished in 1974.

Mitrione's case was far from unique. Through the School of the Americas, thousands of military and police officers from Latin America were trained in repressive methods, including torture. On Nov. 16, 1989, six Jesuit priests, a coworker and her teenage daughter were massacred in El Salvador. I knew one of those killed, Ignacio Martin-Baro, vice rector of the Central American University. He was the closest I have ever been to a saint.

A U.S. Congressional Task Force concluded that those responsible for their deaths were trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Human beings make culture. And we also make torture, that bastard child of culture. It is up to us to change this situation. When running for president, Barack Obama stated, referring to the Iraq war, "It is not enough to get out of Iraq; we have to get out of the mind-set that led us into Iraq."

A similar assertion could be made about torture. It is not enough to say that torture will not be practiced any longer by the U.S. We need to get out of the mind-set that made torture possible in the first place.

Cesar Chelala, a writer on human rights issues, is a cowinner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

For over two decades several projects have been carried out between conflicting sides in several regions around the world that have improved public health as a common denominator in the search for peace. Although these initiatives will not by themselves achieve peace, they have become significant points of contact between conflicting parties. They have benefited thousands of people and increased understanding between them, and showed that sustained cooperation can be achieved despite violent disputes and a hostile political atmosphere.

The recent talks between President Barack Obama and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu underscore the importance of promoting peace efforts at all levels between Israelis and Palestinians. For example, since its founding in 1988, the Association of Israeli-Palestinian Physicians for Human Rights brought together Israeli and Palestinian health professionals. Following the signing of the Oslo agreement in 1993, a new set of players –aside from NGOs and human rights groups- came into action between 1993 and 1997, focusing their activities on developing and providing health services to the Palestinian people.

In 1995, following an invitation of the late King Hussein of Jordan to officials at the Canada International Scientific Exchange Program (CISEPO), several actions were carried out to foster collaboration between Arab and Israeli doctors. The high incidence of hearing loss shared by Jordanians and Israelis was the basis of a project to provide auditory tests and improve hearing among infants.

Since then, there have been many scholarly exchanges between Canada, Israel and Jordan, many Israeli-Palestinian publications were created, and several scientific symposiums have been carried out. To date, more than 145,000 infants have been screened and treated for hearing loss and their hearing has considerably improved. In addition, the program has expanded to youth health promotion, maternal nutrition and management of infectious diseases.

In December of 2004, the first issue of the magazine bridges was launched under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO.) The magazine has contributions from both Israeli and Palestinian health experts, and is another example of the value of building bridges of understanding between Israelis and Palestinians.

Under the leadership of Dr. Mary-Claire King, who identified the first breast-cancer gene, scientists from Tel Aviv, Bethlehem and Seattle teamed up to find the cause of deafness, and have found several genes responsible for hearing loss. They were able to do that despite the obstacles posed by the shutting down of university facilities, blocked shipments and other inconveniences.

Those are just a few examples of what up to now is a very active collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli doctors and health workers. Despite their obvious value, these activities are not universally supported. In 2005, medical and health service providers and members of research and training institutions working in the Occupied Palestinian Territory strongly objected to what they consider is strong pressure to enter into Palestinian-Israeli cooperation in the health area.

According to them, a political agenda is the driving force in what they consider is a forced cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians. In addition, they don’t think that Israeli-Palestinian collaboration in the academic, scientific and professional spheres can truly contribute to reconciliation as long as justice for Palestinians has not been achieved.

Although there is some validity to their position peace will not be achieved overnight. It is only through some incremental steps that reconciliation between both peoples will take place. As former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin stated when awarding a UNESCO peace prize, “Peace will be built slowly, day by day, through modest deeds and countless spontaneous details. It will be built, step by step, by people.”

There is no better way to do it than through collaboration in the public health area on issues of common interest. The better health of thousands of women, men and children is a living testimony of the effectiveness of such approach. In a region plagued by lack of confidence and trust, health is the best antidote to war.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant and a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

The Nuremberg Principles, a set of guidelines established after World War II to try Nazi party members, were developed to determine what constitutes a war crime. The principles could also be applied today, when judging the conditions that led to the Iraq war and in the process to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, many of them children, and to the devastation of a country’s infrastructure.

