FINEST KIND CLINIC AND FISHMARKET.... Discussing medicine, culture, and the joys of cooking Pansit.
Masaman's video today is about the SEAsia and EAsia diaspora. The Philippines is mentioned at ten minute in.
Yes, lots of Filipinos in Alaska: My son met lots of them when he worked in Sitka (also more recently, Mexicans moving there too).
a more detailed video about the Philippine immigrants into the USA:
the Story about Haitians eating pet cats has spawned a thousand memes, most of which are really funny.
Except for two things:
One: racism (why Haitians only mentioned, when it was someone from Hondoras who ate a bald eagle, and a man with a Muslim sounding name who was one of the teens who ate the beloved swans in upper NewYork State?)
And the second reason is more serious: Killing animals in religious rituals is on the rise.
This is not just Haitians: There are reports of this being done in the Hispanic communities including by the drug cartel types. And I remember when my son's Christian school (and a local Russian Orthodox church) found dismembered animals on their doorstop: Placed there by local kids who were playing with Satanic rituals.
as for eating cats: I am old enough to remember the jokes about cats disappearing after a tens of thousands of Vietnamese refugees were settled in the USA.
It is ironic that the meme seems to upset the so called cat ladies who support Harris and seem to love her abortion policies. So killing cats bad, killing the child of my womb, good?
Sigh.
This is not the first time huge numbers of migrants arrived in the USA: this happened after Viet Nam, and also in the Mariel boat lift.
The difference might be sponsors trying to help them resettle: Church and families sponsored those from Vietnam, and many from Cuba had families or friends to help them assimilate.
I suspect most of the present group of migrants, like the Mariel group, will contact friends or family, settle down and get jobs. True, many will get jobs that could be filled by unemployed Americans, (but that is another story for another day) but in 20 to 30 years they will just be another 'merican.
Of course, the urban legends about eating cats is not purely racism, but a symbol of protest about placing huge numbers of migrants from different cultures and who don't speak English into cities unprepared to help them integrate into US society.
From the right wing NYPost:
The tale, however, hints at much larger concerns about the recent influx of migrants into Springfield — a city of 60,000 people about 45 minutes west of Columbus. Officials say up to 20,000 Haitian immigrants have flowed into the city in the last several years, putting a huge strain on city services.
So what is to be done?
Presumably there are stories about who is helping these migrants settle into a different culture, but they are few on the internet. Maybe these stories are in local papers (example this one ) and get little national publicity.I know the Catholic church is one of the major groups helping, But most of these stories on line are press releases, and most stories are several years old and out of date.
Resettling people into a new country is a bit complicated: We are talking about not just emergency food and shelter, but helping them to understand American society.
Many will eventually settle into communities where they have established families or friends to help them assimilate.
Indeed, under new policies, some are allowed into the US with proper papers if they have family here. These countries include Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, Cuba and Haiti and more recently Ecuador.
Reuniting families should be a priority, as should allowing people in danger to enter the US, as long as they have been screened for criminal or medical problems
Dirty little secret: many are young men, and young men from any society who are away from the restrictions of family and neighborhood restraints, tend to get into mischief, including violence and crime. Not just migrants but the kids of migrants who are having adjustment problems in their teenage years.
LINK:
Somali Bantu parents call for end to youth violence, form group to make neighborhoods safer...
In the last year-and-a-half, almost 700,000 people crossed the Darién Gap, a swampy jungle at the Colombia-Panama border, on their journey north, often to the United States. During their journey across this difficult terrain, Venezuelans, Haitians, and Ecuadorians, as well as people from countries in Asia and Africa, have experienced serious abuses, including sexual violence. Dozens, if not hundreds, have lost their lives or gone missing trying to cross. Many have never been found. The situation in the Darién Gap is the result of a range of failed policies across the Americas.
one way that the Biden administration is trying to protect the real refugees (as opposed to smugglers, drug gangs, or adventerous young men looking to get rich in the USA by finding a job) is their Safe Mobility Initiative.
The Safe Mobility Initiative, launched in June 2023, is part of the U.S. government’s holistic approach to promote safe, orderly, and humane migration management. The Safe Mobility Offices (SMOs) help individuals find support and access a wide range of services in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Guatemala.
one trivia fact: so many Chinese were flying to Ecuador to migrate into the US that they are considering closing their airport to these Chinese travelers.US ‘Safe Mobility’ resettlement programme is working but too narrow: Report https://t.co/o5dCq4X5vO
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) September 12, 2024
A story about these Chinese migrants was covered by ChannelNewsAsia (A Singapore site):
The Pan American highway from Ecuador to the north goes through my son's town in Colombia, which now has Chinese restaurants and hotels with signs in Chinese.
this is a huge problem, and although as I noted there are some policies trying to limit the influx, they are inadequate. And as long as the border stays open, more people will risk their lives to find job opportunities and freedom.
