LegendaryLife.com Blog

I never heard of this band or the song before but being a fan of both electronic music and 3D animation, I was very impressed by this video. What I like the most is the originality, the sync between the music and aspects within the animation and the use of a “comic filter”. I would be surprised if they used anything but 3DS Max to produce this entire project… great job guys!

Mortality or Death (which ever makes you feel better) isn’t something to be feared nor used as an excuse for not getting what you want out of your one and ONLY life.

This guy isn't wasting a second, he is singing and playing the flute at the same time!

Most people think that free time is just that, well, it isn’t!

What is free time?

From the moment you are conceived, you are in a speeding car heading straight for a brick wall, this brick wall is called death and the road you are on only goes one way. As such, we do not have an infinite amount of time, there are no breaks on this car and it will sadly, never run out of gas. So, most people consider free time as a pause or “break” in life but what most people don’t realize is that this isn’t the case… whether you are sleeping, eating, going to the bathroom or even in love, this car you are in never stops, if anything, it accelerates as you loose track of time.

How to ease off the gas

Now, I used the analogy of a car on purpose, a car can go either fast or slow, even if you are heading towards a brick wall, you an choose, through your lifestyle and decisions in life, to ease off the gas a little. How? Well, don’t smoke, don’t drink, exercise, develop healthy relationships etc… theses might sound like small things but when you consider your body is in a constant state of decay, if you can slow down this process, ever so slightly, the dividends pay off big time later in life. So, if you live an unhealthy lifestyle, including everyday stress that makes your blood pressure rise, time to make some serious changes as, that car, sure isn’t going to stop.

Out of mind doesn’t mean it stops!

Another way people try to fool themselves is that they think that not realizing their own mortality will somehow allow them to escape these mortal coils that bind all of us. More specifically, they somehow think that they will be able to jump-out of the speeding car right before it hits the brick wall. I am sure mankind has tried this since we evolved and so far, considering how many billions of people have died, this approach is doomed to failure. Others deal with their mortality by squeezing every inch of it (and then some) out of everyday by partaking in risky or downright dangerous activities… sure, drinking the devil’s water is fun sometimes but not something that should be done on a regular basis. Basically, whether you wish to admit it or not, your fate will be the same as everybody else’s, rich or poor, educated or otherwise.

So… DON’T WASTE YOUR FREE TIME!

When ever somebody says “time out, you have free time”, take this as meaning you can do as you wish so you might as well dedicated it towards one of three activities:

1) improving your life or the lives of those around you

2) self-reflect on what you can change in your lifestyle in order to “ease off the gas”

3) educate yourself about the world around you

I think if everybody did one of these three little things instead of plopping in front of a television and wasting away hours of their lives on a daily basis… this would wouldn’t not only be far better but people’s lives would be vastly more rewarding in general.

The Bottom Line

You have one life, don’t waste any of it.

For those who may not know who Randy Pausch is, he’s the university professor who was told he had only 6 months to live, as such, he decided to give one last lecture to his students. If you had only one last lecture to give, what would you speak about? This is great advice from somebody who has lived a very good life and some of these words may help you achieve your goals in the future.

Lecture’s Key Points

Aptly titled, his lecture is about achieving your dreams and allowing others to achieve theirs, here are the key points from his lecture:

• he grew up always being happy in his childhood, always dreaming about what could be, he was a child of the 60’s while people where landing on the moon when he was young
• dream specific dreams, they help to establish focus and make things happen
• get the fundamentals down otherwise the fancy stuff doesn’t work
• when people stop pointing out to you the things you are doing wrong, it means they have given up on you
• critics that carve you up are actually expressing their love for you
• experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted
• learning that is done indirectly is the most valuable type as they tend to stick with you through life and aren’t as easily forgotten
• you don’t have to be the smartest, most talented nor physically gifted person to succeed in life and lead others
• it’s cool to meet your boyhood idol but even better when they come to visit you because you have done something special
• brick walls are there not to keep you out but to provide a challenge to keep others out (how badly do you really want to achieve this goal?)
• it’s easy to sound smart when you study a subject intensely and ask others for advice
• wait long enough and people will surprise you
• it’s important to realize when you are in a pissing match and even more importantly to get out of it as quickly as possible
• there is a good way and a bad way to say “I don’t know”
• giving people a bar to strive for only does them a disservice, tell people they can always do better then they will, DO BETTER. People will always better themselves at a far faster pace then if you give them specific criteria to be met
• if you are going to be a pioneer in anything, you will get arrows in your back and experience many headaches but it will be all worth it when you look back
• find somebody better then you to give a project you hold dear
• self-reflection is the best give you can give anybody
• parents and mentors are vitally important to achieving a successful life
• being humble is a very difficult habit to build and maintain
• respect authority while questioning it
• never loose your childhood wonder, it’s what keeps your mind young and energy boundless
• it’s fun to do the impossible
• loyalty is a two way street
• actions speak louder then words
• never give up on achieving your goals
• you cannot get “there” alone, earnest people are worth more then any salesman could ever hope to be
• apologize when you screw up and focus on other people
• brick walls show us our dedication
• don’t bail out, the best gold is at the bottom of barrels of crap
• when you do the right thing, good things will come out of it
• get a feedback loop and LISTEN to it
• show gratitude
• don’t complain, just work harder
• be good at something that makes you valuable
• be prepared, luck is where preparation meets opportunity
• if you lead your life the right way, karma will make your dreams become reality

If you wish to watch this for yourself, here is the video of the entire lecture thanks to Google.

