while the US MSM seems to be reporting only about local riots and virus hysteria, (hey, it's election year) but they are ignoring that a lot of countries are coping with the Covid epidemic, including India and in Africa.
Attention: the real danger is hunger in the next few months.
Because the crops aren't planted because of the shutdown, or rot because the shutdown stops them from being transported to storage, or later, transported to the cities so poor folks in the megacities of the third world can eat, or because the farmers can't get fertilizer or pesticides to protect their growing crop.
Then there are the locusts, which are devastating areas in Africa, India and the Middle East.
a lot of Filipino OFW have died of the virus, often because they are caregivers (nurses, doctors) or worked on cruise ships. But there have been epidemics in the workers in Saudi (?dormitory spread?)
and this article notes that 300 plus Filipinos have died in Saudi. either of the virus or of "unknown causes". But Filipinos are not the only ones dying: but few reports about Indians, Pakistanis, Indoys, etc. dying. And of course, not all are dying of covid: many workers have been laid off and/or have not been paid, so have no income, so they are scrounging for food etc.
MigrantRights have a couple of articles about their plight: This one is about South Asian workers in Bahrain.
the reason I noted "dormitory spread" is because even in rich, sophisticated Singapore there was a huge outbreak in worker's quarters LINK
few visiting shiny clean Singapore are aware of this area: But when we were there, a friend of Joy took us to a bodega of shops in the migrant neighborhood so we could buy cheap clothing, and I almost felt at home there.
In Zimbabwe, the big headlines are about the Health minister being indicted for graft over his choice of Covid testing....but the real story is here: Village health workers trying to cope with the epidemic, along with the routine problems of Malaria, HIV,
diarrhea etc.
and in the meanwhile, floods are happening all over: including in India and China.
there are rumors (denied by experts) that the huge Three Gorges dam is starting to overflow or is in danger of collapse.
this could be as bad as the huge 1975 Banqiao Dam disaster.
Sigh. In our prayers.
FINEST KIND CLINIC AND FISHMARKET.... Discussing medicine, culture, and the joys of cooking Pansit.
Monday, June 29, 2020
Heh. A bishop with a backbone?
Father Z reported that the Archbishop of SanFrancisco held a reparation service and exorcism at the site where demonstrators destroyed the statue of a local saint.
If the statue was blessed, then this is a desecration of a holy object, hence the religious service. But exorcism? Maybe because there have been many attacks (mostly unreported) on churches, synagogues, and mosques.... including attempted arson in the church where only Trumpieboy protested the desecration of a holy site (and made everyone get their knickers in a knot because how dare he hold a bible).
So it's good to see that an actual bishop has the guts to push back.
Alas, the video is fuzzy, so never mind:
So why exoricism? Because it went beyond removal, but desecration and abuse showing hatred of the person the statue represented, and hatred of the idea that Christianity was preached in the past to unbelievers.
for some reason, the rioters see Christianity as a "western" religion, which ignores the history of the Eastern Churches and Ethiopian Christianity, or the fact that Christianity is a religion of non Europeans.
In addition, the Antifa and BLM support the pan sexual agenda that undermines the idea of family life, and supports a pro abortion agenda, both of which goes against the traditional ethos of Catholicism (and Islam for that matter) which of course have nothing to do with racial justice, but hey, if you criticize them you are racist.
and as I have said in several previous posts: it's fun to protest and feel superior to ordinary folks, but how many of the (mainly white upper middle class protesters) will actually help rebuild the shops or dare to protect the innocent from feral drug gangs that terrorize their kids?
Anti religion is in: pushed by the neoatheists see religion as the source of all wars and strife, as if the 100 million victims of communism and Nazism during the 20th century suddenly have been written out of the history books.
So when Trumpieboy prayed at the Shrine of JP2 that commemorates the victims of communism, the usual suspects were horrified and ignored what this long scheduled visit was about: that religious persecution of believers by communists. (Uighar lives matter?) Hell, even the PC bishop of washington DC joined the protests instead of explaining this.
the sexual agenda goes way beyond the gay issue: it is morphing into a denial of biology.
Biology of sexuality is behind the family and social cohesiveness, which is why Confucius, when he decided to reform Chinese society, started with reforming the family. And it was why Mao, in the collective farms and later in the Red Guard revolution, tried to destroy family ties: Because the family obligations stood in the way of his hive idea of the perfect worker who had no other obligations but to the state.
China has survived this attack, and the family is still strong here in Asia, but who in the west dares to oppose the political correct intellectual assault on biology and family?
Pope Francis speaks against it, but when he supports and appoints to high office those pushing the agenda, one does wonder what he really believes.
Speaking of sexual agenda: This Anglican reform site has an interview with an organization working with those with SSA.
I am a bit leery, since the grace of God will help bisexuals (and heterosexuals who struggle with promiscuity) to stay faithful, but ignores the difficulty of the struggle with chronic sin, be it substance abuse, greed, or promiscuity.: For them, the answer is found in the Cross: something few churches preach anymore for some reason.
in old fashioned Catholicism "take up your cross and follow me" recognizes the struggles of life. And if you fall, hey, Jesus fell under the weight of the cross too... just get up, and try again. (which is why Catholics used to have confession, but hey, the happy church of Vatican II pretends no one sins so we don't need it. I should talk: I haven't gone for years because there is no one there).
Alcoholics anonymous still preaches this idea to surrender your weaknesses to a higher power, and keep trying despite relapse...they do it in a generic way: but I wonder how long until they are forced to "reform" their message?
but here in the Philippines, the idea that our suffering has ultimate meaning, and that God understands since he too suffered, is still believed: hence the huge "Black Nazarene" devotion here, where people see their own suffering and identify with the sufferings of Christ.
sigh.
If the statue was blessed, then this is a desecration of a holy object, hence the religious service. But exorcism? Maybe because there have been many attacks (mostly unreported) on churches, synagogues, and mosques.... including attempted arson in the church where only Trumpieboy protested the desecration of a holy site (and made everyone get their knickers in a knot because how dare he hold a bible).
So it's good to see that an actual bishop has the guts to push back.
Alas, the video is fuzzy, so never mind:
So why exoricism? Because it went beyond removal, but desecration and abuse showing hatred of the person the statue represented, and hatred of the idea that Christianity was preached in the past to unbelievers.
for some reason, the rioters see Christianity as a "western" religion, which ignores the history of the Eastern Churches and Ethiopian Christianity, or the fact that Christianity is a religion of non Europeans.
In addition, the Antifa and BLM support the pan sexual agenda that undermines the idea of family life, and supports a pro abortion agenda, both of which goes against the traditional ethos of Catholicism (and Islam for that matter) which of course have nothing to do with racial justice, but hey, if you criticize them you are racist.
and as I have said in several previous posts: it's fun to protest and feel superior to ordinary folks, but how many of the (mainly white upper middle class protesters) will actually help rebuild the shops or dare to protect the innocent from feral drug gangs that terrorize their kids?
Anti religion is in: pushed by the neoatheists see religion as the source of all wars and strife, as if the 100 million victims of communism and Nazism during the 20th century suddenly have been written out of the history books.
So when Trumpieboy prayed at the Shrine of JP2 that commemorates the victims of communism, the usual suspects were horrified and ignored what this long scheduled visit was about: that religious persecution of believers by communists. (Uighar lives matter?) Hell, even the PC bishop of washington DC joined the protests instead of explaining this.
the sexual agenda goes way beyond the gay issue: it is morphing into a denial of biology.
Biology of sexuality is behind the family and social cohesiveness, which is why Confucius, when he decided to reform Chinese society, started with reforming the family. And it was why Mao, in the collective farms and later in the Red Guard revolution, tried to destroy family ties: Because the family obligations stood in the way of his hive idea of the perfect worker who had no other obligations but to the state.
China has survived this attack, and the family is still strong here in Asia, but who in the west dares to oppose the political correct intellectual assault on biology and family?
Pope Francis speaks against it, but when he supports and appoints to high office those pushing the agenda, one does wonder what he really believes.
Speaking of sexual agenda: This Anglican reform site has an interview with an organization working with those with SSA.
