tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30799653836029199962024-03-12T19:41:34.451-07:00The Equalizer/Frances Cerra WhittelseyConsumer/environment exposes and how-to information to equalize the power of consumers in the marketplace.Green power, women's health, product safety, financial scams and complaints, etc. Original news reporting, commentary and analysis from the author of "Women Pay More," on gender-based pricing, and former NY Times and Newsday consumer/investigative specialist.Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.comBlogger145125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-10206909020282348112023-09-26T07:44:00.000-07:002023-09-26T07:44:25.665-07:00EGGS: THE ETHICAL DILEMMA<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">I’m in the egg department at King Kullen, and I’m facing an
ethical dilemma. Do I buy the cheap eggs and never mind how those chickens are
spending their lives? And then there's the package. The cheap eggs come in compostable paperboard boxes, but almost all the supposedly humane eggs now come in plastic foam. I reject the plastic. Of course, I could solve my dilemma by not eating eggs any more. But I love how they taste, they're nutritious and low calorie and a relatively cheap source of protein; I'm not going to give them up. So I'm looking at all the labels and the boxes and trying to see my way to an ethical choice.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p><h2 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">THE LIFE OF A LAYING HEN</span></h2><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">The labels on eggs do tell you how they are getting treated if you know their meaning. If the box says nothing except Grade A and the size, and the eggs cost under $3 for a dozen, you can be sure the chickens who laid them are spending about 2 years crammed into battery cages
<a href="https://thehumaneleague.org/article/battery-cages">with 1 to 1.5 sq. feet of space, so little that they can’t even spread their wings. </a>They eat and sleep in the same space, along with their feces and dust. The only reason they don’t peck each other to death is
their beaks have been blunted--the tip cut off. Ouch. So I’m looking for a label that says at least "Cage Free,” or for more certainty, "Certified Humane." This means the birds aren't kept in cages, can perch somewhere and dust bathe, but they're living indoors, a multitude of birds inside some kind of barn. Don’t imagine it means they’re clucking
around in anything like a nice outdoor yard somewhere, but presumably they have some
freedom of movement. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">On a tiny length of shelf space among all the other brands King Kullen offers, I spy McMahon's Certified Humane, Cage Free eggs, and they're in a paperboard package. Price: $4.99 a dozen. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRpRHabn4sDqRIDsNVBaiyKJlTb4QSnyulsxRJuUDoGhCi8UxHxrjMhswFb8teFYTaTTNS-oP6mPFn40QXOxvg5AF8chq6ZP6pi3dI3rbeQy3mKpnS4-p0KsIVS_bYrRRCFA-LH8gotmkBEMkRlFf-O8NhJu0nJ6iu8YqiSN3NOGUqFHZjtqcZs-U0ZPs/s4032/McMahon%20eggs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRpRHabn4sDqRIDsNVBaiyKJlTb4QSnyulsxRJuUDoGhCi8UxHxrjMhswFb8teFYTaTTNS-oP6mPFn40QXOxvg5AF8chq6ZP6pi3dI3rbeQy3mKpnS4-p0KsIVS_bYrRRCFA-LH8gotmkBEMkRlFf-O8NhJu0nJ6iu8YqiSN3NOGUqFHZjtqcZs-U0ZPs/s320/McMahon%20eggs.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><br />That's about 42 cents an egg, compared to 25 cents for the cheap eggs. I can afford it. I buy McMahon's. <br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">To find eggs from hens that have lived mainly outside, I had to go to another store--Southdown Market--to find Vital Farms, pasture raised eggs, in a paper box. The price for 18 large eggs? $10 or about 55 cents an egg. I buy those too, to see what they are like, and when I break them the yolks are a lovely orange yellow. That's the sign of a fresh egg. Each box of Vital Farm eggs is stamped with the name of the farm they came from, and you can look at video of the farm. Mine says Loblolly Pine Farm and yes, there in the video are chickens wandering outside in a natural area. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPbkM_tuS22ulWSMOGGffFeSPYmUCgLE9CMHSL-Q0XPFPAad-Z3NijjGhre7khrlo1yo2XnYzcTuS9h5cYiyBLwL-IAkhuKkY8XBEbZxj0N_DfEm0W0muHcf2k7JCIY-guRTHZ2LUNMEPQR3fll3-Nf-RyRV7oeatTgOGqyXJXK6GvNMxrdf0prDdqrdc/s320/eggs%20on%20plate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="240" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPbkM_tuS22ulWSMOGGffFeSPYmUCgLE9CMHSL-Q0XPFPAad-Z3NijjGhre7khrlo1yo2XnYzcTuS9h5cYiyBLwL-IAkhuKkY8XBEbZxj0N_DfEm0W0muHcf2k7JCIY-guRTHZ2LUNMEPQR3fll3-Nf-RyRV7oeatTgOGqyXJXK6GvNMxrdf0prDdqrdc/s1600/eggs%20on%20plate.jpg" width="240" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><p></p><h2 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">WHAT THE HECK IS AN ORDINARY EGG?</span></h2><h2 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">When I do research, I can't help following my trail of curiosity, so I decided to check out claims by Eggland, a major TV egg advertiser. The company claims its eggs are more nutritious, better tasting than--"ordinary eggs." Well, easy for them to say since there's no such category of eggs. No such designation by the USDA or anybody else. It's just advertising puffery. Another label that you shouldn't pay extra for says "Vegetarian Fed." Guess what? Hens are not vegetarians by nature. They eat worms and bugs and grubs if they can get at them. A label that says "organic," however, is supposed to mean no cages and a <a href="https://health.clevelandclinic.org/should-you-pay-extra-for-cage-free-or-organic-eggs/">diet free from </a></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://health.clevelandclinic.org/should-you-pay-extra-for-cage-free-or-organic-eggs/">animal byproducts, synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, and most pesticides.</a> Yuck. So if you care about what the hens are eating, look for the organic label.</span></span></h2><h2 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">THE BOTTOM LINE </span></h2><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">If your budget is tight, cheap eggs in a paper carton are a realistic choice. If you can afford it, the ethical choice at minimum are eggs labeled cage free and Certified Humane. It means you not only care about the hens but also are supporting farmers taking good care of the them. The good news is that consumers' concerns about hens' living conditions <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-are-eggs-expensive-cage-free-range-chickens-ethical-2023-3">is transforming egg production, and the industry is in the midst of a shift to cage-free. </a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">Investing in new barns, etc. costs money, and the prediction is that truly cheap eggs are a thing of the past. But whether the additional expenses do justify 42 cents an egg, like McMahons, or 55 cents like Vital's, remains to be seen. When cage-free becomes the rule, it's possible competition will make prices more reasonable. ##<br /></span></div><h2 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></h2><h2 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></h2><h2 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></h2><h2 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></h2><h2 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></h2><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"> <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">But my ethical dilemma doesn’t end there: consider the
packaging. Eggs used to all come in paperboard boxes that easily compost. Now
almost all of them come in a foam-type plastic box, including many of the ones
with cage free language on them. It’s worth mentioning, by the way, that Eggland’s
advertising claims are just puffed up like a souffle. The ads claim they have
better nutrition, better taste than…”ordinary eggs” according to the tiny
footnote on the bottom of the screen. Of course there is no such thing as an “ordinary”
egg, according to the USDA. The only thing that does matter is whether the egg
box carries a shield that says “USDA” and the grade double AA or just A </span><a href="https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/ShellEggAAGradeBW.png"><span style="font-size: small;">https://www.ams.usda.gov</span>/sites/default/files/media/ShellEggAAGradeBW.png</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The double AA is the freshest and best quality. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So what to buy? I spy a tiny section of shell space with
eggs in a paperboard box that also claims cage free status. It’s more than
twice the price of the King Kullen eggs. I go for them. There’s a price for
being an ethical consumer.</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style> <br /></p>Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-55137925435746687492023-07-27T09:12:00.005-07:002023-07-27T09:13:37.151-07:00Republican Suffolk County Legislaors Shrug Off Need to Act Now<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What’s the Hurry?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I was there. And I'm angry and frustrated.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">No rush necessary. That was the attitude of the
Republican members of the Suffolk County Legislature on July 25 as they voted <i>not to </i>approve
the resolution that would have started a historic effort to purify the drinking
water and the bays that surround our beautiful Long Island. <br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In a world where the desires of the
public in a democracy should have won the day, our representatives chose to ignore the 40 people who testified that they should approve the resolution
without delay. Forty people who turned out and sat through not just the
testimony but the grandstanding of the legislators who tried to put some kind
of rationale on their refusal to listen to both the experts and the people
living with results of on-going water pollution. <br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It didn’t matter when Christopher J.
Gobler<b> </b>of Stony Brook’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences startled
the audience with the news that the nitrogen in our drinking water might very
well be contributing to cancer among Suffolk residents. The levels considered
safe by the EPA and the Suffolk County Water Authority might not be safe after
all, according to new information. <br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It didn’t matter that the two new
advanced septic systems approved for commercial use in Suffolk County remove at
least 80% of the nitrogen that is contaminating our waters. <br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The opposition legislators listened
but chose to delay indefinitely despite testimony that the nitrogen in the
Great South Bay has been the death of the once-thriving clam industry there. Or
that the luscious little scallops that used to be harvested in great numbers in
the Peconic Bay can no longer survive there. No rush necessary to deal with
those problems.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It didn’t matter when representatives
of labor and the business community testified that the jobs created by replacing
hundreds of thousands of polluting septic systems, and installing sewers in
places with low groundwater, would create an economic boom in Suffolk County.
The septic replacements would support an industry of small businesses, the kinds
of businesses that are the heart of a local economy. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It didn’t matter that funding from New York State and the federal government would immediately flow to Suffolk
County had the legislature put the proposal on the ballot and had voters
approved it. Plenty of time, they said, in the face of being told that the money
is being doled out now to other counties, and that enabling legislation passed by the state to
allow the referendum might be impossible to get again. <br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the face of repeated testimony that
all the best science said the mix of improved septics and sewers was the best
way to clean our waters, the Republican legislators just shrugged it off.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Instead, the Republicans, including
Presiding Officer Kevin McCarthy, kept pushing for support for more sewers,
more sewers, prodding speakers to say whether they supported sewers or improved
septic systems. Wisely, the speakers declined to take the bait of a false
choice. The Republican legislators insisted that the mix of funding from the sales
tax increase of 1/8 of one cent--75% for septics and 25% for sewers—should be
changed to favor sewers. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This despite the
fact that about an equal $2 billion would have gone for each when funding from another
source was included. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the end, <i>no hurry at all</i>
won the day in a party-line vote to deny Suffolk residents the chance to decide the issue
themselves. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Why? That is the question. Supporters
speculated that it was fear of Democrats turning out in big numbers in November
to support clean water, resulting perhaps in losses to the Republicans running
for re-election. Could it have been ignorance about the necessity of acting? Hard to
believe because the experts were there to answer all their questions. <br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I was a reporter at Newsday in the
era of the scandal-plagued Southwest Sewer District. Big public works projects
are susceptible to bribery and corruption. Could it be that some individuals
are licking their lips at the prospect of all those hundreds of millions of
dollars in public contracts? Much harder, if not impossible, to profit off work
of the many small businesses installing new septic systems in people’s homes. <br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And remember, this is the same Legislature
that has refused to create an independent Inspector General to try to stop the
corruption that has been endemic to Suffolk County for decades. Note that both Republicans and Democrats have opposed that safeguard.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">July 25 was a sad day for
democracy, and a sad day for the people of Suffolk County. We deserve a
legislature that truly represents us. ##</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-50348983429935422732020-12-14T09:33:00.006-08:002021-05-05T08:21:48.028-07:00Police Unions’ Campaign Donations Block Police Reform Efforts<p>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Last Spring, Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone and the
county legislators approved a dream of a new contract with the Suffolk PBA.<span> </span>The 6-year pact guarantees yearly pay of
$200,000 for every officer with 15 years of experience. That puts police among the top earners in the country. The head of the PBA told Newsday the pay was
justified by comparing it to the earnings of athletes who don’t have to risk
their lives.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Bellone denies that the generous contract had anything to do
with the campaign donations he received during his re-election in the fall of
2019. But I’m not buying that. No one donates the kind of money the police
unions did without an expectation that their investment is worth it.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Consider
that during that last election cycle, police unions gave $40,000 in direct
contributions to Bellone, the legal limit. But that was dwarfed by spending on
his behalf through a SuperPac, the Long Island Law Enforcement Foundation. It donated
whopping $830,000 to support his re-election, and $662,000 to re-elect incumbent county
legislators. <span> </span>Because the SuperPac didn’t
coordinate directly with the campaign organizations, the donations are
unlimited, thanks to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This matters not only because of the conflict of interest
and ethical blindness it demonstrates. It matters because the county is in the
midst of a state-mandated examination of policing in Suffolk prompted by the killing of George Floyd. It has been holding
virtual hearings at which hundreds of residents have been both <a href="http://theequalizerfcw.blogspot.com/2020/11/">critiquing thepolice and suggesting changes</a> that would require shifting funds that have now
been locked into place by the contract, like using social and mental health
workers instead of police to respond to mental health crisis situations.
