Onchocerciasis or River Blindness

The Farmer And Fisherman Who Lost His Sight To River Blindness Emmanuel Kwame, 60 (NPR)

Above is an image of Emmanuel Kwame of Ghana who suffers from Onchocerciasis, otherwise known as River Blindness among locals. Kwame has been affected by River Blindness for 40 years at this point and hasn't allowed his disability  to take advantage of his life as an avid farmer and fisherman. 

Onchocerciasis, (or River Blindness) is caused by a roundworm infection which is spread by black flies. Kwame explains, "I started having nodules [lumps of worms just under the skin] and swelling all over my body, and then it would appear as if some worms were on my eyes. I would see them moving across my eyes and I realized my eyes were no good."  Hundreds of thousands of larvae spread throughout the affected persons body and blindness occurs once the majority of these worms disease, just below the surface of the person's skin. 

The Ghana village of Asubende has seen far too many cases of this disease. Six out of twelve of Kwame siblings have fallen victims of blindness. Thirty years ago, 80 percent of Asubende residents were affected with the disease. After the distribution of Ivermectin (the drug which kills the parasite associated with River Blindness) in the late 1980s, the infected number of residents has dropped just below 3 percent. Kwame's generation seems to be the last one infected with onchoceriasis, and the Ghanans hope that remains true. 

Although we see tragedy while looking at the life of Emmanuel Kwame and others in his situation,we also see inspiration. For his disability does not keep him from earning a living and continuing his  life as a farmer and fisherman. If Kwame had happened to be a United States citizen, he'd receive benefits from the government to accommodate for his disability, but this isn't the case. It's important that we recognize all of the privileges we endure as Americans because in other areas on this globe, such as Ghana, people aren't so fortunate.   

Long-Overdue Justice for Black Artists

Norman Lewis, an underappreciated black artist (died in 1979)

A revolution is on the rise for the justice of black artists across the nation, past and present. We are finally heading towards a time where works of art are judged on the content of the work rather than who created it and the race and heritage of that person. Norman Lewis, an artist who passed away in 1979 predicted that it would take 30-40 years for his work and the work of other black artists to be appreciated with race-blinded eyes. Today, museums such as the Museum of Modern Art (Manhattan) and the National Gallery of Art (Washington) are more inclusive of artwork by black artists. This creates a more even and diverse playing field in the field of contemporary art for new and upcoming black artists, a field that was previously dominated in the public by white artists. Norman Lewis and similar black artists may now rest peacefully.

http://nyti.ms/1YBgImI
In the video attached to the link above, Eldzier Cortor (1916-2015), a black painter and printmaker speaks about his life and career as an artist of black decent. Cortor who died at the age of 99 this Thanksgiving worked in New York for many years and was ignored by museums for much of his life, until recently. He got see his work presented in the inaugural show of the new downtown Whitney Museum. Due to the ignorance of the art world for the majority of Cortor's life he still owned many original works and began donating them to various museums. "It's a little late now, I'd say. But better than never" the artist stated in a recent interview with the New York Times.

"Southern Landscape" a painting by Eldzier Cortor

Bayard Rustin

On this celebratory day for the civil rights movement, we should remember not only Martin Luther King and the hard work he did as a servant toward desegregation and the overall betterment of this country, but also those people who fought for equal rights among all throughout their entire lives and who's efforts and achievements remain unnoticed by the general American public today. Let us remember Bayard Rustin, an initiating leader in civil rights, gay rights, nonviolent resistance, and socialism. Due to the criminalization of homosexual activity in some parts of the United States in the 1950s, Rustin carried a criminal charge with him. He was criticized for this charge and for his open sexuality by fellow civil rights leaders because it detracted from the effect of his work. As a result, Rustin rarely stepped out as a public figure and worked influentially behind the scenes for more known civil rights leaders such as Dr. King. This remained true until the 1980s when issues regarding gay and lesbian rights surfaced, redeeming him a public advocate for this cause. At the age of 75, Bayard Rustin passed away in 1987. May he rest in eternal peace.  