I am a bit leery, since the grace of God will help bisexuals (and heterosexuals who struggle with promiscuity) to stay faithful, but ignores the difficulty of the struggle with chronic sin, be it substance abuse, greed, or promiscuity.: For them, the answer is found in the Cross: something few churches preach anymore for some reason.
in old fashioned Catholicism "take up your cross and follow me" recognizes the struggles of life. And if you fall, hey, Jesus fell under the weight of the cross too... just get up, and try again. (which is why Catholics used to have confession, but hey, the happy church of Vatican II pretends no one sins so we don't need it. I should talk: I haven't gone for years because there is no one there).
Alcoholics anonymous still preaches this idea to surrender your weaknesses to a higher power, and keep trying despite relapse...they do it in a generic way: but I wonder how long until they are forced to "reform" their message?
but here in the Philippines, the idea that our suffering has ultimate meaning, and that God understands since he too suffered, is still believed: hence the huge "Black Nazarene" devotion here, where people see their own suffering and identify with the sufferings of Christ.
sigh.
Sunday, June 28, 2020
the Fayum portraits
from Roman era mummies from the Fayum area of northern Egypt: What they actually looked like. unlike traditional Egyptian art, most were upper class, but some were of middle class people, including the migrants and those descended from Greeks and others who had moved there and often intermarried with local Egyptians: e.g. Greeks, Hebrews, Syrians, etc.
And unlike much "traditional" art, they suggest the personality of the person.
And unlike much "traditional" art, they suggest the personality of the person.
Kimchi? Blame Columbus
we just finished watching the older KDrama Jewel in the palace, (parts of it are on you tube if you don't have a Kdrama streaming site in your area).
Since the heroine starts out as a palace cook in training (and only after being exiled after being framed for "treason" does she become a lady physician), the film has many cooking scenes that puzzle us, since we don't recognize the dishes being cooked.
Here is a short example of cooking ladies preparing a dish;
We know nothing about Korean cooking, so have started watching Korean cooking videos on youtube.
Here is the recipe for Kimchi, the Korean version of Sauerkraut, but with one difference: Unlike the Dutch/German version, the Korean version usually includes hot pepper powder, making it quite spicy.
and here is one for Korean BBQ that one of my Korean friends made for us when I was in Medical school:
notice one important ingredient?
Red Pepper. They didn't have it in Korea at the time when the first drama was supposed to have taken place. From an article on Kdramabuzz:
so if you like Kimchi, or Thai food, or the spicy cuisines of China, blame Columbus.
Since the heroine starts out as a palace cook in training (and only after being exiled after being framed for "treason" does she become a lady physician), the film has many cooking scenes that puzzle us, since we don't recognize the dishes being cooked.
Here is a short example of cooking ladies preparing a dish;
We know nothing about Korean cooking, so have started watching Korean cooking videos on youtube.
Here is the recipe for Kimchi, the Korean version of Sauerkraut, but with one difference: Unlike the Dutch/German version, the Korean version usually includes hot pepper powder, making it quite spicy.
and here is one for Korean BBQ that one of my Korean friends made for us when I was in Medical school:
notice one important ingredient?
Red Pepper. They didn't have it in Korea at the time when the first drama was supposed to have taken place. From an article on Kdramabuzz:
The red chili pepper. It’s the reason kimchi has such a distinct color and spicy flavor. The element capsaicin that’s part of the red chili pepper holds the vegetables fresh for a long period of time. Even after storing kimchi for months, the eater will always experience the sensation of biting into something fresh and crisp....
But red chili peppers were not always an essential part of the kimchi that we know today. Koreans didn’t know the red chili pepper until the late 16th or early 17th century. Portuguese traders, who brought it from central America first, introduced it to the country. That’s why early historical makings of the dish do not mention the red chili pepper at all. The first description of seasoning kimchi with red chili peppers appears in a cookbook printed in 1765.The black pepper is one reason the Europeans wanted to find a new route to the "spice Islands", but ironically, the same traders brought the red pepper to Asia,where it became very popular:
so if you like Kimchi, or Thai food, or the spicy cuisines of China, blame Columbus.
Friday, June 26, 2020
Virus update
Dr. Campbell has a daily report on the Covid Virus: Today's video discusses the situation here in the Philippines with Dr. Co.
we are still in partial lockdown here: but shopping is now allowed three days a week, and masks are required.
----------------
in other news: It's puppy time. Kuya's dog Blanche had six puppies, and our dog BabyBaby had five.
we are still in partial lockdown here: but shopping is now allowed three days a week, and masks are required.
----------------
in other news: It's puppy time. Kuya's dog Blanche had six puppies, and our dog BabyBaby had five.
Mt Rushmore or Crazy Horse?
like the Taliban, the memorials and statues are being attacked for political reasons.
The latest? Trumpieboy is visiting Mt Rushmore, and the press found the usual activists to protest.
Instead of playing political hate matches with the iconoclasts, could I suggest Trumpieboy visit the nearby CrazyHorse Monument while he's there?
the man behind the monument was one of those who carved Mt Rushmore, and his family has continued to carve the monument.
We always enjoyed visiting there, because they were still carving it when I lived in the area, and much of their work back then was being funded by private money, not a government project.
History.Com article on CrazyHorse.
The article discusses why the Whites wanted to take over the Black Hills (GOLD).
sigh.
The latest? Trumpieboy is visiting Mt Rushmore, and the press found the usual activists to protest.
Instead of playing political hate matches with the iconoclasts, could I suggest Trumpieboy visit the nearby CrazyHorse Monument while he's there?
the man behind the monument was one of those who carved Mt Rushmore, and his family has continued to carve the monument.
We always enjoyed visiting there, because they were still carving it when I lived in the area, and much of their work back then was being funded by private money, not a government project.
History.Com article on CrazyHorse.
The article discusses why the Whites wanted to take over the Black Hills (GOLD).
sigh.
Thursday, June 25, 2020
history behind stories on the news
Turkey rarely gets into the news, even though there was a Turkish/Ottoman background for Benghazi, and the war in Syria, and also the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and also in the present day war in Libya.
But here is a demographic look at their history in the slave trade.
-----------------
and those who know Catholic trivia know about the various folks who became slaves in the Mediterranean, including St Vincent DePaul, who after coming back founded sisters to work in the slums and encouraged rich ladies to set up soup kitchens etc.
There was even a Catholic order who raised money to ransom Christian slaves.
the reason for America's first war after the Revolution was against the Barbery pirates, who were semi automous states under the Ottomans and who preyed on shipping in the Mediterranean.
and later, a second war had to be fought when the locals decided to restart their aggression. More Wikipedia article links:
this war, by the way, is where the line "to the shores of Tripoli" comes from.
earlier in history, the Irish raiders took slaves (until they became Christian) and later of course the Vikings became notorious for providing British and Irish slaves not only for their own farms but for trading purposes to the lands of Andalucia, and Slavic slaves to the Byzantine and Islamic Empires of the Middle East.
and of course, the Romans and Greek civilizations were run by slave labour: In the days before modern machinery, you needed man power to plow the fields and care for the crops, and dig in the mines. Many were POW's, and made slaves since the alternative was to kill them en mass, but many, especially women, were deliberately kidnapped to use for sexual slavery or to do "women's work" e.g. textile industry, help in the kitchens and gardens, do the laundry, etc. I was startled to find such sympathetic descriptions of the woes of these women in Homer, because most literature outside of Classical Greek plays, ignore women's plight.
Here in the Philippines, the Tagalogs of the northern Islands were notorious for taking slaves before the Spanish, and the history is long and complicated by religion and by the fact that the laws weren't always followed... and later the Moro attacks, especially in the Visayas, destroyed towns and took locals as slaves, and indeed minor outbreaks of piracy continue through recent times.
so what makes slavery in North America different?
the racial aspect. Race was a "marker" that prevented assimilation, and this was made worse by the Racial laws in the southern USA, and of course, the Eugenics movement is the backstory: most of the British Eugenicists pointed to the Irish when they talked about inferior races, but the American eugenics movement included Jews, Italians, Irish and blacks as people not quite up to par, and as the other groups worked their way up out of poverty, it was the blacks who were left behind to let these types feel superior.
In history, often people are described as different because of ethnicity, not race: sometimes there is a debate if they are African or white, which is of course a modern racist interpretation.
Did King Tut have a black grandmother? Was Memnon, who fought in the Trojan war, from Ethiopia or Persia? Were famous North Africans from Roman Emperor Severus to St Augustine, what we considered "black" or Berbers? Did King Arthur have a black man among his knights? Good article on these hidden figures of history here.
