Suffer the little children
Posted on September 05, 2008 in Medical care
I went with the medics to one of the local villages the other day. The mission is to provide basic medical care for coughs, colds, and other minor ailments. Again, this is something we take for granted in the U.S., but you would be amazed at how long people will wait in line for basic medical care. Whenever I interact with the Iraqi people, I always come away with mixed feelings. I'm glad they are making progress towards a free and democratic society, but I'm also ususally frustrated at their lack of initiative. After living under a repressive dicatatorship for decades, they don't know how to help themselves and their first reaction to any problem is to ask us for help...usually in the form of a handout. But then there are the kids. Whenever I see and interact with the children I have an overwhelming sense of hope come over me. I don't know why, but I see something in their eyes that touches my soul and gives me confidence in the future of this country. During the few hours we were there, they were all I focused on. I interacted with a few and took dozens of pictures of many. They are all overwhelmingly...kids. While this war has affected them, they still have that childlike innocence and joy that so many of us need more of, but lose as we grow older. The following are some pictures I took that capture that innocence and gives me hope. Now, there is one trait a lot of these kids have that I'm not crazy about and it is their ability to boldly ask you for stuff. They ask for candy, food, water, pens, or anything else they see you have. This little guy pictured below is Hasim. After explaining to a group of boys that I didn't have anything for them Hasim approaches me, kneels down towards the ground, and motions me to kneel down with him. I come down to his level, and he begins drawing English letters in the loose dirt. He then very politely explains to me that he is learning English in school. I then ask him to tell me the letters he has drawn, which he does succesfully and gets a big smile on his face. I immediately took a liking to this smart little whip. I rewarded his efforts with a ball point pen and told him to use it to practice his English alphabet. You would think I gave him $100 as excited as he was. It's amazing how little these kids have. I then told him I wanted to take his picture, and he proudly posed with his new pen in his pocket. .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } He then motioned for me to give him the camera, and he took a picture of me. Like I said...he is a smart little whip. .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } The rest of these are just photos of kids I took throughout the day. I'm posting the ones that impressed me the most. .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } You can't go wrong with Elmo. Every kid loves Elmo. .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } I love this one. Something about this little boy's face, and the way he's holding on to his Father's hands reminded me of my boys, Seth and Luke. .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } This kid was all smiles all the time. Hopefully he'll grow into his ears someday. :-) .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } I call this one Rebel. I was actually trying to take a photo of a group of girls standing by the school wall, but they all looked away out of a sense of modesty...except for her. .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } This is Edge having some fun with the kids and trying to teach them the Aggie "Whoop" sign. .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Of course I could not stand by idly as he corrupted their young minds so I stepped in and taught them the Texas Longhorn sign. .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } This was a good day. In fact, I think this was my best day in Iraq yet. Until next time. John Cheap Generic Viagra
Micheal Moore Sets CNN Straight on 'Sicko'
Posted on August 17, 2008 in Prescription drug insurance
Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN said, "But no matter how much Moore fudged the facts, and he did fudge some facts..." Micheal Moore posted a rebuttal to CNN's review of the facts in the "Sicko" movie. www.michaelmoore.com
Satan's Kingdom welcomes Phoni CEO...
Posted on July 28, 2008 in Erectile dysfunction
Phoni Chairman and CEO Johnny B. Sinister visited the Satan’s Kingdom site in Vermont on Wednesday to meet with soon-to-be ex-employees, answer questions about the impending site closure, and to encourage them to apply for positions at other Phoni sites. Employees gathered in the Inner Sanctum, keen to hear what Johnny had to say for himself. Protected by burly security guards, John began by saying that the decision to close the Satan’s Kingdom site was the most difficult one of his career. Sinister: “I know what you are all thinking. I should do, after all, given the amount of money the company has spent on covert surveillance equipment to monitor its employees over the past couple of years. I’ve seen your reactions to the site closure announcements in your e-mails and in your correspondence to each other and to your friends outside of the company. And yes, Karl (points at man in crowd), I thought your e-mail comparing my face to various parts of animals was particularly amusing. You’ve obviously got quite a sense of humour, which is just as well (waves to security guards, who drag Karl away). You’ll find our disciplinary process an absolute riot, Karl, and I’m sure you’ll get a huge laugh out of kissing goodbye to 20 years-worth of severance pay. Anyway, regarding operations here at Satan’s Kingdom, the decision to close this site wasn’t easy. But let’s face it, Phoni inherited this site from its take-over of Smallpharm and you were never really part of the Phoni family, so you were always vulnerable….” Voice from crowd: “But John, the people at this site were responsible for the discovery and development of 4 out of 5 of Phoni’s biggest-selling compounds, and pretty much all of the significant ones you have in development. How does this closure make sense from a business perspective?” Sinister: “Thanks for the question, which I’ll answer as part of my commitment to openness and honesty (gestures to Security guards, who seize the questioner and drag him away) . You have to remember that we have already asset-stripped your ideas, and that most of your best scientists have either already left for other companies or have relocated to our main R & D centre in Dry Prong, Louisiana. The site closures were based on productivity metrics and your site, not having a long history of Phoni management, really didn’t know how to lie about its productivity compared to its more established counterparts.” Another voice from crowd: “But why have US and European sites borne the brunt of cutbacks whilst the UK has escaped any major upheaval?” Sinister: (gesturing to the guards again). “There are several reasons for this. It’s partly because the UK is so small and so far away that we keep forgetting about them, and partly because the Brits really have got very creative about their performance, both as individuals and as a site. This team player ethic appeals to us on the Board. Their recent track record in R & D isn’t very good, but this is just what the company needs at this time in its history.” (Audience starts muttering in disbelief…) Sinister: “Think about it. The vast majority of compounds never make it to the market. Most ideas wind up being failures. Success in R & D is not a natural state of affairs. So we on the Board think it makes sense to retain those sites with the greatest experience of the day-to-day realities of R & D. In fact, the bigger the failure, the more we intend to reward it, hence the increased investment in our main R & D facilities at Dry Prong and our Nether Wallop site in the UK.” Employee: “So what’s going to happen to our site and when?” Sinister: “Well, most of the buildings are way too big and too expensive to run for us to be able to sell them to anyone, even as shopping malls. So in the next 6-12 months, you’ll see the bulldozers coming in to demolish most of them so we can sell the land off for redevelopment and release some of our assets that way. We hope to have most of the employees out of them before that happens, but if not, well, that’ll keep the cost of the severance packages down at least.” Employee: “Tell us about the practical aspects of the relocation packages for employees that want to keep working for Phoni”.
New Toys Coming Soon in 2007
Posted on June 28, 2008 in Diabetes erectile dysfunction
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