STOP Blaming the Victims of Police Brutality

http://youtu.be/Wq7pyg3Rczo

I came upon this clip accidentally. It started playing as one of those advertisements that plays before the desired clip and you have the ability to skip after 5 seconds. Once it started, I decided to keep watching and I'm glad I did. A very intriguing and important discussion to be had. The victims of police brutality are not to be blamed anymore. The fact that people die due to police brutality in this country and people are able to blame the victims outrages me. When are we going to finally move past this racial barrier that is causing all of these incidents to happen? After every mile stone the black community has surpassed, police brutality is still taking place in the United States.

#SoWhiteOscars Part II

http://youtu.be/a9foV1hs4AY

Above is Whoopi Goldberg and the panel at The View reacting to Jada Pinkett Smith's boycott of the academy awards. Whoopi Goldberg, in complete disagreement with the statistics of the race within the academy being the issue, she wants to direct attention to this ongoing issue not only at the time of oscar nomination announcements, but all year long. She exclaims that there aren't enough roles or movies for black actors and actresses and it's always been this way.

Jada Pinkett Smith Boycotting the Oscars #SoWhite Oscars

http://youtu.be/E9GqeY5XjWE

For the second year in a row the 20 most acclaimed awards at the Academy Awards are going to be received by all white people. Not a single black person nominated. This infuriates Jada Pinkett Smith. She's decided to boycott the Oscars this year due to the lack of diverse nominations and many are following behind her. Looking deeper into this issue, I've found that it turns out that 94% of the academy is white. Many would agree that this is the main factor behind the lack of black nominations. This kind of thing is getting old.

CNN- How the Media Missed Bernie Sanders

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/18/politics/bernie-sanders-media/

some interesting factors to consider if questioning why Bernie Sanders is suddenly taken seriously by the media

Political Cartoon

Above is an over-dramatized representation of what is actually going on. Hillary is backed by Wall Street and big banks while Bernie Sanders is backed by the working class and the American people.

Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine

I stumbled upon this award winning documentary about Matthew Shepard whilst browsing through netflix looking for something to watch on this glum sick day. I didn't know much about Matthew Shepard prior to watching this documentary, but after doing so I was glad that I invested an hour and a half of my time into watching it and you should definitely consider doing so if you're reading this.

If you're unaware of who Matthew Shepard is, allow me to give you some background: he was beaten to death by some bigoted fools in 1998 at the age of 21 after vocalizing his homosexuality to said bigoted fools. 11 years later, the Matthew Sheppard Hate Crimes Prevention Act was passed. This was put into action to ensure the safety of Americans who are susceptible to hate crimes, especially those regarding sexual preference.

I would strongly advise anyone to watch this powerful documentary, an interview based heart breaking tale displaying the views of those close to Matthew Shepard regarding the horrific incident that permanently removed him from their lives. As you can tell by the poster image above, this documentary has won several awards, which gives even more reason to watch it.

Bernie Sanders Finally Being Seen as "Electable"

The Young Turks Panel- Democratic Debate January 2016

Placed above is a link to a liberal online panel known as The Young Turks discussing the Democratic Debate which happened on Sunday night. They discuss the debate and especially the political views of Bernie Sanders and how they positively oppose those of Hilary Clinton's. 

All I have to add is that it is vital to do your research on the presidential candidates and their values before making the decision on who you're voting for. America is our country and it's very important to take advantage of the opportunity to vote for the candidate who has paralleling views to you and what you want for this country. Given of course that you happen to be of voting age by November. 

The Photo Society

If you are interested in the beauty of the visual art of photography regarding nature and humanity you will enjoy exploring the social media and official website of The Photo Society, a group of diverse professional National Geographic photographers. These skilled photographers are located all over the world and all contribute to the world renowned National Geographic magazine.

Photo by Marco Vernaschi, (@marcovernaschi) of Buenos Aries, Argentina 

Photo by Luciano Candisani of Ilhabela, Brazil 

These are two of the nearly 4,000 original images among those posted on thephotosociety on Instagram. I would definitely recommend checking it out if you are a user of the app. It's always enjoyable to see what they've posted and to check out the pages of the different photographers of each image.

David

David Bowie passed away early this morning at age 69. Rest in Peace...

