Captain Ferguson (not his real name) gets up early in the morning, and has breakfast with his wife and children. At the office, Captain Ferguson sits in front of the computer on and off for almost eight hours every day. At the end of the day he heads back home. Captain Ferguson’s wife is glad to see him back to discuss the events of her day. He does the same, with one omission. By most measures, it has been a beautiful day.

Beautiful, that is, if you don’t consider Captain Ferguson’s omission. While sitting in front of his computer, he was directing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, carrying powerful bombs to land in distant countries. He presumes, but he is not totally sure, that he has hit the right target. After the bombs exploded four suspected terrorists were killed. Four fewer criminals the U.S. will have to deal with.

A later investigation will later reveal that they were not terrorists but rather they were parents and children on a birthday party. As a result of the attack, four adults and eight children were killed, and several more seriously injured.

Captain Ferguson, of course, was unaware of the consequences of his actions. He only thinks that he has a somewhat tedious but rewarding job, since he is an important piece in the fight against terror. Only later he will know the truth, when the outcry of the victims’ relatives cannot be silenced any longer. The predictable apologies will not bring back the dead to life, nor heal those injured.

Let’s compare this made–up scenario with reality.

During the first year of the Obama administration, there were 51 drone attacks, compared to 45 drone attacks during President Bush’s two terms in office, according to The Year of the Drone, a report by the Washington-based New America Foundation. The report also states that the civilian fatality rate has been 32 percent in drone attacks since 2004.

“Drones are currently killing people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. It should be noted that the United States is not at war with any of those countries, which should mean in a sane world that the killing is illegal under both international law and the US Constitution,” states Philip Girald, a former CIA officer and fellow of the American Conservative Defense Alliance.

Girald’s observation is confirmed by Mary Ellen O’Connell, a Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School. In a research paper entitled “Unlawful Killing with Combat Drones” Professor O’Connell says, “The CIA’s intention in using drones is to target and kill individual leaders of al-Qaeda or Taliban militant groups. Drones have rarely, if ever, killed just the intended target. By October 2009, the ratio has been about 20 leaders killed for 750-1000 unintended victims. Drones are having a counter-productive impact in Pakistan’s attempt to repress militancy and violence. The use of the drone is, therefore, violating the war-fighting principles of distinction, necessity, proportionality, humanity.”

In the meantime, the U.S. military plans to more than triple its inventory of high-altitude drones capable of 24-hour patrols by 2020. General David Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command, which includes both Afghanistan and Iraq, declared in a speech last January, “We can’t get enough drones.”

War, we should sadly acknowledge, is not a Nintendo game. And innocent people’s lives are not expendable. If we don’t admit the tragic dimension of war we will be cursed by its consequences.

Cesar Chelala, a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award, is a contributing editor to The Globalist.

According to an article in the LA Times, quality-blind layoffs harm teachers and students. The authors, Timothy Daly and Arun Ramanathan, are encouraging an end to quality-blind layoffs, and a shift to a system that favors job performance over seniority.

As teacher layoffs begin, and as a new teacher myself, it is impossible not to see that there are injustices to the quality-blind system. New teachers are fired first, no matter what, and teachers that are well known to be ineffective are allowed to keep their jobs, year after year. There is something distinctly demoralizing about this system. After all, if your talent and skills in no way effect your yearly income or your job security, than what motivation is there to continue to excel?

Teacher's unions opposed to changing the quality-blind system, point to the fear that older, more experienced teachers will be let go because they make significantly more than new teachers. Enter injustice number two. As a new teacher, I am making about thirty thousand less dollars a year than my close to retirement co-workers. That's a huge difference in pay, and yet no matter how many extra hours I put in, no matter how hard I work to make my classroom an effective place of learning, I must watch in horror as I inch my way up the pay schedule in such pitifully small increments that the idea of ever making a proper living seems but a mirage in the far off distance of my future.

Enter merit pay. Why, if hard work so often goes unnoticed and unrewarded, would any teacher oppose the chance to be rewarded for their extra work? Because merit pay will be attached to test results, that's why, and merit pay attached to test results will lead to a further crippled curriculum. Many teachers point to the unfairness of merit pay for those who work with at-risk youth, at continuation schools, with special needs kids, or in low income neighborhoods. However, we need to shift our attention away from this arguement. Obama and Arne Duncan merely reply that merit pay will be based on improved scores, not on overall scores. So, you could be working at a low performing school, but as long as your students continually test better, you will be in line for merit pay right there with the teachers working in wealthy communities, where test scores are always higher.

This response is full of flaws, but pointing them out seems a waste of time because from the student's perspective, who gets merit pay and who doesn't hardly matters. What matters is that schools, desperate for high test scores, will continue to provide students with the type of learning that works better than Ambien. So, while we argue about quality-blind layoffs, and merit pay, and step and column pay scales, our children are being force fed meaningless content at such an extravagant rate that we are more at risk of becoming imagination deprived automatons than ever before.

There are no easy answers to how to make all kids learn, and how to ensure all schools are safe and productive places of learning. How to layoff teachers fairly, how to swallow huge budget cuts without impacting students, and how to remedy an unfair pay schedule are monumental challenges with many answers, few of them perfect. However, solving every problem by assigning a standardized test, designed to make testing companies billions and provide students with nothing, is not the answer.

STAR testing begins in a couple of weeks. Because I love my school, I have to encourage my students to do well. What I would like to tell them is, revolt! All of you! Organize and revolt! This test is optional, it means nothing to you, but it has the potential to destroy your school. In fact, if Meg Whitman becomes governor of California and gets her way, your school will be given an "F" or a "D" if we're lucky, because you guys don't score well enough on the STAR. Everyone, right now, stand up and walk out. If every student in California refused to test, then the government would be unable to judge you, and your schools in this way.

But I'm a new teacher. I'm not tenured yet. I'm at the bottom of the pay scale. I can't afford to incite a revolution. So, next week, I'll probably go over some literary terms, I'll beg my students to test well, and we'll bribe them with snacks and a BBQ if only they will try. Then my students, who I love and respect, will be given a test that is so hard, they will be lucky if they know half of the answers. If they do try, most of them will leave the experience feeling the way they always do in school. Stupid. Next year, they will get a paper in the mail confirming their suspicions. Thanks standardized test companies, and inane legislation. Thanks for nothing.

You can keep your stupid merit pay. Just leave my students alone.

“The way you saw the earth shake, that’s how our bodies are shaking now,” said a member of the grassroots anti-violence group Commission of Women Victim-to-Victim (KOFAVIV by its Creole acronym). She was speaking at a meeting about violence against women and children since the earthquake January 12.

The venue of the meeting was KOFAVIV’s new headquarters: a tarp in a displaced persons camp in Port-au-Prince. All the women of KOFAVIV lost their homes in the disaster, while more than 300 lost their lives.

Though there are no statistics on rape during the 10 weeks since the earthquake, reports abound. The following one was relayed by Helia Lajeunesse, a child rights trainer with KOFAVIV. Lajeunesse’s granddaughter, four-year-old Timafi Youyoute (not her real name), lives outside the town of Jeremie with her mother, her mother’s boyfriend, and her newborn baby sister. On March 14, Timafi’s mother sent her to the neighbor’s house to buy a jar of rice. As she was leaving the neighbor’s yard, 17-year-old Dekatrel Jacqué offered to take her back home. Instead, he took her to the cemetery. There, he covered the little girl’s mouth with his hand and proceeded to rape her.

