Attaboy! Attagirl!

Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter's 30-year campaign appears to be on track to eradicate the Guinea worm: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/17/health/guinea-worm-cases-drop-by-more-than-70....

Other nominations for LT sainthood?

I have great respect for the Carter Centre's guinea worm eradication project. I have seen it in action in the area of South Sudan referred to in the linked article; in fact I was there about six weeks ago.

Nevertheless, I would nominate Madiba ahead of the Carters.

Yes, Nelson Mandela is certainly a nominee of the first rank--one of those people who actually changed the world for the better, leaving one optimistic for the future.

Still, I am thrilled to see the horrific Guinea worm in decline. (Parasitology is a fascinating study, but leaves indelible impressions and prejudices!)

Ebola-infected MD forgoes experimental serum so fellow staffer could be treated.
Meanwhile, boy-survivor gave a pint of blood to help the MD, who had saved his life.
Wow.

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/article/samaritans-purse-doctor-serving-in-liberi...

Secular for sure but kudos for Cuba (and its healthcare workers):

(WHO's Margaret) Chan welcomed Cuba’s announcement that it will send 165 health-care workers to fight the (Ebola) outbreak, but added that at least 500 doctors from abroad are needed.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/ebola-surging-beyond-control-who-s-margaret-chan-w...

Good luck to them.

Did anyone see the Frontline on it? It's now available to watch. Devastating and terrifying. These guys are really doing God's work.

Frontline, "Ebola Outbreak" http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ebola-outbreak/

Sierra Leone has lost a 4th MD to Ebola, after WHO refused money to transport her to Germany but instead pledged to work to give Buck "the best care possible" in Sierra Leone, including possible access to experimental drugs.

She might have been promised best care possible in-country (too late), but PR-wise, how can one expect local healthcare workers to step up to the challenge, when European and American colleagues are shipped home where prospects apparently better for survival?

Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/4th-doctor-dies-of-ebola-in-sierra-leone-1.2006092#...
.

I trust people saw The Onion:

Experts: Ebola Vaccine At Least 50 White People Away
http://www.theonion.com/articles/experts-ebola-vaccine-at-least-50-white-people-...

Ow.

Ow, indeed... But if fear of this thing here motivates action there, not entirely bad. Don't think we're entirely there yet, though. It would be interesting to check status of effort when that magic number (50) has been reached.

>9 margd: Don't hold your breath. Malaria has killed far more people than ebola over far more years, including more than 50 white people, but since it still predominantly affects developing countries there hasn't been too much money and effort put into finding a vaccine until very recently.

Call me cynical, but we'll have a vaccine for ebola long before malaria. Ebola doesn't have the numbers on malaria, but it does have the horror factor. Just wait for ebola to make it to the U.S. or Europe and you'll see everyone scrambling. I think it's a matter of time.

Regarding malaria: Pharmaceutical companies will solve male impotence a hundred times over and malaria will still be rampant.

Ebola outbreak: Malaysia sends W Africa medical gloves (BBC)

Malaysia plans to donate more than 20 million protective rubber gloves to five African countries affected by the Ebola outbreak...

>10 John5918:

I'm no scientist, but malaria is a parasite not a vaccine. While not getting top funds, malaria has gotten a lot of money over the years, including a few "vaccines," which have turned out not to work well. It's a tough disease. Ebola is a virus, and indeed it looks they've already got some promising vaccines in the pipeline.

>13 timspalding: True, but malaria has been killing millions of people, and it's been known to western science at least for a couple of centuries. If money and resources had been made available to match the scale of the threat to human beings, one might have expected a bit more progress.

It is perhaps unfortunate that the first world largely got rid of its malaria. I've never really understood how they managed to do this—apparently with DDT?—and it hasn't come back. But places like South Carolina and Greece used to be malarial.

(Ooh Oooh - I know this one...)

("But places like South Carolina and Greece used to be malarial." Places LIKE South Carolina? How about “Connecticut”? Malaria is endemic anyplace it stays above 20C for long enough to breed - it's constant vigilance by public health services that keep it from being RE-established in the first world...)

Malaria was beaten back by the general overall public health measures of the 20th century – draining swamps, window screens, netting – which interrupted the mosquito/human transmission chain just enough to eliminate it in the wild over most of the country – but it was finally eliminated in the South (yes, with DDT) only after WWII.

(Fun Fact: the CDC was founded down in Atlanta shortly after the war because its first missions were malaria and hookworm.)

(Another fact that comes to mind is that the US Army brought back 40,000 cases of malaria from Vietnam -- and there were real worries about it getting reestablished around the US....)

I trust people saw The Onion:

Experts: Ebola Vaccine At Least 50 White People Away
http://www.theonion.com/articles/experts-ebola-vaccine-at-least-50-white-people-....

