The Doctor Who Would Be President

Click here to watch the NYTimes video

With the hospitals in Port-au-Prince overwhelmed with trauma patients from the earthquake, Dr. Guy Theodore is picking up the slack in a remote mountain village.

I invite you to watch this video report from Haiti by the New York Times. This guys seems to have the right values and leadership skills to help Haiti move forward. If I was Haitian he would have my vote.

Retired Brandeis professor brings clean power to African villages - The Boston Globe

Retired Brandeis professor brings clean power to African villages - The Boston Globe

What an inspiring story... "From a desk in his Cambridge apartment, Lange runs a minuscule nonprofit that literally trades the dark smoke of a wood stove for the clean power of sunlight."

This is such a great way to both, help with the climate change crisis and make a very tangible impact in the quality of life of people who need it the most. I invite you to read this article and consider make a donation to this very valiant and Worthy cause.

Make a donation today! and visit the ICSEE website (International Collaborative for Science, Education, and the Environment)

ACE: Building Power for Enviromental Justice

I found out about ACE yesterday.

Why is it important for you to know about ACE?

ACE's Mission: "ACE builds the power of communities of color and lower income communities in New England to eradicate environmental racism and classism and achieve environmental justice. We believe that everyone has the right to a healthy environment and to be decision-makers in issues affecting our communities."

If you're like me and believe we all deserve to live in a clean and healthy environment, please support ACE and make a donation here today.

To give you one example of what ACE is about. Roxbury is a neighborhood in Boston and it's community is comprised of 95% low income African Americans. The elevated Orange Line train that used to go through Roxbury was torn down in 1987 and replaced by a bus service along Washington Street. The goverment promised the community a better replacement. The replacement never came. All those buses that replaced the train were run by Diesel fuel. As it turns out, Roxbury has the highest asthma rate in the city of Boston.

According to the Office of Enviromental Office Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) "Exposure to diesel exhaust can have immediate health effects. Diesel exhaust can irritate the eyes, nose, throat and lungs, and it can cause coughs, headaches, lightheadedness and nausea. In studies with human volunteers, diesel exhaust particles made people with allergies more susceptible to the materials to which they are allergic, such as dust and pollen. Exposure to diesel exhaust also causes inflammation in the lungs, which may aggravate chronic respiratory symptoms and increase the frequency or intensity of asthma attacks.

Diesel engines are a major source of fine-particle pollution. The elderly and people with emphysema, asthma, and chronic heart and lung disease are especially sensitive to fine-particle pollution. Numerous studies have linked elevated particle levels in the air to increased hospital admissions, emergency room visits, asthma attacks and premature deaths among those suffering from respiratory problems. Because children's lungs and respiratory systems are still developing, they are also more susceptible than healthy adults to fine particles. Exposure to fine particles is associated with increased frequency of childhood illnesses and can also reduce lung function in children."

This is just a small example of how certain government polices can have a major impact in the overall health of a community. People don't realize that a simple change in something as mundane as your daily transportation, can pollute the air and have harmful long term effects for entire communities. So...

This is what ACE has done to help:

1. In March 2002, ACE and its partners won 100 clean fuel buses in regional transportation plan. They publicly launched a Transportation Justice and Livable Communities agenda and forced the regional transportation planning body to add a $40 million project for 100 additional clean fuel buses in its 25-year plan.

2. ACE and its partners pushed Massachusetts to enact its first Environmental Justice Policy. After more than 2 years of pressure from ACE and its partners, Secretary Of Environment Robert Durand passed an Environmental Justice Policy in October 2002. This policy reorients all of the state's environmental agencies to increase outreach, involvement, and resources to environmental justice communities and provides for heightened scrutiny in environmental impact reviews.

3. ACE and its partners successfully persuaded the MA Department of Environmental Protection to install a comprehensive air monitoring station in the Dudley Square area. After years of raising awareness of high asthma rates and the dangers of diesel bus and truck exhaust, residents will now have a new tool in their fight for environmental justice. ACE's youth interns are helping to build 24-hour access to the data from this monitoring site through a telephone hotline and website.

So, to you I say...

These are only a few of ACE's major achievements since it was founded in 1993. I believe ACE is an essential organization. It is a sad reality, organizations like ACE need to exist in order to advocate for the low income minorities communities. I wonder, How is it that these diesel buses are not running in the financial district? or Brookline Village?

If you're like me and believe we all deserve to live in a clean and healthy environment no matter what, please support ACE and make a donation here today.

