|
|
Hi! I’m Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a theoretical (astro)physicist in her final year of PhD study. Coming soon to a postdoctoral fellowship near you! Here is my CV.
Here are some interesting links:
The rest of the stuff below is my blog. I cover things that are of interest to me, which is primarily everything.
“Chandavato kim nāma kammam na sijjhati?”
Translation: With earnest desire, everything is possible.
Abhidhamma In Daily Life
By Ashin Janakabhivamsa
Contact me at chanda |the very special symbol| disorderedcosmos.com
Here are some photos from my trek to the supermarket this afternoon:
Thursday 4 February 2010
Dear Congress,
As an American who has been living abroad and who was excited about coming home to visit, I have a simple question: What kind of fuckery is this? It turned out that today I needed some medical assistance, and getting it was almost more painful than the actual physical problem. And, I even have health insurance. But it didn’t matter. For most doctors it wasn’t the right health insurance.
So, Congress, I just want to know. WHAT THE FUCK? And I realize that I am using informal language and CAPS to make points, and I apologize for how this might seem unprofessional, less than decorous and less than serious. But the truth is, I am moved to this behavior because of the dead, and I do mean dead, seriousness of the issue of health care in America. I cannot understand how you can say you stand for Americans when Americans die and suffer unnecessarily, all the time, every single day, because of a system you refuse to genuinely challenge.
I know, I know. What if it leads us down the path to socialism? We all know that word is BAD! But you know what’s worse? Children losing their homes and their parents to cancer, unnecessarily. If guaranteeing everyone that we will make an effort to heal their body is socialist, I say BRING IT ON. I cannot imagine, really cannot imagine, that you want to sacrifice these good, hard-working mothers, fathers, teachers, manual laborers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, you-name-its, in the name of protecting Capitalism. Yet, that is what is happening.
Some of you will say that there are principles here that go beyond arguments about economic structures. You will ask, “What about the fetuses?” Have a care for the unborn children, right? Okay, even though I think your desire to make choices for my body is gross, I’m willing to allow this reaction. What I’m not willing to do is accept the next logical step that you take, which is to punish the ALREADY BORN children as part of your mandate to protect the not-quite-in-existence-yet ones. Because there are actual real, live children out there who are waiting for you to pass health care reform so that they can have coverage. They are waiting for their parents to get coverage. Let me tell you, it’s no fun to watch a parent be horribly ill as a child. It’s even worse when they aren’t getting help. I’ve been there, and that experience is just wrong.
So stop demanding the hostage exchange. Stop holding up health care until the other side agrees to hold up women’s rights. I acquiesce to your right to fight on to end abortion rights, even if I hope you lose every single time. But not like this. You are killing people in your quest, and isn’t that antithetical to what you stand for? Or are unborn fetuses the only ones who deserve to live in your book? I don’t want to think that you all are a pack of unfeeling, inhumane assholes, but I’ll do it if you are going to insist on this kind of behavior.
Congress, I wish I could say that this whole letter is about people without health insurance. But it’s not. Millions of Americans can afford health insurance and still get screwed. Some of them pay for it only to discover the insurance company refuses to cover treatments that are urgently needed. Others get booted after surviving a life-threatening condition. (Indeed, for all of our pink breast cancer fundraising, I’m starting to wonder whether insurance companies are more responsible for deaths than the actual thing.) Others can’t get health insurance because they have a pre-existing “condition.” It still boggles my mind that one can qualify for discrimination by surviving. Surviving. THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY PUNISHES PEOPLE FOR SURVIVING ONE OF LIFE’S MOST INCREDIBLE STRUGGLES.
Wow, are we a country of fucking assholes or what? Not only are people excluded because they fought to live and succeeded, but even when they have health insurance, a complex system of incentives has lead doctors to only take patients who have coverage from the “right” companies. In other words, corporate priorities have subsumed patient choice and patient needs. Need to find a doctor? Good luck! The best guy is only covered by insurance plan A, and you have insurance plan Z. Sorry, but you don’t actually deserve the best care.