Ow.

Reminiscent of And the Band Played On, where Shilts continually inserted comparable statistics from the Gov't's response to Legionnaires Disease into his timeline.

>17 Jesse_wiedinmyer:

That is a fantastic book.

>16 AsYouKnow_Bob:

Thanks. But aren't mosquitos also sucking on other creatures? I'm just surprised it could be so easily licked.

But aren't mosquitos also sucking on other creatures?

My guess is there's no other animal host as compatible as humans? It's in other primates, but that's not a reservoir outside of the tropics....

I'm just surprised it could be so easily licked.

Well, it's wasn't easy, and it's still not licked?

Yeah, I'm not real clear on how that battle was won in the North before the arrival of real pesticides after WWII. There must have been a LOT of kerosene poured on puddles in those earlier decades....

Edited to add :
Hey, the CDC has historical maps!

CDC Malaria Facts:

Approximately 1,500–2,000 cases of malaria are reported every year in the United States, almost all in recent travelers. Reported malaria cases reached a 40-year high of 1,925 in 2011.

Between 1957 and 2011, in the United States, 63 outbreaks of locally transmitted mosquito-borne malaria have occurred; in such outbreaks, local mosquitoes become infected by biting persons carrying malaria parasites (acquired in endemic areas) and then transmit malaria to local residents.

Of the species of Anopheles mosquitoes found in the United States, the three species that were responsible for malaria transmission prior to elimination (Anopheles quadrimaculatus in the east, An. freeborni in the west, and An. pseudopunctipennis along the U.S./Mexico border) are still prevalent; thus there is a constant risk that malaria could be reintroduced in the United States.

The Grauniad's take on it:

Why are western health workers with Ebola flown out, but locals left to die?

Health workers from a wide range of countries are working alongside each other to fight Ebola. How can it be right to give some the chance of life when they contract the disease, and condemn others to death?

Not only is there more than one type of malaria organism, it is carried by more than one type of mosquito. Plus parasites are innately complex.

Malaria was endemic in England for centuries, and cases occurred until after WWI. It was controlled with quinine and public health measures, including window screens, swamp drainage, and elimination of mosquito larvae (probably by using oil on ponds).

>22 IreneF: Interesting. I thought the malaria parasite was only carried by the female anopheles mosquito? Maybe my theoretical knowledge of malaria is getting out of date? Unfortunately my practical experience of it isn't! I'm told by local doctors there are four strains of malaria, of which three are not too bad and the fourth can lead to cerebral malaria. For most of the last thirty-odd years I appear to have had only the first three; last year I got a nasty new experience with the fourth!

I think you're right about the measures used to control malaria in the past. They included many which would probably be frowned upon now for environmental and health and safety reasons, including the heavy use of DDT and pouring oil on ponds. But as you say, a lot of it is about public health measures. Many developing countries, particularly those suffering wars and natural disasters, are just not in a position to implement the necessary measures, and won't be for some time to come. The same is true to a large extent with ebola. Good public health control measures and effective treatment for victims apparently reduces both the spread of the disease and the death rate immensely, but most of the countries in which it has broken out lack these.

>21 John5918: And nurses and orderlies caring for Ebola patients--as well as MDs--should receive the best care. (Apparently there's a nurse shortage, no surprise.)

Perhaps private philanthropist or crowd-funding could pay for the next evacuation or top-tier experimental treatment in-country of a healthworker, to get things rolling.

Wonder how much it costs to safely evacuate an Ebola patient? I've heard $10K for a traveller to return home on a stretcher for regular maladies, but Ebola requires a dedicated, specially outfitted plane. Maybe a helicopter, if a local top-tier hospital/ward was dedicated to treatment of all healthworkers (Euro as well as local, nurses as well as MDs)?

Unlike malaria, Ebola is an emerging disease. Usually they are most deadly when they first jump from animal to human, becoming less so as strains more likely to persist and spread are selected for, e.g., syphilis, measles, plague. Current Ebola infectiousness might be hampered in prosperous west, but unfortunately not so in poorer countries. If unchecked, and it doesn't mutate to become more infectious, will its map eventually look like malaria's, I wonder? Now is the time to check it!

Well, it's wasn't easy, and it's still not licked?

Well, it was licked for first-worlders. (Then again, even if it was in Connecticut, it was hardly infecting more than 50% of the population, as in some African countries.) With it and a few others--smallpox!--gone, people in, say, Maine, just don't have to worry about infectious diseases much.