Critics would also like it to be easier to fire bad cops, and discipline
procedures are at least in part dictated by the contracts.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Legislator Robert Trotta is the only county politician who
is trying to correct the situation. A Republican from Fort Salonga, Trotta is
also a retired detective, and he told me collecting garbage or tree work is
more dangerous than policing in Suffolk County. <span> </span>He regards the contract and the donations as an
ethical conflict of interest that should concern every Suffolk resident. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So he is sponsoring a resolution that would limit direct campaign
contributions to no more than $500 for legislators and $3,000 to county-wide
officials from employee unions and contractors doing business with the county. Even
though it won’t affect the SuperPac donations, It needs to pass if only to demonstrate
that the legislators care about the conflict of interest they face.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The same situation is true in Nassau. <span> </span>Nassau locked itself into an 8 1/2-year
contract with the Superior Officers Association, and recently signed a new PBA
contract against the objections of reform advocates. <span> </span>In a demonstration of their clout, Nassau police
demanded and got a bonus of $3,000 a year just to accept wearing body cameras,
sucking more money out of the county’s budget for public safety. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Despite what seemed like a very favorable contract, the Nassau police officers rejected the contract. That gives Nassau's leaders the chance to consider the kinds of changes reformers have been advocating. </span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Long Island United to Transform Policing has issued <a href="https://www.liunited.org/landing?from=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.liunited.org%2Fposts%2F10301184%3Fnotification_id%3D1134474188%26utm_campaign%3Dnotification_space_post_create_notify_all%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Dtransactional_emails">a call </a>for no new contracts in Nassau County without structural police reform. <br /></span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In Suffolk, the contract remains an obstacle to change.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Trotta's resolution meanwhile continues to languish as </span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">neither Suffolk Republicans orDemocrats have shown any appetite
for it. They expect us to swallow the idea that contributions have
no influence on their actions. Bellone’s spokesman had the brass to tell Newsday
that “ campaign contributions do not influence public policy.” </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Legislators who accept funding
from police unions could recuse themselves from voting on their contract. County
ethics rules require recusal if a legislator would benefit financially from a
vote. But donations go to their campaigns, not directly to individuals, so
there is no direct financial benefit. As for recusal, it wouldn’t work anyway because “the
unions give to everyone, so there would be no one to vote on the contract,”
says Trotta. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Suffolk residents struggling to make ends meet will feel the impact of the bonanza enjoyed by the police. Especially during a pandemic, if you give police three times the cost of living increase
over 6 years, something else has to give. The proposed 2021 Suffolk budget cuts bus routes, raids money
from the Clean Water Fund, and shortchanges many other necessary services. The
state controller ranks Suffolk County at number 62 among 62 counties in the
state with the worst fiscal situation. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Had Suffolk limited the police raise to just the cost of
living, Trotta says $250 million would have been saved. And some of that could
have been used to finance a matching fund for public financing of campaigns.
The county passed a law creating a public finance fund in 2018, and scheduled
it to go into effect next year.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It won’t. <span> </span>Because there’s
no money for it.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Long Island legislators live in fear that the unions will
withdraw their support. The only remedy, it seems, is for us voters to get
smart and hold their feet to the fire when election season comes around again. In
an interview with the <a href="Nhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/12/i-used-be-police-chief-this-is-why-its-so-hard-fire-bad-cops/ " target="_blank">Washington Post</a>, Daniel Oats, former Chief of the NYPD
Intelligence Division and police chief in several jurisdictions, said: <span></span>“there
cannot be true (police) reform unless Americans elect politicians willing to
take on obstructionist labor leaders.”</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">##</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p><style><span style="font-family: arial;"><font size="4">
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{page:WordSection1;}</font></span></style><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><br /></p>Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-53493958501747944592020-11-07T06:23:00.006-08:002020-11-13T12:28:32.610-08:00Crisis Intervention Teams, Unarmed Traffic Patrols, Would Make Suffolk Policing Safer, More Fair<div style="text-align: left;">
<p class="MsoNormal">Thanks to this virtual world we now inhabit, going to the
meeting about policing in Suffolk County was so easy that about 90 people
showed up Nov. 4, the day after Election Day. Everyone got an earful of interesting ideas
to make people safer, as well as some deeply felt criticism of police culture
as still gripped by white supremacy. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is what a discussion about “defunding the police”
actually sounded like.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> It was the second such session held since Oct. 27, with six
more to follow before Christmas. Anyone can <a href="https://suffolkcountyny.gov/Police-Reform/Forum-and-Public-Comment">register </a>to just listen or talk.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Although it was intended to focus on the 2<sup>nd</sup>
police precinct in Huntington, speakers were not limited to only Huntington
matters.
</p><p class="MsoNormal">Terrell Dozier, of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/LI.United/" rel="" target="_blank">Long Island United To Transform Policing and Community Safety</a> spoke of the entire county when he maintained that there are
two traffic systems here: one for whites and another for Blacks and Hispanics.
He said training is not the answer, calling instead for structural changes: use
of more unmanned traffic control systems like speed cameras, speed bumps,
better road design; and replacing armed police with unarmed civilians to
enforce traffic laws. An installment payment system for traffic violation
fines, and a sliding fee scale would be helpful, he said. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Of course, a major allegation is that traffic stops are a result of police bias. Helen Boxwill, co-chair of the Huntington Anti-Bias Tax
force, quoted from the 2014 Department of Justice Consent Agreement that
Suffolk County signed. It called for an annual analysis of traffic stops to
determine racial and ethnic disparities. An analysis of data from 2018 to 2019
by the Finn Institute for Public Safety was released recently—the first since
the consent agreement was signed. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://suffolkpd.org/Portals/59/scpd_pdfs/tstop/2020TStopSummaryReport.pdf" target="_blank">It found</a>
that Black drivers were three times as likely to be searched, either
the driver or the vehicle, as whites who were stopped. Blacks were more
likely to be restrained, ticketed or subject to use of force than
whites, the study also found, while it was less likely that police would
find contraband in stops of Blacks than in stops of whites. Despite
these findings, the report concluded there was "no evidence" of racial
or ethnic bias<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in traffic stops. This was based in part of a "veil of darkness" theory that during the daylight Black drivers would be stopped more often than at night. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Helen
criticized the Finn Institute as lacking objectivity, and called on the county to end its relationship with the organization. She said the time has
come "for the DOJ Agreement to be codified” into law by the county legislature. <br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Several other speakers focused on how mentally ill, addicted and
homeless people can be helped when they are in a crisis without getting
involved with the criminal justice system. Jayette Lansbury from the National
Alliance on Mental Illness, Huntington, argued for non-police teams of
independent first responders. These teams would be expert in de-escalation. A
representative of Long Island Untied for Police Reform said the group has
developed a proposal for creation of such teams and offered to provide it to
the county. The Family Service League’s <a href="https://www.nslawservices.org/post/2019/03/07/family-service-league-opens-dash-24-hour-crisis-care-center-for-suffolk-county-resident" rel="nofollow">Dash Program</a> was mentioned as a model for such teams. It includes a
mobile response unit operating 24/7, a dedicated phone number and specialists.
</p><p class="MsoNormal"> Aaron Johnson, a teacher from North Babylon, spoke about a
police culture whose underlying ideology, he believes, is white racism. “Police
protect white neighborhoods, but they are an occupying force in our
neighborhoods,” he said. The slogan “Blue Lives Matter” came as a reaction to “Black
Lives Matter,” and that’s racist he said.
</p><p class="MsoNormal"> The listening sessions are part of Suffolk County’s response
to a state mandate to re-imagine and reform policing, with the goal of
presenting a plan to the county legislature by spring next year.
The task force for the project is co-facilitated by Vanessa Baird-Street, a Deputy County Executive and Jon Kaiman, also a Deputy County Executive.<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family: tahoma,sans-serif; font-size: large;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></div>Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-17745264431010361042020-08-19T08:24:00.000-07:002020-08-19T08:29:17.348-07:00Yes, Defund the Police<h2 style="text-align: left;">
</h2><h3 class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>I heard the demonstrators demanding, “Defund the police!”</b> <span style="font-weight: normal;">They can't be serious, I thought. The very notion seems
radical and dangerous on its face, and if carried out would surely leave us vulnerable to violence in our homes and streets. And that's the pitch, of course, that Trump is using to try to get re-elected as a law-and-order President, this from a man who regularly bends and breaks the law, and whom I hope to see some day making a perp walk.</span></span></h3><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But is he right about de-funding the police? The question is as urgent here in my home Suffolk County as it is in Minneapolis where George Floyd died. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has <a href="https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/no-203-new-york-state-police-reform-and-reinvention-collaborative" target="_blank">ordered </a></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> every
municipality in the state to conduct a comprehensive review of the role of the
police in public safety.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> A plan for “reform and reinvention,” says the order, must be
completed, presented for public comment and passed by the County Legislature by
next April 1, according to the Governor’s order. <br /></span></p>
<h3 align="center" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What are we paying for?<br /></span></h3><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For me to weigh the idea of de-funding, it's necessary to ask first what we are exactly funding in the first place. What do our
police actually do on a routine basis for all the money we spend on them, an especially relevant question here in Suffolk where police are paid more than any other force in the country.</span>
<p class="MsoNormal">Fortunately, the FBI keeps statistics that bear on the question. <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The statistics show that very little
of a police officer’s day is directly devoted to the kind of crime fighting dramatized by
television and movies. I like such shows from old classics like Hill Street Blues to Major Crimes and CSI to historic ones like Murdoch Mysteries. But <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>according to FBI
statistics for 2016, for each of the 701,000 police employed that year, on average, less
than two (1.78) violent crimes were reported. Again, that's <i>per year, </i>and includes murder,
manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. But reports, few as they were/officer, resulted in even fewer arrests--only a little more than half a million arrests, or less than one arrest/year
for each officer.</span>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As for property crimes, for each officer, on average, less than
one property crime per month (11.3/year) was reported. That includes burglary,
larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft and arson. And, these reports resulted in
less than two arrests/officer through that whole year. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Now, I'm not minimizing the importance of fighting such crime, but the statistics lead to the question of what exactly police officers are doing every day. That is a complex and layered question, and the answers, of course, include highway and traffic patrol, crowd control, and patrol of neighborhoods. In New York City, neighborhood patrol involved millions of stops-and-frisks until recently that have been found not to reduce crime while oppressing Blacks and other minorities. <br /></span></p><p><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">According to Alex Vitale, a sociology
professor, author of <i>The End of Policing</i> and </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the coordinator of the Policing and Social
Justice Project at Brooklyn College, the police are actually spending a lot of their time trying to solve
all sorts of community problems like drug addiction, homelessness, and mental
health crises that they are ill-equipped to <a href="http://handle.">handle.</a> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBazDnubwwA"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBazDnubww</span></a></p><p><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Such problems could be better handled by those trained for the job: social workers, housing specialists, and mental health workers who are now among the lowest-paid of workers. </span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It is especially notable that the highest number of arrests each
year are for drug abuse violations, a result of our on-going War on Drugs. This
so-called war was started by Richard Nixon, according to historians, as a
racist and political tactic to continue the discriminatory effects of Jim Crow
laws that could no longer be enforced due to public outrage. This suggests that decriminalizing drug use would eliminate
the need for all this police intervention, not only eliminating the arrests of drug
users and traffickers themselvs, but also cutting the number of thefts and burglaries by
drug users desperate for money to support their addiction. <br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Professor Vitale argues that police have been given too many roles than they can safely fulfill with the limited tools at their
disposal. Through training and practice, they turn to coercion, violence and the threat of
violence to solve problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is why we have so many tragic outcomes, such as a mentally ill person undergoing an episode of schizophrenia who is confronted by an armed police officer, and the situation gets
out of control. Police should be the last resort in
such cases, not the first. But when a mentally ill person becomes threatening, there is no one but the police to call.<br /></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Reforming
the Police</span></b></p><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But why not simply reform the police instead of de-funding? Minneapolis tried all the recommended reforms, and yet George Floyd died under the knee of
an officer. The city now plans to replace its police </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">with a department of community safety and
violence prevention, which will prioritize a "public health-oriented
approach" to situations involving the mentally ill and drug abusers. </span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Vitale asserts that reforms including de-escalation training, body
cameras and anti-bias training cannot solve the fundamental problem: modern
policing in the United States is a continuation of what began as slave and border patrols
that have been used to control and harm Black people and other minorities for generations. </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In 2016, Terrence Cunningham, president of the
International Association of Chiefs of Police, apologized at the group’s annual
conference for the historical mistreatment of communities of color, calling it
a “dark side of our shared history” that must be recognized and overcome.