Having worked in Africa, I am aware of the many ethnicities and races in Africa: Masaman has quite a few videos describing the various ethnicities there and also about the African diaspora.
but in the USA, especially in today's PC kerfuffle, it is being distilled into black vs white.
Well, Andrew Young back in 1977, quipped that the British invented racism, and he wasn't wrong. The Brits hated eveyone who wasn't "one of them", and this included the Irish, and the Jews.
But of course, every country has an enemy, and often it is tribal, based on ethnicity and culture and religious differences, all of which cause misunderstanding, and in America such prejudice usually disappears after assimilation into American culture and intermarriage. But for American blacks, even when entirely assimilated, they face prejudice due to their skin colour.
sigh.
No, I don't have an answer.
The outbreak of violence in the US is because of pent up resentment and the setback of unemployment and economic opportunities due to the covid virus.
but the white students seem to be doing it because it is the "in" thing to do, just like the anti war folks in the 1970s.
And just like the anti war movement, these affluent ill-educated nincompoops will leave behind people dead and devastated and go back to their affluent life and brag about how wonderful they are, leaving the deplorables and church goers to help in the rebuilding of the broken lives they left leave behind.
quick: Do you see any of these "karens" and proud lilly white demonstrators getting their little hands dirty by picking up the trash?
But of course, all of this is being directed by puppetmasters because of the upcoming election. And that makes me wonder why.
Because I remember 1968, and that was how you got Nixon.
But in today's world, it is ominous that the police are being destroyed by the affluent PC and the crime rate, including the murder of the innocent by drug and gang related crime is again rising.
And a lot of people untrained in how to use guns for self defense are buying guns, which is very worrisome.
Trump is keeping his gun loving minions under control, and Q keeps spreading the word that "we have it under control" so stay calm. (No you don't read that in the MSM, who only report on the crazy fringe members, but it is on the conservative discussion boards.)
Trump is willing to compromise: He just sent a police reform bill to congress... but instead of a discussion, the Democrats stopped it. Why? Politics of course.
This is very ominous: Because the one sided reporting and bias by the press is encouraging the fight. So who is willing to compromise in the toxic environment in the USA?
Sigh.
But here is a demographic look at their history in the slave trade.
-----------------
and those who know Catholic trivia know about the various folks who became slaves in the Mediterranean, including St Vincent DePaul, who after coming back founded sisters to work in the slums and encouraged rich ladies to set up soup kitchens etc.
There was even a Catholic order who raised money to ransom Christian slaves.
the reason for America's first war after the Revolution was against the Barbery pirates, who were semi automous states under the Ottomans and who preyed on shipping in the Mediterranean.
why did it last so long? Because the Europeans paid ransom for their slaves. The Americans were a bit more prickly and after years of trying to negotiate, said up yours and went to war.
According to Robert Davis, between 1 and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by Barbary pirates and sold as slaves between the 16th and 19th centuries.[8]
and later, a second war had to be fought when the locals decided to restart their aggression. More Wikipedia article links:
- Arab slave trade
- Barbary slave trade
- Barbary treaties
- Islamic views on slavery
- Military history of the United States
- Second Barbary War
- Slavery in the Ottoman Empire
this war, by the way, is where the line "to the shores of Tripoli" comes from.
earlier in history, the Irish raiders took slaves (until they became Christian) and later of course the Vikings became notorious for providing British and Irish slaves not only for their own farms but for trading purposes to the lands of Andalucia, and Slavic slaves to the Byzantine and Islamic Empires of the Middle East.
and of course, the Romans and Greek civilizations were run by slave labour: In the days before modern machinery, you needed man power to plow the fields and care for the crops, and dig in the mines. Many were POW's, and made slaves since the alternative was to kill them en mass, but many, especially women, were deliberately kidnapped to use for sexual slavery or to do "women's work" e.g. textile industry, help in the kitchens and gardens, do the laundry, etc. I was startled to find such sympathetic descriptions of the woes of these women in Homer, because most literature outside of Classical Greek plays, ignore women's plight.
Here in the Philippines, the Tagalogs of the northern Islands were notorious for taking slaves before the Spanish, and the history is long and complicated by religion and by the fact that the laws weren't always followed... and later the Moro attacks, especially in the Visayas, destroyed towns and took locals as slaves, and indeed minor outbreaks of piracy continue through recent times.
so what makes slavery in North America different?
the racial aspect. Race was a "marker" that prevented assimilation, and this was made worse by the Racial laws in the southern USA, and of course, the Eugenics movement is the backstory: most of the British Eugenicists pointed to the Irish when they talked about inferior races, but the American eugenics movement included Jews, Italians, Irish and blacks as people not quite up to par, and as the other groups worked their way up out of poverty, it was the blacks who were left behind to let these types feel superior.
In history, often people are described as different because of ethnicity, not race: sometimes there is a debate if they are African or white, which is of course a modern racist interpretation.
Did King Tut have a black grandmother? Was Memnon, who fought in the Trojan war, from Ethiopia or Persia? Were famous North Africans from Roman Emperor Severus to St Augustine, what we considered "black" or Berbers? Did King Arthur have a black man among his knights? Good article on these hidden figures of history here.
Having worked in Africa, I am aware of the many ethnicities and races in Africa: Masaman has quite a few videos describing the various ethnicities there and also about the African diaspora.
but in the USA, especially in today's PC kerfuffle, it is being distilled into black vs white.
Well, Andrew Young back in 1977, quipped that the British invented racism, and he wasn't wrong. The Brits hated eveyone who wasn't "one of them", and this included the Irish, and the Jews.
But of course, every country has an enemy, and often it is tribal, based on ethnicity and culture and religious differences, all of which cause misunderstanding, and in America such prejudice usually disappears after assimilation into American culture and intermarriage. But for American blacks, even when entirely assimilated, they face prejudice due to their skin colour.
sigh.
No, I don't have an answer.
The outbreak of violence in the US is because of pent up resentment and the setback of unemployment and economic opportunities due to the covid virus.
but the white students seem to be doing it because it is the "in" thing to do, just like the anti war folks in the 1970s.
And just like the anti war movement, these affluent ill-educated nincompoops will leave behind people dead and devastated and go back to their affluent life and brag about how wonderful they are, leaving the deplorables and church goers to help in the rebuilding of the broken lives they left leave behind.
quick: Do you see any of these "karens" and proud lilly white demonstrators getting their little hands dirty by picking up the trash?
But of course, all of this is being directed by puppetmasters because of the upcoming election. And that makes me wonder why.
Because I remember 1968, and that was how you got Nixon.
But in today's world, it is ominous that the police are being destroyed by the affluent PC and the crime rate, including the murder of the innocent by drug and gang related crime is again rising.
And a lot of people untrained in how to use guns for self defense are buying guns, which is very worrisome.
Trump is keeping his gun loving minions under control, and Q keeps spreading the word that "we have it under control" so stay calm. (No you don't read that in the MSM, who only report on the crazy fringe members, but it is on the conservative discussion boards.)
Trump is willing to compromise: He just sent a police reform bill to congress... but instead of a discussion, the Democrats stopped it. Why? Politics of course.
This is very ominous: Because the one sided reporting and bias by the press is encouraging the fight. So who is willing to compromise in the toxic environment in the USA?
Sigh.
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
conspiracy theories we haz them
Lots of weird stories out there, but when the press writes stories with biased language and snarky remarks and from only one point of view, it leads to conspiracy sites as the place to find out what is going on. I take it with a grain if salt,as the saying goes, but the dirty little secret is that when the "straight" news is so full of snarky remarks and bias you have to figure out what is real.
For example, the press laughed and ran with the story that Kpop fans sabotaged Trumpieboy's rally in Tulsa. (conservative sites are full of comments by folks who went but couldn't get in because protesters blocked doors,were ignored).
What's wrong with this picture?
Uh, even a couple of thousand k-pop girls couldn't do one million requests, unless they used bots. And only Dilbert notes that this escapade was done from a Chinese site named tiktoc and he notes that if Russian ads on Facebook was touted as Russian interference in the last election, so too should this should be reported as Chinese interference in the election. mp3 here.
that's not the only place where Chinese bots are distorting the news, often via twitter and other "social media" sites:
CBS story on Chinese bots pushing disinformation about wuhanflu on twitter.
but of course, not all that disinformation can be blamed on Chinese bots: the MSM is reporting an "upsurge" in batflu numbers in the Tulsa area, blaming the rally, even though this report was before the rally, and these stories continue even though the incubation period hasn't passed yet.