After the lecture

As some of you may know, this lecture became an international hit in 2007 after it was given. He appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss his situation and the lecture, spent a day with the Pittsburgh Steelers to accomplish his goal to play for the NFL and even better, Disney through it’s subsidiary, purchased the rights to his story for millions of dollars, providing his family with financial security long after he is gone. I think the only way to explain this is the last summary I wrote about his lecture, if you lead your life the right way, karma will make your dreams become reality.

The Bottom Line

Dreams are as important as breathing (hint hint).

PS: I wish everybody a very happy and prosperous 2008!

More information about:

• Randy Pausch himself at Carnegie Mellon
• Transcript of this lecture
• Alice Programming Project
• Entertainment Technology Center
• Randy Pausch on Wikipedia

I must admit, being paid to walk around with a big gun, driving rather unique and powerful vehicles does sound like a fun until you realize that your main purpose is to be an efficient killing machine.

Documentary Summary

You should watch this video but here is a summary if you don’t have time.

• war doesn’t only cause physical scars but also mental ones that remain with soldiers for a lifetime, hidden from sight
• solders, when they first entered Iraq, needed verification from their buddies that what they where seeing wasn’t just in their imagination, from destroyed vehicles to dead bodies laying along the road
• reports of suicide bombers where rampant as soldiers first entered Bagdad so they where very fearful as everybody looked like a potential enemy
• solders opened up fire with over 15 weapons against a woman in a black burka that didn’t obey their commands, slowly approaching them only to discover she was trying to pull out a white flag to show the soldiers
• soldier who initiated the first shots decided to hide this experience from others but it began to have a mental toll on him
• there is no protection during war for the mind as you are constantly witnessing death by the hands of others and yourself
• once soldiers return from the battlefield, they begin to regain their emotions and realizing, replaying, the tragedy that they had witnessed
• returning veterans have frequent troubling dreams, feelings and thoughts
• nobody comes back from combat unchanged
• depression, anger and emotional turmoil take their toll and the army re-enforces these thoughts by telling them that their lives are already over and not to worry about their mortality as it don’t make things better
• on any given day, there are more psychological casualties then physical ones during war
• psychological trauma was referred to as shell-shocked in WW1 and battle fatigue in WW2
• 1/3 of returning Vietnam vets suffered from psychological problems upon returning, referred to as post-Vietnam Syndrome
• after Vietnam, the medical community called this problem Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• military focuses too much on physical abilities at the cost of being able to mentally handle the ramifications of an action
• solders are not suppose to show any weakness
• there is a huge stigma towards receiving psychological help, it’s even career ending for soldiers
• Iraq was the first time that psychologists where introduced onto the battlefield to help soldiers cope with what they where experiencing, referred to as Combat Stress Control Teams by the Pentagon
• after a soldier asked for help from the Combat Stress Control Teams, they where mentally abused by the command structure and later discharged for cowardice
• military heavily frowns upon soldiers who refuse to fight or fear dying
• Veterans Affairs is not part of the military and any information given to them is strictly confidential
• resilience treatments are being performed by the military in order to help soldiers cope with their mental problems, ironically, once they are “cured”, they are sent right back into the environment that caused the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
• few studies have been made on sending somebody with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder back into a battlefield, military states that combat is their job, regardless of the impact on the mental or physical costs
• purpose of the military is to win wars, people with mental or physical problems are of no use to them
• in January 2005, the Department of Defense slowly began to take steps towards dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in it’s ranks

The Bottom Line

War is the ultimate failure for both diplomats and the soldiers tasked with fighting them.

Frontline Documentary: The Soldier’s Heart

Of all the things that bug me which are completely out of my control, my very own mortality is the biggest to come to terms with. As soon as we are conceived, we begin down the one way path leading to our eventual death. Life is great, but why does it have to end as a pre-requisite?

The Search for the Fountain of Youth

I believe I have discovered the Fountain of Youth, but no in the traditional sense, you will still get old and die but the pace of this demise will be greatly reduced. How? Well, eat only healthy foods, exercise with weights and do plenty of tough cardio. The stronger your body is when you are young, the stronger it will be when you are old… which is when it counts the most! Short of little green men and woman coming from the deep expanses of our universe giving us the gift of immortality, I doubt I will see medical science advance enough during my lifetime or that of my children’s children in which our lifespan will be greatly enhanced. We already, thanks to medical advances in the 20th century been able to almost double our “livable” lifespan with the use of wondrous medical procedures and exotic drugs to starve off the inevitable.

We don’t have enough time!