Cunningham noted that police have historically been a face of oppression,
enforcing laws that ensured legalized discrimination and denial of basic
rights.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In recent years, modern policing has become even more dangerous
because of militarization—officers in gear developed to protect soldiers in war
zones, tank-like vehicles and weaponry designed to stop enemies—not our own
citizens.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> The 2016 apology by Cunningham appears in </span><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Re-imagining Public Safety: Prevent Harm and
Lead with the Truth A five-step policy plan for policing in America</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, </span><a href="https://policingequity.org/images/pdfs-doc/reports/re-imagining_public_safety_final_11.26.19.pdf"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://policingequity.org/images/pdfs-doc/reports/re-imagining_public_safety_final_11.26.19.pd</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> published by The
Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School. This is but one of many blueprints for reinventing our systems for public safety that have been around for years but have been ignored.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> It has become clear to me that there is no substitute for wholesale re-organization of how we keep our communities safe. Addicts and people suffering from mental health problems should be handled by professionsals trained to do so. And, if we de-criminalize drug use and prostitution, we eliminate not only all the arrests for those crimes, but also eliminate the incentive for millions of burglaries and robberies. <br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yes, we can de-fund and be safer and have money left over to invest in our communities. The question now is whether, even with continuing demonstrations
and new public consciousness, our leaders will be able to make the fundamental
changes to policing that will prevent an endless repetition of tragic police
killings. ##</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p>
<h2 style="text-align: left;"><style>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></h2>Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-557619960521246792019-09-23T10:38:00.001-07:002019-09-23T10:38:45.402-07:00Travels to Africa, Part 2--Drought<h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">After more than 24 hours of air travel, I got home last night and indulged myself in something that was unthinkable in Africa: I lingered in the shower for longer than was necessary, luxuriating in the warm water flooding over my skin. In the 3 African countries we visited--Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, there are signs everywhere urging the conservation of water. "Every drop counts!' proclaim the signs, and in one public toilet the sinks put out only a miserly mist of water when I turned on the faucet. No stream of water at all.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">The reason for this intensive conservation effort is that Africa is suffering from a prolonged drought. In the Chobe area of Botswana where we saw so many magnificent animals, the vegetation is mostly gone except right along the Chobe River. The elephants, who need an enormous amount of food and work at feeding themselves for about 18 hours a day, are peeling the bark off the trees to get at the nourishing layer underneath. </span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> In the southern region of Madagascar, it is so dry that the people are subsisting on cassava leaves because they can no longer grow rice or other crops. More than <a href="https://www.unicef.org/stories/children-madagascar-face-malnutrition-after-drought" target="_blank">1 million are food insecure</a>. In Northern Kenya, drought since 2016 threatens to leave another <a href="https://www.unicef.org/stories/kenya-severe-drought-threatens-leave-4-million-food-insecure" target="_blank">4 million people food insecure.</a></span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Let's get real: The term <i>food insecure </i>is a sanitized way of saying that these people are in danger of starving.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Capetown, South Africa, is a favorite destination for tourists like us drawn by its great food and spectacular mountains, and also by the thousands of plants found only in that region. The Kirstenbosch botanical garden shows off this amazing variety of ericas, proteas, birds of paradise and so much more it was dazzling to see. Meanwhile, Capetown nearly ran out of water completely last year. It was so bad that <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/one-year-after-the-water-crisis-cape-town-recovers-from-tourism-drought/a-47966335" target="_blank">hotel managers put buckets in the showers </a>for people to catch water and then use it to flush the toilet. Things had eased a bit this year, and we saw no buckets.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">In Zimbabwe, out of a population of 16 million, one-third, or more than 5 million people need food assistance because of drought and other problems. And, of course, the famous Victoria Falls are diminished by drought, as I wrote in the first part of this African blog. </span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Why the droughts? A combination of effects of El Nino, increased irrigation, and--climate change. </span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">It is so infuriating that Trump, McConnell and the other Republican climate-change deniers continue to behave as if nothing is wrong, and nothing needs to be done. Drought is one of the big contributors to the mass migrations that are taking place.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></h2>
Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-39009729572531421332019-09-16T09:22:00.002-07:002019-09-23T11:06:33.319-07:00Adventures in Africa September 2019: Part 1<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Display"; font-size: 22.1px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">An overnight flight took us to Johannesberg, South Africa. From there we flew to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">Sept. 3, 2019</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">Victoria Falls—Five years of drought have diminished Victoria Falls but they are still spectacular. The main falls drop more than 300 feet into a deep gorge, and the crashing water throw up spray that filters the sun into rainbows. We walked along a path on the cliff that follows the Zimbabwe side of the falls—the opposite bank is in the neighboring country of Zambia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">Zimbabwe is in trouble. Its currency has crashed, so U.S. dollars are the means of exchange. In fact, street sellers tried over and over to entice us to buy worthless Zimbabwe paper money as souvenirs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;"> Harry, and I are staying in the grand, colonial era Victoria Falls Hotel which was designed so that it looks into the mouth of the gorge. Photos show the falls dropping into that notch, but there’s no water dropping there now. Rain is expected now that spring is coming, and we can only hope it arrives soon in this parched country.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">Baboons, monkeys, wart hogs and pea hens are common sights here in town. And, we saw our first elephants during a river cruise on the Zambezi River just as the sun was setting! One medium size elephant worked the side of the river bank with his feet and body to create mud for a nice bath. The others, including two very small Dumbos, stuck very close to their Mamas. All came to drink. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">Last night we went to the Boma, a sprawling restaurant with an open-air stage. Tasted a bit of crocodile and antelope. No, they don’t taste like chicken—just a bit tough, bland and inoffensive. As we entered, we were draped in colorful cloth, tied at the shoulder. During dinner a face-painter came by and within a few minutes had created a desert scene on my cheek, and an elephant on Harry’s. The artist, was very happy to receive a couple of dollars for his artistry.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">After most people had finished eating barbecued beef, suckling pig, grilled short ribs, innumerable salads, stews, vegetables, soups, breads and desserts, there was drumming. We each were given a drum to join in with a drum group, and it was fun to try to keep time until our hands started to hurt. Clearly there is a way to use one’s hands that we have not learned.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">Tomorrow we leave for Botswana and safaris. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">Sept. 4-5: Botswana</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">First in a van on paved roads, then in an open-air, 4-wheel drive on roads of rutted, bumpy sand, we drove to the Chobe Game Lodge. The Lodge is the only game lodge located within Chobe National Park, consisting of 7,300 square miles. Along the way in we saw impala, a couple of giraffes, and greater kudu, a tall gorgeous antelope with spiral horns.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">This lodge is anything but roughing it. A resort with gracious dining rooms, bars, health club, etc. Our room is beautifully furnished and has a lovely balcony overlooking a nice swimming pool, but it's too cool this time of year to want to use it. The lodge is all-inclusive, including wine and liquor, with some top-shelf exceptions. Within an hour we were out on a pontoon boat on the Chobe River. We chose this area because even in the drought there is a decent-size river and the animals come to drink: herds of elephants that walked and swam from the river bank to islands where they grazed on grass along with African buffalo. The very young elephants had to swim almost all the way, and used their little trunks like snorkels. The Mama elephants stayed right with them until they get to the other side. Then, nicely cool and wet, they used their trunks to toss sand all over themselves. Elephants can get sun-burn, and the dust is their SPF 50!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">In the river itself were hippopotamuses, but all we could see were their piggy ears and their round backs as they surfaced to breathe. Tomorrow we will go out on a smaller boat and hopefully get closer to them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">Sept.5</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">Up at 5:15, we were out on a game drive at 6 after coffee and a few bites of muffin. Because the sand is so soft, the vehicles lurch from side to side, swaying in a motion not so different from being on a boat. (At the end of the day it felt as if I had been on a boat--I had the sensation known as sea legs.) We were searching for lions and we found them! First some females just sitting in the shade. Then a pride that had been out on the flat close to the river came towards us to get out of the sun for the rest of the day. The females are plenty big, but then a male came loping toward us with a big black mane. As he trotted along he roared—not a full-throated roar, but constant, deep growls. He passed maybe 30 feet from our 4-wheel drive vehicle and I was glad he kept on trekking. I knew that the lions don’t see the vehicles as containing separate people, just as some very large creature they don’t understand or regard as a threat. Nevertheless I felt a thrill of fear until he had gone by. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">We came around a corner and suddenly there was a herd of elephants, and a very big female pulling at the vegetation and then delicately curling its trunk to its mouth. We could not have been more than 15 feet from her. After a couple of minutes, she shook her head and flapped an ear and started towards us. Our driver hit the accelerator away from her. Any of these big elephants could easily turn over our vehicle. Both Chobe Lodge and the next place we went, Camp Moremi, have electrified wire surrounding them at a height of 8 feet or so, not enough to keep out a buffalo or a lion, but effective against the elephants. Only the elephants could literally destroy the buildings.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">Our next stop, after a short flight in a Cessna that held maybe 10 people, was Camp Moremi. </span><span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">As
we turn into the road just outside Camp Moremi, we are confronted with a
male elephant whose giant body is blocking the two lanes. Two other vehicles are also blocked by the elephant, and we stand still
for a few minutes waiting for him to move. He doesn’t and I’m worried
that he might come towards us and turn us over. But the driver revs our
engine, making it whine loudly, and this is startling enough to make the
elephant move off into the bush.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;"> </span>The staff greets us as we arrive with dancing and singing. One of the women startled us with an ululation. This is a sound that she produced by moving her tongue from side-to-side at an amazing speed </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">Images from our stay there: A leopard bounding up into a tree and then sprawling full length along a big branch, its legs dangling over the sides. A young male lion lying down in the early morning sun opening its mouth and repeatedly issueing short, deep roars. Our guide tells us these roars can be heard far away and are an effort to establish itself in a territory. Later that day, we see two male lions, part of a pride with females, setting out across the open delta at a steady pace. The guide says they are responding to the young lion’s challenge. If they find him, they may kill him unless he retreats from their territory.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay";"></span></span><span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">Just outside the grounds of the camp, we see a big buffalo that 2 lions killed during the night. The buffalo is in rigor, it’s legs stiff. One male lion—these are also not part of a pride—stands 15 feet away keeping watch over the kill, while the other lies nearby in long grass. The kill will keep them fed for quite a while. The guide tells us that sometimes the lions do enter the camp and all the guests run for their tent/rooms.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">Expanses of flat terrain, parched, dead trees killed by past flooding. Now the massive Okavango Delta has shrunk after more than 5 years of drought. An artist we meet who comes from South Africa, Geogia Papageorge, tells us that the weather maps she sees at home show the whole content, except for a narrow band, without rain. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">A herd of zebra, each one with a unique set of stripes all over its body. The stripes continue up into the standing bristles of its mane, and over its rump and down its tale. Black, white and tan.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">Giraffes. Improbably tall, reaching high into trees with their necks and then up even higher with their long tongues that curl around a leaf and pull it to their mouths. Or bending over the tops of the only green bushes that for whatever reason are unappetizing to the elephants or other animals and eating those leaves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">Wild dogs, round-eared, coats with large spots. Bouncing on stiff front legs and barking at 2 male lions that are blocking their way to the water. They bark and bounce repeatedly for five minutes or more, and then give it up. The pack runs away. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">A family of baboons sitting in a sunny spot in the sand near the path from our tent in the early morning. It is a family tableau: father and mother with a tiny baby clinging to her.