That said, my dystopia idea is as follows: what if one of the tick-borne diseases becomes much more serious? That is, lyme becomes drug resistant, or rapidly fatal, or something like powassan--a fatal tick-borne disease--becomes common. I picture New England virtually deserted, and a bunch of friends taking a trip through it. Now, to write it…

Yeah, I'm not real clear on how that battle was won in the North before the arrival of real pesticides after WWII. There must have been a LOT of kerosene poured on puddles in those earlier decades....

Yeah. It's a story I'd love to see told. I suspect that DDT may be part of the reason it's not--it makes for an uncomfortable fable in these more environmentally conscious times.

How can it be right to give some the chance of life when they contract the disease, and condemn others to death?

Well, one reason is that people volunteer to help under the understanding that they'll be flown out. I don't see what's wrong with the Peace Corps yanking volunteers out of a country that descends into civil war, and not attempting to rescue everyone else.

Don't get me wrong, I think it would be great to offer as much help as possible.

>25 timspalding: That said, my dystopia idea is as follows: what if one of the tick-borne diseases becomes much more serious? That is, lyme becomes drug resistant, or rapidly fatal, or something like powassan--a fatal tick-borne disease--becomes common. I picture New England virtually deserted, and a bunch of friends taking a trip through it. Now, to write it…

I do some work on arthropod-borne disease issues, and I have that same nightmare. Hell, Lyme already IS drug-resistant, powassan is ALREADY scary: my wife has instructions that my obit should mention that "He was a lifelong, avid indoorsman."

Yeah. It's a story I'd love to see told. I suspect that DDT may be part of the reason it's not--it makes for an uncomfortable fable in these more environmentally conscious times.

Oh, absolutely: in fact, that’s a big meme in wingnut circles: mocking those damn treehuggers for getting DDT banned.
“There would be NO malaria if those damn LIBRULS would only let us NUKE the entire biosphere!!!11!!!!”

...Fortunately, wingers are not yet in total control of public health decisions....

Edited to add roundup article about the pre-pesticide decline, crediting draining the swamps:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131022102244.htm

Draining swamps is a mixed blessing IMO because swamps are integral to a healthy ecosystem. I'm particularly thinking of the downside of draining the Everglades.

>23 John5918:
Malaria is as much a product of environment as anything else. It's probably been co-evolving with humans since people took up farming; otherwise, why hang out where the skeeters are biting? Several populations have developed genetic changes that alter one's susceptibility to malaria. The most famous is sickle cell trait, but there are others.

Interestingly, people credit antibiotics with extending the human life span, but the demographic changes of lower mortality started long before they were introduced. Having clean water is a big deal. So is soap. Immunizations have saved millions of lives.

People get their knickers in a twist over scary but rare diseases, yet ignore those that are closer to home because they are familiar, e.g. influenza. It causes 250,000-500,000 deaths every year. So how come so many skip the flu vaccine?

(Confession: I don't get one because I'm housebound, and only regularly see two other people. I get them to get shots.)

>28 IreneF: People get their knickers in a twist over scary but rare diseases, yet ignore those that are closer to home because they are familiar

I suppose which diseases one considers "scary and rare" depends where "home" is! We consider malaria and typhoid to be pretty routine here, and we had a cholera epidemic for a few months earlier this year. Scary, yes, but not rare. But 'flu now often makes me feel worse than a milder dose of malaria (which is precisely why I didn't take malaria seriously enough last year and got quite a shock when it turned out not to be a mild dose!)

>29 John5918:
Sorry, I was being geocentric!

What you say confirms something I read about malaria--that people in countries where it's endemic don't take it as seriously as we do.

More info about flu:
The 1918 flu pandemic (January 1918 – December 1920) was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic, the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus.1 It infected 500 million2 people across the world, including remote Pacific islands and the Arctic, and killed 50 to 100 million of them—three to five percent of the world's population3—making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.2456
--Wikipedia

It's nice to not have to worry about getting eaten by a dinosaur, but the advantage of them is you could (usually) see them coming. It's the bacteria and viruses that concern me. Realistically, I do what I can and don't worry too much. Once upon a time I used to work with infectious disease information. Scary stuff but so fascinating.

Bottom line, I'm glad God loves humans because otherwise I think we would have been wiped out long before....

>31 pmackey:
Diseases are cool, except when you have one.

>32 IreneF:, That sums up my feelings very neatly.

Good article on the incredible ordeal of wearing biohazard suit in warm weather, including temps of up to 115 degrees F!

Wonder if NASA has pioneered any technology with potential to help (inexpensively), e.g., longjohns that chill?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-23/inside-an-ebola-protective-suit-that-fe...