I am already 31 years old and so far, probably lived off a quarter of my functional lifespan, my goal is to be the first to get to 150… even if it means I am an old drooling insomniac by that time! Like the one minute mile, everybody says it cannot be done, but there is NO reason with the incredible advances in modern medicine that will occur over the next hundred years, the availability of healthy foods and research that, if you start young enough, a body and mind cannot reach this. Suffice it to say, I look both sides of the street before crossing! I am astonished at not only how fast time goes by but at how slow the progress we make in our own lives takes. To get more life out of our daily lives, you either have to speed up what is happening around you or simply live longer. There is so much to be done, so much to learn, experience, see, invent and enjoy during the limited time we have on Earth that it’s a shame that we have such short lives! It’s like trying to fit a mountain in a fish tank!

If you don’t use it, you will loose it

Although this is an extreme statement as you never really LOOSE anything in life, it points to a simple fact about our bodies. If you look at today’s seniors, those that lead an unhealthy life are, for the most part, not looking too good even if they are still alive and kicking. No matter how far science has evolved, it still cannot undo the damage caused by an unhealthy lifestyle. Hence, why, from day one, you MUST live a healthy lifestyle and surround yourself by like-minded people. Second, I have seen story after story from “old men” in their 80s living a very physically tough live that have the muscle tone of men half their age. They don’t know what obesity is, they don’t have medical problems and are incredibly active… enjoying all that life has given to them. Lesson to be learned? Well, you need to live a physically active lifestyle, optimize your Central Nervous System (CNS), optimize your critical muscle motor pathways, optimize the efficiency of your internal organs, optimize your inter-neuron connections and most importantly, optimize your entire outlook on life. When shit happens, take the bump in the head and move on.

Wasted Lives

If you smoke, you are wasting away your life in more ways then one… most importantly, you are taxing today’s body, for no real good reason at the cost of your future health. If you are an alcoholic, you are no better then a smoker in my opinion… good luck getting past 60 with anything resembling a healthy body. Same goes with obese people and those who are junk food obsessed. What I am saying is that, if you live an unhealthy lifestyle, no matter how much you try, until you quit these nasty habitual practices, you are wasting away the most precious resource we are all enjoying… LIFE! Life is an incredible gift, honor your parents, your future progeny and most importantly, yourself, by taking it seriously!

How to defeat mortality… is religion the answer?

Well, some people turn to their religion of choice as a way to mentally deal with mortality. I can’t say that this isn’t an attractive notion, the idea that our physical bodies may have an end but our mental soul does not. Heck, if there was even one sliver of a chance that this may be a reality, I would fight to be first in line! But, being a “don’t believe the hype” Athiest, I cannot logically come to terms with the notion of an after-life any more then I figure out the unifying mathematical theory for the universe. If it’s true, then it will be a welcome surprise to me, but I am assuming that the closest I will come to an after life is in the stomach of the neighborhood worm.

How to defeat mortality… is a physical monument the answer?

So what does that leave me? Well, immortality is possible, but not in any way that I will be able to live it out. Our own planet will explode billions of years from now once the Sun becomes a red giant so the answer cannot have anything to do with laying a monument on this planet. Even if technology existed to create an impenetrable diamond tomb for myself with a computer somehow connected to my mechanically life-supported brain, I would still be screwed to die billions of years in the future as I would be the only last surviving human being or possibly life within the universe at that point.

How to defeat mortality… is a virtual self the answer?

Alright, any type of foundation on this planet, much less this solar system or any other just isn’t do-able over the next 100+ years. Even if I had the financial resources of Bill Gates and all the worlds top billionaires at my disposal, it would still be useless. Why? Well, even if I could somehow create a technology that beamed out “me” radio waves deep into outer-space or send out probes with the contents of my DNA code for future aliens to re-animate me… I am still screwed to die! Why? Well, in several tens of billions of years from now, the vast universe we all inhabit will be gone. Nobody is sure if it’s from cooling due to continual expansion or an implosion into an infinitely small dot but either way, once the laws of physics break down, nothing survives.

So where does that leave us then?

Short of a multi-dimensional escape route that exists outside of all types of boundaries created by physics, no matter their variables, the only thing we can do is enjoy the time we have here as much as possible. Most importantly, take good care of oneself of those around us.

The Bottom Line

Life is like an ATM machine that cannot accept deposits.

Sudan is Africa’s largest country but has been strife with war for decades as has much of Africa. Muslims use to live side by side with their Arabian friends for centuries within the Darfur region but when great oil wealth was discovered this all changed for the worse. Sadly, Darfur has been characterized as a Rwanda going in slow motion and still, even to this day, little has been done to stem the tide of death and rape.

Background

Sadly, our colonial raping of the continent of Africa continues to this day but slavery has been replaced by something far worse, indifference. We are all responsible for what is occurring as the precious commodity that sparked this tragedy is what goes into your gas tank, is molded into your Barbie Dolls and what powers much of the worlds machinery… we are talking about OIL. So far in the 21st century, from Nigeria to Iraq, OIL has been the catalyst to cause so much misery and death.

