In a small town, an honest carpenter is struck by a mysterious illness. He sells his house and belongings, leaves behind his wife and family, and moves to a nearby city to find a cure that will allow him to rebuild his old life.
But no cure comes. Though he receives some help from friends and doctors, his illness worsens, ravaging his body and rotting his fingers and toes. Unable to work, he is reduced to begging outside the gates of a church.
The story sounds almost Biblical – unrelenting punishment meted out by a capricious god. But in Kathmandu in Nepal, it is all too real.
This is the story of Ananta. Once a member of the Nepalese middle class, he now faces the most grueling poverty. His fight for basic survival continues to this day. It is a common scenario in Nepal, where health insurance and public health standards are still in nascent stages. Like thousands of others in Kathmandu and across Nepal, Ananta has no money, no insurance, and nowhere else to turn.
For years France has been the poster child for nuclear energy. Making massive investments in infrastructure since the 1960s, the French have enjoyed consistently lower electricity prices than their European neighbors, and as an added bonus they’re not beholden to unpredictable suppliers like Russia for natural gas.
However, a heat wave this summer put the French nuclear industry to the test. Many French reactors use river water for cooling, so when water temperatures rise too high, they’re forced to shut down. In July, with temperatures hovering around 30C (86F), France briefly took offline almost a third of its 60 gigawatts of nuclear generation capacity, according to the London Times. As a result, they actually had to import nuclear energy from England.
In England, the public has been far more outspoken against nuclear power and so its nuclear industry is considerably smaller. Yet they were more than happy help out their Franco brethren. Perhaps this had to do with the fact that domestic UK energy demand has dropped 6 percent due to the recession.
Whatever the tribes and tribulations of nuclear energy, Russia is convinced the future looks bright for the controversial fuel. The country’s federal atomic agency has been hard at work on a new type of nuclear power plant it believes could be popular around the world – one that floats on the sea. Learn more about it in the latest “Minute of Your Time.”
Despite calls from the Obama administration and other members of the international community, Israeli settlers continue to occupy parts of the West Bank, in violation of the Geneva Convention and Israeli law. For the Palestinians, this means continual harassment, pressure, and intimidation as settlers attempt to force them from their homes. And the ongoing power struggle within the Palestinian government isn’t helping things, either.
To the apparent consternation of the Israeli government, the issue of the settlements has been brought front and center, and it’s not something that will be settled soon, nor easily. Episode 4 of “Political Graffiti” examines the problem from the ground level.
On my first day as an intern at Film@11, I transcribed an interview—a really long interview—with an IDF reservist named Ronen Hershkovitz. This was for a program that aired on PBS in July, and I remember thinking, “This is definitely one of those intimidating IDF soldiers.” I saw the pictures of him on the battlefield in uniform, yelling at high school students, getting irritated with my correspondent (and boss).
I mentioned this one day to the correspondent, who told me that Hershkovitz used to be a camp counselor in the Poconos. I started laughing—this guy wasn’t like any camp counselor I’d ever seen. But then, I did go to music camp.
I pretty much laughed at the idea of “camp counselor” Hershkovitz for the last six weeks. And then, on my final day in the office, I got a phone call.
I thought it was the US Navy calling me back for a story (and hey, guys, I’m still waiting for that call). But then I realized whose voice it was.
That’s right. Ronen Hershkovitz. Finally I got to speak to the man I’d seen and heard all summer long—and luckily for me, he was calling to tell me I had done a good job.
Halfway through the call, I finally remembered to ask him a question: was he really a camp counselor?
Indeed, he was. In fact, he went on at great length about it.
"To see my favorite Clickable, go to 'Reporting for Duty' and check out 'Crazy Mr. Hershkovitz'!"
For the record, I still think I would’ve been scared to have him as my camp counselor, but it turned out the real guy behind the uniform wasn’t too scary after all.
Just kidding, Ronen—you actually scare the hell out of me.
—Connor Kiesel
So the fish of the world are disappearing–we’re literally eating our way to their extinction. But some of the leading chefs of the world, like Le Bernardin’s Legion d’Honneur chef Eric Ripert, are actively working to change this, one table at a time.
