In just the past week it was announced that US troops in
West Africa to combat Ebola will begin leaving the slowly normalizing, but
still fraught, nations worst hit by outbreak. Compared with the “worst case”
scenarios laid out in the NY Times and by the CDC, the already massive human
tragedy could have been 100 times worse. Part and parcel to those apocalyptic
scenarios was the spread to, and then within, the US and Europe in metropolitan
cities where containment is made arduous. Except for a few isolated cases, this
threat did not materialize. Still, 10,000 human lives have been lost and the
response was lethargic at best. Had this been a worldwide disease, more easily
transmitted and slow to show symptoms, what would we have done? And could we be doing more to prevent, rather than react to, infectious disease?
Out of Left Field
Book reviews, essays and opinions.
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Monday, February 2, 2015
The Importance of Being Offended
Try to remember being told that Santa Claus is fictional. Up
until that point, each year, you had taken seriously the tally of your good
deeds in hope of a bigger, better, gift-wrapped reward. But now the spell is
broken, there was no fat man squeezing down the chimney with Transformers in
tow. You’re furious, face red as a beetroot, at being tricked. Now pair this
simple truth, your bald-faced anger in the face of contradiction, with the
equally evident truth that you carry around many, many more false ideas at the
age of 12 (and to this day) than just Santa’s existence.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Lessons from Charlie Hebdo: Cutting through the crap
We should take this chance to look back at the Charlie Hebdo
murders with sobriety and reflect on its lessons. Up until this point, a
rational analysis of what got us here has been hard to come by and drowned out
by louder, populist voices. Marches by anti-immigrant parties, violent demonstrations
in the Muslim world to the follow-up cover featuring Muhammad and liberal
attacks on the “limits” of free speech simply do not contribute to such
reflection, they only shove a narrow interpretation where it cannot possibly
fit.
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Overcoming Faith: Obstacles to letting go of my Religion
I stopped believing in God when I was 18. Unlike most, I
cannot point to one single watershed moment between my religious life and non-belief.
There were glimpses I suppose, fits and starts when I felt it slipping, but
never a reverberating snap.
Friday, November 14, 2014
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