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World By Jennifer Kasper, MD, MPH While the world's technological, agricultural and medical capacity has developed by leaps and bounds, the plight of children around the world has continued to deteriorate. UNICEF's State of the World's Children report describes their situation in a simple and succinct way. It calculates that if we gathered 100 children in a room to represent all the children in the world, this is what we would find: 32 would suffer from malnutrition before their 5th birthday; 27 would not be immunized against any diseases; 9 would die before they reached 5 years of age; of the remaining, 18 would never go to school, 18 would have no access to safe drinking water, and 39 would have no access to sanitation. |
Slovakia
By Timothy Holtz, MD, MPH The Roma people, or Gypsies as they are commonly called, have been living in European countries for centuries. There is no good statistics on their numbers, but conservative estimates put their population between 6 and 10 million spread across Europe. Originally thought to have come from Northern India, many have continued to keep a nomadic lifestyle despite living in industrialized countries of Western and Eastern Europe. Many associate the Roma with flamboyant costumes, exotic music, dancing, and moving from city to city putting on colorful festivals. Though some did inherit this lifestyle, the Roma have moved into many different aspects of European life and occupy positions in business, finance, law and medicine. Some have found their way to the US as well. |
World Social Forum
By Victor Penchaszadeh, MD Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not much of a writer of tales and impressions. Nevertheless, the experience of participating in the World Social Forum (WSF) has been so powerful that I want to share it. I believe that the WSF is already a "classic," where one can come to join the "beautiful people" of the planet (taking "beautiful" as a moral, not a physical attribute); the fighters for social justice, the right to health, a sustainable economy to the service of the people, the right to work, the rights of the disabled, and the globalization of justice, as well as those who struggle against large corporations, discrimination, poverty, the payment of the immoral and obscene external debt, and the militarization of the world. |
United States By Rafael A. Torruella From a young age I was fortunate enough to visit the Island of Vieques. I have enjoyed the beauty of Punta Arena, Puerto Diablo, Navío, Media Luna and Sombe. I have seen the sunset from Esperanza and admired the bioluminescence of its bays. But above all I have enjoyed the beauty of the people of Vieques. As a teenager I was able to sail around the island and to my surprise the United States Navy was dropping bombs. I could hear the strong explosive detonations followed by a cloud of dust rising towards the sky like a war movie preview. But it was not a movie, it was the day-to-day reality of the island that I cared for and loved so much. |