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">A weather front pushed north from the Antarctic surprises us on our first night at Camp Moremi. We fall asleep in warm temperatures and awake shivering. Although these tents have wood floors and thatched roofs, the side are rubberized canvas with big screen openings the size of picture windows. The wind blows through unimpeded, and there is no heat. Yes, hot water and luxurious showers, but no heat source. We pull on all the layers of clothing we’ve brought, for me a long sleeved shirt, cashmere sweater, vest and jeans jacket. It’s not enough when we go out at 7 am for the morning game drive, even with the blankets they provide. I kick myself for not bringing my short down jacket. Never thought about a ski hat or gloves. The second night we huddle in bed under a wool blanket with a duvet on top, and we’re warm. The next morning is not as cold, and as the day goes on the previous warmth returns. After all, it really is still winter in Africa. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">The other guests we meet are from all over. Costa Rica, a dentist and his equestrian wife. A couple from Sao Paolo, Brazil. Many Aussies at Chobe, whom you always hear arriving in the dining room, their voices booming like Texans. Americans from Kansas City, San Francisco, Baltimore. Canadians from Toronto who—such a small world—have a condominium not only on Hutchinson Island like us but in the building just south of ours. All liberals—not a Trump supporter among them. I speculate that to travel to Africa you must be open-minded and adventurous, a believer that you can learn things from people other than Americans. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">The food. I’ve had sorghum porridge for breakfast. Tastes like Cream of Wheat. Tasted springbok. Bland and rather tough. Most of the meats, including the chicken seemed over-cooked, but lamb, offered once at Chobe and once at Moremi, was good. Freshly baked breads and rolls. Portions seem small to us Americans where everything has become super-sized. A starter of smoked salmon consists of a curl of salmon artistically placed on the plate with avocado. Cookies, more like biscuits, that are barely sweet. So in Botswana, the people eat little sugar and it shows in their beautiful teeth. Many have straight, white, movie-star smiles. The dentist from Costa Rica attributes it to the lack of sugar. Our guide who has dazzling white teeth says he has never been to a dentist!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">Our hotel, the Queen Victoria, is up the hill from the Victoria & Albert Waterfront, a complex of shopping malls and restaurants and entertainment. Even at this time of the year—which is the slow season, there always seemed to be some group of people there dancing and singing. There’s also a huge wheel that offers a panorama of the city.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">Also above us is the famous Table Mountain, a massive stone uplift that is as flat as a table on one side. We had to take this description on faith until our last day in the city, of course, since it is also famously covered a lot of the time with clouds. In the end, we did see it after a night of rain left behind a morning of clear blue sky. In warmer weather, we would have taken a cable car up to see the view, but it is late winter/early spring here, so too cool for our taste up top.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">We rode a tour bus out to the spectacular Kirstenbosch botanical gardens. Many of the plants and flowers we have in the U.S. originated here in South Africa, including such common flowers as lilies, marigolds and daisies. Here there are Birds of Paradise in orange, yellow and striped with blue. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">On the way back to our hotel, the bus swung behind Table Mountain to ride along the Atlantic Coast. Multi-million dollar homes crawl up the hillsides above beaches studded with granite boulders. Wealth inequality is on dramatic display here in Capetown. One stop on the bus was below a hillside covered with homes made of shipping containers—thousands of them, crowded together. Somehow, black people eke out a life under these conditions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">At the beginning of apartheid in the 1960’s, black residents of the city were simply removed, en masse, from their homes. We visited the District 6 Museum that tells the story of one removal. District 6 was the name of a modest neighborhood of some 60,000 black Africans. They were ordered to move out with such little warning that they could take perhaps one suitcase of a few plates and dishes and cooking implements. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">We also visited South Africa’s National Gallery of Art—a revelation, it turned out. Some portrayed messages of liberation, but regardless of the message the works displayed an original, colorful point of view that I have never seen in American museums. Indeed, a display of abstract art pointedly explained that recent exhibits of abstraction at MOMA, among others, had left out African examples. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">Cape Point</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">Harry braved the left-side driving to take us down the Cape Peninsula to the Cape of Good Hope, topped by a lighthouse. During the drive we saw very little traffic, and so were surprised to find loads of tourists climbing up and down the slopes. We took the funicular to the base of the lighthouse, and were satisfied with views of sheer cliffs and crashing waves.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">On the way back, we visited the colony of African penguins that live at a beach on the east coast of the peninsula, which faces False Bay where the water is somewhat warmer than on the Atlantic side. Like all penguins, these waddle comically on their tiny legs when they walk. There were hundreds of the birds. They are about 2-feet tall, their white bodies decorated with a black chevron.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">Wine Country--Franschoek</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;">An easy drive from Capetown took us to Franschhoek, a wine center originally settled by French Huguenots in the 17th century. We had booked two nights at a winery, La Petite Ferm, where our cottage looked out over the vineyard and a sweeping view of a valley and mountains. We tasted a half dozen wines. Most interesting was the Chardonnay. Long ago I had decided I disliked Chardonnay. Here I discovered that their oaked Chardonnay was delicious. Oaked or not, it turns out, is a matter of debate. All I can say is I liked theirs. This vineyard also produces a Chardonnay fermented in steel tanks—they call theirs Baboon Rock—that I didn’t like at all. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "sfuidisplay"; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 29.399999618530273px;">More to come in Part 2</span></span></div>
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Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-38036627998742224232018-12-17T08:17:00.000-08:002018-12-18T07:50:54.336-08:00Cover-up of Talc Danger Finally Revealed; Johnson & Johnson Executives Should Go to Jail for Unnecessary DeathsJohnson & Johnson is finally facing a reckoning for its deadly refusal to warn women about the use of talcum powder. Like the tobacco industry, Johnson & Johnson suppressed research about the danger and used its power to stop the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from taking action. The tale of this muscling the government is now out, thanks to the product liability lawyers suing the company, and the New York Times publishing <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/14/business/baby-powder-asbestos-johnson-johnson.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">the story </a>based on its own investigation and the internal documents the lawyers forced the company to produce.<br />
<br />
As I <a href="http://theequalizerfcw.blogspot.com/search?q=ovarian+cancer" target="_blank">reported in several posts on this blog</a> nearly three years ago, one of the leading researchers on ovarian cancer has estimated that 10% of all the cases--more than 2000 a year--are a result of talc powder use. In its response to petitions for warning labels,<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> the FDA acknowledged
that talc particles can enter a woman’s body via her vagina, and that such
particles can cause ovarian cancer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nevertheless the agency refused, and continues to refuse, to order a warning label because there is no “conclusive evidence.” </span><br />
<br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Even the <a href="https://www.nwhn.org/" target="_blank">National Women's Health Network</a>, usually a reliable advocate for women, refused to include a warning in its newsletter to women when I appealed to them to act in 2015. I'm a believer in the precautionary principle, a way of managing risk. When certainty is absent, but the risk is great, the prudent thing to do is give a warning. In the case of talc, advising people to stop using the product and switch to corn starch as a good substitute, is a no-brainer. </span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Times story reveals that as early as 1971, a senior staff member at Johnson & Johnson warned the company that its talc could be contaminated with asbestos, a notorious carcinogen. </span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Using Dr. Daniel Cramer's estimate of 10% of cases caused by talc use, that means that perhaps 100,000 women have suffered and most likely died unnecessarily since the company learned of the problem. </span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Johnson & Johnson is now facing nearly 12,000 ovarian cancer lawsuits, a fact that caused its stock to drop last Friday by 10 percent. </span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dropping stock prices and billion dollar injury verdicts are hardly sufficient penalty for Johnson & Johnson's callous disregard for women's safety. Those responsible should go to jail.##</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-82156796816535132962018-09-06T09:55:00.002-07:002018-09-06T09:55:59.282-07:00On Being A GrandparentThe faces of your children and grandchildren are a living family tree. They put you in touch with your ancestors.<br />
<br />
Some time after my oldest son, Eric, was born, I pulled out an old photograph, one of the few I have, of my father's mother. In it, she was younger than I'd ever seen her, and beautiful. I suddenly realized that her eyes and the top half of her face had been reproduced in the face of my beautiful son. Wide apart eyes, squared perfectly on his face.<br />
<br />
Now, my grandson's face fascinates me. People tell me he is the image of his father, and yes, I agree. But he also looks like his mother, and sometimes he looks like me. And a few days later, he looks different again.<br />
<br />
The potentiality of a grandchild is so varied. Follow in Mom's or Dad's footsteps, yes, possibly. But also find bliss in doing exactly, more or less, the same sorts of things their grandparents did. I experienced this myself when I became a Unitarian Universalist and told my mother about it. She recalled that her mother, my Grandmother, had made a habit of getting dressed for church on a Sunday morning, but instead of going to the same church week after week, would set out and end up in a church she had never been to before. Unknowing, I had searched for and chosen a non-traditional, non-conformist religion just as she had apparently done in her own way.<br />
<br />
When you have a grandchild, you become the generation holding the family fort against death. It's both a bitter understanding and a call to share your wisdom with this new being. Most definitely, it's a rite of passage. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-79348133619299302122018-02-08T08:00:00.000-08:002018-02-08T08:02:48.896-08:00Donald Trump's Cult of Personality<style>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">For the past year, I’ve heard
all the explanations of why about one-third of our population continues to
support Donald Trump. Nothing he does or says shakes that support. Asked his
view of Trump after revelations that he slept with a porn star just months
after Melania gave birth to their son, Baron, an Evangelical leader said Trump
gets a “mulligan” on that, a golf term meaning a do-over with no penalty. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I’ve spent some time trying
to understand a relative’s continued support of Trump, pointing out the damage
he has and continues to do to the environment, the poor, immigrants, our tax
system, regulations designed to ensure our health and safety, his support of White Supremacists and on and on.
None of it matters: he gets Mulligans on all that because Hilary would have
been just horrible and we needed to “drain the swamp”. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">So what is going on? </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I think it’s time to consider the explanation that Trump
has become the object of a cult of personality, crucially abetted by mass media
including Fox, Breitbart News and the rest of the massive and powerful right-wing
media. They portray him as always right, even when he contradicts himself, and worthy of a kind of worship. Cults
of personality need not be religious. There are secular versions, but the leader is
similarly the object of adoration even though he (and it has always been a “he”
according to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality" target="_blank">those who have studied the subject</a>) is not religious at all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Am I going too far in saying Trump's followers “worship” him? I don’t think so. When Democrats failed to applaud
his State of the Union address, Trump had the gall to call it treason.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This prompted Frank Bruni to write in the
Feb. 7 New York Times that Trump’s “test of patriotism is this and only this: Do you
worship me?” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In his <a href="https://fordham.bepress.com/gsb_facultypubs/2/" target="_blank">What is character and why it reallydoes matter, Thomas A. Wright</a> wrote, "The cult of personality
phenomenon refers to the idealized, even god-like, public image of an
individual consciously shaped and molded through constant propaganda and media
exposure. As a result, one is able to manipulate others based entirely on the
influence of public personality..."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">We think of cults of
personality as applying to dead leaders, most of them tyrants like Mussolini, Hitler,
Stalin and Ferdinand Marcos of the Phillipines. Some were more benevolent
figures like Mustafa Kamal Ataturk, who secularized the nation of Turkey and
created a democratic Turkish Republic. And, perhaps, to Vladimir Putin, so admired by Trump.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Trump’s cult of personality
has not reached the level of any of these dictators, although </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mike
Lofgren, in the January 17, 2018 Washington Monthly, said, “The over-the-top image of
Trump …is eerily similar to the cult of Joseph Stalin.” </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Thankfully, Trump has not been able to become a Joseph
Stalin because we still do have independent, truth-telling media, and because
defenders of our freedom are leaning heavily on the judicial branch of our
government to prevent Trump from becoming a dictator. </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">But it’s not for lack of
trying on his part, as we know from his firing of James Comey and his desire to fire Mueller. As psychologists have publicly pointed out, Trump is a
classic narcissist, and narcissists share many characteristics with cult
leaders:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s always us versus them.
Outsiders are dangerous enemies, and this justifies extreme actions, like
barring all Muslims from coming to the U.S. Cult leaders answer to no one
because they possess special wisdom, and their followers willingly see no evil,
no matter what they do--even cozying up to Russia--as long as the cult leader is pursuing the goals they
share with him, like ending abortion or cutting taxes on the rich. Even if the behavior violates prevailing
standards for ethics and honesty, the cult followers don’t mind how many
mulligans they give. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Because the cult leader is
never wrong, there’s never a need to apologize, to the widow of a dead service
member or his own wife, or so Melania’s behavior seems to be telling us.