Summary

I believe this is worth watching but if you don’t have time, here is a summary of the key points outlined in the documentary:

• Darfur is the first genocide of the 21st century and has gone on pretty much unimpeded over the past 4 years
• camps in Chad (neighboring country where many refuges head to for safety) have a 3 week waiting period
• 200 000 dead, 2.5 million forced to move
• the motto of the UN was “Never Again” after what occurred during the Holocaust but the it has been bogged down by political semantics
• Mia Farrow has given thousands of interviews to push Darfur into he forefront of the worlds consciousness, using her celebrity to spread the word
• Mia has traveled to Darfur (Sudan) 7 times so far
• sudanreeves.org is an influential site to bare witness to the genocide within Darfur
• most attacks begin with an uncoordinated areal attack with a retrofitted cargo plane dropping barrels of explosives onto a village to cause panic followed by the Jajaweed coming into the village by camel, killing the men and raping the woman before moving onto the next village
• in 2003, the security council got together to discuss reports about mass killings happening within Darfur, a province of Sudan
• China partnered with Sudan after oil was discovered in the 21st century and has becoming one of their biggest offshore suppliers
• when oil wealth came into being due to historic agreements in China, the ruling military elite became extremely wealthy as they kept this wealth to themselves with little making its way into the region of Darfur
• Darfur region was comprised of 6 million Muslims use to share scarce water resources with nomadic Arabian herdsmen
• rebel groups formed to claim a share of the countries new found wealth from the ruling elite but instead of sharing, the ruling elite decided to wage war against the rebels by arming militias to do the dirty work, the Janjaweed
• Janjaweed translates to “devil on horseback”
• government arms the Arabs to kill off the Muslims, no more sharing of resources
• government used the Arabs because its a cheap way to wage war, they loot instead of receiving a salary and they reposes land by force
• in 2004 the Muslims thought the UN was coming to rescue them from systematic annihilation but now they have realized that the UN doesn’t care about them
• by 2007, camps in Eastern Chad and Western Sudan comprise of most of the settlements within that region
• the UN provides aid but fails to do anything to prevent the problems causing refuges needing the camps to begin with
• by the end of 2003, 700 000 people in Darfur where forced from their homes
• by 2004, areal photographs showed villages burning to the ground followed by a number of alarming reports
• 200 000 to 500 000 people so far are estimated to have been killed during the conflict so far
• in the book A Problem from Hell – America and the Age of Genocide, Samantha Power shows that world governments have a history of being shy to intervening when genocide is occurring even when faced with overwhelming proof, they want it stopped but don’t want to take risks
• the UN sat idly by as Bosnia and Rwanda occurred, when Sudan began to occur, the lessons learned from past failures regarding genocide where not practiced
• the United Nations security council is the most powerful council within the UN but sadly, it’s also where most of the politics of inaction towards Sudan took place
• Russia couldn’t condemn Sudan because it was doing the same thing in Chechnya, United States wanted action but it lost status due to its carelessness within Iraq, China didn’t want to do anything that would affect its relationship with the Sudanese government providing it with much needed oil
• Sudan ignored security council resolutions and suffered NO REPROCUSIONS
• on September 9th, 2004, Colin Powell told the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee that genocide had occurred within Sudan and the Sudanese government along with the Janjaweed bear responsibility for what was occurring
• war crimes and crimes against humanity where discovered within Darfur by the UN after extensive investigations but still nothing has happened
• woman living in camps within Chad and Sudan risk rape daily simply because they need to leave the camps to gather firewood to feed their family
• Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem, the Sudanese Ambassador to the UN, said much of the genocide occuring is blown out of proportion and made up, they say bad things happen during war and that is basically the way life goes
• in 2005, the UN continued to talk about what is happening within Sudan and the government didn’t do anything while the Security Council was in a stalemate
• the UN doesn’t have the ability to enter a country against the governments wishes
• it took 5 years of Canadian advocacy before the UN passed a resolution allowing it to enter sovereign states without their permission during the world summit in 2005, it now had the authority to enter a country and protect its citizens from their own government
• in 2006, 8 resolutions happened against Sudan (7 in 2005, 4 in 2004) and they where systematically ignored like the previous ones by the Sudanese government
• one of the resolutions allowed the UN to enter by force to protect the populations within Darfur but China added a demand that it must be done with the approval by Sudan, which Sudan then declined
• the problems within Darfur has now spread into Chad, turning the border between the two country into a new killing field
• Chad is the 5th poorest country in the world but now they have the Janjaweed to worry about in addition to abject poverty and malnutrition
• on the United States Mall, in Washington, The worlds largest antigenocide rally occurred in May 2006 with many celebrities trying to highlight the cause including George Clooney
• in 2007, the Janjaweed and Sudanese leader where indited by the International Criminal Court (world court) for crimes against humanity but the Sudanese government said it would not hand over these two criminals
• Olympic Games in China called by some the “Genocide Olympics” to make China personally responsible for the Genocide occurring in Sudan due to its direct investments in Sudanese Oil which was the cause of this genocide to begin with
• on July 31st, 2007, there is an agreement within the UN Security Council to send 26 000 troops to Darfur by the end of the year but there is no mandate to protect the citizens nor disarming the Janjaweed

What can YOU do?

