los anjalis to anjuquerque

Cross-posted at CureThis:

“This law will make me feel like a Nazi out there.  I have a great deal of contempt for it; I’m very emotional about it… This law is – pure and simple – a racist law.”

In the lead-up to the implementation of SB1070, the Arizona law known commonly as “papers please”, it is heartening to see a police officer in AZ speak up against it:

He very clearly states why this law is a huge health/human rights violation:

“So under SB1070 I know that people will not call officers in the case of a real emergency. I could see this type of scenario: a woman is being beaten by her husband or her significant other.  And, if I show up, and I develop reasonable suspicion, or LESS, even, that the person that is a perpetrator in this case, is in this country extralegally, i’m going to start heading in the direction of asking the victim of the case, are you here illegally?  I will have to arrest both of them — I’ll be required to — and both will be deported.  It violates our calling to serve and protect. It violates, under our Constitution, the requirement to serve and protect.”

Thanks to the savvy folks at Cuentame for collecting video testimonials. And check out Alto Arizona for actions in Arizona this week, and solidarity actions you can join in your own towns and states.

So there’s a story from NPR this past week that’s getting passed around like ladoos at an Indian ceremony.  It’s about gay weddings and Indian-Americans.  I appreciate the sentiment and do agree that it’s moving that there are Indian-American parents who are coming to terms with and celebrating their kids’ unions with others of the same sex. I understand it’s a light-hearted piece, but I have a few very critical reactions to it.

First, it’s a story, in typical NPR style, that’s pre-packaged and presented in sing-song like fashion, from beginning to end.  It’s sad, and honestly nauseating, how so many NPR stories are crafted like “afterschool specials”. Please, treat us with a little more maturity and respect.

Second, and this is my bigger issue, the story celebrates gay marriage and Indian-Americans (a step forward), while celebrating and lauding practices of arranged marriages and twisted ideas of what is acceptable in society (parents advertising their children in the paper, using socioeconomic status and fair skin and other regressive ideas of what is desired in society).  The story ends with this sequence of paragraphs:

And I remembered that old coming-out line: “Mom, Dad, I am not going to get married.” The next generation of immigrant gays and lesbians might have to come up with some other coming-out line.

In fact, I can imagine this ad in the local Indian weekly:

“Hindu very well-established Los Angeles family invites professional match for daughter, 25, 5-foot-3, slim, fair complexion, U.S. born, senior executive in Fortune 500 company. Loves music and dancing. Prospective lesbians encouraged to reply in confidence with complete bio data and returnable photo. Must be professional, under 30, caste no bar.”

It might just be time for the gay arranged marriage.

Gay marriage is NOT the only manifestation of gay/queer relationships, so the idea that in the future most Indian kids who are gay are going to need a coming out line other than “mom, dad, I am not going to get married” is a little silly.  And, the ad in the local Indian weekly, I almost jumped out of my seat when I read it.  The piece is embracing the idea of moving gay marriage into the old ways of representation of desire — socioeconomic status, fairness of skin (don’t say caste no bar when you’re bringing these two things into the mix!).   This is exactly the very fear that queer people have about gay culture and marriage ‘equality’ — that it risks succumbing to the normative model of what is desired and what is not desired in society, as a compromise instead of moving to a model of liberation and love.  Embracing the modern day caste system doesn’t feel very much like progress to me.  Thoughts?

One day I’ll make music like Herbie Hancock.  (thx to James Neal for sharing this vid):

My latest post on LAist.com:  Tablacentric: Two-Week Long Residency Starts Tonight. Check out the events if you can, most of them are free. [And check out the LAist interview I conducted two years ago, with Robin Sukhadia, the organizer of Tablacentric].

Oh yes they did. Very creative, slightly disturbing, and wow. Alien vs Pooh

Just renamed the blog. I think it’s self-explanatory, don’t you? It may change, it’s fluid right now, but the two cities aren’t changing. I’m in love with both and from now on will only live in cities I can play anjali word games with.