An elderly neighbor, Merlise Louis, saw the incident and tried to grab the boy. He ripped the woman’s shirt and threw her down on the ground. When she shouted for help, he threw a rock at her and ran.

Timafi’s mother went to the police and filed a warrant for the rapist’s arrest. He reportedly fled town.

Photos of Timafi show a short, chubby girl with full cheeks, round eyes, a serious expression, and a head full of colored barrettes. Following the rape, she bled heavily and ran a high fever for two days. She ate almost nothing for more than a week.

In the absence of any official tracking of women and girls raped, except for a United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)-led effort just initiated in 10 displaced persons camps in Port-au-Prince, KOFAVIV keeps its own tally. As of March 21, KOFAVIV outreach workers had tracked 230 cases of rapes in 15 camps, or 15.3 incidents per camp. Hundreds of such camps dot the city, their size varying from hundreds to more than 20,000. The ages of those raped in this sample range from 10 to 60, the majority of them teenagers.

Post-earthquake Haiti is plagued by high levels of anxiety and frustration among the population; hundreds of thousands of newly homeless females sleeping on the streets and in tent settlements, many of them alone; disorganized and inadequate policing; and a nonfunctioning justice system. For women and girls, this is a deadly combination.

The danger is compounded by the fact that thousands of prisoners, including convicted rapists, are now at large after escaping from the National Penitentiary. And the majority of police who were trained in gender-based violence were reportedly killed in the quake.

KOFAVIV members keep watch in the camps for women and girls who are at risk. They listen and, if they hear what sounds to be a beating or a rape, they intervene. They pay special attention to girls who have been orphaned or abandoned since the quake, who may fall prey to rape or, out of desperation, prostitution; KOFAVIV then helps those girls get back to their relatives in the countryside. They take the testimony of rape survivors and try to get them medical assistance. KOFAVIV also conducts ‘know your rights’ trainings in the camps, including information on human rights, children’s rights, how to protect oneself against violence, and psychological care.

Their advocacy has come with a price. A man whom some KOFAVIV members caught in the act of beating a woman pulled a gun on them. And KOFAVIV co-coordinator Marie Eramithe Delva’s daughter very nearly became part of the group’s statistics. At 8:00 on March 2, a man came under the tarp which is home to Delva, co-coordinator Malya Villard Appolon, their 13 combined children and grandchildren, and other family members. The man threw Delva’s 17-year-old daughter Merline on the ground, dragged her outside, and prepared to rape her. Merline beat him off. An hour or so later, the man returned with three other men and a pistol. They beat four of Delva and Appolon’s daughters.

Delva ran to the police station at the edge of the camp, but the police told her that this was [President] Preval’s work and had nothing to do with them. Police told her to watch out for a patrol car with a certain number license plate; if it should pass by, they should flag it down. (It never did.) They also said that if Delva and her family find the perpetrators, they should catch them and bring them to the police station.

The two families quickly packed up their belongings and went out to the sidewalk, where they held an all-night vigil for human rights. They spent the next day looking for another location that could hold their group of twenty but could not, so they returned to their original tent site.

This writer made more than a dozen phone calls to potential sources of alternative lodging, from UNICEF personnel to Haitian women’s groups. In an all-too-familiar story about the dearth of options for at-risk girls and women in Haiti today, her request was turned down by all for almost three weeks. (American relief workers have just offered a locale.) Reasons cited for the rejections ranged from the fact that KOFAVIV allegedly supports former president Aristide, to twenty being an impossible number to find shelter for.

As a result, the women and their families have continued sleeping where their attackers, who know that the women reported them, can easily find them.

A few of the recent cases that have either been reported to this writer, or where she interviewed the survivors herself, include:
- A 24-year-old man raped a 2-year-old girl in a refugee camp in La Pleine during the week of March 8, according to the UNIFEM-led outreach team. Some members of the management committee (camp leaders elected by camp residents) told the parents that, instead of going to police, they should just demand some money from the man.
- In a case that KOFAVIV encountered in a hospital, a one-and-a-half-year-old girl was raped by her mother’s boyfriend on March 22. Her own father died in the earthquake.
- A 2-year-old was gang-raped, her body then tossed away by her assailants, according to a second-hand report. The toddler survived and was later rescued by a woman who now wants to adopt her.
- A 12-year-old girl, whose mother was wounded and whose father died in the earthquake, was raped in a camp in the national stadium. Neighbors caught the man and attacked him with rocks and sticks, killing him.
- An 18-year-old who said she was “a good girl, I never talked to boys” was raped by four men, so violently that she could not walk the next day. She was left with a severe vaginal infection.

In the last two cases, this writer checked with numerous women’s organizations and advocates for options for free medical care and testing. With each clinic or hospital suggested, either a doctor was unavailable or, while the consultation was free, the tests were not. Only after eight days of taking public transportation and sitting for hours in line did the 18-year-old finally receive care. One can only speculate how those without well-connected allies, money for bus fare, or a cell phone, have been able to access post-rape medical attention.

On March 15, more than two months after the quake, UNIFEM and seven other women’s groups began investigating rapes and violence against women in ten camps around Port-au-Prince. To learn of the rapes, all-volunteer outreach teams speak with the camps’ management committees. According to Gina Vrigneau, the chief of one team, should they find rape cases, they are to call UNIFEM or one of the Haitian organizations. That entity will then call the police in the hopes that they will arrest the perpetrator. One of the groups will begin a legal process, though it is unclear how that may proceed given today’s dysfunctional government. The operation will also, goes the plan, obtain free representation for the accused. The team will, furthermore, give the rape survivors a listing of free medical opportunities. According to Vrigneau, the operation will end June 30.

The greatest urgency remains prevention, which in turn requires security and a functioning justice system.For now, women are largely left to fend for themselves and hope for protection and support.

Says KOFAVIV co-coordinator Marie Eramithe Delva, “We did so much to advance women not being victims. We’ve taken a big step backwards, but we will struggle from where we are and move forward.”

This past Monday, police in Jeremie located and arrested the rapist of 4-year-old Timafi. When asked what will happen from here, the child’s grandmother Helia Lajeunesse made a clucking sound in her throat that in Haiti signifies doubt or resignation and said, “We’ll see.”

Listen to the March 14th broadcast of Sundays at Five by clicking the play button below.

Kate and Ali Daniels probe the implications of the recent Supreme Court ruling, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission with constitutional experts Bill Daniels and Joel Franklin.

The discussion centers upon the meaning of free speech, the impact of corporation spending power upon citizens’ voting rights, and the expanding opportunities for citizens to better inform themselves in a changing media landscape.

Guest Biographies:

Bill Daniels practices and teaches law and mediation in Monterey, CA. He specializes in civil liberties cases and constitutional law.

Joel Franklin is an appellate lawyer who also teaches constitutional law. He recently participated in a case which grapples with how to handle the rights of a non-person speaker, such as a corporation.

About the Broadcast: The WIP’s Executive Editor, Kate Daniels teams up with identical twin sister Ali Daniels to present Sundays at Five, a weekly radio broadcast on KRXA, Monterey Bay's Progressive Talk Radio station. The twins share stories and discuss topics ranging from campaign finance reform to the phenomenon of Facebook. Tune in every Sunday from 5-6 pm PDT or listen online. Podcasts of previous broadcasts are available on The WIP Talk.

Make a cup of tea and join the conversation!

It was nearing show time. The stage was tinted with deep blue light, a red ribbon border snaking around the walls of the stage like a present, tied with a gigantic bow. The musicians’ seats were still empty. I wanted them to file in and start playing. My foot twitched. My hands stuck to the Playbill. I glanced around the theatre – Avery Fisher Hall, home of the New York Philharmonic, was filled to the brim.

