Contemporary Iraqi Conversations
"In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice: "Always try to see the good in people!" he would say. As a consequence I reclined to reserve all judgments. Even I have a limit." With these words the new version of "The Great Gatsby" starts with Carraway's voice narrating his memories while he is a resident in a psychiatric ward.I was in bus going to work when we passed by that city south of Baghdad named Alexandria, a city Alexander the Great had passed in once. I asked the man sitting next to me about the prices of rent of apartments in this city. He answered tha...
Source: psychiatry for all - June 20, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Remember Iraq?
Hardly anyone in the U.S. seems to remember that we blew a trillion dollars to eliminate the existential threat of Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction™, and bring the blessings of freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people, which would then miraculously metastasize throughout the Greater Middle East™ and bring about everlasting peace.I spent much of the time whilst we were blowing that dough along with more than 4,000 American lives and, oh yeah, a few hundred thousand or a million Iraqis but who's counting, following events there very closely, as a contributor to Today in Iraq. (Now Today in Afghanistan, see the sideb...
Source: Stayin' Alive - May 20, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Source Type: blogs
Diary of an Iraqi Cosmopolitan Citizen
"As Syria descends deeper into chaos, knives are being sharpened and battle lines being drawn in Iraq." says an article last December in Foreign Policy.That was an enough dose of "foreign" policy to me so I switched the internet navigation to more "internal" affairs of this big world and the best story that appealed to me was Depardieu's. The french actor Gerard Depardieu, says an article, was granted the Russian nationality and passport. Depardieu wanted to get rid of the high taxes for the high salaries in France. As an Iraqi, living in Baghdad, I understand him!They say that chronic stress can cause, among oth...
Source: psychiatry for all - January 3, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
The VA feels different this year...
iPhone photo in the lobby of the West Roxbury VA hospital. Maybe it shouldn't, because it's the same hospital and the same patients--with a few more younger guys back from Iraq and Afghanistan than the last time I was here--but the president and retired General Shinseki (now the chief of the VA) make it feel a little different to walk in the door. (Source: hemodynamics)
Source: hemodynamics - January 26, 2010 Category: American Health Tags: hospitals obama Shinseki Veterans Administration Source Type: blogs
Diabetes: As Costly As War
Last week, results of an ADA-commissioned study were announced indicating that uncontrolled diabetes is costing this country $174 billion a year. That makes it as costly as war (the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and the global war on terrorism c... (Source: Diabetes Mine)
Source: Diabetes Mine - January 28, 2008 Category: Endocrinology Authors: Amy Tenderich Source Type: blogs
Shipped Home from Iraq: Diabetes Discrimination?
Last June, Steve Sims, 41, was shipped home from Iraq by his then-employer contractor KBR supposedly because he has diabetes. You might think he'd feel lucky. Be he actually liked his job, and wanted to stay. He believes his supervisor pulled t... (Source: Diabetes Mine)
Source: Diabetes Mine - September 7, 2007 Category: Endocrinology Authors: Amy Tenderich Source Type: blogs