As I have noted before: if you believe the numbers from third world countries, you are a fool.
and not just from the third world: the press "reports" the numbers of cases that China claims as if those claims were true. so do we believe them, or do we believe Steve Bannon? (/sarcasm)...so I checked out Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, and found nobody was talking about new cases? Hmm... I wonder why?
Maybe because China punished that site
you see my point: So what is the truth? Remember, China kicked out western reporters months ago.
so for most of the news about the numbers of batflu cases is fake news, because "GIGO": garbage in garbage out".
And then people wonder why the news is distrusted.
----------------------------
there is a (reportedly corrupt) Chinese millionaire, Guo Wengui, who is exiled and fighting China. Politico has a story on him here. And his news site is Here.
in February this article claims he said that China was underestimating the batflu deaths and reported large numbers of bodies being cremated. That article is critical of him, saying that he is exaggerating it and he has spread such wild rumors in the past, but if you read the entire article, deep inside you see this sentence:
the Sulfur dioxide levels?
so now that crazy Jeremiah, Ann Barnhardt, picked up a twitter thread about his report saying that the Vatican's China deal was due to a 2 billion dollar bribe to the Vatican.
well, duh.
Ann is big at finding dirt on the Vatican and she has found the dirt behind the Philippine cardinal who is being pushed for the next pope, and is known to be friendly with China and in favor of the Chinese takeover of the Catholic church there. But she also say (?source) he has casino debts in Macau that make him vulnerable to blackmail. True? Who knows. The press reports him as smiling and loving, but watching the guy on youtube makes my skin crawl, but hey, maybe that's just me.
and while checking on Wengui's news site, I ran into a report that the Canadian scientist Frank Plummer, who had ties with the Wuhan lab died "suddenly" at a conference in Kenya (he is an HIV expert but some have connected him with the Wuhan lab). CBC report here. So what does this have to do with Wuhan flu? GreatGameIndia site has a report on the connection here.
For example, the press laughed and ran with the story that Kpop fans sabotaged Trumpieboy's rally in Tulsa. (conservative sites are full of comments by folks who went but couldn't get in because protesters blocked doors,were ignored).
What's wrong with this picture?
Uh, even a couple of thousand k-pop girls couldn't do one million requests, unless they used bots. And only Dilbert notes that this escapade was done from a Chinese site named tiktoc and he notes that if Russian ads on Facebook was touted as Russian interference in the last election, so too should this should be reported as Chinese interference in the election. mp3 here.
that's not the only place where Chinese bots are distorting the news, often via twitter and other "social media" sites:
CBS story on Chinese bots pushing disinformation about wuhanflu on twitter.
They found that 82% of the top 50 influential retweets are bots, and 62% of the top 1,000 retweeters are bots, too.the chinese bots are posting disinformation and conspiracy theories on Twitter, in order to push distrust of authorities.
but of course, not all that disinformation can be blamed on Chinese bots: the MSM is reporting an "upsurge" in batflu numbers in the Tulsa area, blaming the rally, even though this report was before the rally, and these stories continue even though the incubation period hasn't passed yet.
As I have noted before: if you believe the numbers from third world countries, you are a fool.
and not just from the third world: the press "reports" the numbers of cases that China claims as if those claims were true. so do we believe them, or do we believe Steve Bannon? (/sarcasm)...so I checked out Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, and found nobody was talking about new cases? Hmm... I wonder why?
Maybe because China punished that site
Top internet watchdog, the Cyberspace Administration of China, said in a post on its verified WeChat Account it had reprimanded Weibo for “interfering with online communication order, disseminating illegal information and other problems”.
you see my point: So what is the truth? Remember, China kicked out western reporters months ago.
so for most of the news about the numbers of batflu cases is fake news, because "GIGO": garbage in garbage out".
And then people wonder why the news is distrusted.
----------------------------
there is a (reportedly corrupt) Chinese millionaire, Guo Wengui, who is exiled and fighting China. Politico has a story on him here. And his news site is Here.
in February this article claims he said that China was underestimating the batflu deaths and reported large numbers of bodies being cremated. That article is critical of him, saying that he is exaggerating it and he has spread such wild rumors in the past, but if you read the entire article, deep inside you see this sentence:
so who do you believe? China's dismissal of this crazy guy, or your lying eyes
The rising sulfur dioxide levels in the air surrounding Wuhan and other coronavirus-plagued Chinese cities corroborate Guo’s claims.
so now that crazy Jeremiah, Ann Barnhardt, picked up a twitter thread about his report saying that the Vatican's China deal was due to a 2 billion dollar bribe to the Vatican.
well, duh.
Ann is big at finding dirt on the Vatican and she has found the dirt behind the Philippine cardinal who is being pushed for the next pope, and is known to be friendly with China and in favor of the Chinese takeover of the Catholic church there. But she also say (?source) he has casino debts in Macau that make him vulnerable to blackmail. True? Who knows. The press reports him as smiling and loving, but watching the guy on youtube makes my skin crawl, but hey, maybe that's just me.
and while checking on Wengui's news site, I ran into a report that the Canadian scientist Frank Plummer, who had ties with the Wuhan lab died "suddenly" at a conference in Kenya (he is an HIV expert but some have connected him with the Wuhan lab). CBC report here. So what does this have to do with Wuhan flu? GreatGameIndia site has a report on the connection here.
What is not mentioned in the CBC report however is that Plummer worked in the same National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg, Canada from where Chinese Biowarfare agent Xiangguo Qiu and her colleagues smuggled SARS Coronavirus to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology where it is believed to have been weaponized and leaked.this type of stuff is all over youtube (and now being censored, so many have fled to less reputable sites). And of course, if you dare to point fingers at China, you are a racist so that discourages neutral reporting.
Saturday, June 20, 2020
and then they came for the pyramids
Archeoblog reports:
the article suggests that the hashtag was started as a satire on the statue destroying mania in the USA by "activists" that has now been picked up by SJW who know little about history.
but hey, the Taliban loving types in Egypt have said the same thing:
and the article includes a discussion pointing out that the pyramid builders were fed and paid to work in the off season, so they weren't slaves per se: a better description is corvee labor
And before you look down on this primitive practice, remember it is similar to the drafting of young men to join the military, which is no longer done in the USA but still done in parts of the world.
my opinion? I sort of agree that memorials to some of the guys (and yes, they are "guys" not gals) need to be removed from a place of honor in the public square, and maybe moved to private parks or museums, where their history can be put into context.
But allowing a violent mob to remove them sets a bad precedent: it resembles the "Red Guard" destroying the "four olds" during Mao's cultural revolution.
since when is violence the way to do this? Why not put it to the vote (collect signatures on a petition to add it to be voted on in the ballot box).
however, I suspect this trial of destruction of history by mob rule will have less long term bad effects than the Supreme court deciding that gender is a cultural choice, not a scientific fact. But since I live in the Philippines, where baklas and tomboys are just considered part of the family, I will leave this cultural insanity to the US pundits.
just when you think “Ha, no one would be that crazy…..
”Archaeologists, activists alarmed by online calls to demolish Pyramids
After bringing down statues, symbolic of racism and oppression in the US and the UK during the Black Lives Matter protests, some social media activists started calling for the demolition of the Pyramids, basing their argument on the contested notion that they were built by slaves.
the article suggests that the hashtag was started as a satire on the statue destroying mania in the USA by "activists" that has now been picked up by SJW who know little about history.
but hey, the Taliban loving types in Egypt have said the same thing:
Egyptian archaeologists like Monica Hanna (notes)... "Such calls are reminiscent of similar calls made by some extremists in 2012 to destroy Pharaonic monuments or cover them in wax in the conviction that the Pharaonic civilization was corrupt and deserved to be destroyed,"...
She was referring to ominous threats against the Sphinx and the Pyramids made by radical Sheikh Morgan Al Gohary. In an interview broadcast on the Egyptian privately owned channel Dream TV in November 2012, the Salafist cleric boasted about taking part along with the Taliban in the demolition of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan in March 2001. He suggested covering the Pharaonic monuments in wax, arguing that Sharia advocates the destruction of every pagan and idol.
and the article includes a discussion pointing out that the pyramid builders were fed and paid to work in the off season, so they weren't slaves per se: a better description is corvee labor
Corvée labor is one of the most obvious features of the centralism in ancient Near Eastern states; it manifests itself in vast building projects requiring the labor of large forces of manpower over lengthy periods. The type of labor differed from place to place and from period to period. Various terms indicative of this function are also to be found in the context of landownership, occupations, conditions of tenancy, etc. Women as well as men could be drafted for forced labor, and even animals were requisitioned for some purposes. On the other hand, certain individuals, members of certain crafts, and various social strata and settlements might be exempted from the corvée, as a personal or collective privilege.
