Tag Archives: health

Putting the Old in Old Country

Part of being in Portugal means visiting very old relatives in very old little villages. I’m an expert at that since my parents and I have been doing this practically every summer since I was a toddler. Naturally it is a very interesting and enriching thing to do mentally and spiritually, for the obvious reasons. But the sad and confusing thing underlying much of the emmigrant-family dynamic, is what happens to the elderly who stay in the country of orgin.

pt070602I’m referring to caring for the elderly… who will do it.. who can do it.. and how to handle it if you live on the other side of the ocean, or.. say.. europe. A daunting issue.. with lots of mixed feelings, guilt, fear, bittersweet moments. It is rather amazing to see how some families do it. While it is depressing to see how many elderly are left stranded in tiny towns, isolated from the world other than kind hearted neighbors who check up on them occasionally.

It leaves me planning in my head… daydreaming.. of how to handle different scenarios. And being one of the few younger generation located somewhere in Europe (as opposed to the US) I think of myself as the first line of emergency response, should anything ever happen here in Portugal. But what kind of emergency response would I be? How equipped am I to handle whats needs to be done in that moment of need?

But as I mentioned earlier… this is not just about me or my family. This is a global tradition.. handled in so many different ways. It is the way of the world that individuals or families migrate to a new country for professional, political, financial, health, etc. reasons. Lots of attention is given to that reality. But what of the older generation seemingly left behind. How do they cope with being so far from their children and younger family?

Like a Heat Wave, Burnin Through Europe’s Heart

Well.. another successful day without spontaneously combusting. I’m sure you probably heard, here in the Europe, there’s another one of those heatwaves where everything gets messed up and some people even die.

Believe what you want about global warming. But I’m telling you Amsterdam can’t handle this, so something must be up.

If you wander through the usually green and lovely Vondelpark, which is like our Central Park.. it is now one big cloud of dust. It is as if thousands of pigpens have ascended on the park and kicked up as much dirt as possible. After a leisurely jog through there Im sure my face turns a shade of brown.

But nevermind the surface details. This heatwave really slows down the normally bustling pace of life in the netherlands. At work these days, we’re told to go home at four oclock, because the hot weather and lack of air-co is considered dangerous for our health. Whenever I hear this I think of all the little chinese children in factories who make my clothes… they would probably find this policy amusing or simply.. hard to believe.

Fortunately almost no one has airconditioning anyway, and a majority of this city’s citizens ride their bikes as the primary mode of transport. So at the very least, we’re not responding to a temperature crises by putting extreme strain on the power grid ala France or Florida. Oh wait.. we probably are anyway.

Tonight at the vlogger meetup, Gabe B spoke of rain tomorrow night. Rain, I laughed, it will never rain in Amsterdam again… thats so pre-global warming.

Plan Your Emergency Exit

I’m from New Jersey, and I realize that automatically gives me a penchant for sarcasm or exaggeration. But my message for you on this American holiday, which celebrates an alleged “indepedence” of some sort, is that I urge you to draw up a plan for leaving the country in the event that it becomes necessary.

I repeat. Plan what your exit would look like, if push ever came to shove. At your workplace, there is not doubt a little sketch somewhere of which exit to take in the event of a fire or other emergency, someone has laid out the plan for you, should that time ever come. And when a fire does happen, it is unlikely that you will sit at your desk until the flames spread over your body. NO! You would most certainly respond to signs or indicators, such as the smell of smoke or an alarm.

Now take it beyond your workplace, beyond the building you call your home, and look at the broader picture in terms of country. You’re probably often preached to about how you live in the greatest country on earth. A pleasant idea, surely, but there are a long list of reasons that tell another story… mostly a story about a country with plenty of bad aspects and good ones as well. And like any country, especially one where the government is very powerful, and a small percentage of people live at a super high standard while a much larger percentage teeter on the brink of poverty; the situation can become highly unstable, and above all, hazardous to you health or the future of your life or family. And like the possibility of an emergency occurring at home or at work, every American should now have a plan as to where – in terms of country – they would move to in order to escape the effects of such an emergency.

At this point, those in denial will stop reading. Those who are scared or blissfully ignorant will probably click over to some other site as well. Obviously the idea of moving your whole life, leaving the home you’ve probably had a hand in building, can be a very paralyzing and insane sounding idea. But you most find the strength to act; and the first, most basic act, is to make an exit plan.

Maybe you have friends in Canada. Perhaps the drive to Mexico isn’t a long one. A growing number of Americans are finding ways to get the passport of their heritage country, where their grandparents came from. Whatever your method, go over the steps in your head. Sources of money, how to meet the needs of you or your children. A contact you haven’t caught up with in a long time that would be able to help. Any and all of these are important.

Whatever your plan looks like, make no mistake that you need one. If you look back at history you’ll recognize the empires and you will realize the United States is the current empire. On the same hand, you may see familiar signs that led to the decline of past empires: military expansion and crusades to conquer foreign countries, lack of resources (fiscal control) when it comes to government spending, undermining of laws and legal decisions by the government or leader, etc. The list goes on, and a growing number of these factors can be identified as true for the present day United States.