This week I wrote two posts for LAist, check ‘em out:

Schoolhouse Rock and the Health Care Reform Bill, where I discussed some of the background on the bill’s tortuous history and the senate shenanigans (filibustering, cloture, politics).

and ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas and All Through the Senate, about the historic health insurance reform vote passage in the Senate on Christmas eve. I discussed fantastical nerdy Senate history (the history of the filibuster, the last time the Senate ever met on Christmas eve, etc).

My good friends live in a mostly latino neighborhood just south of the prestigious snooty Hancock Park area in Los Angeles, and we’d sometimes drive through Hancock Park on our way back from outings or to just be snooty about the snootyness.  On quite a few occasions we’ve passed the Norwood Young house, and I’ve marveled at the numerous statues of Michalangelo’s David outside the white mansion [check 'em out on googlemaps street view]

Well today’s LAist post on Mr Young’s house — “Happy Holidays from Youngwood Court” — titillated me. I was so stoked to see this house decked out with Black Santa and Mrs Santa life-size decorations, beautiful lights everywhere, each of the SEVENTEEN David’s with red tops and no bottoms, and a life-size cutout of Norwood himself. I love the creativity that went into this decoration — probably one of the most unique christmas house decorations I’ve ever seen. And it makes me giggle that he does that in Hancock Park, pissing off many of the neighbors and making them worry about their property values. Koga, who wrote the post on LAist, linked to this article from 1997, about neighbors’ reactions to the ‘House of Davids’. The best line from the article:

“It is like spitting in somebody’s eye,” said Marguerite Byrne, a member of the Hancock Park Homeowners Assn.’s board of directors. “It is individualism run amok.”

Oh, the irony! The irony!

Anyway, Norwood Young’s website is a trip, with full episodes about his house, his costume parties, and his music. All this eccentric youngwood court history I didn’t know of when I lived in Los Angeles. Norwood Young and LAist, you made my christmas day.

Cure This is a website that a few of us developed in the past two years to feature voices around health & healthcare, human rights, and healing.  It seeks to engage those who’ve been affected by the healthcare system, those who work to transform our culture, those who create innovative models.  We were fortunate to be approached by Bonnie Fortune about Cure This being part of an exhibit in Chicago, and we are grateful to her for the invitation.  The exhibit “presents work by artists and activists representing historical and visual exchanges around feminist health movements”. Take a look at the website for the event.  The blog Art Talk Chicago also has a piece with photos from the exhibit.  Check it out if you’re in or near Chicago.  And take a look at the websites and artwork of various artists, performers, and other multimedia contributors to the event (more below).

EveryBody!: Visual resistance in feminist health movements, 1969-2009

I didn’t realize it until I saw the small note in my online calendar. “Los Anjalis anniversary” it said. I did a double take and realized, holy shit, is it really true? Four years ago today I started this blog. I had recently moved to Los Angeles from Newark New Jersey, and was working as a resident physician (specialty training after medical school) in family medicine, at a county hospital in LA. I was blogging at the time at To the Teeth, a health justice space I created back in 2002/2003, but I had a feeling I’d need to be blogging about politics, human rights, silly videos, culture, and los angeles, so Los Anjalis was created.

Now, four years later, four years wiser, four years sillier, I’ve landed in Albuquerque, New Mexico and will plant my feet and some seeds for a little while. I will share my stories on why and what and how, later. I’ve been in quite a wonderful transition from my work in Los Angeles to my work and life in New Mexico and have been quite sporadic and impersonal with my blogging here. I’ve been blogging a little bit more over at Cure This, a health justice blog that I co-founded in residency in Los Angeles. And I’m navigating that space that bloggers often do when they’re managing two blogs — should I stop posting at one of them? What should I post where? (and other totally useless thoughts that such privilege entails). I guess there’s always a need for this blog, at least to post autotune the news, or videos of europeans doing dances to the sound of music in a subway.

In related news, today also marks the day that my parents met, 37 whole years ago.

peace.

no, i don’t know how dead people can dance. no, i don’t know why mj turned into a zombie. no, i don’t know what that blood stuff is coming out of the zombie’s mouth. no, I wouldn’t want to be a zombie. Yes, those zombies are …like harry potter inferi. no, i don’t know how to scream as long as that girl does. no, i don’t think mj can tame zombies.

