Making progress with the problem of suffering...

From Save the Children I read that 4 million die in the first month of life. The leading causes of infant mortality are dehydration and disease. Major causes of infant mortality in more developed countries include congenital malformation, infection and SIDS. The most common cause of infant mortality of all children around the world has traditionally been dehydration from diarrhea. Because of the success of spreading information about Oral Rehydration Solution (a mixture of salts, sugar and water) to mothers around the world, the rate of children dying from dehydration has been decreasing and has become the second most common cause in the late 1990s. Currently the most common cause is pneumonia. Infanticide, abuse, abandonment, and neglect may also contribute to infant mortality.

In South Asia mothers often have no help in delivering other than a family member who is not trained in any way. The mothers give birth in the dirtiest part of the hut and the baby when it is delivered is laid on the dirt floor. Mothers are not allowed to nurse for the first week due to fears of evil spirits.

I am making progress with the problem of suffering. It is too personal to be posted on a blog but when it is quiet and we can talk in somewhat subdued tones I will share with you what I discovered about the problem of suffering including the children warriors of the Mai Mai in the Congo, the tens of thousands of children made orphans because of parents who died from AIDS as well as the starving in Darfur.

It is a start but it is somehwat a relief to me...

The view is a healthy one

An article in the Wall Street Journal Wednesday, October 18, 2006 reports, something all of us Noyo King crew members have known for a long time, that fishing and eating our catch is very healthy. I think hunting has a similar beneficial effect, particularly since the red meat we shoot is lower in cholesterol than chicken and is tetracyline and growth hormone free. Here are a couple paragraphs from the article:

By Elizabeth Bernstein, The Wall Street Journal

Health-conscious consumers have long been vexed by whether the health benefits of seafood outweigh the risks from toxic substances, such as mercury. Now, two large federally-funded studies have weighed the evidence and reached a definitive conclusion: Eat fish.

The reports -- one from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the other from Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston -- analyzed hundreds of research studies and determined that eating seafood may help reduce the risk of heart disease in the general population. In particular, researchers at Harvard found that people who eat one to two servings of fish per week -- especially varieties higher in fatty oils, such as wild salmon -- may reduce their risk of death from heart attacks by 36 percent and the rate of death in general by 17 percent."

Sunday afternoons...

When I was a kid there was something on TV called 'Adventure Theater'. It came on Sunday afternoons after dinner and before church in the evening. I am sure I saw every Errol Flynn movie and 'Robin Hood' was my favorite. The likes of the Tarzan movies, starring the best of them all, Johnny Weissmuller, as well as Sherlock Holmes with Basil Rathbone were standard fare. Nazis were often the enemy of everyone. I miss the Charlie Chan series. My interest in the detective/drama genre has spanned the decades. The 'Inspector Morse' series on PBS is probably my favorite in recent years. 'Hill Street Blues' in its prime, minus the Francis and Joyce bathtub scenes, is likely a close second. There have been so many good ones it is hard to pick just one or two. Poirot with David Suchet deserves honorable mention, as does Helen Mirren's portrayal of DCS Jane Tennison also on PBS. PD James character Adam Dalgliesh has been made into several series and I have listened to a number of audio books on the I pod.

This afternoon in New York RA and I have the challenge of sorting through the online Zagat guide for restaurants in walking distance from the Marriott. Since we have been here we have had lunch at a French Brasserie, a Turkish supper of warm flat bread, humus and babaganoosh along with kabobs. Earlier today it was an Asian fusion Sunday brunch of dim sum.

The best activity on Sunday afternoons, (in addition to a nap), is dinner with family and enjoying the grandsons. I hope one day I can share the adventures of Charlie Chan with them. Of course they are sans any special effects and digital technology. I do not recall ever seeing a chase scene in any Hollywood movie until 1968 with Steve McQueen in 'Bullet'.

Grandson J has enjoyed the 'Pink Panther series with us but I wonder will anyone be interested in those classics of Adventure Theater?

Where is the outrage? This makes me sick!

I saw this Piece
on my Internet news provider, al Jazeera. I have to ask how can any of us sleep comfortably at night and know this kind of thing is happening? How can any of us hug a child or a grandson and know this sort of thing is going on and we are doing nothing about it? One of my grandsons is five, that means any time he could be taken by an army in the Congo. I ask myself why and I ask God why? I have no answers. How many grandchildren does George W. Bush, Dick Cheney have or Donald Rumsfeld? Where is the outrage? Where are those who could stop this? Who are the arms merchants supplying the combatants with their rocket propelled grenades, automatic weapons and small arms? Are the weapons, Russian, Chinese, or American?

To borrow from Sir Bertrand Russell, "The whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer."

A warning to you, if you read the following:

"At least 11,000 children in Congo are still missing or in the hands of armed groups three years after the end of the country's bloody civil war, a leading human rights group has said.

Amnesty International said on Wednesday that the Democratic Republic of Congo's scheme to release child soldiers - some of whom were as young as six-years-old - and reintegrate them into civilian life was failing.

"The government has not only failed to release thousands of children who remain with armed forces or groups but new child soldiers continue to be recruited, including some who were only recently demobilised and reunited with their families," said Tawanda Hondora, deputy director of Amnesty's Africa programme.

Some 40 per cent of children taken were young girls, most of whom remain unaccounted for.

Some government officials regarded them as "dependants" of adult fighters, who considered them sexual possessions and did not feel obliged to hand them over.

Most of the children who had been through the government reintegration scheme had since received little or no educational support or help to readjust, the organisation said.

"The new government must make it their first priority to ensure that all children associated with armed forces and groups are released, protected and provided with meaningful educational and income-generating opportunities to enable them to stay within their communities," Honduras said.

"This is the only way to prevent the re-recruitment and further abandonment of these children."

The central African country's five-year conflict, from 1998 until 2003, drew in six foreign armies, sparked a vast humanitarian crisis and claimed the lives of more than three million people.

It is currently preparing for a presidential run-off election on October 29 between Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former rebel chief turned vice president, and Joseph Kabila, current president of the country.

The run-off follows landmark July elections meant to smooth the transition of the former Zaire to democracy, although the elections have been marred by violence in the country's lawless north and north-east."