And then I saw the birthday boy walk down the aisle and sit down in our row.

“Oh my God,” I said a little too loudly.

“What?” my sister asked.

“Stephen Sondheim just sat down in our row.”

“What?! You’re kidding,” she said. She leaned over me and the look on her face confirmed what I already knew. We gripped each other’s hands to keep from squealing.

My dad looked at us like we were nuts, which admittedly we were.

I didn’t care. For the rest of the show I glanced back and forth from the performers on stage to the man sitting a few seats away from me on the right. I couldn’t see his face because of the people sitting between us, but I could see his hands folded in his lap – the hands that tapped out the piano notes that gave rise to modern American musical theatre.

Sondheim:The Birthday Concert was performed on March 15th and 16th 2010 at Lincoln Center, to celebrate the composer’s 80th birthday on Monday March 22nd. It was truly a Sondheim love-fest, with over 25 well-known Broadway actors giving their performances as a birthday gift to the composer.

Mr. Sondheim began his career as a lyricist for West Side Story and Gypsy, and went on to create over 25 musicals and scores for films. He has won eight Tony Awards, one Academy Award and the Pulitzer Prize. His musicals are famous for being dark, witty, realistic in their portrayal of the spectrum of human emotion, for possessing musical innovation and brilliantly clever lyrics, and being less commercially-minded than many American Broadway musicals.

What made The Birthday Concert, directed by Lonny Price, unique was that it brought together so many historic combinations of performers and musical numbers. Most of the performers had previously worked with Mr. Sondheim, and many of them even originated the roles in the plays that they sang songs from:

Chip Zien and Joanna Gleason recreated their roles in a song from Into the Woods; Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin sang “Move On” from Sunday in the Park with George, and John McMartin sang “The Road You Didn’t Take” from Follies. Almost four decades have passed since they originated these roles, and I found myself wondering what the experience must have been like for the actors to recreate something so special.

Jim Walton, from the original cast of Merrily We Roll Along – a musical which was not given much time on Broadway before it closed to mixed reviews – sat alone at a piano and sang “Growing Up,” a cut song from the original production.

Act one ended with a trio version of “A Little Priest” from Sweeney Todd, sung by one Mrs. Lovett (Patti LuPone) and two Sweeneys (George Hearn and Michael Cerveris).

During the second act, six Broadway actresses – Ms. LuPone, Marin Mazzie, Audra McDonald, Donna Murphy, Bernadette Peters, and the notorious Elaine Stritch – sat in chairs in a semi-circle and watched one another sing some of the most powerful ballads musical theatre has known. Ms. LuPone gave her rendition of “The Ladies Who Lunch” from Company, a song that was first performed in the original production by Ms. Stritch. Ms. Stritch gave her a standing ovation. Ms. Stritch, an octogenarian herself, gave the 11th hour performance of the song “I’m Still Here,” with a wink to Mr. Sondheim.

The most poignant moment of the night came just after Ms. Stritch’s ballad. David Hyde Pierce said a few words about Mr. Sondheim’s contribution to the theatre community, but he didn’t need to say much. A musical underscore began, and performers of all ages, dressed in black, began to file into the auditorium through the side and back doors, walking slowly through the aisles. On Monday night there were 278 of them, and on Tuesday there were 124. These performers were cast members from various Broadway and off-Broadway shows who had given up their time to celebrate Mr. Sondheim. Their song, “Sunday” from Sunday in the Park with George, began soft, building to a staggering crescendo as the auditorium filled with sound.

At that moment I was filled with total gratitude for the music that Mr. Sondheim has given me – yes, it does feel like his music and lyrics were written just for me; they give life to the things I do not know how to say. Yet the Sunday chorus felt a bit too much like a preemptive requiem. While the evening was definitely a celebration of the composer’s work, it also made me sad – the world is one year closer to losing one of its most brilliant living artists. I wasn’t ready to think about that, especially not after such a joyful evening.

I could console myself with a lyric from Into the Woods: “Sometimes people leave you, halfway through the wood. Do not let it grieve you, no one leaves for good.” It’s true: Mr. Sondheim will never leave. His legacy in the American musical theatre canon is timeless.

After the bows, my sister dragged my dad and me to the stage door so she could get as many autographs as possible. I hung back as Kate edged her way through the throng to get her moment with the celebrities. I didn’t want to make the effort. I didn’t want to do anything to disrupt the memory of the Sunday chorus as it repeated itself in my head. I wanted to hold on to that crescendo for as long as I could, until the last person ran out of breath.


About the Author
Emily Herzlin is a writer living in New York City. She graduated from New York University with a degree in Dramatic Literature and Creative Writing and has been published in Sentient City Magazine and writes weekly for the One City Blog.

She is also a playwright, winner of the Young Playwrights Inc. National Playwrighting Competition for her one-act play "Assemblage." Her writing is influenced by art, artists, psychology and spirituality. Emily has run drama and arts workshops in schools in NYC and Long Island, and is currently working as a teacher for autistic children.

The hanging of an effigy of President Obama in a classroom at Central Falls, (the school that is garnering national attention due to the decision to fire all of its teachers), is making news. While few would object that there are more classroom friendly methods for discussing the issue at hand -- the effigy has succeeded in bringing the issue of "holding teachers accountable" back into the public eye, and I am reminded once again that education and equity are not synonymous in this country, as much as we would like to pretend otherwise.

The fact that our "failing" schools are consistently in areas with a high rate of poverty, should come as no surprise. Why student income level, native language, and the overall safety of the communities in which they live are also not figured into the equation when evaluating teacher performance has been made clear by Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education. He seems to believe that when teachers are faced with a caseload of students who live in dangerous neighborhoods, who are poor, who are neglected, who are underfed, who are non-English speaking, they should be able to overcome these obstacles in the classroom and continue preparing students for college readiness. No problem.

As usual, I feel powerless when faced with nonsensical policy making, and so I have decided to investigate the issue of good teachers from the ground up, beginning where it really counts -- with the students themselves. What makes an effective teacher? What defines a "good" teacher from a "bad"? I know what those passing down the orders think -- a successful teachers follow directions, buys into the directives handed down from up-high, and produces students who test well. But what do the students themselves believe?

So far I have interviewed two students, both boys, one in 8th grade, and one in 10th. I asked each of them to tell me what made a teacher a "good" teacher. Honestly, I thought they would struggle a little bit with this. That maybe they just accepted teachers as they come, and wouldn't know, exactly, what made one good and another not so good. I was wrong. They both gave the matter some deep thought, and then provided me with their top three qualifications.

The 8th grade interviewee listed, in order of importance, the following three criteria: funny and entertaining, knows their subject, likes what they do. I questioned him on his second qualification. He elaborated, explaining that in his experience, some teachers don't seem to know much about their subject matter. These teachers, he said, always teach exclusively from the text book, and never seem to know the answers to your questions.

The 10th grade interviewee had very similar responses. He too was able to come up with three essential qualifications: creative, interesting and engaging, funny. So, both boys felt being funny was paramount. Of course, not everyone is funny, but I can't help but think how frequently I rely on laughter to get my students through a lesson successfully.

I asked the 10th grader if he ever felt as though a teacher was teaching him successfully, even though they did not display the above characteristics, and he adamantly shook his head. According to him, without creativity, engagement, and humor they were not good teachers, period.