Out of Africa: A movie review

Last night I saw for the first time "Out Of Africa". Filmed in 1985, it won 7 Oscars, including Best Picture, starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. The film's photography and costume design are both pretty stunning, and I suppose the acting is well done considering the stellar cast. If you want to see beautiful shots of the African landscape and 1920's aristocratic fashion, go ahead and watch it. Other than that, I have to say I thought it wasn't worth my time. I though it was one of the most euro centric, paternalistic, materialistic and neo-colonialist films I've ever seen.

The story takes place in Kenya, from the protagonist's marriage and departure for Kenya in 1913, until her return to Denmark in 1931. A wealthy dane, Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep), moves to Africa to marry her second cousin for convenience (she marries for his title and he marries her for her money). They start a coffee plantation together and hire an entire local tribe to work on it. Their marriage predictably fails. Karen develops feelings for another man, a safari hunter called Denys Finch-Hatton (Robert Redford). From then on the film seems to be about their luxurious lives, going on safaris together, listening to their newly invented phonograph and flying in their plane. At this point, this is where the film turns as interesting as watching paint dry. Why should we care about this people's lives? Don't ask me. Even the romantic scenes are way too long and way too slow. Lastly, I thought the few unfortunate scenes where the film attempts to show Blixen as 'caring' towards the natives were absolutely paternalistic and condescending.

It is interesting for me to see and I ask myself, How is it that this film was, and is still, so popular? How is it that all these racist and paternalistic themes didn't offend the hell out of people? After all it was released in 1985. Oh wait..."The Blind Side" is nominated for Best Picture and it's 2010... never mind.

Boston en Marzo...

Como extraño el sol incandescente de mi tierra natal! y como en ciertas ocasiones los mediodías caraqueños te ciegan al salir a la calle y tu vista toma un par de minutos en incorporarse a su normalidad. Ese verdor peregne de mi país tropical, es algo que indudablemente anhelo de sobremanera. Las palmeras, las trinitarias, los helechos y la mata de mango en casa de mi abuela. Extraño los grillos arrullándome en la noche, las luciérnagas iluminando el jardín de mi casa y los aromas impúdicos del monte, esa mezcla de barro fresco con hierbas.

Al lado de mi casa en Caracas, casi todas las mañanas se escuchan las guacharacas con su cacareo incesante. Tengo esos recuerdos grabados en mi memoria como si fuera ayer. Parece mentira que ya tengo 12 inviernos viviendo en Boston. Hay veces que me pregunto, Como diablos termine aquí? Estamos a principios de Marzo y aquí la naturaleza todavía se encuentra en estado de latencia. Los árboles parecen tristes estatuas, grises sin hojas, estáticos como pidiendo auxilio. La tierra esta dura, compacta. Al lado de mi apartamento hay un pequeño lago el cual se encuentra absolutamente congelado. Si no fuera porque es ilegal, cualquiera pudiese caminarlo de un extremo al otro sin problema. Tengo un par de plantas en casa que sin duda agregan un poquito de clorofila y calor a mi pequeña morada. Sin embargo, confieso que cuando salgo cada mañana a trabajar y mis pulmones se llenan de aire gélido, siento como mi pecho se acongoja y me dirijo a vivir el resto de mi día con algo de resignación. La falta de luz tampoco ayuda. Como acá nos encontramos al norte, durante los meses de invierno, el eje del planeta hace que los rayos del sol nos rocen en ángulo. En otras palabras, no hay sol. El poquito sol que hay es tímido, débil y cuando te pega nunca te pica la piel...nunca.

Ahora, no vayan a pensar que no hay cosas del invierno que no valoro. Hay algo definitivamente mágico en el aire después de una nevada. Especialmente cuando el sol sale y el contraste del blanco contra los árboles te encandila. Recientemente hubo un par de nevadas que dejaron a todos los árboles cubiertos de nieve y el en el paisaje se veían como si estuviesen frondosos llenos de flores blancas. La nieve, en su belleza intacta, ofrece una escena sencillamente espectacular.

Es curioso, aunque por lo general me siento afortunada de presenciar la magia de las estaciones de Nueva Inglaterra, gran parte de mi me dice que todavía representan algo extraño, ajeno y desconocido. Me siento como en otro planeta. Pareciera que mi inconsciente se rehusa a aceptar mi realidad actual y me tortura al recordar el mar y la arena. Bueno, que más puedo decir, soy caribeña y Boston en Marzo, se siente como Júpiter.

Playa Manzanillo, Isla de Margarita
Venezuela