Wow, "attaboy" is way weak, but offered sincerely in recognition of 82YO Syrian archeologist Khaled Asaad, Christian or not, facing possible beheading (realized), who resisted for an entire month ISIS militants' interrogation into where antiquities had been hidden from them:

ISIS militants have beheaded an 82-year-old archaeologist who had been in charge of overseeing the ancient site at Palmyra in Syria, a government official said Tuesday.

Syrian state antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim...said that Asaad had been held and interrogated by members of the terror group for over a month before his death. The official said that Asaad's captors had been looking for information about where the town's treasures had been hidden to save them from ISIS, but they had no success getting the information from the scholar.

ISIS seized Palmyra, whose Roman-era ruins attracted thousands of tourists prior to Syria's civil war, from government forces in May. In the days and weeks before the city fell, Syrian officials said they had moved hundreds of statues out of concern that they would be destroyed by ISIS fighters...

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/08/19/isis-reportedly-beheads-82-year-old-arch...

Nelson Mandela was a terrorist.

Nobel Peace Prize contenders:

Angela Merkel, for welcoming refugees

Denis Mukwege--Congolese gynecologist has treated more than 30,000 rape victims, along with his colleagues.

Mussie Zerai--Eritrean Catholic priest helped rescue thousands of migrants by taking distress calls at all hours from sinking boats in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.

Maybe next year(?), if initiatives result in action:

Pope Francis--climate change, although facilitating US-Cuban thaw is no small accomplishment.

John Kerry--Iran nuclear deal.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/merkel-eritrean-priest-top-nobel-peace-prize-c...

>38 margd: More on Fr Mussie Zerai, from The Tablet:

Nobel Prize: Nomadic priest that migrants call for help

Rest in peace, retired Canadian diplomat Ken Taylor, 81, whose simple humanity, initiative, and courage saved Americans from being taken hostage during the Iranian Revolution.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ken-taylor-diplomat-pulled-off-the-...

"Muslim passengers on a bus in Kenya told off their attackers, shielding the Christian passengers and refusing to be split into two groups based on their faith. At least two people were killed and six others wounded after gunmen attacked a bus and a lorry between Kotulo and el-Wak in Mandera County. Dec. 21, 2015."

(KTN News Kenya / YouTube) http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-muslims-christians-kenya-bus-attack-video-...

Wow, what stuff these people must be made of that they wouldn't take an opportunity to escape! I had a gun pointed at me this past weekend--a first--and my instant reaction was to duck. (At a sports store, it was probably a dummy and certainly unloaded, but nevertheless my unthinking, immediate reflex was to get outta there.)

"Saving Family no. 417: The journey of one Syrian mother, her three children—and the complete strangers who made it their mission to bring them (from Lebanon) to (Peterborough, near Algonquin Park) Canada."

Amal Alkhalaf and her children (Dalya, 8; Ansam, 13; Ibrahim, 10) escaped ISIS-controlled territory in Syria in 2014 to Lebanon, near the market where suicide bomber struck in November 2013, an attack overshadowed in world press by the Paris tragedy.

http://www.macleans.ca/saving-family-no-417/

Republican mayor of Albuquerque, NM, Richard Berry, offers maintenance day jobs to homeless panhandlers, linking them to services: "There's a better way."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2016/08/11/this-republican-...

'God's angels': Human chain of almost 80 strangers save a drowning family
Scott Stump | 7/12/2017

Caught in a rip current with three other family members after trying to bring her two young sons to safety, Roberta Ursrey couldn't help but think the worst as she struggled to keep her head above water in the Gulf of Mexico.

The lifeguards were off duty at Panama City Beach in Florida on Saturday evening when Ursrey's sons, Noah, 11, and Stephen, 8, started calling for help after they got caught in a rip current while on their boogie boards.

Ursrey, 34, swam out to try and save them along with her nephew, mother and husband. All of them were soon sucked out by the strong current along with two other swimmers who tried to help.

As law enforcement waited for a rescue boat, a group of nearly 80 strangers on the beach sprung into action by forming a human chain stretching about 100 yards into the Gulf of Mexico to save the group of nine people caught in the rip current. It started with a few swimmers and grew into a massive effort as more and more beachgoers ran into the water to help.

"To see people from different races and genders come into action to help TOTAL strangers is absolutely amazing to see!!" (Jessica) Simmons (swam out to end of chain) wrote on Facebook. "People who didn't even know each other went HAND IN HAND IN A LINE, into the water to try and reach them. Pause and just IMAGINE that." ..

http://www.today.com/news/beachgoers-form-human-chain-save-family-rip-current-t1...

>45 margd: What a wonderful story!

As a follow-up to the Albuquerque story in #44, Lexington KY has created a similar program:

http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/counties/fayette-county/article146606019.html

$9/hour.