And before you look down on this primitive practice, remember it is similar to the drafting of young men to join the military, which is no longer done in the USA but still done in parts of the world.
my opinion? I sort of agree that memorials to some of the guys (and yes, they are "guys" not gals) need to be removed from a place of honor in the public square, and maybe moved to private parks or museums, where their history can be put into context.
But allowing a violent mob to remove them sets a bad precedent: it resembles the "Red Guard" destroying the "four olds" during Mao's cultural revolution.
since when is violence the way to do this? Why not put it to the vote (collect signatures on a petition to add it to be voted on in the ballot box).
however, I suspect this trial of destruction of history by mob rule will have less long term bad effects than the Supreme court deciding that gender is a cultural choice, not a scientific fact. But since I live in the Philippines, where baklas and tomboys are just considered part of the family, I will leave this cultural insanity to the US pundits.
Kanji typing
LINK: an article about a speed typist in Japan.
UCHINADA, Ishikawa Prefecture--Don't tell Reira Matsuzuru that typing is just poking away at a keyboard. For the 15-year-old junior high speed typing champ, putting characters up on the screen is a competitive sport. The typical typing speed for adults is said to be about five minutes to type 200 characters, including kanji. But Reira can fire off the number roughly six times faster than that. In January, she punched out 1,265 characters, or about three pages containing 400 characters each, within a five-minute time limit, to nab the national speed typing championship for junior high students held in Tokyo.
June 17, 2020 at 07:00 JST
more here, on how to type Japanese:
so why do they continue to use these confusing ways to write? fast forward to 7 minutes and he explains why.
Movie of the week
Interesting, for she was one who helped preserve the beauty of the lake district in England.
And when you hear about Aunt Jemima controversy, well, I wonder why the company doesn't just change their photo to Jemima Puddle Duck:
the book, complete with the lovely pictures, is available at Project Gutenburg
Friday, June 19, 2020
Cat Item of the day (cat vs Covid)
deep learning might not be as good as some claim it to be:
it just diagnosed your cat as Covid.
“Can Your AI Differentiate Cats from Covid-19? Sample Efficient Uncertainty Estimation for Deep Learning Safety,”
according to these authors:
Fake news from Impossible Research site
(fakenews only because the authors deny it after they were caught?)
it just diagnosed your cat as Covid.
“Can Your AI Differentiate Cats from Covid-19? Sample Efficient Uncertainty Estimation for Deep Learning Safety,”
according to these authors:
Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) are known to make highly overconfident predictions on Out-of-Distribution data…. In this work, we show that even state-of-the-art BNNs and Ensemble models tend to make overconfident predictions when the amount of training data is insufficient….
Fake news from Impossible Research site
(fakenews only because the authors deny it after they were caught?)
Thursday, June 18, 2020
rural Philippines
This is in Tagalog, but it shows the mayor helping people replace their old homes. I believe this was with the help of the Rotary club.
But the mayor has been good at making sure that the development money for the poor actually goes to help the poor (a major problem here in the Philippines).
Since I moved here, the village houses like this have slowly been replaced with termite proof concrete block houses, and often they have electricity.
If you watch through to the end, you see them unpacking washing machine and a rice cooker, both of which are major work saving appliances for women: traditionally the wash is done by hand in a tub, which you have to fill by hand from the nearby pump, and then dump and refill the water to rinse the clothing. The wash machine is just to wash clothing: lets you wash and then the water runs off by itself... you still have to wring and dry it, but you can also buy a "spin dryer" that will spin most of the moisture out of the clothing.
Land reform meant that farmers have more income but the real improvement can be hinted at from a small sign in a nearby rural town that I saw 15 years ago: cellphone calls to Saudi available here. that was before that village had electricity. Now it is a developing town.
in this village, it shows the family making sandals: That is a major business here.
But it shows how poverty is still a big problem here but that it is slowly improving.
But the mayor has been good at making sure that the development money for the poor actually goes to help the poor (a major problem here in the Philippines).
Since I moved here, the village houses like this have slowly been replaced with termite proof concrete block houses, and often they have electricity.
If you watch through to the end, you see them unpacking washing machine and a rice cooker, both of which are major work saving appliances for women: traditionally the wash is done by hand in a tub, which you have to fill by hand from the nearby pump, and then dump and refill the water to rinse the clothing. The wash machine is just to wash clothing: lets you wash and then the water runs off by itself... you still have to wring and dry it, but you can also buy a "spin dryer" that will spin most of the moisture out of the clothing.
Land reform meant that farmers have more income but the real improvement can be hinted at from a small sign in a nearby rural town that I saw 15 years ago: cellphone calls to Saudi available here. that was before that village had electricity. Now it is a developing town.
in this village, it shows the family making sandals: That is a major business here.
But it shows how poverty is still a big problem here but that it is slowly improving.
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
new Chinese outbreak?
hmm... the reporters actually show some scepticism about the official story that it came from imported Norwegian Salmon.
bbc report is also a bit suspicious about the official story (if you watch the entire film).
family news: still partly shut down
we are still in partial lockdown: Still new cases in some cities so they couldn't lift it yet, although things have partly opened.
Manila and our area will continue the partial lockdown through June 30.
they are worried about a second wave, especially with a lot of people returning from overseas.
there are a lot more people on the streets, and with more people are going outside, there will be more checks that you are wearing a mask, and fined if you fail to wear one.
a lot of Filipino health care workers have gotten sick, including those working overseas.
A lot of our relatives are medical workers, either here or overseas. Nickey, who works in the UK, is especially at risk since she does intubations in ICU, but so far has tested negative.
Keep them in your prayers.
Sigh.
and hunger season is starting, and how will folks eat if they lost their jobs, either here or as OFW? (many families depend on the money sent to them from their relatives who work in other countries or on ships).
with all the anger in the US news, maybe what you need is to watch a Filipino commercial:
-------------------
the Rappler is in the news again: No, not for being partly funded by a CIA front, but because the main reporter was convicted of libel
The libel law here is strict, and now they have extended it to the internet pages.
This is partly to save the innocent from deliberate lies, but alas it also protects the guilty who can pretend they are innocent and since it's easy to postpone the case for years, or persuade the court you did nothing wrong (often after witnesses withdraw their evidence or just disappear), it means one cannot discuss things that everyone knows is true but you don't have anyone on the record to prove it, hence you can be attacked or convicted for libel.
So for us, it meant I couldn't blog about the mayor who ordered the hit on his rival ten years back, that killed several bystanders including our nephew, until the courts actually indicted him. Nor can I write why he stayed out of jail so long, nor where he got the money to enable him to do so, because I have no solid proof.
The world press is spinning this to harm Duterte, but he remains popular because, for better or worse, he is doing a good job lin keeping us safe against drug related crime and now against the virus, despite all the problems here.
our mayor is big on the social media: To find out what is going on, we just check his facebook page.
The latest:
he will subsidize internet connections (there is a question about doing classes over the internet if the epidemic continues)/
and in other news: we are getting a dialysis center that will treat the poor.
due to diabetes and high blood pressure, we have a lot of people who need dialysis.
Our cousin Emie was on dialysis when she died recently, but she could afford the fee.
But the cook's son died of renal failure last year.
Yes, I know: The elderly who have diabetes and renal failure have a limited prognosis, but you know it's hard for families to just watch their loved ones die when they know that dialysis will prolong their lives for months or for a few years.
Sigh.
Manila and our area will continue the partial lockdown through June 30.
they are worried about a second wave, especially with a lot of people returning from overseas.
there are a lot more people on the streets, and with more people are going outside, there will be more checks that you are wearing a mask, and fined if you fail to wear one.
a lot of Filipino health care workers have gotten sick, including those working overseas.
A lot of our relatives are medical workers, either here or overseas. Nickey, who works in the UK, is especially at risk since she does intubations in ICU, but so far has tested negative.
Keep them in your prayers.