There are a number of websites dedicated towards making genocide a thing of the past, here are a few of the more well known ones.

http://www.darfurgenocide.org

http://www.genocideintervention.net

http://www.sudanreeves.org

The Bottom Line

Todays oil is tomorrow water, hopefully we become more civilized before this transition takes place.

Watch the documentary at:
http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/darfur/video.html

There are two types of lies in this world, those you tell yourself and those you tell others… smokers seem to be experts in both! Caring about their health while smoking is one of the biggest.

Drug addicts are all the same

So far, I have talked to smokers from Canada, United States, Australia, Malaysia, Japan and Korea over an extended period of time and the excuses are all the same. They seem to relish describing how “addicted” or “hardcore” they are. I was talking to one addict yesterday and they where quite proud to say their breath smelled like that of an ash tray… interesting, another from Australia told me exactly the same thing while I was in that country! Here are some fantastically delusional lies you can expect to hear from a smoker (feel free to add more):

I can quit anytime

If this where true, they could quit right now but just try to get enough guts and throw their pack away in front of them… they will run like a squirrel right into the bin to get them. I know… I have done this several times with the same results.

I don’t smoke that much

Sadly, the effects of smoking both primary and second (onto non-smokers) is cumulative. You won’t die right away from emphysema or COD but I wouldn’t want to be a lung in a smokers body after a few decades of continual self-poisoning.

I feel fine

Next time a drug addict tells you that they feel fine, ask them to join you for a hike up a sizable hill… their tune will change guaranteed. The reason they feel fine is because they are use to living in a marginalized body, not because they are actually “fine”.

It helps me keep my shape (slim)

There are two ways to keep your body in shape, one is to exercise and the other is to under-feed it. Sure, smoking is keeping you slim, but guess what, you can accomplish far more by working out and quitting smoking then otherwise. What you are doing is actually starving your body, making it waste resources trying to clean the crap out of the air you take in instead of improving or optimizing it.

My father/mother/uncle smoked till they where 90 years old!

George Burns also smoked a cigar until he hit 100 years old, sure, there are some people out there with wonder genetics but odds are, you don’t have them. Imagine if George Burns never smoked, he might still be alive today! Regardless of how you cut it, smoking WILL reduce not only your lifespan but the quality of the live you live dramatically with time.

Smokers Facing Death

I had a grandfather who I wish everyday never smoked because he died a painful death over several years, his body was fine but his lungs where shot from a live addicted to cigarettes. Now, this week, I got news that one of my uncles, one who saw what my grandfather went through his final years, has been diagnosed with lunch cancer caused by smoking. My grandfather openly admitted that if he ever got a lung transplant that the first thing he would to is smoke and oddly, my uncle, even while at hospital surrounded by smokers slowly fading away, still had the conscience to go… you guessed it right… smoke in hiding! Each and every smokers has to face up to the fact that one day, guaranteed, they will face their maker far sooner then anticipated due to a slow, selfish, purposeful self-poisoning of the very body they inhabit.

Unfunny Joke

Here is an unfunny joke I seem to repeat to myself just about every time I see somebody smoking. What is the difference between a smoker and a junkie? One uses a legal substance. Sad isn’t it… mentally, a junkie is in the same place as a smoker.

How do I treat smokers?

I take my health very seriously, to the point that if I find out a friend smokes, they are no longer somebody I associate myself with. I would honestly prefer to be alone the rest of my life then to spend it with somebody hell bent on destroying their health. There is no sugar coating things, smokers have a death wish but are too much of a coward to get it over with, instead, they drag the emotions of those around them into the hole they inhabit. My only exception to this “banish them from my sight” rule is family but then I try to spend my time outdoors with them as much as possible, limiting exposure to second-hand smoke. Would I ever hire somebody who smoked? Nope, politically correct or not, why the hell would I want to invest my time and resources into somebody who doesn’t give a damn about themselves?

Spiders on Drugs

To some, alright, many out there, this may seem kinda harsh but I live my life by many simple rules, at the top of my list is that if you don’t care about yourself, then I don’t care about you. I do have a very well developed sense of humor so here is something to lighten up the mood on a serious topic. The effect of drugs on spiders! If you can’t laugh at even the worst of things, then the thoughts that follow them have no way out of your head.

The Bottom Line

Reversing a denial is the first step towards a successful life.

Let’s face it, AIDS is going to be with us for at least the next half century if not more. The reason that HIV Disease has been such a successful virus around the world is because it exploits all the human weaknesses that make up our various civilizations. Each year, there are new promises made by scientists regarding eradication of this deadly virus but this simply leads to more knowledge being acquired regarding the complexity of this virus.

Summary: Part 1

I encourage you to view this program online but if you don’t have time, here is an extensive summary.

