Students teaching students in South Africa

An education system severely scarred from the apartheid era, schools in South Africa are experiencing an enormous drop in scores of the national exams given to seniors. Teacher absentees are on the rise as well, forcing students to educate one another, yet and still these students are extremely driven and motivated.

Inequities in the schooling system seemingly spreads across countries with wealth determining education and thus future wealth for future generations. This is troubling to say the least, especially because these students want to learn. Their drive is admirable.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/09/19/world/20090920-SAFRICA_index.html

Intersex claims and athletics

Indian athlete, Santhi Soundarajan, attempted suicide after failing a gender test. Soudarajan touches in on the debate about South African runner Caster Semenya. Just how important is it to maintain a strictly dichotomous understanding of gender and sex even when impossible to neatly fit some individuals into those categories? Are we willing to risk losing lives to categorize them?

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/09/14/Semenya.India.Athlete/index.html?eref=edition

Bias much?

Remember the Gaza abuse report when Israeli soldiers spoke out about soldier abuse, reporting that they were forced to use Palestinian civilians as human shields among other war crimes? Well, I have been analyzing coverage of the two stories by CNN and France 24 for a class, and in doing so I noticed a very interesting difference in the American journalistic culture. The general manager of France 24 openly said in an interview that their organization did have values on secularism, education, democracy, etc. They have values, but aside from those values strive for balance and transparency in their reporting. That made me think. CNN would never make such an admission about its values, but in what they choose to cover, their word choice, and editing decisions, a bias is definitely communicated only not transparently. I just have to ask how objective is US news truly? Pay attention to which New York Times' international coverage pops up on my blog.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/07/15/israel.gaza.report/index.html
http://www.france24.com/en/20090715-gaza-veterans-idf-moral-deterioration-war-crimes-palestine-breaking-the-silence-soldiers-israel

North Korea steps closer to a nuclear bomb

The New York Times reported that North Korea was in the "completion stage" of developing a nuclear bomb. This sends more than a chill down my spine, just the talk of developing a nuclear bomb. What are your thoughts?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/05/world/asia/05korea.html?ref=asia

Finding health care abroad

Apparently more and more Americans are traveling south of the border for cheaper health care. Check this out!

Medical Tourism

Photo at http://www.laprogressive.com/2009/09/03/american-retirees-move-to-mexico-for-health-care/#comment-45223