So when you bar-b-q today and gather with family, blocking out all the bullshit and negative feelings that you can sense eminating from almost every statement or decision announced by the government at various levels. Forgetting for a brief moment about everything you notice on a day-to-day basis regarding the horrible state of the national health, education, and personal finances for a majority of the population. As you try not to think about the fact that even in the last week, elected officials have called for the free press to be arrested or shot, and to stop investigating and stop reporting on the actions of the government, because we are supposed to simply trust the government and fear an act called terrorism above anything else. When you have finished the watermelon and the veggieburgers, and succesfully blocked all this out today – start making that emergency exit plan.

Because if you take a deep breath, you might smell the thick smoke all around you.

Radioactive Policies

Rain has cooled things in Berlin, hopefully that includes excessively jubilant Spain fans. And while the cool air blows through the apartment, I’m digging around into certain issues from the past week. One of which involves Canada, where the province of Ontario has decided to build new nuclear powerplants, the first North American plants in three decades, following years of financial, political, and safety crises.

This plan gets the support of the conservative Prime Minister, of course. And it certainly rings true with the rhetoric of his neighbor to the south. But the way pro-nuclear lobbyists and the big companies behind them refer to this as a nuclear “renaissance” is disturbing. Be it in Canada, Berlin, Japan, or Brazil… the world still has not figured out how to store radioactive waste in a safe way. Better yet, we don’t even know IF that can be done at all. In Nevada they want to put it under a mountain. In Europe they seem to pass it back and forth by rail between Germany and France. In Japan… what do the Japanese do with their waste?

So instead of taking the focus off nuclear, since it is simply not viable if you value human lives and health, they’ve decided to just keep going.

I was considering all this in the context of an article I was reading in the Courrier International about the WIPP radioactive waste storage project in New Mexico. Here’s the aspect of the project that I find ponderous: They’re trying to devise a system of warning that will be understandable for future civilizations. Think about it — the radioactive material is still dangerous in 250,000 years. So by that point, language as we know it will not exist… at least not in its present form. So how do you alert people not to dig there? That this is deadly waste we left behind because we needed energy and it was good business for a few important individuals.

A True Alternative Journalist

DogsEvery year I get invited by a friend at the U of Amsterdam who teaches a class on media, to do a guest lecture about alternative journalism internet and non-internet based. It is one of my favorite traditions, where I get to talk about all things from alternative weeklies to online newsites to blogs, vlogs, etc. Despite all the turmoil in the offline world, the internet continues to grow as a place for alternative voices and styles when it comes to journalism.

One of all time favorite weeklies in the united states, is the Seattle Weekly. I’ve never been to Seattle, and I’ve never actually had the pleasure of touching a real copy of the paper. But over the past 5 years, I’ve had the pleasure of reading it online, and it won me over long ago for its national news and yes- local news in the Seattle area. Which interests me in the general sense.

This evening I was skimming their feed, and right after I noted they had won several awards for their outstanding alternative reporting, I came accross an article that embodies the greatest part of being truely alternative:

Geov Parrish is a longtime journalist at the Seattle Weekly. On May 17th he wrote an article criticizing the US government’s Medicare Part D perscription drug plan. That in itself is certainly alternative. But here’s what makes it extra classic: he uses himself as the subject; his health and his expenses as someone who could and perhaps should enroll in the plan. He breaks down the numbers, his own personal situation, and presents evidence and arguements as to why the plan is a disaster, for him and most anyone.

Here’s a quote:

And if I can’t make sense of all this—I am a well-informed, health-care-savvy middle-aged guy—what about my 81-year-old mother? And if Mom, who’s still pretty healthy and sharp, is befuddled by all this (and she is), how’s someone who’s elderly and physically or mentally compromised supposed to cope?

As I read it, although the medicare plan itself is insanely confusing, I recognized the strength and the true alternativeness of this article. Big mainstream journalists with all there so-called professional integrity and distance from their topics would never admitedly write about a subject they’re openly critical of while sharing personal details to develop an article. Some people like that fact. Myself, I admire the Seattle Weekly and Geov Parrish; I’m glad to see the alternative spirit lives on, offline and on.

bm132 Summer of Yeast 2006, Madge Weinstein and the MacDocMan Take on Circumcision

A break from my usual style of podcast. Madge Weinstein passed through Amsterdam yesterday, before eating her way to Hungary, she and I went to visit the famed Dutch vlogger and pro-foreskin crusader, the MacDocMan. I should note that he didn’t know he was being recorded initially, but I thought the conversation was interesting and fun and hopefully he agrees because otherwise I’m sure he can afford a lawyer and I certainly can’t. If you’re fragile and you can’t stand talk about genitals, this show is not for you… wimp.

Useful Links:

MacDocMan’s Vlog on Male Circumcision
Madge Weinstein Yeasts Across Europe
Is the Stock Market on the Verge of Collapse?