- brownfemipower (who blogs at flipfloppingjoy), answering her really cute kids as they all watch michael jackson’s Thriller video. this was a facebook status update i had to copy here. it made me so happy.

I have decided that I no longer have anything to say to people who can, with a straight face, defend this nonsense. Forget about race. Forget about class. Forget whether or not Gates or Officer Crowley are nice guys who treat their mothers well. The bottom line here is that an officer used the authority of law to restrict the liberty of a man who was expressing displeasure with him. If you think that is right, then you fundamentally disagree with the basic principle of a free society.

That is not hyperbole. If you are willing to grant any individual with a gun and a badge the authority to arrest people because they don’t like them, then you and I share no common principle on liberty and the right of people to be free from oppression. None.

from Post-Bourgie.

Can’t. Stop. Laughing.

John Hodgman followed President Obama’s speech to the Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner with a speech about nerds vs jocks. Cracked me UP. He appropriately refers to Obama as “the first nerd president of the modern era”. Truly an exceptionally funny speech (tho i’m not a fan of nerd = needing asthma inhaler).

WOAH. Even 50% of Republicans favor the government offering everyone the option of a govt administered public health insurance option like Medicare that would compete with private health insurance plans. Now to hold our elected officials accountable to (and more in-touch with) us. Check out the full NYTimes piece including the actual questions and percentages of responses.

2 orgs i recommend checking out:
Health Care for America Now coalition (sign up!)
National Physicians Alliance (most vocal doctors org in the HCAN coalition)

Melissa Harris Lacewell, “Countering Anti-Choice Terrorism”:

I believe the murder of George Tiller was an act of domestic terrorism whose aim was not only to assassinate a single man, but also to frighten a generation of doctors and to shame and terrify women and families who are making difficult choices. While the murderous rage of Tiller’s assassin is not representative of the broader anti-choice movement, I believe that the anti-choice community operates with a totalitarian impulse that generates a culture of terror rather than a culture of life.

and

Often women must wade through disgusting, painful, and misleading “information” about abortion just to get basic medical advice. While there are political, judicial, and structural aspects to this issue, I want to also make an appeal for the power of our personal narratives to fight back against anti-choice terrorism.

Check out the whole piece…

THIS is creative. Cartoonists initiated a project to illustrate each of the songs on 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields (official band website here). I especially love the cartoon for “Let’s pretend we’re bunny rabbits.”

I’ll eagerly await the cartoon for the song Absolutely Cuckoo:

Don’t fall in love with me yet
We’ve only recently met
True I’m in love with you but
you might decide I’m a nut
Give me a week or two to
go absolutely cuckoo
then, when you see your error,
then, you can flee in terror
like everybody else does
I only tell you this cause
I’m easy to get rid of
but not if you fall in love
Know now that I’m on the make
and if you make a mistake
my heart will certainly break
I’ll have to jump in a lake
and all my friends will blame you
There’s no telling what they’ll do
It’s only fair to tell you
I’m absolutely cuckoo

(cross-posted at CureThis)

Last night, CNBC featured a segment on “Is Health care a right or a privilege?” and invited two speakers to debate the question.

One of the speakers was Dr Mai Pham, senior policy advisor at the National Physicians Alliance (NPA). The NPA fimly believes that health care is a human right and its campaigns and mission speak directly to that. The other speaker was Michael Cannon, director of health policy at the CATO Institute, a free-market, libertarian organization.

Make your own conclusions about some incendiary statements made in this debate, but I must highlight one here.

“Saying health care is a fundamental human right is one of those simplistic nonsense slogans” — Michael Cannon, CATO.

Unbelievable. No it’s not. Saying health care is a fundamental human right is an important statement that we must embrace fully as a society (and to an extent have already embraced).

As guerillamamamedicine recently blogged:

i do not deserve a good job, or a beautiful home, or health care because i went to school and got my degree. i deserve them because i am a human being. if i were to say that i deserve them because of how many years i spent in school, or how much money i paid to go to school, or the number of letters behind my name, then i am saying that i deserve basic human dignity because of my educational privilege.