>44 margd:, I saw a segment on the news (don't remember, but I think NBC national). I was very impressed. It may not be THE answer. But it's AN answer. Better than just running them out of town... Better than doing nothing at all... I think this is a great start.

>46 2wonderY:, Very glad to see Lexington, KY doing something similar.

How a Mattress Store Became a Home for Harvey Victims
YOUSUR AL-HLOU | Aug. 30, 2017 | 3:21

Houston businessman Jim McIngvale opened his mattress store to flood victims, giving hundreds of men, women, children and pets a place to rest.

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000005398367/houston-harvey-mattress-shelter...

Much-needed human story from the Olympics:

‘A human connection’: When a U.S. luger was struggling, a Russian offered his sled
Rick Maese | February 11, 2018

In his efforts to break out of a slump and get back on top, Chris Mazdzer, the surprising new owner of an Olympic silver medal, received a helping hand from perhaps the unlikeliest of places — a competitor from the Russian team.

...In January, he’d slid to No. 18 in the world rankings, felt stuck in a rut that was coming to define his entire season.

...Other lugers had taken notice, and Mazdzer revealed Monday that one of his Russian rivals offered the use of his sled. The Russian racer felt his own Olympic hopes were fading, Mazdzer said, but he wanted to help the American veteran do his best.

How often does a luger offer up his most important piece of equipment? “Never,” Mazdzer said. It’d be like a NASCAR driver lending out his car or a sprinter passing along his lucky running shoes.

“It’s like, ‘This is your competitive advantage; this is everything. Are you sure?’ ” Mazdzer recalled. “And in some broken language of smiles and handshakes and high-fives, it’s like, ‘Yeah, just do it.’ ”

...The Russian luger who lent out his sled did eventually make the Olympics, one of three who competed in the men’s singles competition here under the Olympic Athletes from Russia banner, but Mazdzer declined to reveal his name.

...the sled looked good (but) Mazdzer quickly learned he was too big for the unfamiliar sled and couldn’t control it the way he’d like. Even though he came to PyeongChang and reached the podium on a sled of his own, he’s grateful that others were trying so hard to help him snap out of his slump.

“...There is a human connection that we have, that crosses countries, that cross cultures, and sport is an amazing way to accomplish that.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2018/02/11/a-human-connection-when...

13 semis line Detroit freeway to help man considering suicide
April 24, 2018

...All told, 13 semi trucks were parked under the overpass to shorten the distance he would fall, if he were to have jumped...

http://www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/13-semis-line-detroit-freeway-to-help...

Spain offers to take in drifting migrant ship Aquarius (SOS Mediterranee and Medecins Sans Frontieres)
Reuters Staff | June 11, 2018

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain offered on Monday to take in a rescue ship that is drifting in the Mediterranean sea with 629 migrants stranded on board after Italy and Malta refused to let it dock.

The Aquarius picked up the migrants from inflatable boats and rafts off the coast of Libya at the weekend, and the United Nations refugee agency said on Monday it was running out of provisions....

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-spain/spain-offers-to-take-in...

'Officer Blade' in Mesquite, Texas says he's dedicating his life to help break down the barriers between police and the minority communities they serve.

Video Of Officer Boxing With Texas Teen Goes Viral

How nuns in Mexico are helping save a critically endangered salamander
Noel Kirkpatrick | June 11, 2018

...The Sisters of the Monastery of the Dominican of Order in Pátzcuaro, Mexico, are working with Chester Zoo in the United Kingdom and Michoacán University in Mexico to rebuild the population of salamanders, which are found only in a lake near the nuns' monastery.

The salamanders (Ambystoma dumerilii) once thrived in Lake Pátzcuaro, their only known home in the wild. Over the past century, however, the introduction of exotic fish to the lake, the destruction of the surrounding forest that altered the lake's shoreline and over-harvesting of the salamanders for a specialty dish pushed the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to designate the salamander as critically endangered, with perhaps only 100 individuals thought to exist in the wild.

...The Chester Zoo has maintained six breeding pairs of salamanders while another 30 adults are split between Michoacán University and a Mexican government fisheries center. The nuns, whose monastery is located at the edge of the lake, have maintained a genetically diverse population of the salamanders for 150 years, and their population could be the key to saving the species.

..."The nuns deserve enormous credit in keeping this species alive. Now, in partnership with the sisters, a European network of zoos and the University of Michoacán in Mexico, we are fighting to breed a thriving population for eventual reintroduction back into the wild." (Chester Zoo curator of lower invertebrates)

...the nuns have bred the salamanders for over a century to produce a special cough medicine...

https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/mexican-nuns-are-helping-save-...

>53 margd: There are two topics I never expected to see in connection to each other: nuns and salamanders. Glad to hear their making a difference in more ways than one.

