This is pretty cool

except for misspelt "just desserts"...

If Wodehouse wrote American Psycho: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/p-g-wodehouses-american-psycho

Mountains beyond mountains - part 2

Let me begin by saying, Paul Farmer is genius and one of the most hardworking and selfless men out there. My frustrations with the book do not stem from Farmer but from the writing (I feel I don't know the real Farmer at all and the whole beatification of Farmer is distracting) and the model of public health it that seems to encourage.

To balance my previous post, here are the revolutionary things Farmer has done:

- Pushing the boundaries of what is economically feasible in a development context - Farmer refused to accept that treatment of MDR TB was impractical and pushed to find ways and means of making it practical. With the cost of second line TB drugs reducing, treatment of MDR TB is now a reality. 

- The bleeding heart - Unfortunately, individual contributions for projects are not driven by impassive cost benefit analysis but rather on personal stories of salvation in the face of insuperable odds. Save the Children, had program booklets printed which contained more stories of individual beneficiaries than value analysis of their projects. Farmer's focus on the individual, his personal relationships with his patients and his tireless dedication are more instrumental in driving support for his cause - and for public health in general - than any impersonal public health report. PIH is successful because of the man and not because of his model.

- Medical breakthrough - Farmer understood DOTS, it's limitations and implications in the context of MDR TB. His contributions to the treatment of TB in the developing world are invaluable.

I have to agree with general consensus. This book is a must read for anyone in Public Health.

Mountains beyond mountains

I am currently getting through the last few pages of Mountains Beyond Mountains which is lauded as a must read for anyone in Public Health. It cannot be denied that Paul Farmer has a deep love for humanity and a willingness to sacrifice himself at its altar - a sentiment which would have resonated with the vendantic karmayogis. It is also clear that he is a brilliant man who is not shy of hard work.

The deification of Paul Farmer goes well beyond this. His story retold with the support of anecdotes from Farmer's family and friends, shows him as approaching perfection. The book develops his character like those of Atlas Shrugged - in one dimension. It leaves him unapproachable and even incomprehensible. I did not enjoy the superficial exploration of his childhood, his relationship with his parents and siblings. It felt that a little more labour would have revealed a rich vein of tales of inadequacy, loneliness and eccentricity that would have hinted at an explanation for this extraordinary man. 

The writing aside, even his model of Public Health left me uncomfortable. Farmer is reprimanded for thinking practically:

"Do you know what appropriate technology means? It means good things for rich people and shit for the poor", the priest growled and refused to speak to Paul for a couple of days.

"Good" and "shit" things are very subjective and generic concepts that cannot be used to quantitatively compare two models of public health. I would imagine a critical analysis to proceed something as follows:

Premise A: X dollars of funding is available

Premise B: There are Y patients in need in the country

Question: What model would allow you to maximise utility in population Y?

Question: What externalities have been missed and how should they be included in the model?

Question: How will future funding be impacted by adoption of this model?

Maximising individual care is wonderful at an personal level but cannot, and should not, be scaled.

A dear friend of mine who has also managed to throw off the yoke of religion had a very strange reaction to my voicing of these criticisms. I mention religion as I feel that on the path to true atheism, a rigorous unemotional analysis of the world has to be conducted, many preconceptions and support crutches sacrificed. I like to think (now I sound patronising like Dawkins. I apologise.) that the atheist will hear out arguments, argue coherently and avoid logical fallacies.  

Apparently, not so. Irrationality is core part of our being and is quick to overpower our much valued rationality as soon as one of our long enduring premises are challenged. I wonder if Rutherford got pissed when Bohr presented his model or if Newton would have been annoyed if he had heard results of Einstein's "thought experiments". 

I hope that in the future, when roles are reversed, to have the strength to have my core beliefs challenged and even refuted. I hope to be able to analyse my own arguments and change my beliefs when faced with overwhelming evidence or a more coherent argument.

"You look like rain" by Morphine

Your mind and your experience call to me
You have lived and your intelligence is sexy
I want to know what you got to say
I want to know what you got to say
I want to know what you got to say
I can tell you taste like the sky cause you look like rain
You look like rain
You look like rain
You look like rain
You look like rain
You look like rain
You look like rain
You look like rain

You look like rain

You think like a whip on a horse's back
Stretched out to the limit you make it crack
Send that horse round and round the track
I want to know what you got to say
I want to know what you got to say
I want to know what you got to say
I can tell you taste like the sky cause you look like rain
You look like rain
Yea you look like rain
You look like rain
You look like rain
You look like rain
You look like rain
You look like rain
You look like rain
You look like rain
You look like rain

Morphine – You Look Like Rain

Spotify is so awesome. Changed my life.

Have a read of this

http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/why-the-arabic-world-turned-away-from-science

Let the games begin!

Iowa caucus after 99% of votes being counted:

Santorum: 25%
Romney: 25%
Paul: 22%

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16404413

"5. Rick Santorum wins Iowa and much of the English-speaking world Googles his name.

Try it yourself, but please not at work or when children are in the room."

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/12/lizza-list-top-five-electoral-outcomes-journalists-are-secretly-rooting-for.html#ixzz1iTdQugTC

Yeah... that was me. Everything changed in the last few weeks.

New Hampshire next!

Serengeti

My last two posts have been a bit cynical but let me assure you I am much better at keep my opinions to myself during the event.

Serengeti is beautiful. Each time the car would stop at a game sighting, I would relish the sound of the wind. No birds calls (no trees), no insect sounds (at least during the day), no man made noises, just the wind. I learnt that the sound of the wind can be most soothing.