Questioning or criticizing the leader is punished, no matter how close the
critic was before. Think Steve Bannon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">And so on, as detailed by Phd
Dan Neuharth in his <a href="https://blogs.psychcentral.com/narcissism-decoded/2017/03/14-ways-narcissists-can-be-like-cult-leaders/" target="_blank">Psychcentral blog.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Is there a cult of
personality around Donald Trump? No other explanation fits the unshakeable
loyalty of his followers. They hear no evil and see no evil no matter what he says or does, no matter how cruel or how selfish. And if he gets the military parade in Washington D.C.
that he’s asked for, his full-blown narcissism will be there for all to see,
with his followers swooning in worship.##</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span>
Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-7384820267158565222017-10-02T14:31:00.001-07:002017-10-02T14:31:50.197-07:004,800 Lawsuits Claim Ovarian Cancer from Baby Powder
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A recent article in the New York Times reported that there are now 4,800 lawsuits charging that repeated use of talcum powder for years causes ovarian cancer. I've been writing about this since 2015 <a href="http://theequalizerfcw.blogspot.com/2015/03/talcum-powder-use-may-cause-ovarian.html" target="_blank">http://theequalizerfcw.blogspot.com/2015/03/talcum-powder-use-may-cause-ovarian.html</a>, prompted by the death of a dear friend and life-long talc user. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
The Times article said that “safety concerns
(about talc causing ovarian cancer) are based on inconclusive science.” This is
no surprise since talc use occurs over decades and cancer takes decades to
develop. But why not a warning label while research—and lawsuits-- continue? In
<a href="http://theequalizerfcw.blogspot.com/2015/03/10-of-ovarian-cancers-due-to-talc-use.html" target="_blank">response to my FOIL request</a> for its explanation for declining label petitions,
the Food and Drug Administration actually acknowledged <span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">that
talc particles can enter a woman’s body via her vagina and that such particles
can cause ovarian cancer. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Harvard Professor Dr.
Daniel Cramer told me in interviews that his research has convinced him that
10% of all ovarian cancer cases a year, about 2,000, are caused by talc use.
Cramer is a Harvard Professor of Obstetrics, and Gynecology as well as of
epidemiology and public health. He says talc causes a potent inflammatory
reaction, and that inflammation is now believed to play a key role in cancer in
general. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Given what is so far at least an association of talc use and
ovarian cancer, mothers need to be told not to use talcum powder to dust their
baby girls, and to avoid its use in their own genital areas. Cornstarch powder
works as well. Not to provide a warning label is unforgivable and
irresponsible given the terrible suffering of ovarian cancer victims and their
families. </div>
Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-42270561364077191622017-02-07T08:36:00.001-08:002017-02-16T08:52:23.185-08:00Some Final Thoughts About Cuba<style>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.0pt;">One reason I wanted to go to
Cuba was that I expected it to be “unspoiled.” Sadly, our tour did not include seeing or experiencing the coral reefs and beaches t<a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-cuba-environment-in-peril-20150816-story.html" target="_blank">hat are said to be </a>the way they were in Florida in the mid-twentieth century. The countryside we saw after leaving Havana was more a testimony to the days when Spain controlled the island, clearing the forests to
make way for sugar plantations. Non-Cubans controlled the land, and by the
1950s, during the dictatorship of Batista, foreigners owned 70% of the arable
land. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But Cuba is unspoiled in another sense: you won’t find a
Starbuck’s or a McDonald’s anywhere. No billboards except those with government
slogans. No ads on TV. Very little of the commercial activity that dominates
life in the U.S. so pervasively that no space--think national parks, for example--is safe from commercial exploitation. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Lacking much disposable
income, Cuban people live modestly. Sure, they want more of the small and big luxuries we
take for granted, but for now they mostly have to do without. When that will
change depends on when the U.S. decides to remove the embargo and when the
Cuban government loosens its restrictions on private enterprise and tolerates dissent.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The people
of Cuba speak with nearly breathless excitement about President Obama's
visit to Cuba last year, with Michelle and his daughters. But the leadership
was <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-ap-cuba-economist-fired-20160421-story.html" target="_blank">actually alarmed </a>by his warm reception.</span> They
are fearful of what may happen if they open the door, and given the history, that's hardly surprising. Oppressed for so long by
American big businesses, in league with the CIA and the Mafia, they want to be
sure that doesn’t happen again. They don’t trust capitalism or capitalists, and
as they watch President Trump put Big Business CEOs directly in charge of our
government—no more just pulling the strings in secret or financing election
campaigns—don’t they have even more reason to fear? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.0pt;">So, I admire the Cuban people
for their resilience, their joy in life, their music and art. Deprivation has turned
them into a country of MacGyvers. They treasure the care they give each other,
their universal health care, free education for everyone through university, a
roof of sorts over everyone’s head, enough food to keep from starving. And they
seem to like the leveling of incomes enforced by their rules. They nurture
their sense of community obligation by requiring all their children to devote
time to public service.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We can learn a lot from them,
not least to stop believing the myth that democracy must go hand-in-hand with full-blown
capitalism. Our capitalism is out of control right now, leading to the
inequality that is widening daily. Regulations strictly enforced can keep
capitalism in check, but that is exactly what Trump is so intent on removing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.0pt;">So take a trip to Cuba and
see for yourself a country unspoiled by capitalism but also kept in check by
too much government and too little democracy.</span></div>
Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-41669361008197416602017-02-06T08:39:00.000-08:002017-02-06T08:39:32.091-08:00TRINIDAD, PUSH CARTS & STAYING WITH CECILIA
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Havana’s
faded glory looks modern compared with the city of Trinidad, located in the south
central part of Cuba, overlooking the Caribbean. If you want to see how some
aspects of life looked before the advent of the automobile, Trinidad is the
place to come. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Here, men
push carts along the deeply cobbled, uneven streets selling fresh bread,
onions, carrots and other fresh vegetables, their loud cries easily reaching
inside the one- and two-story homes. Horses are a major means of
transportation, pulling carts filled with goods and people. If there are any
stores even faintly resembling a grocery market, I didn’t see them. Instead,
perhaps 10-foot wide shops sell cuts of meat hanging from hooks above counters
open to the streets. Construction machinery doesn’t exist. Men swinging heavy
hoes, for example, clean the dirt out of street gutters, leaving piles of dirt
for later pick-up.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
neighborhoods of small homes desperately need repair, their corners and facades
of plaster over stone crumbling after decades of neglect.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">But for all
of this, there is a sense of new energy in Trinidad.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">The waves
of tourists now rushing to see Cuba have created a huge demand for hotel rooms,
but there are not nearly enough hotels to fill the demand. So the government under
Raul Castro has allowed homeowners (yes, they own their homes) to become Bed
& Breakfasts, and that has caused a flurry of rebuilding and remodeling.
These owners are rushing to serve the tourists, or, as in our case, Americans
on the kind of people-to-people visits that are the only ones still condoned by the U.S. State Department.
Rule #1: You are not there for recreation, so don’t expect any visits to the
beach! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">These
tightly programmed visits, such as ours organized by Road Scholar, do include
close contact with art, music and community projects, and visits to markets
where you can buy Cuban crafts and, of course, cigars. But even when you’re
dancing, oh no, be sure it’s not recreation! Such absurdity.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">At Home with Cecilia</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Part of
Road Scholar’s program was to spend a few nights at one of these new B&Bs.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Our bus
dropped us off on a street corner where we were immediately met by Cecilia, the
pretty 30-something owner of the B&B that was to be our home. Road Scholar
requires that the B&Bs it uses have en suite bathrooms, an air conditioner
and at least cold running water. The façade of our B&B was in good repair
and painted bright yellow. Flanking it on one side was a construction project
which proceeded very quietly as it is done by hand, again without benefit of
machinery that would be common in America.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">As was
typical of all the homes in the neighborhoods, Cecilia’s home had no glass or
screens in the windows, only louvered metal shutters that could be angled open
for air. To our surprise, there were few insects, only small, non-biting flies.
This might be due to the constant campaign against mosquitos and the Zika
virus.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Cecilia
lives in the house with her mother, also Cecilia, and her 13-year old daughter,
Leda, who was not attending regular school but instead spending a month doing
community service. That is the requirement for all children of roughly
middle-school age.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">We were
ushered into a small living room with caned wood chairs and rockers, and a
three-seat sofa also of wood and cane. Left of this was our room. At first I
wasn’t sure we’d fit with our 2 suitcases and backpacks. A metal-framed double
bed stood about 18 inches apart from a single bed, both with mattresses about 3
inches thick and supported by two-by fours. If you like a hard bed, you’re
happy here. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">I had hoped
to take a nap after we arrived, but discovered that the children who lived up
the street shrieked like children everywhere, while their mothers shouted their
conversations from one side of the street to the other. I finally asked Cecilia
when the children might quiet down. She laughed and said 10 pm. And like magic,
at 10, all went quiet. Custom? A local rule? I don’t know.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">We read in
the evening. There was a small TV with rabbit ears that sat on a small table, the
only furniture in the room. Once and a while, there was an American show like
the X-files on the tube with Spanish sub-titles.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">We never
used the air conditioner, as it was cooler in Cuba than we expected. Our
bathroom had hot water in the shower, but only cold in the sink. It was fine.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Cecilia and
her mother made us a sumptuous breakfast every morning, much more food than we
could eat: cubes of succulent papaya, a 3-egg omelet with sliced tomatoes,
fresh rolls and butter, guava juice, small pieces of mildly sweet cake, and excellent coffee served in thermoses to keep it hot. They
spoke little English, but I was able to dredge up from the depths of my brain
enough of the Spanish I once knew very well to get along just fine. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">They didn’t
eat with us and it would have been nice to talk with them more about their
lives and expectations. But we did learn that Ceclia would be visiting America
soon and staying for a few months with a relative. </span></div>
Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-24568607887327870932017-02-01T15:22:00.001-08:002017-02-06T08:55:50.496-08:00Short Takes on CubaCUBAN PEOPLE trace their descent from the Spanish, Africans and the Chinese. The natives were all wiped out. The combination yields very handsome people in a great variety of skin tones. <br />
<br />
I CAME DOWN WITH THE FIRST COLD I've had in a more than a year. I brought bags full of common Meds, but not the decongestant that can be used by people like me with high blood pressure. So, I went to a pharmacy hoping for the best. Pharmacies here have hardly any inventory. The shelf space might amount to a tiny corner of one in the U.S. In fact when we packed for this trip we followed Road Scholar's advice to bring our own shampoo and basic toiletries, and that if we wanted to give the people gifts, they would appreciate such things--not to mention toilet paper. So the pharmacy didn't have what I wanted. I had to settle for a Cuban version of Vicks and an antihistamine, which didn't seem to work at all. But the camphor would relieve my stuffy nose for a while, and I was grateful for that. Although the country is famous for its doctors and hospitals, and has educated more than 70,000 doctors, the hospitals have shortages of basic supplies as well.<br />
<br />
HORSE CARTS are an occasional sight in Havana, but a common one in smaller cities like Cienfuegos and Trinidad. These are not carriages for tourists. These are working vehicles used to transport all kinds of materials and people. There are also still carts drawn by oxen.<br />
<br />
WHEN FIDEL DIED, most of the pictures of him that were everywhere in the country were taken down. That was his wish. And he was buried in Santiago de Cuba, far from Havana. Thousands of people lined the route of his hearse. A simple stone marks his grave, not any big monument. A good Communist to the end.<br />
<br />
TAXATION OF INCOME is new to Cuba and is imposed only on certain kinds of income. When we told our guides that that our country used to have a 90% tax bracket, and that countries like Sweden still have very high taxes, they found it hard to believe. Instead of taxing people, Cuban takes the major portion of goods produced. For example, a tobacco farmer gets to keep 10% of the crop while the government takes 90%. Another example of the extreme economic control imposed by the government deals with cow. Apparently the government introduced cows into the country to improve nutrition for children. So the dairy farmer must provide a major portion of the milk produced to schools or hospitals. And the cows themselves are still the property of the government. Only the government can kill a cow. It's a crime for a citizen to do so.<br />
<br />
WHERE'S THE BEEF? In the tourist restaurants, not on the tables of the citizens. Pork, chicken and lamb are staples.<br />
<br />
CUBANS ARE CHAMPION MAC GYVERS. They have learned to recycle everything. But that can't last forever. The combined economic stress of our embargo and the loss of support when the Soviet Union fell apart in the 90s means classic, but falling-apart cars from the 50s and 60s, plumbing fixtures that need replacing, not enough fishing boats to take advantage of the seafood in the ocean, and not enough tractors to farm the ample open land.<br />
<br />
RAUL CASTRO HAS PROMISED to give up the presidency in 2018. The Cuban people will get to vote for provincial representatives who will choose the next president. Our guides have no idea who that will be, other than that it will be a member of the Communisty Party.<br />
<br />Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-84530385321219182532017-01-29T15:13:00.001-08:002017-02-06T09:04:18.492-08:00Cuban Government Needs to Unleash the Creativity and Enteprise of Its PeopleWhen I studied economics, a Professor pointed out that the nature of an economic system didn't necessarily determine whether it was a democracy. Think of Sweden, for example, socialist but also democratic with the kinds of freedoms we think of as American.<br />
<br />
Fearful of a slide back to the bad old days of domination by the U.S., the Mafia and corrupt banks, the government of Cuba today is still locked into a system that not only forbids basic freedoms but also stifles the enterprise and creativity of the Cuban people.<br />
<br />
We saw today an example of both when we visited an art project housed in a former derelict water tank. It had been filled with garbage, a vestige of the days when railroad locomotives used steam and needed water. Fourteen years after the first artist decided to use the space to revitalize a neighborhood and create a space for artists, the Muraliento Community Project is full of young people making crafts, painting, sculpting, making music and dancing. All done without any financial support of the government, just sweat equity and donations.<br />
<br />
The restrictions on private enterprise and bans on foreign investment show throughout Havana: crumbling building facades, streets empty of traffic since people can't afford cars, people commuting on foot to work for miles every day because other transportation is so unreliable and scarce. Elevators in many places have human operators, and the insides of the cars have been polished down to the bare metal. Here at the high-end Hotel Nacional, the elevator floor indicators have given up, pointing perpetually, dispiritedly, down at the floor or stuck on a floor number. Our room is spacious, but the tub enamel is peeling and the fixtures need repair. Housing is in short supply. The government after Castro's revolution invested in schools and hospitals, with great results, but there was nothing left to build or renovate housing, so 10 families live in buildings designed for one.<br />
