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Why Alcohol Can Doom Putin's Dreams
Russians’ love for vodka has a long history. Legend holds that vodka arrived in Moscow in the 14th century, brought by Genovese merchants to Prince Dmitry Ivanovich. Legend also says that monk Isidore, who lived in the Chudov Monastery, inside the Kremlin, made a recipe for Russian vodka around 1430. He probably didn’t anticipate the devastating effect that alcohol addiction, mainly to vodka, would have on Russians’ health and quality of life and on the country’s economy and social fabric. When the Bolshevik Party came to power, its leaders tried – without much success - to reduce alcohol consumption in...More
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Add to NewsvineWhat Will the World Look Like in 2030?
“Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds,” published by the National Intelligence Council, depicts four worlds that could be actualized by 2030. The four potential worlds are as follows: (1) “Stalled Engines,” the most plausible worst-case scenario, in which the risks of interstate conflict are increased, the US draws inward, and globalization stagnates; (2) “Fusion,” the most plausible best-case outcome, in which greater global cooperation increases as China and the US collaborate on a range of issues; (3) “Gini-Out-of-the-Bottle,” in which inequalities blow up as some countries become big winners and others fail, intrastate inequalities increase social tensions, and the US ceases...More
24 TED Talks About Food Worth Watching
TED is a non-profit devoted to "ideas worth spreading" and you can find literally thousands of free--inspiring and awesome--talks from experts and innovators around the world. We've decided to highlight 24 TED talks specifically around food issues that we found compelling and worth sharing. • This article originally appeared in Food Tank: The Food Think Tank newsletter. •Please check out and watch as many of these as you can. And, most importantly, forward this blog to 24 friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers who might be open to watching a few of these insightful talks--and learning more about the food system....More
My Experience as a First Time Protester
Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India: In Kashmir, the three consecutive years of 2008, 2009 and 2010 are remembered by many as the years of bloodshed in which young men, who otherwise were supposed to be grooms, were sent to their graves. The killings called for huge protests valley-wide wherein people from all walks of life irrespective of their profession and gender joined in to raise their voices against Indian occupation in Kashmir. Women, men, students, teachers, young and old, all could be seen protesting together on the streets. Some political figure had once said that Kashmiri people lack character and...More
Obesity is Outpacing Growth in China
Obesity in China, particularly in children, has become an important health concern that will seriously affect the health of future generations but also place a heavy economic burden on the country. While China’s GDP increased from US$2.75 trillion in 2005 to US$4.99 trillion in 2009, the number of obese people increased from 18 million to 100 million people, more than five times that amount, during the same period. “China has entered the era of obesity,” Ji Chengye, a leading child health researcher told USA Today. In addition, to make the situation even more serious, China, as well as Vietnam, India,...More
A More Sustainable Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day is a holiday where food plays a central role–as a token of appreciation and a gesture of love. This Mother’s Day, make it a point to create a better, more sustainable celebration with these seven tips: • This article originally appeared in Food Tank: The Food Think Tank newsletter. •1. Buy local. Consider cooking your a mom meal at home instead of going out to a restaurant, and try to buy as many ingredients as possible from local farmers. A study by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) about the environmental impact of food transportation in California showed...More
Currently in Theaters: The San Francisco International Film Festival
The 56th annual San Francisco International Film Festival is currently on in the Bay Area. Per usual, there are way too many amazing films, and I regretfully have only seen a few. But this is the story of my life: too many fun things and too little time. I was on vacation the opening weekend of the festival, and then returned home only to be under the weather. On Sunday I tried to make up for lost time by seeing two films. First up was Rick Prelinger's documentary No More Road Trips? at the Castro Theatre. The work in progress...More
Distorted Priorities: Military Spending vs. People's Health
The latest report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) shows that, considering some data uncertainties, the world military spending in 2012 dropped slightly (0.5 percent) when compared to 2011. It is the first decline in military spending since 1998. This could be a cause for celebration, except that it is still a perverse use of funds, which could be better diverted to improve people’s health and to promote peace. According to SIPRI’s estimates, world military spending in 2012 was $1,75 trillion, of which $682 billion were spent by the US, $166 billion by China and $90.7 billion by...More
Female Drug Addiction on the Rise in the Valley
Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India: In a place where smoking and drugs were considered taboo once upon a time, the number of female drug addicts, especially young teenage girls, has considerably risen in recent years. In Kashmir, where a woman resorting to drugs was previously unheard of, reports now claim that out of the total 200,000 drug abusers in the valley, more than 4,000 are women. Mahreen (name changed), a college student, has been an addict for three years now. Mahreen says that she started off with sedatives to relieve herself of daily anxiety. The habit of popping a pill...More
Harvesting Justice: Transforming the Global Food Supply Chain - Food Sovereignty
By Tory Field and Beverly Bell “Over a half-century ago, Mahatma Gandhi led a multitude of Indians to the sea to make salt in defiance of the British Empire’s monopoly on this resource critical to people’s diet. The action catalyzed the fragmented movement for Indian independence and was the beginning of the end for Britain’s rule over India. The act of ‘making salt’ has since been repeated many times in many forms by people’s movements seeking liberation, justice and sovereignty: César Chávez, Nelson Mandela, and the Zapatistas are just a few of the most prominent examples. Our food movement –...More
Impact of Economic Crises on People's Health
The deteriorating global economic outlook for some countries is increasing concern in the general population about the effects that the economic crises will have on people’s health. The crises now taking place in several European countries raise the possibility that a “cascade effect” of unpredictable but mostly negative consequences may affect people’s health and well being. The economic crises affecting many countries have been exacerbated by additional factors such as an increasingly aging population, unhealthy lifestyles, rising costs of health care and public health policies aligned more toward providing acute rather than chronic care. Not only governments, however, determine how...More
Ending the Gender War in the Home Front
Veronica Castro, a mother of three, fled her home to seek refuge in Canada from her abusive husband. She was deported back to Mexico and within two days of crossing the border she was murdered. Was Veronica murdered as a consequence of Canadian foreign policies or was she brutally beaten to death and killed by her husband due to the absence of justice, culture of impunity, and structural discrimination of Mexican society? I believe Veronica became the victim of a shameful violation of human rights due to injustice and a high tolerance for violence against women. Femicide and domestic violence...More
Women Stripping for PTSD
Distraught military wives across the nation are going topless to fight post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Women exhausted from seeing their husbands suffer with PTSD have launched an initiative to spread awareness and support soldiers after military service to get the help they need. Ashley Wise, a military wife, launched the initiative “Battling Bare” to support other distressed military wives and families after her husband returned from Iraq in an unrecognizable and abused condition. Women stripping down to support their husbands clearly illustrate how women are severely impacted by war-related obstacles even in the aftermath of war. In my opinion, although...More
Brains vs. Brawn: iPhone 5 vs. Samsung Galaxy S4
As much as we want to stay away from the controversial competitions in the smartphone arena, it is impossible to avoid talking about the two smartphone kings of today, especially when one of the two recently had a product launch that challenges the other. Of course, we’re talking about the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the Apple iPhone 5. On March 14, Samsung announced the official release of the Galaxy S4 in a massive unveiling event held in New York City. Just six months before that, Apple unveiled the iPhone 5 in San Francisco and managed to sell more than four...More
CNN Faulted for Racially Charged, Erroneous Boston Reports; CAIR & FAIR Respond
Yesterday on Democracy Now! we spoke to Nihad Awad, National Executive Director of the Council on American Islamic Relations; and Peter Hart, Activism Director at the media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting on the accuracy of corporate media's coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing. CNN is coming under criticism after it falsely reported authorities had arrested a Boston Marathon bombing suspect, whom it had earlier described as a "dark-skinned male." Both claims turned out to be wrong. Earlier in the week, the New York Post claimed a Saudi man was in custody for the blasts, only to later...More
Guantánamo Continues to Be a Stain on U.S. Reputation
“US forces, in many instances, used interrogation techniques on detainees that constitute torture. American personnel conducted an even larger number of interrogations that involved ‘cruel, inhuman, or degrading’ treatment. Both categories of actions violate US laws and international treaties. Such conduct was directly counter to values of the Constitution and our nation.” This strong assessment is in the just-released report of the Task Force on Detainee Treatment, written by the members of the Constitution Project, a nonpartisan research and advocacy group. It is, up to now, one of the strongest criticisms of actions by US officials after the Sept. 11,...More
