Who are the Singles?

Never Married Singles - Youngest Group 25 million men 20 million women
Separated & Divorced - The Midlife Group. 18 million total
Widowed Singles - The Oldest Group. women outnumber men 5 to 1 11.2 million women 2.1 million men. 3

It is important to note that women who remain single and are college educated have:

Higher I.Q.'s
More Education
More Prestigious Occupations
Higher Incomes
Better Mental Health / Well Being

These are women actively choosing singlehood over marriage.

I think the last one is the most important here. What good is a life without well being or good mental health? Anyways, I'm just taking notes for the next parental you're-getting-older-and-need-to-start-looking-for-someone lecture that I can tell is about to repeat itself soon.

The War Tapes

The War Tapes the first war movie filmed by soldiers themselves

I want to see this film. Its a collaboration between director, Deborah Scranton, and real footage from 10 national guard troops in combat who carried digital cameras along. Too bad its screening in NYC not here. Regardless of which side of the debate you're on, it would interesting to get the soldiers' views (literally!) on the Iraq war:

Africa Malaria Day 2006

Its today and there's new hope. Every year a million people die of malaria -- and not surprisingly enough 90% of these deaths occur in Africa. You have The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria and of course there's the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and their initiatives as well. (There's a nice article in the Washington post on how they've used their clout to get pharmaceuticals to do what's right instead of what's profitable not just on the Malaria front but for AIDS and other pressing global health concerns. The headline graphic clearly shows that we'll do just enough to make our nation's "philanthropy" a statistic but not enough to make the difference -- we'll leave saving the world to the billionaires-with-souls). In an AllAfrica.com article I read this morning a former Minister of Health of Senegal says ...growing awareness of the burden malaria imposes on societies trying to develop economically and the availability of the new class of artiminisin-based drugs has given renewed impetus to the effort. Awareness. Of course that's a big piece of the pie. But, what I'd like to know is why Bill Gates is managing to do what the WHO and World Bank supposedly pour so much money into while managing to operate a billion dollar corporation that sucks the life out of their workers (to be discussed later).

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provided initial funding for the Malaria Control and Evaluation Partnership in Africa (Macepa), whose intensive work in Zambia is aimed at modeling a comprehensive, coordinated nationwide effort to cut malaria-related deaths by 75 percent within three years. After a year of planning and initial action, Macepa has brought over a dozen international partners into a collaboration with Zambian government interventions to create an integrated response.

Malawi, one of the few countries spared from conflict like many of its neighbors, is one of ten African countries taking part in the initial phase of the quick-impact initiative on malaria that will try to follow the protocols used in Zambia. Granted, the UN and their initiatives are key to solving the 'there are too many poor and sick in Africa' problem(s)....what's just not clear is why in 2004 this initiative for using ACTs was put on paper knowing it is too expensive for these countries to implement independent of private (namely pharmaceutical) involvement. And when I say involvement I mean making these drugs available to them one way or the other (get your money from Bill Gates, grow a conscience, a combination of the above...etc).

Disclaimer: I am new to most of the development issues that I might comment on. Blogging about all this is just a release of mental energy and a way for me to take my DatelineHealthAfrica.net volunteer experience to heart. Feel free to point me in the right direction any time!

current events

So apparantly Mr. Monopoly is having slight issues:
Taken from here:

We are pleased to be able to offer your group complimentary* MONOPOLY® games for use in your tournament, as well as three other games for prizes. In order for you to receive these games, please mail the completed Event Registration Form (include a street address, we cannot deliver to a P.O. Box) to Hasbro Games, 443 Shaker Road, East Longmeadow, MA 01028 or fax it to 413-526-4820.

Giving away free monopolies?? And that too to not 1 but several at a time? ...and you wonder why yesterday's news headline claims: Hasbro Posts Loss
As if having the name Hasbro isn't an uphill battle already.

sometimes i wish...

...i didn't have to ride an emotional rollercoaster to get over every bump in the road that separates my parents generation from mine or the culture gap that divides indian from indian american.

...my head would listen to my heart every once in a while.

...i didn't wish so much.

Lou Dobbs is the Man

I love Lou Dobbs. He has no problem telling it like it is when it comes to this immigration mess thats currently being hashed out up on Capitol Hill:
(Janet Murguia is the president and CEO of The National Council of La Raza is the largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in this country)

MURGUIA: There's a common agenda here in the sense that we want to provide an opportunity to fix the broken system. It needs a comprehensive solution...
DOBBS: OK, here's a solution.
MURGUIA: ... that includes enforcement and it includes a guest worker program in dealing with those 12 million undocument.
DOBBS: Here's a solution. You tell me what's wrong it. First we secure our borders. Then we create a rational and humane immigration policy.
We take control of the immigration and our borders in that order.
MURGUIA: We can do enforcement and we can make sure we're supporting some opportunities. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. We really can, we're in the 21st century, we can figure this out. We're a nation of laws and a nation with immigrations.
DOBBS: Janet, I would love to say you're right, but you're watching people go on the set and say they're not talking about amnesty when they're talking about guest workers program. You're catching people sit there and say to you that they're -- please, they're equating Hispanics and illegal aliens.

What do you mean we can walk and chew gum at the same time?! NO! Obviously we cannot. There are 5 gazillion different laws trying to make their way to permanency -- hence the need for prioritization. Its not like this 11-13 million illegal immigrants just walked across the border last night. We have not been able to and/or not cared enough to control the border since forever and its not a problem that just crept up on us while were were taking a nap last night. There's a lovely drawn out process to work out how laws are made and implemented and everyone knows even if we wanted him to Bush couldn't just snap his fingers and solve the problem(s). Seriously: border security first -- everything else afterwards.

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Check it out: Its about time something like this came together (even if the design needs a little help...at least its a move in the right direction.)
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In more important news..I think I've become a white person. This is definitely the second weekend this spring I've managed to get sunburned just walking around DC.

Happy Birthday to my sis!

Happy Birthday Connie!

also.

Happy Vaisakhi.

too many birthdays not enough time to celebrate ;-)