In January of 2003, a group of U.S law professors warned President George W. Bush that he and senior officials of his government could be prosecuted for war crimes if military tactics violated international humanitarian law. The group, led by the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, sent similar warnings to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

Although Washington is not part of the International Criminal Court (ICC), U.S. officials could be prosecuted in other countries under the Geneva Convention, indicated Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Ratner likened the situation to the attempted prosecution by a Spanish magistrate, Baltazar Garzón, of the Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet, who was held under house arrest in London.

Both former President George W. Bush and senior officials in his government could be tried for being responsible for torture and other war crimes under the Geneva Conventions. In addition, should Nuremberg principles be followed by an investigating tribunal, former President Bush and other senior officials in his administration could also be tried for violation of fundamental Nuremberg principles. In 2007, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, told The Sunday Telegraph that he could envisage a scenario in which both British Prime Minister Tony Blair and then President George W. Bush could face charges at The Hague.

Perhaps one of the most serious breaches of international law by the Bush administration is the doctrine of “preventive war.” In the case of the Iraq war, it was carried out without authorization from the U.N. Security Council in violation of the U.N. Charter, which forbids armed aggression and violations of the sovereignty of any state by any other state, except in immediate self-defense.

As stated in the U.S. Constitution, international treaties agreed to by the United States are part of the “supreme law of the land.” “Launching a war of aggression is a crime and no political or economic situation can justify it,” stated Justice Jackson, the Chief U.S. Nuremberg Tribunal Prosecutor. And Benjamin Ferencz, also a former chief prosecutor of the Nuremberg Trials declared, “a prime facie case can be made that the United States is guilty of the supreme crime against humanity, that being an illegal war of aggression against a sovereign nation.”

The conduct and the consequences of the Iraq war are part of the Crimes against Peace and War crimes stated in Nuremberg Principle VI which defines as crimes against peace, (i) Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances; (ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned under (i).

In the section on war crimes, Nuremberg Principle VI includes, “…murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property.” The criminal abuse of prisoners in U.S. military prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo are clear evidence of ill-treatment and even murder of prisoners. According to the organization Human Rights First, at least 100 detainees have died while in the hands of U.S. officials in the global “war on terror,” eight of whom were tortured to death.

As for the plunder of public or private property, there is evidence that even before the war started, members of the Bush administration had already drawn plans to privatize and sell Iraqi property, particularly oil.

Although there are obvious hindrances to trying a former US president and his associates, such a trial is fully justified by legal precedents, in particular the Nuremberg Principles, as well as by the extent of human lives lost and the breach of international law it has produced.

Cesar Chelala, a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award, writes extensively on human rights issues.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, by 2010 sub-Saharan Africa will have suffered 71 million deaths from AIDS. By comparison, the bubonic plague of the Middle Ages killed some 30 million people. These are staggering figures, particularly if one considers that deaths from AIDS are only one of the problems affecting African women and children.
Experts at the United Nations warn that most sub-Saharan countries will be unable to reach the Millennium health goals related for 2015, particularly those related to improved health for mothers and children.

Solving Africans' health and development problems need more than statements of good intention, promises of aid (often empty) or movie stars' adoption of African children. Yet, many diseases affecting children and adults can be addressed with minimum resources if they are used strategically.

Childhood malnutrition is a critical issue. Almost 60 percent of deaths of children under 5 in developing countries are due to malnutrition and its effects — such as greater mortality from infectious diseases. Malnourished children are up to 12 times more likely to die from easily preventable infectious diseases (such as measles, malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia) than are well-nourished children.

It is estimated that African women are 10 to 100 times more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth than women in industrialized countries. Most of these deaths and disabilities are caused by delays in recognizing complications, difficulties in reaching a medical facility and lack of adequate medical care. Skilled health workers are vital in addressing these challenges but their numbers are pitifully low.

Malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis continue to be major threats facing both children and adults. Recent experiences in Africa and Latin America show that malaria can be controlled without use of DDT, an important new approach to dealing with this disease. It can be done through rapid-case detection and drug treatment, as well as through prevention efforts at a community level emphasizing the use of insecticide-impregnated bed nets, sanitation measures to eliminate vector breeding sites and use of chemical substitutes for spraying houses.

Recent studies have shown that HIV treatment is "failing" in many African countries. The rates of failure vary depending on the program and the country under consideration. Treatment failure in many patients is due to their starting to take medication too late in the course of the infection. Other patients have problems in accessing the drugs, either because they are too poor or live too far away from the health center providing the medication.

Throughout Africa, the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS is one of the main barriers in dealing successfully with that infection, both in terms of prevention and treatment.
Education, public health campaigns and the active participation of members of the clergy have contributed in many areas to overcoming the stigma but much remains to be done and progress is slow.

HIV/AIDS has also had a significant though rarely discussed effect on the education sector. In sub-Saharan Africa, the HIV/AIDS pandemic is killing teachers at a rate faster than replacements can be trained. Another effect of the pandemic is teacher absenteeism, loss of educators, planners and management personnel. It is estimated that close to 30 percent of South Africa's teachers are HIV positive, a higher rate than among the general population.

According to statistics from Zambia's education ministry, every day one teacher dies from an AIDS-related disease. This is the equivalent of the closure of one school per week due to loss of teachers.

In Africa's rural areas, not only are health services and infrastructure inadequate but there also is a lack of properly trained medical personnel. To compound the problem, there is an exodus of trained personnel to higher paying jobs in industrialized countries.

It is estimated that there are more Malawian physicians in Manchester, England, than in Malawi a country of 12 million people with only 100 doctors and 2,000 nurses. Over 15 percent of Malawi's population is HIV-positive. Many of its health-care workers are infected with the disease or have died of AIDS.

According to the World Health Organization, 23,000 health-care workers leave Africa annually. Equally serious is the distribution of health-care workers within the countries themselves. They tend to remain in urban areas.

“In 25 years, Africa will be empty of brains,” warned in 2005 Dr. Lalla Ben Barka of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) reflecting his concern over Africa’s exodus of human capital. It is estimated that over 300,000 professionals reside outside Africa.

Solving the problem of poverty and the resulting malnutrition and disease it engenders requires three distinct steps: developing efficient and effective health-care systems; increasing access of the poor to adequate health care; and redirecting resources from acute care hospitals using high-tech equipment to investment in low-tech, but effective, community-based primary and preventive care.

Health problems in Africa cannot be considered in isolation — and are not only the responsibility of Africans themselves. Foreign technical and financial assistance is required. Aid must bypass corrupt governments and find ways to help people directly, for example through nongovernmental and U.N. organizations with a proven record of effectiveness. Aid can strengthen civil society and community-based organizations, which are the basis of a democratic society.

To bring hope to a continent ravaged by poverty and disease, effective and urgent action is required. It is available and it can be done.

Dr. Cesar Chelala, an international public health consultant, has conducted health-related missions in several African countries. He is a co winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

On April 16, Cándido Conde Pumpido, Spain’s attorney general, said that he wouldn’t recommend going ahead with a probe of six former US officials over allegations that they gave legal support for conducting torture at Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba. Conde Pumpido’s justification was that the claims are “fraudulent” since the officials didn’t carry out the torture themselves, and if anybody, those accused should be the material authors of the crime.

Spain prosecutor’s decision not to endorse the indictment of the six Bush officials accused of complicity in torture of detainees only delays -but doesn’t stop- their eventual indictment. If the U.S. decides not to try those officials, another country more respectful of its international obligations will do so.

The case involves former US Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales; ex-Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith; former Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff David Addington; former Justice Department officials John Yoo and Jay S. Bybee and Pentagon lawyer William J. Haynes II.

Although Mr. Pumpido wants to avoid the indictment used for political ends, it is possible that his refusal may instead convert it into a hot political issue, particularly since judge Baltazar Garzón was the one requesting a course of action. Judge Garzón had successfully prosecuted ex-Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in the 1990s in Great Britain. Pinochet was held in England under house arrest for several months before being sent back to Chile.