• by the time HIV Disease was diagnosed in the United States, over 250 thousand people where infected, by the time it was diagnosed in Africa, millions where already infected
• the AIDS virus is 150 times smaller than the size of the blood cell it attacks and eventually kills, progressively over several years, the body dies from an infection due to an overwhelmed (now severely compromised) immune system without anymore t-cells to combat infection
• originally, most patients died within a few months upon diagnosis
• June 1981, CDC reports in the MMWR the occurrence of a mysterious disease which will soon be labeled as AIDS
• originally, infections where among healthy gay men who had a number of recreational drugs and sexual partners so the point of infection was very difficult to track down
• infection diagnosis then spread through the Haitian community, the CDC couldn’t figure out the connection between the gay men in large cities and the Haitian Community in Florida
• in Europe, infections began to show up in heterosexual couples who where not from Haitian backgrounds nor homosexual ones
• November 1981, three drug users where diagnosed in New York with AIDS which later lead to an epidemic of AIDS within the drug communities
• diagnosis of AIDS leads to becoming a social outcast within their peers, as this was mostly hitting the gay and drug communities, they where not a priority by the government (they didn’t care)
• government didn’t want public tax dollars going towards helping people who deserved to die based on actions against the Laws of God
• CDC warns that AIDS has entered the blood supply after a child becomes infected with AIDS
• Hemophiliacs are the next group to be infected with AIDS en mass, CDC then realized that AIDS had to be a virus spread through sharing of bodily fluids
• blood banks refuse to admit that AIDS could be spread from blood transfusions, even when faced with evidence by the CDC, it took two years before they began screening procedures, leading to 35 thousand confirmed new AIDS cases
• President Reagan comes into power and institutes a 25% cut in funding to the CDC, leading to two years of stagnation in the AIDS epidemic
• scientists had trouble finding the original source of AIDS, leads lead to the Congo
• once scientists visit the Congo, they realize that woman can also be infected with AIDS, once this is reported to high ranking government officials, they still cannot put two and two together as the gay and drug user biased is systemic throughout the administration
• Haitians where contracted by the now independent Congo once the Belgians left in the 1980s to teach the Congonese population, once they return, they infected many Haitians (the connection is now made)
• many gay men would travel to Haiti for cheap sex, then returning to the United States, leading to further infections within the gay community
• AIDS spread quickly through the closed and impoverished Haiti population
• bathhouses in the gay community became huge points of infection among the population, government officials debated the impact
• 1983, AIDS was a political disease even in the face of overwhelming evidence that it didn’t discriminate against host (sexual orientation, race or background)
• in the summer of 1983, HIV Virus was isolated by the French but scientists in the United States couldn’t wrap their head around more then one retro-virus existing
• HIV is thought to come from Chimpanzees that carried SIV hunted by humans in Central Africa sometime in the 1930s
• 1959 was the first confirmed case of somebody dying of AIDS
• one infection from a Chimpanzee to one Human lead to the current AIDS epidemic
• in May of 1984, the first AIDS blood test was developed and work on a vaccine is promised within two years
• AIDS blood test reveals that somebody can be HIV positive but completely healthy for decades before symptoms become apparent, leading to exponential infection rates
• in 1985, the gay community was going through an incredible challenge as people where dying daily, half of hemophiliacs died from AIDS as well
• during the second term of Reagan’s administration, AIDS was still not acknowledged and still seen as a mainly a gay problem
• Rock Hudson was a gifted Hollywood actor, known for his looks and ability with the woman, the personification of a perfect male, was the first major figure diagnosed with AIDS
• Rock Hudson’s death lead to AIDS becoming mainstream with widespread public fear, discrimination and paranoia spread across the country
• Ryan White, a 14 year old hemophiliac infected with AIDS is forced to quit coming to school due to unfounded fears and ignorance
• in September 1985, the Reagan’s administration re-enforces stigma that AIDS can be spread by casual contact, which is then denied by the scientific community which says AIDS is spread by exchanges in bodily fluids
• AIDS hides itself behind the bodies own sugars that essentially make it invisible to the human immune system
• in 1985, two million people where infected (mostly in Africa) and over 500 thousand Americans
• sex and homosexuality are taboo subjects in Africa which lead to exponential infection rates
• Jonathan Mann encountered AIDS in Zaire in 1984 during a study for the CDC and lead a WHO global program across the world, breaking taboos and forcing the issues behind AIDS into the public
• Irine Kaliba lead the development of the first AIDS support organization in Uganda after her husband died from AIDS caused by a blood transfusion, promoting education and hope to stop the AIDS infection growth rates (leading to a decrease)
• in 1985, heroin and the sex industry caused an explosion in new AIDS cases within Thailand
• 1 in 10 new army recruits where found in Thailand to be infected with AIDS, the government acted quickly to promote the use of condoms among sex workers while neglecting the drug users who had infections rates of up to 40%
• in Britain, AIDS was primarily spreading through the Heroin community from 0% to 56% within an 18 month period, in response, the government sets-up needle exchanges across the UK
• in 1987, United States Senator Jesse Helms was insulted by publications spreading knowledge about AIDS prevention and pushed for a ban against homosexual materials which is still on the books today, this was seen as a blow to the AIDS fight
• AZT was a cancer drug from the 1950s that caused immune system regeneration in AIDS patients, it was a public funded drug whose patent was given to a private company by the United States government at the price of 10 000$US a year
• mass demonstrations against the slow process of AIDS drug approval and extremely high drug prices
• AZT doesn’t totally knock out the AIDS virus, as a result, it adapted and became drug resistant to the once promising drug
• in 1987, the AIDS memorial quilt is displayed in Washington, over 40 thousand Americans had already died from AIDS
• on May 31st, 1987, president Reagan finally speaks-out about AIDS, while pushing for education, he also took steps that would be counter-productive such as testing new immigrants and not promoting condom use
• by 1990, a million Americans are infected with AIDS, equivalent to 1 on every 250 people across the United States population
• Ryan White Care Act is passed by Washington to begin putting a wedge in the exponential global increase in AIDS infections
• Jonathan Mann departs the WHO because of personality conflicts, his high profile work lead to conflicts with his boss who was jealous of Jonathan’s success on the AIDS front

