One of the questions I’m asked most about my time with cancer is how I was able to mentally cope with having the disease, not to mention treatment itself. While it certainly was a testing time in my life, I never fail to mention how taxing it was upon my family, not just physically, but emotionally. We often forget that hardships and tribulations affect not just individuals, but also the lives of those around them. When we hear of someone being stricken by illness, we naturally focus upon their suffering. Of course, the affected person is and should be the main focus of all attention, but it is easy to forget that the battle against cancer is fought and won not only through the resolve of patients and through the expertise of their physicians, but just as importantly through friends and family, always there to care for, listen to, and emotionally support their loved one. For my parents, my cancer experience was a life changing experience, but they took on the challenge with optimism that even I, as a young man, did not have. My mother was in constant prayer and prostration, my father left his professional obligations for months, and my younger sister often felt guilty for being out with her friends rather than keeping me company. My family made me a priority above everything else, and they were there for me for my every need, doing small things that made all the difference, such as staying up late and sacrificing their sleep even if only to give me a glass of water. All of these were sacrifices for which I will be forever thankful and without which I would not have been able to overcome the most difficult tribulation of my life.

Abbas’ endeavor to run the Chicago Marathon and raise funds for the American Cancer Society is noble and thoughtful not just because ACS works to support cancer patients, themselves deserving of our attention, but also because ACS works to help family, friends, and others who help cancer patients throughout their treatment and recovery process. By donating, you can help ACS help those who selflessly put their own lives on hold, all the while still being able to smile, laugh, and look towards the future with optimism even when the present is gloomy.

Thank you Abbas for remembering our unsung heroes.

by me

A friend of mine had a near death experience in college that touched my life profoundly. I got to know him shortly after he recovered from a near fatal accident. He taught me that being victim to the past is avoidable. That we can transcend the struggles we’ve faced to make meaning out of our lives. And to take stock of the present and be truly grateful for what we have. I try to carry that lesson with me wherever I go, and try not to lose sight of all the good things that make the present something I’m lucky to be experiencing.

Countless people affected and killed by cancer come to the very same conclusion. What we have control over is the present, and what we can do to improve the lives of others is worth focusing on. You can do just that by joining me in supporting the American Cancer Society. Every donation gives families affected by cancer a richer present to enjoy with their loved ones.

by netsnake

For about five weeks, I’ve been waiting on permission to enter India and attend a language program at the American Institute of Indian Studies in Lucknow. Tough to describe the churning in my stomach as the start date for the program approached, arrived, and passed me by some weeks back. It was particularly hard to swallow that the fallout from the Headley debaucle created a huge backlog at the Embassy and Consulates General stateside and referred cases, such as little old mine, to the Ministry of Home Affairs for “final approval.”  While I agree with the need for security, this all seems a lot of bureaucracy with questionable effectiveness.

However, I have felt so much better after acknowledging feeling powerless, and making the decision to move past it and awaken inner strength. The strength to tell the people I love that I do and appreciate all they do for me. To work on ideas and projects that excite and challenge me that were on the shelf before this unexpected wait. And strength to start cutting through the white noise that can’t help but build up within an overscheduled life.

Niebuhr was onto something with his Serenity Prayer. And my mother was onto something with her personal mantra to me as I grew up with a view of life that was afraid of the unexpected. It encapsulates all the best parts of making the best situations that you don’t want or expect. I hope to write from India in the near future, but until then I’ve made this advice what I eat, breathe and sleep:

Be flexible.

by Tiagø Ribeiro

Sometimes, it hurts to be left breathless. Whether a 10+ mile run, or a welling anger at injustice done to myself or others, life has take the wind out of me. Stomach seizing and throat tightening, these moments feel like they’ll never end. Fortunately, people I love remind me time and again about the importance of breathing. By letting the cool rush of air in, and pain and anger out, crisis mode begins to fade and life is drawn into its proper perspective.

