Why My Uniforms Are Wrinkled

Do you remember my excuse for not keeping up with my mail? Well, I also have an excuse for not doing my ironing. Frosty's actually lying on my lab coat, pressing new wrinkles into it. Thanks Frosty.

Look down below Obi. It looks like he actually threw my iron off the board onto the floor and then tried to hide it with the cat bed, but I doubt he's that conniving.

Frosty's favorite position for napping is on his tummy, straddling something.

Obi proudly shows off his multi-toes footsies.

A stretching cat is a work of art.

Zzzzz.... have a good nap.

No, don't worry about me. I'll just wear a wrinkled hanky to work tomorrow.

Ishmael Beah

As my kitties were taking toasty naps I was reading a book Martha sent me that I would like to write about. "A Long Way Gone" was written by Ishmael Beah, a young man from Sierra Leone who was forced to become a child soldier in order to survive. At age 11 the civil war (basically rebels against a corrupt government) came to his village to kill everybody and burn everything down. He ran into the forest to avoid being killed and some time later joined the army as a way to survive. For more than two years he was drugged and brainwashed to perform horrific violence against the rebels and anyone who stood in the army's way. Ultimately he was one of the few boys to be selected for rehabilitation through a Unicef program, where he was then selected to speak at a UN conference in NY. It was here that he met the American woman who would ultimately "adopt" him (his entire family perished in the war) and bring him to the U.S. He finished high school here and attended Oberlin College and now, at age 27, works for several organizations to bring about awareness of the plight of child soldiers.

I found his story very moving and very well written. Moreover, when I finished the book I sought out interviews to get a better feel for this young man. It is hard to imagine this quiet, gentle, soft-spoken man doing the violent acts he so eloquently describes in the book. He explains that as a boy all alone with his family dead, his very survival depended on participating in and living with an organized group. It was either that or be killed by the rebels. The army also drugged the boys to keep them revved and showed them violent movies (such as Rambo) to keep them pumped. His mission now is to help others understand that these young boys need to be helped, that through patience and compassion they can have their humanity returned to them.

If you would like to see a few of his interviews I will provide you with the links to these now. Here is a YouTube video, here is a Jon Stewart Comedy Central video, and here is a CNN video. I really enjoyed Terry Gross's interview with him on Fresh Air on NPR; she asks the best questions!

As I was reading and listening to all these things I couldn't help but remember Anahita's job with the IRC, International Rescue Committee. I seem to remember her talking mostly about refugees from Somalia, but very likely there were participants from Sierra Leone as well. It was at about this time that Saeed and I saw, "Lost Boys Of Sudan," about young men trying to make it as refugees in the U.S. It made me want to bring them all home, but this is not the solution. People should not have to be refugees to lead safe lives; the best scenario is one in which each country's government makes having a decent life possible for all its citizens.

Snoozing In Front Of The Fireplace

Although it's nice and warm again we went through a cold snap with the rest of the country. Fortunately we have a wonderful fireplace that gets to be a very popular spot with anyone who wants to take a toasty little nap.

Tippy and Obi become totally comatose in the warmth of the fire.

Uh-oh, here comes Chappu. She tries to squeeze in with Obi. The two of them sometimes do sleep together but this particular bed is too small.

Chappu's next step is to lick Obi...

... and keep licking in the hopes of getting in.

No cigar. Chappu settles nearby where it's still nice and warm.

Poor Obi, woken up from a perfectly good nap!

Another Candidate Quiz

For those of you who took the quiz on Shirin and Gabriel's blog here's another one. I was distressed by my third place match on their quiz; on this quiz I still matched with Kucinich and Gravel but replaced Guiliani with Hillary. I got this quiz from the site Gabriel used to obtain Huckabee's position points: http://www.ontheissues.org/.

I think the problem with all of these quizzes are the impossible questions (Agree or Disagree: drug use is immoral; support more funding for drug enforcement > what if you think funding drug enforcement laws is good but that drug use is not immoral? Do you choose to agree or disagree with this statement?) and the limited answers from which you must choose one answer. Often I don't like any of the answer options.

If nothing else, the quizzes have started me thinking more seriously about my position on the issues. This is a good thing because I have been so tired of the hoopla about the candidates that I've quit tuning in. Maybe it's because they've been campaigning since Bush started his second term!

My New Year's Resolution

My resolution is to work harder towards ending animal suffering. Someone once said she doesn't feel that her individual effort (in this case her vegetarian diet) makes a difference. I explained that each drop adds to others to form puddles, then lakes, then oceans, and in this way makes a difference. We may not always live to see the change, but things do change.

On this blog I've written about vegetarianism and animal testing. Another area of animal torture is in medical school labs. I've followed this issue for years and even written letters to about eight med schools encouraging their programs to go to alternatives. Now feast your eyes on the following article in today's New York Times. This came about after years of hard work by animal rights advocates. It gives me hope.

January 1, 2008

Killing Dogs in Training of Doctors Is to End

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

By next month, all American medical schools will have abandoned a time-honored method of teaching cardiology: operating on dogs to examine their beating hearts, and disposing of them after the lesson.

Case Western Reserve School of Medicine was the last to use the method, but the dean, Dr. Pamela Davis, said it would no longer do so after this month.

On Nov. 19, New York Medical College in Valhalla joined New York’s 11 other medical schools and announced that it would close its dog laboratory.

Among the 126 American medical schools, 11 still sacrifice animals for teaching, according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an advocacy group that tracks the practice. Other than Case, none of them use dogs.

Francis Belloni, a dean at New York Medical College, said his students now used echocardiograms to study heart function, and the subjects were live medical students rather than live dogs. Dr. Belloni said the use of animals was not done lightly and had value, but added that students would “become just as good doctors without it.”