The 1960s: Bernie Sanders and Hilary Clinton

I discovered this picture on a twitter account that is obviously in favor of Bernie Sanders for the democratic nomination for the upcoming primary election. I found these captions intriguing because I wasn't formerly aware of this information. Not to suggest Hillary Clinton's more recent claims are invalid, for anyone is able has the capability to change their stances on issues concerning civil rights or other subjects of that nature, but seeing that Bernie Sanders has always been committed to the betterment of rights for minorities gives me confidence that he is the right choice (for me) in the upcoming elections. Unfortunately I won't be able to vote in the primary election because my 18th birthday isn't until July, but I have been supporting Sanders on social media and in person, as I participated in his Worcester rally on January 2nd. I believe that he has a lot to offer the United States of America, which could ultimately affect the entire world in a positive way.  

Bernie Sanders Interview (NPR)

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=454702147&m=454829104

The link above will lead you to an interview I enjoyed hearing this morning due to the hopeful words of democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders. He just wants to talk about the "real issues" in the United States, and that's a good attitude to have for a possible future leader of our country.

Grocery Shopping Nightmare in Venezuela

Venezuelan citizens are outraged about the current laws surrounding grocery shopping. Yes, grocery shopping... There is a grocery shopping system in Venezuela which allows citizens to grocery shop a maximum of once every four days, the day depending on a number on each person's ID card. Not only are there restrictions on when and where these people can buy their food, but there is a massive food shortage in Venezuela. Grocery store shelves are empty people are hungry for change.


Empty shelves like these are a common sight amongst grocery stores across Venezuela.

Venezuela is known for being rich in oil, but low oil prices across the globe and high levels of inflation has made Venezuela one of the worst countries economically, according to NPR.org. In fact, the government has seized giving economic statistics. The statics available are from independent economists who report that inflation is north of 100% annually (according to the Wall Street Journal). The people of Venezuela grocery shop in fear. Fear of thieves snatching the little food they are able to purchase. Fear that they won't be able to gather enough food for their families. This issue is a contributing issue to that of the hunger crisis which effects too many countries across the world.

On planet Earth, nearly 842 million people are suffering from hunger. That's about 3 times more than the entire population of the United States. An unfathomable amount to most people. Hunger kills more people each year than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined. Hunger kills more than 5 million children each year. Considering the amount of food that goes to waste in the United States alone, hunger shouldn't be as large of a tragic problem as it is.

In the USA, 30-40% of food the entire food supply goes to waste. This results in more than 20 pounds of food wasted per American each month. For some reason, the United States has its own hunger crisis. with these statistics in mind, there is no reason for anyone in the United States to not have enough to eat. How can we change this issue for the better? In order to avoid food waste as much as we can, we must become smarter in regard to grocery shopping. A large percentage of food purchased by Americans goes to waste whilst cleaning out our pantries and cabinets. If an amount of the food we throw away was never purchased in the first place, would it go to waste? The answer lies with the management of your local grocery store. Find out if your grocery store donates food after its "sell by" date. If not, you can still make a change by switching to a grocery store that does donate food or suggesting that they should do so. A suggestion never hurt anyone. If this issue is something you find passion in, volunteer. Local food banks and food pantries won't turn away extra help and some are in need of it. In order to fight world hunger, we have to start in our own backyard.

US Presidential Elections Polls Update

http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2016-national-gop-primary
The link above shows the poll chart of the 2016 National Republican Primary. The third Republican debate took place last night and after hearing what each candidate involved had to say, these are the results. The two candidates dominating these polls are Donald Trump (at 32.5%) and Ben Carson (at 21.8%), the next candidate is Marco Rubio (at only 8.4%) These are interesting numbers considering that Carson was actually ahead of Trump earlier this week, but he didn't have much to say last night.

http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2016-national-democratic-primary
This link refers to the current poll chart of the democratic candidates. Hilary Clinton is the dominant candidate, receiving 55.4% of votes, which continues to rise as the race continues. Bernie Sanders is at 26.4%, which is the lowest he has polled in at in awhile and Martin O'Malley only received 1.6% of votes.

Yet Another Case of Police Brutality in the United States (Part 1)

http://nyti.ms/1H7unYA
video: A police officer at Spring Valley High School in South Carolina flips a seemingly unarmed and calm student out of her chair by her neck and drags her across a classroom floor.