Pinochet was held in England under the universal jurisdiction principle, which establishes that every country has the ability to bring to justice the perpetrators of grave crimes, no matter where those crimes were committed, and regardless of the nationality of the perpetrators or their victims.

The Geneva Conventions and the Convention against Torture place a legally binding obligation on states that have ratified them to exercise the universal jurisdiction principle over persons accused of grave transgressions of those conventions. If the country where these transgressions have occurred doesn’t bring them to justice, it should extradite them to a country that will. Universal jurisdiction complements, but doesn’t override national prosecutions. Since the US has ratified the Convention Against Torture, it has the legal obligation to prosecute or extradite those who commit or are complicit in torture.

Several countries have already used the principle of universal jurisdiction to try those guilty of serious crimes. The US itself has used this principle before. Last January, a US court convicted Chuckie Taylor, son of the former Liberian president Charles Taylor, for torture carried out in Liberia and sentenced him to 97 years in prison.

The torture policies of the Bush administration will no longer be followed under President Obama’s executive orders. However, the Justice Department has also indicated that it would not prosecute those who used harsh interrogation techniques sanctioned in advance by the Justice Department.

Both President Obama and Attorney General Eric H. Holder have indicated their desire to move forward and not to reignite past issues that could provoke partisan rancor. This policy, however, carry the risks that if those accused of serious crimes are not properly prosecuted, those same actions may be used in future administrations. Although President Obama and Attorney General Eric H. Holder are clear about their intention not to prosecute those that carried out interrogation abuses, they are less clear about the policy towards those that created the framework that facilitated those abuses.

Failure to prosecute those who created the legal framework for torture will hinder any future efforts to totally eliminate those cruel, unlawful acts from the conduct of modern societies.

Cesar Chelala, a writer on human rights issues, is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights.

President Obama’s visit to Turkey highlights one of that country’s most difficult foreign policy issues: the lasting controversy over Turkey’s role in the killing of hundreds of thousands of Armenians. President Obama aptly praised Turkey’s recent efforts to solve this long lasting problem.

In 1915, as the Ottoman Empire was in its death throes, almost 1,000,000 Armenians were massacred, and many others were forced into exile from their land. The circumstances that led to this ordeal are still under spirited discussions.

The result of these events is Armenians hatred for the Turks, almost a century after the devastating events of 1915 which Armenians consider genocide. During a trip to Armenia I was once again reminded of man's inhumanity to man. I also found myself face-to-face once again with the power of memory and of hate.

Can this hatred be overcome so that a productive relationship between the two countries can be brought about? It is obviously too late to bring those responsible to justice. However, it should be possible to reach a level of understanding and cooperation between the two societies.

I spoke with Professor Mira Antonyan, director of the Fund for Armenian Relief, about the effects of those events on Armenians today. “The only thing that unites us now is our resentment against the Turks for the events of the past” she told me. That feeling was shared by her husband and a friend of both, who regularly trade with Turkish businessmen. “Being Armenian means having sad memories," she added.

I told them that I felt Armenians were in a quagmire, unable to move forward because of the tremendous weight of past events. "Perhaps you are right," Mira's husband answered, "but genocide is a very heavy burden on our shoulders. We cannot just forget what happened. We cannot erase our memory."

I believe that there is a generational divide on the question. The older generation—those over 50—insist on the need for an apology from the Turkish government for the assassination of Armenians. The younger generations, without rejecting the facts of history, feel the need to overcome the negative effects of those memories. They believe that such visceral attachment to the past is self-defeating.

Kamilla Petrosyan, an Armenian psychiatrist in her late 30s, told me how her 4-year-old son arrived home one day from kindergarten frightened to death on learning that day about the 1915 massacres. "We have to stop this culture of victimization," she said, "otherwise we will never be able to move forward."

Something similar happens in Turkey. Arman Artuc, editor of the HyeTert news portal in Istanbul, told me recently, "Almost everybody living in Turkey grew up with stories (beginning with primary school textbooks, newspapers and other media) of how cruel Armenians have been to Turks during and after WWI using a language of hatred and insults. Only recently commissions were established to change the textbooks and remove such language"

These and other events demonstrate that the Turks too are beginning to show signs of the need to move forward. A number of Turkish intellectuals, including last year's winner of the Noble Prize for literature, Orhan Pamuk, have made public statements to that effect. Turkish President Abdullah Gul has been quite forceful on the need and mutual convenience to have better relations between both countries and has called for the formation of a joint commission of Turkish and American scholars to assess past events.

