An Open Letter to Western Feminists

In the on-going constructive criticism of Western feminists, Religion Dispatches offers up a fabulous call to action from Palestinian, Arab and Muslim women:

While some progressive U.S. feminists claim to oppose the hijacking of women’s rights to justify U.S. invasions, they simultaneously evade any mention about the plight of women in Palestine, Iraq, or Afghanistan. Their statements continue to focus only on female genital mutilation or dowry deaths under the guise of breaking the “politically correct” silence on abuses of women in the “Muslim world” that the Right disingenuously laments.

Some progressives may support such statements with good intentions, but these critiques ignore the fact that Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim feminists have been working on these issues for generations, focusing on the intersections of gender, sexuality, race, class, and nationalism.

Their work is ignored by North American feminists who claim to advocate for a “global sisterhood” but are disillusioned to discover that women in the U.S. military participated in the acts of torture at Abu Ghraib.

We are concerned about these silences and selective condemnations given that the U.S. mainstream media bolsters this imperialist feminism by using an (often liberal) Orientalist approach to covering the Middle East or South Asia. For example, on March 5, 2008, as the death toll due to Israeli attacks in Gaza was mounting, the New York Times chose to publish an article just below its report on the Israeli military incursions that focused on the sentencing of a Palestinian man in Israel for an honor killing; the report was deemed worthy of international coverage because the Palestinian women had broken “the code of silence” by resorting to Israeli courts.

Please click on the first link and read it all. I rarely take sides in eons old wars except that I know that innocent people on both sides are being killed, harmed, and traumatized. It may be Polly Ann-ish of me to say this, but both sides of the Israel-Palestinian conflict need to let the women, the every day, no elected office, those who have to live it women broker a peace deal. Politics shouldn't always be left to the politicians.


Technorati tags: feminism, Israel, Palestinian, peace

Hijas Americanas - A real self-help book

I can't believe how long I've been reading Hijas Americanas. But to be easy on myself, I did read 1-2 other books while reading this and submitted two grant applications. *shrug* This isn't my official book review, but merely my brain fart since I just finished the book today.

The conclusion made me realize how much this book is a self-help book for Latinas. For all of us who have and continue to struggle with what it means to be Latina and how many of us don't live up to that standard we hold. There weren't any exercises to do or journals to keep. Just stories of a rainbow of Latinas, personal anecdotes from the author, and some stats thrown in for fun.

I've reviewed a few self-help books over the past few years and while I think the essence of them were good and worthy, the exercises were always what made the book fall flat to me. This book could had been written as a self-help book with exercises at the end of each chapter...instead, I think Rosie Molinary allows us that time you have in your head when you flip the page at the end of a chapter. That quietness that overtakes you and you start to reflect.

This was a reflection book. In far more ways than one for me.


Technorati tags: books, Latina, Rosie Molinary

AllTop Health: a news aggregator of all top health stories on one page

Alltop is "a news aggregation site that provides “all the top” stories for 40 of the most popular topics on the Web. The headlines and first paragraph of the 5 most recent stories from 40-80 sources for each topic are displayed. Alltop stories are refreshed approximately every 10 minutes."

Click here for Alltop health stories which include news stories and blogs. Overall, it is an interesting and useful concept although not new. The forgotten Findory news aggregator had a similar approach. Alltop does not look very different from iGoogle populated with health-related RSS feeds. Google News service has a similar interface and I especially like the slick image view. In any case, I rarely have time to check more than the subscribed feeds in Google Reader in the condensed "list view." This is usually sufficient to stay up-to-date with most news stories.


Alltop: Guy Kawasaki's Newest Venture in Social Media

Alltop is powered entirely by RSS feeds but it does not provide feeds itself.

References:
Announcing (Formally) Alltop. How to Change the World.
Alltop: Guy Kawasaki's Newest Venture in Social Media. PodTech.
Google News Image View: Allergy. Allergy Notes.

Related:
NewsFlashr Health is a similar aggregator to AllTop.

Updated: 05/17/2008

More thoughts on Ferraro

My March article at Work it, Mom! is up and it is about Geraldine Ferraro. Please jump over, read, and of course comment.

There is a harsh reality to affirmative action and diversity initiatives: They sometimes make people of color and women uncomfortable. While many of us support affirmative action, it really is a double-edged sword.

This sword was in full view in the recent comments of Geraldine Ferraro. Well known as the first woman to run on a major party's Presidential ticket, she has also frequently and honestly said that she knows she was picked for the vice-president spot mostly because she is a woman. That doesn't mean that she wasn't qualified to be VP, but the Democratic party and Walter Mondale looked around and decided (most likely due to a poll) that they needed a woman for the ticket.

The backlash against affirmative action is such that knowing you are chosen "just because" you are a woman or a person of color can be debilitating. You start to think others "know" why you got the job. You fail to remember your long list of qualifications and focus on your plumbing or your ethnicity. This is what anti-affirmative action forces want. This distracts you from noticing that someone's frat brother was hired or that, despite other worthy candidates, a Texan is chosen to balance a Presidential ticket. Sure he's qualified, but he will also deliver a wad of electoral votes.

Read the rest at Work it, Mom!

Technorati tags: Barack Obama, Geraldine Ferraro, racism, affirmative action

NPR: Doctor Blogs Raise Concerns About Patient Privacy

A NPR story discusses if Doctor Blogs Raise Concerns About Patient Privacy (4 min 49 sec).