- – - – -

I applaud Dr. Pham’s calm and composure in the debate. There is much to loearn from her regarding how to stay on point and how to debate an issue articulately.

In any case, it was a pleasant surprise to see this issue covered by CNBC; perhaps the station will cover such issues in the future.

I penned a piece for LAist.com on last week’s White House Regional Health Forum – held at the California Endowment in downtown Los Angeles, and the well-populated single-payer rally outside the event. Thanks to Dr Susan Partovi for the photos.

Check it out! If you’re a registered user at LAist, you can comment or recommend the post.

Alternet has a short news/analysis piece on the 1,500 farmer suicides in India and the contributing factors. It’s a good read, albeit disturbing.

At the end of the article is a well placed quote from Vandana Shiva, one of the most outspoken and articulate critics of bioengineered crops, and one of the most ardent supporters of honest trade and land rights for Indian farmers. Here’s the excerpt:

A few weeks ago, I was in Punjab. 2,800 widows of farmer suicides who have lost their land, are having to bring up children as landless workers on others’ land. And yet, the system does not respond to it, because there’s only one response: get Monsanto out of the seed sector–they are part of this genocide — and ensure WTO rules are not bringing down the prices of agricultural produce in the United States, in Canada, in India, and allow trade to be honest. I don’t think we need to talk about free trade and fair trade. We need to talk about honest trade. Today’s trade system, especially in agriculture, is dishonest, and dishonesty has become a war against farmers. It’s become a genocide.

Please check out the complete interview that Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! conducted with Vandana Shiva (read the transcript or watch the video). I *heart* Vandana Shiva, saw her speak at the World Social Forum in Nairobi and she is a RIGHTEOUS passionate woman who knows her shit. She is NOT one to be messed with. Love her.

Yesterday I posted K’naan’s written perspective on environmental injustice, post-colonialism, and Somalia and pirates. Today, the one and only Mr Davey D posted two interviews he conducted with musician K’naan. The lessons for me: We are presented with such an unbearably skewed perspective in the West. And in the West our lives are worth more than others, and we can throw our shit wherever we want to, with no regard to the effects on the world. Here’s the 2nd video:

(the first video can be found here).

Musician K’naan (born in Somalia, grew up during the civil war, proponent of human rights) recently penned a piece on why the pirate situation in Somalia is at best quite complicated. His piece is extremely well-written and shares a perspective we don’t hear from the mainstream media’s reporting on the situation. Check out his piece, published at the Huffington Post. It deals with environmental injustices, the attitude of the west towards lives in post-colonial countries (worthless), and peoples’ self determination. I share it because this is a viewpoint that is completely missing from the general discussion in the West. (Side note: no pirate’s captives have been harmed as of yet).

Great thanks to K’naan, (check out his music website).

Here’s an excerpt from the article, check out the whole piece:

Already by this time, local fishermen in the coastline of Somalia have been complaining of illegal vessels coming to Somali waters and stealing all the fish. And since there was no government to report it to, and since the severity of the violence clumsily overshadowed every other problem, the fishermen went completely unheard.

But it was around this same time that a more sinister, a more patronizing practice was being put in motion. A Swiss firm called Achair Parterns, and an Italian waste company called Achair Parterns, made a deal with Ali Mahdi, that they were to dump containers of waste material in Somali waters. These European companies were said to be paying Warlords about $3 a ton, whereas to properly dispose of waste in Europe costs about $1000 a ton.

In 2004, after a tsunami washed ashore several leaking containers, thousand of locals in the Puntland region of Somalia started to complain of severe and previously unreported ailments, such as abdominal bleeding, skin melting off and a lot of immediate cancer-like symptoms. Nick Nuttall, a spokesman for the United Nations Environmental Program, says that the containers had many different kinds of waste, including “Uranium, radioactive waste, lead, Cadmium, Mercury and chemical waste.” But this wasn’t just a passing evil from one or two groups taking advantage of our unprotected waters. The UN envoy for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, says that the practice still continues to this day.

UPDATE (4/13): Johann Hari has a piece in Alternet today that shares a similar perspective: “We’re Being Lied to About Pirates.”