Summary: Part 2

• Africans migrate en mass to South African in search of jobs
• next to the hostels where the men live are brothels where AIDS is spread through the population
• when Mandela is released from Jail, 1% of the South African population had been infected with AIDS but the government did very little to combat the growing epidemic over the following four years
• in 1984, Mandela saw his job being mostly that of reconciliation and led his vice president to take the helm of the AIDS fight
• during the five years that president Mandela was in office, he rarely discussed AIDS as infections where doubling on a yearly basis within his country
• Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992 promising to take the lead in the AIDS fight, in stark contrast to Reagan
• HIV was thought to be dormant for several years before infection but scientists found out that it replicated by the billions on a daily basis starting on the first day of infection, it just took a long time before these actions progressed to compromise the immune system
• replication of HIV isn’t a perfect process, as such, drug resistance is a given
• in 1996, the triple cocktail developed by the team working under Dr. David Ho shows incredible promise against the AIDS virus, the cost was 16 thousand dollars a year
• by 1996, 20 million Africans where infected with HIV with no way of affording the cost of treatment, which lead to an enormous moral question being asked
• AIDS patients in the United States with health care could afford the drugs but not those without it while in Brazil the triple cocktail is freely available to anybody who needs it, yet it’s banned in South Africa
• Brazil had 500 thousand infected AIDS patients in the 1990s, the government built the AIDS clinics in poor neighborhoods but it wasn’t until a patient brought the government to court did they provide the triple cocktail to their population
• AZT can prevent transmission between mother and child
• President Mbeki continues to see that AIDS is an environmental and social disease, infection rates are now to 20% within the population which was completely preventable
• infection rates within the black communities skyrocketed while they stabilized in the rest of the American population
• 40% of new AIDS infections come from IV drug users within the United States
• AIDS becomes a global pandemic which is met with absolute ignorance many governments around the world who deny its existence
• 20 million people died by the end of the 1990s by HIV/AIDS infections while most of the international community still looked the other way
• in the late 1990s, President Mbeki repeats his denials about AIDS, saying it’s caused by poverty, not a virus during the first AIDS conference in Africa
• the pharmaceutical industry stand behind their intellectual property rights behind the AIDS drugs they had developed at the cost of poor peoples lives
• George Bush creates a 15 billion dollar PEPFAR fund to help provide free AIDS drugs to Africans dying of AIDS to sidestep the UN Global Fund pushed by Kofi Annan
• United States leadership still think that AIDS was a consequence of sinful behavior, as a result, not their problem, hence funds where released with strings attached in 2002
• Christians see AIDS as an opportunity to spread the word of God to dying patients around the world
• UN Global Fund against AIDS targeted over 160 countries while the Bush plan concentrated on mostly African countries
• SARS in China affected the global community to open transparency about health problems
• disease, for the first time, seen as a situation that can affect economic and national security of a country
• triple cocktail needs to be taken for life as the infection returns afterwards, HIV never go away from a persons body, you can suppress it but not eradicate it
• Bush’s AIDS plan relies on prevention, where 20% of funds are allocated and shies away from direct sexual talk such as condom use
• prostitution, homosexuality and condom distribution are no-nos regarding receiving funds from the Bush administration
• the challenges posed by AIDS are far and wide with the implications of an entire global community relying on a constant supply these life saving drugs
• triple cocktail users live up to 8 years longer on the drugs but the costs take up a large portion of government health care budgets
• in 2008, both the UN and US funds against AIDS run out
• 95% of new infections take place in poor countries with 40 million in new infections over the next several years
• drugs and treatment programs cannot keep-up with infection rates
• India already has 5 million infections
• HIV spreads among mostly heterosexual populations now
• 5 million new cases per year, no cure and no vaccine exists
• current generation don’t know the face or challenges with AIDS, they tend to think it’s a manageable disease with little consequences, which is false
• AIDS fight is now towards mitigation, not beating it as too many have died and are being infected daily
• Nelson Mandela’s son has died from AIDS
• AIDS shows how interconnected we really are

The Bottom Line

HIV/AIDS is a condition that will be with us for at least the next generation if not more but prevention is always a more effective mechanism to control the spread then treatment.

Buzzvia
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/aids/view/

Although this documentary was done in the early 1980s, the same issues are alive and well today. From forced abortions in China to fit the “one child policy” to mothers who aren’t ready for the burden of motherhood. Abortion isn’t an easy topic to tackle but this documentary does a fantastic job of outlining the situations real women face on a daily basis around the world.