Sigh.
and hunger season is starting, and how will folks eat if they lost their jobs, either here or as OFW? (many families depend on the money sent to them from their relatives who work in other countries or on ships).
with all the anger in the US news, maybe what you need is to watch a Filipino commercial:
-------------------
the Rappler is in the news again: No, not for being partly funded by a CIA front, but because the main reporter was convicted of libel
The libel law here is strict, and now they have extended it to the internet pages.
This is partly to save the innocent from deliberate lies, but alas it also protects the guilty who can pretend they are innocent and since it's easy to postpone the case for years, or persuade the court you did nothing wrong (often after witnesses withdraw their evidence or just disappear), it means one cannot discuss things that everyone knows is true but you don't have anyone on the record to prove it, hence you can be attacked or convicted for libel.
So for us, it meant I couldn't blog about the mayor who ordered the hit on his rival ten years back, that killed several bystanders including our nephew, until the courts actually indicted him. Nor can I write why he stayed out of jail so long, nor where he got the money to enable him to do so, because I have no solid proof.
The world press is spinning this to harm Duterte, but he remains popular because, for better or worse, he is doing a good job lin keeping us safe against drug related crime and now against the virus, despite all the problems here.
our mayor is big on the social media: To find out what is going on, we just check his facebook page.
The latest:
he will subsidize internet connections (there is a question about doing classes over the internet if the epidemic continues)/
and in other news: we are getting a dialysis center that will treat the poor.
due to diabetes and high blood pressure, we have a lot of people who need dialysis.
Our cousin Emie was on dialysis when she died recently, but she could afford the fee.
But the cook's son died of renal failure last year.
Yes, I know: The elderly who have diabetes and renal failure have a limited prognosis, but you know it's hard for families to just watch their loved ones die when they know that dialysis will prolong their lives for months or for a few years.
Sigh.
Monday, June 15, 2020
Sunday, June 14, 2020
Health care's racism problem
the AAFP says doctors have to be educated in racism, or something to that effect. Actually, that has been part of medical school in recent years, along with multicultural sensitivity. It wasn't there when I attended 50 years ago, of course: Heck, up to a few years before I attended, my medical school had a black quota (one or two token blacks allowed in) and a Jewish quota (too many applied so they limited how many could attend), and NO women admitted.
and the problems of blacks trying to get medical care was a big problem: Private docs left the neighborhoods as they got more black residents because of crime (stealing narcs). Many also left in frrustration, or joined local HMOs, because of low reimbursement and high amount of complicated paperwork required if you see a large percentage of people on Medicare or Medicaid.
But you know violence and robbery against medical personnel isn't a black problem per se: My office in Idaho was robbed for narcs and money, and despite being a misionary in two war zones, the only place I ever got shot at (My windows shot out with a high powered rifle, which missed me because I slept on the floor in a different room) was in South Dakota...and Lolo always carried a pistol in his car when he made house calls in the wilds of Appalachia.
Similarly, thanks to regulations, defensive medicine, and the need to document every unimportant thing to get payment has made the practice of medicine worse.
Doctors do like it when patients are appreciative, and when they get a decent salary. But the big change in medicine is the application of the big business model to medicine; you know, talking to patients is not "efficient" and you might not be paid if you take too long discussing trivia with your patients, even though this investment in time and friendship means an increase in trust in the physician, and often means you know the real problem behind the visit (e.g. pregnancy in a teenager, spousal abuse, etc.).
In private practice, I could write off the bills of my poor patients and even supply them with medicine, but now HMOs and their ilk won't let patients be seen if you don't have that insurance, and a lot of docs wouldn't see Medicare/Medicaid patients because it required a lot of paper work, paid poorly, and you often had your bill turned down for missing a box, or you might be "audited" if the reviewer didn't like what you die (I handled two of these cases for Lolo: One was an infection they said should have been treated outpatient, even though it was in Appalachia and she lived alone miles away and had no transport; another asked why he didn't ask a psychiatrist to see the patient for "anxiety", when there was no psychiatrist at that hospital: indeed, the nearest psychitrist was 30 miles away and took weeks to get an appointment, and GPs took care of most people with anxiety and other routine psychiatric problems, and probably better than the psychiatrist, since we usually knew the reason behind the panic attacks (again, things like spousal abuse, a druggie son stealing money, a unexpected pregnancy in the patient or her daughter, or an unfaithful husband).
I mainly worked in rural medicine, among poor white/Hispanics and later I worked in the IHS. There were many problems: The main one is that we had to work long hours, with little support for problems.
Referring folks was a problem because of distance, money, etc. I left the USA before Obama care so don't know if it was better.
but prejudice against ethnic minorities was the big problem, even in "Minnesota nice": And this prejudice/ cultural insensitivity included all races.
And in the inner city, I suspect it is worse, because at least in rural areas, we usually got to know our patients, whereas in big city "clinic", it meant sitting and waiting for a doctor who often a stranger (and often from an upperclass upbringing or from overseas, so even the best motivated might not recognize the cultural nuances).
you know, if you are white and you sit too long, or the doctor misunderstand you, or seems to dislike you and stays quiet, or ignores what you are saying, you figure he/she had a bad day or maybe you are at fault.
But if you are black (or even Hispanic like my sons) you attribute the problem to racism. And I'm not sure this isn't true in many cases.
referral of our Objibwe patients was always a problem because often they didn't make eye contact and might not ask questions. Indeed, many simply didn't keep their appointments at all, even though we often supplied transportation for referrals to distant hospitals.
And if there was so much misunderstanding that can be interpreted as prejudice against AmerIndians, and poor whites, and Hispanics, the racism, which is often subtle and due to the cultural gap, is worse.
so what is being done? paying the bill helps, but not if the clinics nearby are substandard (been there, done that) and full of people who are overworked and can't take time with their patients. Don't believe me? Ask anyone who gets care from the VA or IHS.
Reminds me of when there was another scandal about poor care in Philadelphia General hospital: when the report was handed to the mayor, he said: if it's that bad, close the place down. So he did, and since the poor had Medicaid or Medicare, they obtained care from the private sector.
I think Trumpieboy essentially said the same thing about the VA: if they can't get care in a timely manner, let them use the private sector.
as for the IHS: the dirty little secret is that in some areas, the Indian casinos have allowed the tribal authorities to run their clinics and hospitals: this was just starting when I left the USA and it was a big improvement.
so what are the plans for the inner city discrepancy in medical care?
here it is, in CEO speak:
of course, the devil is in the details. But Trumpieboy was a CEO and probably has a plan or two up his sleeve.
The problem is that every news report about the plan starts with a paragraph of snark and innuendo, and will not report anything positive about the plans, so it's hard to see if the actual plans will work.
so it's hard for me to judge this from 12000 miles away.
and the problems of blacks trying to get medical care was a big problem: Private docs left the neighborhoods as they got more black residents because of crime (stealing narcs). Many also left in frrustration, or joined local HMOs, because of low reimbursement and high amount of complicated paperwork required if you see a large percentage of people on Medicare or Medicaid.
But you know violence and robbery against medical personnel isn't a black problem per se: My office in Idaho was robbed for narcs and money, and despite being a misionary in two war zones, the only place I ever got shot at (My windows shot out with a high powered rifle, which missed me because I slept on the floor in a different room) was in South Dakota...and Lolo always carried a pistol in his car when he made house calls in the wilds of Appalachia.
Similarly, thanks to regulations, defensive medicine, and the need to document every unimportant thing to get payment has made the practice of medicine worse.
Doctors do like it when patients are appreciative, and when they get a decent salary. But the big change in medicine is the application of the big business model to medicine; you know, talking to patients is not "efficient" and you might not be paid if you take too long discussing trivia with your patients, even though this investment in time and friendship means an increase in trust in the physician, and often means you know the real problem behind the visit (e.g. pregnancy in a teenager, spousal abuse, etc.).
In private practice, I could write off the bills of my poor patients and even supply them with medicine, but now HMOs and their ilk won't let patients be seen if you don't have that insurance, and a lot of docs wouldn't see Medicare/Medicaid patients because it required a lot of paper work, paid poorly, and you often had your bill turned down for missing a box, or you might be "audited" if the reviewer didn't like what you die (I handled two of these cases for Lolo: One was an infection they said should have been treated outpatient, even though it was in Appalachia and she lived alone miles away and had no transport; another asked why he didn't ask a psychiatrist to see the patient for "anxiety", when there was no psychiatrist at that hospital: indeed, the nearest psychitrist was 30 miles away and took weeks to get an appointment, and GPs took care of most people with anxiety and other routine psychiatric problems, and probably better than the psychiatrist, since we usually knew the reason behind the panic attacks (again, things like spousal abuse, a druggie son stealing money, a unexpected pregnancy in the patient or her daughter, or an unfaithful husband).