Dr. Debra Peel, a psychiatrist and founder of the group Patient Privacy Rights, is unhappy with doctors "venting" their frustration on personal blogs:

"If you are unhappy with the people that you're supposed to be serving and taking care of, you probably need therapy," she says. "You don't need to be venting your frustrations in a public manner like that. That's very inappropriate and unprofessional."

These are strong words. A few members of the profession have made a "blogging career" out of sharing their frustration with the current status of our health system. This is not limited to the U.S., NHS Blog Doctor, for example, is very critical of the government-sponsored health system in the U.K.

One should take into account not only protecting confidentiality and professional behavior but also freedom of speech.

There are some simple rules to observe when blogging, in addition to using common sense. The top and foremost is not to publish any of the 18 HIPAA identifiers when writing about patients. Some doctor bloggers take this rule to an extreme and do not to write about patients at all.

Tips for medical bloggers

- Write as if your boss and your patients are reading your blog every day
- Comply with HIPAA
- Do not blog anonymously. List your name and contact information.
- If your blog is work-related, it is probably better to let your employer know.
- Inquire if there are any blogging guidelines. If there are, comply with them strictly.
- Use a disclaimer, e.g. " All opinions expressed here are those of their authors and not of their employer. Information provided here is for medical education only. It is not intended as and does not substitute for medical advice."
- Get your blog accredited by the Heath on the Net Foundation

Dr. Wes offers more detailed advice on Keeping Pace With a Blog in EP Lab Digest. Note: GruntDoc disagrees with the advice not to blog anonymously (see his comment here).

References:
Doctor Blogs Raise Concerns About Patient Privacy. NPR.
Simply Fired - How NOT to Blog About Your Job. Especially If You Are a Doctor. Clinical Cases and Images - Blog, 08/2005.
How to write a medical blog and not get fired?
Anonymous Medical Blogger? Not Anymore. Clinical Cases and Images - Blog, 02/2007.
Can You Trust Blogs? 10 Questions for Medical Bloggers
Case Reports and HIPAA Rules
Image source: Wikipedia

What is Included in President's Physical Exam?

WebMD reviews items included in the 2007 annual physical examination of President George H. Bush. The inclusion of both exercise treadmill testing and stress echocardiogram is a bit unusual since he has not reported any symptoms, at least according to the publicly available information.

An annual physical examination of healthy people is not recommended by any national medical society.

References:

What’s in a President’s Physical? WebMD.
President Bush's Physical - A Good Example on How to Have a Healthy Lifestyle. CasesBlog, 2005
Executive Health Physicals. Are They Worth $ 3,000? CasesBlog, 2006.
The Presidents Club | Photos: Oval Office Secrets from Truman to Obama | TIME, 2012.
Image source: Wikipedia, public domain.

Ferraro & Affirmative Action

Warning...this isn't going to be a well edited piece, so I hope you stay with me.

What Geraldine Ferraro said about Barack Obama is correct and insulting all at the same time. I am more insulted than anything. I'm sure this debate is happening at many other blogs and while I usually like to highlight non-A-listers, I'm going to point to the comments at Feministing.

So why am I insulted?

Because her comment that Obama is lucky to be a black man in this race sounds like the times I have heard comments directed at me and others that the only reason "you got into college/ that scholarship/ this job/ that promotion" was because they needed a woman or Latina in it. The scholarship I went to college on was directed at Black and Latin@ students. But we had to have a certain ACT score to qualify and had to continue to have a good GPA while at school. Thus, I feel like I earned my scholarship. I had other scholarship offers at other schools - one from a Michigan school just for being out of state. Huh? If you don't know Michigan suffers from a HUGE brain drain. Affirmative action policies address needs, not hand outs. So when I hear a white woman say that a black man has an upper hand because he's black, I'm insulted.

Then again, I've always known that sexism will win out in almost any race, including against race. When people have asked me if I thought we could see a woman President, I usually would say, "Right after a black man." I don't think that sexism is worse than racism...it's just that I think that given two choices (as we have now) people would rather vote for a man, any man, over a woman. And if you've been reading me, I do think that Obama and Clinton are even given both their pros and cons.

Ferraro's comment is also true...but in a very negative sense. Feministing commenter, kissmypineapple, asks:

I'm not sure what planet you're on that you think women and POC benefit when they enter a field dominated by white men. That doesn't happen here on earth, but hey, maybe you're one of those people that think affirmative action is unfair to poor, poor, white men. It certainly sounds like it.

Having been in a field dominated by white men, science, and actively working to get more women into science, I have to say that yes, it does help when you're one of the only women at a conference. You are noticed. The other white guys blend into the background. Being a Latina or any woman of color, you stuck out like a sore thumb. And that's just it. It can be a sore thing.

BUT...you have to make the most of that moment. You need to be confident in your abilities to go up to people and talk to them. To make that presentation solid, that all your conclusions are supported by fact, and that you nail the Q&A. If a woman has to do twice the work a man does to get half the recognition, people of color and women of color have to do about 10 times the work. This "benefit" cuts both ways. When you fail, you fail for an entire people. When I failed to get into graduate school in science, I felt like I let my people down. "Oh, the poor Latina didn't get into grad school...guess her work wasn't up to snuff."

So yes, I can see that the media's spotlight on Obama is one thing that none of the other candidates can claim...but he could have (and still can) trip up. Instead he's doing a decent job at maintaining his cool under this microscope. Yes, the media is fawning over him, but the "only" spotlight is harse either way.

Am I glad that Ferraro resigned? Yes. Was her comment inappropriate? Yes. Was it racist? It had a tinge. Is she racist? I don't think so.


Technorati tags: Barack Obama, Geraldine Ferraro, racism, affirmative action