Stories about Health from July, 2008
Egypt: Collapsing Buildings
Headlines about collapsing buildings and pulling children's bodies from the rubble are common in Egypt. Ibn Al Dunya, writing in Fustat, briefs us about the latest tragedy which took away five innocent lives.
Morocco's Changing Bodies
As in many developing countries, the food landscape in Morocco is rapidly changing. Obesity and body image, two rarely-discussed subjects, are becoming ever-present issues. Jillian York has the story.
Ukraine: “A Little Miracle”
Michelle Knisley of Scenes from the Sidewalk writes about her encounter with “a little miracle” – a 2-year-old boy who survived a fall from the seventh floor”: “His parents are drug addicts and they were high and had left a window open.”
India: HIV Testing
To Each Its Own on the role of law in the issue of pre-marital HIV testing.
Jamaica: The Need To Take Responsibility
My View of JamDown From Up So uses recent international news events to illustrate how the Jamaican authorities and media may handle—or not handle—similar stories.
Bolivia: Long Lines at Pharmacies
Dora Romero of Las Ideas Son Primero [es] is noticing many more pharmacies in the city of El Alto, Bolivia. She wonders whether long lines mean that more people are getting sick due to the cold weather or eating habits.
Japan: Bloggers on food crisis feast, G8 over Skype?
The G8 Summit at Toyako, Hokkaido, ended on June 9th after three days of meetings, leaving a bitter aftertaste for some bloggers in Japan. Many questioned the high cost of the event, pointing out how environmentally unfriendly it was, and one even proposed that the meeting could be better carried out over Skype.
China: Great Wall of China now wheelchair-accessible
Good news for wheelchair-bound sports fans, as written on Joseph Taggart's Blogspot blog: “In preparation for the Special Olympics in Beijing, an elevator was recently installed to make the top of the wall accessible to people in wheelchairs. I was excited to try it out.” Terrific photos, too.
Argentina: Students chain themselves demanding a better school
In the province of Rio Negro near the city of General Roca in Argentina, the students of the CEM 106 are asking the government to follow through with their promises of solving the problems their school has. Videos of the open sewage drains in front of the school, of the 3 classrooms for more than 240 students and the septic tank which overflows in the backyard provide visible proof of their needs. In spite of the governments promises back in June to solve this issues, nothing has changed, and this has caused the students to chain themselves outside the regional office for Rural Education.
Trinidad & Tobago: RIP Grace Dolsingh—The Fight Continues
Trinidad blogger Rights Action Group T&T bids farewell to a community activist, and asks in her memory that “the government reconsider its notion of development to include the needs of its people.”
Bosnia & Herzegovina: Chemical Weapons; Dutch Graffiti
Srebrenica Genocide Blog writes about chemical weapons allegedly used against Srebrenica civilians and about the obscene graffiti left by the Dutch troops stationed at the UN base in Potocari.
Barbados: Lonely Death
Barbados Underground draws attention to the plight of a woman who died at a US hospital this week. 49 year-old Esmin Green collapsed and died on the floor of a New York City hospital after waiting over an hour without receiving any help. BU asks whether this could happen in...
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