The creation of a commission of both Turkish and Armenian historians under the auspices of the United Nations and with representatives from the International Court of Justice at The Hague is an important and necessary step. The task of such commission would be to analyze historical documents that will shed definitive light on the events of the past.

A change of paradigm that will allow us to move away from a culture of violence is desperately needed. We should take advantage of the present situation to create an irreversible motion towards mutual understanding through the implementation of a wide range of peace building measures that will create a strong foundation for cooperation.

Some important steps have already been taken. In July 2008, Armenian president Serzh Sarkisian invited Turkish president Abdullah Gul to visit Armenia. The visit, which took place in September 2008, was the first-ever visit of a Turkish head of state to Armenia. This event was followed by high level talks among officials from both countries.

Richard Giragosian, Director of the Armenian Centre for National and International Studies (ACNIS) in Yerevan wrote recently that a changing relationship can result in a “win-win” situation for both countries. For Armenia, it offers new economic opportunities and a much-needed foreign policy success. For Turkey, it will result in improved status vis-à-vis the European Union and the U.S.

The importance of an agreement for peace and cooperation between Turkey and Armenia goes beyond their borders. In a world wired for war, it can show that peace and understanding between peoples burdened by the past is still possible, and create a psychological momentum for peace that would allow reaching similar agreements in other parts of the world.

It is only by constructing bridges of understanding—particularly working with young people, still untainted by the weight of the past—that we will be able to change the present paradigm of violence and war for one of collaboration and peace.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is the co-author of "Missing or Dead in Argentina: The Desperate Search for Thousands of Abducted Victims," a New York Times Magazine cover story, for which he shared an Overseas Press Club of America award. Dr. Chelala is the foreign correspondent for the Middle East Times International (Australia).

Among the many urgent tasks facing the Obama administration one of the most pressing is to restore good relations with Latin America and the Caribbean, damaged by eight years of neglect. A measure that could have far-reaching consequences and notably improve the U.S.’ battered image in the continent would be to return Guantánamo to the Cuban people.

Improving the relationship with Latin America and the Caribbean by giving back Guantánamo to Cuba is pertinent now. This action will strengthen the effects of the Obama administration’s decision to eliminate certain travel restrictions and obstacles to remittances to Cuba and, particularly, its intention to close the Guantánamo facility.

Guantánamo has a convoluted history. Initially, the U.S. government obtained a 99-year lease on the 45 square mile area beginning in 1903. The resulting Cuban-American Treaty established, among other things, that for the purposes of operating naval and coaling stations in Guantánamo, the U.S. had “complete jurisdiction and control” of the area. However, it was also recognized that the Republic of Cuba retained ultimate sovereignty of that area.

In 1934, a new treaty reaffirmed most of the lease conditions, increased the lease payment to the equivalent of $3,085 in U.S. dollars per year, and made the lease permanent unless both governments agreed to end it or the U.S. decided to abandon the area. In the confusion of the early days of the Cuban revolution Castro’s government cashed the first check but left the remaining checks uncashed. Since these checks were made out to the ‘Treasurer General of the Republic’, a position that ceased to exist after the revolution, they are technically invalid.

The U.S. has maintained that the cashing of the first check indicates acceptance of the lease conditions. However, at the time of the new treaty, the U.S. sent a fleet of warships to Cuba to strengthen its position. Thus, a counter argument is that the lease conditions were imposed on Cuba under duress and are render void under modern international law.

The U.S. has used the argument of Cuban sovereignty when denying basic guarantees of the U.S. Constitution to the detainees at Guantánamo by indicating that federal jurisdiction doesn’t apply to them. If the Cuban government indeed has sovereignty over Guantánamo then its claims over the area are legally binding, and the U.S. is obligated to return Guantánamo to Cuba.