I wonder if we could do away with our complex means for teacher assessment and replace it with a simple check list. Do you love what you teach? Do you know how to make your subject matter interesting? Can you teach and think creatively? Do you have a sense of humor? Access to teacher credential programs could be based on this simple criteria.

I plan to interview many more students on their top qualifications for what makes a teacher "good", and will continue to report on my findings. I think that the superintendent of Central Falls High, and President Obama too (why not), would do well to question the students at Central Falls in the same way. All too often, the students themselves are not given a voice. Those kids know who can teach and who can't. Has anyone bothered asking them?

There is not a single factor that accounts for violence against women, but several social and cultural factors have kept women particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon.

What they have in common, however, is that they are manifestations of historically unequal power relations between men and women.

The involvement of men is critical to curb the spread of this injustice. In this case, NGOs have proven to be more effective than government agencies.

The stubborn fact, however, is that in many countries violence against women, especially in the domestic setting, is seen as normal behavior. In that sense, domestic violence exemplifies perverse power relationships.

When this kind of relationship becomes established, people become conditioned to accept violence as a legitimate means of settling conflicts — both within the family and in society at large — thus creating and perpetuating a vicious cycle.

Violence begets violence, and often does irreparable damage to the family and to the social structure.

Women who marry at a young age are more likely to believe that sometimes it is acceptable for a husband to beat his wife, and are more likely to experience domestic violence than women who marry at an older age, according to a UNICEF study. This, among other reasons, is why it is so essential that young girls forced into marriage in Yemen have been able to come forward and request a divorce from the courts in recent months.

Lack of economic resources and the capacity to lead economically independent lives also underscore women’s vulnerability to violence, and the difficulties they face in extricating themselves from a violent relationship. According to some studies, there is a link between rise in violence against women and the destabilization of economic patterns in society.

Although physical violence and sexual violence are easier to see, other forms of violence include emotional abuse, such as verbal humiliation, threats of physical aggression or abandonment, economic blackmail and forced confinement to the home. Many women consider psychological abuse and humiliation even more devastating than physical violence.

What’s more, from a public health perspective, sexual violence increases women's risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS (through forced sexual relations or the difficulty in persuading men to use condoms), increases the number of unplanned pregnancies, and may lead to various gynecological problems such as chronic pelvic pain and painful intercourse.

The stubborn fact is that in many countries violence against women, especially in the domestic setting, is seen as normal behavior. Even more disturbing, a large proportion of women are beaten while they are pregnant. Comparative studies reveal that pregnant women who are abused have twice the risk of miscarriage and four-times the risk of having low-birth-weight babies than non-battered pregnant women.

In India, a study of maternal deaths carried out in 400 villages and seven hospitals showed that 16% of all deaths during pregnancy were due to domestic violence.

Domestic violence can have devastating consequences on children as well. According to a UNICEF report, as many as 275 million children worldwide are currently exposed to domestic violence. One of the findings of the report is that children who live with domestic violence not only endure the stress of an atmosphere of violence at home but are more likely to become victims of abuse themselves.

It is estimated that 40% of child-abuse victims also have reported domestic violence at home. In addition, children who are exposed to domestic violence are at greater risk for substance abuse, teenage pregnancy and delinquent behavior.

Although doctors and health personnel can greatly help the victims, many times they are not trained to diagnose abuse accurately. And more so, women are often reluctant or afraid to report abuse.

Various cultural, economic and social factors, including shame and fear of retaliation contribute to women's reluctance to report these acts. Legal and criminal systems in many countries also make the process difficult.

Frequently, fear keeps women trapped in abusive relationships. It has been found that almost 80% of all serious gender violence injuries and deaths occur when female victims of violence try to leave a relationship — or after they have left.

As a World Health Organization report states, "The health sector can play a vital role in preventing violence against women, helping to identify abuse early, providing victims with the necessary treatment and referring women to appropriate and informed care. Health services must be places where women feel safe, are treated with respect, are not stigmatized, and where they can receive quality, informed support."

Women who marry at a young age are more likely to believe that sometimes it is acceptable for a husband to beat his wife, and are more likely to experience domestic violence than women who marry at an older age.

Given the difficulties in properly diagnosing abuse or reluctance report it, prevention of violence against women is key.

Prevention may act at three levels: primary prevention stops the problem from happening; secondary prevention stops it from progressing further; and tertiary prevention teaches victims, after the fact, how to avoid its repetition. Studies carried out in industrialized countries show that public health approaches to violence can lower the negative impact of domestic violence.

Governments also have been increasingly responsive to women groups’ demands to deal seriously with this issue. In Bangladesh, new laws make violence against women a punishable offence. Belgium, Peru and Yugoslavia have amended laws to more clearly define sexual harassment. The Dominican Republic, Portugal, Spain, Uruguay and Belgium, among others, have passed laws that increase penalties for domestic abuse. The Kingdoms of Jordan and Morocco have both made strides to protect women’s rights — denouncing so-called honor killings in the former and providing confidential victims’ assistance hotlines in the latter.

In India and Bangladesh a traditional system of local justice called salishe is used to address abuse on a case-by-case basis. For example, when a woman is beaten in Bangladesh, the West Bengali non-governmental organization Shramajibee Mahila Samity sends a female organizer to the village to discuss the situation with the people involved and helps find a solution, which is then formalized in writing by a local committee.

In China, there has been some progress regarding this issue as well, such as placing posters on some roads and in subways stressing the problems that domestic violence represent to society. The All-China Women’s Federation has been playing a significant role in bringing domestic violence into the legislative and policy-making processes.

In February 2007, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón signed a law passed by the Senate, that requires local and federal authorities to curb violence against women. Mexico’s new law is the first-ever federal measure to combat domestic violence and other abuses against women, although similar measures were already in the books in many cities and states.

Studies carried out in industrialized countries shows that public health approaches to violence can lower the negative impact of domestic violence.

Many governments find it difficult to work with women at the community level, which is where NGOs come into play. This is the case in Jamaica, Malaysia and Mozambique, among others, where these organizations have been particularly active. In Ethiopia, the Association of Women’s Lawyers is actively working against sexual violence and domestic abuse.

The involvement of men is critical to curb the spread of this injustice. In this case also, NGOs have proven to be more effective than government agencies. In Cambodia, Jamaica and the Philippines, NGOs are working effectively with men to support women’s empowerment and rights. The Women’s Centre of the Jamaica Foundation counsels young male parents and trains male peer educators through its program Young Men at Risk.

But more work needs to be done if this pandemic is going to be controlled.

Government and community leaders should spearhead an effort to create a culture of openness and support to help eliminate the stigma associated with violence against women. Laws should be followed up with plans for specific national action.

Domestic violence is a threat to equality and justice that no civilized society should allow to exist.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant and a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

"Standards are important." I can't tell you how many times a week I hear these words. We have to have Standards, otherwise what will anyone be learning? How can we guarantee that all children learn, if all teachers are not teaching the same thing, at the same time, all across the country? This seems to be the general consensus, one re-emphasized by Obama's ratification of a new set of National Standards.

I have a son who is fortunate enough to attend a college prep private school. He is taking an African Studies class. His teacher has them read a wide variety of books, both fiction and non, and tells them stories so memorable, that the students remember them for years afterward. He does not have a text book for either his African Studies class or his integrated Humanities class. African Studies is not part of the State Standards, and yet, what my son is learning about these fascinating countries is far more important than anything I see listed on the State Standards. He is learning to be interested in the world around him. Can that be a State Standard? Foster interest in the world?

