Health

South Carolina removes the Physical Flag: Can it remove the Spiritual Illness of Racial Discrimination?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The South Carolina legislature has voted to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the statehouse. It was put there in 1961 as a show of defiance against the Civil Rights movement, i.e. against the demand that the system of legally-imposed segregation of African-Americans cease. […]

Climate Change

To fight Climate Change, we have to Eat Fewer Hamburgers

contributors

By Dora Marinova and Talia Raphaely | (The Conversation) | – – Climate change is the greatest challenge to human health, according to the recent Lancet Commission report which calls for action to protect the global population. The report says that tackling climate change could deliver huge public health benefits, largely through phasing out coal, […]

Desertification

Climate Change-Driven Drought in Karachi hits Poor Hardest

contributors

By Zofeen Ebrahim | {Inter Press Service) | – – KARACHI (IPS) – Over 950 people have perished in just five days. The morgues, already filled to capacity, are piling up with bodies, and in over-crowded hospitals the threat of further deaths hangs in the air. Pakistan’s port city of Karachi, home to over 23 […]

Barack Obama

Top 6 Achievements of Obamacare: (Hint, millions more insured)

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Now that the Affordable Care Act (ACA, Obamacare) has beaten back all judicial challenges, it is worth revisiting its vast success. A single-payer system would have been far preferable. But the present system is substantially better than nothing. As Jay Bookman pointed out in early May […]

Food Security

“The Gaza Kitchen: Cuisine, Resistance, and Remembrance in Palestine” with Laila El-Haddad

contributors

By JULIE POUCHER HARBIN, EDITOR, ISLAMiCommentary Cooking and conflict? It’s a different approach, but it works, and these blended themes still resonate five years after she and co-author Maggie Schmitt first began to research their unique cookbook. Leila Haddad on right When they first came up with the idea for the book in 2009 — […]

Food Security

Yemen conflict fans food insecurity

contributors

By Peter Salisbury and Louise Redvers | (IRIN) – AMMAN / DUBAI (IRIN) – The conflict in Yemen is worsening the country’s food insecurity, according to a new report, which predicts that the parts of Arab state may enter an emergency phase by the end of the year. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) […]

Health

Epileptic Girl moved to Denver for Medical Pot, Dramatically Improves

contributors

WCPO Denver | (9 on Your Side Video) | – “Adam and Heather Benton uprooted their lives to move across the country this April to provide their daughter, Addyson, with medical marijuana for her myoclonic seizures. From West Chester, Ohio to Castle Rock, Colorado, the Bentons are now able to provide their 3-year-old with cannabis […]

Climate Change

Do Republicans favor Coal Plants over Americans’ Health?

contributors

Cenk Uygur | (The Young Turks) | – ‘”The Obama administration’s proposed curbs on coal-burning power plants could prevent thousands of deaths each year from heart attack and respiratory disease, scientists said Monday in the first peer-reviewed study to examine the measure’s health impacts. Many parts of the country could see immediate improvements in air […]

Health

Nepal shows its vulnerability after devastating earthquake

contributors

By Simon Redfern | (The Conversation) | – For some time scientists have realised that the Kathmandu valley is one of the most dangerous places in the world, in terms of earthquake risk. And now a combination of high seismic activity at the front of the Tibetan plateau, poor building standards, and haphazard urbanisation have […]