<br />
Some of the grandest homes are in the possession of people who used to be a servants to people who left after Fidel deposed Batista, expecting to return. Our guide, Carina, told us about a relative who pays only 20 pesos a month for the privilege of living in and actually owning such a house. The owners told their servants to stay put, with this unexpected result. <br />
<br />
The hardest time for the people of Cuba came in the 90s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had been Cuba's principal supporter. Cubans call it "the special time," a euphemism for several years when food was very scarce and everyone struggled. They dealt with it through ingenuity and recycling, and learning, for example, to grow food organically instead of with chemical fertilizers.<br />
<br />
Today, thanks in large part to tourism, things are better. And all the people we've met have been cheerful, unfailingly polite and friendly, and bursting with energy. If you don't dance here, there is something wrong with you. But these people deserve better.<br />
<br />
There's certainly no question that our continued embargo hurts, but much of Cuba's troubles now stem from the frozen policies of a government still very fearful of change. Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-58939232388095462732017-01-28T14:11:00.000-08:002017-02-06T09:06:27.753-08:00Cuba Still Paying for Throwing Out the Mafia, CIA and Corrupt BanksWe're staying in the Hotel Nacional, a favorite of Mafia financier Meyer Lansky. With the support of the CIA and the money laundering services of American banks, they had turned Havana into a sewer of gambling, prostitution and drugs. Meanwhile the Cuban people were poor and illiterate.<br />
<br />
Today, as we walked the squares of Old Havana, we saw the faded glory of monumental buildings like this Hotel, stuck in a time warp since we Americans instituted the embargo after Castro's revolution. The people of Cuba, meanwhile, are literate and healthy, yet unable to afford--or even have the chance to buy, as private enterprise is still so limited--not just new cars but even toiletries and household goods so universal and cheap for us. They've made lemonade out of lemons, repairing old Chevy's, Buicks and Fords, painting them Pepto Bismol pink, lime green and sky blue, and driving tourists around who are old enough, like us, to remember actually owning such cars.<br />
<br />
It's odd being in a country devoid of almost everything commercial. There are no billboards advertising products, only ones that preach propaganda. One I saw compares the continuing embargo to genocide.<br />
<br />
An overstatement, for sure, but close enough to the truth to be uncomfortable.<br />
<br />
As our photographer-guide, Joel, told us, "Sometimes we don't have all we need, but we are happy people."<br />
<br />
Sure, thousands of Cubans have left here, risking their lives at sea, for the freedom of speech and press and assembly that we have, and the opportunities of our free-market economy.<br />
<br />
But it is inexcusable that we continue the embargo while we support repressive other dictators all over the world.<br />
<br />
Surely it is time to admit the CIA was defeated by a college educated guerrilla named Fidel. As Trump supporters have become fond of saying recently, to those of us horrified by his election, can't we just get over it and allow the Cubans to prosper?Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-75333320124812363802017-01-25T11:21:00.000-08:002017-02-06T09:07:23.340-08:00Off to Cuba with Road Scholar on FridayAfter many years of wanting to visit Cuba, Harry and I are finally going this Friday, leaving on a direct flight from Miami. That's a new convenience, but the old U.S. State Department rules still apply, so we will be following a program of people-to-people cultural exchange with the tour group, Road Scholar.<br />
<br />
The emphasis for this trip is photography, so Harry is in for a treat. He will be getting tips from Cyrus McCrimmon, a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer.<br />
<br />
I hope to blog about everything while Harry takes the pictures.<br />
<br />
Not expecting luxury there, but do hope for lots of wonderful music and art and color.<br />
<br />
Hope you'll tune in to see if my expectations are realized.Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-8677970017054871342016-01-28T11:53:00.000-08:002016-01-28T11:53:38.506-08:00Tactics Against Planned Parenthood Not “Citizen Journalism”<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
The perpetrators of what we now know was an illegal attempt
to smear Planned Parenthood defend their behavior as “citizen journalism.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s not. Trying to lure a hated target into an illegal act
and depicting it in the worst light possible is not any kind of journalism. These
are the tactics of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>self-appointed
moral/religious police on the right who are much more dangerous to American
liberty than the supposed threat of Islamic Sharia Law. The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/26/us/2-abortion-foes-behind-planned-parenthood-videos-are-indicted.html" target="_blank">now-indicted DavidDaleiden </a>from the so-called “Center for Medical Progress” should not be allowed
to get away with defending himself as some sort of journalist. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was the sort of journalist at The New York Times and
Newsday who did investigations of many subjects—dating services, transmission
repair shops, pyramid schemes, pool and fence retailers, auto industry warranty
practices, pricing by the oil and insurance industries, to name some. But in
most cases it was readers who complained that set me off in pursuit, not my own
burning desire to expose a hated target.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sometimes I did literally put myself in the place of a customer, sitting
in the audience to hear the revivalist-quality sales presentation of a pyramid
scheme, for example. I used my real name but declined to say I was a reporter.
At the New York Times, we had an expert set up a car with a simple transmission
problem and took it to several shops to see whether they would give us an
honest diagnosis and price. Before any of these stories were published, the
subjects were given the opportunity to correct any errors I might have made, and
to explain their actions. That is how good journalists work.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In contrast, Daleiden posed as a representative of a biotechnology
company and tried to buy human organs from Planned Parenthood. Such a sale
would have been illegal; Planned Parenthood never even responded to that
effort. He apparently falsified his California driver’s license so he could
assume a different identity, an act for which he has now been indicted on
felony charges.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If there’s any comparison to make, it’s with law enforcement
sting operations. So Delaiden is a sort of citizen police, but in his case he’s
not trying to help enforce existing laws. No, he’s out to enforce his religious
beliefs about abortion despite Supreme Court decisions, the desires of the
American public or the needs of women. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The irony, of course, is that some of the people in the
anti-abortion camp are also among those ranting about the <a href="https://www.aclu.org/report/nothing-fear-debunking-mythical-sharia-threat-our-judicial-system" target="_blank">threat of Islamic Sharialaw</a> being imposed in the U.S. Amazing how easy it is to justify the exact
behavior we abhor. ##</div>
Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-67375745417431541872015-09-28T09:14:00.004-07:002015-09-29T08:04:19.672-07:00Verizon Killing Phone Network Critical to Public Safety<style>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I find
myself in familiar terrain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the
first stories I wrote for Newsday when I became that newspaper’s first consumer
reporter was about AT&T.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the
time, if you wanted a phone, the only game in the country was Ma Bell. Upstarts
were daring to attach what Ma called “foreign” equipment to “their” telephone
network.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>AT&T
fought back, but lost, and my future husband ran a very successful business providing customers with less expensive, better-made phone equipment with capabilities
that they really wanted. And the AT&T monopoly ended.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Today, my
husband is retired but here I am fighting with one of AT&T’s monopolistic
Baby Bells, Verizon, over what we thought was a simple problem: a hum so loud
on the copper phone line we’ve had for decades that we couldn’t hear the caller.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But let me
tell you the end of this story right away: Verizon is in the process of
dismantling the copper system, the plain old telephone service (POTS) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that in emergencies is the most reliable
communications network yet invented. This network works when the power goes
out, not just for hours, but days and weeks. The consumer need have no special
equipment, need not plan ahead so they’ll be able to call 911 or
reach out to a relative or friend.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another critical benefit of the copper system is that emergency responders know
immediately the address of a caller to 911. How fiber optic service will work in such emergencies is still <a href="http://www.cablinginstall.com/blogs/2014/05/could-at-t-s-new-fiber-optic-phone-network-stymie-first-responders.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">an open question.</a> Furthermore, most medical alert
systems and alarm systems use the copper network.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet, Verizon insists that a fiber optic telephone line is an
upgrade over the copper service, an argument bought by the New York State
Public Service Commission. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But consider this:</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>With only fiber optic and cell service you and I
will have to plan ahead to be able to communicate in an emergency and will have
to spend money to do so. In contrast the copper system has been bought and paid
for and requires no individual action to make it work in emergencies.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Fiber optic lines must have electricity on the
customer’s premises to work. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">If </i>you buy
the battery back-up sold by Verizon, <a href="https://www.verizon.com/Support/Residential/phone/homephone/general+support/fios+voice+service/fvs/121220.htm" target="_blank">that line will work </a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.verizon.com/Support/Residential/phone/homephone/general+support/fios+voice+service/fvs/121220.htm" target="_blank">for only 8 hours.</a> </i></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Cell service does not work everywhere. In my
home in Huntington, we have to have a booster to get service. The
booster needs electricity.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>In a major emergency, like 9/11, cell phone
towers have been overwhelmed with calls. And, your cell phone is not registered to a particular physical address that emergency responders can see.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Your cell phone has to be kep charged. In an
extended outage, what if your street is blocked by downed trees and you can’t
get to some community center to plug in?</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>If you have a car, and have bought a car charger
(you’ll spend $7 or so for one that plugs into your cigarette lighter), you
could charge your cell phone that way. But what about people who don’t have a
car?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, these are worst case scenarios, but isn't planning for the worst what must be done?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The point is that Verizon is pushing responsibility for
emergency communications on to each of us instead of maintaining a regulated
system that provides protection to us without our having to think about it. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All of this is why we had kept our original copper line,
with the phone # everyone knew for us, secure in the knowledge that it would
work after a hurricane hit and we lost electricity for a week and more, which
has happened several times. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
POTS service works because copper wire conducts electricity
and every customer is connected by a loop to and from the phone company’s
central office. When the power goes off, batteries at the central office send
power down the line when, and only when, you lift the receiver to make a call. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So we called for service on our POTS line, and got a
surprise.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Can’t fix it,” said the technician. “We need to switch you
to a FIOS line.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Say what? It didn’t take long for me to learn that this was
a case not of “can’t” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but “won’t.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Eliminating the copper system is Verizon’s plan, without
regard to the fact that it is a crucial part of the telecommunications emergency
infrastructure. People who live on Fire Island got a taste of this after Hurricane Sandy when Verizon announced it would not rewire the copper, but instead install Voice Link, a type of wireless network. Public protest stopped that, but Fire Island is now dependent on fiber optics.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fact is that Verizon has unilaterally decided that its bottom line is more important than
public safety or public choice. </div>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
2012, Verizon’s Chief Financial officer, Fran Shammo, told the Oppenheimer
Holdings Technology, Internet, and Communications Conference that “we are
really proactively going after these copper customers in the FiOS footprint and
moving them to FiOS. So if you are a voice copper customer and you call in that
(sic) says you are having trouble on your line, when we go out to repair that
we are actually moving you to the FiOS product. We are not repairing the copper
anymore.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">To add insult to injury, money that customers
are paying for copper service, and on which Verizon is earning a tidy profit, is instead being used to build out Verizon’s more
profitable fiber and wireless networks.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> According to <a href="https://www.blogger.com/.%E2%80%9D%20http://www.cwa-union.org/news/entry/cwa_calls_for_regulators_to_investigate_verizons_refusal_to_invest_in_landl#.Vfby43tgqpe" target="_blank">a very recent letter</a> from the Communications Workers of America (CWA) to regulators where Verizon
operates, “Verizon
spends less than one percent of the rate it charges for basic (copper line)
phone service and less than half a percent of the rate it charges for a
voice/DSL bundled service (also dependent on copper lines) on the upkeep if its
copper network.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
CWA further estimates that Verizon is spending a measly $3.50/year on
maintenance for each copper line, and that covers “poles, cables, wire,
pedestals, terminals, batteries and other plant and equipment needed to build,
maintain, repair and service its copper network.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A
lot of people have eliminated their old copper phone service in favor of cell
phones and fiber optics without realizing their vulnerability. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is particularly true of poor people and
Hispanics. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But
the 8 million people the CWA estimates who still use Verizon's copper service
rely on it for medical alert systems, alarm systems, fax machines, card
readers, etc. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">State regulations require Verizon to make its copper system
compatible with all those uses. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">No such
rules exist for fiber optic lines, so lack of regulation is another powerful
incentive for Verizon to eliminate POTS lines. Entities like New York’s Public
Service Commission regulate the prices and terms of copper service, but not
FIOS or wireless. </span><br />
<div style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Verizon's
efforts to force people off copper in my area of Rhode Island rise to the level
of harassment,” <a href="http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/08/why-verizon-is-trying-very-hard-to-force-fiber-on-its-customers/" target="_blank">Verizon customer Karen Anne Kolling of North Kingstown, RhodeIsland t</a>old Ars Technica, an online publication for technologists and IT
professionals. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Kolling’s
story is nearly identical to ones told by Verizon customers from the East Coast
to <a href="http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/03/verizon-accused-of-refusing-to-fix-broken-landline-phone-service/" target="_blank">California, </a>where the Utility Reform Network asked regulators last year to
take emergency action to stop Verizon from forcing customers off copper
service. </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Besides
the ones who spoke with Ars, others have registered their frustrations in
official government proceedings. In May, Public Knowledge and 11 other public
interest groups asked the FCC to </span><a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/verizon-att-forcing-customers-off-landline-phones-complaint-says/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">investigate
these complaints</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/verizon-att-forcing-customers-off-landline-phones-complaint-says/" target="_blank"> </a>and consider enforcement actions. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
FCC hasn't taken any action in response, even though it appears that when