Summary

• old seminary transformed into an abortion clinic
• pregnancy termination is a very complex issue and a very difficult situation for many woman to deal with even once they have entered the clinics wall
• Christian group try to trick woman away from their choice to have an abortion
• abortionist has no problem with this title but does have problem with being defined only as an abortionist when the doctor provides far more services to the woman then simply pregnancy termination services
• clinic offers counseling for each of the patients before and after the procedure
• Christians essentially equate a first term child with a fully developed human being but in a smaller form factor
• many of the woman seeking abortions do so because of financial and societal pressures that would adversely affect their life in a negative way
• woman seeking abortions seem to come from dysfunctional families on the lower side of the economical and educational ladder (at least in this documentary)
• abortion occurs in a very clinical setting by people who are professionals at dealing with the various issues associated with the procedure
• entire abortion takes only a few minutes to perform from start to finish and seems like a relatively painless procedure when compared to childbirth
• emotional impact doesn’t seem to hit the patient until after the procedure is completed
• first trimester material is mostly placental, not a fully formed small human being that Christians anti-abortionists claim
• abortionist admits that second term abortions can take their toll emotionally, hence, first term abortions are preferred (sooner is always better)
• anti-abortionists try to associate an emotional connection with their unborn child, giving it human traits such as ability to suck their thumb, heartbeat, brainwaves, bowel movements etc.
• interesting anti-abortionist quote: “it’s not whether to have a baby or not, the baby is already there, the question is what to do with the baby”
• anti-abortionists focus on the graphic nature of having an abortion performed instead of the emotional, lifelong toll of woman having children they cannot take care of
• dedication of both anti-abortionists and doctors performing abortions for their causes is admirable
• clinical counseling asks very tough questions to the soon to be potential patient and lets them know that alternatives are available
• anti-abortionists paint a rosy picture of what happens if they keep the baby no matter how bad their situation in life really is

Interesting Observations

I am sure that having an abortion is a very difficult decision for any woman to face no matter their socio-economical background but in this documentary, I am surprised at how down and out the woman really are. Their decisions are not based on the love for their child but on the burden it may have on them and their family. Another interesting observation is how the boyfriend during the two abortions performed on camera are nowhere to be seen and aren’t the most upstanding citizens to begin with. On a final note, if you take away the religious philosophies behind the anti-abortionists beliefs, their arguments have absolutely no legs to stand on.

The Bottom Line

Abortion should be a freely available option for any woman who thinks, justifiably or not, that she isn’t really for motherhood.

Buzzvia
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/twenty/watch/abortion.html

I find it ironic that people in the “modern, industrialized world” are dying from overconsumption of food while in Africa, they are dying from underconsumption. We are suffering from exponential obesity, diabetes and cardio-vascular conditions (from not being active enough) rates in our populations while in Africa, the biggest problem malnutrition, HIV Disease and catabolizing (from being too active). We worry about deserts while they simply want to eat something.

What is Plumpy’nut?

Well, it’s what is known as a therapeutic food (RUTF) which was invented by a French pediatric nutritionist named Andre Briend. It solves a problem that aid workers have been having for years with the need for refrigeration of milk to help deal with malnutrition. Basically, you give a kid two of these bars a day (total nutrition within a thousand calories) and within two weeks, the kid is rehabilitated. No need for refrigeration, no need to worry about spoilage and better yet, can be shipped EN MASS when and where needed. It is currently only manufactured by one company, Nutriset and it costs about 25 cents per, or 7 dollars per two week supply.

Plumpy’nut by the numbers

Now being used by NGOs such as Doctors Without Boarders, in 2005 they along with other NGOs where able to treat over 60 000 patients within four months using Plumpy’nut. The results so far have been great compared to the traditional method and they can give a weeks supply to mothers of starving children at a time, something that couldn’t be done otherwise.

What about peanut allergies?

An interesting fact is that unlike the rising prevalence of food allergies in 1st world countries, those who grow up starving in less then hygienic circumstances seem to suffer far less from food allergies then our highly sterilized environments. Another factor is that these children are probably going to die, taking a risk of a food allergy showing its head is the lesser of two evils considering the lack of resources that are given. There is, by the way, an alternative paste called EZ Paste which does not contain nuts but has yet to find a commercial manufacturer.

Larger Issue

Dealing with starving children will do a lot to help with what so far is a forgotten continent in the eyes of the world. Sure, our past colonial conquests did much to cause the problems that exist today but we should also put the present leadership accountable. If you mass poverty and sickness, then it should be a given that you have NO money for anything military. If you have to rely on NGOs to feed your population, then it should be a given that you have NO money for flamboyant spending habits for those who are elected into office. If you have to continually beg for donations and debt forgiveness, then it should be a given that you have NO money for meddling in other countries affairs. I believe this, more then the past, is the reason why there is so much hardship in Africa. Africa wasn’t given a healthy start to begin with after the colonials cut and run, but that doesn’t explain why, a century latter, they still don’t have their act together.

The Bottom Line

For 7 dollars, a mother can have enough food to feed their starving child for two weeks.

Reference
http://www.nutriset.fr/
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2497593&page=1