Today, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote a column about the earthquake in Haiti entitled, “The Underlying Tragedy.” Brooks is one of the few conservative commentators I make sure to read. Although I strongly disagree with him on just about every issue, his appeal to rationality and thinking is a welcome contrast to Limbaugh, [...]
Rereading my notes from Susan Sontag’s book Illness as Metaphor, I was struck by the following connection. Sontag writes:
Etymologically, patient means sufferer. It is not suffering as such that is most deeply feared but suffering that degrades … The metaphorized illnesses that haunt the collective imagination are all hard deaths, or envisaged as such. Being [...]
From Paul Wilmott in yesterday’s NYTimes:
If banking moves from London to Switzerland, that will really hit tax revenues. For I am not at all sure what Britain does anymore. We don’t really make much. The last piano manufacturer moved production offshore a few months ago. Even Savile Row suits are made in Italy. No, the [...]
Below are some of my favorite Spanish words, phrases, and oddities. I will try to continue updating this list throughout my time in Peru. Some of the lexical nuggets are surely more Peruvianisms than formal and proper español, but that’s just fine with me. ¡Adelante!
Dar a luz
This phrase is used to mean “to give birth,” [...]
A few years ago, I read Paul Farmer’s book Infections and Inequalities (1999). Farmer is one of the founders of Partners In Health (PIH), which is the umbrella institution encompassing Socios and Salud, where I currently work. (Socios En Salud is the translation of Partners In Health into Spanish.)
Although Farmer is better known in the [...]
Well, Cow Parade has made its way to Lima. Billed as the “largest and most successful public art event in the world,” Cow Parade is, well, a very large public art event and fundraiser with very large and very numerous cows. Confused yet?
Here is how it works (I think): The CowParade organization selects a number [...]
I would like to mention a certain quirk about we tall people — los altos — that those less vertically gifted may not realize. Specifically, no matter the culture divide, our height brings us together.
Let’s say that — in a series of clever, courageous and oddly humorous events — I uncover a burgeoning mafia drug [...]
I recently traded emails with a good friend about several aspects of Islamic dress — especially as it pertains to women — that I would like to share here. My friend is Muslim himself and has spent significant time in Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, England, Canada, and the U.S. My primary question for him [...]
I was just going through some old photographs with a friend here in Lima. The photos brought back many vivid memories, memories I probably wouldn’t have been able to mentally summon without the assistance of an image. The photos transported me into the past, but also emphasized how much life has changed. I was reminded [...]
I am currently reading Venciendo la TB-MDR: 20 Testimonios de Expacientes con Tuberculosis Multidrogorresistent, a beautiful little book in which twenty former multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients describe their lives before, during, and after their accompaniment from Socios En Salud and subsequent cure.
Complete cure for MDR-TB is possible, but it requires such patients to endure 18-24 [...]