customers are forced off copper lines and on to fiber optics, they pay new connection fees even though they are being strong-armed to make the change. Complaints to the Illinois Attorney General include reports of customers being
told they could not order standalone basic phone service but had to bundle it
with another service, like cable TV. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">AT&T’s
monopoly is gone, but its spawn is still displaying the same, tyrannical
behavior May Bell was noted for.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In our case, despite a complaint to the NY State Public Service Commission and other efforts, we were forced to give up our copper phone line. Now we are left to rely on the FIOS phone line installed as part of our TV/Internet package, and our cell phones. We've installed two batteries that will keep us in communication with the world for less than a day, or as long as we can keep our cell phones charged by our cars. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If the worst case scenario befalls us, and one of us needs to call 911, after an extended outage, we'll simply be out of luck.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Before
Verizon gets any further with its destruction of the copper line system and putting the public in jeopardy, regulators
and our elected officials should hold public hearings so everyone
understands what is happening. At the very least, Verizon should be forced to
keep up copper service in areas where cell phone coverage is poor or
non-existent. ##<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<br />Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-53166375087540254562015-06-18T08:39:00.000-07:002015-06-18T08:39:09.679-07:00Drone Pilots Burn Out From the Horrors of Being Remote Control Assassins
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Two stories in the New York Times yesterday made me furious:
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/us/as-stress-drives-off-drone-operators-air-force-must-cut-flights.html?_r=0" target="_blank">One about the Air Force <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>cutting the number of drone flights</a> per day
because they can’t replace the burned out pilots fast enough; and the other
about <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/world/asia/obama-trans-pacific-partnership-asia.html" target="_blank">how the U.S. is going to lose leverage and influence in the Far East </a>if
Congress doesn’t give Obama authority to fast track the Trans Pacific Trade
Agreement.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What the
stories have in common is our continuing delusion as a country that we can forever
be, and should be, the most powerful country in the world. Our dominance must
be total not only militarily but also economically—we must control the
world banking system and the global market.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
paradigm ensures that we will never have peace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So
much profit is involved in making perpetual war, and those profiteers in the
energy and defense industries have Congress in their grip. Meanwhile people in other
nations that want a bigger piece of the economic pie--who'd just like a roof over their heads, not a McMansion--continue to struggle
against our domination. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Caught in the middle are the patriotic
Americans who go to work every day as remote control assassins. Since last
August, they have “flown” <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">3,300 drone sorties and launched 875
missile and bomb strikes just in Iraq against the Islamic State.</span> This
doesn’t count the strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. By engaging in a remote control war, our political leaders prevent Americans from feeling the impact of these killings and the cost to us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
What are we doing to these drone pilots?
Aren’t we sentencing them to a life of anguish and guilt? Who could get up
every morning and know that each day you will probably be killing people and not have that sear your soul, break your heart, destroy your compassion as a human being? They know that the missiles and bombs they launch kill not only "terrorists" but also innocent children, women and men. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Our fight against terrorism and terrorists is inextricably linked to the demand that we continue to control the world economy. The Times story about the Pacific
trade agreement whined on and on about how defeat of the agreement might weaken our claim to leadership in Asia, as if that were the only option that protects our interests. But what interests are we protecting? Left out of the story were the downsides of the deal as best we know them, given that the details of the deal are still a highly guarded secret. But from the reactions of Senators like
Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, who have read the text in a guarded room
in which they are not even allowed to take notes, there is danger to workers’
rights and the environment. I trust them on this one, and not Obama. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Can't we grow up and learn to share our prosperity? Can't we develop a vision of a peaceful world? I can hear the objections, that Russia and China and Iran and Syria and ISIS and Al Qaeda want to kill us. But where does it end? Who, better than we to seek a different way?</div>
Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-81949977056540804132015-03-28T14:01:00.000-07:002015-03-29T11:36:48.017-07:00Roundup “Probable Cause of Cancer;” Science Dispute Similar to Talc Findings<style>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Officials at the International Agency for Research on Cancer
just <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/28/business/energy-environment/decades-after-monsantos-roundup-gets-an-all-clear-a-cancer-agency-raises-concerns.html?_r=0" target="_blank">concluded </a>that
Roundup, the most widely used herbicide in the world, “probably” causes cancer.
But way back in 1991, the Environmental Protection Agency dismissed studies
leading to that conclusion.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Monsanto, the chemical behemoth whose smart marketers came
up with such a cute name for poison, responded angrily to the conclusion of the
international group which consists of 17 reviewers from around the world. The
company said the reviewers were “cherry picking” the data to support their case. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The current situation with talc echoes the opposing views on
Roundup. While the FDA has denied petitions to warn women that talc use may
increase the risk of ovarian cancer, the international agency concluded in 2007
that talc is “possibly” carcinogenic, a lower level of concern than “probably.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The international agency also did something in regard to
Roundup that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration failed to do with talc: They
looked at the raw data of a study of glyphosate (the chemical name for Roundup)
and interpreted its results themselves. This lead to a finding of evidence of
causing cancer, while the original authors of the study found the opposite. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the studies on which the FDA relied in rejecting the
labeling petitions was done in 2003 by supposedly impartial researchers from a
consulting company, Meta-Analysis Research Group. This group analyzed the
results of 16 earlier studies. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12820486" target="_blank">study</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>first concludes that talc is responsible
for a 33% increased risk of ovarian cancer for women who uses talc, and then in
the next breath, dismisses the finding as caused by “selection bias and/or
uncontrolled confounding.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The FDA quoted these words exactly in its response to the
petitions for warning labels. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The lead author of that study was Michael Huncharek, the
scientific director of Meta-Analysis Research Group. This firm’s <a href="http://metaanalysisgroup.com/What_We_ve_Done.html" target="_blank">website</a> boasts
of a client list including, yes, the baby-powder maker Johnson & Johnson. Meta-Analysis's list of accomplishments hints at more, saying it: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Provided
litigation support to a major environmental law firm representing a consumer
products company centering on alleged health risks associated with the use of
consumer grade talc…</i>and</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Successfully
represented a major consumer products company before the US FDA in response to
a Citizens Petition seeking a cancer warning label on their personal hygiene
products.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So it seems we have Dr. Huncharek, to thank for helping to persuade the FDA that no warnings are needed. He is a practicing radiation oncologist, a doctor who
administers radiation to cancer victims.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Huncharek’s firm did not respond to an email asking if
Johnson & Johnson had paid for the talc study. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So how valid are the conclusions he reached after his analysis? Dr. Daniel Cramer, the researcher who has been studying the link
between ovarian cancer and talc for decades, said Huncharek’s group “always
concluded the way the sponsor wanted.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This dispute might have been aired if the FDA had agreed
to a hearing on the risks of talc. But when it denied the petition for
labeling, it also denied the need for a hearing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what’s next? Time, I think, for women to make themselves
heard directly. On-line petition anyone?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-9278380027188852152015-03-19T08:42:00.000-07:002015-03-19T08:44:04.786-07:0010% of Ovarian Cancers Due to Talc Use Says Leading Researcher<h2>
<br /></h2>
<h3>
I<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">n its response to
petitions for putting warning labels on talc powder, The FDA has acknowledged
that talc particles can enter a woman’s body via her vagina and that such
particles can cause ovarian cancer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nevertheless the agency has refused to order a warning label on talc
powder because there is no “conclusive evidence.” I obtained the FDA response
after filing a Freedom Of Information request.</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I discussed the FDA’s
response with <a href="http://www.dfhcc.harvard.edu/membership/profile/member/635/0/" target="_blank">Dr. Daniel Cramer, </a>who has been treating women with ovarian
cancer for three decades (he is 70) and conducting research on the link between talc
use and this deadly cancer. Cramer is a Harvard Professor of not only
obstetrics and gynecology, but also of epidemiology and public health. His research has convinced him that 10% of all ovarian cancer cases—(22,000 new cases were diagnosed
in 2013)—or about 2,000, were due to talc use.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">If a new drug trial
cured 10% of ovarian cancer cases, that would be front-page news. But
prevention, not treatment after the fact, goes largely unreported, especially
if there is no “new” announcement from someone, a major problem in reporting on
long-running battles for consumer safety. Besides, eliminating products and
chemicals that cause cancer doesn’t make profits for the cancer treatment
industry and manufacturers of dangerous products.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Here are some excerpts
from my conversation with Dr. Cramer.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Question: The FDA
says the evidence of a link is not conclusive. Do you think there is sufficient
evidence already?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Answer: </b>My
studies show that 10%, maybe 2,000 cases in 2013, were caused by talc use. That
is a lot that is entirely preventable. If you look at a package of talc, you
will see a warning not to inhale it. That was the result of serious pulmonary
(lung) problems in babies, and was based on case reports, not an
epidemiological study. If they were willing to put a label based on case
reports, why not on consistent epidemiological data? (Epidemiology is the study
of patterns of disease development, origin and spread in a population.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Question: The FDA
says “a cogent biological mechanism by which talc might lead to ovarian cancer
is lacking…” What do you think the mechanism is?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Answer: </b>It’s
pretty clear that talc is an immune disruptor that causes a potent inflammatory
reaction. Inflammation is now believed to play a key role in cancer in general.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Question: Do you
think contamination with asbestos fibers is the cause of problems with talc? (</b>Studies
from the 1970s found forms of asbestos fibers—asbestos is a known and deadly
carcinogen--in talc products. The FDA notes in its petition response that “large
deposits of high purity, asbestos-free talc do exist,” and that six years ago
the agency tested 34 cosmetic products for asbestos fibers and found none.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Answer: </b>I continually
see references on the Internet that manufacturers are required to remove
asbestos. There never was such a law. Industry is supposed to monitor this
themselves. But I believe there is an association of ovarian cancer and talc
use regardless of whether there is contamination with asbestos. I believe that talc itself is a causal factor. (He so
testified in the <a href="http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/apexchange/2013/10/05/sd--talc-lawsuit-verdict.html" target="_blank">case of Deane Berg</a> after examining tissue removed from her.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Question: is there much research going on about this now?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Answer: </b>I don't think so, and that's a shame. It's so frustrating because I see that there is clearly an association of talc and ovarian cancer that is causing women to die. For whatever reson, the agencies are doubting the association and treating it as a risk/benefit situation. Is there any real benefit to a cosmetic like talc? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Question: Are you
continuing your work?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Answer: </b>Yes. I
never wanted to get involved in litigation, but it’s pretty clear this is the
only way we are going to get movement on this issue. If I don’t get it done
now, this whole thing is going to go away and the cosmetic companies will say,
“We dodged a bullet.” I wish some big celebrity would say, “This pertains to
me.” Someone needs to get angry.</div>
Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-43853832928822773692015-03-02T07:43:00.001-08:002016-02-26T05:13:15.749-08:00Talcum Powder Use May Cause Ovarian Cancer; FDA, Johnson & Johnson Reject Warning Labels<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Not long ago my dear friend, Eileen, succumbed to ovarian cancer,
discovered far too late for effective treatment. She had been a vigorous woman
in her 70s, married to her childhood sweetheart. I can still see her striding
into her living room in jeans and a shirt, blonde and pretty, with a big smile to greet me. She spent two months
in the hospital hoping for a miracle, but none came. I miss her deeply.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I first heard about her diagnosis I wondered if she had
been a talcum powder user. Yes, innocent baby powder, sold in a pure white
package, smooth and silky, just the thing after a shower to quickly dry your
skin and make dressing easier.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But I had learned a long time ago that there was a
possibility that fibers from this very soft mineral could enter a woman’s body
via her vagina and sow the seed for deadly ovarian cancer. Some research quickly
brought me up-to-date and revealed that women are now using the courts to try
to force Johnson & Johnson to put a warning label on it’s baby powder and a grown-up version, Shower to Shower. Both class action lawsuits and individual lawsuits are in process.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 2013, three doctors testified that they had found talc
particles in cancerous tissue removed from the body of a South Dakota woman who
had ovarian cancer. She had sued Johnson & Johnson, and a <a href="http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/apexchange/2013/10/05/sd--talc-lawsuit-verdict.html" target="_blank">jury found</a> that
talc should carry a warning label. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last year, women filed two class action suits against
Johnson & Johnson charging that talc use can cause ovarian cancer. In the
case filed on behalf of all women talc users in Missouri, <a href="http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/05/12/67782.htm" target="_blank">the complaint</a> said, <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Despite
the potential catastrophic health consequences, defendants do not tell
consumers about the dangers associated with the talc-based Johnson's Baby
Powder.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In addition, women’s health advocates have twice filed
citizen petitions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asking for a rule to
require a warning that talc not be used in the genital area. The petitions were
denied. (A spokeswoman for the FDA, Theresa Eisenman, would not explain the rejection. I have
filed a Freedom of Information request to obtain the document denying the
petitions.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But my friend, like all but a few women in America, didn’t
know any of this, and I was reluctant to upset her husband by asking him if she
had used talc.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A year after her
death, however, her daughter, who is keen to know why her mother died, asked
him that very question.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, he said, she had used talcum powder all her life. He
had kept some, sometimes inhaling the scent because it reminds him of her.