Honoring those who’ve survived or lost their lives to cancer, and family and friends who support them is a collective move past breathlessness. Along with supporting remarkable developments in cancer research, the American Cancer Society is at the forefront of fighting to improve people’s lives. That’s why I’m running for them  in the 2010 Chicago Marathon this October. Become a champion in this campaign and make a difference with every dollar you donate.

by bradipo

Different countries are joining the caucus for different reasons. Many, especially slow-growing, highly indebted countries in Southern Europe (Spain, Italy, Portugal) see austerity as a way to avoid the fate of Greece. Others are reacting to fears of stimulus-induced inflation. In fact, with enormous unused capacity in the developed economies, signs of inflation are scarce. “To say that we need policies now to fight a global outbreak of inflation is like arguing that we need policies now to guard against the imminent alarming spread of the North Polar ice cap,” says University of California, Berkeley, economist Brad DeLong. Yet some important economies remain hypersensitive to the merest trace of inflation. Germany is taking tough steps on deficit reduction in part because it wants to set an example for the European monetary union, but also because it remains paralyzed by the ghost of the 1920s’ hyperinflation, which destroyed the Weimar Republic and paved the way for Hitler’s rise.

Inflationary risk is being used as a bludgeon to cut back on social welfare spending that has already been gutted. Unfortunately, as with all moral arguments, different priorities make preserving publicly funded safety nets a difficult platform for economic consensus. A more dollars-and-cents argument then: with the global credit crunch continuing (meaning people and companies can’t get access to cash when they need it in a tight timeframe), it is extremely important for liquidity to be circulating in the market, and when individuals and corporations are too shy, government spending can fill this short-term gap. As Gross quips, “It’s difficult to contract your way to growth.” The solution for now (more spending) and later (taxes, pruning programs) are fundamentally different, but are both right.

You can find the original article here.

by Jesse Gardner

I have something to confess to all of you—I didn’t know how to ride a bike until I was 19. It was fear that held me back for all those years. I would ruefully watch someone showboat on a Huffy or ring their bicycle bell as the wind rushed over their carefree faces. I decided to learn one day, and a good friend of mine helped me try, and try again after falling. All the little steps toward that moment helped to overcome the fear and embarrassment, and that same day I made the leap to riding on my own. In the course of one day, it became “like riding a bike” to me! Overcoming fear bit by bit, then running with determination helped save my life and led to a healthier lifestyle.

Cancer patients and their families show much more strength than any of this. Their perseverance is humbling, and we should all play a part in investing money into cancer research and supporting families dealing with cancer. That’s why I’m running for the American Cancer Society this fall, and that’s why your support is so important. Every step you take will add up to the collective leap we can make, together.

Haiti's Presidential Palace, before the quake

News of the last week has been blanketed with the gruesome details of last Tuesday’s 7.3-point earthquake in Haiti and its aftermath. Like many other socially-concerned people I know, I have been following who is contributing to Haiti’s recovery, and in what capacity. I recently read a press release from the IMF of their willingness to immediately extend $100 million in ‘emergency financing’ to disaster-stricken Haiti. I quickly reacted half in disbelief, half in confusion.

Isn’t there currently a coalition of political and entertainment figures lobbying lending governments to forgive Haiti’s debt? What sense does it make to push another sum on top of the odious debt Haiti already owes? I understand the need for immediate liquidity to be used and deployed, but isn’t loan-making simply bizarre with a humanitarian disaster of this magnitude?

I continued to think about the outpouring of support and pledges of aid by various governments, institutions, and indviduals the world over. Is there a reasonable assumption that Haiti could pay back any kind of debt right now by the IMF? Or has the spectre of debt cancellation on the horizon caused the Fund to strategize a means to stay relevant and involved in Haiti’s development?

The IMF has been in Haiti for over twenty years, and the truism that cuts across sectors drives action at times in international development as well; never work yourself out of a job. I remain very skeptical of exactly how financing is what Haiti needs right now. There should only be one word associated with Haiti’s debt right now: cancellation.

From Defenselink

I recently was sent a video clip from Hardball on MSNBC; it was an interview of a former Reagan aide and a friend of mine, Alejandro Beutel from the Muslim Public Affairs Council. While all sides, including Chris Matthews, brought up fair emotions and various considerations as a response to the Christmas plane scare, I am left with lingering concerns.