I mainly worked in rural medicine, among poor white/Hispanics and later I worked in the IHS. There were many problems: The main one is that we had to work long hours, with little support for problems.
Referring folks was a problem because of distance, money, etc. I left the USA before Obama care so don't know if it was better.
but prejudice against ethnic minorities was the big problem, even in "Minnesota nice": And this prejudice/ cultural insensitivity included all races.
And in the inner city, I suspect it is worse, because at least in rural areas, we usually got to know our patients, whereas in big city "clinic", it meant sitting and waiting for a doctor who often a stranger (and often from an upperclass upbringing or from overseas, so even the best motivated might not recognize the cultural nuances).
you know, if you are white and you sit too long, or the doctor misunderstand you, or seems to dislike you and stays quiet, or ignores what you are saying, you figure he/she had a bad day or maybe you are at fault.
But if you are black (or even Hispanic like my sons) you attribute the problem to racism. And I'm not sure this isn't true in many cases.
referral of our Objibwe patients was always a problem because often they didn't make eye contact and might not ask questions. Indeed, many simply didn't keep their appointments at all, even though we often supplied transportation for referrals to distant hospitals.
And if there was so much misunderstanding that can be interpreted as prejudice against AmerIndians, and poor whites, and Hispanics, the racism, which is often subtle and due to the cultural gap, is worse.
so what is being done? paying the bill helps, but not if the clinics nearby are substandard (been there, done that) and full of people who are overworked and can't take time with their patients. Don't believe me? Ask anyone who gets care from the VA or IHS.
Reminds me of when there was another scandal about poor care in Philadelphia General hospital: when the report was handed to the mayor, he said: if it's that bad, close the place down. So he did, and since the poor had Medicaid or Medicare, they obtained care from the private sector.
I think Trumpieboy essentially said the same thing about the VA: if they can't get care in a timely manner, let them use the private sector.
as for the IHS: the dirty little secret is that in some areas, the Indian casinos have allowed the tribal authorities to run their clinics and hospitals: this was just starting when I left the USA and it was a big improvement.
so what are the plans for the inner city discrepancy in medical care?
here it is, in CEO speak:
yes and that includes the VA and IHS hospitals, at least in the past when I was still in practice, this was the case. Presumably it includes inner city health care, but I have no expertise in that.
we’re confronting the healthcare disparities, including addressing chronic conditions and investing substantial sums in minority serving medical institutions. We have medical institutions in some areas of our country that are a disgrace. I was going to say not up to standard. They’re much worse than not up to standard. They’re a disgrace. Take care of it.
of course, the devil is in the details. But Trumpieboy was a CEO and probably has a plan or two up his sleeve.
The problem is that every news report about the plan starts with a paragraph of snark and innuendo, and will not report anything positive about the plans, so it's hard to see if the actual plans will work.
so it's hard for me to judge this from 12000 miles away.
Saturday, June 13, 2020
Virus statistics and other controversies in the news
Virus news: We haz it:
refer to this PDF
Strategypage mentions the batflu in various articles also:
this one describes the terrible outbreak in Iran, where "flattening the curve" was not done early.
Our driver is delivering rice to Manila again this weekend, to restock the high end supermarkets that carry our organic rice. To get into Manila, he has to have a pass saying he is healthy, and then pass a checkpoint to check for fever. I don't know if he has had a test for covid infection yet: so far they haven't done full testing of people without symptoms.... something to keep in mind when you read about the high number of cases in the USA: its because of the large number of tests being done.
A large percentage of cases have few or no symptoms, and of course, many of the deaths of old people will be seen as old age, heart attacks, congestive heart failure or COPD/Asthma. Due to the latest storm system, and spring pollen, my asthma has been bad for the last week. No, not covid: it goes away after an hour when I stay in my room. (because of aircon with hepafilter). Aircons are now cheap enough for the middle class, but the economic shutdown hit them, so many probably can't afford to pay for their electric bill: heck, many can't afford to pay for their BP and heart medicines.
and coming up: Hunger season, when farmers run out of rice and money from the last harvest and the new rice crop is just starting to grow. Kuya will be asked for a lot of loans to keep his contract farmers going. And with the world wide economic slowdown, with many OFW losing their jobs (cruise ships, oil industry, maids, caregivers who lost their jobs) are returning home: this article says 300 thousand are expected to return home in the next 3 months and will need to be in quarantine.
Sigh.
However there is health screening here: To enter a mall here (or even to go into the bank) requires a temperature check and to step onto disinfectant, and in some cases the guard will spray your hands (and check your bags for weapons, a practice which has been going on for years). And you have to wear a mask everywhere.
the SP article I quoted above also mentions the rate of virus in nearby countries:
------------------
in other news:
this SP article describes how China is militarizing the Spratlys islands in the West Philippine sea .
and then there is the threat of war between India and China...
Sigh.
and this StrategyPage article describes the latest ISIS threat: small quadricopter drones and the Israeli system to stop them.
one hopes that the White House has one of these anti drone weapons system: if you don't know how they could be used to kill a president etc. just watch the "Angel is fallen".
so is the President in danger? Of course. Nothing new there. What has changed is that the opposition party, who weaponized the Russia kerfuffle and then the Ukraine nonsense, has now weaponized racism protests, and the MSM is busy gaslighting people in their coverage;
And if it did happen, it wasn’t that bad.
refer to this PDF
Strategypage mentions the batflu in various articles also:
this one describes the terrible outbreak in Iran, where "flattening the curve" was not done early.
On a daily basis, most Iranians have to deal with the covid19 virus. Iran is hard hit in part because the government initially dismissed possibility of the virus posing a serious threat. Compounding that, the government deliberately released false data about nationwide covid19 infections. ...At first Iranian leaders, especially the religious ones who control the government dismissed covid19 as something Allah was using to punish infidels (non-Moslems). That was incorrect ...\
To make matters worse, neighboring nations attribute their local covid19 outbreaks to visitors from Iran. Turkey, Iraq and Afghanistan have been most affected by this.and more here, in an article about the Philippines which is accurate.
While the health impact of covid19 has been minimal in most of the country, especially outside urban areas, the various Islamic terrorists and leftist rebels have been less active. Many of the rebels and Islamic terrorists are part-timers or have family nearby who are at least concerned about the virus showing up. ..
The Philippines has suffered nine covid19 (coronavirus) deaths per million population so far and has 200 known cases of the virus per million people.
that's us. Luckily the lifting of the lockdown has started. This will make it easier for the rice to be planted, and the distribution chain to be kept intact. And the tricycle drivers are back to work (motorcycles with side cars used for local travel/shopping). This means my cook, who has several sons who drive tricycles, won't be asking for extra money to keep her family fed.In early April the government ordered a nationwide lockdown to halt the spread of the virus and make it easier to treat those who have it. That quarantine is now being eliminated, especially in the rural areas where there have been far fewer covid19 cases.
Our driver is delivering rice to Manila again this weekend, to restock the high end supermarkets that carry our organic rice. To get into Manila, he has to have a pass saying he is healthy, and then pass a checkpoint to check for fever. I don't know if he has had a test for covid infection yet: so far they haven't done full testing of people without symptoms.... something to keep in mind when you read about the high number of cases in the USA: its because of the large number of tests being done.
A large percentage of cases have few or no symptoms, and of course, many of the deaths of old people will be seen as old age, heart attacks, congestive heart failure or COPD/Asthma. Due to the latest storm system, and spring pollen, my asthma has been bad for the last week. No, not covid: it goes away after an hour when I stay in my room. (because of aircon with hepafilter). Aircons are now cheap enough for the middle class, but the economic shutdown hit them, so many probably can't afford to pay for their electric bill: heck, many can't afford to pay for their BP and heart medicines.
and coming up: Hunger season, when farmers run out of rice and money from the last harvest and the new rice crop is just starting to grow. Kuya will be asked for a lot of loans to keep his contract farmers going. And with the world wide economic slowdown, with many OFW losing their jobs (cruise ships, oil industry, maids, caregivers who lost their jobs) are returning home: this article says 300 thousand are expected to return home in the next 3 months and will need to be in quarantine.
