Russian Parliament’s lower house just passed a law to censor all things “gay”, even after two brutal homophobic murders made international news. We will not be silenced.
Reblog widely and take action here: www.allout.org/russia-attacks
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Together we shall save our planet, or together we shall perish in its flames. Save it we can - and save it we must - and then shall we earn the eternal thanks of mankind and, as peacemakers, the eternal blessing of God.
John F. Kennedy (via hirnstamm)
Photo: Patients at the community hospital in Bangui, where MSF treated people wounded in conflict. CAR 2013 © Francois Beda/MSF
In Central African Republic, the Violence Has Ended But the Emergency Continues
“At the height of the crisis, confrontations, shootings, and abuses occurred daily. Today, tension and violence have subsided and we are now in a particularly delicate phase—a sort of false calm that is both fragile and potentially explosive. Seleka’s two main groups will have to begin negotiations to establish an imminent power-sharing arrangement. There could be friction and clashes within this young coalition,” says MSF head of mission in CAR, Serge St-Louis.
As a medical organization, we are very concerned about the unmet needs among a population that was already very vulnerable prior to the Seleka offensive. There are thousands of displaced persons who now live in extremely precarious conditions, without medical care, shelter, food, or water. The health situation is critical in several regions. There are serious shortages of drugs and supplies and there are no health care personnel in the medical facilities. Based on our latest admission figures, the seasonal epidemic of malaria, which is endemic in the CAR, appears to have begun and will surge in the rainy season.
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Usually we receive no warning of the imminent arrival of bomb blast victims. They normally arrive in a cloud of panic; chaotic screaming ensues and staff members run to man their posts. This time we are prepared. From the time of the phone call it should be twenty minutes before they arrive, not much time to ready the Emergency Room but I am surprised at how much gets done. We clear the resuscitation room and triage area, we prepare IV bags and bandages and then we prepare a queue of stretchers outside.
MSF doctor Stefan writes from Kunduz, Afghanistan, on treating people injured by IEDs and traffic accidents. Please leave your questions and comments for Stefan below his blog post. (via doctorswithoutborders)
MSF Logistician Ben King building kites with the community. Afghanistan 2013 © Ben King
“My vision of this country before I arrived saw kites flying everywhere, filling the air with the exuberance of small boys interacting with others far beyond the high walls of their own compounds. A kind of invisible communication that creates infinitely strong bonds between the people and their country. My visions were true when I arrived, but as the temperatures began to plummet, the kites, one by one, disappeared from the crystal clear skies. Finally, though, it was our chance to try our hand at it…
For now, I will enjoy watching them dance about as a beacon of hope for a brighter future for this ever colourful and complex land”
Read more from Ben’s blog and leave questions and comments below his post.
Executive Director of The Trevor Project, Abbe Land, speaks with Freddie Coleman at ESPN Radio about the significance of Jason Collins coming out and the impact it has on young people everywhere.
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It’s just after midnight in Rutshuru. Tomorrow morning Dr. F, the French anesthetist who arrived here with me, and I leave for Goma. Unfortunately the schedule worked out with me on-call at the hospital and I missed tonight’s farewell party. This morning we had a fairly typical day in the OR, doing 12 procedures between 8am and 1pm including performing a skin graft, placing a traction pin in a patient with a fractured femur, draining a few abscesses, debriding a few wounds plus a handful of dressing changes including two children under the age of three with 2nd degree scald burns over roughly 30% of their bodies plus an eight-month-old who had her foot amputated for an infection two days earlier. I also admitted a 16 year old girl from the ER with chronic osteomyelitis [bone infection] who will need a fairly large operation in the next week or so to remove infected dead bone from her tibia. Chronic osteomyelitis in children is rare in the US but fairly common here in the DRC.
David blogs about his busy last day and says farewell to the Democratic Republic of Congo, for now. Send David some thank you notes and comments or questions below his blog. (via doctorswithoutborders)
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The choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and nonexistence.
Martin Luther King Jr. (via thinksquad)
(Source: theconsciouscollective)