The Guardian view on the Thai cave rescue: saluting the volunteers
Editorial | July 3, 2018

The two British divers who found 12 missing boys and their football coach alive in a flooded cave in Thailand boast extensive experience. Rick Stanton and John Volanthen, who reached the group nine days after they vanished, are so well known among cave rescuers that they had reportedly been requested specially. Yet their work is entirely voluntary; one is a firefighter, the other a computer engineer. And far from glorying in their role, Mr Volanthen had brushed off reporters as he entered the cave, saying only: “We’ve got a job to do.”

On first sight, their quiet courage and extraordinary expertise are truly exceptional. Yet what is perhaps more remarkable is that thousands of people in the UK volunteer on search and rescue teams, and do so largely unsung. There are around 1,000 volunteer cave rescuers in the UK, and 4,700 volunteer lifeboat crew members. In 2015, more than 1,720 people helped in mountain rescue operations. Lowland and coastguard cliff rescue teams are even less well known. But together their impact is powerful. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution says its volunteers have saved more than 139,000 lives since its foundation in 1824...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/03/the-guardian-view-on-the-t...

At 92, Jimmy Carter is building homes for the needy this summer (while 92YO Queen Elizabeth also soldiers on). Inspiring people!

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/former-president-jimmy-carter-92-builds-homes...

How LeBron James’ new public school really is the first of its kind
The I Promise School is unique — but it’s also building from a successful model.
Christian D'Andrea | Jul 31, 2018

...James’ I Promise School opened Monday to serve low-income and at-risk students in his hometown (Akron), and the public school could be an agent of change in the eastern Ohio city.

...longer school days, a non-traditional school year, and greater access to the school, its facilities, and its teachers during down time for students. That’s a formula aimed at replicating some of the at-home support children may be missing when it comes to schoolwork. The school has also anchored its curriculum in math and science-based teaching, dipping into the STEM — science, technology, engineering, and math — curriculum that prepares students for the jobs of the future.

...LeBron James Family Foundation ... benefits available to those staffers shows the steps James and his cohort are making to attract and retain quality educators. (e.g.,)...

To truly provide emotional and psychological services for at-risk children and their families requires well-trained and supported teachers. The I Promise School gives teachers access to psychological services. Every Wednesday afternoon will be reserved for career development. James even hired a personal trainer to work with teachers who want a guided workout.

All their supplies also are provided by the school. That was a pleasant surprise for Angela Whorton, an intervention specialist at the I Promise School. She’s been a teacher for 10 years and almost always had to spend her own money to properly stock the classroom.

...Creating a comfortable home life is one of the school’s core beliefs, and it stretches beyond just the student. Parents can use the institution’s job and family services, study through its GED program, or design meals at the on-site food bank to cook at home. There are also counselors on staff to help children deal with the trauma that may arise in their daily life.

...These students will each receive a bicycle on their first day of class as well — the tool James used to escape dangerous parts of Akron and explore his neighborhood.

(free college tuition to University of Akron to all graduates beginning in 2021)

https://www.sbnation.com/2018/7/31/17634370/lebron-james-school-akron-i-promise-...

Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan dies at age 80
Ghanaian served from 1997 to 2006 during one of the UN's most turbulent periods
The Associated Press · Posted: Aug 18, 2018

..."He was an exceptional person,"(Paul Heinbecker, who was Canada's ambassador to the UN from 2000 to 2003) told CBC News. "He was a guy who could combine great intelligence with humanity. He could talk to the world's thugs and the man on the street ... he was practically the definition of diplomacy."

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke called Annan "an international rock star of diplomacy."...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/kofi-annan-dies-1.4790394

ETA_____________________________________________

Rwanda:

Carl Wilkens is an American who was working for the humanitarian arm of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Rwanda when the genocide began. He refused to leave, even as the situation escalated dramatically....said that the U.N. initially provided a false sense of security for many Rwandans, who may otherwise have run. It was “an enormous failure that has always been a very, very difficult thing for me,” said Wilkens, who wrote a book about the genocide, called “I’m not leaving.”

“Every time, I thought are you kidding me? The person in charge of this enormous failure then gets made the secretary general of the U.N.,” Wilkens said. “That just really was a bitterness inside of me. I think it blinded me from any other positive contributions and achievements and reasons that he may have been selected for that position and then what he was able to accomplish.”

Annan acknowledged the U.N.'s shortcomings, saying in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, in 1998 that "the world failed Rwanda at that time of evil.” Meisler wrote in Annan’s obituary that he later “published long reports, chock full of classified cables, that detailed the United Nations’ mistakes in dealing with the massacre in Srebrenica during the Balkans war and Rwanda in the 1990s.”