Many are coming right now, worrying that Trumpieboy will shut down the migrant pipeline and the border.
But you know, if he does, I suspect he will not just export the criminals and those who refuse to fit into US society, but he will arrange an amnesty to those living and working in the USA, similar to the policies of Ronald Reagan.
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there is cobalt that could be mined in Idaho.
so why did America's cobalt mine get shut down? NPR:
Closed before it opens
But then, something rather shocking happened. The price of cobalt–around $40 a pound in early 2022–started to drop. The price fell from $40 a pound to $35. It was at $25 a pound by the time everyone was gathered in the mountains of Idaho for the ribbon-cutting.
of course, since this, like other minerals or industries, are vital to America's economy, there is an argument that the government should subsidize these industries.
the white house put out this policy paper discussing the problem. in 2022 and how the government grants could help, and how to streamline regulations that are stopping mining etc.
I knew there was a new mission by Space X, but I was not aware that it was being funded by one of those going into space.
Billionaire Jared Isaacman has taken off in a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for what he hopes will be the first ever privately funded spacewalk...
A vanity project, some might say, but in addition to experiments and trying out new designs for space suits, it has long term goals.
Ms Gillis said that it was a necessary part of Space X’s plans to send people to other worlds....“ Space X has huge ambitions to get to Mars and make life multiplanetary. In order to get there, we need to start somewhere. And the first step is testing out the first iteration of the EVA spacesuit ...
and the billionaire funding the project is one of those going into space:
“Isaacman is actually the most experienced astronaut of the crew – he alone has been to space before, on another self-funded mission with SpaceX, where he also took the position of Commander. In the context of the mission, he is the natural choice,” he told BBC News.
This short film discusses the program (and uses the word space cowboys to describe these astronaut businessfolk)
the term space cowboys is an old theme in science fiction, but the term has been used in Cowboy Bebop, the Clint Eastwood film Space Cowboys, and the song by Steve Miller's band. And the success of various private space exploration reminds me of an old almost forgotten TV series Salvage One...
Lolo loved to take me dancing, but alas I am two left feet and not good at it. I remember one time we went to a hospital party and he ended up dancing with all the nurses and I was happy sitting with their husbands talking about football instead.
I took a dance class in college so was able to dance, but I wonder how many people take dance classes nowadays?
Step One: Get a tutor
Step two: Practice.
Here is the famous scene from the King and I:
You probably know about the American movie with Richard Geer,
but have you seen the original Japanese film it was based on? The elderly lady who runs the dance studio says that she got interested in ballroom dancing by watching the King and I...
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A small meteor exploded near the NE coast of Luson and lit up the sky ( one meter larger). no one hurt.
a bit far from here, but I did see a flash in the sky NE of here about that time, without thunder. But since we are having thunderstorms on and off, I just figure it was distant lightning.
The bad news: My step son is into all of the conspiracy theories.
The good news: My granddaughter said if I actually went on tictok, instead of just reading what the "ain't it awful" clickbait right wing sites post about it, I would find that the kids are returning to old fashioned values.
True, it might mean stable same sex marriages and families without marriage papers instead of traditional values of the past, but it also means that the social influencers of the kids are rejecting the open hedonism and nihilism seen in Hollywood and Netflix etc. films, which no longer mirror societal values of the youth, but continue to promote the nihilism of the aging boomer ideas of the sixties.
I have a blog posting boring essays about a lot of boring medical stuff. Here are links if you want to check out any of the subject matter..
Mpox: Not caught by nearby contact.
Good news: Sitting next to someone with MPox on a long airplane ride did not lead to anyone getting infected..
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more correctly this is Dr. C's soon to be deleted video discussing an article that found nano crystal like structures being formed spontaneously and associated with the mRNA covid vaccines.
I included links to the article in question and to the debunkers of the article, who mainly point out that the writers lack expertise in medicine etc.
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663 people who euthanized sick chickens were screened if they were sick, 109 who were sick were checked for bird flu, but only 9 tested positive and they weren't very sick, and mainly suffered from pink eye/conjunctivits.
I commented that maybe the high mortality reported in Asia might be because mild cases were not reported, and the ones who died might have had malnutrition related poor immune systems.
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Will toxic chemicals not be investigated?