No. It can not. State Standards look more like this:
All 11th grade students must be able to enhance meaning by employing rhetorical devices, including the extended use of parallelism, repetition, and analogy; the incorporation of visual aids (e.g., graphs, tables, pictures); and the issuance of a call for action.

What? What does that even mean? Why does it even matter? I'll tell you why. Because on the STAR test, there are questions like this:
The frank tone and objective viewpoint of this passage make it especially characteristic of which American literary period?
A the Revolutionary period
B the Realistic period
C the Naturalistic period
D the Contemporary period

And like this:
Paragraph 3 of the passage could best be classified as an
A epitaph.
B elegy.
C anecdote.
D allegory.

And like this:
Which statement best describes how the author uses rhetorical technique in this sentence?
A Understatement is used to introduce the topic with a sarcastic tone.
B Figurative language is used to intensify the impact of the statement.
C Word repetition is used to emphasize the importance of the subject of the document.
D Allusion is used to address the topic of the document on a historical level.

Teachers are fairly divided on the Standards front. There are those who have never even looked at them before, who believe that as long as they are true to the essence of their subject matter, their students will learn what they need to learn, and there won't be a problem. And then there are those who follow the Standards religiously, driving their curriculum forward with the force of a bulldozer in their attempt to cover everything that has been mandated by the State as critical information for their 2nd graders, or 8th graders, or 12th graders to know.

I have found that those who believe in the Standards movement are quick to bandy about terms that echo their support, and those who do not believe in the Standards movement, pretty much keep their mouths shut on the matter. You can only spot them because of the way in which they gaze longingly at the door while their colleagues and administrators wax poetic on the Holy Grail of the Standards driven curriculum.

Now that teacher performance is at risk of being intricately tied to test results, however, one has to wonder if this divide will exist for much longer. When faced with the chance of a lesser pay check, will I too buckle under the pressure to teach information that I believe to be superfluous? Not a chance. That's because I have my own set of standards. I'll give you an example:
Standard 1.1
Integrity.

Several years ago, during my first visit to Cuba to attend a health-related meeting I was witness to an unusual event. As friends and I walked into the Bodeguita del Medio, a traditional restaurant famous because of the number of illustrious visitors who had dined there over the years, a young Cuban man was discretely asked to leave. Seeing my friends and myself and realizing we were not Cuban, he began ranting against the restrictions placed on Cubans by their government.

“I have the money to spend here,” he told us. “But they prefer to have foreigners eat here. I am fed up with this regime. Do you see something in that corner?” he asked us. “Yes,” we said, “there is a man standing there.” “You are wrong,” he replied, “he is not a man. That’s a gigantic ear that is listening to everything I am saying to you. But I don’t care; I am so sick and tired of this situation.”

In a few brief minutes, I gained an idea of some of the problems besieging Cuban society: the need for foreign money, the oppressive nature of the regime, and the dissatisfaction of the youth. These impressions were later confirmed during another visit to the island when I headed a U.N. mission to assess the progress of Cuban scientists in developing interferon, an anti-viral substance.

To pinpoint the Cuban government shortcomings, however, is in no way to deny its achievements. During that last visit I had the opportunity of meeting Fidel Castro. Although we didn’t raise any political issues in our conversation, I was able to observe his enormous interest in, and knowledge, about health issues. That interest and knowledge underlie his government’s achievements in two critical areas, health and education. Cuba is in the forefront in both fields when compared to other Latin American countries and in some areas on a par with the United States.

This progress, however, has been hindered by an unnecessary and substantially ineffectual embargo against that country, a situation that has cost the U.S. both in material terms and in prestige among Latin American governments who consider the embargo a violation of a nation’s rights and sovereignty.

There is no doubt that political pressure from the powerful Cuban exile community in Florida has been an important factor in maintaining the embargo. However, the descendants of that immigrant generation have a more nuanced view of the Cuban regime; they have seen the damage cause by the antagonism between both countries and are eager for more amicable relations between them.

While Cubans have always been clear as to their admiration for the American people –which I was able to observe during my visits to the island- the embargo does more to foster hate and mistrust of the U.S. government than of the Cuban government. Moreover, the U.S. has been flying in the face of world opinion on the Cuban issue. If votes in the U.N. General Assembly are a test, no country in the world –with the exception of the United States, Israel and the Marshall Islands- support the embargo.

President Obama has wisely eased restrictions on travel to the island by Cubans and their descendants. He should now strengthen that approach through an intense exchange of scientists, doctors, artists and ordinary citizens between both countries. The effect would be dramatic in neutralizing the atmosphere of antagonism and should lead to a lifting of the embargo.

Trade with the United States now amounts to half a billion dollars a year, a negligible amount equivalent to U.S. trade with Canada on a single day. Should normal relations return, the increase in trade could be substantial. A furthering of this administration’s more open attitude toward the island is in the best interests of both the US and the Cuban people, who have been the ones really hurt by this situation.

Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, is an international public health consultant and a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

We were returning from university talking with my friends about International Women's Day in last year and in years before, we wondered what should we do this year. On our way before we reach Vali-e-Asr intersection we saw a young girl maybe a high school girl.

Three surly women wearing chador and two bearded men with guns were surrounding her like hyenas surrounding their bait. They were harassing her and the poor innocent girl was horrified; her eyes looking for help.

She was quiet at first but talking with her eyes she asked: what have I done? What have I said?

When we got closer we noticed that they have searched her back and had found some posters with the picture of a woman on it crying in protest.

These street searches are executed in any time of the day and anywhere.

On the posters one could read this poem:

I will strike on the roots of the henchman,

You miserable you are the hay I am a woman! (Pointing to Ahmadinejad’s calling the brave youths of Iran as hays).

And then;
the Iranian women honor the universal Women’s Day.

One of the Pasdar women (Revolutionary Guards) repeated the sentences and said: what else you wanted to do? This is striking at the structure of the state. To whom are you taking these posters? Do you want to distribute them among the school girls so that they would take into the streets on Women’s Day? Don’t you think we know what you intend to do? People like you have sunk the country into chaos. Moreover this so-called Women’s Day belongs to Moharebs, to seculars, this is an Islamic country and we don’t have a Women’s Day. This is none of your business. Just study your lessons and watch your veil!

People gathered there and protested: let her go. What has she done? What’s your business with her?

But while people were shocked with the act the Pasdars threatened her with gun and made her to get into their car and drove away.

I and my friends, while choked even more with our everyday tears were very sad because we couldn’t do anything for that innocent girl.

The girl was shouting: what have I done? It is only written that I am not hay I am a woman, what’s wrong with that? But her cries and our protest didn’t help.

These scenes are seen a lot in the sad streets of the city. Of course by Women’s Day coming up, street arrests have increased too.

In a cold silence we continued our way.

One of my friends said: what could we do for that innocent girl? We couldn’t confront those beasts if we did they would have taken us away too. What should we have done?

Then another friend as if she had a new discovery said all of a sudden: why is she arrested? Because she wanted to distribute posters regarding Women’s Day, right? We all saw the posters, right?

We all said: yes we did!

She continued: we must do the same but several times more. Before we see this scene we were thinking of what we should do this year now we know. Even if we are arrested what is important is that we must have faith.

Women are key elements of the movement as it was proved in the uprisings of Nov.4th, Dec.7th, Ashura (Dec.27th) and Feb.11th.

March 8th is our day! We must strike at the regime on this day by any means. We must distribute her poem all around the city on that day.

As Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president elect of NCRI (National Council of Resistance of Iran) has said we must prove that the mullahs will receive the blow from where they don’t even think of; whom it thinks that it has crushed under double oppression.

With our quests we can show everybody that we can be pioneers of this movement. This is the message of March 8th.

We promised that we would continue the path of that innocent girl who was taken to regime’s dungeons, on any price.

The henchmen didn’t understand that at those moments the intentions and goals of that innocent girl was multiplied in us.

Our voices will not reside in our chests,
We have decided to cry…

That violence against women is considered accepted behavior in many countries does not diminish its seriousness or its negative impact on the physical and mental health of women worldwide. Its persistence throughout the world — despite other obvious social measures of progress — indicates the need to confront it with more effective policies.

Some studies conducted in the United States reveal that each year approximately 4 million women are physically attacked by their husbands or partners.

In every country where reliable studies have been conducted, statistics show that between 10% and 50% of women report that they have been physically abused by an intimate partner during their lifetime.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) data, the most devastating effect of gender violence worldwide is that violence against women claims almost 1.6 million lives each year — about 3% of deaths of all causes.

Domestic violence, violence that occurs in the home or within the family, is the most common kind of gender violence. It affects women regardless of age, education or socioeconomic status. Its victims are women in developing nations and Western countries alike.

The situation has led public health experts to consider violence against women a global public health issue — one requiring a public health approach.

Worldwide, violence is as common a cause of death and disability among women of reproductive age as cancer — and a greater cause of ill health than traffic accidents and malaria together.

Few precise figures on violence against women exist, but some of the numbers can be shocking.

According to Mexico’s Health Ministry, about one in three women suffer from domestic violence, and it is estimated that over 6,000 women die in Mexico every year as a result. According to a 2006 study of women in Mexico sponsored by the government (Encuesta Nacional sobre la Dinámica de las Relaciones en los Hogares 2006), 43.2% of women over 15 years old have been victims of some form of intra-family violence over the course of their last relationship.

Worldwide, violence is as common a cause of death and disability among women of reproductive age as cancer — and a greater cause of ill health than traffic accidents and malaria together.

Domestic violence is rife in many African countries as well. In Zimbabwe, according to a United Nations report, it accounts for more than six in ten murder cases in court. According to surveys, 42% of women in Kenya and 41% in Uganda reported having been beaten by their partners.

Although some countries such as South Africa have passed women’s rights legislation, the big test — full implementation, with teeth — has not been passed.

In China, according to a national survey, domestic violence occurs in one-third of the country’s 270 million households. A survey by the China Law Institute in Gansu, Hunan and Zhejiang provinces found that one-third of the surveyed families had witnessed family violence — and that 85% of victims were women.

In Japan, as in many other countries, the number of reported cases has increased in recent times. According to some advocates working to end domestic violence, this may signal that victims may be overcoming cultural and social taboos that once forced them into silence. According to the National Police Agency, reported cases reached an all-time high of 20,992 in 2007, mostly women in their 30s.

The changes associated with the transition period in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union — such as increases in poverty, unemployment, income inequality, stress, and alcohol and drug abuse — have led to an increase in violence in those societies, including violence against women.

In Russia, estimates put the annual domestic violence death toll at more than 14,000 women. Natalya Abubikirova, executive director of the Russian Association of Crisis Centers, in a statement to Amnesty International drew a dramatic parallel to capture the scope of the problem: "The number of women dying every year at the hands of their husbands and partners in the Russian Federation is roughly equal to the total number of Soviet soldiers killed in the 10-year war in Afghanistan."

Domestic violence affects women regardless of age, education or socioeconomic status. Its victims are women in developing nations and Western countries alike.

In a study conducted by the Council for Women at Moscow State University, 70% of the women surveyed said that they had been subjected to some form of violence — physical, psychological, sexual or economic — by their husbands. Some 90% of respondents said they had either witnessed scenes of physical violence between their parents when they were children or had experienced this kind of violence in their own marriages.

Research carried out in several Arab countries, shows that at least one out of three women is beaten by her husband. Despite the serious consequences of domestic violence, and the increasing frequency of violence against women, not enough is done by the governments of Arab and Islamic countries to address these issues.

As the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) has stated, "To date, there is no comprehensive and systematic mechanism for collecting reliable data on violence against women in Arab countries."

In many Islamic countries, or in countries with a substantial Muslim majority, passages from the Koran are sometimes used to justify violence against women. Yet many religious experts state that Islam rejects the abuse of women and advocates equality in the rights of women and men.

In many cases, violence against women — including killings — are based more on cultural than religious grounds and are justified by the need to protect a family’s honor.

This pattern of abuse is similar for industrialized countries.

Some studies conducted in the United States reveal that each year approximately 4 million women are physically attacked by their husbands or partners.

According to the WHO’s "World report on violence and health," between 40% and 70% of female murder victims in Australia, Canada, Israel, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States were killed by their husbands or boyfriends — often within the context of an ongoing abusive relationship.

In Russia, estimates put the annual domestic violence death toll at more than 14,000 women.

According to a U.S. study, violence against women is responsible for a large proportion of medical visits, and for approximately one-third of emergency room visits. Another study found that in the United States, domestic violence is the most frequent cause of injury in women treated in emergency rooms, more common than motor vehicle accidents and robberies combined.

In the United States, 25% of female psychiatric patients who attempt suicide are victims of domestic violence, as are 85% of women in substance abuse programs. Studies carried out in Pakistan, Australia and the United States show that women victims of domestic violence suffer more depression, anxiety and phobias than women who have not been abused.

As Noeleen Heyzer, former executive director of UNIFEM has stated, "Violence against women devastates people’s lives, fragments communities and prevents countries from developing."

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant and a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award.

Before becoming a school teacher, I was not a fan of the public school K-12 system. I did not enjoy this system as a child, and my disillusionment only worsened as I grew older, culminating with my leaving the 10th grade and attending junior college full time instead. I adored junior college, loved my classes, tried my hardest, got good grades, and completed an Associates degree by 18. As far as I could tell, high school was just some terrible lie that adults told adolescents in order to make them suffer unnecessarily. I felt I missed nothing by opting out of high school, and the classes I would have been forced to take throughout my high school career, appeared to be unnecessary to my success in college.

With the curious passion of youth, I became convinced that most of what I had learned in school, prior to junior college, had been meaningless, and in fact, I felt as though what I had learned had been specifically designed to harm my innate, creative intelligence. In my early twenties, I would argue with my school teacher friend about the importance of sending your kids to public school. I refused to send my own children, and believed that he was sacrificing his to the greater good by sending them to a public school simply because he felt it was his duty to do so. Many public school enthusiasts believe that people who homeschool, or send their children to private or charter schools, are partially responsible for the slow death of our public schools. Not only because often these children would be a benefit, intellectually, to the schools, but because each child represents a dollar amount that will now be funneled away from the local public school system. Falling enrollment means tougher times for the schools.

Now that I teach in the system, however, I understand where my friend was coming from. Imagine if all of the people who send their children to private and charter schools -- spending upwards of thirty-thousand dollars per year, or at the very least taking money out of the system -- were to send their child to public school instead, and donate that same sum of money to the public school? Imagine if every family donated some amount of money -- whatever they could afford -- to fill back in the yawning gaps in funding? Imagine if all of that money were used directly to fund the schools -- improving the campus, providing supplies, adding sections, and building up the currently emaciated and/or nonexistent enrichment programs.