I remember David Cross saying something along the lines of “Are we a nation of 8 year olds?” in one of his routines. I thought it was funny, but now I kind of wish we were. Even though 8 year olds can be mean, they also seem to be fundamentally capable of being concerned for others. This is more than I can say for whatever vibes Congress is putting out right now. What I’m getting from Congress is fear of change, fear of words, fear of pissing off corporate sponsors. What I’m getting from Congress is fear of behaving decently. I don’t care if it’s hard. It can’t possibly be harder than watching people die unnecessarily.
But that’s what is happening. And I don’t understand it, at the end of the day. Hence my question: What kind of fuckery is this? I don’t really know how to answer it, and to be honest, Congress, I don’t think you do either. So my recommendation is that you get up off your collective ass and fix it. Now. Prove that you actually are members of the human race. Show a little compassion. Show that you can recognize that the system, if it is not serving the people, has no purpose.
Thanks for doing the right thing,
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
My latest public piece of writing is an essay on Pasadena at Is Greater Than:
During those trips, I dreamed of Pasadena and its sprawling lawns. I dreamed of a car with fancy automated locks and windows that had ventilation in the back. I dreamed of living far enough from the freeway that I couldn’t hear it at all hours. I dreamed of bookstores and buying the occasional novel. I dreamed of the brown and cream colored buildings that said, “We are Californian, just like you.”
Is Greater Than – Pasadena.
Letters: Haitian empowerment must be the prime goal | World news | The Guardian:
We the undersigned are outraged by the scandalous delays in getting essential aid to victims of the earthquake in Haiti (‘Chaotic and confusing’ relief effort is costing lives, aid agencies warn, 19 January). As a result of the US decision to prioritise the accumulation of foreign soldiers over the distribution of emergency supplies, untold numbers of people have died needlessly. We demand that US commanders immediately restore executive control of the relief effort to Haiti’s leaders, and to help rather than replace the local officials they claim to support.
Obsessive foreign concerns with “security” and “violence” are refuted by actual levels of patience and solidarity on the streets of Port-au-Prince. In keeping with a long-standing pattern, US and UN officials continue to treat the Haitian people and their representatives with wholly misplaced fear and suspicion.
Today a lot of left-leaning people are circulating an editorial by Peter Hallward in the UK Guardian entitled Our Role in Haiti’s Plight. I think it’s worth the read, BUT be aware:
There is a huge omission in this article that should not be ignored. While it’s all well and good to point to the repeated US invasions starting in 1915, it’s important to recognize that Haiti’s poverty was enforced earlier by another colonial power: France. After a crippling 20 year embargo as retaliation for the slaves taking their freedom, in 1825 France demanded 150 million francs (equivalent to $21 billion today) as payment for lost profits. In other words, France made the former slaves pay for their freedom. Haiti was forced to sign the treaty with French and German gun boats sitting in their harbor.
Haiti could not make the first payment and so it was arranged that they would receive loans from French banks, at exorbitant interest rates. Haiti was paying this indemnity for 123 years! The last payment was in 1947. At various points they were spending more money on the interest rate payments than on social services for their own people. It was only after the 1915 invasions that the US became involved, when some of the loans were transferred to American banks. (although I haven’t managed to source this last piece of information)
This is a particularly large omission since it is in a European newspaper. France must be held accountable too! And in fact, in 2003/4 Aristide demanded reparations from France, a repayment of all 21 billion. Not too long after, he was forcefully and anti-democratically removed from power and exiled from his homeland.
The New York Times Op-Ed is actually more honest about some of this. In either case, I hope people are beginning to understand that as much as this earthquake has been a natural disaster it is also a post-colonial disaster.
Haiti needs our help. All of the hospitals in Port-au-Prince have collapsed or suffered serious damage. A lot of people want to donate conscientiously. Here is a list of organizations that either I, or people I trust, feel comfortable with. Note that the first three organizations are ones that **Haitian** activists are asking people to donate to:
- The Haiti Emergency Relief Fund is organized by Haitian and American social justice and civil rights activists. HERF is taking donations by paypal or cheque.
- Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti comes recommended by Haitians who do social justice work at home. IJDH takes donations by paypal.
- The Lambi Fund is recommended to me by a Haitian friend and is also supported by Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat. Americans can donate to Lambi Fund by text message. Find out more.
- Medecins sans Frontieres aka Doctors Without Borders does a great job of minimizing the money spent on overhead. They have a large operation in Haiti, especially in Port-au-Prince. One of their facilities, the only free surgical facility in the city, has collapsed.
- Partners in Health does good social justice work in Haiti and on behalf of poor people. They are in the process of dispatching more doctors to Haiti and can use your support. UPDATE: Canadian residents with Rogers cell phones can text HELP to 1291, which gives $5 to Partners in Health.
IF YOU HAVE A DOLLAR, JUST A DOLLAR, DONATE TO HAITI, PLEASE
**UPDATE UPDATE** DO NOT DONATE TO YELE! WYCLEF JEAN HAS A HISTORY OF PAYING HIMSELF LARGE SUMS OF MONEY FROM THIS CHARITY’S COFFERS! See The Smoking Gun for more.
I will continue to update this list as I get more feedback from activists.
A calamitous earthquake hit Haiti today. At 7 on the Richter Scale, it is the largest quake in recorded history to ever hit the area. At least one hospital has collapsed and houses are apparently crumbling left and right. Infrastructure is a mess in Haiti, one of the, if not the poorest, nation in the Caribbean.
If you have $1 to spare, please donate. My mother tells me that Partners in Health has done good work in Haiti and will likely be part of the relief effort:
Partners In Health (PIH), Health Care for the Poor. She’ll be mentioning more organizations tomorrow, Wednesday January 13 at 7-8 AM PST on KPFK. You can listen online at their website.
Today we lost a hero of the 20th century. Miep Gies is a name that you may or may not recognize. Anne Frank is probably one that you do, and that is thanks to Miep. Miep and her husband Jan, along with colleagues, hid the Frank family and a few other Jewish people from the Nazis. After an unknown informant made the Nazis aware of the hiding Jews, Miep saved Anne’s diary, hoping to return it to her some day. When Otto Frank, Anne’s father, returned and his daughter’s death was confirmed, Miep gave him the diary, and the rest is history. Anne lives on as a testament to why we must protest apartheid in Palestine, racism in New Orleans, war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and injustice wherever it is found.
Miep had this to say about what she did:
I stand at the end of the long, long line of good Dutch people who did what I did or more – much more - during those dark and terrible times years ago, but always like yesterday in the hearts of those of us who bear witness. Never a day goes by that I do not think of what happened then.
More than twenty thousand Dutch people helped to hide Jews and others in need of hiding during those years. I willingly did what I could to help. My husband did as well. It was not enough.
There is nothing special about me. I have never wanted special attention. I was only willing to do what was asked of me and what seemed necessary at the time.
Let us all hope that we can do the same. Thank you Miep. For courage, decency, and for the part of Anne that could be saved.
Miep Gies :: en.
It’ll cost you 99 cents, but I think it’s worth it. Read this interview with sex worker and sex worker’s rights activist Kara Gillies. It’s an intelligent and important discussion about how the law endangers sex workers, about the necessity of decriminalization, and how we can make it happen.
Sex Work and the State – Upping the Anti.
This is one of the most fascinating pieces of science that I have read in a long, long time. And plenty of food (haha!) for thought.
When plant biologists speak of their subjects, they use active verbs and vivid images. Plants “forage” for resources like light and soil nutrients and “anticipate” rough spots and opportunities. By analyzing the ratio of red light and far red light falling on their leaves, for example, they can sense the presence of other chlorophyllated competitors nearby and try to grow the other way. Their roots ride the underground “rhizosphere” and engage in cross-cultural and microbial trade.
via Basics – Another Challenge for Ethical Eating – Plants Want to Live, Too – NYTimes.com.
|
HAITI: WHERE TO DONATE? Click here for more information about the best places to donate.
|
Recent Comments