Yup. chemicals probably induce metabolic syndrome/obesity and diabetes in vulnerable populations. But you know, it also means they have enough to eat. Get rid of these chemicals, and voila, malnutrition related deaths because chemicals mean more food grown, and less food spoilage...and you get fat people because now there is enough food to eat instead.
as for Autism: Uh, up to 50 years ago these kids were called retarded and institutionalized and often died at a young age from infectious diseases.
and left out of these dicsussion: measles does kill children and can cause retardation via measles encephalitis.
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Using drones to spray for mosquitoes
a link to this Japanese news site video.
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Caregivers the invisible people
Link to video only
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Polio in Gaza: 🧵 1/6
— COGAT (@cogatonline) August 18, 2024
💉 95%+ Gazans are immunized against polio
💉 Israel is working with @WHO & @UNICEF to get 1.3m more vaccines into Gaza
💉 UNICEF campaign will cover 600,000 children under 10 for new mutation
》》》 pic.twitter.com/j1RsS1ZSyo
the Laptop from hell. Supposed to be only about his drug and sex addiction, but the censorship of the story is more than being about a man's psychological problems and how the press hid the story to help Biden win the election: It's about money. Bribes from the Ukraine and China... Who wudda thot?
The left used to care about politicians who got rich, often at the expense of public welfare, by being bribed by capitalists and big business or even foreign governments paying them as "lobbyists", but when you hear about people getting rich from bribes to spy on the US from foreign countries, you wonder what is going on.
Like this story: Why would China care about the state of New York? more at the story.
more here:
Craig Singleton, senior China fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, said the case illustrated how China tries to use covert actors to shape political decisions at all levels of government in the United States. “Just as TikTok has raised concerns about data collection and influence operations, this situation underscores the lengths to which China is willing to go to infiltrate and manipulate American institutions from within,” Singleton said. “The charges against Linda Sun illustrate a broader strategy by China to infiltrate and exert influence at all levels of U.S. governance, from local to federal, by exploiting trust and access within political circles,” he said.
A lot of this is about trying to stop Taiwan from doing it's own propaganda to keep the US informed about what is going on there.
But it's not just Taiwan: Remember all the push back and censorship of the lab origin of the Wuhan virus?
Sigh
and this doesn't even point to the money from the Ukraine or Israel or Iran.
No wonder the powers that be are trying to censor twitter. And when I check on old blog posts, I notice a lot of the youtube videos have been taken down. WTF?
in the meanwhile, China is increasingly trying to steal resources in the West Philippine sea by "colliding" with Philippine coast guard ships, (i.e. deliberately ramming these ships) even within the economic zone of the Philippine islands.
And then we have the mayor from China who turned out to be a spy. Is this about money laundering and the Chinese mob? Or about spying on a nearby military base.
Who knows?
Well, anyway, I am safe here in rural Luzon.
Uh oh: there is a nearby military base.
and of course China hacked my Federal OPM file along with a 22 million others who served in the federal government, so I am probably on a list somewhere in China.
and more rain.
Ruby is still trying to get her papers to leave the country for her job in Thailand, which means slugging around Manila whose streets flood all the time due to poor drainage systems.
Dengue is starting up again in the Visayas. Ironically the rain will wash away the larvae of mosquitoes in the drains but once the rain stops they will breed again. How fast do they breed? Well, if we don't change our dog's water or the water for our flowers every two days, we find wrigglers (mosquito larvae) growing there.
Sigh.
otherwise nothing else going on here.
Tropical Storm Enteng: 2 reported dead in Central Visayas – NDRRMC https://t.co/ztcDgPoaIE
— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) September 2, 2024
I am watching old tucker Carlson discussions in the background while I surf the net and clean the room.
This discussion (first hour and a half) resembles the conspiracy theories I learned about in the sixties when some of my acquaintances were early anti war protesters (no I supported that war, because I saw communist takeover more dangerous than keeping a corrupt dictatorship... and I was right, although the massacres and ethnic cleansing etc was not given a lot of press after the fall of Saigon)
so here is Tucker spouting conspiracy theories of security operatives being the man behind the curtain manipulating the news to run the USA.
nonsense. Or maybe not: Anyone remember the Church committee?
I have lived a lot in third world hell holes, and tell you the truth, support a lot of this CIA manipulation, because I also saw how the KGB (and now China) is doing the same thing, including taking over poor countries to exploit their resources (e.g. in Africa, when the KGB supported dicatorships and liberation movements but more recently, by the Wagner group seeking gold, China and rare earth metals).
So I am bemused when what is sometimes called the deep state is now pushing fake Russian conspiracies cooked up by Hillary to used to spy on the Trumpites,
This is why Twitter is such a disaster for them: and this is why Musk got left wing reporters (italics mine) to uncover this, because until recently it was the left who investigated this type of government overreach.