This repulsive video has gone viral across the globe this week and is reopening the conversation about police brutality in the United States, a conversation that seems to go on and on. This 16 year-old student was allegedly on her cell phone during her math class and the teacher called the police officer assigned to Spring Valley High School after refusing to leave the classroom. When this student didn't respond to the police officer's commands, she was violently flipped and dragged out of the classroom... for using her cellphone. Many claim that this event could have been avoided if the student had put her phone away and responded to the commands of the teacher and the officer, but there are no means of justification in this situation. The only event I can imagine in which the police officer's actions would have been considered acceptable is if the student was armed with a gun. Students should never be handled physically in a public school environment and this student was. For what cause? A CELLPHONE. The ends do not in any way justify the means here. This event calls for a conversation to be had about racial mistreatment amongst police officers and black people (which is a conversation that really took off about a year ago with the Michael Brown case and many other cases following); as well as a conversation about the general mistreatment of students by teachers and adults with authority and the rights teenagers do or don't have in the United States.

Two snapshots displaying the student's desk being flipped  from the video recorded by another student present at the time of the event.

These are very important conversations to be had. Although there has been a massive light shined on this issue by the media over the past year, it continues to happen again and again. Why is this? How many people have to suffer the unjust circumstances of police brutality until it finally isn't an issue anymore? Nobody should be flipped in a school desk by their neck and dragged across a room for having using a cellphone. A police officer should not be called into a classroom for mild student misconduct, such as cellphone use. This is a mind boggling situation. Rules against cellphones in schools are understandable, since they can be a distraction, but a mere distraction for one girl in math class does not in any way permit the calling of a police officer, regardless of how the cell phone was being used. As of now, the police officer involved (nicknamed "the slam" and "the hulk" by the student body of Spring Valley High for past instances of overly physical interactions with students) was rightfully fired. We will wait and see how this effects the unfortunately common situation of police brutality in the united states.

2015 Recorded as Hottest Year in all of World History

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that this past September had been the hottest September ever recorded last Wednesday (October 15th). They also discovered that the span of time between January and September had been the hottest period in History. This record breaking heat is due to a strong El Niño weather pattern, a process in which the ocean releases copious amounts of hot air into the atmosphere. The last time this issue arose (1997-1998), the temperatures weren't nearly as high.  El Niño is also known to complete change weather patterns and cause massive natural disasters. These conditions include drought (such as the one occurring in California), flooding dispersed over large areas, and annual weather patterns to completely shift.

video : http://nyti.ms/1qJCsfI

The ever lasting causes of greenhouse warming combined with the horrendous effects of El Niño are already contributing to global changes. Forest fires in Indonesia, elongated drought in Australia and Ethiopia, and the food crisis emergency across the entire continent of Africa. Greenhouse emissions have not solved itself, and it's important to pay attention to this crisis that has been and will continue to affect the United States as well as the entire world around us.


source -- NY Times

Controversy Strikes Over Pope Francis' Visit with Kim Davis

Kim Davis, the despicable Kentucky county clerk who denies marriage licenses to same-sex couples remains in the headlines. To the surprise of many, Pope Francis, the first pope to openly show support towards the marriage of same-sex couples met with Davis during his visit to the United States. According to Davis' lawyer who was allegedly present at the time of the meeting, the pope gave Davis rosaries and told her to "stay strong." This leads us to wonder if the pope, whom many advocates of LGBT+ rights and Catholics of the LGBT+ community have been in favor of, is putting on an act. Does he really support this community? What would his motive be to lie about this issue that is important to so many people across the globe. Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi expresses that he "cannot deny that the meeting took place, but I have no comments to add." The situation at hand would be less controversial if the pope and his staff would have come out about this meeting sooner, or perhaps never put on a façade of support towards this issue and community in the first place. This may not be the case, although this is how it looks right now. Clarification regarding this meeting will hopefully be released soon, but until then its difficult to show any loyalty toward this pope, for associating with someone like Davis, someone with so much disregard for an entire community of people's rights. Is Pope Francis a hypocrite? We'll hopefully find out in the near future when more information on this meeting, which for now appears to be despicable.

Pope Francis (Left), Kim Davis (Right)
Times Article - http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/us/county-clerk-kim-davis-who-denied-gay-couples-visited-pope.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

NPR Article - http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/09/30/444671535/kim-davis-and-pope-francis-reportedly-had-a-private-meeting-in-dc