Sigh.
However there is health screening here: To enter a mall here (or even to go into the bank) requires a temperature check and to step onto disinfectant, and in some cases the guard will spray your hands (and check your bags for weapons, a practice which has been going on for years). And you have to wear a mask everywhere.
the SP article I quoted above also mentions the rate of virus in nearby countries:
I posted about the virus on my Africa blog: LINK1 LINK2 like the Philippines, most cases will just be seen as another fever, and so the data from that continent will be inaccurate. keep that in mind when you read this article from ALJ:Neighbors Malaysia have 257 cases and four deaths per million, Singapore has 6,483 confirmed cases per million and four deaths per million while Indonesia has 114 cases per million and seven deaths per million.
There are 183,474 confirmed infections and 81,367 recoveries, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts warn fragile healthcare systems in many African countries could be overwhelmed in the face of a severe outbreak of COVID-19, the highly infectious respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus.this is a video discussing African covid (from April so the actual numbers are out of date) to put things into perspective:
------------------
in other news:
this SP article describes how China is militarizing the Spratlys islands in the West Philippine sea .
and then there is the threat of war between India and China...
Sigh.
and this StrategyPage article describes the latest ISIS threat: small quadricopter drones and the Israeli system to stop them.
one hopes that the White House has one of these anti drone weapons system: if you don't know how they could be used to kill a president etc. just watch the "Angel is fallen".
so is the President in danger? Of course. Nothing new there. What has changed is that the opposition party, who weaponized the Russia kerfuffle and then the Ukraine nonsense, has now weaponized racism protests, and the MSM is busy gaslighting people in their coverage;
That didn’t happen.
And if it did happen, it wasn’t that bad.
And if it was that bad, that’s not a big deal.
And if it is a big deal, that’s not my fault.
And if it was my fault, I didn’t mean it.
And if I did mean it…
You deserved it.
The 60 secret service men who were injured when "peaceful" (/s) demonstrators tried to breach the WH fence has not been ignored or underplayed by much by the MSM;
but shame to the military "officers" who condemned the WH for threatening to send in troops (which had been done in past riots but not done by Trump) or condemned that Trump used NG troops to protect buildings and monuments in Washington DC after the mayor refused to send the cops to stop the vandalism etc. is a major threat to American republic.
I am old enough to remember when JFK told an interviewer in a woman's magazine that he actually was happy that the women's strike for peace, an anti nuke group, was active: because it helped counter the pressure he got from the Generals, (who he did not name). And I remember when Ike warned about the military industrial complex.
So should Trumpieboy worry if the generals who want to tell him what to do oppose him on many fronts? Diana West discusses the problem here.
Hmmm... is it a conspiracy theory if they name names and point to incidents that actually happened? Who do you believe: The MSM or your lying eyes?
Hmm. that too reminds me of a previous movie:I am old enough to remember when JFK told an interviewer in a woman's magazine that he actually was happy that the women's strike for peace, an anti nuke group, was active: because it helped counter the pressure he got from the Generals, (who he did not name). And I remember when Ike warned about the military industrial complex.
. This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience Eisenhower warned, "[while] we recognize the imperative need for this development...We must not fail to comprehend its grave implications we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence…The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
So should Trumpieboy worry if the generals who want to tell him what to do oppose him on many fronts? Diana West discusses the problem here.
Hmmm... is it a conspiracy theory if they name names and point to incidents that actually happened? Who do you believe: The MSM or your lying eyes?
Thursday, June 11, 2020
family news: Red and black rice
I went to the bank today, and since the bank is open for a full day, didn't have to wait in line (less crowded). The other good news: Three checks I tried to deposit since mid March have been deposited finally. They will take 20 business days to clear, but at least the wheels of commercial banking are again moving in our town.
and the regular shops and even the hair dresser/barber/manicure shops are open, with limited people allowed inside with a mask.
This is good, since our iron just short circuited, and needed replacement, along with brooms and mops. Joy is a business woman, and so her clothes need to be neat and ironed (I wear knits and stay home, so no problem). In the rainy, humid weather you also need to iron to get things dry.
Another "low pressure area" with rain so it's not too hot right now, I use the aircon for a filter for allergies, and to keep the humidity/mold growth down in the bedroom.
Most supplies from Manila are now arriving,...Now if they would only stock my aircon hepa filter...
Since Joy's secretary is using my computer I am still using my half dead old computer. My new computer that she is using is 3 years old and needs a new battery but that computer store is closed, so we asked the driver to buy one for me in Manila after he delivers the rice.
If I get enough extra money, I'll buy myself a new computer, but the money I had budgeted for that will have to go to pay Ruby's rent in the USA.
The school has arranged a job for a month so she has some income (on a student visa she can only do school related job, not a regular one). Presumably she will stay with her aunt for the remainder of the school break.
Kuya is arranging seeds and seedling for planting at the farm, and arranging fertilizer, fixing the equipment e.g. handplows etc. for the farmers who plant our fields and for the farmers who subcontract for our rice brand. This is hands on and keeps him busy.
Joy however is spending most of her time with the organic food coop in Bulacan, that she was asked by the gov't to set up in the next province. She is busy arranging delivery for her coop farmer's organic brown rice to Manila, but is storing her specialty (black and red) rice she has bought from other organic farmers. But the regular farmers in the coop need help to buy seeds to plant. Hopefully she will be able to buy their last crop, package and then get it to Manila since the malls and high end supermarkets are now opening up.
The shelf life of Brown rice is limited: once you mill it, you have to eat it within a few months or it goes bad.
and the good news for all of you brown rice eaters: Philippine rice does not contain arsenic.
Red rice is big during Chinese new year and is high in fiber, but a bit heavy to eat: I like it when we mix it half and half with brown rice, because it gives a nutty flavor.
and black rice is gluey and mainly used for sweets. Personally I won't eat it as rice.
With the increase in Diabetes among the middle class here in the Philippines, there is increased interest in using brown rice and these specialty rices because white rice, like white bread, causes a fast spike in glucose which is bad for diabetics.
More here:
and the regular shops and even the hair dresser/barber/manicure shops are open, with limited people allowed inside with a mask.
This is good, since our iron just short circuited, and needed replacement, along with brooms and mops. Joy is a business woman, and so her clothes need to be neat and ironed (I wear knits and stay home, so no problem). In the rainy, humid weather you also need to iron to get things dry.
Another "low pressure area" with rain so it's not too hot right now, I use the aircon for a filter for allergies, and to keep the humidity/mold growth down in the bedroom.
Most supplies from Manila are now arriving,...Now if they would only stock my aircon hepa filter...
Since Joy's secretary is using my computer I am still using my half dead old computer. My new computer that she is using is 3 years old and needs a new battery but that computer store is closed, so we asked the driver to buy one for me in Manila after he delivers the rice.
If I get enough extra money, I'll buy myself a new computer, but the money I had budgeted for that will have to go to pay Ruby's rent in the USA.
The school has arranged a job for a month so she has some income (on a student visa she can only do school related job, not a regular one). Presumably she will stay with her aunt for the remainder of the school break.
Kuya is arranging seeds and seedling for planting at the farm, and arranging fertilizer, fixing the equipment e.g. handplows etc. for the farmers who plant our fields and for the farmers who subcontract for our rice brand. This is hands on and keeps him busy.
Joy however is spending most of her time with the organic food coop in Bulacan, that she was asked by the gov't to set up in the next province. She is busy arranging delivery for her coop farmer's organic brown rice to Manila, but is storing her specialty (black and red) rice she has bought from other organic farmers. But the regular farmers in the coop need help to buy seeds to plant. Hopefully she will be able to buy their last crop, package and then get it to Manila since the malls and high end supermarkets are now opening up.
The shelf life of Brown rice is limited: once you mill it, you have to eat it within a few months or it goes bad.
and the good news for all of you brown rice eaters: Philippine rice does not contain arsenic.
Red rice is big during Chinese new year and is high in fiber, but a bit heavy to eat: I like it when we mix it half and half with brown rice, because it gives a nutty flavor.
and black rice is gluey and mainly used for sweets. Personally I won't eat it as rice.
With the increase in Diabetes among the middle class here in the Philippines, there is increased interest in using brown rice and these specialty rices because white rice, like white bread, causes a fast spike in glucose which is bad for diabetics.
More here:
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