Since 1959, the Cuban government has informed the U.S. government that it wants to terminate the lease on Guantánamo. The U.S. has consistently refused this request on the grounds that it requires agreement by both parties. Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, an American lawyer and professor of international law at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations has indicated, that article 52 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties states, “A treaty is void if its conclusion has been procured by the threat or use of force in violation of the principles of international law embodied in the Charter of the United Nations.” He also said that the conditions under which the treaty was imposed on the Cuban National Assembly, particularly as a pre-condition to limited Cuban independence, left Cuba no other choice than to yield to pressure.

A treaty can also be void by virtue of material breach of its provisions, as indicated in article 60 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. According to the original terms of the lease agreement, the Guantánamo Bay territory could only be used for coaling and naval purposes. However, the use of the Guantánamo facility as an internment camp for Haitian and Cuban refugees or, even more ominously, as a torture center by the U.S. military, indicates a significant breach of that agreement fully justifying its immediate termination.

President Jimmy Carter courageously returned the Panama Canal to the Panamanians, thus setting an important precedent. President Carter did what was legally right, and lifted U.S. prestige not only among Panamanians but throughout the hemisphere.

Returning Guantánamo to the Cubans will allow the U.S. to close one of the most tragic chapters of its legal and moral history. And it will compensate Cubans for the miseries they have had to endure for decades because of Washington’s misguided policies.

Although rape as a weapon of war has existed for as long as war itself, it continues taking a heavy toll on women's lives in today's conflicts around the world. A high proportion of the women who are victims of rape end up infected with sexually transmitted diseases and infections, including HIV.

Since most of the countries experiencing an almost perpetual state of internal strife lack medicines and basic health-care services, becoming HIV-infected is virtually a death sentence. Given the wide use of rape as a weapon of war in some countries, especially those experiencing ethnic or tribal conflicts, and the high rates of HIV infection among warring factions, rape is rapidly becoming genocidal.

Rape happens on a wide scale in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda and Sudan. In the DRC, where more than 3 million people have been displaced by war, rape victims are counted in the tens of thousands. According to some estimates, up to 60 percent of combatants in the DRC are HIV-infected.

In Uganda, soldiers from the Lord's Resistance Army have raped and mutilated women in their struggle to replace a secular government in the country. Despite the cessation of hostilities the situation in the country remains grim. “The horrific violence committed during the many years of conflict in northern Uganda continues to aggravate discrimination against women and girls in the area today,” stated Godfrey Odongo, Amnesty International’s researcher in Kampala.

Rape was widespread in Rwanda. According to the group Women's Equity in Access to Care and Treatment, 67 percent of rape survivors in Rwanda are HIV-infected. As Anne-Christine d'Adesky, executive director of Women's Equity in Access to Care and Treatment stated, "Rape is an engine of HIV infection."

While rape in Rwanda has stopped, it continues in Sudan and the DRC, where human-rights activists say girls as young as 3 years old have been raped with knives, sticks and guns. In the DRC, gang rape has become so common that thousands of women suffer from vaginal fistulas, which leave them unable to control bodily functions and lead to lifelong debilitating health problems.

Rape as a way of humiliating women, their families and their communities is frequently conducted in public, in front of husbands and children. It is, in essence, a brutal way to show or maintain dominance over the women and their families.

A report by Amnesty International, "Darfur: Rape as a Weapon of War: Sexual Violence and Its Consequences," called attention to the phenomenon in Sudan. According to the Amnesty report, there is a pattern of systematic and brutal attacks against civilians in the Darfur states of Sudan by a government-sponsored militia called the Janjaweed and by the government army. The attacks are the Sudanese government's response to attacks by two main insurgent groups founded in 2003.

The confrontation in Sudan has led to the displacement of over 1.2 million people, most of whom have become internally displaced. The rest have taken refuge in neighboring countries. That these acts have the acquiescence of the government is evidenced by the fact that no member of either the Janjaweed or the armed forces has been charged with rape or other human-rights violations.

There are many other consequences of rape aside from the obvious physical and psychological violence of the act and the high risk of HIV. Many women get pregnant after being raped. In many cases women raped are killed afterward by their attackers. Among those that survive a high proportion are forced to become sex slaves.

