Motherland Afghanistan

Dr Mojadidi treating a woman in Afghanistan, in the documentary Motherland Afghanistan (photo source: PBS)

I took some time to R&R (btw, R&R = rest and relaxation) last week and over the weekend. Spent a lot of time napping, reading, and doing a movie binge (God Bless Netflix!). I LOVE watching documentaries, and for some reason, a lot of what I've been watching has centered around Afghanistan and Pakistan. That's how I came across Motherland Afghanistan.

Motherland Afghanistan is a beautiful, poignant, almost heartbreaking documentary about a male Afghani-American Obstretician/Gyneacologist, Dr Qudrat Mojadidi, who returns to help fix the broken medical system in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has some of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world, and seeing the documentary, you'll have a very clear idea of why this is.

Dr. Mojadidi has practiced medicine within and outside of Afghanistan for the past 40 years. Originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, he relocated to the United States to finish his medical training in Jacksonville, Florida. In addition to treating Afghan refugee women in Pakistan and Afghanistan since 1982, he founded and managed the only free teaching hospital for Afghan women refugees in Peshawar, Pakistan for ten years during the Soviet-Afghan war. In 2002 he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his 20 years of work in Afghanistan. His commitment to women’s health in displaced communities has also led him to teach and work at Native American reservation hospitals in Arizona and Montana.

Here's a preview:

Emergency Sex and other Desperate Measures

Don't worry...its not what I've been through, but that's the name of the book I'm reading at the moment. Its a bit of international development sensationalism, as you can guess from the title. Three idealistic western do-gooders who want to "save the world" chronicle their tales of professional and personal trials while serving in some of the most dangerous places on earth as UN staff.

I think the book goes a little overboard with its sensationalism; still it does a very good job of showcasing what working with the UN (or other international development agencies) is like, what the lives of the staff and peacekeepers really is like, and puts to rest any romantic notions people may have about war, the UN, or outstanding US foreign policy.

The character I liked the most is Dr Andrew Thomson, a physician from New Zealand, who seems to get more into the cultural landscape than the other two characters. Here's a snippet of his thoughts as he is forced to exit Haiti after a poorly orchestrated "savior" operation by the US:

Over and over I replay in my head the implications of what we've just done. We told the Haitians that we couldn't physically stop their government from torturing and killing, but that if they told us in detail who was doing it and how, we'd bear witness and seek justice. Eventually the world would eb outraged enough to send soldiers and reinstall democracy...

They believed us, risked their lives to turn up at our offices all over the country, in full view of their attackers, to tell their stories. They exposed tehmselves, crawled in and spilled their guts, sometimes literally. They trusted me... Now that they are atheir most vulnerable, we're abandoning them, frozen in teh ehadlights, roadkill for the macoutes' machine. And we're flying out, clutching our precious blue UN passports and bags full of Haitian art.

We just showed Haitians that our lives are more valuable than theirs...

The most basic primciple they teach you at medical school, years before you even get to touch your first patient, is "First, do no harm." But harm is exactly what we've done, identifying the next victims for the asassins running Haiti..."

Definitely worth a read. If not anything else, you'll learn a lot!

Friendship, healthcare, and a gym

Find a friend, says the NY Times, and your wellness factor increases!

The American healthcare system sucks. Not because the doctors or quality of healthcare sucks; but because of insurance issues. You can't get decent care in this country without buying into the insurance system. Ironically, frustration, rather than being about the medical system, is about measly insurance companies who couldn't cure a patient even if their life depended on it.

Because I'm an independent consultant, I'm responsible for my own health insurance (most Americans get their insurance through their employers). And because its so expensive and so hard to decide what type of health insurance to get, I've been living without health insurance for several years now. But the tables are turning (as they always do).

I'm getting out-of-shape, and everyone is scaring me about terrible calamities to come. So I went to several gyms yesterday and found out that insured people have lower monthly fees, which really pushed me to start hunting for an insurance policy. I am having SO much difficulty picking something. Every one of my friends then gives me an opinion about which one to pick and they are all different, further confusing me.

In the midst of this, I read three different articles in the same issue of the NY Times, all relating to healthcare: this one about a family struggling to keep their son free of cancer, and this one about friendship being good insurance.

I'm lost and frustrated, have high gym rates, run the risk of taking my wonderful family into financial bankruptcy; but I have friends and hopefully that will keep me alive and well. Maybe I should take my friends to the gym, and we really will be alive and well to an exponential degree! :-)

Links I liked

1. Great Entrepreneurs should build "tribes."

2. The case for public medicine.

3. 10 interesting alternative non-profit funding models.

4. The real story behind Amazing Grace.

5. Stunning pictures from everyday life in Pakistan, in the big picture.

Amazing Time Magazine Photoessays

Time Magazine photographers have outdone themselves again. In the past couple of weeks, they've put out some powerful photoessays on a range of interesting topics. Here are some:

1. Can Change Come to Congo? By amazing photographer James Nachtway.

2. Happy 200th Birthday Darwin. A collection of photographs of Darwin and his work.

3. Spiritual Healing Around the World.

4. Portraits of Abraham Lincoln.

5. Slumdog Entrepreneurs. Real life entrepreneurs in the same slums (Dharavi) that the move was shot in (see picture above; photo credit: Daniel Beheruhak).

6. Healthcare in Tehran.