At my mother-in-law's recommendation, I watched this excellent feature on 60 Minutes, a weekly news show. Much of what is said I found pretty disturbing.
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Monday, September 25, 2017
When the patient is a resource to be exploited
I recommend watching the movie, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It retells a tragic story where bioethics and racism intermix. Cancer cells were taken in 1951 from a dying African-American woman and used to create an immortal cell line for cancer research. Permission was not sought from the patient or her family. Furthermore, they never benefited financially, while researchers and corporations did.
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
War is hell. 6.
I watched the premiere of the first episode of the new ten-part documentary The Vietnam War on PBS. I thank my mother-in-law for suggesting it.
This long interview with the directors is worth watching. The series took ten years to produce!
They claim understanding this war is key to understanding much of the division that persists in the USA today.
US readers can view the first episode here.
The New York Times review of the series is helpful and insightful.
I learnt a lot of history from the first episode, which covered the period from French colonisation to the French withdrawal, and the beginning of USA escalation. One "trivia" was how the OSS (predecessor of the CIA) originally supported Ho Chi Minh.
Several things are highlighted included the mis-calculations of the French and US, their complete underestimation of the passion and commitment of Vietnamese nationalism, mistakenly imposing a Cold war conflict perspective on a civil war and postcolonial struggle, and the lies that both sides told their people for domestic political purposes.
The metric madness of McNamara played a significant role in the self- and public- deception of US military and political leaders.
Humans have an incredible capacity to hate, to inflict brutalities on one another, to deceive, to believe what they want to believe, and to cling to power.
The most important (and painful) messages are War is Hell, there are no real winners, and people don't learn from history.
This long interview with the directors is worth watching. The series took ten years to produce!
They claim understanding this war is key to understanding much of the division that persists in the USA today.
US readers can view the first episode here.
The New York Times review of the series is helpful and insightful.
I learnt a lot of history from the first episode, which covered the period from French colonisation to the French withdrawal, and the beginning of USA escalation. One "trivia" was how the OSS (predecessor of the CIA) originally supported Ho Chi Minh.
Several things are highlighted included the mis-calculations of the French and US, their complete underestimation of the passion and commitment of Vietnamese nationalism, mistakenly imposing a Cold war conflict perspective on a civil war and postcolonial struggle, and the lies that both sides told their people for domestic political purposes.
The metric madness of McNamara played a significant role in the self- and public- deception of US military and political leaders.
Humans have an incredible capacity to hate, to inflict brutalities on one another, to deceive, to believe what they want to believe, and to cling to power.
The most important (and painful) messages are War is Hell, there are no real winners, and people don't learn from history.
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