Many men view the rape of their wives as a form of humiliation not only against them but also against the ethnic, tribal or religious group they belong to. This may cause husbands and communities to reject women victims and even their children. The women, having endured the brutality of the rape itself and its physical and psychological consequences, then find themselves denied their most basic human rights.

Even when pregnancy does not occur, men in patriarchal societies still may reject their wives, mothers or daughters after they have been raped. Lepa Mladjenovic, a Serbian psychotherapist and antiwar activist, says rape renders a woman "homeless in her own body."

Given the scale of abuses against civilians in Sudan, including the rape of children as young as 8 and women as old as 80, Amnesty International is calling for an international commission of inquiry. Such a commission should be supported by the United Nations and leading Western democracies. Difficult as this problem is, only rapid action and widespread political support will offer the possibility of diminishing its barbaric impact.

by Cesar Chelala and Alejandro Garro

Eric H. Holder Jr., the new U.S. Attorney General, has unambiguously stated his intention to end one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. legal history: “I can assure the American people that Guantánamo will be closed,” he announced at his confirmation hearings in Washington. Effective closure, however, calls for reflection as to the lessons to be drawn from this sad chapter in our constitutional history.

In 2006, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act (MCA), in effect approving the military tribunals established by President George W. Bush and denying the writ of habeas corpus to the Guantánamo detainees. Diverting the prosecution of terrorists to ad hoc martial courts was and remains a sad mistake. The constitutionality of these military commissions, despite congressional authorization, remains unclear. Indeed, bypassing the regularly constituted federal courts has not resulted in security gains with respect to terrorism. In a clear break with the Bush administration’s policies, Mr. Holder has declared that the system of military commissions does not guarantee the rights of due process for detainees. Lesson #1: the Military Commissions Act is far from indispensable and has no place in trials of civilians.

In June 2008, in a closely divided decision, the Supreme Court ruled that, despite congressional authorization, even prisoners unilaterally labeled as “enemy combatants” by the executive branch are entitled to challenge their detention through habeas corpus, a decision yet to be applied for hundreds of Guantánamo detainees. While stressing that the country is still in a state of war, Mr. Holder warned against the “false choice” between upholding civil liberties and protecting national security. Lesson #2: the United States has every right to detain those who pose a threat to its citizens and soldiers but those detained must have the right to challenge the legality of their detention before a federal court.

In November 2008, in the course of the military commission case against Afghan national Mohammed Jawad, army judge Col. Stephen Henley threw out a confession extracted under torture, confirming what legal experts have long maintained: coerced confessions are inherently unreliable and, even when reliable, taint the judicial process which must be exemplary in every respect. During his confirmation hearings, the new U.S. Attorney General left no doubt that water boarding used by U.S. operatives against Guantánamo detainees, constitutes torture. Lesson #3: the government has every right to search for valuable intelligence concerning the intentions and tactics of suspected terrorists, but torture must never be condoned as a valid method of extracting information, not even under the guise of self-protection or for the sake of lives.

The rationale behind the “enemy combatant policy” is to incapacitate suspected terrorists by holding them indefinitely, incommunicado and without charge, for the duration of the so-called “war on terror”. The act of circumventing the most basic guarantees against arbitrary detention affects not only the suspects but everyone else, hurting innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire and ultimately undermining the morale of those fighting terrorism. The detention of dangerous enemies is lawful and makes us safer, but not if the cost is the loss of democratic principles and human dignity. Lesson #4: whatever the challenges posed by the terrorist threat, unilaterally labeling individuals as enemy combatants and detaining them indefinitely and incommunicado by executive order is unacceptable practice.

The abuses prisoners have been subjected to at Guantánamo underscore the need to balance executive discretion with access to legal counsel and meaningful judicial review by federal courts. With Eric H. Holder’s confirmation as U.S. Attorney General, we may look forward to significant improvement in accommodating the “war on terror” with the rule of law, which the executive branch has a primary duty to uphold.

Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award for an article on human rights. Alejandro M. Garro is Professor of Comparative Law at Columbia University, New York.