Our first lion viewing was the best. Maluta, our driver and guide, stopped short while driving down the road and started staring into what seemed like the horizon. He reached for his binoculars and screamed "Two big lions!". He looked over his shoulder to make sure there were no rangers in the vicinity and took the car on to the plains towards the lions. He got incredibly close (maybe even too close, the lion had to get up an move at one stage because of the car) and I found myself getting a bit nervous. The male lion in all his grandeur was just 3 mtrs from us. I asked dad to roll up his window which seemed to have been designed for a pissed off lion to fit perfectly. Maluta would have nothing of it and insisted that the window stays down.

le lion

for my Egyptian friends

I have one from every angle. We did circles around them.

Getting this close to a capricious animal, fine tuned through many millenia of evolution to eat you is kind of thrilling. Though he did look quite satisfied and in a contemplative mood.

The second highlight involved a lion pride. There were 6 lions lying over each other, keeping out of the sun and just being generally lazy.

lions sleep a lot... WHEN THEY ARE NOT KILLING YOU

After watching them do nothing but shuffle to find a position even more conducive to lazing around we decided it was time to go. As we drove around the kopje, 4 cubs ran in front of the car towards their crib. In my excitement and surprise, I fumbled the camera and only managed to take pic from the back once they had gone past us.

Awwwww...

These cubs had probably been out gallivanting the countryside, teasing the impalas and getting up to general mischief as animals on top of the food chain are wont to do.

As they were about to enter the shelter, the mother (I assume - At the risk of sounding like a xenophobe, all lions look the same. I guess it's okay since they are varelse and not ramen) came out and gave them the "you-didn't-come-home-for-lunch-and-didn't-even-bother-to-call-and-tell-me-and-I-made-your-favourite-dish" look. You know the one but here it is anyway:

Grrr

The cubs immediately ran to the other end of the kopje and looked back sheepishly from a distance. 

Awww... How can you stay mad at these kitties

This standoff last for about 10 mins after which the cubs were forgiven and the entire family went for a drink in the pool of rain water collected between the rocks. The end.

they be drinkin

Then there was the time the leopard went under our car trying to hunt a hare. So awesome.

I could bore you to death with all the photos, 538 of them, of lions, leopards, cheetah, giraffes, rhinos, elephants, zebras, antelopes, hippos, wildebeest, buffaloes and pretty birds. I like you so I will stop here. I will just leave these here:

That's a zebra all eaten and shit

Just 'illin

Scoping out a snack from the hill

Typical kitty. Acting like she hasn't seen me

Masai Village

I guess the anthropologist in me is more irritable than the zoologist. We pulled up at a Masai village, along with 2 other cars, about 100 mtrs off the road leading from the crater to the Serengeti plains.

We forked out the preset flat fee of $50 per car and prepared our self for our place amongst the culturally aware citizens of the world. We would soon be able to talk about the day in the life of the tribesman over cocktails and nod along with a "but of course" look on our face when someone brings up the issues facing the modern Masai.

Of course, I kid.

We were shown and encouraged to join in a dance that had stopped being an expression of joy a long time ago, shown the insides of a hut, had some tawdry jewelry pushed on us and were finally asked for a tip.

I learnt nothing. Though the whole exercise did fill me with disgust; I guess that's something.

It was not the 'Masai' that I found unbearable in their contrived re-enactment of old traditions, but rather the visitors who will go home and opine over the Masai life and its challenges. The most appalling thing was a room where they had herded all the kids so they could break into a "spontaneous" song at the sight of a foreigner and, of course, a lady who'd request a dollar or two just as you are "aww"-ing over the cutesy song and dance the kids were taught instead of their times tables. The kids started singing as soon as one spotted us 2 mtrs from the window and I had to turn around and race the other way. People were walking out with big grins on their faces feeling they had just been a silent witness to an average day at the 'kindergarten'. The sad part is, considering how many cars they get everyday, this really is the average day at the kindergarten - sitting still until a tourist walks in and singing a song until he/she hands over a dollar to the lady and walks out. It's not the Masai's fault, we encourage this crap.

Understanding a culture takes years and not $50 and half an hour jumping around as part of some dance. It's obnoxious, insulting to think otherwise.

The young kid who showed us around the house said we could ask any question. I asked some lame ones, the answers to which he pretty much made up. These are questions I should have asked:

- What do you do for fun?
- What is the biggest problem facing the village?
- How would you solve it?
- What do you want to be when you grow up?
- What questions do you want to ask me?

Who cares about which bed the female sleeps in with her kid and or what they use to thatch the huts.

Enough of my "holier that thou" rant. If you go to the Serengeti, skip the 30 mins Masai village detour and save yourself some self respect.

Gorilla tracking

It's lame. Okay not lame but definitely not worth 500 USD.

It took us a day of travel, half of it on horrendous roads, then we trekked for a little over 30 mins out of which 15 mins were through the jungle where the guide had to cut some vines to make way and we were there. Gorillas are nice to look at and all but being so similar to humans, I was expecting more action. Sure there was one climbing trees and failing. Sure there was a cute baby. Sure there were a few throwing cursory glances at us. Not enough.

The best part was the baby wrestling with his brothers. Brothers weren't too interested but the baby kept pushing himself on them. Alright, that's a tad cute but nothing I couldn't see at the zoo.

If I was a 'list' man then striking an item off might have brought me some degree of pleasure since this is the only  part of world you can see gorillas in the wild. I'm not. I am being told that the trek is what makes it. Sure. That might be true but then I don't need to pay $500 to do a trek though a forest.

"It's a combination of a tough trek and Gorilla sighting at its end" they tell me. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts? Sure. Okay. But I still can't see it being $500 worth greater.