Even if that table belongs to a cash-strapped college student.
The man works with intense budgets every day—albeit a bit more highbrow than what I’m used to—but he was once a starving student, so he had a few handy tips on how to eat well, for less, and save the world, too.
Ripert told us he likes to eat steak and drink a scotch--not necessarily together, though.
“You can buy a good fish fillet and pair it with a good, inexpensive starch, like potatoes,” Ripert told me recently. “Try collard greens, or even whole heads of lettuce instead of packaged salads. Buy in bulk. Instead of chicken wings, buy the whole chicken.”
And then there’s the environmentally sound choices that also fit a tight budget. Those slabs of tuna steak or tender Chilean sea bass belly are very expensive—and for a reason. They’re practically gone.
“The perception of whether a fish is expensive or not is in the eye of the beholder,” Ripert said. “You can always use cheaper fish such as sardines or tilapia,”
And how to cook that sardine, if you (like me) are used to pulling them out of a can?
“You have to sear the skin of the sardine until it is crispy.”
Our recent “Minute” dealt with the effects of palm oil production on humans, animals and land. Here’s a first-hand account from our own Sabrina Chan, who grew up in Malaysia.
Admittedly, it doesn’t help when you have a president citing Gog and Magog as swell reasons to go to war. Countries like, oh, say, Israel, might be forgiven for being confused now, after eight years of ears open to Biblical reasoning to public policy, that the same arguments aren’t working on the Obama administration.
So if you can’t count on good old fashioned American biblical rhetoric, maybe you can count on good old fashioned American short-term memory! We’re famous for it.
Today’s Haaretz has the interior minister touring the E-1 corridor in Jerusalem and saying “he hoped Israel would succeed in convincing the U.S. to approve construction.” The minister goes on to note that the “the new [U.S.] administration is different from the last,” and that the Bush administration had “made clear comments” regarding its acceptance (italics, ours) of construction in that area.
Sigh. We are hoping that our upcoming episode of “Political Graffiti” will be our Last Story About Israel Ever, but then there are moments like these, when we have information. So in our Second to Last Story About Israel Ever:
In addition to the on-record testimony we have from former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice regarding the E-1 corridor–”“We have told the Israelis in no uncertain terms that [settlement in the E1 area] would contravene American policy”–we have from a US source involved in the negotiations that “the issue Rice got the most incensed over was the development of the E-1 zone. The US said time and time again: you do not start E-1.”
Now, whether or not Israel presses forward and starts construction is one thing. But the ruse that this was a project ever approved by any US administration (Elliot Abrams does not count as an “administration”) is just that–another ruse.
In the pursuit of health, we now post calorie counts on menus, we talk of salads and trans-fats–but what went in foods when the trans fats went out?
The New England Journal of Medicine published its findings here. We tackle palm oil in the latest “Minute of Your Time” and explain what orangutans have to do with it.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has decided to stop uranium mining at the Grand Canyon. Now, perhaps this falls into your “common sense” file, but during the Bush administration, claims popped up along the Colorado River and the canyon itself. Currently, about 1,100 uranium mining claims are within five miles of the Grand Canyon National Park.
However, Salazar’s protections won’t include existing claims near the canyon–thanks to the General Mining Act of 1872. Our take is here.
So ’tis the season for policymakers and politicians to steer public opinion their way, via books. We know one is on the way from Cheney. Former President George W. Bush, too. And we’re really hoping that when Bush publishes his “decision” book that he includes some guidance as to how he decided to pitch former French President Jacques Chirac on the war with Iraq…by citing Gog and Magog.
According to a new book by Chirac (Si Vous le Répétez, Je Démentirai–If You Repeat it, I Will Deny) to be published next March, Bush told him: “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East…. The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled…. This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.”
Chirac had no clue what Bush was talking about, so his staff asked Swiss theologian Thomas Roemer of the University of Lausanne to explain. We went to Wiki.
"I simply have no idea what on earth you are talking about."