Yesterday as I was purchasing my afternoon coffee, I saw a copy of the New York times at the local coffeehouse, featuring an article on its FRONT PAGE entitled, “With Advocates’ Help, Squatters Call Foreclosures Home.” Check out the short article. Thanks to folks like Take Back the Land’s Max Rameu, the Miami Workers Center, Women in Transition, sheriffs in Ohio who refuse to evict people from their houses, the Poor Peoples’ Economic Human Rights Campaign, and others working together in their communities to preserve a little human dignity in this recession. It reminds me of the question that Travis Koplow brought up about a Los Angeles neighborhood council meeting and foreclosed houses:

Is it so important that we protect capital itself? Is the protection of property is more important than the safety and protection of people?

My friend Saba shared a comment on that previous post, with the website for Take Back the Land. Here’s the latest video, an interview on CNN.

Thoughts?

…and now find out that conservatives are into teabagging? From DailyKos TV, “Fox Has a Teabagg’n Problem”:

Words are hard to find.
(but this video is hee-haw-larious!)

Check out this powerful and moving plea for healthy development and environmental justice, from Majora Carter — an inspiring and courageous activist and organizer in the South Bronx. This talk, entitled “Greening the Ghetto” was given at the TED conference in 2006.

“Environmental justice goes something like this: no community should be saddled with more environmental burdens, and less environmental benefits, than any other.”

Carter links unjust urban development to health problems, talks race, and discusses the potential and the imperative for Americans to move towards REAL and just sustainable development.

She ends with a bang, stating that communities affected by environmental injustices must be at the decision-making table regarding local and national strategies. Check it out in the video, here’s here ending paragraph, it is SO absolutely true, whether the issue is environmental justice, health care reform, city planning, or schools:

“I spoke to Mr [Al] Gore, the other day after breakfast. I asked him how environmental justice activists were going to be included in this new strategy. His response was a grant program. I don’t think he understood that I wasn’t asking for funding; I was making HIM an offer. What troubled me was that this top down approach is still around. Don’t get me wrong, we need money. But grassroots groups are needed at the table DURING the decision-making process. Of the 90 percent of the energy that Mr Gore reminded us that we waste everyday, don’t add wasting OUR energy, intelligence, and hard earned experience to that count.”

ok, second most, after my brother and my lovely friends: the wide varied options for experiencing live music on a DAILY basis, in this great city. Joshua Pressman, LAist music editor, threw down a sampling of this coming week’s live music.

this is the number 1 reason why we need more public transportation (and train stations) in los angeles. (cross-posted at Cure This, a website you should get to know)

I recently made my nth trip (of the past few years) to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where my friends run an amazing, innovative, and quite revolutionary medical clinic (fair-priced; integrative; acupuncturists and naturopaths and midwives in addition to docs and NPs) for the uninsured. I’ll write more about that experience, but I may move to ABQ, NM to work in this clinic (and at a rural hospital). So this news, caught on my twitter feeds, piqued my interest:

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — About half of Hispanics and Native Americans in New Mexico were without health insurance for at least a month and up to two years in 2007 and 2008, according to a new study from Families USA.

The study states only 28 percent of whites said they were uninsured during that same period.

Families USA, a health reform advocacy group, says 49.5 percent of Hispanics were without health coverage at some point over the two years.

And 56 percent of people who described themselves as Native American or as members of more than one ethnic group said they went without coverage sometime during the period studied.

New Mexico Human Services Department spokeswoman Betina Gonzales McCracken said the department recognizes that ethnicity does play a role in the uninsured.

(From KOAT local news in ABQ)

These are absolutely shocking statistics. The Families USA document that’s referred to can be found here (.pdf file).

Odds of Dying in a Terrorist Attack

You are 13 times more likely to die in a railway accident than from a terrorist attack

You are 12,571 times more likely to die from cancer than from a terrorist attack

You are six times more likely to die from hot weather than from a terrorist attack

You are eight times more likely to die from accidental electrocution than from a terrorist attack

You are 11,000 times more likely to die in an airplane accident than from a terrorist plot involving an airplane

You are 87 times more likely to drown than die in a terrorist attack

You are 404 times more likely to die in a fall than from a terrorist attack

You are 17,600 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack

You are 1048 times more likely to die from a car accident than from a terrorist attack

You are 12 times more likely to die from accidental suffocation in bed than from a terrorist attack

You are nine times more likely to choke to death on your own vomit than die in a terrorist attack

You are eight times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist

From John Baker’s blog.