In Cupertino, CA, one group of parents is pushing for exactly this. Finally, the cuts to our public schools have grown severe enough that the parents are starting to take action. These parents are attempting to raise 3 million dollars, in order to retain 115 of their teachers who will otherwise be laid off. By their calculations, if every one of the 10,000 families in the Cupertino School District were to donate $375, they could save their schools for at least one year -- thereby buying time for the district to figure out a plan B.

According to Sam Dillon in The New York Times, Diane Ravitch -- education scholar and major intellectual muscle behind No Child Left Behind, and our transition into a standards based, test driven educational system -- has changed her mind. She now sees that these policies were misguided and that we would have been better off following the examples of other nations where students study an array of subjects and disciplines and the curriculum is not, I imagine, driven by the questions on a multiple choice test.

How unfortunate that she seems to have come to this conclusion just as the last bit of meat has been shaved from the bone. It seems we have come to a precipice in education, and that we have been driven to this point by a combination of lack of funding and poor policy making decisions. Until President Obama starts sending his own children to a public school, perhaps it would be prudent not follow so blindly the next set of directives that are already beginning to trickle down the system of command.

Tonight the 2010 Academy Awards are announced! Some of my favorite films that I reviewed for The WIP are in contention. I'm so excited to see if An Education, The Cove, or Burma VJ wins an Oscar! The Documentary Features category is so competitive, but I'm rooting for The Cove!

In anticipation of the Oscars, I will be on KRXA AM 540 tomorrow at 5 p.m. PST talking about the Academy Awards and my favorite films of 2009! If you don't live on the Central Coast, you can listen online!

I'm still mulling over this issue of how the government can evaluate teacher performance from afar because, like it or not, this is the direction we are moving. My student assessments are based on a panacea of techniques that I am constantly developing and improvising depending on my students and the varying levels of their needs. Sometimes my assessment is based on an particular academic task: i.e. one of my students just turned in a paper that uses all complete sentences, when previously she had been unable to do so. Sometimes my assessment will be based on something much simpler, i.e. I was able to get a non-writer, non-responder, to write three sentences in his notebook, and smile twice.

Just as I never stop assessing my students I also never stop assessing my own techniques -- content, delivery, successes versus failures. Self-assessment is part of my job, and believe me, I wish there was some simple formula to make this process easier, and not so convoluted. However, I do not feel that the government has, as of yet, devised an effective method for evaluating student learning, and it concerns me that this same ineffective method may, very soon, be used to evaluate teacher performance as well.

Lets take a dramatic, and hypothetical, case in point -- one certain to make English teachers everywhere cringe in dread. Let's say the entire year goes by and I'm so busy packing in the important stuff, that I forget to teach the students in my English class the literary terms that will undoubtedly be on their standardized exams. At test time, assuming they are even bothering to try, they will quite possibly miss certain questions because of this. Based on their test scores, it may appear as though I am not teaching my students successfully. Both my students and I will be graded as "Basic", or even worse, the dreaded, "Below Basic."

This is one of the things that keeps me up at night. What is more important? That my students learn to question, to be curious human beings? Or that they temporarily memorize the meaning of the word: Personification.

The school howls with grief while the children inside, stare longingly out the windows. The windows whisper, "Don't know what personification means? Look it up."

The recent article by Melissa Hahn on Veteran Suicides really touched a nerve in me. Like the Edwin Starr song says, War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing, nothing rings more true now. This situation is really unfortunate.

I really feel for these soldiers and his families. I pray that God in his infinite mercies will comfort and compensate them for their loss. It is really a shame to lose another life, this time not in combat but in a self inflicted suicide death.

I remember when the decision was made for America to go to war, I was at work and a group of co-workers gathered in my office to discuss it. As we talked it was pretty clear that I was the only one who knew that America was not that invincible. The others said it would be easy for America to go into Iraq, do what it wanted to do and come out.

Having schooled in Northern Nigeria amongst Muslims, I remember thinking to myself, ignorance is bliss; these people don’t know who they are dealing. When the war began I was watching a TV show about the lost boys of Sudan when one of the host parents said that before the war began the boys were very scared and he was telling them not to worry because the war would be an easy win for America.

However, they told him the same thing I knew, you don’t know who you are dealing with because they had been exposed to Islamic fanatics in Sudan. He said that as the war is progressing he is rethinking his stance. This TV show aired several years ago, I’m sure by now reality has dawned on him.

The person who made the decision for America to go to war made the decision in a nicely protected oval office as president. He had nothing to lose. Neither him nor anyone close to him was going to be part of the war, so oh well, let other people and their children go, and if they perish they perish. While people were being emotionally traumatized, losing limbs and dying on the battle field, he and his family members were enjoying their lives. He has retired back to Texas.
His daughters graduated from college while enjoy good press coverage in fashion magazines. In these times of war, his kids are doing very well. Jenna got married at a lavish wedding and has even become a correspondent on The Today show, the velocity with which she ascended the career ladder to get that position is magical. Barbara after working with pediatric AIDS patients in many parts of Africa returned to be president of Global Health Corps, non-profit organization. God bless her for having such a serving spirit.

I can only wonder how Mr. Bush, as a man and a parent feels about his decision with all the lives that are continually perishing physically and emotionally on and off the battle field. The bible says, blessed are the peace makers for they shall be called children of God. The good book does not say anything about war starters but I'm sure they get theirs.

Many times these naïve kids enlist as soldiers in the army with no knowledge of what they are getting themselves into. I have read that young men especially have deceptively low perception of fear and this adds to their bravado in wanting to go to war.

As one soldier who went to Iraq as a young handsome man but returned with both legs amputated and no control of his bowels or bladder said, “I went to Iraq to kick butt but it was my butt that was kicked”. Now he is like a toddler who relies on his mother to change his diapers every couple of hours. However, at least I guess they have something to be thankful for because he is alive and where there is life, there is hope, which is not even the case for many.

Another mother of a soldier who was killed in battle, whose body was flown in close to the time Jenna Bush was getting married said as she sobbed on the radio, “The Bush’s are planning a wedding in the white house, while I’m planning a funeral.” Well, as unfortunate as it is, such is life.

It’s easy to instruct someone else do the dirty job. In biblical times kings physically led wars so I’m sure the need for any war was well through before being embarked upon. That rule should be reinstated because if you know you will physically lead a war you will think twice about it, as your life is at stake along with the others.
The financial, emotional and physiological toll this war has put on this country in every facet is disheartening.

It is said that there are too few men and much more women in America already and this war has produced a slaughter house for these too few men so there will be even fewer men to go around. We will all reap the consequences as single women and fatherless children abound.

It’s just such a shame. The worst thing is that even after everything Obama said about bringing the troops home before he won the election, the reality is that the military can’t even pull out of Iraq now, because they are in too deep and backing out will destabilize the country. More importantly, backing out without catching Osama Bin Laden will look bad, so they forge ahead hoping to pull out responsibly at some point with no end date in sight. I’m sure Obama had good intentions but as with so many issues he has been facing since assuming office, things appeared so much simpler before he had to deal with them.

There’s nothing we can do now except pray for divine intervention to end this war and subsequently end the trauma and loss of lives and limbs accompanying it.

The rapid urbanization if our planet, which began in the 19th century, is one of the most notable changes in modern times. While in 1950, 29% of the population lived in cities, that figure is estimated now in 50% and by 2030 that proportion will be 61%. In Africa, urbanization has followed a similar trend: it experienced a rapid shift from 15% in 1950 to 41 percent now. It is estimated that by 2030 54% of the population in that continent will be living in cities. Not only are more people living in cities but the cities themselves are becoming larger and more numerous. This situation poses unique problems related to the provision of water, sanitation and a healthy environment.