Such sad irony: the scent of the product that may have killed her brings her
back to life for him.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s a disgrace and an outrage that talc is not labeled to
warn women about the risk of ovarian cancer. In 2014, 14,270 women died from this disease. Dr. Samuel Epstein, who filed the petitions for labeling, calls the lack of action "criminal" in his book, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=rLQyAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA256&lpg=PA256&dq=Johnson+%26+Johnson+denies+talc+risk&source=bl&ots=a3Cpu0Qo1q&sig=6woQUZL1Xt6mob8xO0W_Vj_Ej6U&hl=en&sa=X&ei=rK_1VPaBFLSNsQT-rYGgAQ&ved=0CEEQ6AEwBjgK#v=onepage&q=Johnson%20%26%20Johnson%20denies%20talc%20risk&f=false" target="_blank"><i>Criminal Indifference of the FDA to Cancer Prevention.</i></a> Johnson & Johnson, meanwhile, is keeping its head down, hoping word won't spread, a tactic that has served it well all these years. On it's website, there is no mention of the lawsuits, no explanation for the lack of warnings. There's no public denial at all that I could find even in its latest Annual Report--except by lawyers in cases that have reached that point. <br />
<br />
How many new mothers dust their
baby girls’ genital area after baths and when diapering them? How many women
freely dust their own genital area with talc or sprinkle it on sanitary napkins
to mask odors, and even put it on diaphragms to make them easier to insert?
Many older women, like my friend, have been doing this for not just years, but
decades, never imagining that they might be putting themselves in mortal danger.
After all, as the world’s softest mineral, talc makes skin feel silky smooth
and dry. And talc already carries a warning label about not inhaling it because "it can cause breathing problems," and keeping it out of the eyes. You'd think that if there was other cause for concern, the label would say more, but it doesn't.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the doctors who examined the cancerous tissue from the
South Dakota woman has been studying the relationship of talc and ovarian
cancer for decades. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Harvard Professor
of Gynecology and Public Health, Dr. Daniel Cramer has <a href="http://www.dfhcc.harvard.edu/membership/profile/member/635/0/" target="_blank">this to say</a> about risk
factors for and against contracting ovarian cancer: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There
are three events which increase risk for ovarian cancer that are associated
with chronic inflammation affecting the lower or upper genital tract. These
include: cosmetic talc powder use; repeated ovulation not interrupted by
pregnancies, breastfeeding, or oral contraceptive use (incessant ovulation),
and endometriosis. Besides pregnancies, breastfeeding, and oral contraceptive
use that decrease ovulations, other factors that lower risk for ovarian cancer
include childhood mumps, a tubal ligation, and an infection while breastfeeding
(mastitis).</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(I have included his assessment of how women can lower risk
because women need to know that pregnancies and breastfeeding are beneficial. I
am not in favor of oral contraceptive use, however, because of its role in increasing
the risk of breast cancer.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How much bigger might the risk be of using talc? According
to charges filed in another class action lawsuit year, Stockton, California resident Mona
Estrada cited <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12820486" target="_blank">studies</a> suggesting a 33% increased risk from using talc-based
powers on women’s genital area.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This and other studies, however, are not conclusive, no surprise since talc use occurs over decades, and cancer takes decades to develop. But studies that were mostly negative about the risks
of talc use still reached conclusions that should lead to warning labels as a basic
precaution.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For example, a study that tracked women whose histories of use
or non-use of talc were known, and then looked at who and who didn’t develop
ovarian cancer, <a href="http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/92/3/249.long" target="_blank">concluded</a>:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Our
results provide little support for any substantial association between perineal
talc use and ovarian cancer risk overall; however, perineal talc use may
modestly increase the risk of invasive serious ovarian cancer.</i>(Perineal is the term for the body part at the bottom of the
pelvis.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Given all the other precautions we take to avoid endangering
our health, shouldn’t everyone be aware that using talc might be deadly? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The problem for Johnson & Johnson, of
course, is that nobody has to use talcum powder. Cornstarch versions of dusting
powder are widely available and don’t carry this risk.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I wish that women who feel so passionate about pink ribbon
campaigns, who raise so much money to help women survivors of cancer and to
support cancer detection like mammograms, would put their efforts behind true
cancer prevention. Mammograms detect cancer after the fact. We need real
prevention that reduces the risks before the fact, not after. When women have
hysterectomies, gynecologists often advise them to have their ovaries removed
to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This, of course, is a drastic measure that has all kind of
effects on a woman’s sex life and overall health. How many cases of ovarian
cancer might be prevented by the simple requirement of warning labels on talc? Agitating
for such labels might help prevent new generations of women from the suffering
and death of ovarian cancer or giving up their sex organs to prevent it. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-61321243840722405972015-01-09T07:56:00.002-08:002015-01-09T07:57:42.117-08:00A Feminist Reacts to Old Maid<style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
I just had to throw out the Old Maid. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The game was part of a package of four simple card games
that I bought for my 5-year-old grandson for Christmas. Crazy 8s, Go Fish, War—and
Old Maid. I took a hard look at the ugly photo of said Old Maid, and my
immediate impulse was to throw the cards out. But I hesitated. Was I taking my
feminism too seriously? Just a harmless children’s game, right?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I left the deck of cards in the box overnight.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By morning, my mind was made up: into the garbage it went.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My grandson will no doubt be exposed to the sexism that
still pervades American culture. He’ll observe the obsession with women’s boobs
everywhere from the sidelines of an NFL game to eye-candy ads for of all kinds of
products marketed to men. He’ll see women trivialized and rescued over and over
again in movies and on TV. He’ll hear coaches buck up their players with taunts
of “Nancy” and other slurs that equate <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">female</i>
with lack of courage, persistence and endurance. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But I won’t contribute to the brain washing. He won’t learn
from me that being an unmarried older woman is to be a loser. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I buried the cards under the scraps from last night’s
dinner.</div>
Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3079965383602919996.post-69251382715686852492014-12-12T09:00:00.000-08:002014-12-12T09:29:14.204-08:00Pope Francis Insults Grandmothers And the Media Stay Silent<style>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"We encounter a general impression
of weariness and aging, of a Europe which is now a 'grandmother', no longer
fertile and vibrant." Pope Francis, <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2014/11/pope-francis-criticises-haggard-europe-2014112515417753390.html" target="_blank">Address to the European Parliament,Nov. 25, 2014</a></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Today’s NY Times reported on the front
page that Pope Francis had suggested that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/12/world/europe/dogs-in-heaven-pope-leaves-pearly-gate-open-.html?_r=0" target="_blank">a dog could get into Paradise</a>. This
was considered newsworthy if not startling because Catholic doctrine has long
maintained that animals don’t have souls and therefore can’t go to heaven.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But the Pope’s sexist comparison of a
sclerotic Europe to grandmothers has gone without comment from The New
York Times, on the front page or anywhere else in the paper, which did report on his speech and quoted his sexist remark. Other media have similarly been silent to the extent that when I ask women I know what they thought of his comment, they have no idea he said it. How come? Is it because there's nothing new about the leader of the
Catholic Church being demonstrably sexist? Or is it because his insult
runs counter to the now-entrenched media narrative that this Pope is different
and liberal, even to the astonishing extent of suggesting that dogs might have
souls?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I was baptized a Roman Catholic and
attended Catholic elementary school. I might have gone into the religious life
had the church not been so biased against women. The Church lost me in 8<sup>th</sup>
grade when a priest came into my classroom and grandly announced that a
basketball team was being formed—for the boys. This was big news because in those days Catholic schools
didn’t even have recess when we could run around, much less a gym or any
organized sports.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But I’ve always loved sports, although
at 5’3” basketball has never been anything but a frustration. Nevertheless,
after the priest made his announcement, I stuck up my hand and asked whether
there would be a team for girls as well.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This gave the priest pause, and then he
said, “God has endowed boys with certain abilities that girls don’t have.” No,
no team for the girls because we were not physically able! I was repulsed and hurt. Even
though I had never at that time heard the word “sexist” I knew what it meant.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Of course, women’s subservient role in
the Church was already obvious to me from the obsequious attitude of our
teaching nuns to the priests, whose superficial homilies every Sunday—and yes, I
attended every week—made me squirm even then.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now I am a grandmother and a feminist
who long ago realized that no woman in the world is secure while any woman
anywhere must wear a burqa, is prohibited from driving a car, forced into a
marriage she abhors, forced into sexual slavery, or kept from an
education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this is only a partial
list of the ways in which women all over the world are deprived of a full life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It seems to me that the plight of women should merit the attention of a Pope truly focused on relieving
suffering. But the Pope’s slur against Grandmothers shows that we should not
expect this Pope to do anything to relieve women’s pain.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To those who say, well, isn’t it true
that Grandmothers are no longer fertile? I say, yes, of course, and as a result
Grandmothers are available to care for their grown children and their
grandchildren. In fact, if it weren’t for Grandmothers, a vast number of
American mothers would not be able to hold a job since providing good quality,
affordable child care is still way down our lawmakers’ and corporate leaders’
lists of priorities.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Worse, the Pope blithely suggested that
Grandmothers are not “vibrant,” not alive and involved. Really? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider 81-year old <a href="http://www.smartvoter.org/2000/11/07/ca/state/vote/feinstein_d/bio.html" target="_blank">U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein</a>, whose determination over a 5-year period forced into public view
this week the torture and horrors inflicted by the CIA on prisoners following
9/11. Feinstein, whose accomplishments over her life are nothing short of amazing, is also grandmother to two girls.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One of the few people to comment on the Pope's sexist insult was <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/26/pope-francis-europe-grandmothers-slur-catholic-church" target="_blank">Joanna Moorhead in The Guardian</a>, who noted that Pope Francis should know better, not only because of his own Grandmother, but also because
of his witnessing the campaign by Argentine Grandmothers of the “disappeared”
in that country. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Moorhead is apparently still a
practicing Catholic, unlike me (I’ve found a home in the Unitarian Universalist
faith.) She notes that older women are “the backbone” of the Church, the
majority at Masses, the worker bees who keep the parishes running, and suggests he insults them "at his peril." Perhaps, if they knew he had done so--which they don't--but even if they did, their loyalty and faith would probably motivate them to let it pass. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Moorhead concludes that Francis’s comment
shows he is no different from the male sexists who have been running the
Catholic Church for millennia. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I agree. And the lack of media
attention to his slur against Grandmothers shows that the media are still controlled by sexists. Women beware. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
Frances Cerra Whittelseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10124438326153104797noreply@blogger.com0