This week on LA Metblogs, Travis Koplow wrote a post about his participation in/observation of the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council. On the agenda for the meeting he attended was the issue of squatters in foreclosed homes. He said this:

But last night I went to my neighborhood council meeting for the first time and the discussion there raised an issue that I do think is worth us thinking and talking about more. Among the other topics on the plate was the growing number of squatters in foreclosure homes. There was a policeman present at the meeting, as I guess is usual, and he was talking about crime in Sherman Oaks, and one council member was asking him about people living illegally in empty homes. The policeman (I cannot bring myself to say “peace officer,” sorry folks) said that it was something to be on the lookout for, that if we suspected such a thing we should let the police know. There are several boarded up houses within a few blocks of my apartment and I get not wanting them to become crash pads for crack addicts or meth dealers. I get that. But then the councilman elaborates, saying that it’s important to be on the lookout, that sometimes it is hard to tell. Some of the squatters have kids and SUVs and dogs. Let me interrupt myself here to say, this post is in no way meant to disparage the SONC. It was my first time there, but I was made to feel welcome and the neighborhood council is clearly functional and positive and inclusive. But what I wonder is this: why is it so important to call the police on those families that look just like “normal” families? Is it so important that we protect capital itself? Is the protection of property is more important than the safety and protection of people?

Interesting. I know that squatting vs crime and other issues is a complex issue (for example, more break-ins into cars near an area where someone’s squatting at a foreclosed home can increase pressure on a community to better address these crimes and the causes of them) and I have great respect for the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council, but I always find it refreshing when the question of priorities re: property protection vs protection of people is brought to the forefront of the discussion. Thoughts?

Below: Step 9 of the 10 steps a country takes as it moves towards fascism. The clip is from the forthcoming documentary The End of America, based on Naomi Wolf’s book and speaking engagements. Naomi Wolf = brilliant.

Also check out the official movie trailer at the official The End of America documentary website.

Beautiful.

“And I also find it ironic that some of those who rail most loudly against this bill because of earmarks, actually inserted earmarks of their own, and will tout them in their own states and their own districts. These practices hit a peak in the middle of this decade, when the number of earmarks had ballooned to more than 16,000 and played a part in a series of corruption cases…

In 2007, the new democratic leadership in congress began to address these abuses by a series of reforms, that i was proud to have helped write. We eliminated anonymous earmarks and created new measures of transparency in the process so Americans could better follow how their tax dollars are being spent. Any earmark for a for-profit private company should be subject to the same bidding requirements as other federal contracts…

Rewarding of earmarks to private companies is the single most corrupting element of this practice, as witnessed by some of the indictments and convictions that we’ve already seen.”

Came across this video by the Gap Band. Love it. I can’t embed it (the youtube user has disabled embedding) so check out the link…

And this is why:

Dambisa Moyo is someone to look out for in the coming months, she’s coming out with a book called Dead Aid. NYTimes magazine interviewed her, I agree with some of her points about dependency and exploitation but strongly disagree with her neoliberal thoughts and microfinancing-as-a-panacea ideas. Still, I’m looking forward to the book, as it will flesh out her ideas in more depth than the very short interview linked here. Excerpt below:

You argue in your book that Western aid to Africa has not only perpetuated poverty but also worsened it, and you are perhaps the first African to request in book form that all development aid be halted within five years.
Think about it this way — China has 1.3 billion people, only 300 million of whom live like us, if you will, with Western living standards. There are a billion Chinese who are living in substandard conditions. Do you know anybody who feels sorry for China? Nobody.

What do you think has held back Africans?
I believe it’s largely aid. You get the corruption — historically, leaders have stolen the money without penalty — and you get the dependency, which kills entrepreneurship. You also disenfranchise African citizens, because the government is beholden to foreign donors and not accountable to its people.