...Wilkens said that in the wake of Annan’s death, he now hopes to set aside some of his bitterness and take a more objective look at what the complicated leader accomplished after 1994.

“When I read about his death, I realized I was very much guilty of something that I think Rwanda has been trying to teach me, and something I think everybody should have a look at,” Wilkens said. “Are we always going to be defined by our worst choices? Our worst mistakes?”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2018/08/18/kofi-annans-legacy-was-complicat...

Two men show...compassion by giving cash to a woman paying for petrol with change (1:00)
Greg Evans | 10/26/2018

...two men who decided to help out an older woman who they had noticed was paying for the petrol for her car with change.

They reached out to her and gave her a handful of cash to make her situation a little easier.

The astounded woman breaks down in tears and tells them that she has been having a bad time and that her husband died only a week ago.

She thanks them profusely to which they say, "Tt's only right, we've got to stick together."

...The video was posted on Twitter by Kevin W of America Out Loud and has already been viewed more than 6 million times.

The man in the video has since been identified as comedian Carlos Davis, who also shared the video on his Twitter account.

https://www.indy100.com/article/two-men-act-of-kindness-money-change-petrol-carl...

Kindness Contagion
Witnessing kindness inspires kindness, causing it to spread like a virus
Jamil Zaki | July 26, 2016

... people read stories about the suffering of homeless individuals. After each story, they saw what they believed was the average level of empathy past participants had felt in response to its protagonist. Some people learned that their peers cared a great deal, and others learned they were pretty callous. At the end of the study, we gave participants a $1 bonus, and the opportunity to donate as much of it as they liked to a local homeless shelter. People who believed others had felt empathy for the homeless cared more themselves, and also donated twice as much as people who believed others had felt little empathy...

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/kindness-contagion/

Chicago Woman Got 30 Hotel Rooms for Homeless People During Severe Cold Snap
Sandra E. Garcia | Feb. 2, 2019

As temperatures plunged to life-threatening lows this week, more than 100 homeless people in Chicago unexpectedly found themselves with food, fresh clothes and a place to stay after a local real estate broker intervened.

The broker, Candice Payne, 34, said it was a “spur-of-the-moment” decision to help. “It was 50 below, and I knew they were going to be sleeping on ice and I had to do something,” she said on Saturday.

...Ms. Payne met two pregnant women and a family of five in the first group of homeless people who went to the inn.

...“People from the community, they all piggyback off Candice,” said Robyn Smith, the manager of the Amber Inn. “Other people started calling and anonymously paying for rooms,” she added, and Ms. Smith lowered the price to accommodate more people.

What started out as 30 rooms doubled to 60, Ms. Smith said. The rooms were only supposed to be occupied until Thursday, when temperatures in Chicago were expected to moderate. But with the donations Ms. Payne has received — more than $10,000 so far — she has been able to house the people in the hotel and feed them until Sunday...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/us/candice-payne-homeless-chicago.html

The man behind Somalia's only free ambulance service (BBC)

I believe Hamdi Ulukaya is an immigrant and a Muslim--as well as possessed of a heart of gold.

After a school district said it'll serve jelly sandwiches to students with lunch debt, Chobani stepped in
Doug Criss | May 10, 2019

(CNN)The schools in Warwick, Rhode Island, can put those sun butter and jelly sandwiches away: Someone is stepping up to pay the massive lunch debt of some of its students.

That "someone" is yogurt company Chobani, which is paying off $47,650 of the $77,000 debt.

The donation from Chobani will be used to pay the debts of low-income students, Courtney Marciano, spokeswoman for the city of Warwick, told CNN.
Warwick Public School caused an uproar earlier this week when it announced that any students who had unpaid balances on their lunch accounts would receive a sunflower seed butter and jelly sandwich until their balance was paid.

"As a parent, this news breaks my heart," Chobani founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya said in statement. "For every child, access to naturally nutritious and delicious food should be a right, not a privilege. When our children are strong, our families are stronger. And when our families are strong, our communities are stronger. Business can and must do its part to solve the hunger crisis in America and do its part in the communities they call home."

In addition to paying off the debt, Chobani is also donating cups and yogurt to the community in Warwick...

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/10/us/rhode-island-lunch-debts-warwick-chobani-trnd/...

'They want to bless each other': New Winnipeg pizzeria lets customers donate a slice to others in need (3:39)
CBC News · Posted: Jun 06, 2019

A North End Winnipeg takeout pizza place is using sticky notes and the generosity of strangers to help feed hungry people who can't afford their food.

Vikas Sanger opened SFC Pizzeria on Salter Street near Selkirk Avenue in May. Right away, he started getting customers coming in hungry who didn't have enough to pay for a $1 piece of pizza.