Is this really about the number of layers to our transportation security? Unfortunately, more than once we have seen examples of even those on watch lists getting onto flights and endangering he safety of others around them. Furthermore, our current scrutiny of US Muslims evades a clear fact: the hijacker on 9/11 and the large majority of militants apprehended since then are foreign nationals. You may say: well then, the new national-origin scrutiny is a step in the right direction. I’m not so sure.

Layer 1: the truth of the matter is, there needs to be more naming and shaming militant extremists in the communities from where they come, particularly if their friends and neighbors have been victimized by terror. Rather than worrying about driving certain individuals underground, in many cases I believe that community disapproval turns potential terrorists away from violence. To avoid family members expressing quite real ignorance at times of the violent ideologies of these same extremists, community accountability should be brought to bear.

Layer 2: at the airport. How we can make vigilant security personnel more effective in turning away or detaining persons of interest? Here, Alejandro’s suggestion in the video of behavior-based profiling makes a lot of sense to me. Though you can’t teach instinct, you can share body and verbal cues that indicate suspicious background and purposes. At the same time, while there are privacy concerns the full body scanner seems the way to go—I find myself supporting their installation and use.

Layer 3: on the flight. Though it seems a pain and inconvenience for some passengers, strictly enforcing a one-hour butt in seat rule at the end of every flight seems the surest way to prevent nefarious activity.

Ultimately, in spite of the political stumping our borders will always be porous, lest we “sacrifice our open society,” as President Obama assured us we would not. Our final layer of defense? Enduring as a society with a sense of normalcy, not ignorant bliss, and continuing to support while lovingly scrutinizing the US security apparatus.

My sister pointed out a reality, as she often does, that had remained to me until that point unexamined; the glut of reusable bags being sold or given away in the name of “reducing waste” were no doubt resulting in the appearance of these bags, with their cute designs and environmental puns, in landfills across the US. So I decided to do some digging—online, at least for the time being.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reusable_shopping_bag?wasRedirected=true

Besides introductory articles like this, I have had a hard time finding articles critical of this bag fad. Here are some issues with all the hype:

1. Most of us already have reusable bags in our homes: bags from clothing stores, home goods establishments, and yes, that secret ball of plastic bags most of us have, that are better reused than tossed or simply collected.

2. Why buy reusable bags with logos? A recent Stanford study showed that consumers are hesitant to use a bag with one logo at another store. And it’s shocking to me that people who eschew being walking billboards in many other ways tote logos around which can hardly be said to be all from corporations championing environmentalism.

3. Make grocery stores work harder; it feels like issues like workers’ rights and local sourcing are being sweeped under the rug by grocers’ green wave of bags made with colorful polyester.

In the end, there are more sustainable solutions; one idea could be something I would call bag-pooling. There should be a reusable bag collection in subdivisions and multiple-unit buildings that’s shared. Use it, wash, return, repeat. No need for everyone and their grandmother to have a small army of the bags, and for tomorrow’s landfills to be filled with our green consumption.

I am not headed to Pakistan.

When I initially realized that my research trip would not happen because of the deteriorating security situation in Karachi, the only emotion I can articulate is that I was heartbroken. I was both sad that my research on masculinity in Pakistan has short and possibly long-term feasibility issues, and moreso about the state of a country I hold dear.

I’ve been told of scholars of Iran who haven’t set foot in that country since its 1979, of academics being evacuated from places like Bosnia and Lebanon. There are not a lot of feelings like being ripped from the home of your intellectual life—perhaps I am lucky that I only know the feeling second-hand.

As for the Pakistani people, their experience of the security situation is, as many oher things are there, starkly different for each social strata. While wealthier people seek workarounds when the direct route to a neighborhood or an airport is blockaded, other people’s homes are caught in the crossfire as political vendettas are never quite settled on the street.

I can’t help but reevaluate whether there is adequate safety and mobility to interview, to absorb the environment there, and to be able to count on returning repeatedly throughout my career. Sad when such considerations must be made.

Is there hope for Pakistan itself and scholarship about it? I’d like to think so. Sone food for thought: in thé 1970s other countries marvelled at the engineering prowess shown in Pakistan’s irrigation systems. There’s no reason to count out the possibility that all the energy being put into insurgency and counterinsurgency cod be channeled to industry, to culture, and to scholarship.