Tonight on PBS: WONDER WOMEN! The Untold Story of American Superheroines
Last year at SXSW, I saw the inspiring film WONDER WOMEN! The Untold Story of American Superheroines. I'm pleased to report that the documentary will be broadcast on PBS tonight at 10 p.m. I can't think of a more uplifting way to recover from tax day!...More
In Line for Popcorn with Jessica: What’s Next
A year ago, I started planning big life changes. I was going to leave my job, sell my house, and do something else. I didn’t know what that something else was, but I knew I wanted it. I considered many options, and realized that what I really wanted was to not feel tied down and obligated to so many things that didn’t make me happy. I wanted to be in place where I could be my truest self and I could reconnect with the dreams I’d left behind. Today I have a new job, I just bought a new condo,...More
Time is Overdue to Lift Embargo on Cuba
The renewed political landscape in Washington and Havana offers a long overdue opportunity to reverse a U.S. decision that has been maintained for more than half a century. It has also caused considerable and unnecessary suffering to the Cuban people: the embargo against Cuba. Remarkably, the embargo has benefited no one except its presumable target: the Castro brothers. It has allowed them to maintain a strong grip on power, to use it as a rallying point against the United States, and as a scapegoat for the deprivations Cubans have endured since the embargo was imposed in 1962. The efforts of...More
Monterey Americana: Del Monte Gardens Skating Arena
What was once Del Monte Gardens Skating Arena, in Monterey, California, is now a parking lot. The Monterey Peninsula can sustain its resort hotels, but not its skating rink. Summer 2011 was the last summer of the rink. I did not go to the final Saturday night skate. It would have been too painful. At first the rink was supposed to be a grocery outlet. Every time I have come home this year, I avoided looking to my left as I drove down Del Monte Avenue. I imagined children in the grocery store with their mothers, staring back at the...More
Remembering the Holocaust, Beginning Today
Lore died recently. She died peacefully in her sleep. More ready than anyone I had ever met. Our telephone conversations often began with “How are you doing you Lore?” Her response, “Well, I woke up this morning.” I imagine my grandparents, her husband Joe and the Ross’ had a table waiting somewhere sunny, ready for her to join them, wherever they were. I feel grateful that I could contribute to her readiness. In her nineties, I recorded Lore’s story. Her whole story. Even the parts that most of the time she considered too unpleasant to tell. • Lore and Joe's...More
Another Poor Black Boy Dead in Haiti
Cross-posted from Other Worlds. Inside the USAID-headquarters-turned-courthouse in Port-au-Prince, the case against former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier was being heard, in a trial unlikely to bring justice to the hundreds of thousands killed and tortured by him and his father François. Vexed by the circus show of judges and defense lawyers, I fled the building and hailed a collective taxicab. The driver asked my nationality. When I told him, he said, “If you don’t mind, I want to ask you something. Are there all these children sleeping in the streets and under bridges in your country?” Just at that moment,...More
UNICEF Criticizes Israel's Treatment of Palestinian Children
A new UNICEF report, “Children in Israeli Military Detention,” is sharply critical of Israel’s treatment of detained Palestinian children. According to UNICEF, 700 Palestinian children aged 12-17, most of them boys, are arrested and harshly interrogated by the Israeli military, police and security agents every year in the occupied West Bank. In some cases, stated UNICEF, it had identified practices that “amount to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Convention against Torture (CAT). The UNICEF report confirms what many human rights activists (including Israeli individuals and...More
The Pope Will Promote a Church That Listens to People’s Needs: An Interview with Francesca Ambrogetti
Francesca Ambrogetti is the journalist who best knows Pope Francisco. She was born in Rome and lives in Buenos Aires, where she is a correspondent for the Italian news agency Ansa. She was president of the Foreign Press Association in Argentina and the Foreign Correspondents Association. She is co-author, together with Sergio Rubin, of El Jesuita, conversaciones con el Cardenal Jorge Bergoglio (Vergara, 2010). In the following interview, she talks about the Pope's personality as well as the characteristics his papacy might have. Do you think that his anti-protocol gestures which have surprised the entire world were predictable for the...More
A Veteran's Assessment of the Iraq War
Ten years later, we are all aware of the damage caused in Iraq by the war: the thousands of civilians killed, including women and children, the destruction of infrastructure, the millions now living under the poverty line, the high levels of corruption that make Iraq one of the countries in the world where corruption is less pervasive. Less known, or acknowledged, are the terrible effects the war had on American soldiers – those now lacking access to medical services, those traumatized by war for life or left with incapacitating sequela. A letter sent to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney...More
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