There are now 43 cities in Africa with populations of more than 1 million inhabitants. It is expected that by 2015 there will be 70 of them. Because of slow economic growth, lack of effective development policies and limited resources, infrastructure development has not kept up with the increasing needs for shelter and services in growing urban populations. At the same time, urban settlements in the developing countries are growing five times as fast as those in the industrialized countries.

This explosive growth of urban populations has resulted in African cities having overcrowded, informal settlements characterized by inadequate housing and poor infrastructures such as water supplies, sanitation and waste management services. This is the result, in part, of the fact that most cities, both in developed and developing regions are experiencing a polarization of their populations into affluent and poor neighborhoods. Modern trends are towards segregation rather than social integration between rich and poor neighborhoods.

This is the case for many African cities, where local governments have been unable to keep with the pace of change and as a consequence have also been unable to provide dwellers with proper infrastructures related to the provision of water and the collection, transportation, processing and disposal of waste materials.

In developing countries with economies under stress, waste management is a problem that often endangers health and the environment. However, it is a low priority problem for governments often besieged by other problems such as poverty, hunger, children’s malnutrition, water shortages, unemployment and even war. In that regard, fast-growing population, increasing poverty and its effects on living conditions are some of the problems facing cities in the developing world.

Water supply, sanitation and health are closely related issues. Poor hygiene, inadequate management of liquid or solid waste and lack of sanitation facilities are contributing factors in the death of millions of people in the developing world due to diseases that are easily preventable. In addition, people living in un-serviced or poorly serviced areas value the increased convenience and privacy associated with improved sanitation.

For example, lack of sanitation and inadequate disposal or storage of waste near houses can provide habitats for vectors responsible for several infectious diseases such as amebiasis, typhoid fever and diarrheas. Uncontrolled and inadequate landfills, for their part, are a big danger to the environment and a health risk to the population since they may lead to contamination of water and soil. The health risks associated with poor sanitation tend to be higher in densely populated low-income urban areas. At a global level, more than 5 million people die each year from diseases related to inadequate waste disposal systems.

Contamination of water leads to a whole range of diarrheal diseases such as cholera that kills 1.8 million people worldwide. An estimated 90 percent among them are children below five, mainly from developing countries. Most of the burden can be attributed to unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene practices.

The children that are affected the most are those living in low-income urban areas. According to UNICEF, Infant Mortality Rates (IMRs) are almost always higher in poor urban areas than the national average and than those in rural areas. A great proportion of this high mortality among the children of the urban poor can be attributed to diseases common in urban areas such as diarrhea, tuberculosis and parasitic diseases (intestinal worms) that are frequently associated with lack of safe water and sanitation. Malnutrition in children is often a complicating factor.

Germs, particularly those present in water, food or on dirty hands are the most frequent cause of sickness worldwide. Although lack of safe water and sanitary facilities are significant problems, they are made even worse by ignorance in the general population, particularly mothers, about the connection between dirt, germs and childhood diarrhea.

Also, experience has shown that provision of clean water by itself only leads to minor health improvements. The most important factor is personal hygiene, with adequate public sanitation and clean water as additional, supporting components. Thus, while each of these factors is important in itself, they are more effective when they are combined. At the same time, hygienic behavior is not possible without a source of safe water and adequate means to dispose of human and other wastes.

Several naturally-occurring and human-made chemical substances present in drinking water can have a serious effect on health, particularly when present above a threshold level. Among chemicals that can be dangerous in high concentrations are fluoride, arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, nitrates and pesticides.

All these factors stress the need to carry out policies that ensure the provision of safe water to the population, particularly in marginal areas lacking basic health and social services.

These comments are particularly appropriate when one reflects on the fact that Africa has the lowest water supply and sanitation coverage of any other region in the world. It is estimated that 1 in 3 Africans have no access to improved water or to sanitation facilities. Even more seriously, the number of people lacking those basic services is increasing. Unless actions are taken now, the absolute number of people lacking basic services will increase from 200 million in 2000 to 400 million in 2020. The majority of those lacking basic services live in informal or suburban areas and rural communities.

In the last 2 decades, Benin has reported significant gains in terms of sanitation coverage and better access to drinking water. Thus, improved sanitation coverage increased from 12% in 1990 to 30% in 2006, while the proportion of the population that gained access to an improved water source increased by 37% since 1990.

According to the Mid-term review of Progress in Reaching Objectives in A World Fit for Children, considerable progress has been made in the field of provision of safe drinking water, particularly in rural areas in that country. This was possible thanks to Government funds and important external support, as well as to a decentralization process that transferred some responsibilities to the local authorities.

According to the same document, although there have been improvements in basic sanitation the degree of improvement is still very low. Among the components still needed to improve the situation are financial support as well as hygiene and communication components aimed at provoking behavioral change, particularly hand-washing as a way to eliminate the transmission of infections from fecal matter.

Despite progress, however, many Sub-Saharan countries will find it difficult to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set for 2015, particularly the MDG 7 which stipulates to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

This is evident when, according to the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), “Today, it is becoming more and more evident that, in many Sub-Saharan African countries, official data on MDG progress in the area of water and sanitation do not reflect the real situation in the ground. In urban and presumable also in rural areas, coverage is overestimated which, as a result, means that the gaps to be bridged are underestimated.”

The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance has defined a set of conditions to address shortcoming of previous efforts to improve sanitation. Among those conditions to be addressed are the following:

* Capital-intensive solutions tend to be costly, energy-intensive and inflexible, failing to reach large proportions of the new slum poor.

* Importing sanitation models from the industrialized world and trying to implement centralized ‘one-size-fits-all’ solutions is in many cases neither appropriate nor sustainable. Planning approaches must be adapted to better allow for the planning and implementation of context-specific sanitation systems.

* Among recent innovations in sanitation planning are a more integrated planning approach (strategic sanitation planning), and a greater emphasis on the actual needs and means of the users encompassing close consultation with all stakeholders.

* We need to overcome the lack of integration between the various components of environmental sanitation: excreta, domestic and industrial waste-water, solid waste and storm water which are often run by separate agencies or institutions. Better use of synergies can lead to more sustainable and cost-effective solutions.

* To achieve adequate sanitation it is necessary to convince local authorities, utilities and donors that there should be effective commitment and participation by all stakeholders.

Several of these conditions are also applicable to improving the provision of safe water. In both cases, it is important to provide incentives for good practice. One such incentive could be increased financial aid to municipalities that succeed in implementing effective sanitation and safe water programs.

It is also important to move from implementing strategic planning process in a pilot municipality to disseminating results (through workshops, publications, exchange visits), followed by changes in legislation and procedures as necessary to replicating the process on a wider scale.

According to Hans van Damme, a special adviser to the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, the constraints for improvement are neither financial nor technical –they are political, social and managerial. At the same time, local authorities have to empower people through self-reliance and support individuals and families in their efforts. At the same time, water-sector professionals should combine their technical skills with the ability to communicate those they serve.

Better water and sanitation services can improve everybody’s health and well-being, particularly women and children. The seriousness with which we approach this task will be a measure of our commitment for building communities better prepared to face the challenges related to their need for having better access to potable water and adequate sanitation.

- In this blog series, Dr. Cesar Chelala explores the many challenges presented by urbanization, the impact of urban migration, challenges to health, and challenges of providing clean water. - Ed.

Dr. Cesar Chelala is an international public health consultant.