So there might be a reason to do this for geopolitical reasons, but why did they censor the covid origin and treatments so much? That doesn't make sense
I have no personal information about a lot of this: except for a single sentence where he mentions the Philippines.
at 1h:16 they mention that the CIA couldn't manipulate the Philippine election. True: Duterte joined at the last minute and had grass root support. Background: The CIA hated him and it was mutual because he hated the CIA after they helped a drug pusher in Davao escape justice. So suddenly the western press could only report negative things on Duterte the CIA arranged Omidyar funding of Rappler, which was against the law, but never mind: there was a full court press pushing the story that trying to prosecute the lady reporter who illegally accepted this money was a poor innocent victim. She even received a Nobel Peace prize for this farce.
I hate to say this, but the trailer is better than the movie.
The movie morphs back and forth from the life of Flannery O'Connor to scenes from her books. But it didn't use cues to let you know this (for example, in films usually dreams are tinted blue, or there are other clues that you have left the timeline for flashbacks).
I have read a few of her stories/books and recognized some of the scenes, but what about those who had not read anything? And why did the movie highlight these scenes? One suspects the scenes should point to experiences in her life. But they didn't. At least for an unsophisticated person like myself,, they seemed a distraction: They just seem to be inserted sort of like TV inserts commercials into programs that interrupt the flow of the story but don't have anything to do with the program.
and it leaves out her personal life: what scenes were when she at college or when she was at home? why didn't she marry Robert Lowell (There is a quick scene with him asking to marry him: did she have an affair with him? Did she refuse marriage because he was bipolar and violent at times? Did she refuse marriage because he was divorced and she was a good Catholic? Did she really love him at all?).
Summary: If you know about her life and writings, watch it. If not, it is a snooze fest.
Trivia fact: Maya Hawke: The daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman) plays Flannery and deserves an award for her acting.
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now, as a physician, let me add some stuff about her disease, Lupus, a very nasty auto immune disease that affects not only the joints but other organs.
Some background on Lupus and the illness of Flannery O'Connor illness from a doctor's point of view:
Lupus has a high rate of psychiatric problems like depression and anxiety, and the film doesn't mention that the treatment (she mentions pituitary gland injections, which is an old treatment to increase your level of cortisone, without the side effect of inducing adrenal atrophy) can cause hyperactivity or even psychosis.
Since she died, not of Lupus but after surgery, one wonders if she had a sluggish adrenal gland that caused her to die because no one recognized the danger of addisonian crisis from stressful surgery. Or did she die of renal failure (the most common cause of death in lupus patients) because the stress of surgery tipped her borderline functioning kidneys into failure? Did the lupus and years of steroid treatment weaken her immune system so that she died of infection?
Not much written about her medical crisis with surgery: PBS notes:
Doctors inform O'Connor her anemia is caused by a fibroid tumor and needs surgery. She continues to revise "Revelation" while in the hospital, hiding drafts under her pillow. The surgery reactivates her lupus. She grows weaker from post-surgery infections. O’Connor is readmitted to Baldwin County Hospital, falls into a coma, and dies early on Aug. 3rd. At age 39, O’Connor is buried next to her father in Milledgeville on Aug. 4th.
Sigh.
you need to give patients who were on steroids for any reason a high dose of cortisone/prednisone during any stressful illness or surgery or they will go into Addisonian crisis:
trivia fact: This happened during back surgery on JFK, who had lowgrade Addison's disease but was not diagnosed with it No one was aware of his borderline Adrenal function (that could not respond to the need for more steroids with stress, so he went into shock), and they saved him by giving him steroids, and his case report was actually written up in the literature.,,
PBS had a documentary on her life if you want more information
and A Good Man is Hard to find audiobook:
...
Yale courses has this lecture on her writings.
actually awhile back, we planted seeds in our gardens and kept them until they reached three to four feet high. We then transplanted them to our farm to get larger. We were growing them to use the young trees for poles, not to let them grow huge for lumber, which would take years.
Alas, this being the Philippines, someone "harvested" them one night and took them away. Sigh. So we plan to plant more the next season, when the irrigation water (shut off to dredge the canal this season) is available.
I should add this: Because of overharvesting of trees in hilly regions (which can lead to landslides ), using new lumber is forbidden. So we have to use plywood, or sometimes coconut tree lumber (which is very soft) for poles or longer boards.
sigh.
one reason to use hard woods is that they are resistant to termites, but plywood can be treated to make them termite resistant.
I was going to post a video about mahogany trees here in the Philippines, but the best ones are in Tagalog, or else are discussing growing the trees in other countries.