"They want free food because they are hungry, they aren't even wearing proper clothes," said Sanger, who moved to Canada from India in 2010.

"In our culture … if somebody comes and asks for food, we cannot deny them, because they are hungry. … But I just opened a new restaurant, so I cannot afford to give everything free."

He talked it over with his wife, Shivani Sanger, and they came up with a solution: customers with the means have the option to donate a dollar and write a message on a sticky note, which they stick to a wall under a "pay it forward" sign.

...Since they started the sticky note plan, which they call the "pay it forward program," Sanger said he's had people come in and try to buy a slice of pizza with 20 cents or 50 cents.

But he's been able to tell them to keep their change and help themselves to some free food.

"We all are doing this. It's not only us," Shivani Sanger said. "We came up with the idea … but people are so good, people are so nice, that they want to bless each other."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-pay-it-forward-pizza-1.5164382

>64 margd:

José Andrés @chefjoseandres | 12:00 AM · Sep 7, 2019:

Yes Sir! We did 13k meals today! Tomorrow 20k plus...getting 2 more helicopters tomorrow and we can double it!....we are doing many drops a day....but we don’t have refueling in Abaco and we have to fly back to Nassau, slowing things out! But...

______________________________________________________________________

Chef José Andrés in the Bahamas, helping save lives "one meal at a time"
September 4, 2019, 9:32 AM

As the full extent becomes clear of the destruction left behind by Hurricane Dorian in the northern Bahamas, the non-profit World Central Kitchen, led by renowned chef José Andrés, is one of the aid groups spearheading relief efforts.

...he and his team of about a dozen people from World Central Kitchen are aiming to deliver 30,000 meals daily to the Abaco and Grand Bahama Islands that felt the brunt of Dorian's wrath.

...U.N. officials say more than 60,000 people on the islands will need food, and the Red Cross says 62,000 people need clean drinking water.

...This is not the first time the celebrity chef has become a first responder, using his talents to feed victims of a disaster zone. After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, World Central Kitchen stepped in to serve nearly four million meals, with the help of thousands of volunteers. ...

...their goal in the Bahamas is to give the local government fewer problems to solve (so they can concentrate now on search & rescue)...

...Andrés told his team during last night's meeting: "In disaster zones, you need empathy, and a will to just get it done."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-dorian-chef-jose-andres-in-the-bahamas-he...

...Edna Adan, a Somali midwife who fights for women’s health, trains doctors and empowers women in her native Somaliland.

Edna scandalized Somaliland by learning to read at a time when girls were barred from even elementary school there. She later studied in Britain, became a nurse midwife, enjoyed a highflying career with the World Health Organization — and then used her savings to build a maternity hospital that opened in Somaliland in 2002.

Then she started a university and medical school that is training a new generation of Somali doctors and medical workers, 70 percent of them female. Edna sent me a photo this year of an all-female surgical team: a woman surgeon, a woman nurse and a woman anesthetist. It’s breathtaking to see in a country that once barred girls from getting any education.

Edna draws no pay from her hospital; instead, she subsidizes it with her United Nations pension. Somaliland remains one of the world’s most difficult places to be born female and has one of the world’s highest rates of maternal mortality...

Edna is working to empower women in every way she can. After she cared for a disabled woman who had been raped by a taxi driver, Edna pushed for a law against rape. Previously, rape victims were typically forced to marry the rapist, or compensation money was paid between the families, with the rapist getting off scot-free. With Edna’s help, Somaliland this year adopted a law that punishes rape with up to 31 years in prison.

Almost all Somali girls are subjected to an extreme form of genital mutilation: All the genitals are cut away, and the raw flesh is sewn shut with wild thorns, leaving a tiny opening for urine and menstruation. After marriage, the flesh is cut open.

Edna herself was held down and cut when she was 8 years old, and she has been campaigning against the practice since 1976; initially, this got her arrested. But she has made progress, and this year the Somaliland Ministry of Religious Affairs issued a fatwa condemning this extreme form of genital cutting...

Forget the Scarf. These Gifts Change Lives.
Nicholas Kristof | Nov. 30, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/30/opinion/sunday/holiday-gift-guide.html

Napalm girl on pain and forgiveness. "My enemies list became my prayer list."

CBC Docs @cbcdocs | 10:43 PM · Jan 15, 2020:

"I was in agony. Naked. So ugly. I wish that picture wasn’t taken."
Phan Thị Kim Phúc’s life changed forever when she became known as “the napalm girl” in a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph.

She offers her Brief But Spectacular take on forgiveness and that girl in the picture.

4:01 ( https://twitter.com/cbcdocs/status/1217653450986721281 )