A Visit From Our Extended Family

A gray rainy day was made sunny by a visit from the Yousefian family! Saba is on break from med school and so we were only missing Neda (and Anahita and Gabriel and Shirin) who is still in Mauritania in the Peace Corps. And although I didn't get any pictures of it (because I was lighting the candles) we celebrated Lua's third birthday with cupcakes and the Happy Birthday song, sung first in English and then in Farsi, although no one ever knows all the words to the Farsi version! One would think you couldn't possibly eat cupcakes after a big breakfast but Lua had taken us out for a walk in the rain and we replenished our appetites sufficiently.

Add to this some delicious eggs with potato and and onion and some big, fresh, soft flatbread and fresh coffee and tea and it was a feast.

Here we are discussing what it's going to be like when Saba visits Neda in Mauritania in two days. Apparently the village will be celebrating the arrival of their guest with the sacrifice of a sheep. My brain doesn't even want to go there.

Saba explained that she has one more year of academics then a year of residency and then the dreaded board exam.

Meanwhile, Lua was determined to get some action going with the cats. Frosty let her pet him a couple of times and then he'd had enough. A hiss or two and she backed off. Same with Obi. Chappu, however, will tolerate anyone who will pull a string for her to chase.

Even Marzieh couldn't resist the string game! And this is something that Chappu never gets tired of playing, never.

Saeed has been trying for hours to get some lovin' from Lua. Finally after getting a smooch from her Dad...

... she relents and gives her Uncle Saeed the hug and kiss he's been after!

We hate to see them go; Saeed doesn't even get up, hoping they'll stay longer!

Grisly Secret

In a continuation of my last entry's theme I am passing on a new company to boycott: Mars. I supposed I should be posting about Proctor & Gamble since they make so many things (list of products) and I've been boycotting them for years because of their horrendous animal testing practices, but this one recently came to my attention.

Mars is currently funding a deadly experiment on rats to determine the effects of chocolate ingredients on their blood vessels. Experimenters force-feed the rats by shoving plastic tubes down their throats and then cut open the rats' legs to expose an artery, which is clamped shut to block blood flow. After the experiment, the animals are killed. Mars has also funded cruel experiments in which mice were fed a candy ingredient and forced to swim in a pool of a water mixed with white paint. The mice had to find a hidden platform to avoid drowning, only to be killed and dissected later on. In yet another experiment supported by Mars, rats were fed cocoa and anesthetized with carbon dioxide so that their blood could be collected by injecting a needle directly into their hearts, which can lead to internal bleeding and other deadly complications.

Mars' top competitor, Hershey's, has pledged not to fund or conduct experiments on animals, so buy Hershey's candy (product list) instead of: M&Ms, Snickers, Skittles, Milky Way, Starburst, Three Musketeers, Twix, Dove, M-mazing, Cocoavia, Ethel M, Lucas and Munch. Then you can satisfy your sweet tooth and your conscience.

And kudos to Gene Beal who bought all his family members "Hershey's" t-shirts!

Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine

Is this a cute image or what?

I have long been a member of PCRM and this was the image on the Christmas card they sent this year. In a nutshell PCRM is a non-profit cooperative between physicians and laypeople to promote health awareness and new ways (more compassionate) to conduct medical research. Every day there seems to be new and often conflicting information about cancer, diabetes, and heart disease - one doesn't know what to believe! PCRM only reports on the most reliable, rigorous research and attempts to distill it all down to something understandable and applicable. For example, they've been very active in promoting and reporting on research in the area of diabetes. If you go to their website there's an entire section pertaining only to diabetes and what you can do to prevent it and actually minimize its effects if you do get it. There are links to many things: an archive to breaking medical news, The Cancer Project, information about preventative medicine, nutrition and recipes, ethics in science and research, ethics in animal experimentation, a list of compassionate charities and what criteria are used in determining which organizations are compassionate, PCRM's role in changing federal nutrition policies, and on and on and on. I especially love their emphasis on ethics. Here's a video (narrated by Alec Baldwin) about PCRM. I hope you go to their website and explore a bit.

Addendum: As you shop you can also put your dollars towards compassionate choices. Here's a GREAT list of companies that DON'T test on animals. And here's list of companies that DO test on animals - avoid them if possible.

To Fix Or Not To Fix?

I'm talking about "red eye." No, not the condition for which you use ophthalmic drops, nor the late flight you take during the night, but the photographic phenomenon that occurs that makes us look creepy. Look at the first pic - both of their eyes are red. Now look at the second pic. Gabriel's eyes are still red. For some reason my PhotoShop software fixed Tita's but not his. But do hers look normal? I feel like my choices are between creepy and spooky.

original photo with red eyes

Tita with her BLACK eyes. Spooky, man.

Which do you think looks better?

So, What's In Your Suitcase?

You know what they say about one person's garbage being another person's treasure. Well, Cha Cha eats really expensive prescription dog food that his Aunt Shirin can get as a result of being a vet student. The challenge for Tita is to take it back to California with her.

Step #1 Grab glass scooping device

Scoop the stinking stuff into plastic ziplock bags.

Try not to gag from the smell as you zip each bag shut.

Place strategically into suitcase.

Can't you just hear the guys at the airport opening her bag..."Eewww - what the @#$%&* is that?!" And guess what was in her other suitcase?

An entire bag of dog food. She tried to pack the other bag that way too but then there was no room for her own belongings so she divided it up into smaller amounts. Oh, what a mother will do for her child. We have the rest of the stinky stuff here waiting for her next trip home.

The moment of truth: the weigh in. Each bag weighed 50.8 lbs. I spoke with her later and she said the airport weighed her in at 50 lbs. each.

I wish I could hear Cha Cha crunching happily away on his stinky treasures. I'd also like to hear the joy in Tita's voice as she reunites with her best friend - she really missed him.